Foundation and Earth

"Not necessarily much of one. Not enough to support life, but enough to support a thin wind that will raise dust. It's a well-known characteristic of planets with thin atmospheres. There may even be small polar ice caps. A little water-ice condensed at the poles, you know. This world is too warm for solid carbon dioxide. -I'll have to switch to radar-mapping. And if I do that I can work more easily on the nightside."

"Really?"

"Yes. I should have tried it first, but with a virtually airless and, therefore, cloudless planet, the attempt with visible light seems so natural."

Trevize was silent for a long time, while the viewscreen grew fuzzy with radar-reflections that produced almost the abstraction of a planet, something that an artist of the Cleonian period might have produced. Then he said, "Well-" emphatically, holding the sound for a while, and was silent again.

Pelorat said, at last, "What's the 'well' about?"

Trevize looked at him briefly. "No craters that I can see."

"No craters? Is that good?"

"Totally unexpected," said Trevize. His face broke into a grin, "And very good. In fact, possibly magnificent."

63.

FALLOM remained with her nose pressed against the ship's porthole, where a small segment of the Universe was visible in the precise form in which the eye saw it, without computer enlargement or enhancement.

Bliss, who had been trying to explain it all, sighed and said in a low voice to Pelorat, "I don't know how much she understands, Pel dear. To her, her father's mansion and a small section of the estate it stood upon was all the Universe. I don't think she was ever out at night, or ever saw the stars."

"Do you really think so?"

"I really do. I didn't dare show her any part of it until she had enough vocabulary to understand me just a little-and how fortunate it was that you could speak with her in her own language."

"The trouble is I'm not very good at it," said Pelorat apologetically. "And the Universe is rather hard to grasp if you come at it suddenly. She said to me that if those little lights are giant worlds, each one just like Solaria-they're much larger than Solaria, of course-that they couldn't hang in nothing. They ought to fall, she says."

"And she's right, judging by what she knows. She asks sensible questions, and little by little, she'll understand. At least she's curious and she's not frightened."

"The thing is, Bliss, I'm curious, too. Look how Golan changed as soon as he found out there were no craters on the world we're heading for. I haven't the slightest idea what difference that makes. Do you?"

"Not a bit. Still he knows much more planetology than we do. We can only assume he knows what he's doing."

"I wish I knew."

"Well, ask him."

Pelorat grimaced. "I'm always afraid I'll annoy him. I'm sure he thinks I ought to know these things without being told."

Bliss said, "That's silly, Pel. He has no hesitation in asking you about any aspect of the Galaxy's legends and myths which he thinks might be useful. You're always willing to answer and explain, so why shouldn't he be? You go ask him. If it annoys him, then he'll have a chance to practice sociability, and that will be good for him."

"Will you come with me?"

"No, of course not. I want to stay with Fallom and continue to try to get the concept of the Universe into her head. You can always explain it to me afterward-once he explains it to you."

64.

PELORAT entered the pilot-room diffidently. He was delighted to note that Trevize was whistling to himself and was clearly in a good mood.

"Golan," he said, as brightly as he could.

Trevize looked up. "Janov! You're always tiptoeing in as though you think it's against the law to disturb me. Close the door and sit down. Sit down! Look at that thing."

He pointed to the planet on the viewscreen, and said, "I haven't found more than two or three craters, each quite small."

"Does that make a difference, Golan? Really?"

"A difference? Certainly. How can you ask?"

Pelorat gestured helplessly. "It's all a mystery to me. I was a history major at college. I took sociology and psychology in addition to history, also languages and literature, mostly ancient, and specialized in mythology in graduate school. I never came near planetology, or any of the physical sciences."

"That's no crime, Janov. I'd rather you know what you know. Your facility in ancient languages and in mythology has been of enormous use to us. You know that. And when it comes to a matter of planetology, I'll take care of that."

He went on, "You see, Janov, planets form through the smashing together of smaller objects. The last few objects to collide leave crater marks. Potentially, that is. If the planet is large enough to be a gas giant, it is essentially liquid under a gaseous atmosphere and the final collisions are just splashes and leave no marks.

"Smaller planets which are solid, whether icy or rocky, do show crater marks, and these remain indefinitely unless an agency for removal exists. There are three types of removals.