Foundation and Earth

Another star-luminous and unrecorded on the Galactic map-showed up. This second star was more luminous than the star about which Aurora circled, and that made it all the more significant that the star was unrecorded in the computer.

Trevize marveled at the peculiarities of ancient tradition. Whole centuries might be telescoped or dropped out of consciousness altogether. Entire civilizations might be banished into forgetfulness. Yet out of the midst of these centuries, snatched from those civilizations, might be one or two factual items that would be remembered undistorted-such as these co-ordinates.

He had remarked on this to Pelorat some time before, and Pelorat had at once told him that it was precisely this that made the study of myths and legends so rewarding. "The trick is," Pelorat had said, "to work out or decide which particular components of a legend represent accurate underlying truth. That isn't easy and different mythologists are likely to pick different components, depending, usually, on which happen to suit their particular interpretations."

In any case, the star was right where Deniador's co-ordinates, corrected for time, said it would be. Trevize was prepared, at this moment, to wager a considerable sum that the third star would be in place as well. And if it was, Trevize was prepared to suspect that the legend was further correct in stating that there were fifty Forbidden Worlds altogether (despite the suspiciously even number) and to wonder where the other forty-seven might be.

A habitable world, Forbidden World, was found circling the star-and by this time its presence didn't cause even a ripple of surprise in Trevize's bosom. He had been absolutely sure it would be there. He set the Far Star into a slow orbit about it.

The cloud layer was sparse enough to allow a reasonable view of the surface from space. The world was a watery one, as almost all habitable worlds were. There was an unbroken tropical ocean and two unbroken polar oceans.

In one set of middle latitudes, there was a more or less serpentine continent encircling the world with bays on either side producing an occasional narrow isthmus. In the other set of middle latitudes, the land surface was broken into three large parts and each of the three were thicker north-south than the opposite continent was.

Trevize wished he knew enough climatology to be able to predict, from what he saw, what the temperatures and seasons might be like. For a moment, he toyed with the idea of having the computer work on the problem. The trouble was that climate was not the point at issue.

Much more important was that, once again, the computer detected no radiation that might be of technological origin. What his telescope told him was that the planet was not moth-eaten and that there were no signs of desert. The land moved backward in various shades of green, but there were no signs of urban areas on the dayside, no lights on the nightside.

Was this another planet filled with every kind of life but human?

He rapped at the door of the other bedroom.

"Bliss?" he called out in a loud whisper, and rapped again.

There was a rustling, and Bliss's voice said, "Yes?"

"Could you come out here? I need your help-"

"If you wait just a bit, I'll make myself a bit presentable."

When she finally appeared, she looked as presentable as Trevize had ever seen her. He felt a twinge of annoyance at having been made to wait, however, for it made little difference to him what she looked like. But they were friends now, and he suppressed the annoyance.

She said with a smile and in a perfectly pleasant tone, "What can I do for you, Trevize?"

Trevize waved at the viewscreen. "As you can see, we're passing over the surface of what looks like a perfectly healthy world with a quite solid vegetation cover over its land area. No lights at night, however, and no technological radiation. Please listen and tell me if there's any animal life. There was one point at which I thought I could see herds of grazing animals, but I wasn't sure. It might be a case of seeing what one desperately wants to see."

Bliss "listened." At least, a curiously intent look came across her face. She said, "Oh yes-rich in animal life."

"Mammalian?"

"Must be."

"Human?"

Now she seemed to concentrate harder. A full minute passed, and then another, and finally she relaxed. "I can't quite tell. Every once in a while it seemed to me that I detected a whiff of intelligence sufficiently intense to be considered human. But it was so feeble and so occasional that perhaps I, too, was only sensing what I desperately wanted to sense. You see-"

She paused in thought, and Trevize nudged her with a "Well?"

She said, "The thing is I seem to detect something else. It is not something I'm familiar with, but I don't see how it can be anything but-"

Her face tightened again as she began to "listen" with still greater intensity.

"Well?" said Trevize again.

She relaxed. "I don't see how it can be anything but robots."

"Robots!"