Foundation and Earth

"And you'll be spending them agonizing over the possibilities. Find out now. Waiting won't change matters."

Trevize sat there with his lips compressed for a moment, then said, "You're right. Very well, then-here goes."

He turned to the computer, placed his hands on the handmarks on the desk, and the viewscreen went dark.

Bliss said, "I'll leave you, then. I'll make you nervous if I stay." She left, with a wave of her hand.

"The thing is," he muttered, "that we're going to be checking the computer's Galactic map first and even if Earth's sun is in the calculated position, the map should not include it. But we'll then-"

His voice trailed off in astonishment as the viewscreen flashed with a background of stars. These were fairly numerous and dim, with an occasional brighter one sparkling here and there, well scattered over the face of the screen. But quite close to the center was a star that was brighter than all the rest.

"We've got it," said Pelorat jubilantly. "We've got it, old chap. Look how bright it is."

"Any star at centered co-ordinates would look bright," said Trevize, clearly trying to fight off any initial jubilation that might prove unfounded. "The view, after all, is presented from a distance of a parsec from the centered co-ordinates. Still, that centered star certainly isn't a red dwarf, or a red giant, or a hot blue-white. Wait for information; the computer is checking its data banks."

There was silence for a few seconds and then Trevize said, "Spectral class G-2." Another pause, then, "Diameter, 1.4 million kilometers-mass, 1.02 times that of Terminus's sun-surface temperature, 6,000 absolute-rotation slow, just under thirty days-no unusual activity or irregularity."

Pelorat said, "Isn't all that typical of the kind of star about which habitable planets are to be found?"

"Typical," said Trevize, nodding in the dimness. "And, therefore, what we'd expect Earth's sun to be like. If that is where life developed, the sun of Earth would have set the original standard."

"So there is a reasonable chance that there would be a habitable planet circling it."

"We don't have to speculate about that," said Trevize, who sounded puzzled indeed over the matter. "The Galactic map lists it as possessing a planet with human life-but with a question mark."

Pelorat's enthusiasm grew. "That's exactly what we would expect, Golan. The life-bearing planet is there, but the attempt to hide the fact obscures data concerning it and leaves the makers of the map the computer uses uncertain."

"No, that's what bothers me," said Trevize. "That's not what we should expect. We should expect far more than that. Considering the efficiency with which data concerning Earth has been wiped out, the makers of the map should not have known that life exists in the system, let alone human life. They should not even have known Earth's sun exists. The Spacer worlds aren't on the map. Why should Earth's sun be?"

"Well, it's there, just the same. What's the use of arguing the fact? What other information about the star is given?"

"A name."

"Ah! What is it?"

"Alpha."

There was a short pause, then Pelorat said eagerly, "That's it, old man. That's the final bit of evidence. Consider the meaning."

"Does it have a meaning?" said Trevize. "It's just a name to me, and an odd one. It doesn't sound Galactic."

"It isn't Galactic. It's in a prehistoric language of Earth, the same one that gave us Gaia as the name of Bliss's planet."

"What does Alpha mean, then?"

"Alpha is the first letter of the alphabet of that ancient language. That is one of the most firmly attested scraps of knowledge we have about it. In ancient times, 'alpha' was sometimes used to mean the first of anything. To call a sun 'Alpha,' implies that it's the first sun. And wouldn't the first sun be the one around which a planet revolved that was the first planet to bear human life-Earth?"

"Are you sure of that?"

"Absolutely," said Pelorat.

"Is there anything in early legends-you're the mythologist, after all-that gives Earth's sun some very unusual attribute?"

"No, how can there be? It has to be standard by definition, and the characteristics the computer has given us ate as standard as possible, I imagine. Aren't they?"

"Earth's sun is a single star, I suppose?"

Pelorat said, "Well, of course! As far as I know, all inhabited worlds orbit single stars."

"So I would have thought myself," said Trevize. "The trouble is that that star in the center of the viewscreen is not a single star, it is a binary. The brighter of the two stars making up the binary is indeed standard and it is that one for which the computer supplied us with data. Circling that star with a period of roughly eighty years, however, is another star with a mass four fifths that of the brighter one. We can't see the two as separate stars with the unaided eye, but if I were to enlarge the view, I'm sure we would."

"Are you certain of that, Golan?" said Pelorat, taken aback.