Foundation and Earth

The youngster broke into a run and reached them first. She said to Bliss, "Thank you, Bliss, for taking me home to Jemby again and for taking care of me while we were on the ship. I shall always remember you." Then she flung herself at Bliss and the two held each other tightly.

"I hope you will always be happy," said Bliss. "I will remember you, too, Fallom dear," and released her with reluctance.

Fallom turned to Pelorat, and said, "Thank you, too, Pel, for letting me read your book-films." Then, without an additional word, and after a trace of hesitation, the thin, girlish hand was extended to Trevize. He took it for a moment, then let it go.

"Good luck, Fallom," he muttered.

Daneel said, "I thank you all, sirs and madam, for what you have done, each in your own way. You are free to go now, for your search is ended. As for my own work, it will be ended, too, soon enough, and successfully now."

But Bliss said, "Wait, we are not quite through. We don't know yet whether Trevize is still of the mind that the proper future for humanity is Galaxia, as opposed to a vast conglomeration of Isolates."

Daneel said, "He has already made that clear a while ago, madam. He has decided in favor of Galaxia."

Bliss's lips tightened. "I'd rather hear that from him. Which is it to be, Trevize?"

Trevize said calmly, "Which do you want it to be, Bliss? If I decide against Galaxia, you may get Fallom back."

Bliss said, "I am Gaia. I must know your decision, and its reason, for the sake of the truth and nothing else."

Daneel said, "Tell her, sir. Your mind, as Gaia is aware, is untouched."

And Trevize said, "The decision is for Galaxia. There is no further doubt in my mind on that point."

104.

Bliss remained motionless for the time one might take to count to fifty at a moderate rate, as though she were allowing the information to reach all parts of Gaia, and then she said, "Why?"

Trevize said, "Listen to me. I knew from the start that there were two possible futures for humanity-Galaxia, or else the Second Empire of Seldon's Plan. And it seemed to me that those two possible futures were mutually exclusive. We couldn't have Galaxia unless, for some reason, Seldon's Plan had some fundamental flaw in it.

"Unfortunately, I knew nothing about Seldon's Plan except for the two axioms on which it is based: one, that there be involved a large enough number of human beings to allow humanity to be treated statistically as a group of individuals interacting randomly; and second, that humanity not know the results of psychohistorical conclusions before the results are achieved.

"Since I had already decided in favor of Galaxia, I felt I must be subliminally aware of flaws in Seldon's Plan, and those flaws could only be in the axioms, which were all I knew of the plan. Yet I could see nothing wrong with the axioms. I strove, then, to find Earth, feeling that Earth could not be so thoroughly hidden for no purpose. I had to find out what that purpose was.

"I had no real reason to expect to find a solution once I found Earth, but I was desperate and could think of nothing else to do. And perhaps Daneel's desire for a Solarian child helped drive me.

"In any case, we finally reached Earth, and then the moon, and Bliss detected Daneel's mind, which he, of course, was deliberately reaching out to her. She described that mind as neither quite human nor quite robotic. In hindsight, that proved to make sense, for Daneel's brain is far advanced beyond any robot that ever existed, and would not be sensed as simply robotic. Neither would it be sensed as human, however. Pelorat referred to it as 'something new' and that served as a trigger for 'something new' of my own; a new thought.

"Just as, long ago, Daneel and his colleague worked out a fourth law of robotics that was more fundamental than the other three, so I could suddenly see a third basic axiom of psychohistory that was more fundamental than the other two; a third axiom so fundamental that no one ever bothered to mention it.

"Here it is. The two known axioms deal with human beings, and they are based on the unspoken axiom that human beings are the only intelligent species in the Galaxy, and therefore the only organisms whose actions are significant in the development of society and history. That is the unstated axiom: that there is only one species of intelligence in the Galaxy and that it is Homo Sapiens. If there were 'something new;'** if there were other species of intelligence widely different in nature, then their behavior would not be described accurately by the mathematics of psychohistory and Seldon's Plan would have no meaning. Do you see?"

Trevize was almost shaking with the earnest desire to make himself understood. "Do you see?" he repeated.

Pelorat said, "Yes, I see, but as devil’s advocate, old chap-"

"Yes? Go on."

"Human beings are the only intelligences in the Galaxy."

"Robots?" said Bliss. "Gaia?"