Foundation and Earth

Bliss said, "I'm glad you finally came aboard. I was wondering how long you would remain with the Minister."

"Not long," said Trevize. "It was cold."

"It seemed to me," said Bliss, "that you were considering remaining with her and postponing the search for Earth. I do not like to probe your mind even lightly, but I was concerned for you and that temptation under which you labored seemed to leap out at me."

Trevize said, "You're quite right. Momentarily at least, I felt the temptation. The Minister is a remarkable woman and I've never met anyone quite like her. Did you strengthen my resistance, Bliss?"

She said, "I've told you many times I must not and will not tamper with your mind in any way, Trevize. You beat down the temptation, I imagine, through your strong sense of duty."

"No, I rather think not." He smiled wryly. "Nothing so dramatic and noble. My resistance was strengthened, for one thing, by the fact that is was cold, and for another, by the sad thought that it wouldn't take many sessions with her to kill me. I could never keep up the pace."

Pelorat said, "Well, anyway, you are safely aboard. What are we going to do next?"

"In the immediate future, we are going to move outward through the planetary system at a brisk pace until we are far enough from Comporellon's sun to make a Jump."

"Do you think we will be stopped or followed?"

"No, I really think that the Minister is anxious only that we go away as rapidly as possible and stay away, in order that the vengeance of He Who Punishes not fall upon the planet. In fact-"

"She believes the vengeance will surely fall on us. She is under the firm conviction that we will never return. This, I hasten to add, is not an estimate of my probable level of infidelity, which she has had no occasion to measure. She meant that Earth is so terrible a bearer of misfortune that anyone who seeks it must die in the process."

Bliss said, "How many have left Comporellon in search of Earth that she can make such a statement?"

"I doubt that any Comporellian has ever left on such a search. I told her that her fears were mere superstition."

"Are you sure you believe that, or have you let her shake you?"

"I know her fears are the purest superstition in the form she expresses them, but they may be well founded just the same."

"You mean, radioactivity will kill us if we try to land on it?"

"I don't believe that Earth is radioactive. What I do believe is that Earth protects itself. Remember that all reference to Earth in the Library on Trantor has been removed. Remember that Gaia's marvelous memory, in which all the planet takes part down to the rock strata of the surface and the molten metal at the core, stops short of penetrating far enough back to tell us anything of Earth.

"Clearly, if Earth is powerful enough to do that, it might also be capable of adjusting minds in order to force belief in its radioactivity, and thus preventing any search for it. Perhaps because Comporellon is so close that it represents a particular danger to Earth, there is the further reinforcement of a curious blankness. Deniador, who is a Skeptic and a scientist, is utterly convinced that there is no use searching for Earth. He says it cannot be found. And that is why the Minister's superstition may be well founded. If Earth is so intent on concealing itself, might it not kill us, or distort us, rather than allow us to find it?"

Bliss frowned and said, "Gaia-"

Trevize said quickly, "Don't say Gaia will protect us. Since Earth was able to remove Gaia's earliest memories, it is clear that in any conflict between the two Earth will win."

Bliss said coldly, "How do you know that the memories were removed? It might be that it simply took time for Gaia to develop a planetary memory and that we can now probe backward only to the time of the completion of that development. And if the memory was removed, how can you be sure that it was Earth that did it?"

Trevize said, "I don't know. I merely advance my speculations."

Pelorat put in, rather timidly, "If Earth is so powerful, and so intent on preserving its privacy, so to speak, of what use is our search? You seem to think Earth won't allow us to succeed and will kill us if that will be what it takes to keep us from succeeding. In that case, is there any sense in not abandoning this whole thing?"

"It might seem we ought to give up, I admit, but I have this powerful conviction that Earth exists, and I must and will find it. And Gaia tells me that when I have powerful convictions of this sort, I am always right."

"But how can we survive the discovery, old chap?"