Foundation and Earth

Bliss looked at the wall he pointed to and shrugged. "Yes, that wall, too. It has only an infinitesimal consciousness so that it senses and understands only infinitesimally, but I presume there are some subatomic shifts in response to what we are saying right now, for instance, that enable it to fit into Gaia with more purposeful intent for the good of the whole."

"But what if I wish privacy? I may not want the wall to be aware of what I say or do."

Bliss looked exasperated and Pelorat broke in suddenly. "You know, Golan, I don't want to interfere, since I obviously don't know much about Gaia. Still, I've been with Bliss and I've gathered somehow some of what it's all about. If you walk through a crowd on Terminus, you see and hear a great many things, and you may remember some of it. You might even be able to recall all of it under the proper cerebral stimulation, but mostly you don't care. You let it go. Even if you watch some emotional scene between strangers and even if you're interested; still, if it's of no great concern to you-you let it go-you forget. It must be so on Gaia, too. Even if all of Gaia knows your business intimately, that doesn't mean that Gaia necessarily cares. Isn't that so, Bliss dear?"

"I've never thought of it that way, Pel, but there is something in what you say. Still, this privacy Trev talks about-I mean, Trevize-is nothing we value at all. In fact, I/we/Gaia find it incomprehensible. To want to be not part-to have your voice unheard-your deeds unwitnessed-your thoughts unsensed-" Bliss shook her head vigorously. "I said that we can block ourselves off in emergencies, but who would want to live that way, even for an hour?"

"I would," said Trevize. "That is why I must find Earth-to find out the overriding reason, if any, that drove me to choose this dreadful fate for humanity."

"It is not a dreadful fate, but let us not debate the matter. I will be with you, not as a spy, but as a friend and helper. Gaia will be with you not as a spy, but as a friend and helper."

Trevize said, somberly, "Gaia could help me best by directing me to Earth."

Slowly, Bliss shook her head. "Gaia doesn't know the location of Earth. Dom has already told you that."

"I don't quite believe that. After all, you must have records. Why have I never been able to see those records during my stay here? Even if Gaia honestly doesn't know where Earth might be located, I might gain some knowledge from the records. I know the Galaxy in considerable detail, undoubtedly much better than Gaia does. I might be able to understand and follow hints in your records that Gaia, perhaps, doesn't quite catch."

"But what records are these you talk of, Trevize?"

"Any records. Books, films, recordings, holographs, artifacts, whatever it is you have. In the time I've been here I haven't seen one item that I would consider in any way a record. Have you, Janov?"

"No," said Pelorat hesitantly, "but I haven't really looked."

"Yet I have, in my quiet way," said Trevize, "and I've seen nothing. Nothing! I can only suppose they're being hidden from me. Why, I wonder? Would you tell me that?"

Bliss's smooth young forehead wrinkled into a puzzled frown. "Why didn't you ask before this? I/we/Gaia hide nothing, and we tell no lies. An Isolate-an individual in isolation-might tell lies. He is limited, and is fearful because he is limited. Gaia, however, is a planetary organism of great mental ability and has no fear. For Gaia to tell lies, to create descriptions that are at variance with reality, is totally unnecessary."

Trevize snorted. "Then why have I carefully been kept from seeing any records? Give me a reason that makes sense."

"Of course." She held out both hands, palms up before her. "We don't have any records."

4.

PELORAT recovered first, seeming the less astonished of the two.

"My dear," he said gently, "that is quite impossible. You cannot have a reasonable civilization without records of some kind."

Bliss raised her eyebrows. "I understand that. I merely mean we have no records of the type that Trev-Trevize-is talking about, or was at all likely to come across. I/we/Gala have no writings, no printings, no films, no computer data banks, nothing. We have no carvings on stone, for that matter. That's all I'm saying. Naturally, since we have none of these, Trevize found none of these."

Trevize said, "What do you have, then, if you don't have any records that I would recognize as records?"

Bliss said, enunciating carefully, as though she were speaking to a child. "I/we/Gala have a memory. I remember."

"What do you remember?" asked Trevize.

"Everything."

"You remember all reference data?"

"Certainly."

"For how long? For how many years back?"

"For indefinite lengths of time."

"You could give me historical data, biographical, geographical, scientific? Even local gossip?"

"Everything."

"All in that little head." Trevize pointed sardonically at Bliss's right temple.