Foundation and Earth

"Of course they would eat, just as human beings do. They would however, with purpose, in order to balance the ecology under deliberate direction, and not as a result of random circumstance."

Trevize said, "The loss of individual freedom might not matter to dogs, but it must matter to human beings. And what if all human beings were removed from existence, everywhere, and not merely on one world or on several? What if Galaxia were left without human beings at all? Would there still be a guiding intelligence? Would all other life forms and inanimate matter be able to put together a common intelligence adequate for the purpose?"

Bliss hesitated. "Such a situation," she said, "has never been experienced. Nor does there seem any likelihood that it will ever be experienced in the future."

Trevize said, "But doesn't it seem obvious to you, that the human mind is qualitatively different from everything else, and that if it were absent, the sum total of all other consciousness could not replace it. Would it not be true, then, that human beings are a special case and must be treated as such? They should not be fused even with one another, let alone with nonhuman objects."

"Yet you decided in favor of Galaxia."

"For an overriding reason I cannot make out."

"Perhaps that overriding reason was a glimpse of the effect of unbalanced ecologies? Might it not have been your reasoning that every world in the Galaxy is on a knife-edge, with instability on either side, and that only Galaxia could prevent such disasters as are taking place on this world-to say nothing of the continuing interhuman disasters of war and administrative failure."

"No. Unbalanced ecologies were not in my mind at the time of my decision."

"How can you be sure?"

"I may not know what it is I'm foreseeing, but if something is suggested afterward, I would recognize it if that were indeed what I foresaw. As it seems to me I may have foreseen dangerous animals on this world."

"Well," said Bliss soberly, "we might have been dead as a result of those dangerous animals if it had not been for a combination of our powers, your foresight and my mentalism. Come, then, let us be friends."

Trevize nodded. "If you wish."

There was a chill in his voice that caused Bliss's eyebrows to rise, but at this point Pelorat burst in, nodding his head as though prepared to shake it off its foundations.

"I think," he said, "we have it."

39.

TREVIZE did not, in general, believe in easy victories, and yet it was only human to fall into belief against one's better judgment. He felt the muscles in his chest and throat tighten, but managed to say, "The location of Earth? Have you discovered that, Janov?"

Pelorat stared at Trevize for a moment, and deflated. "Well, no," he said, visibly abashed. "Not quite that. Actually, Golan, not that at all. I had forgotten about that. It was something else that I discovered in the ruins. I suppose it's not really important."

Trevize managed a long breath and said, "Never mind, Janov. Every finding is important. What was it you came in to say?"

"Well," said Pelorat, "it's just that almost nothing survived, you understand. Twenty thousand years of storm and wind don't leave much. What's more, plant life is gradually destructive and animal life-But never mind all that. The point is that 'almost nothing' is not the same as 'nothing.'

"The ruins must have included a public building, for there was some fallen stone, or concrete, with incised lettering upon it. There was hardly anything visible, you understand, old chap, but I took photographs with one of those cameras we have on board ship, the kind with built-in computer enhancement-I never got round to asking permission to take one, Golan, but it was important, and I-"

Trevize waved his hand in impatient dismissal. "Go on!"

"I could make out some of the lettering, which was very archaic. Even with computer enhancement and with my own fair skill at reading Archaic, it was impossible to make out much except for one short phrase. The letters there were larger and a bit clearer than the rest. They may have been incised more deeply because they identified the world itself. The phrase reads, 'Planet Aurora,' so I imagine this world we rest upon is named Aurora, or was named Aurora."

"It had to be named something," said Trevize.

"Yes, but names are very rarely chosen at random. I made a careful search of my library just now and there are two old legends, from two widely spaced worlds, as it happens, so that one can reasonably suppose them to be of independent origin, if one remembers that. But never mind that. In both legends, Aurora is used as a name for the dawn. We can suppose that Aurora may have actually meant dawn in some pre-Galactic language.

"As it happens, some word for dawn or daybreak is often used as a name for space stations or other structures that are the first built of their kind. If this world is called Dawn in whatever language, it may be the first of its kind, too."