Foundation and Earth

"I know what I said. Pel thought he saw motion and heard sound. Pel is a romantic. He's spent his working life gathering data, but that is a difficult way of making one's mark in the scholarly world. He would dearly love to make an important discovery of his own. His finding of the word 'Aurora' was legitimate and made him happier than you can imagine. He wanted desperately to find more."

Trevize said, "Are you telling me he wanted to make a discovery so badly he convinced himself he had come upon a functioning robot when he hadn't?"

"What he came upon was a lump of rust containing no more consciousness than the rock against which it rested."

"But you supported his story."

"I could not bring myself to rob him of his discovery. He means so much to me.

Trevize stared at her for a full minute; then he said, "Do you mind explaining why he means so much to you? I want to know. I really want to know. To you he must seem an elderly man with nothing romantic about him. He's an Isolate, and you despise Isolates. You're young and beautiful and there must 61 other parts of Gaia that have the bodies of vigorous and handsome young am. With them you can have a physical relationship that can resonate through Gaia and bring peaks of ecstasy. So what do you an in Janov?"

Bliss looked at Trevize solemnly. "Don't you love him?"

Trevize shrugged and said, "I'm fond of him. I suppose you could say, in a nonsexual way, that I love him."

"You haven't known him very long, Trevize. Why do you love him, in that nonsexual way of yours?"

Trevize found himself smiling without being aware of it. "He's such an odd fellow. I honestly think that never in his life has he given a single thought to himself. He was ordered to go along with me, and he went. No objection. He wanted me to go to Trantor, but when I said I wanted to go to Gaia, he never argued. And now he's come along with me in this search for Earth, though he must know it's dangerous. I feel perfectly confident that if he had to sacrifice his life for me-or for anyone-he would, and without repining."

"Would you give your life for him, Trevize?"

"I might, if I didn't have time to think. If I did have time to think, I would hesitate and I might funk it. I'm not as good as he is. And because of that, I have this terrible urge to protect and keep him good. I don't want the Galaxy to teach him not to be good. Do you understand? And I have to protect him from you particularly. I can't bear the thought of you tossing him aside when whatever nonsense amuses you now is done with."

"Yes, I thought you'd think something like that. Don't you suppose I see in Pel what you see in him-and even more so, since I can contact his mind directly? Do I act as though I want to hurt him? Would I support his fantasy of having seen a functioning robot, if it weren't that I couldn't bear to hurt him? Trevize, I am used to what you would call goodness, for every part of Gaia is ready to be sacrificed for the whole. We know and understand no other course of action. But we give up nothing in so doing, for each part is the whole, though I don't expect you to understand that. Pel is something different."

Bliss was no longer looking at Trevize. It was as though she were talking to herself. "He is an Isolate. He is not selfless because he is a part of a greater whole. He is selfless because he is selfless. Do you understand me? He has all to lose and nothing to gain, and yet he is what he is. He shames me for being what I am without fear of loss, when he is what he is without hope of gain."

She looked up at Trevize again now, very solemnly. "Do you know how much more I understand about him than you possibly can? And do you think I would harm him in any way?"

Trevize said, "Bliss, earlier today, you said, 'Come, let us be friends,' and all I replied was, 'If you wish.' That was grudging of me, for I was thinking of what you might do to Janov. It is my turn, now. Come, Bliss, let us be friends. You can keep on pointing out the advantage of Galaxia and I may keep on refusing to accept your arguments, but even so, and despite that, let us be friends." And he held out his hand.

"Of course, Trevize," she said, and their hands gripped each other strongly.

42.

TREVIZE grinned quietly to himself. It was an internal grin, for the line of his mouth didn't budge.

When he had worked with the computer to find the star (if any) of the first set of co-ordinates, both Pelorat and Bliss had watched intently and had asked questions. Now they stayed in their room and slept or, at any rate, relaxed, and left the job entirely to Trevize.

In a way, it was flattering, for it seemed to Trevize that by now they had simply accepted the fact that Trevize knew what he was doing and required no supervision or encouragement. For that matter, Trevize had gained enough experience from the first episode to rely more thoroughly on the computer and to feel that it needed, if not none, then at least less supervision.