Foundation and Earth

Bliss said, "The robots on this estate are all inactive. I can detect a thin whisper of subintelligent life straight up, but all that tells us is that the surface is straight up, which we know."

"Well, then," said Trevize, "we'll just have to look for some opening."

"Hit-and-miss," said Pelorat, appalled. "We'll never succeed."

"We might, Janov," said Trevize. "If we search, there will be a chance, however small. The alternative is simply to stay here, and if we do that then we will never succeed. Come, a small chance is better than none."

"Wait," said Bliss. "I do sense something."

"What?" said Trevize.

"A mind."

"Intelligence?"

"Yes, but limited, I think. What reaches me most clearly, though, is something else."

"What?" said Trevize, again fighting impatience.

"Fright! Intolerable fright!" said Bliss, in a whisper.

53.

TREVIZE looked about ruefully. He knew where they had entered but he had no illusion on the score of being able to retrace the path by which they had come. He had, after all, paid little attention to the turnings and windings. Who would have thought they'd be in the position of having to retrace the route alone and without help, and with only a flickering, dim light to be guided by?

He said, "Do you think you can activate the car, Bliss?"

Bliss said, "I'm sure I could, Trevize, but that doesn't mean I can run it."

Pelorat said, "I think that Bander ran it mentally. I didn't see it touch anything when it was moving."

Bliss said gently, "Yes, it did it mentally, Pel, but how, mentally? You might as well say that it did it by using the controls. Certainly, but if I don't know the details of using the controls, that doesn't help, does it?"

"You might try," said Trevize.

"If I try, I'll have to put my whole mind to it, and if I do that, then I doubt that I'll be able to keep the lights on. The car will do us no good in the dark even if I learn how to control it."

"Then we must wander about on foot, I suppose?"

"I'm afraid so."

Trevize peered at the thick and gloomy darkness that lay beyond the dim light in their immediate neighborhood. He saw nothing, heard nothing.

He said, "Bliss, do you still sense this frightened mind?"

"Yes, I do."

"Can you tell where it is? Can you guide us to it?"

"The mental sense is a straight line. It is not refracted sensibly by ordinary matter, so I can tell it is coming from that direction."

She pointed to a spot on the dusky wall, and said, "But we can't walk through the wall to it. The best we can do is follow the corridors and try to find our way in whatever direction will keep the sensation growing stronger. In short, we will have to play the game of hot-and-cold."

"Then let's start right now."

Pelorat hung back. "Wait, Golan; are we sure we want to find this thing, whatever it is? If it is frightened, it may be that we will have reason to be frightened, too."

Trevize shook his head impatiently. "We have no choice, Janov. It's a mind, frightened or not, and it may be willing to-or may be made to-direct us to the surface."

"And do we just leave Bander lying here?" said Pelorat uneasily.

Trevize took his elbow. "Come, Janov. We have no choice in that, either. Eventually some Solarian will reactivate the place, and a robot will find Bander and take care of it-I hope not before we are safely away."

He allowed Bliss to lead the way. The light was always strongest in her immediate neighborhood and she paused at each doorway, at each fork in the corridor, trying to sense the direction from which the fright came. Sometimes she would walk through a door, or move around a curve, then come back and try an alternate path, while Trevize watched helplessly.

Each time Bliss came to a decision and moved firmly in a particular direction, the light came on ahead of her. Trevize noticed that it seemed a bit brighter now-either because his eyes were adapting to the dimness, or because Bliss was learning how to handle the transduction more efficiently. At one point, when she passed one of the metal rods that were inserted into the ground, she put her hand on it and the lights brightened noticeably. She nodded her head as though she were pleased with herself.

Nothing looked in the least familiar; it seemed certain they were wandering through portions of the rambling underground mansion they had not passed through on the way in.

Trevize kept looking for corridors that led upward sharply, and he varied that by studying the ceilings for any sign of a trapdoor. Nothing of the sort appeared, and the frightened mind remained their only chance of getting out.