Foundation's Edge Part 4

The Library was outmoded and archaic-it had been so even in Ebling Mis's time-but that was all to the good. Pelorat always rubbed his hands with excitement when he thought of an old and outmoded Library. The older and the more outmoded, the more likely it was to have what he needed. In his dreams, he would enter the Library and ask in breathless alarm, "Has the Library been modemized? Have you thrown out the old tapes and computerizations?" And always he imagined the answer from dusty and ancient librarians, "As it has been, Professor, so is it still."

And now his dream would come true. The Mayor herself had a.s.sured him of that. How she had known of his work, he wasn't quite sure. He had not succeeded in publishing many papers. Little of what he had done was solid enough to be acceptable for publication and what had appeared had left no mark. Still, they said Branno the Bronze knew all that went on in Terminus and had eyes at the end of every finger and toe. Pelorat could almost believe it, but if she knew of his work, why on Terminus didn't she see its importance and give him a little financial support before this?

Somehow, he thought, with as much bitterness as he could generate, the Foundation had its eyes fixed firmly on the future. It was the Second Empire and their destiny that absorbed them. They had no time, no desire, to peer back into the past-and they were irritated by those who did.

The more fools they, of course, but he could not single-handedly wipe out folly. And it might be better so. He could hug the great pursuit to his own chest and the day would come when he would be remembered as the great Pioneer of the Important.

That meant, of course (and he was too intellectually honest to refuse to perceive it), that he, too, was absorbed in the future-a future in which he would be recognized, and in which he would be a hero on a par with Hari Seldon. In fact, he would be the greater, for how could the working out of a clearly visualized future a millennium long stand comparison with the working out of a lost past at least twenty-five millennia old.

And this was the day; this was the day.

The Mayor had said it would be the day after Seldon's image made its appearance. That was the only reason Pelorat had been interested in the Seldon Crisis that for months had occupied every mind on Terminus and indeed almost every mind in the Federation.

It had seemed to him to make the most trifling difference as to whether the capital of the Foundation had remained here at Terminus, or had been shifted somewhere else. And now that the crisis had been resolved, he remained unsure as to which side of the matter Hari Seldon had championed, or if the matter under dispute had been mentioned at all.

It was enough that Seldon had appeared and that now this was the day.

It was a little after two in the afternoon that a ground-car slid to a halt in the driveway of his somewhat isolated house just outside Terminus proper.

A rear door slid back. A guard in the uniform of the Mayoralty Security Corps stepped out, then a young man, then two more guards.

Pelorat was impressed despite himself. The Mayor not only knew of his work but clearly considered it of the highest importance. The person who was to be his companion was given an honor guard, and he had been promised a first-cla.s.s vessel which his companion would be able to pilot. Most flattering! Most- Pelorat's housekeeper opened the door. The young man entered and the two guards positioned themselves on either side of the entrance. Through the window, Pelorat saw that the third guard remained outside and that a second ground-car had now pulled up. Additional guards!

Confusing!

He turned to find the young man in his room and was surprised to find that he recognized him. He had seen him on holocasts. He said, "You're that Councilman. You're Trevize!"

"Golan Trevize. That's right. You are Professor Janov Pelorat?"

"Yes, yes," said Pelorat. "Are you he who will-'

"We are going to be fellow travelers," said Trevize woodenly. "Or so I have been told."

"But you're not a historian."

"No, I'm not. As you said, I'm a Councilman, a politician."

"Yes- Yes- But what am I thinking about? I am a historian, therefore what need for another? You can pilot a s.p.a.ceship."

"Yes, I'm pretty good at that."

"Well, that's what we need, then. Excellent! I'm afraid I'm not one of your practical thinkers, young man, so if it should happen that you are, we'll make a good team."

Trevize said, "I am not, at the moment, overwhelmed with the excellence of my own thinking, but it seems we have no choice but to try to make it a good team."

"Let's hope, then, that I can overcome my uncertainty about s.p.a.ce. I've never been in s.p.a.ce, you know, Councilman. I am a groundhog, if that's the term. Would you like a gla.s.s of tea, by the way? I'll have Moda prepare us something. It is my understanding that it will be some hours before we leave, after all. I am prepared right now, however. I have what is necessary for both of us. The Mayor has been most co-operative. Astonishing-her interest in the project."

Trevize said, "You've known about this, then? How long?"

"The Mayor approached me" (here Pelorat frowned slightly and seemed to be making certain calculations) "two, or maybe three, weeks ago. I was delighted. And now that I have got it clear in my head that I need a pilot and not a second historian, I am also delighted that my companion will be you, my dear fellow."

"Two, maybe three, weeks ago," repeated Trevize, sounding a little dazed. "She was prepared all this time, then. And I-" He faded out.

"Pardon me?"

"Nothing, Professor. I have a bad habit of muttering to myself. It is something you will have to grow accustomed to, if our trip extends itself."

"It will. It will," said Pelorat, bustling the other to the dining room table, where an elaborate tea was being; prepared by his housekeeper. "Quite open-ended. The Mayor said we were to take as long as we liked and that the Galaxy lay all before us and, indeed, that wherever we went we could call upon Foundation funds. She said, of course, that we would have to be reasonable. I promised that much." He chuckled and rubbed his hands: "Sit down, my good fellow, sit down. This may be our last meal on Terminus for a very long time."

Trevize sat down. He said, "Do you have a family, Professor?"

"I have a son. He's on the faculty at Santanni University. A chemist, I believe, or something like that. He took after his mother's side. She hasn't been with me for a long time, so you see I have no responsibilities, no active hostages to fortune. I trust you have none - help yourself to the sandwiches, my boy."

"No hostages at the moment. A few women. They come and go."

"Yes. Yes. Delightful when it works out. Even more delightful when you find it need not be taken seriously. -No children, I take it.

"None."

"Good! You know, I'm in the most remarkable good humor. I was taken aback when you first came in. I admit it. But I find you quite exhilarating now. What I need is youth and enthusiasm and someone who can find his way about the Galaxy. We're on a search, you know. A remarkable search." Pelorat's quiet face and quiet voice achieved an unusual animation without any particular change in either expression or intonation. "I wonder if you have been told about this.

Trevize's eyes narrowed. "A remarkable search?"

"Yes indeed. A pearl of great price is hidden among the tens of millions of inhabited worlds in the Galaxy and we have nothing but the faintest clues to guide us. just the same, it will be an incredible prize if we can find it. If you and I can carry it off, my boy - Trevize, I should say, for I don't mean to patronize-our names will ring down the ages to the end of time."

"The prize you speak of-this pearl of great price-"

"I sound like Arkady Darell-the writer, you know-speaking of the Second Foundation, don't I? No wonder you look astonished." Pelorat-leaned his head back as though he were going to break into loud laughter but he merely smiled. "Nothing so silly and unimportant, I a.s.sure you."

Trevize said, "If you are not speaking of the Second Foundation, Professor, what are you speaking of?"

Pelorat was suddenly grave, even apologetic. "Ah, then the Mayor has not told you? -It is odd, you know. I've spent decades resenting the government and its inability to understand what I'm doing, and now Mayor Branno is being remarkably generous."

"Yes," said Trevize, not trying to conceal an intonation of irony, "she is a woman of remarkable hidden philanthropy, but she has not told me what this is all about."

"You are not aware of my research, then?"

"No. I'm sorry."

"No need to excuse yourself. Perfectly all right. I have not exactly made a splash. Then let me tell you. You and I are going to search for-and find, for I have an excellent possibility in mind-Earth."

Trevize did not sleep well that night.

Over and over, he thrashed about the prison that the old woman had built around him. Nowhere could he find a way out.

He was being driven into exile and he could do nothing about it. She had been calmly inexorable and did not even take the trouble to mask the unconst.i.tutionality of it all. He had relied on his rights as a Councilman and as a citizen of the Federation, and she hadn't even paid them lip service.

And now this Pelorat, this odd academic who seemed to be located in the world without being part of it, told him that the fearsome old woman had been making arrangements for this for weeks.

He felt like the "boy" that she had called him.

He was to be exiled with a historian who kept "dear fellowing" him and who seemed to be in a noiseless fit of joy over beginning a Galactic search for-Earth?

What in the name of the Mule's grandmother was Earth?

He had asked. Of course! He had asked upon the moment of its mention.

He had said, "Pardon me, Professor. I am ignorant of your specialty and I trust you won't be annoyed if I ask for an explanation in simple terms. What is Earth?"

Pelorat stared at him gravely while twenty seconds moved slowly past. He said, "It is a planet. The original planet. The one on which human beings first appeared, my dear fellow."

Trevize stared. "First appeared? From where?"

"From nowhere. It's the planet on which humanity developed through evolutionary processes from lower animals."

Trevize thought about it, then shook his head. "I don't know what you mean."

An annoyed expression crossed Pelorat's face briefly. He cleared his throat and said, "There was a time when Terminus had no human beings upon it. It was settled by human beings from other worlds. You know that, I suppose?"

"Yes, of course," said Trevize impatiently. He was irritated at the other's sudden a.s.sumption of pedagogy.

"Very well. This is true of all the other worlds. Anacreon, Santanni, Kalgan - all of them. They were all, at some time in the past, founded. People arrived there from other worlds. It's true even of Trantor. It may have been a great metropolis for twenty thousand years, but before that it wasn't."

"Why, what was it before that?"

"Empty? At least of human beings."

"That's hard to believe."

"It's true. The old records show it."

"Where did the people come from who first settled Trantor?"

"No one is certain. There are hundreds of planets which claim to have been populated in the dim mists of antiquity and whose people present fanciful tales about the nature of the first arrival of humanity. Historians tend to dismiss such things and to brood over the 'Origin Question.

"What is that? I've never heard of it."

"That doesn't surprise me. It's not a popular historical problem now, I admit, but there was a time during the decay of the Empire when it roused a certain interest among intellectuals. Salvor Hardin mentions it briefly in his memoirs. It's the question of the ident.i.ty and location of the one Planet from which it all started. If ,we look backward in time, humanity flows inward from the most recently established worlds to older ones, to still older ones, until all concentrates on one-the original."

Trevize thought at once of the obvious flaw in the argument. "Might there not have been a large number of originals?"

"Of course not. All human beings all over the Galaxy are of a single species. A single species cannot originate on more than one planet. Quite impossible."

"How do you know?"

"In the first place-" Pelorat ticked off the first finger of his left hand with the first finger of his right, and then seemed to think better of what would undoubtedly have been a long and intricate exposition. He put both hands at his side and said with great earnestness, "My dear fellow, I give you my word of honor."

Trevize bowed formally and said, "I would not dream of doubting it, Professor Pelorat. Let us say, then, that there is one planet of origin, but might there not be hundreds who lay claim to the honor?"

"There not only might be, there are. Yet every claim is without merit. Not one of those hundreds that aspire to the credit of priority shows any trace of a prehyperspatial society, let alone any trace of human evolution from prehuman organisms."

"Then are you saying that there is a planet of origin, but that, for some reason, it is not making the claim?"

"You have hit it precisely."

"And you are going to search for it?"

"We are. That is our mission. Mayor Branno has arranged it all. You will pilot our ship to Trantor."

"To Trantor? It's not the planet of origin. You said that much a while ago."

"Of course Trantor isn't. Earth is."

"Then why aren't you telling me to pilot the ship to Earth?"

"I am not making myself clear. Earth is a legendary name. It is enshrined in ancient myths. It has no meaning we can be certain of, but it is convenient to use the word as a one-syllable synonym for 'the planet of origin of the human species.' just which planet in real s.p.a.ce is the one we are defining as 'Earth' is not known."

"Will they know on Trantor?"

"I hope to find information there, certainly. Trantor possesses the Galactic Library, the greatest in the system."

"Surely that Library has been searched by those people you said were interested in the 'Origin Question' in the time of the First Empire."

Pelorat nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, but perhaps not well enough. I have learned a great deal about the 'Origin Question' that perhaps the Imperials of five centuries back did not know. I might search the old records with greater understanding, you see. I have been thinking about this for a long time and I have an excellent possibility in mind."

"You have told Mayor Branno all this, I imagine, and she approves?"

"Approves? My dear fellow, she was ecstatic. She told me that Trantor was surely the place to find out all I needed to know."

"No doubt," muttered Trevize.

That was part of what occupied him that night. Mayor Branno was sending him out to find out what he could about the Second Foundation. She was sending him with Pelorat so that he might mask his real aim with the pretended search for Earth-a search that could carry him anywhere in the Galaxy. It was a perfect cover, in fact, and he admired the Mayor's ingenuity.

But Trantor? Where was the sense in that? Once they were on Trantor, Pelorat would find his way into the Galactic Library and would never emerge. With endless stacks of books, films, and recordings, with innumerable computerizations and symbolic representations, he would surely never want to leave.

Besides that - Ebling Mis had once gone to Trantor, in the Mule's time. The story was that he had found the location of the Second Foundation there and had died before he could reveal it. But then, so had Arkady Darell, and she had succeeded in locating the Second Foundation. But the location she had found was on Terminus itself, and there the nest of Second Foundationers was wiped out. Wherever the Second Foundation was now would be elsewhere, so what more had Trantor to tell? If be were looking for the Second Foundation, it was best to go anywhere but Trantor.

Besides that - What further plans Branno had, he did not know, but he was not in the mood to oblige her. Branno had been ecstatic, had she, about a trip to Trantor? Well, if Branno wanted Trantor, they were not going to Trantor! -Anywhere else. -But not Trantor!

And worn out, with the night verging toward dawn, Trevize fell at last into a fitful slumber.

Mayor Branno had had a good day on the one following the arrest of Trevize. She had been extolled far beyond her deserts and the incident was never mentioned.

Nevertheless, she knew well that the Council would soon emerge from its paralysis and that questions would be raised. She would have to act quickly. So, putting a great many matters to one side, she pursued the matter of Trevize.

At the time when Trevize and Pelorat were discussing Earth, Branno was facing Councilman Munn Li Compor in the Mayoralty Office. As he sat across the desk from her, perfectly at ease, she appraised him once again.

He was smaller and slighter than Trevize and only two years older. Both were freshmen Councilmen, young and brash, and that must have been the only thing that held them together, for they were different in all other respects.