Foundation and Earth

"And did he say anything of interest?"

"Well, he, too-like everybody else-insisted that Earth was thoroughly and murderously radioactive; that the ancestors of the Alphans were the last to leave and that if they hadn’t, they would have died. And, Golan, he was so emphatic that I couldn’t help believing him. I’m convinced that Earth is dead, and that our entire search is, after all, useless."

79.

TREVIZE sat back in his chair, staring at Pelorat, who was sitting on a narrow cot. Bliss, having risen from where she had been sitting next to Pelorat, looked from one to the other.

Finally, Trevize said, "Let me be the judge as to whether our search is useless or not, Janov. Tell me what the garrulous old man had to say to you in brief, of course."

Pelorat said, "I took notes as Monolee spoke. It helped reinforce my role a scholar, but I don’t have to refer to them. He was quite stream-of-consciousness in his speaking. Each thing he said would remind him of something else, but, of course, I have spent my life trying to organize information in the search of the relevant and significant, so that it’s second nature for me now to be able to condense a long and incoherent discourse-"

Trevize said gently, "Into something just as long and incoherent? To the point, dear Janov."

Pelorat cleared his throat uneasily. "Yes, certainly, old chap. I’ll try to make a connected and chronological tale out of it. Earth was the original home of humanity and of millions of species of plants and animals. It continued so for countless years until hyperspatial travel was invented. Then the Spacer worlds were founded. They broke away from Earth, developed their own cultures, and came to despise and oppress the mother planet.

"After a couple of centuries of this, Earth managed to regain its freedom, though Monolee did not explain the exact manner in which this was done, and I dared not ask questions, even if he had given me a chance to interrupt, which he did not, for that might merely have sent him into new byways. He did mention a culture-hero named Elijah Baley, but the references were so characteristic of the habit of attributing to one figure the accomplishments of generations that there was little value in attempting to-"

Bliss said, "Yes, Pel dear, we understand that part."

Again, Pelorat paused in midstream and reconsidered. "Of course. My apologies. Earth initiated a second wave of settlements, founding many new worlds in a new fashion. The new group of Settlers proved more vigorous than the Spacers, outpaced them, defeated them, outlasted them, and, eventually, established the Galactic Empire. During the course of the wars between the Settlers and the Spacers-no, not wars, for he used the word ‘conflict,’ being very careful about that-the Earth became radioactive."

Trevize said, with clear annoyance, "That’s ridiculous, Janov. How can a world become radioactive? Every world is very slightly radioactive to one degree or another from the moment of formation, and that radioactivity slowly decays. It doesn’t become radioactive."

Pelorat shrugged. "I’m only telling you what he said. And he was only telling me what he had heard-from someone who only told him what he had heard-and so on. It’s folk-history, told and retold over the generations, with who knows what distortions creeping in at each retelling."

"I understand that, but are there no books, documents, ancient histories which have frozen the story at an early time and which could give us something more accurate than the present tale?"

"Actually, I managed to ask that question, and the answer is no. He said vaguely that there were books about it in ancient times and that they had long ago been lost, but that what he was telling us was what had been in those books."

"Yes, well distorted. It’s the same story. In every world we go to, the records of Earth have, in one way or another, disappeared. Well, how did he say the radioactivity began on Earth?"

"He didn’t, in any detail. The closest he came to saying so was that the Spacers were responsible, but then I gathered that the Spacers were the demons on whom the people of Earth blamed all misfortune. The radioactivity-"

A clear voice overrode him here. "Bliss, am I a Spacer?"

Fallom was standing in the narrow doorway between the two rooms, hair tousled and the nightgown she was wearing (designed to fit Bliss’s more ample proportions) having slid off one shoulder to reveal an undeveloped breast.

Bliss said, "We worry about eavesdroppers outside and we forget the one inside. Now, Fallom, why do you say that?" She rose and walked toward the youngster.

Fallom said, "I don’t have what they have," she pointed at the two men, "or what you have, Bliss. I’m different. Is that because I’m a Spacer?"

"You are, Fallom," said Bliss soothingly, "but little differences don’t matter. Come back to bed."

Fallom became submissive as she always did when Bliss willed her to be so. She turned and said, "Am I a demon? What is a demon?"

Bliss said over her shoulder, "Wait one moment for me. I’ll be right back."

She was, within five minutes. She was shaking her head. "She’ll be sleeping now till I wake her. I should have done that before, I suppose, but any modification of the mind must be the result of necessity." She added defensively, "I can’t have her brood on the differences between her genital equipment and ours."

Pelorat said, "Someday she’ll have to know she’s hermaphroditic."

"Someday," said Bliss, "but not now. Go on with the story, Pel."

"Yes," said Trevize, "before something else interrupts us."

"Well, Earth became radioactive, or at least its crust did. At that time, Earth had had an enormous population that was centered in huge cities that existed for the most part underground-"