Foundation and Earth (Page 142)

"Did you know she took the flute with her when we left the ship?" asked Bliss. "I suspect we won’t be able to get her away from Daneel for quite a while."

The remark was met with a heavy silence, and Bliss looked at the two men in quick alarm. "What’s the matter?"

Trevize gestured gently in Pelorat’s direction. It was up to him, the gesture seemed to say.

Pelorat cleared his throat and said, "Actually, Bliss, I think that Fallom will be staying with Daneel permanently."

"Indeed?" Bliss, frowning, made as though to walk in Daneel’s direction, but Pelorat caught her arm. "Bliss dear, you can’t. He’s more powerful than Gaia even now, and Fallom must stay with him if Galaxia is to come into existence. Let me explain-and, Golan, please correct me if I get anything wrong."

Bliss listened to the account, her expression sinking into something close to despair.

Trevize said, in an attempt at cool reason, "You see how it is, Bliss. The child is a Spacer and Daneel was designed and put together by Spacers. The child was brought up by a robot and knew nothing else on an estate as empty as this one. The child has transductive powers which Daneel will need, and she will live for three or four centuries, which may be what is required for the construction of Galaxia."

Bliss said, her cheeks flushed and her eyes moist, "I suppose that the robot maneuvered our trip to Earth in such a way as to make us pass through Solaria in order to pick up a child for his use."

Trevize shrugged. "He may simply have taken advantage of the opportunity. I don’t think his powers are strong enough at the moment to make complete puppets of us at hyperspatial distances."

"No. It was purposeful. He made certain that I would feel strongly attracted to the child so that I would take her with me, rather than leave her to be killed; that I would protect her even against you when you showed nothing but resentment and annoyance at her being with us."

Trevize said, "That might just as easily have been your Gaian ethics, which Daneel could have strengthened a bit, I suppose. Come, Bliss, there’s nothing to be gained. Suppose you could take Fallom away. Where could you then take her that would make her as happy as she is here? Would you take her back to Solaria where she would be killed quite pitilessly; to some crowded world where she would sicken and die; to Gaia, where she would wear her heart out longing for Jemby; on an endless voyage through the Galaxy, where she would think that every world we came across was her Solaria? And would you find a substitute for Daneel’s use so that Galaxia could be constructed?"

Bliss was sadly silent.

Pelorat held out his hand to her, a bit timidly. "Bliss," he said, "I volunteered to have my brain fused with Daneel’s. He wouldn’t take it because he said I was too old. I wish he had, if that would have saved Fallom for you."

Bliss took his hand and kissed it. "Thank you, Pel, but the price would be too high, even for Fallom." She took a deep breath, and tried to smile. "Perhaps, when we get back to Gaia, room will be found in the global organism for a child for me-and I will place Fallom in the syllables of its name."

And now Daneel, as though aware that the matter was settled, was walking toward them, with Fallom skipping along at his side.

The youngster broke into a run and reached them first. She said to Bliss, "Thank you, Bliss, for taking me home to Jemby again and for taking care of me while we were on the ship. I shall always remember you." Then she flung herself at Bliss and the two held each other tightly.

"I hope you will always be happy," said Bliss. "I will remember you, too, Fallom dear," and released her with reluctance.

Fallom turned to Pelorat, and said, "Thank you, too, Pel, for letting me read your book-films." Then, without an additional word, and after a trace of hesitation, the thin, girlish hand was extended to Trevize. He took it for a moment, then let it go.

"Good luck, Fallom," he muttered.

Daneel said, "I thank you all, sirs and madam, for what you have done, each in your own way. You are free to go now, for your search is ended. As for my own work, it will be ended, too, soon enough, and successfully now."

But Bliss said, "Wait, we are not quite through. We don’t know yet whether Trevize is still of the mind that the proper future for humanity is Galaxia, as opposed to a vast conglomeration of Isolates."

Daneel said, "He has already made that clear a while ago, madam. He has decided in favor of Galaxia."

Bliss’s lips tightened. "I’d rather hear that from him. Which is it to be, Trevize?"

Trevize said calmly, "Which do you want it to be, Bliss? If I decide against Galaxia, you may get Fallom back."

Bliss said, "I am Gaia. I must know your decision, and its reason, for the sake of the truth and nothing else."

Daneel said, "Tell her, sir. Your mind, as Gaia is aware, is untouched."

And Trevize said, "The decision is for Galaxia. There is no further doubt in my mind on that point."

104.

Bliss remained motionless for the time one might take to count to fifty at a moderate rate, as though she were allowing the information to reach all parts of Gaia, and then she said, "Why?"

Trevize said, "Listen to me. I knew from the start that there were two possible futures for humanity-Galaxia, or else the Second Empire of Seldon’s Plan. And it seemed to me that those two possible futures were mutually exclusive. We couldn’t have Galaxia unless, for some reason, Seldon’s Plan had some fundamental flaw in it.

"Unfortunately, I knew nothing about Seldon’s Plan except for the two axioms on which it is based: one, that there be involved a large enough number of human beings to allow humanity to be treated statistically as a group of individuals interacting randomly; and second, that humanity not know the results of psychohistorical conclusions before the results are achieved.