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.But Bliss reached for the child s shoulders and, as her handstouched Fallom, the youngster began to tremble.Bliss s voice grew soft. Now, Fallom, tell the computer to be asit was and come with me.Come with me. Her hands stroked the child, whocollapsed in an agony of weeping.Fallom s hands left the desk, and Bliss, catching her under thearmpits, lifted her into a standing position.She turned her, held her firmlyagainst her breast, and allowed the child to smother her wrenching sobs there.Bliss said to Trevize, who was now standing dumbly in the doorway,Page 304 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Step out of the way, Trevize, and don t touch either of us as we pass. Trevize stepped quickly to one side.Bliss paused a moment, saying in a low voice to Trevize, I had toget into her mind for a moment.If I ve caused any damage, I won t forgive youeasily. It was Trevize s impulse to tell her he didn t care a cubicmillimeter of vacuum for Fallom s mind; that it was the computer for which hefeared.Against the concentrated glare of Gaia, however (surely it wasn t onlyBliss whose sole expression could inspire the moment of cold terror he felt),he kept silent.He remained silent for a perceptible period, and motionless aswell, after Bliss and Fallom had disappeared into their room.He remained so,in fact, until Pelorat said softly, Golan, are you all right? She didn t hurtyou, did she? Trevize shook his head vigorously, as though to shake off thetouch of paralysis that had afflicted him. I m all right.The real questionis whetherthat s all right. He sat down at the computer console, his handsresting on the two handmarks which Fallom s hands had so recently covered. Well? said Pelorat anxiously.Trevize shrugged. It seems to respond normally.I mightconceivably find something wrong later on, but there s nothing that seems offnow. Then, more angrily, The computer should not combine effectively withany hands other than mine, but in that hermaphrodite s case, it wasn t thehands alone.It was the transducer-lobes, I m sure- But what made the ship shake? It shouldn t do that, should it? No.It s a gravitic ship and we shouldn t have these inertialeffects.But that she-monster- He paused, looking angry again. Yes? I suspect she faced the computer with two self-contradictorydemands, and each with such force that the computer had no choice but toattempt to do both things at once.In the attempt to do the impossible, thecomputer must have released the inertia-free condition of the shipmomentarily.At least that s what I think happened. And then, somehow, his face smoothed out. And that might be agood thing, too, for it occurs to me now that all my talk about Alpha Centauriand its companion was flapdoodle.I know now where Earth must have transferredits secret. 97.PELORAT stared, then ignored the final remark and went back to anearlier puzzle. In what way did Fallom ask for two self-contradictorythings? Page 305 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Well, she said she wanted the ship to go to Solaria. Yes.Of course, she would. But what did she mean by Solaria? She can t recognize Solariafrom space.She s never really seen it from space.She was asleep when we leftthat world in a hurry.And despite her readings in your library, together withwhatever Bliss has told her, I imagine she can t really grasp the truth of aGalaxy of hundreds of billions of stars and millions of populated planets.Brought up, as she was, underground and alone, it is all she can do to graspthe bare concept that there are different worlds-but how many? Two? Three?Four? To her any world she sees is likely to be Solaria, and given thestrength of her wishful thinking,is Solaria.And since I presume Bliss hastried to quiet her by hinting that if we don t find Earth, we ll take her backto Solaria, she may even have worked up the notion that Solaria is close toEarth. But how can you tell this, Golan? What makes you think it s so? She as much as told us so, Janov, when we burst in upon her.Shecried out that she wanted to go to Solaria and then added there-there,nodding her head at the viewscreen.And what is on the viewscreen? Earth ssatellite.It wasn t there when I left the machine before dinner; Earth was.But Fallom must have pictured the satellite in her mind when she asked forSolaria, and the computer, in response, must therefore have focused on thesatellite.Believe me, Janov, I know how this computer works.Who would knowbetter? Pelorat looked at the thick crescent of light on the viewscreenand said thoughtfully, It was called moon in at least one of Earth slanguages; Luna, in another language.Probably many other names,too.-Imagine the confusion, old chap, on a world with numerous languages-themisunderstandings, the complications, the- Moon? said Trevize. Well, that s simple enough.-Then, too, cometo think of it, it may be that the child tried, instinctively, to move theship by means of its transducer-lobes, using the ship s own energy-source, andthat may have helped produce the momentary inertial confusion.-But none ofthat matters, Janov.What does matter is that all this has brought thismoon-yes, I like the name-to the screen and magnified it, and there it stillis.I m looking at it now, and wondering. Wondering what, Golan? At the size of it.We tend to ignore satellites, Janov.They resuch little things, when they exist at all.This one is different, though.It s aworld.It has a diameter of about thirty-five hundred kilometers. A world? Surely you wouldn t call it a world.It can t behabitable.Even a thirty-five-hundred-kilometer diameter is too small.It hasno atmosphere.I can tell that just looking at it.No clouds.The circularcurve against space is sharp, so is the inner curve that bounds the light anddark hemisphere. Trevize nodded, You re getting to be a seasoned space traveler,Janov.You re right.No air.No water.But that only means the moon s nothabitable on its unprotected surface.What about underground? Underground? said Pelorat doubtfully.Page 306 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Yes.Underground.Why not? Earth s cities were underground, youtell me.We know that Trantor was underground.Comporellon has much of itscapital city underground.The Solarian mansions were almost entirelyunderground.It s a very common state of affairs. But, Golan, in every one of these cases, people were living on ahabitable planet.The surface was habitable, too, with an atmosphere and withan ocean.Is it possible to live underground when the surface isuninhabitable? Come, Janov, think! Where are we living right now? TheFar Star isa tiny world that has an uninhabitable surface.There s no air or water on theoutside.Yet we live inside in perfect comfort.The Galaxy is full of spacestations and space settlements of infinite variety, to say nothing ofspaceships, and they re all uninhabitable except for the interior.Considerthe moon a gigantic spaceship. With a crew inside? Yes.Millions of people, for all we.know; and plants andanimals; and an advanced technology.-Look, Janov, doesn t it make sense? IfEarth, in its last days, could send out a party of Settlers to a planetorbiting Alpha Centauri; and if, possibly with Imperial help, they couldattempt to terraform it, seed its oceans, build dry land where there was none;could Earth not also send a party to its satellite and terraform itsinterior? Pelorat said reluctantly, I suppose so. Itwould be done [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.But Bliss reached for the child s shoulders and, as her handstouched Fallom, the youngster began to tremble.Bliss s voice grew soft. Now, Fallom, tell the computer to be asit was and come with me.Come with me. Her hands stroked the child, whocollapsed in an agony of weeping.Fallom s hands left the desk, and Bliss, catching her under thearmpits, lifted her into a standing position.She turned her, held her firmlyagainst her breast, and allowed the child to smother her wrenching sobs there.Bliss said to Trevize, who was now standing dumbly in the doorway,Page 304 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Step out of the way, Trevize, and don t touch either of us as we pass. Trevize stepped quickly to one side.Bliss paused a moment, saying in a low voice to Trevize, I had toget into her mind for a moment.If I ve caused any damage, I won t forgive youeasily. It was Trevize s impulse to tell her he didn t care a cubicmillimeter of vacuum for Fallom s mind; that it was the computer for which hefeared.Against the concentrated glare of Gaia, however (surely it wasn t onlyBliss whose sole expression could inspire the moment of cold terror he felt),he kept silent.He remained silent for a perceptible period, and motionless aswell, after Bliss and Fallom had disappeared into their room.He remained so,in fact, until Pelorat said softly, Golan, are you all right? She didn t hurtyou, did she? Trevize shook his head vigorously, as though to shake off thetouch of paralysis that had afflicted him. I m all right.The real questionis whetherthat s all right. He sat down at the computer console, his handsresting on the two handmarks which Fallom s hands had so recently covered. Well? said Pelorat anxiously.Trevize shrugged. It seems to respond normally.I mightconceivably find something wrong later on, but there s nothing that seems offnow. Then, more angrily, The computer should not combine effectively withany hands other than mine, but in that hermaphrodite s case, it wasn t thehands alone.It was the transducer-lobes, I m sure- But what made the ship shake? It shouldn t do that, should it? No.It s a gravitic ship and we shouldn t have these inertialeffects.But that she-monster- He paused, looking angry again. Yes? I suspect she faced the computer with two self-contradictorydemands, and each with such force that the computer had no choice but toattempt to do both things at once.In the attempt to do the impossible, thecomputer must have released the inertia-free condition of the shipmomentarily.At least that s what I think happened. And then, somehow, his face smoothed out. And that might be agood thing, too, for it occurs to me now that all my talk about Alpha Centauriand its companion was flapdoodle.I know now where Earth must have transferredits secret. 97.PELORAT stared, then ignored the final remark and went back to anearlier puzzle. In what way did Fallom ask for two self-contradictorythings? Page 305 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Well, she said she wanted the ship to go to Solaria. Yes.Of course, she would. But what did she mean by Solaria? She can t recognize Solariafrom space.She s never really seen it from space.She was asleep when we leftthat world in a hurry.And despite her readings in your library, together withwhatever Bliss has told her, I imagine she can t really grasp the truth of aGalaxy of hundreds of billions of stars and millions of populated planets.Brought up, as she was, underground and alone, it is all she can do to graspthe bare concept that there are different worlds-but how many? Two? Three?Four? To her any world she sees is likely to be Solaria, and given thestrength of her wishful thinking,is Solaria.And since I presume Bliss hastried to quiet her by hinting that if we don t find Earth, we ll take her backto Solaria, she may even have worked up the notion that Solaria is close toEarth. But how can you tell this, Golan? What makes you think it s so? She as much as told us so, Janov, when we burst in upon her.Shecried out that she wanted to go to Solaria and then added there-there,nodding her head at the viewscreen.And what is on the viewscreen? Earth ssatellite.It wasn t there when I left the machine before dinner; Earth was.But Fallom must have pictured the satellite in her mind when she asked forSolaria, and the computer, in response, must therefore have focused on thesatellite.Believe me, Janov, I know how this computer works.Who would knowbetter? Pelorat looked at the thick crescent of light on the viewscreenand said thoughtfully, It was called moon in at least one of Earth slanguages; Luna, in another language.Probably many other names,too.-Imagine the confusion, old chap, on a world with numerous languages-themisunderstandings, the complications, the- Moon? said Trevize. Well, that s simple enough.-Then, too, cometo think of it, it may be that the child tried, instinctively, to move theship by means of its transducer-lobes, using the ship s own energy-source, andthat may have helped produce the momentary inertial confusion.-But none ofthat matters, Janov.What does matter is that all this has brought thismoon-yes, I like the name-to the screen and magnified it, and there it stillis.I m looking at it now, and wondering. Wondering what, Golan? At the size of it.We tend to ignore satellites, Janov.They resuch little things, when they exist at all.This one is different, though.It s aworld.It has a diameter of about thirty-five hundred kilometers. A world? Surely you wouldn t call it a world.It can t behabitable.Even a thirty-five-hundred-kilometer diameter is too small.It hasno atmosphere.I can tell that just looking at it.No clouds.The circularcurve against space is sharp, so is the inner curve that bounds the light anddark hemisphere. Trevize nodded, You re getting to be a seasoned space traveler,Janov.You re right.No air.No water.But that only means the moon s nothabitable on its unprotected surface.What about underground? Underground? said Pelorat doubtfully.Page 306 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Yes.Underground.Why not? Earth s cities were underground, youtell me.We know that Trantor was underground.Comporellon has much of itscapital city underground.The Solarian mansions were almost entirelyunderground.It s a very common state of affairs. But, Golan, in every one of these cases, people were living on ahabitable planet.The surface was habitable, too, with an atmosphere and withan ocean.Is it possible to live underground when the surface isuninhabitable? Come, Janov, think! Where are we living right now? TheFar Star isa tiny world that has an uninhabitable surface.There s no air or water on theoutside.Yet we live inside in perfect comfort.The Galaxy is full of spacestations and space settlements of infinite variety, to say nothing ofspaceships, and they re all uninhabitable except for the interior.Considerthe moon a gigantic spaceship. With a crew inside? Yes.Millions of people, for all we.know; and plants andanimals; and an advanced technology.-Look, Janov, doesn t it make sense? IfEarth, in its last days, could send out a party of Settlers to a planetorbiting Alpha Centauri; and if, possibly with Imperial help, they couldattempt to terraform it, seed its oceans, build dry land where there was none;could Earth not also send a party to its satellite and terraform itsinterior? Pelorat said reluctantly, I suppose so. Itwould be done [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]