Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov [184]
“What about Trevize?”
“Bliss, I’m worried about him. He’s waiting to determine the facts about Earth, and I’m not sure he can withstand the strain.”
“I don’t fear for him. I suspect he has a sturdy and stable mind.”
“We all have our limits. Listen, the planet Earth is warmer than he expected it to be; he told me so. I suspect that he thinks it may be too warm for life, though he’s clearly trying to talk himself into believing that’s not so.”
“Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s not too warm for life.”
“Also, he admits it’s possible that the warmth might possibly arise from a radioactive crust, but he is refusing to believe that also. —In a day or two, we’ll be close enough so that the truth of the matter will be unmistakable. What if Earth is radioactive?”
“Then he’ll have to accept the fact.”
“But—I don’t know how to say this, or how to put it in mental terms. What if his mind—”
Bliss waited, then said wryly, “Blows a fuse?”
“Yes. Blows a fuse. Shouldn’t you do something now to strengthen him? Keep him level and under control, so to speak?”
“No, Pel. I can’t believe he’s that fragile, and there is a firm Gaian decision that his mind must not be tampered with.”
“But that’s the very point. He has this unusual ‘rightness,’ or whatever you want to call it. The shock of his entire project falling to nothingness at the moment when it seems successfully concluded may not destroy his brain, but it may destroy his ‘rightness.’ It’s a very unusual property he has. Might it not be unusually fragile, too?”
Bliss remained for a moment in thought. Then she shrugged. “Well, perhaps I’ll keep an eye on him.”
93.
FOR THE NEXT THIRTY-SIX HOURS, TREVIZE WAS vaguely aware that Bliss and, to a lesser degree, Pelorat, tended to dog his footsteps. Still, that was not utterly unusual in a ship as compact as theirs, and he had other things on his mind.
Now, as he sat at the computer, he was aware of them standing just inside the doorway. He looked up at them, his face blank.
“Well?” he said, in a very quiet voice.
Pelorat said, rather awkwardly, “How are you, Golan?”
Trevize said, “Ask Bliss. She’s been staring at me intently for hours. She must be poking through my mind. —Aren’t you, Bliss?”
“No, I am not,” said Bliss evenly, “but if you feel the need for my help, I can try. —Do you want my help?”
“No, why should I? Leave me alone. Both of you.”
Pelorat said, “Please tell us what’s going on.”
“Guess!”
“Is Earth—”
“Yes, it is. What everyone insisted on telling us is perfectly true.” Trevize gestured at the viewscreen, where Earth presented its nightside and was eclipsing the sun. It was a solid circle of black against the starry sky, its circumference outlined by a broken orange curve.
Pelorat said, “Is that orange the radioactivity?”
“No. Just refracted sunlight through the atmosphere. It would be a solid orange circle if the atmosphere weren’t so cloudy. We can’t see the radioactivity. The various radiations, even the gamma rays, are absorbed by the atmosphere. However, they do set up secondary radiations, comparatively feeble ones, but the computer can detect them. They’re still invisible to the eye, but the computer can produce a photon of visible light for each particle or wave of radiation it receives and put Earth into false color. Look.”
And the black circle glowed with a faint, blotchy blue.
“How much radioactivity is there?” asked Bliss, in a low voice. “Enough to signify that no human life can exist there?”
“No life of any kind,” said Trevize. “The planet is uninhabitable. The last bacterium, the last virus, is long gone.”
“Can we explore it?” said Pelorat. “I mean, in space suits.”
“For a few hours—before we come down with irreversible radiation sickness.”
“Then what do we do, Golan?”
“Do?” Trevize looked at Pelorat with that same expressionless face. “Do you know what I would like to do? I would like to take you and Bliss—and the child—back to Gaia and leave you all there forever. Then I would like to go back to Terminus and hand back the ship. Then I would like to resign from the