Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov [74]
Trevize’s head was bent in thought. Finally, he looked up and said, “I may have chosen well, but I must be convinced of that. The decision I have made is the most important in the history of humanity and it is not enough that it be a good one. I must know it to be a good one.”
“What more do you need than what I have told you?”
“I don’t know, but I will find it on Earth.” He spoke with absolute conviction.
Pelorat said, “Golan, the star shows a disc.”
It did. The computer, busy about its own affairs and not the least concerned with any discussion that might swirl about it, had been approaching the star in stages, and had reached the distance Trevize had set for it.
They continued to be well outside the planetary plane and the computer split the screen to show each of three small inner planets.
It was the innermost that had a surface temperature in the liquid-water range, and that had an oxygen atmosphere as well. Trevize waited for its orbit to be computed and the first crude estimate seemed reasonable. He kept that computation going, for the longer the planetary movement was observed, the more accurate the computation of its orbital elements.
Trevize said quite calmly, “We have a habitable planet in view. Very likely habitable.”
“Ah.” Pelorat looked as nearly delighted as his solemn expression would allow.
“I’m afraid, though,” said Trevize, “that there’s no giant satellite. In fact, no satellite of any kind has been detected so far. So it isn’t Earth. At least, not if we go by tradition.”
“Don’t worry about that, Golan,” said Pelorat. “I rather suspected we weren’t going to encounter Earth here when I saw that neither of the gas giants had an unusual ring system.”
“Very well, then,” said Trevize. “The next step is to find out the nature of the life inhabiting it. From the fact that it has an oxygen atmosphere, we can be absolutely certain that there is plant life upon it, but—”
“Animal life, too,” said Bliss abruptly. “And in quantity.”
“What?” Trevize turned to her.
“I can sense it. Only faintly at this distance, but the planet is unquestionably not only habitable, but inhabited.”
33.
THE FAR STAR WAS IN POLAR ORBIT ABOUT THE Forbidden World, at a distance great enough to keep the orbital period at a little in excess of six days. Trevize seemed in no hurry to come out of orbit.
“Since the planet is inhabited,” he explained, “and since, according to Deniador, it was once inhabited by human beings who were technologically advanced and who represent a first wave of Settlers—the so-called Spacers—they may be technologically advanced still and may have no great love for us of the second wave who have replaced them. I would like them to show themselves, so that we can learn a little about them before risking a landing.”
“They may not know we are here,” said Pelorat.
“We would, if the situation were reversed. I must assume, then, that, if they exist, they are likely to try to make contact with us. They might even want to come out and get us.”
“But if they did come out after us and were technologically advanced, we might be helpless to—”
“I can’t believe that,” said Trevize. “Technological advancement is not necessarily all one piece. They might conceivably be far beyond us in some ways, but it’s clear they don’t indulge in interstellar travel. It is we, not they, who have settled the Galaxy, and in all the history of the Empire, I know of nothing that would indicate that they left their worlds and made themselves evident to us. If they haven’t been space traveling, how could they be expected to have made serious advances