Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [117]
"You have been and if there's anything we can do in exchange, name it."
Quintesetz laughed gently. "If the good J.P. will be so kind as to refrain from mentioning my name in connection with any writing he does on our mystery, that will be sufficient repayment."
Pelorat said eagerly, "You would be able to get the credit you deserve--and perhaps be more appreciated--if you were allowed to visit Terminus and even, perhaps, remain there as a visiting scholar at our university for an extended period. We might arrange that. Sayshell might not like the Federation, but they might not like refusing a direct request that you be allowed to come to Terminus to attend, let us say, a colloquium on some aspect of ancient history."
The Sayshellian half-rose. "Are you saying you can pull strings to arrange that?"
Trevize said, "Why, I hadn't thought of it, but J.P. is perfectly right. That would be feasible--if we tried. And, of course, the more grateful you make us, the harder we will try."
Quintesetz paused, then frowned. "What do you mean, sir?"
"All you have to do is tell us about Gaia, S.Q.," said Trevize.
And all the light in Quintesetz's face died.
4.
QUINTESETZ LOOKED DOWN AT HIS DESK. HIS hand stroked absent-mindedly at his short, tightly curled hair. Then he looked at Trevize and pursed his lips tightly. It was as though he were determined not to speak.
Trevize lifted his eyebrows and waited and finally Quintesetz said in a strangled sort of way, "It is getting indeed late--quite glemmering."
Until then he had spoken in good Galactic, but now his words took on a strange shape as though the Sayshellian mode of speech were pushing past his classical education.
"Glemmering, S.Q.?"
"It is nearly full night."
Trevize nodded. "I am thoughtless. And I am hungry, too. Could you please join us for an evening meal, S.Q., at our expense? We could then, perhaps, continue our discussion--about Gaia."
Quintesetz rose heavily to his feet. He was taller than either of the two men from Terminus, but he was older and pudgier and his height did not lend him the appearance of strength. He seemed more weary than when they had arrived.
He blinked at them and said, "I forget my hospitality. You are Outworlders and it would not be fitting that you entertain me. Come to my home. It is on campus and not far and, if you wish to carry on a conversation, I can do so in a more relaxed manner there than here. My only regret" (he seemed a little uneasy) "is that I can offer you only a limited meal. My wife and I are vegetarians and if you are meat-eating, I can only express my apologies and regrets."
Trevize said, "J.P. and I will be quite content to forego our carnivorous natures for one meal. Your conversation will more than make up for it--I hope."
"I can promise you an interesting meal, whatever the conversation," said Quintesetz, "if your taste should run to our Sayshellian spieces. My wife and I have made a rare study of such things."
"I look forward to any exoticism you choose to supply, S.Q.," said Trevize coolly, though Pelorat looked a little nervous at the prospect.
Quintesetz led the way. The three left the room and walked down an apparently endless corridor, with the Sayshellian greeting students and colleagues now and then, but making no attempt to introduce his companions. Trevize was uneasily aware that others stared curiously at his sash, which happened to be one of his gray ones. A subdued color was not something that was de rigueur in campus clothing, apparently.
Finally they stepped through the door and out into the open. It was indeed dark and a little cool, with trees bulking in the distance and a rather rank stand of grass on either side of the walkway.
Pelorat came to a halt--with his back to the glimmer of lights that came from the building they had just left and from the glows that lined the walks of the campus. He looked straight upward.
"Beautiful!" he said. "There is a famous phrase in a verse by one of our better poets that speaks of 'the speckle-shine of Sayshell's soaring sky.'