Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [127]
"And why was I so certain that we should not go to Trantor? I was convinced you had a better target for our investigations and at once you come up with the mystery world of Gaia, concerning which, as it now turns out, you gained information under very puzzling circumstances.
"We go to Sayshell--the first natural stop--and at once we encounter Compor, who gives us a circumstantial story about Earth and its death. He then assures us its location is in the Sirius Sector and urges us to go there."
Pelorat said, "There you are. You seem to be implying that all circumstances are forcing us toward Gaia, but, as you say, Compor tried to persuade us to go elsewhere."
"And in response, I was determined to continue on our original line of investigation out of my sheer distrust for the man. Don't you suppose that that was what he might have been counting on? He may have deliberately told us to go elsewhere just to keep us from doing so."
"That's mere romance," muttered Pelorat.
"Is it? Let's go on. We get in touch with Quintesetz simply because he was handy--"
"Not at all," said Pelorat. "I recognized his name."
"It seemed familiar to you. You had never read anything he had written--that you could recall. Why was it familiar to you? --In any case, it turned out he had read a paper of yours and was overwhelmed by it--and how likely was that? You yourself admit your work is not widely known.
"What's more, the young lady leading us to him quite gratuitously mentions Gaia and goes on to tell us it is in hyperspace, as though to be sure we keep it in mind. When we ask Quintesetz about it, he behaves as though he doesn't want to talk about it, but he doesn't throw us out--even though I am rather rude to him. He takes us to his home instead and, on the way there, goes to the trouble of pointing out the Five Sisters. He even makes sure we note the dim star at the center. Why? Is not all this an extraordinary concatenation of coincidence?"
Pelorat said, "If you list it like that--"
"List it any way you please," said Trevize. "I don't believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence."
"What does all this mean, then? That we are being maneuvered to Gaia?"
"Yes."
"By whom?"
Trevize said, "Surely there can be no question about that. Who is capable of adjusting minds, of giving gentle nudges to this one or that, of managing to divert progress in this direction or that?"
"You're going to tell me it's the Second Foundation."
"Well, what have we been told about Gaia? It is untouchable. Fleets that move against it are destroyed. People who reach it do not return. Even the Mule didn't dare move against it--and the Mule, in fact, was probably born there. Surely it seems that Gaia is the Second Foundation--and finding that, after all, is my ultimate goal."
Pelorat shook his head. "But according to some historians, the Second Foundation stopped the Mule. How could he have been one of them?"
"A renegade, I suppose."
"But why should we be so relentlessly maneuvered toward the Second Foundation by the Second Foundation?"
Trevize's eyes were unfocused, his brow furrowed. He said, "Let's reason it out. It has always seemed important to the Second Foundation that as little information as possible about it should be available to the Galaxy. Ideally it wants its very existence to remain unknown. We know that much about them. For a hundred twenty years, the Second Foundation was thought to be extinct and that must have suited them right down to the Galactic core. Yet when I began to suspect that they did exist, they did nothing. Compor knew. They might have used him to shut me up one way or another--had me killed, even. Yet they did nothing."
Pelorat said, "They had you arrested, if you