Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [137]
"I'm ready."
"I'm not. We'll make the Jump tomorrow."
"Why tomorrow?"
"Why not? Let's give them a day to come out and get us--and for us to get away, perhaps, if we spot them coming and don't like what we see."
3.
IT WAS A SLOW AND CAUTIOUS PROCESS. DURING the day that passed, Trevize grimly directed the calculation of several different approaches and tried to choose between them. Lacking hard data, he could depend only on intuition, which unfortunately told him nothing. He lacked that "sureness" he sometimes experienced.
Eventually he punched in directions for a Jump that moved them far out of the planetary plane.
"That will give us a better view of the region as a whole," he said, "since we will see the planets in every part of their orbit as maximum apparent distance from the sun. And they--whoever they may be--might not be quite as watchful over regions outside the plane. --I hope."
They were now as close to Gaia-S as the nearest and largest of the gas giants was and they were nearly half a billion kilometers from it. Trevize placed it under full magnification on the screen for Pelorat's benefit. It was an impressive sight, even if the three sparse and narrow rings of debris were left out of account.
"It has the usual train of satellites," said Trevize, "but at this distance from Gaia-S, we know that none of them are habitable. Nor are any of them settled by human beings who survive, let us say, under a glass dome or under other strictly artificial conditions."
"How can you tell?"
"There's no radio noise with characteristics that point them out as of intelligent origin. Of course," he added, qualifying his statement at once, "it is conceivable that a scientific outpost might go to great pains to shield its radio signals and the gas giant produces radio noise that could mask what I was looking for. Still, our radio reception is delicate and our computer is an extraordinarily good one. I'd say the chance of human occupation of those satellites is extremely small."
"Does that mean there's no Gaia?"
"No. But it does mean that if there is a Gaia, it hasn't bothered to settle those satellites. Perhaps it lacks the capacity to do so--or the interest."
"Well, is there a Gaia?"
"Patience, Janov. Patience."
Trevize considered the sky with a seemingly endless supply of patience. He stopped at one point to say, "Frankly, the fact that they haven't come out to pounce on us is disheartening, in a way. Surely, if they had the capacities they were described as having, they would have reacted to us by now."
"It's conceivable, I suppose," said Pelorat glumly, "that the whole thing is a fantasy."
"Call it a myth, Janov," said Trevize with a wry smile, "and it will be right up your alley. Still, there's a planet moving through the ecosphere, which means it might be habitable. I'll want to observe it for at least a day."
"Why?"
"To make sure it's habitable, for one thing."
"You just said it was in the ecosphere, Golan."
"Yes, at the moment it is. But its orbit could be very eccentric, and could eventually carry it within a microparsec of the star, or out to fifteen microparsecs, or both. We'll have to determine and compare the planet's distance from Gaia-S with its orbital speed--and it would help to note the direction of its motion."
4.
ANOTHER DAY.
"The orbit is nearly circular," Trevize said finally, "which means that habitability becomes a much safer bet. Yet no one's coming out to get us even now. We'll have to try a closer look."
Pelorat said, "Why does it take so long to arrange a Jump? You're just taking little ones."
"Listen to the man. Little Jumps are harder to control than big ones. Is it easier to pick up a rock or a fine grain of sand? Besides, Gaia-S is nearby and space is sharply curved. That complicates the calculations even for the computer. Even a mythologist should see that."
Pelorat grunted.
Trevize said, "You