Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [176]
But now it was time. She did not will it herself. She had no need to. The vast remainder of her was pushing her portion of itself to the surface, for the sake of the global need.
Accompanying that was a vague discomfort, a kind of itch that was rapidly overwhelmed by the comfort of selfness unmasked. Not in years had she been so close to the globe of Gaia.
She remembered one of the life-forms she had loved on Gaia as a child. Having understood its feelings then as a dim part of her own, she recognized her own sharper ones now. She was a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.
3.
STOR GENDIBAL STARED SHARPLY AND PENETRATINGLY at Novi--and with such surprise that he came within a hair of loosening his grip upon Mayor Branno. That he did not do so was, perhaps, the result of a sudden support from without that steadied him and that, for the moment, he ignored.
He said, "What do you know of Councilman Trevize, Novi?" And then, in cold disturbance at the sudden and growing complexity of her mind, he cried out, "What are you?"
He attempted to seize hold of her mind and found it impenetrable. At that moment, he recognized that his hold on Branno was supported by a grip stronger than his own. He repeated, "What are you?"
There was a hint of the tragic on Novi's face. "Master," she said, "Speaker Gendibal. My true name is Suranoviremblastiran and I am Gaia."
It was all she said in words, but Gendibal, in sudden fury, had intensified his own mental aura and with great skill, now that his blood was up, evaded the strengthening bar and held Branno on his own and more strongly than before, while he gripped Novi's mind in a tight and silent struggle.
She held him off with equal skill, but she could not keep her mind closed to him--or perhaps she did not wish to.
He spoke to her as he would to another Speaker. "You have played a part, deceived me, lured me here, and you are one of the species from which the Mule was derived."
"The Mule was an aberration, Speaker. I / we are not Mules. I / we are Gaia."
The whole essence of Gaia was described in what she complexly communicated, far more than it could have been in any number of words.
"A whole planet alive," said Gendibal.
"And with a mentalic field greater as a whole than is yours as an individual. Please do not resist with such force. I fear the danger of harming you, something I do not wish to do."
"Even as a living planet, you are not stronger than the sum of my colleagues on Trantor. We, too, are, in a way, a planet alive."
"Only some thousands of people in mentalic co-operation, Speaker, and you cannot draw upon their support, for I have blocked it off. Test that and you will see."
"What is it you plan to do, Gaia?"
"I would hope, Speaker, that you would call me Novi. What I do now I do as Gaia, but I am Novi also--and with reference to you, I am only Novi."
"What is it you plan to do, Gaia?"
There was the trembling mentalic equivalent of a sigh and Novi said, "We will remain in triple stalemate. You will hold Mayor Branno through her shield, and I will help you do so, and we will not tire. You, I suppose, will maintain your grip on me, and I will maintain mine on you, and neither one of us will tire there either. And so it will stay."
"To what end?"
"As I have told you--We are waiting for Councilman Trevize of Terminus. It is he who will break the stalemate--as he chooses."
4.
THE COMPUTER ON BOARD THE FAR STAR LOCATED the two ships and Golan Trevize displayed them together on the split screen.
They were both Foundation vessels. One was precisely like the Far Star and was undoubtedly Compor's ship. The other was larger and far more powerful.
He turned toward Bliss and said, "Well, do you know what's going on? Is there anything you can tell me?"
"Yes! Do not be alarmed! They will not harm you."
"Why is everyone convinced I'm sitting here all a-tremble with