Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [50]
He waved his hand and passed into his own room, urging Pelorat along with him.
"I need only try to communicate," he said, placing his hands onto the computer contact.
It was a matter of trying to reach Terminus, which was now some thousands of kilometers behind.
Reach! Speak! It was as though nerve endings sprouted and extended, reaching outward with bewildering speed--the speed of light, of course--to make contact.
Trevize felt himself touching--well, not quite touching, but sensing--well, not quite sensing, but--it didn't matter, for there wasn't a word for it.
He was aware of Terminus within reach and, although the distance between himself and it was lengthening by some twenty kilometers per second, contact persisted as though planet and ship were motionless and separated by a few meters.
He said nothing. He clamped shut. He was merely testing the principle of communication; he was not actively communicating.
Out beyond, eight parsecs away, was Anacreon, the nearest large planet--in their backyard, by Galactic standards. To send a message by the same light-speed system that had just worked for Terminus--and to receive an answer as well--would take fifty-two years.
Reach for Anacreon! Think Anacreon! Think it as clearly as you can. You know its position relative to Terminus and the Galactic core; you've studied its planetography and history; you've solved military problems where it was necessary to recapture Anacreon (in the impossible case--these days--that it was taken by an enemy).
Space! You've been on Anacreon.
Picture it! Picture it! You will sense being on it via hyper-relay.
Nothing! His nerve endings quivered and came to rest nowhere.
Trevize pulled loose. "There's no hyper-relay on board the Far Star, Janov. I'm positive. --And if I hadn't followed your suggestion, I wonder how long it would have taken me to reach this point."
Pelorat, without moving a facial muscle, positively glowed. "I'm so pleased to have been of help. Does this mean we Jump?"
"No, we still wait two more days, to be safe. We have to get away from mass, remember? --Ordinarily, considering that I have a new and untried ship with which I am thoroughly unacquainted, it would probably take me two days to calculate the exact procedure--the proper hyperthrust for the first Jump, in particular. I have a feeling, though, the computer will do it all."
"Dear me! That leaves us facing a rather boring stretch of time, it seems to me."
"Boring?" Trevize smiled broadly. "Anything but! You and I, Janov, are going to talk about Earth."
Pelorat said, "Indeed? You are trying to please an old man? That is kind of you. Really it is."
"Nonsense! I'm trying to please myself. Janov, you have made a convert. As a result of what you have told me, I realize that Earth is the most important and the most devouringly interesting object in the Universe."
2.
IT MUST SURELY HAVE STRUCK TREVIZE AT THE MOMENT that Pelorat had presented his view of Earth. It was only because his mind was reverberating with the problem of the hyper-relay that he hadn't responded at once. And the instant the problem had gone, he had responded.
Perhaps the one statement of Hari Seldon's that was most often repeated was his remark concerning the Second Foundation being "at the other end of the Galaxy" from Terminus. Seldon had even named the spot. It was to be "at Star's End."
This had been included in Gaal Dornick's account of the day of the trial before the Imperial court. "The other end of the Galaxy"--those were the words Seldon had used to Dornick and ever since that day their significance had been debated.
What was it that connected one end of the Galaxy with "the other end"? Was it a straight line, a spiral, a circle, or what?
And now, luminously, it was suddenly clear to Trevize that it was no line and no curve that should--or could--be drawn on the map of the Galaxy. It was more subtle than that.
It was perfectly clear that the one end of the Galaxy was Terminus. It was at the edge of the Galaxy, yes--our Foundation's edge--which gave the word "end"