Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [54]
Pelorat's ordinarily expressionless face came close to a grimace. "I'm not sure you'll believe this--If I go by my analysis of the myths, there were several different, mutually unintelligible, languages on Earth."
"What?"
"Yes. After all, we have a thousand different ways of speaking across the Galaxy--"
"Across the Galaxy, there are certainly dialectical variations, but these are not mutually unintelligible. And even if understanding some of them is a matter of difficulty, we all share Galactic Standard."
"Certainly, but there is constant interstellar travel. What if some world was in isolation for a prolonged period?"
"But you're talking of Earth. A single planet. Where's the isolation?"
"Earth is the planet of origin, don't forget, where humanity must at one time have been primitive beyond imagining. Without interstellar travel, without computers, without technology at all, struggling up from nonhuman ancestors."
"This is so ridiculous."
Pelorat hung his head in embarrassment at that. "There is perhaps no use discussing this, old chap. I never have managed to make it convincing to anyone. My own fault, I'm sure."
Trevize was at once contrite. "Janov, I apologize. I spoke without thinking. These are views, after all, to which I am not accustomed. You have been developing your theories for over thirty years, while I've been introduced to them all at once. You must make allowances. --Look, I'll imagine that we have primitive people on Earth who speak two completely different, mutually unintelligible, languages--"
"Half a dozen, perhaps," said Pelorat diffidently. "Earth may have been divided into several large land masses and it may be that there were, at first, no communications among them. The inhabitants of each land mass might have developed an individual language."
Trevize said with careful gravity, "And on each of these land masses, once they grew cognizant of one another, they might have argued an 'Origin Question' and wondered on which one human beings had first arisen from other animals."
"They might very well, Golan. It would be a very natural attitude for them to have."
"And in one of those languages, Gaia means Earth. And the word 'Earth' itself is derived from another one of those languages."
"Yes, yes."
"And while Galactic Standard is the language that descended from the particular language in which 'Earth' means 'Earth,' the people of Earth for some reason call their planet 'Gaia' from another of their languages."
"Exactly! You are indeed quick, Golan."
"But it seems to me that there's no need to make a mystery of this. If Gaia is really Earth, despite the difference in names, then Gaia, by your previous argument, ought to have a period of rotation of just one Galactic Day, a period of revolution of just one Galactic Year, and a giant satellite that revolves about it in just one month."
"Yes, it would have to be so."
"Well then, does it or doesn't it fulfill these requirements?"
"Actually I can't say. The information isn't given in the tables."
"Indeed? Well, then, Janov, shall we go to Gaia and time its periods and stare at its satellite?"
"I would like to, Golan," Pelorat hesitated. "The trouble is that the location isn't given exactly, either."
"You mean, all you have is the name and nothing more, and that is your excellent possibility?"
"But that is just why I want to visit the Galactic Library!"
"Well, wait. You say the table doesn't give the location exactly. Does it give any information at all?"
"It lists it in the Sayshell Sector--and adds a question mark."
"Well, then--Janov, don't be downcast. We will go to the Sayshell Sector and somehow we will find Gaia!"
7
FARMER
1.
STOR GENDIBAL JOGGED ALONG THE COUNTRY road outside the University. It was not common practice for Second Foundationers to venture into the farming world of Trantor. They could do so, certainly, but when they did, they did not venture either far or for long.
Gendibal was an exception and he had, in times past, wondered why. Wondering meant exploring his