Prelude to Foundation - Isaac Asimov [134]
"Why don't you get a hearing device?" said Seldon, raising his voice.
"It wouldn't help, Master Seldon. Something seems to be wrong with the nerve and I have no money for nerve rebuilding. -You have come to learn the future from old Mother Rittah?"
"Not quite," said Seldon. "I have come to learn the past."
"Excellent. It is such a strain to decide what people want to hear."
"It must 6e quite an art," said Dors, smiling.
"It seems easy, but one has to he properly convincing. I earn my fees."
"If you have a credit outlet," said Seldon. "We will pay any reasonable fees if you tell us about Earth-without cleverly designing what you tell us to suit what we want to hear. We wish to hear the truth."
The old woman, who had been shuffling about the room, making adjustments here and there, as though to make it all prettier and more suitable for important visitors, stopped shots. "What do you want to know about Earth?"
"What is it, to begin with?"
The old woman turned and seemed to gaze off into space. When she spoke, her voice was low and steady.
"It is a world, a very old planet. h is forgotten and lost."
Dors said, "It is not part of history. We know that much."
"It comes before history, child," said Mother Rittah solemnly. "It existed in the dawn of the Galaxy and before the dawn. It was the only world with humanity." She nodded firmly.
Seldon said, "Was another name for Earth . . . Aurora?"
And now Mother Rittah's face misted into a frown. "Where did you hear that?"
"In my wanderings. I have heard of an old forgotten world named Aurora on which humanity lived in primordial peace."
"It's a lie. " She wiped her mouth as though to get the taste of what she had just heard out of it. "That name you mention must never be mentioned except as the place of Evil. It was the beginning of Evil. Earth was alone till Evil came, along with its sister worlds. Evil nearly destroyed Earth, but Earth rallied and destroyed Evilwith the help of heroes."
"Earth was before this Evil. Are you sure of that?"
"Long before. Earth was alone in the Galaxy for thousands of yearsmillions of years."
"Millions of years? Humanity existed on it for millions of years with no other people on any other world?"
"That's true. That's true. That's true. "
"But how do you know all this? Is it all in a computer program? Or a printout? Do you have anything I can read?"
Mother Rittah shook her head. "I heard the old stories from my mother, who heard it from hers, and so on far back. I have no children, so I tell the stories to others, but it may come to an end. This is a time of disbelief."
Dors said, "Not really, Mother. There are people who speculate about prehistoric times and who study some of the tales of lost worlds."
Mother Rittah made a motion of her arm as though to wipe it away. "They look at it with cold eyes. Scholarly. They try to fit it in with their notions. I could tell you stories for a year of the great hero Ba-Lee, but you would have no time to listen and I have lost the strength to tell."
Seldon said, "Have you ever heard of robots?"
The old woman shuddered and her voice was almost a scream. "Why do you ask such things? Those were artificial human beings, evil in themselves and the work of the Evil worlds. They were destroyed and should never be mentioned."
"There was one special robot, wasn't there, that the Evil worlds hated?"
Mother Rittah tottered toward Seldon and peered into his eyes. He could feel her hot breath on his face. "Have you come to mock me? You know of these things and yet you ask? Why do you ask?"
"Because I wish to know."
"There was an artificial human being who helped Earth. He was DaNee, friend of Ba-Lee. He never died and lives somewhere, waiting for his time to return. None knows when that time will be, but someday he will come and restore the great ofd days and remove all cruelty, injustice, and misery. That is the promise." At this, she closed her eyes and smiled, as if remembering . . .
Seldon waited a while in silence, then sighed and said, "Thank you, Mother Rittah.