“Yes?”
“Well, one rather astonishing factor of the model is that the satellite I just mentioned is huge—over one quarter the diameter of the Earth itself.”
“Never heard of such a thing, Janov. There isn’t a populated planet in the Galaxy with a satellite like that.”
“But that’s
“But what could a large satellite have to do with variegated species, intelligence, and all that?”
“Well now, there you hit a difficulty. I don’t really know. But it’s worth examination, don’t you think?”
Trevize rose to his feet and folded his arms across his chest. “But what’s the problem, then? Look up the statistics on inhabited planets and find one that has a period of rotation and of revolution that are exactly one Galactic Standard Day and one Galactic Standard Year in length, respectively. And if it also has a gigantic satellite, you’d have what you want. I presume, from your statement that you ‘have an excellent possibility in mind,’ that you’ve done just this, and that you have your world.”
Pelorat looked disconcerted. “Well, now, that’s not exactly what happened. I did look through the statistics, or at least I had it done by the astronomy department and—well, to put it bluntly, there’s no such world.”
Trevize sat down again abruptly. “But that means your whole argument falls to the ground.”
“Not quite, it seems to me.”
“What do you mean, not quite? You produce a model with all sorts of detailed descriptions and you can’t find anything that fits. Your model is useless, then. You must start from the beginning.”
“No. It just means that the statistics on populated planets are incomplete. After all, there are tens of millions of them and some are very obscure worlds. For instance, there is no good data on the population of nearly half. And concerning six hundred and forty thousand populated worlds there is almost no information other than their names and sometimes the location. Some galactographers have estimated that there may be up to ten thousand inhabited planets that aren’t listed at all. The worlds prefer it that way, presumably. During the Imperial Era, it might have helped them avoid taxation.”
“And in the centuries that followed,” said Trevize cynically. “It might have helped them serve as home bases for pirates, and that might have, on occasion, proved more enriching than ordinary trade.”
“I wouldn’t know about that,” said Pelorat doubtfully.
Trevize said, “Just the same, it seems to me that Earth would have to be on the list of inhabited planets, whatever its own desires. It would be the oldest of them all, by definition, and it could not have been overlooked in the early centuries of Galactic civilization. And once on the list, it would stay on. Surely we could count on social inertia there.”
Pelorat hesitated and looked anguished. “Actually, there—there
Trevize stared. “I’m under the impression that you told me a while ago that Earth was not on the list?”
“As Earth, it is not. There is, however, a planet named Gaia.”
“What has that got to do with it? Gahyah?”
“It’s spelled G-A-I-A. It means ‘Earth.’?”
“Why should it mean Earth, Janov, any more than anything else? The name is meaningless to me.”
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
“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
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