Foundation and Earth

“It makes him nervous, Fallom, and I want you not to do it, whether he’s watching or not.”

“Does it make him nervous because he can’t do it?”

“Perhaps.”

“Can you do it?”

Bliss shook her head slowly. “No, I can’t.”

“It doesn’t make you nervous when I do it. It doesn’t make Pel nervous, either.”

“People are different.”

“I know,” said Fallom, with a sudden hardness that surprised Bliss and caused her to frown.

“What do you know, Fallom?”

“I’m different.”

“Of course, I just said so. People are different.”

“My shape is different. I can move things.”

“That’s true.”

Fallom said, with a shade of rebelliousness, “I must move things. Trevize should not be angry with me for that, and you should not stop me.”

“But why must you move things?”

“It is practice. Exerceez. —Is that the right word?”

“Not quite. Exercise.”

“Yes. Jemby always said I must train my—my—”

“Transducer-lobes?”

“Yes. And make them strong. Then, when I was grown up, I could power all the robots. Even Jemby.”

“Fallom, who did power all the robots if you did not?”

“Bander.” Fallom said it very matter-of-factly.

“Did you know Bander?”

“Of course. I viewed him many times. I was to be the next estate-head. The Bander estate would become the Fallom estate. Jemby told me so.”

“You mean Bander came to your—”

Fallom’s mouth made a perfect O of shock. She said in a choked voice, “Bander would never come to—” The youngster ran out of breath and panted a bit, then said, “I viewed Bander’s image.”

Bliss asked hesitantly, “How did Bander treat you?”

Fallom looked at Bliss with a faintly puzzled eye. “Bander would ask me if I needed anything; if I was comfortable. But Jemby was always near me so I never needed anything and I was always comfortable.”

Her head bent and she stared at the floor. Then she placed her hands over her eyes and said, “But Jemby stopped. I think it was because Bander—stopped, too.”

Bliss said, “Why do you say that?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. Bander powered all the robots, and if Jemby stopped, and all the other robots, too, it must be that Bander stopped. Isn’t that so?”

Bliss was silent.

Fallom said, “But when you take me back to Solaria I will power Jemby and all the rest of the robots, and I will be happy again.”

She was sobbing.

Bliss said, “Aren’t you happy with us, Fallom? Just a little? Sometimes?”

Fallom lifted her tear-stained face to Bliss and her voice trembled as she shook her head and said, “I want Jemby.”

In an agony of sympathy, Bliss threw her arms about the youngster. “Oh, Fallom, how I wish I could bring you and Jemby together again,” and was suddenly aware that she was weeping, too.

92.

Pelorat entered and found them so. He halted in mid-step and said, “What’s the matter?”

Bliss detached herself and fumbled for a small tissue so that she might wipe her eyes. She shook her head, and Pelorat at once said, with heightened concern, “But what’s the matter?”

Bliss said, “Fallom, just rest a little. I’ll think of something to make things a little better for you. Remember— I love you just the same way that Jemby did.”

She seized Pelorat’s elbow and rushed him out into the living room, saying, “It’s nothing, Pel. — Nothing.”

“It’s Fallom, though, isn’t it? She still misses Jemby.”

“Terribly. And there’s nothing we can do about it. I can tell her that I love her—and, truthfully, I do. How can you help loving a child so intelligent and gentle? —Fearfully intelligent. Trevize thinks too intelligent. She’s seen Bander in her time, you know—or viewed it, rather, as a holographic image. She’s not moved by that memory, however; she’s very cold and matter-of-fact about it, and I can understand why. There was only the fact that Bander was owner of the estate and that Fallom would be the next owner that bound them. No other relationship at all.”

“Does Fallom understand that Bander is her father?”

“Her mother. If we agree that Fallom is to be regarded as feminine, so is Bander.”

“Either way, Bliss dear. Is Fallom aware of the parental relationship?”

“I don’t know that she would understand what that is. She may, of course, but she gave no hint. However, Pel, she has reasoned out that Bander is dead, for it’s dawned on her that Jemby’s inactivation must be the result of power loss and since Bander supplied the power— That frightens me.”

Pelorat said thoughtfully, “Why should it, Bliss? It’s only a logical inference, after all.”

“Another logical inference can be drawn from that death. Deaths must be few and far distant on Solaria with its long-lived and isolated Spacers. Experience of natural death must be a limited one for any of them, and probably absent altogether for a Solarian child of Fallom’s age. If Fallom continues to think of Bander’s death, she’s going to begin to wonder why Bander died, and the fact that it happened when we strangers were on the planet will surely lead her to the obvious cause and effect.”

“That we killed Bander?”

“It wasn’t we who killed Bander, Pel. It was I.”

“She couldn’t guess that.”

“But I would have to tell her that. She is annoyed with Trevize as it is, and he is clearly the leader of the expedition. She would take it for granted that it would be he who would have brought about the death of Bander, and how could I allow Trevize to bear the blame unjustly?”

“What would it matter, Bliss? The child feels nothing for her fath—mother. Only for her robot, Jemby.”

“But the death of the mother meant the death of her robot, too. I almost did own up to my responsibility. I was strongly tempted.”

“Why?”

“So I could explain it my way. So I could soothe her, forestall her own discovery of the fact in a reasoning process that would work it out in a way that would offer no justification for it.”

“But there was justification. It was self-defense. In a moment, we all would have been dead, if you had not acted.”

“It’s what I would have said, but I could not bring myself to explain. I was afraid she wouldn’t believe me.”

Pelorat shook his head. He said, sighing, “Do you suppose it might have been better if we had not brought her? The situation makes you so unhappy.”

“No,” said Bliss angrily, “don’t say that. It would have made me infinitely more unhappy to have to sit here right now and remember that we had left an innocent child behind to be slaughtered mercilessly because of what