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CHAPTER NINE HYPERSPACE

HYPERSPACE

Trevize said, "Are you ready, Janov?"

Pelorat looked up fro and said, "You mean, for the jump, old fellow?"

"For the hyperspatial jump Yes"

Pelorat sed "Now, you're sure that it will be in no way uncoht of having myself reduced to incorporeal tachyons, which no one has ever seen or detected"

"Co Upon my honor! The jump has been in use for twenty-two thousand years, as you explained, and I've never beard of a single fatality in hyperspace We ht come out of hyperspace in an uncomfortable place, but then the accident would happen in space - not while we are composed of tachyons"

"Small consolation, it seems to me"

"We won't co of carrying it through without telling you, so that you would never know it had happened On the whole, though, I felt it would be better if you experienced it consciously, saw that it was no probleet it totally henceforward"

"Well " said Pelorat dubiously "I suppose you're right, but

'honestly I'm in no hurry"

"I assure you"

"No no, old fellow, I accept your assurances unequivocally It's just that - Did you ever read Sanertestil Matt?"

"Of course I'm not illiterate"

"Certainly Certainly I should not have asked Do you remember it?"

"Neither am I an amnesiac"

"I see All Iof the scenes where Santerestil and his friend, Ban, have gotten away from Planet 17 and are lost in space I think of those perfectly hypnotic scenes aelessness, in Never believed it, you know I loved it and I was moved by it, but I never really believed it But now - after I got used to just the notion of being in space, I' it and - it's silly, I know - but I don't want to give it up It's as though I'm Santerestil"

"And I'e of impatience

"In a way The s of dim stars out there arebut which we don't see The Galaxy retains its di Space is silent and I have no distractions"

"Except me"

"Except you - But then, Golan, dear chap, talking to you about Earth and trying to teach you a bit of prehistory has its pleasures, too I don't want that to come to an end, either"

"It won't Not immediately, at any rate You don't suppose we'll take the juh on the surface of a planet, do you? We'll still be in space and the jump will have taken no measurable time at ail It may well be a week before we make surface of any kind, so do relax"

"By surface, you surely don't mean Gaia We may be nowhere near Gaia e come out of the jump"

"I know that, Janov, but we'll be in the right sector, if your information is correct If it isn't - well"

Pelorat shook his head gluht sector help if we don't know Gaia's co-ordinates?"

Trevize said, "Janov, suppose you were on Teryropol, and you didn't knohere that toas except that it was somewhere on the isthmus Once you were on the isthmus, ould you do?"

Pelorat waited cautiously, as though feeling there must be a terribly sophisticated answer expected of hi up, he said, "I suppose I'd ask somebody"

"Exactly! What else is there to do? - Now, are you ready?"

"You mean, now?" Pelorat scra as near as it ht to a look of concern "What am I supposed to do? Sit? Stand? What?"

"Ti Just come with me to my room so I can use the computer, then sit or stand or turn cartwheels - whatever will estion is that you sit before the viewscreen and watch it It's sure to be interesting Come!"

They stepped along the short corridor to Trevize's room and he seated himself at the computer "Would you like to do this, Janov?" he asked suddenly "I'll give you the figures and all you do is think them The computer will do the rest"

Pelorat said, "No thank you The computer doesn't ith me, somehow I know you say I just need practice, but I don't believe that There's so about your mind, Golan"

"Don't be foolish"

"No no That cole organism when you're hooked up When I'm hooked up, there are two objects involved - Janov Pelorat and a computer It's just not the same"

"Ridiculous," said Trevize, but he was vaguely pleased at the thought and stroked the hand-rests of the coertips

"So I'd rather watch," said Pelorat "Ias it will, I'd rather watch" He fixedhis eyes anxiously on the viewscreen and on the foggy Galaxy with the thin powdering of diround "Let ainst the wall and braced himself

Trevize smiled He placed his hands on the rests and felt the mental union It came more easily day by day, and ht scoff at what Pelorat said - he actually felt it It seemed to him he scarcely needed to think of the co-ordinates in any conscious way It almost seemed the computer knehat he wanted, without the conscious process of "telling" It lifted the information out of his brain for itself

But Trevize "told" it and then asked for a two-minute interval before the jump

"All right, Janov We have two minutes: 120 - 115 - 110 Just watch the viewscreen"

Pelorat did, with a slight tightness about the corners of hisof his breath

Trevize said softly, "15 - 10 - 5 - 4 - 3 -2 - 1 -0"

With no perceptible ed There was a distinct thickening of the starfield and the Galaxy vanished

Pelorat started and said, "Was that it?"

"Was what it? You flinched But that was your fault You felt nothing Admit it"

"I admit it"

"Then that's it Way back when hyperspatial travel was relatively new - according to the books, anyway - there would be a queer internal sensation and soenic, perhaps not In any case, with more and more experience with hyperspatiality and with better equipment, that decreased With a computer like the one on board this vessel, any effect is well below the threshold of sensation At least, I find it so"

"And I do, too, I must admit Where are we, Golan?"

"Just a step forward In the Kalganian region There's a long way to go yet and before we make another move, we'll have to check the accuracy of the jump"

"What bothers me is - where's the Galaxy?"

"All around us, Janov We're weal inside it, now If we focus the viewscreen properly, we can see the more distant parts of it as a luminous band across the sky"

"The Milky Way!" Pelorat cried out joyfully "Al we don't see on Terminus Show it to me, old fellow!"

The viewscreen tilted, giving the effect of a swi of the starfield across it, and then there was a thick, pearly lu the field The screen followed it around, as it thinned, then swelled again

Trevize said, "It's thicker in the direction of the center of the Galaxy Not as thick or as bright as it ht be, however, because of the dark clouds in the spiral ar like this from most inhabited worlds"

"And from Earth, too"

"That's no distinction That would not be an identifying characteristic"

"Of course not But you know - You haven't studied the history of science, have you?"

"Not really, though I've picked up some of it, naturally Still, if you have questions to ask, don't expect me to be an expert"

"It's just thatthat has always puzzled me It's possible to work out a description of the Universe in which hyperspatial travel is ih a vacuum is the absolute maximum where speed is concerned"

"Certainly"

"Under those conditions, the geometry of the Universe is such that it is impossible to make the trip we have just undertaken in less tiht would ht, our experience of duration would not enerally If this spot is, say, forty parsecs froht, ould have felt no time lapse - but on Terminus and in the entire Galaxy, about a hundred and thirty years would have passed Noe have ht but at thousands of tiht actually, and there has been no time advance anywhere At least, I hope not"

Trevize said, "Don't expect ive you the mathematics of the Olanjen Hyperspatial Theory to you All I can say is that if you had traveled at the speed of light within normal space, time would indeed have advanced at the rate of 326 years per parsec, as you described The so-called relativistic Universe, which humanity has understood as far back as we can probe inter prehistory - though that's your department, I think - remains, and its laws have not been repealed In our hyperspatial ju out side the conditions under which relativity operates and the rules are different Hyperspatially the Galaxy is a tiny object - ideally a nondimensional dot - and there are no relativistic effects at all

"In fact, in the y, there are two symbols for the Galaxy: Gr for the "relativistic Galaxy," where the speed of light is a maximum, and Gh for the "hyperspatial Galaxy," where speed does not really have aHyperspatially the value of all speed is zero and we do not move with reference to space itself, speed is infinite I can't explain things a bit more than that

"Oh, except that one of the beautiful catches in theoretical physics is to place a sy in Gr into an equation dealing with G11 - or vice versa - and leave it there for a student to deal with The chances are enorenerally re to work, till soht that way, once"

Pelorat considered that gravely for a while, then said in a perplexed sort of way, "But which is the true Galaxy?"

"Either, depending on what you're doing If you're back on Terminus, you can use a car to cover distance on land and a ship to cover distance across the sea Conditions are different in every way, so which is the true Terminus, the land or the sea?"

Pelorat nodded "Analogies are always risky," he said, "but I'd rather accept that one than riskabout hyperspace any further I'll concentrate on e're doing now"

"Look upon e just did," said Trevize, "as our first stop toward Earth"

And, he thought to himself, tohat else, I wonder

"Well," said Trevize "I've wasted a day"

"Oh?" Pelorat looked up fro "In ay?"