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CHAPTER NINETEEN DECISION

DECISION

Janov Pelorat said, with a small trace of petulance in his voice, "Really, Golan, no one seems to care for the fact that this is the first ti, I assure you, Bliss - in which I have been traveling through the Galaxy Yet each tiain and back in space before I can really have a chance to study it It has happened twice now"

"Yes," said Bliss, "but if you had not left the other one so quickly, you would not have met me until who knohen Surely that justifies the first time"

"It does Honestly, my - my dear, it does"

"And this time, Pel, you may be off the planet, but you have me - and I am Gaia, as much as any particle of it, as much as all of it"

"You are, and surely I want no other particle of it"

Trevize, who had been listening to the exchange with a frown, said, "This is disgusting Why didn't Doet used to this monosyllabization Two hundred fifty syllables to a naether with all two hundred fifty syllables? If all this is so important - if the very existence of Gaia depends on it - why didn't he come with us to direct us?"

"I am here, Trev," said Bliss, "and I am as much Gaia as he is" Then, with a quick sideways and upward look from her dark eyes, "Does it annoy you, then, to have me call you 'Trev'?"

"Yes, it does I have as ht to my ways as you to yours My name is Trevize Two syllables Tre-vize"

"Gladly I do not wish to anger you, Trevize"

"I ary I am annoyed" He rose suddenly, walked fro over the outstretched legs of Pelorat (who drew theain He stopped, turned, and faced Bliss

He pointed a finger at her "Look! I am not my own master! I have been an to suspect that this was so, there seeet to Gaia, I am told that the whole purpose for my arrival was to save Gaia Why? How? What is Gaia to me - or I to Gaia - that I should save it? Is there no other of the quintillion hus in the Galaxy who could do the job?"

"Please, Trevize," said Bliss - and there was a sudden downcast air about her, all of the gary You see, I use your name properly and I will be very serious Dom asked you to be patient"

"By every planet in the Galaxy, habitable or not, I don't want to be patient If I ain with, I ask again why Dom did not come with us? Is it not sufficiently important for him to be here on the Far Star with us?"

"He is here, Trevize," said Bliss "While I am here, he is here, and everyone on Gaia is here, and every living thing, and every speck of the planet"

"You are satisfied that that is so, but it's notI'm not a Gaian We can't squeeze the whole planet on to my ship, we can only squeeze one person on to it We have you, and Dom is part of you Very well Why couldn't we have taken Dom, and let you be part of him?"

"For one thing," said Bliss, "Pel - I mean, Pel-o-rat - asked that I be on the ship with you I, not Dom"

"He was being gallant Who would take that seriously?"

"Oh, now,to his feet with his face reddening, "I was quite serious I don't want to be dismissed like that I accept the fact that it doesn't matter which component of the Gaian whole is on board, and it is more pleasant for me to have Bliss here than Dom, and it should be for you as well Co childishly"

"Aht, then, I aain he pointed at Bliss, "whatever it is I am expected to do, I assure you that I won't do it if I ain with What am I supposed to do? And why me?"

Bliss ide-eyed and backing away She said, "Please, I can't tell you that now All of Gaia can't tell you You in with You must learn it all there You must then do what you must do - but you must do it cal will be of use and, one way or another, Gaia will co of yours and I do not kno to change it"

"Would Dom know if he were here?" said Trevize remorselessly

"Doe you or cal who cannot sense his place in the schereater whole"

Trevize said, "That is not so You could seize my ship at a distance of a million kilometers and more - and keep us calm while ere helpless Well, cal it"

"But we ed you or adjusted you in any way now, then you would be no more valuable to us than any other person in the Galaxy and we could not use you We can only use you because you are you - and you must remain you If we touch you at this moment in any e are lost Please You must be calm of your own accord"

"Not a chance, miss, unless you tell me some of what I want to know"

Pelorat said, "Bliss, let o into the other room"

Bliss left, backing slowly out Pelorat closed the door behind her

Trevize said, "She can hear and see - sense everything What difference does this make?"

Pelorat said, "It makes a difference to me I want to be alone with you, even if isolation is an illusion - Golan, you're afraid"

"Don't be a fool"

"Of course you are You don't knohere you're going, what you'll be facing, what you'll be expected to do You have a right to be afraid"

"But I'm not"

"Yes, you are Perhaps you're not afraid of physical danger in the way that I a out into space, afraid of each neorld I see, afraid of every new thing I encounter After all, I've lived half a century of a constricted, withdrawn and limited life, while you have been in the Navy and in politics, in the thick and hurly-burly at home and in space Yet I've tried not to be afraid and you've helped ether, you've been patient with , and because of you, I've ed to master my fears and behave well Let me, then, return the favor and help you"

"I'm not afraid, I tell you"

"Of course you are If nothing else, you're afraid of the responsibility you'll be facing Apparently there's a whole world depending on you - and you will therefore have to live with the destruction of a whole world if you fail Why should you have to face that possibility for a world that ht have they to place this load upon you? You're not only afraid of failure, as any person would be in your place, but you're furious that they should put you in the position where you have to be afraid"

"You're all wrong"

"I don't think so Consequently let me take your place I'll do it Whatever it is they expect you to do, I volunteer as substitute I assuth or vitality, since a simple mechanical device would outdo you in that respect I assu that requires h of that the that - well, I don't know, but if it requires neither brawn nor brain, then I have everything else as well as you - and I am ready to take the responsibility"

Trevize said sharply, "Why are you so willing to bear the load?"

Pelorat looked down at the floor, as though fearing to meet the other's eyes He said, "I have had a wife, Golan I have knoomen Yet they have never been very i Pleasant Never very important Yet, this one"

"Who? Bliss?"

"She's different, somehow - to me"

"By Ter"

"That makes no difference She knows anyhow - I want to please her I will undertake this task, whatever it is; run any risk, take any responsibility, on the smallest chance that it will make her - think well of me"

"Janov, she's a child"

"She's not a child - and what you think of her makes no difference to me"

"Don't you understand what you must seem to her?"

"An old reater whole and I am not - and that alone builds an insuperable wall between us Don't you think I know that? But I don't ask anything of her but that she"

"Think well of you?"

"Yes Or whatever else she can make herself feel for me"

"And for that you will doThey don't want you; they want me for some space-ridden reason I can't understand"

"If they can't have you and if they , surely"

Trevize shook his head "I can't believe that this is happening Old age is overtaking you and you have discovered youth Janov, you're trying to be a hero, so that you can die for that body"

"Don't say that, Golan This is not a fit subject for hurave face and he cleared his throat instead He said, "You're right I apologize Call her in, Janov Call her in"

Bliss entered, shrinking a little She said in a small voice, "I'm sorry, Pel You cannot substitute It must be Trevize or no one"

Trevize said, "Very well I'll be cal to keep Janov froe"

"I know e," muttered Pelorat

Bliss approached him slowly, placed her hand on his shoulder "Pel, I - I think well of you"

Pelorat looked away "It's all right, Bliss You needn't be kind"

"I' kind, Pel I think - very well of you"

Dily, Sura Novi knew that she was Suranoviremblastiran and that when she was a child, she had been known as Su to her parents and Vito her friends

She had never really forgotten, of course, but the facts were, on occasion, buried deep within her Never had it been buried as deeply or for as long as in this lastto a mind so powerful

But noas time She did not will it herself She had no need to The vast re her portion of itself to the surface, for the sake of the global need

Accoue discomfort, a kind of itch that was rapidly overwhelmed by the comfort of selfness unlobe of Gaia

She remembered one of the life-for understood its feelings then as a dinized her own sharper ones now She was a butterfly e from a cocoon

Stor Gendibal stared sharply and penetratingly at Novi - and with such surprise that he carip upon Mayor Branno That he did not do so was, perhaps, the result of a sudden support fronored

He said, "What do you Know of Councilman Trevize, Novi?" And then, in cold disturbance at the sudden and growing complexity of her mind, he cried out, "What are you?"

He attempted to seize hold of her nized that his hold on Branno was supported by a grip stronger than his own He repeated, "What are you?"

There was a hint of the tragic on Novi's face "Master," she said, "Speaker Gendibal My true name is Suranoviremblastiran and I am Gaia"

It was all she said in words, but Gendibal, in sudden fury, had intensified his own reat skill, now that his blood was up, evaded the strengthening bar and held Branno on his own and ripped Novi's le

She held him off with equal skill, but she could not keep her mind closed to him - or perhaps she did not wish to

He spoke to her as he would to another Speaker "You have played a part, deceived me, lured me here, and you are one of the species from which the Mule was derived"

"The Mule was an aberration, Speaker I/we are not Mules I/we are Gaia"

The whole essence of Gaia was described in what she complexly communicated, far more than it could have been in any number of words

"A whole planet alive," said Gendibal

"And with a reater as a whole than is yours as an individual Please do not resist with such force I fear the danger of har I do not wish to do"

"Even as a living planet, you are not stronger than the suues on Trantor We, too, are, in a way, a planet alive"

"Only some thousands of people in mentalic co-operation, Speaker, and you cannot draw upon their support, for I have blocked it off Test that and you will see"

"What is it you plan to do, Gaia?"

"I would hope, Speaker, that you would call me Novi What I do now I do as Gaia, but I am Novi also - and with reference to you, I am only Novi"

"What is it you plan to do, Gaia?"

There was the treh and Novi said, "We will reh her shield, and I will help you do so, and ill not tire You, I suppose, will rip on me, and I will maintain mine on you, and neither one of us will tire there either And so it will stay"

"To what end?"

"As I have told you - We are waiting for Councilman Trevize of Terminus It is he ill break the stalemate - as he chooses"

The computer on board the Far Star located the two ships and Golan Trevize displayed theether on the split screen

They were both Foundation vessels One was precisely like the Far Star and was undoubtedly Coer and far more powerful

He turned toward Bliss and said, "Well, do you knohat's going on? Is there anything you can now tell me?"

"Yes! Do not be alarmed! They will not harm you"

"Why is everyone convinced I' here all a - tremble with panic?" Trevize demanded petulantly

Pelorat said hastily, "Let her talk, Golan Don't snap at her"

Trevize raised his aresture of impatient surrender "I will not snap Speak, lady"

Bliss said, "On the large ship is the ruler of your Foundation With her"

Trevize said in astonishment, "The ruler? You mean Old Lady Branno?"

"Surely that is not her title," said Bliss, her lips twitching a little in amuseh listening intently to the rest of the general organism of which she was part "Her name is Harlabranno It seems odd to have only four syllables when one is so important on her world, but I suppose non-Gaians have their oays"

"I suppose," said Trevize dryly "You would call her Brann, I think But what is she doing here? Why isn't she back on I see Gaia has maneuvered her here, too Why?"

Bliss did not answer that question She said, "With her is Lionokodell, five syllables, though her underling It seems a lack of respect He is an important official of your world With them are four others who control the ship's weapons Do you want their names?"

"No I take it that on the other ship there is one man, Munn Li Compor, and that he represents the Second Foundation You've brought both Foundations together, obviously Why?"

"Not exactly, Trev - I mean, Trevize"

"Oh, go ahead and say Trev I don't give a puff of coas"

"Not exactly, Trev Compor has left that ship and has been replaced by two people One is Storgendibal, an important official of the Second Foundation He is called a Speaker"

"An iine"

"Oh yes A great deal"

"Will you be able to handle that?"

"Certainly The second person, on the ship with him, is Gaia"