"Are you sure it is just a fable?" repeated Trevize, once they had seated themselves in another room, before a window that bellied upward and inward to give a clear view of Sayshell's remarkable night sky. The lights within the room glimmered down to avoid competition and Quintesetz's dark countenance melted into the shadow.
Quintesetz said, "Aren't you sure? Do you think that any world can dissolve into hyperspace? You must understand that the average person has only the vaguest notion of what hyperspace is."
"The truth is," said Trevize, "that I myself have only the vaguest notion of what hyperspace is and I've been through it hundreds of times."
"Let me speak realities, then. I assure you that Earth - wherever it is - is not located within the borders of the Sayshell Union and that the world you mentioned is not Earth."
"But even if you don't know where Earth is, S. Q., you ought to know where the world I mentioned is. It is certainly within the borders of the Sayshell Union. We know that much, eh, Pelorat?"
Pelorat, who had been listening stolidly, started at being suddenly addressed and said, "If it comes to that, Golan, I know where it is."
Trevize turned to look at him. "Since when, Janov?"
"Since earlier this evening, my dear Golan. You showed us the
Five Sisters, S. Q., on our way from your office to your house. You pointed out a dim star at the center of the pentagon. I'm positive that's Gaia."
Quintesetz hesitated - his face, hidden in the dimness, was beyond any chance of interpretation. Finally he said, "Well, that's what our astronomers tell us - privately. It is a planet that circles that star."
Trevize gazed contemplatively at Pelorat, but the expression on the professor's face was unreadable. Trevize turned to Quintesetz, "Then tell us about that star. Do you have its co-ordinates?"
"I? No." He was almost violent in his denial. "I have no stellar co-ordinates here. You can get it from our astronomy department, though I imagine not without trouble. No travel to that star is permitted."
"Why not? It's within your territory, isn't it?"
"Spaciographically, yes. Politically, no."
Trevize waited for something more to be said. When that didn't come, he rose. "Professor Quintesetz," he said formally, "I am not a policeman, soldier, diplomat, or thug. I am not here to force information out of you. Instead, I shall, against my will, go to our ambassador. Surely, you must understand that it is not I, for my own personal interest, that request this information. This is Foundation business and I don't want to make an interstellar incident out of this. I don't think the Sayshell Union would want to, either."
Quintesetz said uncertainly, "What is this Foundation business?"
"That's not something I can discuss with you. If Gaia is not something you can discuss with me, then we will transfer it all to the government level and, under the circumstances, it may be the worse for Sayshell. Sayshell has kept its independence of the Federation and I have no objection to that. I have no reason to wish Sayshell ill and I do not wish to approach our ambassador. In fact, I will harm my own career in doing so, for I am under strict instruction to get this information without making a government matter of it. Please tell me, then, if there is some firm reason why you cannot discuss Gaia. Will you be arrested or otherwise punished, if you speak? Will you tell me plainly that I have no choice but to go to the ambassadorial height?"
"No no," said Quintesetz, who sounded utterly confused. "I know nothing about government matters. We simply don't speak of that world."
"Superstition?"
'Well, yes! Superstition! - Skies of Sayshell, in what way am I better than that foolish person who told you that Gaia was in hyperspace - or than my wife who won't even stay in a room where Gaia is mentioned and who may even have left the house for fear it will be smashed by..."
"Lightning?"
"By some stroke from afar. And I, even I, hesitate to pronounce the name. Gaia! Gaia! The syllables do not hurt! I am unharmed! Yet I hesitate. - But please believe me when I say that I honestly don't know the co-ordinates for Gaia's star. I can try to help you get it, if that will help, but let me tell you that we don't discuss the world here in the Union. We keep hands and minds off it. I can tell you what little is known - really known, rather than supposed - and I doubt that you can learn anything more anywhere in these worlds of the Union.
"We know Gaia is an ancient world and there are some who think it is the oldest world in this sector of the Galaxy, but we are not certain. Patriotism tells us Sayshell Planet is the oldest; fear tells us Gaia Planet is. The only way of combining the two is to suppose that Gaia is Earth, since it is known that Sayshell was settled by Earthpeople.
"Most historians think - among themselves - that Gaia Planet was founded independently. They think it is not a colony of any world of our Union and that the Union was not colonized by Gaia. There is no consensus on comparative age, whether Gaia was settled before or after Sayshell was."
Trevize said, "So far, what you know is nothing, since every possible alternative is believed by someone or other."
Quintesetz nodded ruefully. "It would seem so. It was comparatively late in our history that we became conscious of the existence of Gaia. We had been preoccupied at first in forming the Union, then in fighting off the Galactic Empire, then in trying to find our proper role as an Imperial province and in limiting the power of the Viceroys.
"It wasn't till the days of Imperial weakness were far advanced that one of the later Viceroys, who was under very weak central control by then, came to realize that Gaia existed and seemed to maintain its independence from the Sayshellian province and even from the Empire itself. It simply kept to itself in isolation and secrecy, so that virtually nothing was known about it, anymore than is now known. The Viceroy decided to take it over. We have no details what happened, but his expedition was broken and few ships returned. In those days, of course, the ships were neither very good nor very well led.