Quintesetz said, "I will get you the co-ordinates. The astronomy department works nights, of course, and I will get it for you now, if I can. - But let me suggest once more that you make no attempt to reach Gaia."
Trevize said, "I intend to make that attempt."
And Quintesetz said heavily, "Then you intend suicide."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FORWARD!
Janov Pelorat looked out at the dim landscape in the graying dawn with an odd mixture of regret and uncertainty.
"We aren't staying long enough, Golan. It seems a pleasant and interesting world. I would like to learn more about it."
Trevize looked up from the computer with a wry smile. "You don't think I would like to? We had three proper meals on the planet - totally different and each excellent. I'd like more. And the only women we saw, we saw briefly - and some of them looked quite enticing, for - well, for what I've got in mind."
Pelorat wrinkled his nose slightly. "Oh, my dear chap. Those cowbells they call shoes, and all wrapped around in clashing colors, and whatever do they do to their eyelashes. Did you notice their eyelashes?"
"You might just as well believe I noticed everything, Janov. What you object to is superficial. They can easily be persuaded to wash their faces and, at the proper time, off come the shoes and the colors."
Pelorat said, "I'll take your word for that, Janov. However, I was thinking more of investigating the matter of Earth further. 'What we've been told about Earth, thus far, is so unsatisfactory, so contradictory - radiation according to one person, robots according to another."
"Death in either case."
"True," said Pelorat reluctantly, "but it may be that one is true and not the other, or that both are true to some extent, or that neither is true. Surely, Janov, when you hear tales that simply shroud matters in thickening mists of doubt, surely you must feel the itch to explore, to find out."
"I do," said Golan. "By every dwarf star in the Galaxy, I do. The problem at hand, however, is Gaia. Once that is straightened out, we can go to Earth, or come back here to Sayshell for a more extended stay. But first, Gaia."
Pelorat nodded, "The problem at hand! If we accept what Quintesetz told us, death is waiting for us on Gaia. Ought we to be going?"
Trevize said, "I ask myself that. Are you afraid?"
Pelorat hesitated as though he were probing his own feelings. Then he said in a quite simple and matter-of-fact manner. "Yes. Terribly!"
Trevize sat back in his chair and swiveled to face the other. He said, just as quietly and matter-of-factly, "Janov, there's no reason for you to chance this. Say the word and I'll let you off on Sayshell with your personal belongings and with half our credits. I'll pick you up when I return and it will be on to Sirius Sector, if you wish, and Earth, if that's where it is. If I don't return, the Foundation people on Sayshell will see to it that you get back to Terminus. No hard feelings if you stay behind, old friend."
Pelorat's eyes blinked rapidly and his lips pressed together for a few moments. Then he said, rather huskily, "Old friend? We've known each other what? A week or so? Isn't it strange that I'm going to refuse to leave the ship? I am afraid, but I want to remain with you."
Trevize moved his hands in a gesture of uncertainty. "But why? I honestly don't ask it of you."
"I'm not sure why, but I ask it of myself. It's... it's Golan, I have faith in you. It seems to me you always know what you're doing. I wanted to go to Trantor where probably - as I now see nothing would have happened. You insisted on Gaia and Gaia must somehow be a raw nerve in the Galaxy. Things seem to happen in connection with it. And if that's not enough, Golan, I watched you force Quintesetz to give you the information about Gaia. That was such a skillful bluff. I was lost in admiration."
"You have faith in me, then."
Pelorat said, "Yes, I do."
Trevize put his hand on the other's upper arm and seemed, for a moment, to be searching for words. Finally he said, "Janov, will you forgive me in advance if my judgment is wrong, and if you in one way or another meet with - whatever unpleasant may be awaiting us?"
Pelorat said, "Oh, my dear fellow, why do you ask? I make the decision freely for my reasons, not yours. And, please - let us leave quickly. I don't trust my cowardice not to seize me by the throat and shame me for the rest of my life."
"As you say, Janov," said Trevize. "We'll leave at the earliest moment the computer will permit. This time, we'll be moving gravitically - straight up - as soon as we can be assured the atmosphere above is clear of other ships. And as the surrounding atmosphere grows less and less dense, we'll put on more and more speed. Well within the hour, we'll be in open space."
"Good," Pelorat said and pinched the tip off a plastic coffee container. The opened orifice almost at once began steaming. Pelorat put the nipple to his mouth and sipped, allowing just enough air to enter his mouth to cool the coffee to a bearable temperature.
Trevize grinned. "You've learned how to use those things beautifully. You're a space veteran, Janov."
Pelorat stared at the plastic container for a moment and said, "Now that we have ships that can adjust a gravitational field at will, surely we can use ordinary containers, can't we?"
"Of course, but you're not going to get space people to give up their space-centered apparatus. How is a space rat going to put distance between himself and surface worms if he uses an openmouthed cup? See those rings on the walls and ceilings? Those have been traditional in spacecraft for twenty thousand years and more, but they're absolutely useless in a gravitic ship. Yet they're there and I'll bet the entire ship to a cup of coffee that your space rat will pretend he's being squashed into asphyxiation on takeoff and will then sway back and forth from those rings as though he's under zero - gray when its gee-one-normal-grav, that is - on both occasions."