"A great deal to them-and 4 percent in our exhaled breath. What if spores grew in our nostrils, and on our skin? What if they decomposed and destroyed our food? What if they produced toxins that killed us? Even if we labored to kill them but left some spores alive, they would be enough, when carried to another world by us, to infest it, and from there be carried to other worlds. Who knows what damage they might do?"
Bliss shook her head. "Life is not necessarily dangerous because it is different. You are so ready to kill."
"That's Gaia speaking," said Trevize.
"Of course it is, but I hope I make sense, nevertheless. The moss is adapted to the conditions of this world. Just as it makes use of light in small quantities but is killed by large; it makes use of occasional tiny whiffs of carbon dioxide and may be killed by large amounts. It may not be capable of surviving on any world but Melpomenia."
"Would you want me to take a chance on that?" demanded Trevize.
Bliss shrugged. "Very well. Don't be defensive. I see your point. Being an Isolate, you probably had no choice but to do what you did."
Trevize would have answered, but Fallom's clear high-pitched voice broke in, in her own language.
Trevize said to Pelorat, "What's she saying?"
Pelorat began, "What Fallom is saying-"
Fallom, however, as though remembering a moment too late that her own language was not easily understood, began again. "Was there Jemby there where you were?"
The words were pronounced meticulously, and Bliss beamed. "Doesn't she speak Galactic well? And in almost no time."
Trevize said, in a low voice, "I'll mess it up if I try, but you explain to her, Bliss, that we found no robots on the planet."
"I'll explain it," said Pelorat. "Come, Fallom." He placed a gentle arm about the youngster's shoulders. "Come to our room and I'll get you another book to read."
"A book? About Jemby?"
"Not exactly-" And the door closed behind them.
"You know," said Trevize, looking after them impatiently, "we waste our time playing nursemaid to that child."
"Waste? In what way does it interfere with your search for Earth, Trevize? In no way. Playing nursemaid establishes communication, however, allays fear, supplies love. Are these achievements nothing?"
"That's Gaia speaking again."
"Yes," said Bliss. "Let us be practical, then. We have visited three of the old Spacer worlds and we have gained nothing."
Trevize nodded. "True enough."
"In fact, we have found each one dangerous, haven't we? On Aurora, there were feral dogs; on Solaria, strange and dangerous human beings; on Melpomenia, a threatening moss. Apparently, then, when a world is left to itself, whether it contains human beings or not, it becomes dangerous to the Interstellar community."
"You can't consider, that a general rule."
"Three out of three certainly seems impressive."
"And how does it impress you, Bliss?"
"I'll tell you. Please listen to me with an open mind. If you have millions of interacting worlds in the Galaxy, as is, of course, the affil case, and if each is made up entirely of Isolates, as they are, then on each world, human beings are dominant and can force their will on nonhuman life-forms, on the inanimate geological background, and even on each other. The Galaxy is, then, a very primitive and fumbling and misfunctioning Galaxia. The beginnings of a unit. Do you see what I mean?"
"I see what you're trying to say-but that doesn't mean I'm going to agree with you when you're done saying it."
"Just listen to me. Agree or not, as you please, but listen. The only way the Galaxy will work is as a proto-Galaxia, and the less proto and the more Galaxia, the better. The Galactic Empire was an attempt at a strong proto-Galaxia, and when it fell apart, times grew rapidly worse and there was the constant drive to strengthen the proto-Galaxia concept. The Foundation Confederation is such an attempt. So was the Mule's Empire. So is the Empire the Second Foundation is planning. But even if there were no such Empires or Confederations; even if the entire Galaxy were in turmoil, it would be a connected turmoil, with each world interacting, even if only hostilely, with every other. That would, in itself, be a kind of union and it would not yet be the worst case."
"What would be the worst, then?"
"You know the answer to that, Trevize. You've seen it. If a human-inhabited world breaks up completely, is truly Isolate, and if it loses all interaction with other human worlds, it develops-malignantly."
"A cancer, then?"
"Yes. Isn't Solaria just that? Its hand is against all worlds. And on it, the hand of each individual is against those of all others. You've seen it. And if human beings disappear altogether, the last trace of discipline goes. The each-against-each becomes unreasoning, as with the dogs, or is merely an elemental force as with the moss. You see, I suppose, that the closer we are to Galaxia, the better the society. Why, then, stop at anything short of Galaxia?"
For a while, Trevize stared silently at Bliss. "I'm thinking about it. But why this assumption that dosage is a one-way thing; that if a little is good, a lot is better, and all there is is best of all? Didn't you yourself point out that it's possible the moss is adapted to very little carbon dioxide so that a plentiful supply might kill it? A human being two meters tall is better off than one who is one meter tall; but is also better off than one who is three meters tall. A mouse isn't better off, if it is expanded to the size of an elephant. He wouldn't live. Nor would an elephant be better off reduced to the size of a mouse.