FORWARD!

1.

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, Golan. 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 sure. Surely, Golan, 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