DECISION

1.

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 time in a moderately long life—not too long, I assure you, Bliss—in which I have been traveling through the Galaxy. Yet each time I come to a world, I am off it again 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 knows when. 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 Dom come with us? —Space, I’ll never get used to this mono-syllabization. Two hundred fifty syllables to a name and we use just one of them. —Why didn’t he come, together 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 much right to my ways as you to yours. My name is Trevize. Two syllables. Trevize.”

“Gladly. I do not wish to anger you, Trevize.”

“I am not angry. I am annoyed.” He rose suddenly, walked from one end of the room to the other, stepping over the outstretched legs of Pelorat (who drew them in quickly), and then back again. He stopped, turned, and faced Bliss.

He pointed a finger at her. “Look! I am not my own master! I have been maneuvered from Terminus to Gaia—and even when I began to suspect that this was so, there seemed no way to break the grip. And then, when I get to Gaia, I am told 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 human beings in the Galaxy who could do the job?”

“Please, Trevize,” said Bliss—and there was a sudden downcast air about her, all of the gamine affectation disappearing. “Do not be angry. 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 am so important, do I