"If you could feel ours, you would know how poverty-stricken you Isolates are in that respect."
"How can you know what we feel?"
"Without knowing how you feel, it is still reasonable to suppose that a world of common pleasures must be more intense than those available to a single isolated individual."
"Perhaps, but even if my pleasures were poverty-stricken, I would keep my own joys and sorrows and be satisfied with them, thin as they are, and be me and not blood brother to the nearest rock."
"Don't sneer," said Bliss. "You value every mineral crystal in your bones and teeth and would not have one of them damaged, though they have no more consciousness than the average rock crystal of the same size."
"That's true enough," said Trevize reluctantly, "but we've managed to get off the subject. I don't care if all Gaia shares your joy, Bliss, but I don't want to share it. We're living here in close quarters and I do not wish to be forced to participate in your activities even indirectly."
Pelorat said, "This is an argument over nothing, my dear chap. I am no more anxious than you to have your privacy violated. Nor mine, for that matter. Bliss and I will be discreet; won't we, Bliss?"
"It will be as you wish, Pel."
"After all," said Pelorat, "we are quite likely to be planet-bound for considerably longer periods than we will space-borne, and on planets, the opportunities for true privacy-"
"I don't care what you do on planets," interrupted Trevize, "but on this ship, I am master."
"Exactly," said Pelorat.
"Then, with that straightened out, it is time to take off."
"But wait." Pelorat reached out to tug at Trevize's sleeve. "Take off for where? You don't know where Earth is, nor do I, nor does Bliss. Nor does your computer, for you told me long ago that it lacks any information on Earth. What do you intend doing, then? You can't simply drift through space at random, my dear chap."
At that, Trevize smiled with what was almost joy. For the first time since he had fallen into the grip of Gaia, he felt master of his own fate.
"I assure you," he said, "that it is not my intention to drift, Janov. I know exactly where I am going."
7.
PELORAT walked quietly into the pilot-room after he had waited long moments while his small tap on the door had gone unanswered. He found Trevize looking with keen absorption at the starfield.
Pelorat said, "Golan-" and waited.
Trevize looked up. "Janov! Sit down. Where's Bliss?"
"Sleeping. We're out in space, I see."
"You see correctly." Trevize was not surprised at the other's mild surprise. In the new gravitic ships, there was simply no way of detecting takeoff. There were no inertial effects; no accelerational push; no noise; no vibration.
Possessing the capacity to insulate itself from outside gravitational fields to any degree up to total, the Far Star lifted from a planetary surface as though it were floating on some cosmic sea. And while it did so, the gravitational effect within the ship, paradoxically, remained normal.
While the ship was within the atmosphere, of course, there was no need to accelerate so that the whine and vibration of rapidly passing air would be absent. As the atmosphere was left behind, however, acceleration could take place, and at rapid rates, without affecting the passengers.
It was the ultimate in comfort and Trevize did not see how it could be improved upon until such time as human beings discovered a way of whisking through hyperspace without ships, and without concern about nearby gravitational fields that might be too intense. Right now, the Far Star would have to speed away from Gala's sun for several days before the gravitational intensity was weak enough to attempt the Jump.
"Golan, my dear fellow," said Pelorat. "May I speak with you for a moment or two? You are not too busy?"
"Not at all busy. The computer handles everything once I instruct it properly. And sometimes it seems to guess what my instructions will be, and satisfies them almost before I can articulate them." Trevize brushed the top of the desk lovingly.
Pelorat said, "We've grown very friendly, Golan, in the short time we've known each other, although I must admit that it scarcely seems a short time to me. So much has happened. It's really peculiar when I stop to think of my moderately long life, that half of all the events I have experienced were squeezed into the last few months. Or so it would seem. I could almost suppose-"
Trevize held up a hand "Janov, you're spinning outward from your original point, I'm sure. You began by saying we've grown very friendly in a very short time. Yes, we have, and we still are. For that matter, you've known Bliss an even shorter time and have grown even friendlier."
"That's different, of course," said Pelorat, clearing his throat in some embarrassment.
"Of course," said Trevize, "but what follows from our brief but enduring friendship?"
"If, my dear fellow, we still are friends, as you've just said, then I must pass on to Bliss, whom, as you've also just said, is peculiarly dear to me."
"I understand. And what of that?"
"I know, Golan, that you are not fond of Bliss, but for my sake, I wish-"
Trevize raised a hand. "One moment, Janov. I am not overwhelmed by Bliss, but neither is she an object of hatred to me. Actually, I have no animosity toward her at all. She's an attractive young woman and, even if she weren't, then, for your sake, I would be prepared to find her so. It's Gaia I dislike."
"But Bliss is Gaia."
"I know, Janov. That's what complicates things so. As long as I think of Bliss as a person, there's no problem. If I think of her as Gaia, there is."