"Squids have tentacles."
Trevize said, "I admit we are allowed to speculate, but if you're thinking of intelligent squid-like creatures evolving independently somewhere in the Galaxy, and developing a technology not based on fire, you're supposing something not at all likely, in my opinion."
"In your opinion, " said Pelorat gently.
Suddenly, Trevize laughed. "Very well, Janov. I see you're logic-chopping in order to get even with me for speaking harshly to Bliss, and you're doing a good job. I promise you that if we find no land, we will examine the sea as best we can to see if we can find your civilized squids."
As he spoke, the ship plunged into the night-shadow again, and the viewscreen turned black.
Pelorat winced. "I keep wondering," he said. "Is this safe?"
"Is what safe, Janov?"
"Racing through the dark like this. We might dip, and dive into the ocean, and be destroyed instantly."
"Quite impossible, Janov. Really! The computer keeps us traveling along a gravitational line of force. In other words, it remains always at a constant intensity of the planetary gravitational force which means it keeps us at a nearly constant height above sea level."
"But how high?"
"Nearly five kilometers."
"That doesn't really console me, Golan. Might we not reach land and smash into a mountain we don't see?"
"We don't see, but ship's radar will see it, and the computer will guide the ship around or over the mountain."
"What if there's level land, then? We'll miss it in the dark."
"No, Janov, we won't. Radar reflected from water is not at all like radar reflected from land. Water is essentially flat; land is rough. For that reason, reflection from land is substantially more chaotic than reflection from water. The computer will know the difference and it will let me know if there's land in view. Even if it were day and the planet were sun-lit, the computer might well detect land before I would."
They fell silent and, in a couple of hours, they were back in daylight, with an empty ocean again rolling beneath them monotonously, but occasionally invisible when they passed through one of the numerous storms. In one storm, the wind drove the Far Star out of its path. The computer gave way, Trevize explained, in order to prevent an unnecessary waste of energy and to minimize the chance of physical damage. Then, when the turbulence had passed, the computer eased the ship back into its path.
"Probably the edge of a hurricane," said Trevize.
Pelorat said, "See here, old chap, we're just traveling west to east-or east to west. All we're examining is the equator."
Trevize said, "That would be foolish, wouldn't it? We're following a great-circle route northwest-southeast. That takes us through the tropics and both temperate zones and each time we repeat the circle, the path moves westward, as the planet rotates on its axis beneath us. We're methodically crisscrossing the world. By now, since we haven't hit land, the chances of a sizable continent are less than one in ten, according to the computer, and of a sizable island less than one in four, with the chances going down each circle we make."
"You know what I would have done," said Pelorat slowly, as the night hemisphere engulfed them again. "I'd have stayed well away from the planet and swept the entire hemisphere facing me with radar. The clouds wouldn't have mattered, would they?"
Trevize said, "And then zoom to the other side and do the same there. Or just let the planet turn once. That's hindsight, Janov. Who would expect to approach a habitable planet without stopping at a station and being given a path-or being excluded? And if one went under the cloud layer without stopping at a station, who would expect not to find land almost at once? Habitable planets are-land!"
"Surely not all land," said Pelorat.
"I'm not talking about that," said Trevize, in sudden excitement. "I'm saying we've found land! Quiet!"
Then, with a restraint that did not succeed in hiding his excitement, Trevize placed his hands on the desk and became part of the computer. He said, "It's an island about two hundred and fifty kilometers long and sixty-five kilometers wide, more or less. Perhaps fifteen thousand square kilometers in area or thereabout. Not large, but respectable. More than a dot on the map. Wait-"
The lights in the pilot-room dimmed and went out.
"What are we doing?" said Pelorat, automatically whispering as though darkness were something fragile that must not be shattered.
"Waiting for our eyes to undergo dark-adaptation. The ship is hovering over the island. Just watch. Do you see anything?"
"No-Little specks of light, maybe. I'm not sure."
"I see them, too. Now I'll throw in the telescopic lam."
And there was light! Clearly visible. Irregular patches of it.
"It's inhabited," said Trevize. "It may be the only inhabited portion of the pest-"**
"What do we do?"
"We wait for daytime. That gives us a few hours in which we can rest."
"Might they not attack us?"
"With what? I detect almost no radiation except visible light and infrared. It's inhabited and the inhabitants are clearly intelligent. They have a technology, but obviously a preelectronic one, so I don't think there's anything to worry about up here. If I should be wrong, the computer will warn me in plenty of time."
"And once daylight comes?"
"We'll land, of course."
75.
THEY CAME down when the first rays of the morning sun shone through a break in the clouds to reveal part of the island-freshly green, with its interior marked by a line of low, rolling hills stretching into the purplish distance.