close to the center as a planet can get and still be habitable. It’s closer than any other major populated system. The actual center of the Galaxy consists of a black hole with a mass of nearly a million stars, so that the center is a violent place. As far as we know, there is no life in the actual center and maybe there just can’t be any life there. Trantor is in the innermost subring of the spiral arms and, believe me, if you could see its night sky, you would think it was in the center of the Galaxy. It’s surrounded by an extremely rich clustering of stars.”
“Have you been on Trantor, Golan?” asked Pelorat in clear envy.
“Actually no, but I’ve seen holographic representations of its sky.”
Trevize stared at the Galaxy somberly. In the great search for the Second Foundation during the time of the Mule, how everyone had played with Galactic maps-and how many volumes had been written and filmed on the subject
And all because Hari Seldom had said, at the beginning, that the Second Foundation would be established “at the other end of the Galaxy,” calling the place “Star’s End.”
At the other end of the Galaxy! Even as Trevize thought it, a thin blue line sprang into view, stretching from Terminus, through the Galaxy’s central black hole, to the other end. Trevize nearly jumped. He had not directly ordered the line, but he had thought of it quite clearly and that had been enough for the computer.
But, of course, the straight-line route to the opposite side of the Galaxy was not necessarily an indication of the “other end” that Seldom had spoken of. It was Arkady Darell (if one could believe her autobiography) who had made use of the phrase “a circle has no end” to indicate what everyone now accepted as truth
And though Trevize suddenly tried to suppress the thought, the computer was too quick for him. The blue line vanished and was replaced with a circle that neatly rimmed the Galaxy in blue and that passed through the deep red dot of Terminus’s sun.
A circle has no end, and if the circle began at Terminus, then if we searched for the other end, it would merely return to Terminus, and there the Second Foundation had indeed been found, inhabiting the same world as the First.
But i€, in reality, it had not been found-if the so-called finding o€ the Second Foundation had been an illusion-what then? What beside a straight line and a circle would make sense in this connection?
Pelorat said, “Are you creating illusions? Why is there a blue circle?”
“I was just testing my controls. -Would you like to locate Earth?”
There was silence for a moment or two, then Pelorat said, “Are you joking?”
“No. I’ll try.”
He did. Nothing happened.
“Sorry,” said Trevize.
“It’s not there? No Earth?”
“I suppose I might have misthought my command, but that doesn’t seem likely. I suppose it’s more likely that Earth isn’t listed in the computer’s vitals.”
Pelorat said, “It may be listed under another name.”
Trevize jumped at that quickly, “What other name, Janov?”
Pelorat said nothing and, in the darkness, Trevize smiled. It occurred to him that things might just possibly be falling into place. Let it go for a while. Let it ripen. He deliberately changed the subject and said, “I wonder if we can manipulate time.”
“Time! How can we do that?”
“The Galaxy is rotating. It takes nearly half a billion years for Terminus to move about the grand circumference of the Galaxy once. Stars that are closer to the center complete the journey much more quickly, of course. The motion of each star, relative to the central black hole, might be recorded in the computer and, if so, it may be possible to have the computer multiply each motion by millions of times and make the rotational effect visible. I can try to have it done.”
He did and he could not help his muscles tightening with the effort of will he was exerting-as though he were taking hold of the
“Have you been on Trantor, Golan?” asked Pelorat in clear envy.
“Actually no, but I’ve seen holographic representations of its sky.”
Trevize stared at the Galaxy somberly. In the great search for the Second Foundation during the time of the Mule, how everyone had played with Galactic maps-and how many volumes had been written and filmed on the subject
And all because Hari Seldom had said, at the beginning, that the Second Foundation would be established “at the other end of the Galaxy,” calling the place “Star’s End.”
At the other end of the Galaxy! Even as Trevize thought it, a thin blue line sprang into view, stretching from Terminus, through the Galaxy’s central black hole, to the other end. Trevize nearly jumped. He had not directly ordered the line, but he had thought of it quite clearly and that had been enough for the computer.
But, of course, the straight-line route to the opposite side of the Galaxy was not necessarily an indication of the “other end” that Seldom had spoken of. It was Arkady Darell (if one could believe her autobiography) who had made use of the phrase “a circle has no end” to indicate what everyone now accepted as truth
And though Trevize suddenly tried to suppress the thought, the computer was too quick for him. The blue line vanished and was replaced with a circle that neatly rimmed the Galaxy in blue and that passed through the deep red dot of Terminus’s sun.
A circle has no end, and if the circle began at Terminus, then if we searched for the other end, it would merely return to Terminus, and there the Second Foundation had indeed been found, inhabiting the same world as the First.
But i€, in reality, it had not been found-if the so-called finding o€ the Second Foundation had been an illusion-what then? What beside a straight line and a circle would make sense in this connection?
Pelorat said, “Are you creating illusions? Why is there a blue circle?”
“I was just testing my controls. -Would you like to locate Earth?”
There was silence for a moment or two, then Pelorat said, “Are you joking?”
“No. I’ll try.”
He did. Nothing happened.
“Sorry,” said Trevize.
“It’s not there? No Earth?”
“I suppose I might have misthought my command, but that doesn’t seem likely. I suppose it’s more likely that Earth isn’t listed in the computer’s vitals.”
Pelorat said, “It may be listed under another name.”
Trevize jumped at that quickly, “What other name, Janov?”
Pelorat said nothing and, in the darkness, Trevize smiled. It occurred to him that things might just possibly be falling into place. Let it go for a while. Let it ripen. He deliberately changed the subject and said, “I wonder if we can manipulate time.”
“Time! How can we do that?”
“The Galaxy is rotating. It takes nearly half a billion years for Terminus to move about the grand circumference of the Galaxy once. Stars that are closer to the center complete the journey much more quickly, of course. The motion of each star, relative to the central black hole, might be recorded in the computer and, if so, it may be possible to have the computer multiply each motion by millions of times and make the rotational effect visible. I can try to have it done.”
He did and he could not help his muscles tightening with the effort of will he was exerting-as though he were taking hold of the
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