Foundation and Earth Read Online Free PDF

years.”
    “Why did you hesitate?”
    “It took time. Old memories—really old—are almost all in the mountain roots where it takes time to dig them out.”
    “Fifteen thousand years ago, then? Is that when Gaia was settled?”
    “No, to the best of our knowledge that took place some three thousand years before that.”
    “Why are you uncertain? Don’t you—or Gaia—remember?”
    Bliss said, “That was before Gaia had developed to the point where memory became a global phenomenon.”
    “Yet before you could rely on your collective memory, Gaia must have kept records, Bliss. Records in the usual sense—recorded, written, filmed, and so on.”
    “I imagine so, but they could scarcely endure all this time.”
    “They could have been copied or, better yet, transferred into the global memory, once that was developed.”
    Bliss frowned. There was another hesitation, longer this time. “I find no sign of these earlier records you speak of.”
    “Why is that?”
    “I don’t know, Trevize. I presume that they proved of no great importance. I imagine that by the time it was understood that the early nonmemory records were decaying, it was decided that they had grown archaic and were not needed.”
    “You don’t know that. You presume and you imagine, but you don’t know that. Gaia doesn’t know that.”
    Bliss’s eyes fell. “It must be so.”
    “Must be? I am not a part of Gaia and therefore I need not presume what Gaia presumes—which givesyou an example of the importance of isolation. I, as an Isolate, presume something else.”
    “What do you presume?”
    “First, there is something I am sure of. A civilization in being is not likely to destroy its early records. Far from judging them to be archaic and unnecessary, they are likely to treat them with exaggerated reverence and would labor to preserve them. If Gaia’s preglobal records were destroyed, Bliss, that destruction is not likely to have been voluntary.”
    “How would you explain it, then?”
    “In the Library at Trantor, all references to Earth were removed by someone or some force other than that of the Trantorian Second Foundationers themselves. Isn’t it possible, then, that on Gaia, too, all references to Earth were removed by something other than Gaia itself?”
    “How do you know the early records involved Earth?”
    “According to you, Gaia was founded at least eighteen thousand years ago. That brings us back to the period before the establishment of the Galactic Empire, to the period when the Galaxy was being settled and the prime source of Settlers was Earth. Pelorat will confirm that.”
    Pelorat, caught a little by surprise by suddenly being called on, cleared his throat. “So go the legends, my dear. I take those legends seriously and I think, as Golan Trevize does, that the human species was originally confined to a single planet and that planet was Earth. The earliest Settlers came from Earth.”
    “If, then,” said Trevize, “Gaia was founded in the early days of hyperspatial travel, then it is very likely to have been colonized by Earthmen, or possibly by natives of a not very old world that had not long before been colonized by Earthmen. For that reason, the records of Gaia’s settlement and of the first few millennia thereafter must clearly have involved Earth and Earthmen and those records are gone.
Something
seems to be seeing to it that Earth is not mentioned anywhere in the records of the Galaxy. And if so, there must be some reason for it.”
    Bliss said indignantly, “This is conjecture, Trevize. You have no evidence for this.”
    “But it is Gaia that insists that my special talent is that of coming to correct conclusions on the basis of insufficient evidence. If, then, I come to a firm conclusion, don’t tell me I lack evidence.”
    Bliss was silent.
    Trevize went on, “All the more reason then for finding Earth. I intend to leave as soon as the
Far Star
is ready. Do you two still want to