course,” said Trevize impatiently. He was irritated at the other’s sudden assumption of pedagogy.
“Very well. This is true of all the other worlds. Anacreon, Santanni, Kalgan - all of them. They were all, at some time in the past, founded. People arrived there from other worlds. It’s true even of Trantor. It may have been a great metropolis for twenty thousand years, but before that it wasn’t.”
“Why, what was it before that?”
“Empty? At least of human beings.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“It’s true. The old records show it.”
“Where did the people come from who first settled Trantor?”
“No one is certain. There are hundreds of planets which claim to have been populated in the dim mists of antiquity and whose people present fanciful tales about the nature of the first arrival of humanity. Historians tend to dismiss such things and to brood over the `Origin Question.
“What is that? I’ve never heard of it.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. It’s not a popular historical problem now, I admit, but there was a time during the decay of the Empire when it roused a certain interest among intellectuals. Salvor Hardin mentions it briefly in his memoirs. It’s the question of the identity and location of the one Planet from which it all started. If ,we look backward in time, humanity flows inward from the most recently established worlds to older ones, to still older ones, until all concentrates on one-the original.”
Trevize thought at once of the obvious flaw in the argument. “Might there not have been a large number of originals?”
“Of course not. All human beings all over the Galaxy are of a single species. A single species cannot originate on more than one planet. Quite impossible.”
“How do you know?”
“In the first place-” Pelorat ticked off the first finger of his left hand with the first finger of his right, and then seemed to think better of what would undoubtedly have been a long and intricate exposition. He put both hands at his side and said with great earnestness, “My dear fellow, I give you my word of honor.”
Trevize bowed formally and said, “I would not dream of doubting it, Professor Pelorat. Let us say, then, that there is one planet of origin, but might there not be hundreds who lay claim to the honor?”
“There not only might be, there are. Yet every claim is without merit. Not one of those hundreds that aspire to the credit of priority shows any trace of a prehyperspatial society, let alone any trace of human evolution from prehuman organisms.”
“Then are you saying that there is a planet of origin, but that, for some reason, it is not making the claim?”
“You have hit it precisely.”
“And you are going to search for it?”
“We are. That is our mission. Mayor Branno has arranged it all. You will pilot our ship to Trantor.”
“To Trantor? It’s not the planet of origin. You said that much a while ago.”
“Of course Trantor isn’t. Earth is.”
“Then why aren’t you telling me to pilot the ship to Earth?”
“I am not making myself clear. Earth is a legendary name. It is enshrined in ancient myths. It has no meaning we can be certain of, but it is convenient to use the word as a one-syllable synonym for `the planet of origin of the human species.’ just which planet in real space is the one we are defining as `Earth’ is not known.”
“Will they know on Trantor?”
“I hope to find information there, certainly. Trantor possesses the Galactic Library, the greatest in the system.”
“Surely that Library has been searched by those people you said were interested in the `Origin Question’ in the time of the First Empire.”
Pelorat nodded thoughtfully, “Yes, but perhaps not well enough. I have learned a great deal about the `Origin Question’ that perhaps the Imperials of five centuries back did not know. I might search the old records with greater understanding, you see. I have been thinking about this
“Very well. This is true of all the other worlds. Anacreon, Santanni, Kalgan - all of them. They were all, at some time in the past, founded. People arrived there from other worlds. It’s true even of Trantor. It may have been a great metropolis for twenty thousand years, but before that it wasn’t.”
“Why, what was it before that?”
“Empty? At least of human beings.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“It’s true. The old records show it.”
“Where did the people come from who first settled Trantor?”
“No one is certain. There are hundreds of planets which claim to have been populated in the dim mists of antiquity and whose people present fanciful tales about the nature of the first arrival of humanity. Historians tend to dismiss such things and to brood over the `Origin Question.
“What is that? I’ve never heard of it.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. It’s not a popular historical problem now, I admit, but there was a time during the decay of the Empire when it roused a certain interest among intellectuals. Salvor Hardin mentions it briefly in his memoirs. It’s the question of the identity and location of the one Planet from which it all started. If ,we look backward in time, humanity flows inward from the most recently established worlds to older ones, to still older ones, until all concentrates on one-the original.”
Trevize thought at once of the obvious flaw in the argument. “Might there not have been a large number of originals?”
“Of course not. All human beings all over the Galaxy are of a single species. A single species cannot originate on more than one planet. Quite impossible.”
“How do you know?”
“In the first place-” Pelorat ticked off the first finger of his left hand with the first finger of his right, and then seemed to think better of what would undoubtedly have been a long and intricate exposition. He put both hands at his side and said with great earnestness, “My dear fellow, I give you my word of honor.”
Trevize bowed formally and said, “I would not dream of doubting it, Professor Pelorat. Let us say, then, that there is one planet of origin, but might there not be hundreds who lay claim to the honor?”
“There not only might be, there are. Yet every claim is without merit. Not one of those hundreds that aspire to the credit of priority shows any trace of a prehyperspatial society, let alone any trace of human evolution from prehuman organisms.”
“Then are you saying that there is a planet of origin, but that, for some reason, it is not making the claim?”
“You have hit it precisely.”
“And you are going to search for it?”
“We are. That is our mission. Mayor Branno has arranged it all. You will pilot our ship to Trantor.”
“To Trantor? It’s not the planet of origin. You said that much a while ago.”
“Of course Trantor isn’t. Earth is.”
“Then why aren’t you telling me to pilot the ship to Earth?”
“I am not making myself clear. Earth is a legendary name. It is enshrined in ancient myths. It has no meaning we can be certain of, but it is convenient to use the word as a one-syllable synonym for `the planet of origin of the human species.’ just which planet in real space is the one we are defining as `Earth’ is not known.”
“Will they know on Trantor?”
“I hope to find information there, certainly. Trantor possesses the Galactic Library, the greatest in the system.”
“Surely that Library has been searched by those people you said were interested in the `Origin Question’ in the time of the First Empire.”
Pelorat nodded thoughtfully, “Yes, but perhaps not well enough. I have learned a great deal about the `Origin Question’ that perhaps the Imperials of five centuries back did not know. I might search the old records with greater understanding, you see. I have been thinking about this
Similar Books
