Chapter 40 first quarter

After the spaceship made what Trevize called a "micro-jump," what had been a shining star in the distance suddenly became a spherical celestial body.Janov Pelorat stared intently at the display screen, this was the first time he had seen such a sight in his life.Their first destination—the inhabited planet Seschel, the fourth planet in the system—had also grown larger and more prominent. A portable imaging device was placed on Pelorat's lap, on which was a computer-drawn map of the planet Sessel. Trevize said, "Don't be in a hurry to watch, Janov, we have to go through the customs office first, and those procedures may be lengthy." He had visited dozens of worlds, so he was exceptionally composed.

Pelorat looked up. "That must be just a routine." "Yes, but it can still be time consuming." "But these are peaceful times." "Of course it's true, but this only guarantees that we can pass. However, they must at least pay attention to the problem of ecological balance. Every planet has its own ecology, and no one would want it to be destroyed. So they have good reason to check It is a reasonable precaution to look at every incoming ship for scheduled organisms or infectious diseases." "We don't have any of those little things, at least I don't think so."

"That's right, we didn't, and they will confirm this. But you have to remember one thing, Seychelle is not a member of the Base Federation. In order to show their independent status, they will do everything they can." At this point a small spaceship flew over, and a short time later, a Sechelle customs officer boarded their spaceship.Trevize did not forget the training of his military career, he said neatly: "This is the 'Far Star', from Terminal Star, here are the relevant documents. It is unarmed, and it is a personal vehicle. This is my passport , and another passenger, this is his passport, we are both tourists."

The customs officer wore a gaudy uniform, mostly of crimson cloth.His cheeks and upper lip were clean-shaven, and he wore two short tufts of beard on the left and right sides of his chin."Spaceship at the base?" he asked. His pronunciation was very incorrect, but Trevize didn't correct him, and he didn't dare to smile.The standard language of the galaxy is divided into many dialects. Almost every inhabited planet is different. People in each world have their own accents, as long as they can communicate with each other. "Yes, sir," Trevize replied, "the ships registered at the base are privately owned."

"Excellent. Where's your loadout? Please let me know." "My what?" "Your load, what's on your spaceship?" "Oh—my goods. Here's a list. It's all personal stuff. We're not here for business. As I said, we're tourists." The customs officer looked around and immediately showed curiosity. "For tourists, this spacecraft is too delicate." "Not by base standards," Trevize said, deliberately smug. "And I'm rich enough to afford such good stuff." "Are you saying I might get rich from it?" The officer shot him a quick look, then looked away.

Trevize hesitated for a moment before he figured out the implication of that sentence.He had already made up his mind in the next moment, so he said, "No, I didn't mean to bribe you, and I have no reason to bribe you, even if I really meant it, you don't look like the kind of person who can be bought with money. If you think it is necessary, you can closely inspect this spacecraft." "No need," said the official, putting away the pocket recorder. "Your ship has passed the inspection, and there are no notifiable infectious diseases on it. We will assign a wavelength to this spacecraft, and then send out navigation waves at this wavelength."

He left after speaking, and the whole procedure took only fifteen minutes before and after. Pelorat asked in a low voice, "Will there be any trouble? Does he really want the red envelope?" Trevize shrugged and replied, "Tipping customs agents is an old custom. It's as old as the galaxy. He just needs to hint one more time and I'll give it. In fact—well, I guess he Don't dare take the risk, because it's a base ship, especially a new one. The old mayor—Galaxy bless her die-hard old life—has said that wherever we go, the name of the base She is not wrong to say that she is able to protect us with any number. Usually, this process takes much longer.”

"Why? He seems to have done all the inspections that should be done." "True, but he's been very polite to us, using only radio telemetry. If he's not polite, he can search from start to finish with a hand-held instrument, which will take hours. He can also send us both Send it to an 'overseas hospital' and let us stay there for several days." "What? Dear partner!" "Relax, he didn't do that. I thought he might, but he didn't, which means we can land. I'd love to use gravity to land, so it'll only take fifteen minutes. But I don't know Where is the clearance to land, and I don't want to get into trouble. It means we have to follow the navigation beam and circle down through the atmosphere, which takes hours."

Pelorat looked delighted. "But this is great, Grant. I don't know how slow our landing speed is, can we take the opportunity to see the terrain?" He raised the portable video screen, and the picture on the screen was a low-magnification map. "To see a little bit, we have to drill under the clouds first, and then move at a speed of several kilometers per second. Although it will not be like riding a hot air balloon, you can still observe the topography of the planet." "Great! Great!" Trevize said again in a hesitant tone, "But I'm wondering if it's worth setting the spacecraft's clock to the local time for how long we'll be staying on Planet Seychelle."

"I guess it depends on what we're going to do. What do you think we're going to do, Grant?" "Our job is to find Gaia, and I don't know how long it will take." "We can turn the time on the watch back, and the clock on the spacecraft remains the same," Pelorat said. "Good idea," Trevize said, looking down at the expanding surface of the planet below. "Without waiting any longer, I'll have the computer calibrate that beam that's assigned to us, and it'll be able to use gravity propulsion to mimic traditional flight. That's it! Let's land, Janov, and see what we can find .”

The spaceship began to move along the calibrated gravitational potential curve, and Trevize stared thoughtfully at the planet below. He had never been to the Sechelle Alliance before, but he knew that in the past century, its attitude towards the base had always been very unfriendly.He was amazed — even a little disappointed — that they were able to get through the level so quickly. This seems unreasonable.