Chapter 42 third quarter

The Far Star was rapidly flying over the planet Sessel, and Pelorat was bewildered by the scene outside the cabin.Compared with Terminus, the clouds here are thinner and more sporadic, and as the map shows, the land is more concentrated and vast-even the desert area is wider than Terminus, which can be seen from the rust-colored parts of the continents. There was no sign of life as far as the eye could see, as if the world consisted only of barren deserts, gray plains, endless folds of mountains, and of course oceans. "It looks lifeless," Pelorat muttered. "At this altitude, don't expect to see any signs of life," Trevizes said. "When we get lower, you will see the land gradually change into many green lumps. But before that, you will See the shimmering lights of the night surface first. Humans have a common tendency to light up their worlds with lights when night falls, and I've never heard of any world being an exception. In other words, you'll see The first sign of life in China is not only human beings themselves, but also technological civilization.”

Pelorat said meaningfully: "After all, it is the nature of human beings to hide at night and come out during the day. I think that the earliest technology developed by human beings includes various methods to turn night into day. Suppose a world has no technology at all. Civilization, then you can take the level of light at night as an indicator of technological progress. How long do you think it will take to convert from total darkness to light everywhere?" Trevize laughed. "You often have queer ideas, and I think it's because you're a mythologist. I don't think any world can ever be lit up. The night lights vary with population density, so that on every continent, The distribution of light was always in blocks or strips. Even when Trantor was at its peak and the world was a single monolithic structure, it was just a little bit of light."

Sure enough, the land gradually turned green, exactly as Trevize predicted.During his final week of round-the-world flight, Trevize pointed to tiny spots and told Pelorat that those were cities. "This is not a very urbanized world. I have never been to the Sechelle Alliance before, but according to the information provided by the computer, they tend to be conservative. Residents in every corner of the galaxy will associate technology with the base. , so as long as the base is not welcome, there must be a tendency to embrace the past—of course, the technology related to weapons is an exception, and I can assure you that Sachel is absolutely very advanced in this regard."

"Hey, Glenn, nothing unpleasant will happen, right? After all, we are base people, but we came to the enemy's territory..." "This is not the enemy's territory, Janov. They will be extremely polite, you don't have to be afraid, they just don't like the base that's all. Seychelle is not part of the base federation, they are proud of their independent status, and they don't want to think about it. Weaker than the Foundation themselves, they remain independent only because we acquiesce to that fact. It is for this reason that they deliberately display exaggerated hatred for us."

"Anyway, I'm afraid it won't be very pleasant," said Pelorat despondently. "Absolutely not." Trevize said, "Don't be like this, Pelorat, what I just said is the official attitude of the Sachel government. The inhabitants of this planet are also human beings, as long as we put a smile on our faces, Don't act like a master of the galaxy, and they'll all smile. We're not here to conquer Seychelle for the base, we're just tourists, and we're asking the same questions about Seychelle that any tourist would ask. "Besides, if the situation permits, we can just take this opportunity to relax. We can spend a few days here and experience their hospitality. They may have fascinating culture, beautiful scenery, Delicious food. And if you can't find that, at least there are lovely women, and we've got enough money to enjoy it."

Pelorat frowned and said, "Oh, my dear brother." "Come on," Trevize said, "you're not that old, aren't you really interested?" "I'm not saying I'd never do it, but it's certainly not the time, and now we're on a mission to find Gaia. I'm not against having fun, really, but once we start to indulge, maybe It’s hard to extricate myself.” He shook his head, and tried to persuade him: “I think you must have been worried at the beginning, fearing that I would fall headlong into the Galaxy Library on Trantor and get stuck in it ever since. That’s right, that library is very important to me. Attractiveness is equal to the attractiveness of one, or even five or six beautiful girls with black eyes."

Trevize said, "I'm not a playboy, Janov, but I don't want to be an ascetic either. Well, I promise you to start looking for Gaia's whereabouts immediately, but if you happen to have an affair, it's absolutely nothing." Reasons prevent me from reacting normally." "As long as you can put Gaia first..." "I would, but you have to remember, don't tell anyone we're from the base. They can tell because we're using base credits and we speak with a strong Terminus accent, but if we If we don’t mention it, they will treat us as ordinary tourists and behave very friendly. If we show that we are from the base, although they will still be kind to us, they will not tell us anything and will not let us see any information, or where to take us, then we would be alone and helpless."

Pelorat sighed. "I'll never understand human nature." "Nothing like that, you can understand everyone just by observing yourself, because none of us are special. If Seldon doesn't understand human nature, how can he, no matter how sophisticated his mathematics, be able to formulate that What about the plan? If human nature is not easy to understand, how can he be good at it? Point out anyone who doesn't understand human nature, and I can prove to you in no time that that person has built a false self-image—I didn't mean to Offend you." "Absolutely not. I will admit that I lack experience in this area. My life is very self-centered and the scope of contact is limited. Maybe I have never really examined myself, so I will let you Be my guide and advisor."

"Okay, then take my advice now and enjoy the scenery with peace of mind. We'll be landing soon, I promise you won't feel anything, the computer and I will take care of everything." "Glenn, don't feel embarrassed, if there are really young women..." "Don't mention it! Let me concentrate on landing the spaceship." The spaceship was making its final circle, and Pelorat turned to look out again.This will be the first time he set foot on another world, this kind of thought seems to bring an ominous premonition, although in fact, the first colonists of the tens of millions of inhabited planets in the Milky Way were not born and bred there .

The thought of excepting one planet gave him mixed feelings.