Chapter 61 third quarter

The next day, Trevize spent the whole day on the computer, asking it to calculate several forward routes, and then try to choose the best one, the whole process was slow and cautious.Lacking precise data, he had to rely on intuition, which unfortunately failed to provide any help.The "self-confidence" that he can often experience has never appeared this time. Finally, he finally poured the jump command into the computer, and the spaceship immediately moved away from the orbital plane of the planet. "That way we can have a better overall view," he said. "No matter what part of the orbit the planets are in, we can get their maximum apparent distance from Gaia's sun. And they—whether they are Where the hell is—probably not scouting out the orbital plane so carefully, at least I hope so."

They are now nearly 500 million kilometers away from Gaia's sun, which is almost the same as the distance from the innermost and most massive gas giant planet to Gaia's sun.Trevize visualized the planet on the screen at maximum magnification so that Pelorat could enjoy it.It was indeed a spectacular shot, even if the picture shown on the screen has omitted the three sparse and narrow ballast rings around the planet. "It also has a string of moons as usual," Trevize said, "but it's so far away from Gaia's sun, we can deduce that none of the moons are habitable. Also, there is no human on any moon." Survive in -- let's say, a glass dome, or some other extremely artificial environment."

"How can you be sure?" "Because the radio noise we receive does not have the characteristics of artificial wave sources at all. Of course," in order to avoid generalizations, he immediately added: "There may still be scientific observatories, but they have worked hard The radio masking, combined with the radio noise from the gas giants, was enough to cover their tracks from me. Then again, our radios are extremely sensitive, and our computers And so unusual that I would venture to say that the chances of those moons being inhabited by humans are pitifully small."

"Does this mean Gaia doesn't exist?" "No, it means that Gaia, if there is one, did not colonize these harsh moons. Maybe it's incapable, or maybe it's just a lack of interest." "Okay, so is there Gaia at all?" "Be patient, Janov, be patient." Trevize seemed to have endless patience, he looked at the sky and thought for a long time.Finally he stopped his thoughts and said to Pelorat: "Frankly speaking, I'm a little discouraged that they haven't come out to arrest us yet. Logically speaking, if they have the legendary ability, they should have treated us a long time ago." There's been a reaction."

"It seems to me that it is possible—" said Pelorat sullenly, "that the whole thing is a fantasy." "Let's call it a myth, Janov," Trevize said with a wry smile. "Anyway, this is just to your liking. In any case, there is a planet in the astrobiosphere, which means that it may be habitable. I plan to spend at least a day observing it." "why?" "One of the reasons is to determine if it's habitable." "You just said that it is in the biosphere, Grant." "Yes, it is indeed within the biosphere at this moment, but its orbit may have a large eccentricity. It may sometimes be only one microsecond away from the star, or it may run fifteen microseconds away, or Both could happen. We have to measure the planet's distance from Gaia's sun and compare that distance to its orbital velocity, which helps us understand how it's moving."