Chapter 14 Chapter nine

They walked along the sidewalk, surrounded by soft, yellow light.Hummin kept rolling his eyes alertly and keeping their pace with the crowd, neither overtaking nor being overtaken. He kept looking for irrelevant topics, and chatted word by word without interruption. The impetuous Seldon couldn't do this. He said: "People here seem to like to walk. There are endless crowds of people on the sidewalks and overpasses in both directions." "What's wrong?" Zhang Ming said, "Walking is still the best way of short-distance transportation. It is the most convenient, cheapest, and healthiest. Countless years of technological progress have not changed this fact. Do you have a fear of heights? Seldon?"

Seldon looked down from the railing on the right to see a deep slope separating the two sidewalks.The traffic directions of the two are opposite, and there is an overpass at a fixed distance.He looked a little trembling. "If you mean the fear of standing on high places, I usually don't. Still, it's not much fun looking down. How deep is it?" "About forty or fifty stories high, I think. This kind of facility is common in the Royal District, and some other highly developed areas. In most areas, people walk on the so-called underground." "I have an idea that this encourages suicidal thoughts in people."

"It rarely happens, and there are far simpler ways to commit suicide. Besides, suicide is not socially tolerated in Trantor. In certain centers, there are various approved methods of ending one's life, as long as you Willing to take the time and get some therapy. As for accidents, they do happen now and then, but that's not why I'm asking you if you're afraid of heights. We're heading to the rental station, where they know I'm a reporter. I do them a little favor now and then, and sometimes they pay me back. They forget to record me, and don't notice that I have a companion. Of course, I pay an extra fee. And then again, if Demmerzier's men pushed so hard that they finally had to tell the truth and say it was because the accountants were sloppy, but that might take a while."

"What does fear of heights have to do with this?" "Well, we can get there quicker if we use a gravity lift. Not many people use this setup, and I must tell you, I don't really like the idea myself. But if you think you can handle it, we'd better Still do it." "What is a gravity lift?" "It's still in the experimental stage, and one day it may be popularized in Trantor, as long as the public can accept it psychologically, or if it can be accepted by enough people. By then, it may also spread to other worlds. It can be so Said, it is a kind of elevator tunnel without elevator. We just walk into the empty space, we will slowly fall under the action of anti-gravity, or slowly rise. So far, it is probably the only one that uses anti-gravity device, mainly because it is the easiest application."

"What if the power suddenly goes away while we're in mid-air?" "As you can imagine, we'd go down—unless we were pretty close to the bottom, we'd be dead. I haven't heard of that happening, and trust me, if it had, I'd know .We may not be able to release this kind of news because of security concerns - that's their usual excuse for withholding bad news, but I have a way of finding out myself. It's up ahead, and if you can't handle it, then we don't go. But the moving corridor is slow and dull, and many people feel dizzy after a while."

Hummin turned into an overpass and came to a large alcove, where there were already some men and women waiting in line, one or two of them with children. Seldon said in a low voice, "I've never heard of such a thing in my hometown. Of course, our media pays too much attention to local news, but it should be mentioned that this kind of thing exists." Hummin said: "This is a completely experimental facility, and it is limited to the imperial district. It does not use enough energy to cover the cost, so the government is not in a hurry to promote it, and does not want to make it public too early. The old emperor before Kryon - Staniel V, who died in disbelief to everyone - insisted on having the lifts installed in several places. It is said that he wanted to associate his name with anti-gravity, because He's concerned about his place in history, which is the usual mentality of an old man with little achievement. As I said, this technology may be widespread in the future, but it's also possible that there won't be any more, except for elevators. other apps."

"What else do they want to use it for?" asked Seldon. "Anti-gravity spaceflight, however that would require a lot of technological breakthroughs; as far as I know, most physicists firmly believe that it's impossible—and then again, most of them thought that even a gravity elevator was impossible." The line in front soon became shorter and shorter, and Seldon found himself standing on the edge of the floor with Hummin. There was an open gap ahead, and the air in front of him shone faintly.He stretched out his hand naturally, feeling a slight tingling.Although it didn't hurt, he quickly retracted his hand.

Da Ming muttered: "This is a basic precaution, in case someone crosses the limit before the control button is turned on." He pressed a few digits on the control panel, and the flash disappeared without a trace. Seldon stood on the edge and looked down, and what he saw was a deep elevator passage. "If we hook our arms and you close your eyes," Hummin said, "you may find it better, or easier. It will only be for a few seconds at most." In truth, he left Seldon no choice.After being held tightly by his arm, Seldon was unable to break free just like last time.Hummin walked into the void, Seldon (who was embarrassed to hear himself let out a small scream) staggering after him,

He closed his eyes tightly, and he didn't feel the feeling of landing, nor did he feel the flow of air.After a few seconds, he was pulled forward by a force, took a quick step forward to regain his balance, and found himself on the ground again. He opened his eyes. "Did we make it?" Hummin said coldly, "We are not dead." Then he walked forward, and Seldon, who was caught by him, had to follow suit. "I mean, have we reached the floor we're going to?" "certainly." "What would happen if someone was moving up when we were falling?"

"There are two different paths in total. In one path, everyone falls at the same rate, and in the other path, people ascend at the same rate. Access to the liftway is only possible when it is determined that everyone is at least ten meters apart. If everything is functioning properly, there is no chance of a collision." "I don't feel anything at all." "Why? There is no acceleration at all. Except for the first tenth of a second, you are moving at a constant velocity, and the air around you is falling with you at the same rate." "Unbelievable."

"It's incredible, but it's not economical. And there doesn't seem to be a strong need for it to be efficient enough to make it really worthwhile. Everywhere you hear the same old refrain: 'We can't do it, it's Impossible.' That applies to anything." Hummin shrugged, visibly offended. "Anyway, we finally arrived at the rental station, let's move on to the next action."