Chapter 35 Chapter Twenty Six

Dors Venabili knew that Reagan would not want to go up to the dome now, that he would have to be forced. First, she made another round of the library and dining area, then called Seldon's room.Finally, she walked to the door of his dormitory and pressed the signal button on the door.After confirming that no one answered the door, she invited the administrator of the floor to open the door and found that he was not inside.She asked several people who had known Seldon over the past few weeks, but none had ever seen him. Well, she had to force Reagan to take her to the dome.But now that it was night, he would definitely refuse.In this freezing night, when the ice beads were about to turn into snowflakes, if Hari Seldon was really stuck on it, how much time would she waste arguing with Reagan?

A sudden idea occurred to her, and she immediately rushed to a small "university computer", which was designed to record the latest status of all students and faculty. Her fingers flew under the keyboard and quickly found the data she wanted. There were three people to turn to, and they all lived on the other side of campus.She summoned a small tackle to take her there, and found the dormitory she was looking for.Needless to say, at least one of them should be home - or available. This time she was lucky.She pressed the signal button under the first door, and the inquiry light came on.She keyed in her identification number, which included her department.After the door opened, a fat middle-aged man stared at her curiously.He was clearly freshening up and getting ready to go out to dinner.His dark blond hair was disheveled and he wasn't wearing any clothes on his upper body.

He said, "I'm sorry you've come at a bad time. What can I do, Dr. Venabili?" Panting slightly, she asked, "You're Logan Banastro, chief seismologist, right?" "That's right." "This is an emergency and I have to look at the seismic records on the dome for the past few hours." Banastro glared at her. "Why? Nothing happened. If there was, I'd know. The seismograph would tell us." "I don't mean a meteor impact." "Me neither, that's not the turn of the seismograph. I mean tiny cracks from the gravel, none today."

"I'm not referring to that situation either. Please, take me to the seismograph and read it for me, it's a matter of life and death." "I have a dinner date..." "I'm not kidding when I say life and death are at stake." Banastro said, "I don't understand .He wiped his face, said something quickly into the answering machine, and then hurriedly put on a shirt. They trotted (at Dod's relentless urging) to the diminutive Seismology Centre.Dors, who knew nothing about seismology, asked, "Down? Are we going down?" "Going below the residential level is a matter of course. The seismometer must be fixed to the chassis rock, away from the constant disturbance and vibration of the metropolitan level."

"But down here, how do you know what's going on in the dome?" "The seismograph is connected by wires to a set of pressure transducers installed in the dome's interlayer. Even the impact of a grain of sand will cause the pointer on the screen to jump. We can detect the effect of strong winds shaking the dome, and we can..." "Very good, very good:" Dors said impatiently. She didn't come here to learn the advantages and sophistication of these instruments. "Can you detect human footsteps?" "Human footsteps?" Banastro looked puzzled. "It's unlikely there were people on the dome."

"Of course I can. There's a group of meteorologists going up to the dome this afternoon." "Oh, well, the footsteps are barely discernible." "If you look hard enough, you can recognize it, and that's what I want you to do." Banastro may have resented her firm commanding tone, but if that was the case, he didn't say it at all.He just presses a switch, and the computer screen will display the secondary picture. There is a thick dot of light in the center of the right edge of the frame, and from there a thin horizontal line extends to the left edge of the screen.The horizon was squirming, a random, never-repeating set of faint undulations, moving steadily to the left.Dors found it almost hypnotic.

"It's a calmer situation," Banerstrom said. "All you see is changes in air pressure up there, maybe raindrops, or something mechanical in the distance. There's nothing up there." "Well, but what about hours ago? For example, check the records at 1500 today. Of course you have records from then." Banastro gave the necessary instructions to the computer, and a second or two later, chaos appeared on the screen.The picture calmed down after a while, and the horizontal line reappeared. "I'm going to set the sensitivity to maximum," Banastre murmured.The ups and downs were now evident, and as they waddled to the left their pattern changed dramatically.

"What's that?" said Dors. "Tell me." "Since you say there were people up there, Venabili, I guess they represent footsteps, including shifting of weight, impact of shoes. I don't know if I could have guessed that if I hadn't known in advance that there were people up there. This is our The so-called benign shocks have nothing to do with any dangerous phenomenon that we know of." "Can you see how many there are?" "Of course you can't see it with the naked eye. You know, what we're seeing is the combined effect of all the impacts."

"You said that the 'naked eyes' can't see it, so can you use a computer to analyze this composite effect into individual components?" "I doubt it is possible. These are very small effects, and we have to account for the ubiquitous noise, otherwise the analysis will not be reliable." "Okay, then push the time forward until the footstep signal disappears. For example, can you make it fast forward?" "If I do that—what you call fast-forward forward—the whole picture becomes blurred, leaving just a straight line with hazy lights and shadows above and below. What I can do is make it jump forward fifteen times at a time. Minutes, take a quick look, and continue the procedure."

'Okay, just do it!', The two stared at the screen until Banastro said, "There's nothing now, see?" A straight line remains on the screen, and beyond that there are only tiny fluctuations of noise. "When did the footsteps disappear?" "Two hours ago, er, earlier." "When they disappear, are they less than the original footsteps?" Bannastro looked a little pissed. "I don't see it, and I don't think even the most sophisticated analysis can make a definitive judgment." Dors pressed her lips together, and then said, "Are you checking that converter near the weather station—you call it a converter?"

"Yes, our instruments are there, and those meteorologists should have been there." Then, in a tone of disbelief, he said, "You want me to try the others in the vicinity? One by one?" "No, just stay there, but keep pushing forward at fifteen-minute intervals. Someone may fall behind, and may come back near the instrument later." Bannastro shook his head and muttered something under his breath. The screens began to change again, and Dors suddenly pointed at the screen and called out: What's that? " "I don't know, noise." No, he is cyclical.Could it be the footsteps of a single person? " "It's certainly possible, but it could also be a dozen other phenomena." "It changes like a walk, doesn't it?" After a while, she said, "Push it a little further." He did.After the screen stabilized, she said, "Are these bumps getting bigger?" "Maybe, we can measure it." "We don't have to, you can tell they're getting bigger, representing those footsteps getting closer to the converter. Go further and see when they disappear." After a while, Banastro said, "They were gone twenty or twenty-five minutes ago." Then, cautiously, he added: "Whatever that is." "It's the footsteps," Dors said firmly, with unquestionable confidence. "There's another man up there, and while you and I were wasting time here, he's already slumped to the ground, about to freeze to death. Don't say any more' Whatever it is', call the Meteorology Department and help me find Janelle Reagan. It's life and death, I tell you. Just say it!" Banastro's lips began to quiver, to the point where he could no longer disobey any orders from this strange and angry woman. In less than three minutes, Reagan's hologram appeared on the messaging platform.He had been pulled from the dinner table with a napkin in his hand, and there was something greasy under his lips. His long face was terribly gloomy: "Life or death! What's going on? Who are you?" Then he saw Dors, who moved closer to Benastro so that her image would appear on Jenal's on the screen.So he said: "It's you again, this is harassment at all:" Dors said, "This is not harassment. I have consulted with Logan Banastro, the chief seismologist at the school. After you and your team left the dome, the seismograph showed clear footsteps again, On behalf of one person left there. That is my student Hari Seldon, who went up under your supervision, and we are now quite sure that he has fallen unconscious and may not live long. Therefore, Now you must take me up with all the necessary equipment. If you don't do this right away, I'll go to the school security unit--or even the headmaster himself, if necessary. There's always a way for me to go up if you delay I promise you will be sued for dereliction of duty, incompetence, and anything else I can put on you, and you will lose all your status and be expelled from the academy. And if he dies, of course, it's manslaughter—or worse, because I've warned you now that he's dying." Jenal, furious, turned to Bannastro: "Did you detect..." But Dors suddenly interrupted him: "He told me everything he detected. I've just relayed it: I'm not going to let you scare him into a trance. Are you coming or not? Huh?" "Did it ever occur to you that maybe you made a mistake?" Jenal said in a harsh tone. "Do you know what I would do to you if it was a false alarm prank? Loss of status would be the same. On yourself." "Not murder," Dors said. "I'm ready to risk being charged with mischief. Are you ready to risk being charged with murder?" Jennal blushed.This may be because he had to go, not because he was threatened to bow to the other party. "I will come. Xiao Guo, miss, if it turns out that your students have been safe and sound in the dome for the past three hours, I will never be polite to you."