Chapter 46 Chapter Thirty-Five

There are only two seats behind the cramped cockpit.When Seldon sat down, and the cushion of the chair sank slowly, a mass of web-like fibers suddenly appeared, tightly wrapping around his legs, waist, chest, and a hood covering his forehead and ears. .He felt like he was tied up, when he turned his head to the left reluctantly - only slightly - and saw Dors in the same position. With the driver in place, start checking the control panel.Then he said: "I am Endor Levania and I am here to serve you. You are now tightly netted because there will be considerable acceleration on takeoff. Once we reach the open space and begin normal flight , you will be free immediately. You don’t need to tell me the names of the two, it’s none of my business.”

He turned his head in his seat and smiled slightly at the two passengers.His spooky face crumpled as the corners of his mouth curled outward. "Any psychological handicap, young man?" Dors said casually, "I'm an alien, I'm used to it." "Me too," Seldon said with a touch of arrogance. "Excellent, young man. Of course, this is not your usual jet, and you may not have night flying experience, but I hope you hold on." He himself was also caught in the net, but Seldon saw that his arms were still free. There was a monotonous buzzing sound coming from inside the jet, the intensity and pitch were getting higher and higher, although it wasn't harsh, it was gradually approaching the limit.Seldon made a movement as if to shake his head to shake the noise out of his ears, but his effort only seemed to tighten the headnet tighter.

Then the jet bounced into the air (the only verb Seldon could think of to describe it was "bounce"), and Seldon found himself pressed against the cushion and the back of the seat with such a force. Through the windshield in front of the driver, Seldon saw a wall rise suddenly, making him break out in a cold sweat.Then a circular hole appeared on that wall, similar to the small hole that he and Hummin drove a taxi into when they left the imperial district that day.But while the opening is large enough to accommodate the jet's fuselage, it leaves absolutely no room for the wings.

Seldon turned his head to the right as far as he could, just in time to see the right wing folding and retracting. Immediately after the jet rushed into the hole, it was captured by the electromagnetic field inside and began to sprint forward along a bright tunnel.The acceleration was maintained at a constant value, and there was an occasional "click-click" noise, which Seldon guessed might be caused by the fuselage passing the various magnets. In less than ten minutes, the jet was "sprayed" into the atmosphere by the tunnel, and quickly rushed into a dark night sky. The jet began to slow down after leaving the electromagnetic field, and Seldon felt his whole body pressed against the safety net, stuck there for a long time, almost making him unable to breathe.

Finally the pressure finally goes away and the safety net is gone all at once. "How are you all, young man?" came the cheery voice of the pilot. "I'm not sure." Seldon asked, turning to Dors. "Are you all right?" "Of course," she replied. "I think Mr. Levanya is testing us on purpose to see if we are really aliens. Is that so, Mr. Levania?" "Some people like thrills," Levanya said. "What about you?" "Limit it," said Dors. Seldon immediately echoed: "Any reasonable person would admit that."

Then Seldon said, "If you snapped off the wings, sir, you probably wouldn't have so much fun." "Impossible, sir. As I told you, this is not your usual jet. Its wings are fully computerized, changing length, width, curvature and overall shape at any time to match the jet's speed, wind speed, direction and Air temperature, and half a dozen other variables. The wings never snap off unless the jet is put under enough force to shatter it." At this moment, there was a sputtering sound from Seldon's window: "It's raining outside." "Often," said the driver.

Seldon turned to look out the window.In Helicon, or any other world, there must be light—artificial lighting.Only on Trantor, it would be pitch black below. —Well, not quite.At one point, he saw a blinking signal light.Perhaps there are warning signs high up on the dome. As usual, Dors sensed Seldon's uneasiness.She patted his hand and said, "I'm sure the pilot knows what he's doing, Harry." "I'll try to believe that, Dors, but I'd like him to share something with us about what's going on," Seldon said deliberately in a volume within earshot of the pilot.

"I don't mind sharing it with you," said the pilot. "First of all, the jet is currently ascending, and in a few minutes, it will be above the clouds. There won't be any rain there, and we can even see the stars." He timed this sentence extremely accurately, before he finished speaking, a few stars just happened to flash in the feathery cloud.The pilot turned off the light source in the cabin, and the other stars suddenly shone brightly.In the cabin, only the faint light of the dashboard is left, and the sky outside the window is bright and dazzling starlight. Dors said, "This is the first time I've seen stars in over two years. Is it small or is it spectacular? They are so bright and so many."

"Trantor is closer to the galactic center than most alien worlds," said the pilot. Since Helicon was located in a corner of the Milky Way where the stars were sparse, the star field was always dim and inconspicuous, and Seldon was dumbfounded. Dors said, "How peaceful the flight becomes." "Indeed," said Seldon. "What powers the jet, Mr. Levanya?" "Micro fusion engine, and thin thermals." "I didn't know we had practical micro-fusion jets. Someone was talking about it, but..." "There are only a few small ones like this one, only seen on Trantor at the moment, and reserved for senior government officials."

"It must be expensive to travel on a jet like this," Seldon said. "It's not cheap, sir." "So, how much does Hummin have to pay?" "This flight is completely free. Mr. Hummin is a good friend of our company." Seldon snorted, and then asked, "Why are such micro-fusion jets so rare?" "One of the reasons is that it is too expensive, Your Excellency. Besides, the few existing ones can meet the demand." "If you make bigger jets, you create more demand." "Maybe so, but the company couldn't make the micro-fusion engine any further enhanced to meet the power requirements of a large jet."

Seldon recalled Hummin's complaint that technological progress had declined to a low level. "Falling—" he murmured. "What?" Dors asked. "Nothing," said Seldon. "I just remembered something Hummin said to me." Looking out at the stars, he added: "Shall we fly west, Mr. Levanya?" "Yeah, that's right, how do you know?" "Because it occurred to me that if we headed east toward the dawn, we should see it by now." At last, however, the twilight of the orbiting planet caught up with them, and sunlight—really sunlight—lit up the entire bulkhead.The sun didn't show up for long, however, and the jet quickly swooped down and re-entered the clouds.The blue sky and golden sunlight disappeared immediately, replaced by darkness.Both Seldon and Dors sighed of disappointment at not being able to enjoy more of the real sunshine. As they sank below the clouds, the dome appeared immediately below them, and its surface—in this region at least—was a green undulating wave of wooded hollows interlaced with grass.According to Clozia, that's exactly what the view from the dome should be. However, this time he still didn't have much time to observe carefully.Soon after, a hole appeared below, with the words "Maiqusheng" marked on the edge. Immediately they swooped in.