Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov Page A

anything like
this
distance.”
    Trevize looked at her sharply. “Does it matter? You’re still Gaia, aren’t you?”
    For a moment, Bliss looked irritated, but then dissolvedinto what was almost an embarrassed titter. “I must admit you’ve caught me this time, Trevize. There is a double meaning in the word ‘Gaia.’ It can be used to refer to the physical planet as a solid globular object in space. It can also be used to refer to the living object that includes that globe. Properly speaking, we should use two different words for these two different concepts, but Gaians always know from the context what is being referred to. I admit that an Isolate might be puzzled at times.”
    “Well, then,” said Trevize, “admitting that you are many thousands of parsecs from Gaia as globe, are you still part of Gaia as organism?”
    “Referring to the organism, I am still Gaia.”
    “No attenuation?”
    “Not in essence. I’m sure I’ve already told you there is some added complexity in remaining Gaia across hyperspace, but I remain Gaia.”
    Trevize said, “Does it occur to you that Gaia may be viewed as a Galactic kraken—the tentacled monster of the legends—with its tentacles reaching everywhere. You have but to put a few Gaians on each of the populated worlds and you will virtually have Galaxia right there. In fact, you have probably done exactly that. Where are your Gaians located? I presume that one or more are on Terminus and one or more are on Trantor. How much farther does this go?”
    Bliss looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I have said I won’t lie to you, Trevize, but that doesn’t mean I feel compelled to give you the whole truth. There are some things you have no need to know, and the position and identity of individual bits of Gaia are among them.”
    “Do I need to know the reason for the existence of those tentacles, Bliss, even if I don’t know where they are?”
    “It is the opinion of Gaia that you do not.”
    “I presume, though, that I may guess. You believe you serve as the guardians of the Galaxy.”
    “We are anxious to have a stable and secureGalaxy; a peaceful and prosperous one. The Seldon Plan, as originally worked out by Hari Seldon at least, is designed to develop a Second Galactic Empire, one that is more stable and more workable than the First was. The Plan, which has been continually modified and improved by the Second Foundation, has appeared to be working well so far.”
    “But Gaia doesn’t want a Second Galactic Empire in the classic sense, does it? You want Galaxia—a living Galaxy.”
    “Since you permit it, we hope, in time, to have Galaxia. If you had not permitted it, we would have striven for Seldon’s Second Empire and made it as secure as we could.”
    “But what is wrong with—”
    His ear caught the soft, burring signal. Trevize said, “The computer is signaling me. I suppose it is receiving directions concerning the entry station. I’ll be back.”
    He stepped into the pilot-room and placed his hands on those marked out on the desk top and found that there
were
directions for the specific entry station he was to approach—its co-ordinates with reference to the line from Comporellon’s center to its north pole—the prescribed route of approach.
    Trevize signaled his acceptance, and then sat back for a moment.
    The Seldon Plan! He had not thought of it for quite a time. The First Galactic Empire had crumbled and for five hundred years the Foundation had grown, first in competition with that Empire, and then upon its ruins—all in accordance with the Plan.
    There had been the interruption of the Mule, which, for a time, had threatened to shiver the Plan into fragments, but the Foundation had pulled through—probably with the help of the ever-hidden Second Foundation—possibly with the help of the even-better-hidden Gaia.
    Now the Plan was threatened by something more serious than the Mule had ever been. It was to be divertedfrom a renewal of Empire to