Free Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov

to embarrass him by converting this ship into a honeymooners’ haven.”
    Bliss said coaxingly, “Let’s be carried away and not leave ourselves any time to think of promises.”
    Pelorat, troubled, said, “But I can’t do that, dear. I know it must irritate you, Bliss, but I am constantly thinking and I am constitutionally averse to letting myself be carried away by emotion. It’s a lifelong habit, and probably very annoying to others. I’ve never lived with a woman who didn’t seem to object to it sooner or later. My first wife—but I suppose it would be inappropriate to discuss that—”
    “Rather inappropriate, yes, but not fatally so. You’re not my first lover either.”
    “Oh!” said Pelorat, rather at a loss, and then, aware of Bliss’s small smile, he said, “I mean, of course not. I wouldn’t expect myself to have been—Anyway, my first wife didn’t like it.”
    “But I do. I find your endless plunging into thought attractive.”
    “I can’t believe
that
, but I do have another thought. Robot or human, that doesn’t matter. We agree on that. However, I am an Isolate and you know it. I am not part of Gaia, and when we are intimate, you’re sharing emotions outside Gaia even when you let me participate in Gaia for a short period, and it may not be the same intensity of emotion then that you would experience if it were Gaia loving Gaia.”
    Bliss said, “Loving you, Pel, has its own delight. I look no farther than that.”
    “But it’s not just a matter of you loving me. You aren’t merely you. What if Gaia considers it a perversion?”
    “If it did, I would know, for I am Gaia. And since I have delight in you, Gaia does. When we make love, all of Gaia shares the sensation to some degree or other. When I say I love you, that means Gaia loves you, although it is only the part that I am that is assigned the immediate role. —You seem confused.”
    “Being an Isolate, Bliss, I don’t quite grasp it.”
    “One can always form an analogy with the body of an Isolate. When you whistle a tune, your entire body,
you
as an organism, wishes to whistle the tune, but the immediate task of doing so is assigned to your lips, tongue, and lungs. Your right big toe does nothing.”
    “It might tap to the tune.”
    “But that is not necessary to the act of whistling. The tapping of the big toe is not the action itself but is a response to the action, and, to be sure, all parts of Gaia might well respond in some small way or other to my emotion, as I respond to theirs.”
    Pelorat said, “I suppose there’s no use feeling embarrassed about this.”
    “None at all.”
    “But it does give me a queer sense of responsibility. When I try to make you happy, I find that I must be trying to make every last organism on Gaia happy.”
    “Every last atom—but you do. You add to the sense of communal joy that I let you share briefly. I supposeyour contribution is too small to be easily measurable, but it is there, and knowing it is there should increase your joy.”
    Pelorat said, “I wish I could be sure that Golan is sufficiently busy with his maneuvering through hyperspace to remain in the pilot-room for quite a while.”
    “You wish to honeymoon, do you?”
    “I do.”
    “Then get a sheet of paper, write ‘Honeymoon Haven’ on it, affix it to the outside of the door, and if he wants to enter, that’s his problem.”
    Pelorat did so, and it was during the pleasurable proceedings that followed that the
Far Star
made the Jump. Neither Pelorat nor Bliss detected the action, nor would they have, had they been paying attention.
10.
    IT HAD BEEN ONLY A MATTER OF A FEW MONTHS since Pelorat had met Trevize and had left Terminus for the first time. Until then, for the more than half-century (Galactic Standard) of his life, he had been utterly planet-bound.
    In his own mind, he had in those months become an old space dog. He had seen three planets from space: Terminus itself, Sayshell, and Gaia. And on the