"And where are the others?" asked Trevize. "You seem to be the only one to be here to greet us."
Hiroko said, "Many men are aboard the fishboats; many women are in the fields. I take holiday these last two days and so am fortunate enough to see this great thing. Yet people are curious and the ship will have been seen as it descended, even from a distance. Others will be here soon."
"Are there many others on this island?"
"There are more than a score and five thousand," said Hiroko with obvious pride.
"And are there other islands in the ocean?"
"Other islands, good sir?" She seemed puzzled.
Trevize took that as answer enough. This was the one spot on the entire planet that was inhabited by human beings.
He said, "What do you call your world?"
"It is Alpha, good sir. We are taught that the whole name is Alpha Centauri, if that has more meaning to thee, but we call it Alpha only and, see, it is a fair-visaged world."
"A what world?" said Trevize, turning blankly to Pelorat.
"A beautiful world, she means," said Pelorat.
"That it is," said Trevize, "at least here, and at this moment." He looked up at the mild blue morning sky, with its occasional drift of clouds. "You have a nice sunny day, Hiroko, but I imagine there aren't many of those on Alpha."
Hiroko stiffened. "As many as we wish, sir. The clouds may come when we need rain, but on most days it seemeth good to us that the sky is fair above. Surely a goodly sky and a quiet wind are much to be desired on those days when the fishboats are at sea."
"Do your people control the weather, then, Hiroko?"
"Did we not, Sir Golan Trevize, we would be soggy with rain."
"But how do you do that?"
"Not being a trained engineer, sir, I cannot tell thee."
"And what might be the name of this island on which you and your people live?" said Trevize, finding himself trapped in the ornate sound of Classical Galactic (and wondering desperately if he had the conjugations right).
Hiroko said, "We call our heavenly island in the midst of the vast sea of waters New Earth."
At which Trevize and Pelorat stared at each other with surprise and delight.
***
THERE was no time to follow up on the statement. Others were arriving. Dozens. They must consist of those, Trevize thought, who were not on the ships or in the fields, and who were not from too far away. They came on foot for the most part, though two ground-cars were in evidence-rather old and clumsy.
Clearly, this was a low-technology society, and yet they controlled the weather.
It was well known that technology was not necessarily all of a piece; that lack of advance in some directions did not necessarily exclude considerable advance in others-but surely this example of uneven development was unusual.
Of those who were now watching the ship, at least half were elderly men and women; there were also three or four children. Of the rest, more were women than men. None showed any fear or uncertainty whatever.
Trevize said in a low voice to Bliss, "Are you manipulating them? They seem-serene."
"I'm not in the least manipulating them," said Bliss. "I never touch minds unless I must. It's Fallom I'm concerned with."
Few as the newcomers were to anyone who had experienced the crowds of curiosity-seekers on any normal world in the Galaxy, they were a mob to Fallom, to whom the three adults on the Far Star had been something to grow accustomed to. Fallom was breathing rapidly and shallowly, and her eyes were half-closed. Almost, she seemed in shock.
Bliss was stroking her, softly and rhythmically, and making soothing sounds. Trevize was certain that she was delicately accompanying it all by an infinitely gentle rearrangement of mental fibrils.
Fallom took in a sudden deep breath, almost a gasp, and shook herself, in what was perhaps an involuntary shudder. She raised her head and looked at those present with something approaching normality and then buried her head in the space between Bliss's arm and body.
Bliss let her remain so, while her arm, encircling Fallom's shoulder, tightened periodically as though to indicate her own protective presence over and over.
Pelorat seemed rather awestruck, as his eyes went from one Alphan to another. He said, "Golan, they differ so among themselves."
Trevize had noticed that, too. There were various shades of skin and hair color, including one brilliant redhead with blue eyes and freckled skin. At least three apparent adults were as short as Hiroko, and one or two were taller than Trevize. A number of both sexes had eyes resembling those of Hiroko, and Trevize remembered that on the teeming commercial planets of the Fili sector, such eyes were characteristic of the population, but he had never visited that sector.
All the Alphans wore nothing above the waist and among the women the breasts all seemed to be small. That was the most nearly uniform of all the bodily characteristics that he could see.
Bliss said suddenly, "Miss Hiroko, my youngster is not accustomed to travel through space and she is absorbing more novelty than she can easily manage. Would it be possible for her to sit down and, perhaps, have something to eat and drink?"
Hiroko looked puzzled, and Pelorat repeated what Bliss had said in the more ornate Galactic of the mid-Imperial period.
Hiroko's hand then flew to her mouth and she sank to her knees gracefully. "I crave your pardon, respected madam," she said. "I have not thought of this child's needs, nor of thine. The strangeness of this event has too occupied me. Wouldst thou-would you all-as visitors and guests, enter the refectory for morning meal? May we join you and serve as hosts?"