"I should not have been," said Trevize. "I apologize. It was just that speaking to the robots, I had not thought to hear Galactic on this world."
He studied the Solarian. He was wearing a thin white robe, draped loosely over his shoulder, with large openings for his arms. It was open in front, exposing a bare chest and loincloth below. Except for a pair of light sandals, he wore nothing else.
It occurred to Trevize that he could not tell whether the Solarian was male or female. The breasts were male certainly but the chest was hairless and the thin loincloth showed no bulge of any kind.
He turned to Bliss and said in a low voice, "This might still be a robot, but very like a human being in-"
Bliss said, her lips hardly moving, "The mind is that of a human being, not a robot."
The Solarian said, "Yet you have not answered my original question. I shall excuse the failure and put it down to your surprise. I now ask again and you must not fail a second time. What would you with my robots?"
Trevize said, "We are travelers who seek information to reach our destination. We asked your robots for information that would help us, but they lacked the knowledge."
"What is the information you seek? Perhaps I can help you."
"We seek the location of Earth. Could you tell us that?"
The Solarian's eyebrows lifted. "I would have thought that your first object of curiosity would have been myself. I will supply that information although you have not asked for it. I am Sarton Bander and you stand upon the Bander estate, which stretches as far as your eye can see in every direction and far beyond. I cannot say that you are welcome here, for in coming here, you have violated a trust. You are the first Settlers to touch down upon Solaria in many thousands of years and, as it turns out, you have come here merely to inquire as to the best way of reaching another world. In the old days, Settlers, you and your ship would have been destroyed on sight."
"That would be a barbaric way of treating people who mean no harm and offer none," said Trevize cautiously.
"I agree, but when members of an expanding society set foot upon an inoffensive and static one, that mere touch is filled with potential harm. While we feared that harm, we were ready to destroy those who came at the instant of their coming. Since we no longer have reason to fear, we are, as you see, ready to talk."
Trevize said*, "I appreciate the information you have offered us so freely, and yet you failed to answer the question I did ask. I will repeat it. Could you tell us the location of the planet Earth?"
"By Earth, I take it you mean the world on which the human species, and the various species of plants and animals"-his hand moved gracefully about as though to indicate all the surroundings about them-"originated."
"Yes, I do, sir."
A queer look of repugnance flitted over the Solarian's face. He said, "Please address me simply as Bander, if you must use a form of address. Do not address me by any word that includes a sign of gender. I am neither male nor female. I am whole."
Trevize nodded (he had been right). "As you wish, Bander. What, then, is the location of Earth, the world of origin of all of us?"
Bander said, "I do not know. Nor do I wish to know. If I did know, or if I could find out, it would do you no good, for Earth no longer exists as a world. **Ah," he went on, stretching out his arms. "The sun feels good. I am not often on the surface, and never when the sun does not show itself. My robots were sent to greet you while the sun was yet hiding behind the clouds. I followed only when the clouds cleared."
"Why is it that Earth no longer exists as a world?" said Trevize insistently, steeling himself for the tale of radioactivity once again.
Bander, however, ignored the question or, rather, put it to one side carelessly. "The story is too long," he said. "You told me that you came with no intent of harm."
"That is correct."
"Why then did you come armed?"
"That is merely a precaution. I did not know what I might meet."
"It doesn't matter. Your little weapons represent no danger to me. Yet I am curious. I have, of course, heard much of your arms, and of your curiously barbaric history that seems to depend so entirely upon arms. Even so, I have never actually seen a weapon. May I see yours?"
Trevize took a step backward. "I'm afraid not, Bander."
Bander seemed amused. "I asked only out of politeness. I need not have asked at all."
It held out its hand and from Trevize's right holster, there emerged his blaster, while from his left holster, there rose up his neuronic whip. Trevize snatched at his weapons but felt his arms held back as though by stiffly elastic bonds. Both Pelorat and Bliss started forward and it was clear that they were held as well.
Bander said, "Don't bother trying to interfere. You cannot." The weapons flew to its hands and it looked them over carefully. "This one," it said, indicating the blaster, "seems to be a microwave beamer that produces heat, thus exploding any fluid-containing body. The other is more subtle, and, I must confess, I do not see at a glance what it is intended to do. However, since you mean no harm and offer no harm, you don't need arms. I can, and I do, bleed the energy content of the units of each weapon. That leaves them harmless unless you use one or the other as a club, and they would be clumsy indeed if used for that purpose."
The Solarian released the weapons and again they drifted through the air, this time back toward Trevize. Each settled neatly into its holster.
Trevize, feeling himself released, pulled out his blaster, but there was no need to use it. The contact hung loosely, and the energy unit had clearly been totally drained. That was precisely the case with the neuronic whip as well.