母ヴァシュティは昼も夜もない、地下の生活 ―― 孤絶状態のなかで、この前ベッドを出したときからのことを考えました。Ideas? Scarcely any. Events–was Kuno’s invitation an event?「思索は？ほぼないわ。出来事といえば？クーノーが招待してくれたことって、あれも出来事なのかしら？」
そして、彼女は机の上にある一冊の本をとりあげます。
By her side, on the little reading-desk, was a survival from the ages of litter–one book. This was the Book of the Machine. In it were instructions against every possible contingency. If she was hot or cold or dyspeptic or at a loss for a word, she went to the book, and it told her which button to press. The Central Committee published it. In accordance with a growing habit, it was richly bound.
Sitting up in the bed, she took it reverently in her hands. She glanced round the glowing room as if some one might be watching her. Then, half ashamed, half joyful, she murmured “O Machine!” and raised the volume to her lips. Thrice she kissed it, thrice inclined her head, thrice she felt the delirium of acquiescence. Her ritual performed, she turned to page 1367, which gave the times of the departure of the air-ships from the island in the southern hemisphere, under whose soil she lived, to the island in the northern hemisphere, whereunder lived her son.
She thought, “I have not the time.”
『マシーンの書（the Book of the Machine）』という1冊の本、これはゴミ時代（the ages of litter）の遺物、と言われているけれど、この本にはありとあらゆる偶発事（every possible contingency）に備えた指示が載っているそう。
まあ、そうね。飛行船の時刻まで載っているし、ネットの検索機能のようなもの。でも「『おお、マシーン！（“O Machine!” ）』とつぶやいてから、その本に三度接吻し、三度頭をかしげ、三度従順の恍惚感（the delirium of acquiescence）を感じていた」というから、どちらかといえばヴァシュティにとっては聖書のような存在なのかしら。
She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she make the room dark and slept. Above her, beneath her, and around her, the Machine hummed eternally; she did not notice the noise, for she had been born with it in her ears. The earth, carrying her, hummed as it sped through silence, turning her now to the invisible sun, now to the invisible stars. She awoke and made the room light.
“Kuno!”
“I will not talk to you.” he answered, “until you come.”
“Have you been on the surface of the earth since we spoke last?”
His image faded.
Again she consulted the book. She became very nervous and lay back in her chair palpitating. Think of her as without teeth or hair. Presently she directed the chair to the wall, and pressed an unfamiliar button. The wall swung apart slowly. Through the opening she saw a tunnel that curved slightly, so that its goal was not visible. Should she go to see her son, here was the beginning of the journey.
ここで明らかになるのは、ヴァシュティには歯も髪の毛もない（without teeth or hair）、ってこと。必要のないものがなくなっていくのは、ヴァシュティの肉体にも起こっていたのね。
今の生活を愛し、外の世界を恐れるヴァシュティだけれども、息子の願いをかなえるべく、ついに飛行船へと向かいます。
Of course she knew all about the communication-system. There was nothing mysterious in it. She would summon a car and it would fly with her down the tunnel until it reached the lift that communicated with the air-ship station: the system had been in use for many, many years, long before the universal establishment of the Machine. And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately preceded her own ―― the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms! And yet ―― she was frightened of the tunnel: she had not seen it since her last child was born. It curved ―― but not quite as she remembered; it was brilliant ―― but not quite as brilliant as a lecturer had suggested. Vashti was seized with the terrors of direct experience. She shrank back into the room, and the wall closed up again.
文明世界は、マシーンが全世界を支配する（the universal establishment of the Machine）前と後とに分かれているようです。本来、すべてのものが人間のところに運ばれてくるはずが、マシーン前の時代には、人間がもののあるところに連れていく、という「おかしな時代（funny old days）」だったのです。
ヴァシュティは直接体験（direct experience）への恐怖に襲われます。彼女は逃げ戻り、壁が元通りに閉じました。
“Kuno,” she said, “I cannot come to see you. I am not well.”
Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling, a thermometer was automatically laid upon her heart. She lay powerless. Cool pads soothed her forehead. Kuno had telegraphed to her doctor.
So the human passions still blundered up and down in the Machine. Vashti drank the medicine that the doctor projected into her mouth, and the machinery retired into the ceiling. The voice of Kuno was heard asking how she felt.
“Better.” Then with irritation: “But why do you not come to me instead?”
“Because I cannot leave this place.”
“Why?”
“Because, any moment, something tremendous many happen.”
“Have you been on the surface of the earth yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Then what is it?”
“I will not tell you through the Machine.”
具合が悪い、というヴァシュティにすぐさま医療措置をマシーンに命じるクーノー。マシーンを通してだけれども、親子の情はつづいていることが分かるわ
マシーン前、マシーン後、そして聖書のような「マシーンの書」。ひとつの文明社会が滅び、新しい文明社会がこの「マシーン」の生活だったのですな。ヴァシュティは、飛行船に乗って息子のところへ行けるのでしょうか。