Vashti is momentarily sad, but then looks around her room. Vashti adds that “t is contrary to the spirit of the age” (3). One dies immediately in the outer air” (3). She reminds her son that although it is permitted to go to the surface, there is nothing to see but “dust and mud, no life remains on it, and you would need a respirator, or the cold of the outer air would kill you. Vashti is confused, and Kuno admits that he wants to go to the earth’s surface and see the stars again. Kuno is inspired in the airship, for that is where he notices the patterns of the stars and discovers the constellation Orion. Vashti complains to her son that she hates the airship: “I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. Kuno urges her to take the airship-a two-day journey to see him on the other side of the world-but Vashti does not want to travel. Kuno’s face appears he wants to speak to his mother in person instead of through the Machine. She is happy to hear from her son Kuno but is impatient because he is slow to respond and she has to give a lecture in five minutes about “Music during the Australian Period” (1). Her chair, which “like the music, was worked by machinery” (1), takes her to the other side of the room to answer the call. A small, pale woman named Vashti is listening to music and becomes annoyed when a bell rings-she knows thousands of people and is interrupted often. “Part One: The Airship” begins in “a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee” (1).

The machine stops book