Regulus: What, what am I looking at?
Regulus: So your so-called sacred project is this gigantic IDM computer?
Regulus inspects the computer like an expert.
Regulus: I was curious about them during my stay in Laplace. Those later versions of the model are so much better than the 66 ones!
Regulus: But this one doesn't seem that far advanced to those. This is not a junk piece the Manus sold you, is it?
37: Items of the phenomenal world are all a waste.
37: This one is long broken. After the Emanation, we couldn't find anyone to repair it.
Vertin: Why do you keep referring to the "Storm" as the Emanation?
Vertin: What does the Emanation mean?
37: It is the waves of pneuma.
37: We are the expellees of the world of Forms. We were banished to this damp and dark cave.
37: Everyone here is obsessed with the fake light on the wall but forgets to look for the truth.
37: Pneuma, however, will lead us to escape the cave and return to a more supreme realm.
Regulus: Ehh! You make it sound like we are living in piles of rubbish!
37: Aren't we?
Regulus: Of course not!
Regulus: If you ask me, I'd say you have absolutely no idea how wonderful the outside world is, because you have never left here to try it yourself!
Regulus: Dr. Papper, the music festivals, Rory Storm, The Hollies, and the Rolling Stones ... There are too many to count!
Regulus: If it weren't for this sick "Storm," I would still be riding a motorcycle in one of those races in London!
37: Hmm, your soul must be pretty contaminated.
Regulus: And the computer! They can calculate extremely large numbers within seconds, better than hundreds of thousands of you combined together!
37: In the case of numbers, it's not "the bigger, the better."
37: Also, this computer has never played a useful part in our study.
Regulus: Come on, mate! You people just leave it in a cave! It's like sending an infant to the kitchen and waiting for it to bring you dinner!
Regulus: Never mind. You'll see what I mean after I fix it.
Regulus mutters as she gets down on the ground and crawls closer to the computer.
Vertin: Can you fix an IDM, Regulus?
Regulus: No. But I've seen the Laplace people do it. Shouldn't be too difficult, I assume.
Regulus: ...
Regulus: Urgh, the dust! When was the last time you sent people down here to clean?
Regulus: Aw, some critters are nesting here! Oh, did I break into your party?!
Regulus: Vertin, come give me a hand! They won't let me touch 'em!
COMBAT
Green numbers appear on the screen.
After getting rid of the parasitic pests, the dusty behemoth begins to miraculously return to life.
37: You fixed it!
37: It's great to have you clean the laboratory, Regulus! Your floating point immediately reduced!
Regulus: Ah, is that a compliment? Sounds like one to me. Thank you!
APPLe: It's a wordplay, Captain. Infinity minus any numbers still equals to infinity.
Regulus: Oh! Fine, fine! I should have given up the idea of changing your eccentric sorting system a long time ago.
Regulus: What's the meaning of humans inventing computers, if these machines were only left here for some critters to nest in?
37: Thanks to you, now we can have a look at the previous models, Regulus.
37: But it's a pity since it only has the data before 2003. Everything in the past four years has gone missing.
37's fingers are dancing over the keyboard; she seems surprisingly familiar with operating this computer.
37: This is our chronology, Vertin.
37: From 1999 to 2007, the Emanation has taken place seven times.
37: In the initial four years, the Emanation has a pattern. First, it brought us back to the 90s, then the 80s, and then the 70s.
37: After that, it suddenly leaped to the 30s. In the subsequent three years, it took place twice.
Vertin: Every record here can perfectly match what is in the Foundation's files.
Vertin: Wait. These are the records before 2003, you say?
Vertin: But this one refers to the "Storm" in 1966, which happened recently!
37: These are indeed the records before 2003.
37: What's following the records is our forecast.
Regulus: Huuhh! That's to say, you prophesied the 1966 "Storm" four years prior to its occurrence?
Regulus: How is this possible ...
Regulus: … that you are clever enough to develop such a precise mathematical model, while at the same time you just let the IDM become the home of these critters?!
37: We just worked out the patterns in the number sequences.
Vertin: You made such a precise prediction even without leaving the island! Huh, that's incredible!
37's lips curl unhappily.
37: You don't need to go into a river to find out the pattern of its flow.
37: Moreover, we would send people to observe in the phenomenal world. My mother was one of them.
37: She is the co-author of this model. Nobody knows this computer better than her.
Regulus: So, you have a mother, too?
37: Too?
Vertin: 37, where is your mother now?
37: Like many people, she was restored to her true Form. Since then, I took over this laboratory.
Vertin: ...
Vertin: The "Form" you said ... 37, what is it?
37: What kind of question is this?
She tilts her head, looking genuinely confused.
37: The Form, or the essence, is what's left of you after all the fakeness has been peeled off.