We: Record 31 Summary & Analysis

D-503 reads the morning’s State Gazette and decides everything has been a bad dream. The Gazette issues a statement informing ciphers that the only thing that prevents them from being as perfect and precise is their imaginations. According to the Gazette, happiness ends where sickness begins; therefore, the State has developed an operation to “heal” ciphers of their imagination, rendering them “perfect” and “machine-equal.” The Gazette calls on its readers to undergo this new Great Operation.

D-503 calls I-330 and tells her about the Gazette’s statement. She tells him to come by her place at 16:00, “without fail,” which pleases him. D-503 goes to work at the hangar. He strokes the Integral’s engine affectionately as he thinks about its test run tomorrow and about how he will betray it at 12:00 the next day. The Second Builder appears and tells D-503 that the test run has been pushed back a day because of the Operation.

D-503 returns to his room, where U is sitting at his desk. He forgives her for her outburst about I-330 the other day. U tells D-503 how happy she is that he will soon be “totally healthy” again. She tells D-503 about how she took the children to the Operation. Once there, they resisted and had to be held down.

U leaves and D-503 heads over to I-330’s place. He goes to her and hugs her knees. A storm rages outside. I-330 says goodbye to D-503: he is sick, has committed crimes for her, and she assumes he will undergo the Operation to wipe his consciousness of such unbearable wrongdoings and obtain complete happiness. D-503 insists he will not undergo the Operation, as he cannot go on living without her. He agrees to help her steal the Integral at 12:00 the day after tomorrow. He walks home alone, apart from the other ciphers: “everyone was saved, but there was to be no saving me, I don’t want saving…”