In that time, he also meets Liberty 5-3000. She is a young woman who works in the fields and lives in the Home of the Peasants beyond the city. Men and women are forbidden to take notice of each other except at the Time of Mating, the period each spring when the Council of Eugenics pairs off men and women into couples for one night for the purpose of procreating. But in his own mind, Equality 7-2521 takes such notice of Liberty 5-3000 that he gives her a different name. He thinks of her as the Golden One. He commits yet another transgression by speaking to her, and it is clear that she takes notice of him.
He has forbidden thoughts. In the night, he wonders about the Uncharted Forests that exist across the land, covering the cities of the Unmentionable Times. He thinks of the Script Fire in which the books of the Evil Ones were burned, and he wonders about the secrets of the Evil Ones that have been lost to the world. Mostly, he wonders about the Unspeakable Word, the one idea held by the Evil Ones that has been lost. He remembers the fate of one who had discovered that word and had spoken it. His tongue had been ripped out, and he was burned at the stake. As a 10-year-old child, Equality 7-2521 had witnessed the execution. The transgressor seemed noble, and the child had thought that this was the face of one of the Saints about whom children had been taught. To the young Equality 7-2521, this Saint of the Pyre seemed to have gazed at him, picking him out from the crowd of onlookers. What, he wonders late at night, is the Unspeakable Word?
In his experiments, Equality 7-2521 discovers electricity. He uses it, after much effort, to create an electric light. He thinks that this light can be used to light the cities of the world. He wishes to show it to others, but knows that they will not understand and be frightened. In a month, the World Council of Scholars meets in his city. He knows what to do. The wisest minds among humankind will be there. They are the only ones who can understand his gift. He will wait and show it to them, and they will know how best to employ it for the good of society. And he will be welcomed among them as one of the Scholars.
