Harvard Lab. Sylvia, Niels and Johnathan are sitting and thinking together. Astrid stands in front of them.
JOHNATHAN : I can't see.
SYLVIA : Ms Farnoth, we've tried everything...
ASTRID, surprised : Farnsworth. There's gotta be something we didn't catch. We're looking for a database, it should leave some marks, even dissolved in human tissue...
NIELS : Maybe those ones don't have a database.
ASTRID : Impossible. Those things aren't real people with real brains. They've gotta transport something.
JOHNATHAN : Something... We've analysed more than 12 samples, we've stirred the soup vigorously not to miss any part...
Sylvia winces.
JOHNATHAN : If there was one, it disappeared.
SYLVIA, thinking : Wait... Maybe those shapeshifters don't have brains of their own...
NIELS : If you pronounce the words "Collective Consciousness", I'm outta here.
SYLVIA : No, no. But you said it yourself. All of the senator's cells react to electric stimuli.
NIELS : We've already pondered over this : what we're looking for isn't in the still living cells we retrieved.
SYLVIA : Maybe not these ones in particular. But what happens if we insert them in their regular environment ?
JOHNATHAN : You mean Senator Dustin is in fact just a big brain with legs ?
Sylvia stands up and runs to the other end of the lab.
ASTRID : Where are you going ?
SYLVIA : To a proper working table.
Later, a large table sits in front of them. It has an iron surface, with raised edges. The whole thing looks like a pool.
SYLVIA : Now, hand me the senator, please.
She grabs the containers and opens them. She pours the remains over the table. The other can't refrain a noise of disgust. The liquid spreads on the iron basin. Shen then lays a large grid on it, to which many thin cables are connected.
SYLVIA : Would you turn it on, please ?
On the other side, Niels starts a generator. Sylvia moves toward a screen. The others follow. It shows what seems to be a map of the plan covered in human tissues. It's repeatedly lit by luminescent waves, that are slowly drawing white feable branches in the rectangle. The ramifications seem to stem from a central point.
SYLVIA : There's our nervous system.
ASTRID : That's incredible. Even dead and disassembled, thoses cells manage to reconstitute a whole organic network.
NIELS, looking at the table rather than the screen : Hum, look over there.
They turn back and discover that the flesh has become translucid. The so-called network is beaming with a slight intensity. Sylvia walks toward the point of convergence.
SYLVIA : And if there is indeed a database, it's here.
Niels smiles at her, impressed. They both turn to Johnathan, who seems nervous, in a manner of saying : "Your turn." Astrid grins.