adossia

"I was present myself, Your Right Reverence, at the first experiments in which Saint Venoma tested the principle he had discovered. "The whole secret lay in this: when rays of elekilpomagtistzen were made to pass through this special glass, they destroyed everything in their path that the atmosphere of planets is usually composed of, such as 'air,' 'gases' of all kinds, 'fog,' and so on. This part of space became absolutely empty, without resistance to pressure, so that if even an infant gave this enormous structure a push, it would move as lightly as a feather. "On the outer side of this peculiar structure were appendages like wings, which were set in motion by this same substance elekilpomagtistzen, and gave the impetus to move this immense structure in the required direction. "And so, when the results of these experiments had been approved and blessed by the Commission of Inspection, under the presidency of the Archangel Adossia, the building of a big ship on these principles was begun. "The ship was soon ready and commissioned for service. And this type of ship gradually displaced all the systems that had existed before. Later, Your Right Reverence, the inconvenience of this system became more and more apparent; nevertheless it continued to be used exclusively on all the lines of trans-space communication.

"It cannot be gainsaid that the ships constructed on this principle were ideal in atmosphereless spaces, and moved there with almost the speed of the 'etzikolnianakhnian' rays issuing from planets; yet when they approached some sun or planet it became real torture for the beings directing them, as much complicated maneuvering was necessary because of this same law of falling. "For as soon as a ship came into the atmospheric medium of some sun or planet that it had to pass, it immediately began to fall toward that sun or planet and, as I just said, great care and considerable knowledge were needed to keep the ship from falling off its course. "While the ships were passing near any sun or planet, their speed often had to be reduced hundreds of times below their usual rate. "It was particularly difficult to steer them in any sphere where there was a large aggregation of 'comets.' "Great demands were therefore made upon the beings who had to direct these ships, and they were prepared for their duties by beings of very high Reason."