Ever since we first saw this highway of light on the screen and were
told it was the light coming from a distant star, and the drawing power
by which this ship is travelling through space at such a terrific
speed, we have wondered what would happen when we had to turn around
to go back to the Moon. Now we are about to find out. Remember, the
ship is travelling forward at a speed of one and half million miles
per hour. The pilots are about to turn it around, which means they
will break the light beam which is straight ahead of us, that has been
furnishing the energy for propelling the ship forward. We have made the
turn now with the ship retaining its terrific speed, yet we felt no
break in the movement of the ship, except that it seemed to lower just
a little bit.
We watched the screen while the turn is being made and the fine line
of light which was shown in it before, has vanished. We have made a
complete turn now, and are heading back to the Moon. Now the light
appears on the screen again, but this time we are being pulled by the
Moon light, towards the Moon, instead of the star light we were riding
on before.
We asked, "what made the ship operate during the turn? Was it the speed
that made it continue on without being pulled by the light beam, or
what was it?"
The explanation given us was, that light energy was still being used
to propel the ship. During flight on a beam of light, excess energy is
stored up within the ship by means of mechanical devices. This is an
emergency supply and is sufficient to propel the ship for fifty million
miles without coming onto any beam anywhere, if such a condition should
ever arise. It is from this supply of light energy that their ships are
able to be turned around in space, as well as take off into the air
from a landing field, before they hook onto the light lane.
Now we have landed back on the Moon. This has really been a marvelous
experience, one that we can never forget any more than any of the
others.
Oh, Oh! We see a ship coming in, a monster, a lot bigger than the one
we were in just now. She is circling for landing. They are giving her
the signal light from the tower. Oh, we cannot mistake this one. We
know what it is without asking for it has the picture of its planet
right on it as an insignia. Yes, bet you have guessed by this time. It
is Saturn. Man! she takes up plenty of room, nearly the whole field.
At least it appears that way. Her design is quite different than any
we have seen before. She has a chisel type nose and a fan shape tail.
She has fins on her, something like fish, very close to the body. She
has landed very gracefully, and she also makes no noise. She is almost
alongside the Venetian ship and from what we can judge, is about five
hundred feet longer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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