"Don't worry about him. I pricked his hand with a little _Catalepsol_. In fifteen minutes he will be all right again." He slammed the door of his space flyer and simultaneously the machine rose as if shot from a cannon, and in ten seconds was lost to sight. * * * * * Since the Dark Ages, men have had a powerful longing to leave Earth and visit other planets. Towards the end of the twenty-first century, when atmospheric flying had become common, scientists began seriously to think of constructing machinery to enable man to leave the confines of the planet to which humanity had been chained for ages. Towards the beginning of the twenty-second century economic conditions had become acute and the enormous population of Earth, which had passed the twelve billion mark, clamored for an adequate outlet which the planet itself could no longer furnish. The moon was regarded with longing eyes, and although that body was known to have no atmosphere and was known to be sterile, it was equally well known that Earth's scientists and engineers felt that they could, in a few years' time, make it habitable. Atmospheric flying machines were, of course, totally unsuited, as they could not even reach the limits of the Earth's atmosphere, only forty miles away. Obviously to reach the moon or any other celestial body, it was necessary to devise a method of overcoming the enigmatical force known as the Earth's gravity, which chains all bodies to the planet. A multitude of inventions and suggestions were made, but none proved to be of any value until the _Anti-Gravitator_ was invented by the American 969L 9 in the year 2210. This scientist had made extensive studies of the gyroscope and had finally evolved a machine which when set in motion would rise freely and continue to rise as long as power was supplied. The action, moreover, was purely gyroscopic. 969L 9 took a large hollow sphere (the rotor) inside of which he built a number of independent gyroscopes, all of which traveled in fixed orbits. The large sphere which hung in a gyroscopic frame was made to spin around on its axis at great speed. This sphere thus acted as the fly-wheel of a gyroscope and as such was not influenced by the so-called _horizontal gravity_. As in the case of simple gyroscopes, its axis would always be in a vertical line as long as the spheric rotor was in motion. If, however, the independent gyroscopes inside of the sphere were set in motion by means of electrical current, the _Vertical Gravity_ (weight) was overcome, the entire contrivance rising into the air, its rising (lifting) speed being directly proportional to the speed of the enclosed gyroscope rotors. From 969L 9's experimental work the anti-gravitators were perfected, and it became possible to lift a weight of 1,000 kilograms with an anti-gravitator weighing but 12 kilograms.