grav n. 1

‘Gravs on, Bartram!’ ‘Gravs on, sir!’

Maybe a rocket tube woulda slipped its moorings; maybe the gravs woulda gone dead without no reason.

But I had much to learn, for as the Darkspear nosed down to a landing beside the Freyan ship in the sea of Freyanania, I saw that there were indeed wonders on this little planet, which had quite a strong gravity, for as we shut off the gravs and all the motors of the Darkspear, the load on our feet decreased but little.

He climbed in and depressed the lift-pedal. The gravs took hold.

Other light flares bloomed all over the area, descending very slowly on gravs.

Dobbs, Cryshuil’s engineer, grunted and leaned close to the green…. ‘Gravs should work right now?’ He scowled unhappily.

I informed the captains of what I’d be doing. By then Spanish Lady’s gravs had warmed to full power. I watched as we made lift-up through the ice sky and the fading purple, into a darkness where the city lost its glare, and instead the bright wasps of stars had left their silver-swollen stings.