In spite of Ling's misgivings, you decide that you really must check ou the Electronics Department of the lab. Its door swings open automatically as you approach. Inside are various decives that you don't immediately understand. Some appear to be computers; some appear to be just jumbles of wires, coils, and transistors. While Ling takes pictures of everything in sight you notice a device even stranger looking than all the rest: two metalic hoops, one inside the other. The outer hoop is a bronze-gold color and the inner one is silvery. A harness very like a para- chute's harness is suspended from the hoops. There's a kind of plastic backpack at the rear, and in the front there's a control module with two joysticks. You try it on and press the left joystick forward. There's a crackling noise, like static electricity, and electric flashes whirl around the hoops. The flashes from the bronze-gold hoop go clockwise, and the ones from the silvery hoop go coun- terclockwise. Then you rise straight up in the air! Just as you are about to smash against the ceil- ing you pull back on the left joystick, and you start downward. You push it to the center and you float. After a little experimenting, you learn that one joystick controls direction and the other controls speed. "Ling," you call out, I think I've found some- thing interesting!" Continue to the next page