After anchoring, the animal survives by pumping vast amounts of air through its alimentary canal, straining micro-organisms from Die air for sustenance. Aside from its size, the Heart Scallop bad been seen as nothing extraordinary, except by some of the slaves on the Forannis Triad. Gofitle discovered that the slaves used the scallops to aid in their work: they would carefully trim the shell of a large scallop, and, by connecting it to a series of levers and rods, transform the Heart Scallop's continual bellows action into usable power, Golitle had been looking for some .method of constructing a flying machine thai could combine the versatility of a bird with the size of an artificial aircraft, and she discovered the secret she sought in the Heart Scallop. She petitioned the emperor to allow die entire group to travel to the Forannis Triad: the petition received rapid approval. Golitle removed her entire research facility to die triad and began intensive experimentation, culminating in 7580 with the test flight of the first true onuthopter. The basic element of the common orni-thopter is the installation at the wing-junctures of a domesticated, specially-bred Heart Scallop which is connected to a series of electrical leads. The electrical currents have two purposes: one line is used to shock the bivalve into dormancy when the pilot of the ornithopier wishes to utilize fixed-wing flight (normally jet-assisted). When the power is disconnected, the Heart Scallop immediately resumes pulsing, thus providing the omithop-ter with a certain amount of fail-safe capacity. The other line in the electrical system is connected to the mollusk's nerve centers, and, when engaged, causes the Heart Scallop to increase its pulsation rate by an amount which varies with the intensity of the current. This second line is seldom used except when the pilot wishes to brake rapidly or wishes to take off from a constricted site. The efficiency of the ornithopter's "engine" is difficult to surpass. The scallops need very little maintenance They must be periodically retrimmed to prevent them from growing beyond the constraints of their installation pods, but the connections between the tnol-hisk and the aircraft assembly are remarkably durable, since the animal treats the wing and body of the ornithopter as if those structures were its own shell.