[Solid water] Compound composed of hydrogen and oxygen, essential to support carbon-based life. Keeping it in the solid state makes it easy to carry.
"...isn't it ice?"
"no, no, no. Ice is ice, this is water, just in the solid state."
"...isn't that the definition of Ice?" -- Anon Guest
Galthax took a deep breath, twining hir tentacles in a thoughtful manner. "Ice is frozen water. This is solid water. There is a difference."
Human Iz scrunched their face up, attempting to comprehend and evidently burning out some brain cells in the process. "Solid water. That's not ice."
"Correct," said Galthax. "Water compressed and pressurised to the point where it stops being liquid at above zero temperature. It's all in the magic of gravy drives."
Iz was still frowning. "Hahn?" A very Human noise of non-understanding.
Right. Ze had to put this in terms a Human could understand. "There's solid metal hydrogen in the core of Jupiter, correct?" Ze waited for Iz to nod. "Yet the core of Jupiter is very hot. Hydrogen should not exist in that state at that temperature."
"Oh! Right. It's the gravity So the whole thing is in a virtual gravity field to turn it solid?"
Great. They'd connected the dots. "Exactly. Solid water."
The Human's next question was one of empathy. "Is the Gravy Drive okay with this? Not straining itself?"
What a species. No wonder they never discovered Slood.
[Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash]
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