The story opens when a comet named Gallia collects a few tiny bits of Earth while passing by it in midair. The disaster occurred close to Gibraltar on January 1st 1885. There are still 36 people in the territory the comet has occupied who are of French English Spanish and Russian nationalities. At first they don't know what's happened and think there's been an earthquake instead of a collision. Adjutant Ben Zoof for Captain Servadac surprises himself by jumping 12 meters (39 feet) in the air as