by John Jonas
CHAPTER 5
Jarvick could see a small city on the horizon as Charlie put the small plane in a descent toward a dirt runway in the middle of a clearing. He could see where the red dust on the plane came from. Next to the runway there were two hangars and a house. The plane bounced a couple of times then came to a stop next to one of the hangars, then Charlie shut the engine off. A short, dark skinned man walked out wearing only shorts, followed by a dog that had gray hair around its snout, making it look old. Jarvick walked around the back of the plane and toward the group as Charlie said “Jarvick, this is Harry, he’s my assistant here.” Greetings were exchanged and Charlie told Harry to make sure a jeep was ready to go, then the two men walked to the house followed by the slow moving dog.
They emerged thirty minutes later after a bathroom stop and having a quick snack, greeted by a jeep that was parked right in front of the door. It had two metal jugs strapped to the bumper, one labeled PETROL and one labeled WATER. There was a GPS unit mounted to the dash that Charlie powered on as they got in, the dog jumping in the back seat without being told.
“Okay, sport, show me where we’re going on this thing.” Charlie pointed to the GPS.
Jarvick pulled out the sheet Ben had given him, and after studying it and the GPS, he moved his finger on the screen and said “Right here” pointing to a spot on it.
“Okay, then. I’ll go west to Stuart Rd then head south to the old telegraph road and then head east. We should be there before sundown, buckle in and hang on.”
After an hour of rough road, bumps, being thrown around the jeep after being airborne; Jarvick was surprised that the dog was still with them. Evidently he was used to Charlie’s driving and learned to stand up and keep his balance during the worst of it. Charlie kept an eye on the GPS as he drove, and the jeep came upon a ridge that overlooked a dark spot in the distance. They headed in that direction and had to drive around rocks and debris in their way as they approached. Charlie stopped the jeep at the edge of a darkened crater and the both of them looked on the grisly scene before them. Halfway down into the crater there was half a man’s body, the lower half. At the bottom of the crater there was a black boulder, split in half, that had different colored spots in it. Jarvick knew that this was a piece of the asteroid that had crashed to Earth months ago after the explosion. What he didn’t know was why there was a body here, and how it had gotten so badly damaged. It smelled like it had been there a few days, so where was the rest of him?
“Crikey!” Charlie said. “Where did the rest of this bloke go?”
Both of them got out, followed by the dog, Charlie saying “stay here” to it. Jarvick walked down into the crater, avoiding the corpse, and began to study the meteorite. It was hotter down here with no wind and he began to sweat even more. Charlie stayed at the top, removing his hat and wiping his face and brow. “We should tell the Constable about this body when we get back to town.”
Jarvick saw in the main fissure between the two halves of the meteorite a blue crystal like mineral at the edges. There were other blue areas in the rock, but this area seemed to be the source of a violent explosion. There were scorch marks around a hole in the fissure, and looking further down into the crack he could see more blue, green and orange spots.
“Jarvick, I think the dog found something” Charlie said from the craters edge. Jarvick looked up to see the dog holding something in its mouth. Charlie took it and said “It looks like a hammer” and walked down to join him. Jarvick took it and saw that it had scorch marks and appeared to be damaged. The handle was intact but the chrome on the working end was burned off and the metal was bent and the pick point was missing.
“He must have been trying to remove a sample from the meteorite, maybe from here.” Jarvick said, pointing to the area he was examining earlier. “That blue crystal might be explosive, better stay away from it until we can analyze it.”
Jarvick picked up a small pill bottle and opened it.
“It looks like he took a sample from here” pointing to a crack in the rock that held an orange powder. He poured the powder into his palm and looked at it; and as he looked, he watched as the middle of his palm became transparent and he could see through his hand at the ground below it. Charlie looked at it and said “I’ll be gobsmacked, how did that happen? Does it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt; it must have properties that causes whatever it touches to become invisible, unless it reacts to the air or sweat, or skin. Hand me your canteen.”
Charlie opened his canteen and poured out some water for Jarvick to wash his hand with. He rinsed off his hand and it became visible again.
“Wow, we have to get this meteorite back to the JPL and study it.” The two men climbed out of the crater; Jarvick picked up his satellite phone from the back of the jeep and dialed.
Ben looked at his clock and saw that it was 3:30 in the morning, his phone was ringing, not his alarm clock. He picked it up and managed to mumble a hello.
“Ben, this is Jarvick. Are you awake?”
Ben sat up, “Yes, what did you find?”
“We have to get this meteorite to the lab. It has some unusual mineral deposits embedded in it that we should take a look at. Do you think the Australians would object to us taking it back to the U.S.?”
Ben turned his light on and grabbed a pencil. “While you were in the air yesterday, Terry contacted the Australian Embassy here and told them what we were doing. They said there would not be a problem with us taking it off of their hands. Also, we have arranged for an Air Force cargo lifter to be in the area in case we needed it. Can you get it to Darwin?”
“I think so, but it will probably take about 24 hours. I have to get it moved to a more solid piece of ground so it can be lifted onto a truck. I have a local here with me that may be able to help.” Charlie nodded his head yes.
Ben said “Good. The Air Force jet will be at Darwin International in 24 hours. Are you going to ride back with it?”
Jarvick said “No. I want to stop at another impact site and see what else came down. I’ll keep you updated.”
“Okay, good luck.”
Jarvick hit the END button on the phone and turned to Charlie.
“We need to get this rock onto a truck, got any ideas?”
Charlie rubbed the week old stubble on his chin and said “There is a heavy lift helicopter that is used to help with brushfires here. Last I heard, it was over at Yuendumu Airport, west of here. Can I borrow your phone?”
Jarvick handed him his satellite phone and went back down into the crater. He could here Charlie talking as he looked around some more at the meteorite. There was still one more mineral he had not examined yet, the green deposit. Glancing at the blue one, he thought it would be better to leave it alone. The sun was setting anyway, and it would be dark soon, so he went and picked up the damaged rock hammer and climbed out of the crater. Charlie said “The helicopter can be here in an hour, and one of my mates has a flatbed truck. We can load it on that and drive it to Darwin. I also called the Constable about that body; he said he’ll be out here straight away.”
Jarvick thanked him and they both sat down in the jeep, Charlie’s dog jumped in the back, and they waited for the helicopter as the sun began to drop below the horizon. Charlie pointed at the meteorite and said “Well, look at that. It’s glowing.”