by John Jonas
CHAPTER 8
Jarvick and Ben were in one of the JPL’s four hangars, and in front of them was a large screen displaying the three dimensional image of the meteorite from Australia. It was the result of a backscatter x-ray scan being performed on it in the big room behind the screen. They could see the mineral deposits that were in the fragment; their location and color were shown in detail. Ben was using a joystick control to rotate the image to get a better view of each section, and recording the image to a file in the computer for later analysis. Every three or four seconds a color print would eject from the printer.
“How are we going to extract the mineral deposits without blowing ourselves up?” Jarvick asked.
“We are going to use the laser cutter, guided by the scans we’re doing now. The computer will control the process, but it’s going to be done in a blast proof room, just in case” said Ben.
“I know the blue crystal is dangerous, I have an idea about the orange one, but I didn’t have a chance to examine the green one. I’m real curious about it, too” said Jarvick.
Ben released the joystick and picked up the printouts.
“We are going to move it to the cutter in an hour, so you’ll have your chance this afternoon, if everything goes well. The one from the Marianas will be here tomorrow and we will start processing that one too.” Ben said. The two men were walking toward his office at the other end of the hangar. Jarvick turned toward Ben and asked “Did you look into arranging a trip up to what’s left of my ship? I really would like to check it out.”
“Yes, I did, and you’re in luck. One of our communication relays over Hawaii is not responding. NASA is sending up an ORCA in two days to get it; and there should be room for your wreck, too.”
“What is an ORCA?” Jarvick asked.
“It stands for Orbital Retrieval Craft; they just put an A on the end to make it sound good. It’s a large, fat spacecraft that looks like the killer whale, so we think it’s named correctly. It takes off on the horizontal, like an old airplane, then transitions to space with a burst of speed. It has two large doors on the top that open up to release or pickup a payload. When it returns to Earth, it does a normal re-entry then lands like an airplane again. It really is a remarkable aircraft, and very useful in the space business.”
Jarvick’s heart seemed to skip a beat. “They have room for me?”
“Absolutely. You’ll need to be at Edwards by tomorrow night for a pre-launch briefing.”
After having lunch, Jarvick wandered over to Ben’s lab and walked in the door. Three long tables had been set up in the middle of the lab and men were pushing carts in with different colored rocks on them. On the first table there were several blue samples varying in size, the largest one two feet in diameter. The second table had orange ones, and the third one had some green ones. These were the mineral deposits from the meteorite; the cutter Ben mentioned had done a precision job removing them.
“Hey, that was fast.” Jarvick said to Ben, who was walking out of his office.
“I’m going to be analyzing these samples over the next week, and I’m going to hold off on the blue one because of what you said about it possibly being explosive. The guys who carried in the green samples said it was very light, but I’m curious about the orange one. What did you find out about it?”
Jarvick explained how he poured the orange powder into his palm in Australia, then how it turned transparent. He also told him about the invisible hole in the one at Tatsumi reef.
Ben asked him “Were you sweating when you poured the powder in your hand?”
“Yes, it was hot down there.”
Ben then said “Saltwater. This orange mineral must react with the salt in the water, and your sweat; or the combination of salt AND water. It will take more tests but I need to put all three through the mass spectrometer first. That will give us a base to work from.”
“I’m pretty sure the blue crystal killed a man. I found a dead guy next to this meteorite and evidence of an explosion. I think he was trying to knock out a sample of it and it reacted to the blow from his rock hammer. Maybe it is sensitive to external force.”
Ben nodded, “That sounds plausible. That could also explain why there was such a large explosion when the asteroid blew up.”
When Ben mentioned the asteroid destruction, Jarvick remembered being on his ship with Cindy when it happened, and asked “Do you need me here anymore? I need a day off to get ready before going up there. I haven’t been to San Diego in a week.”
“Go see your girlfriend, Jarvick, and be back here tomorrow afternoon in time to catch the shuttle to Edwards. I’ve got everything under control here.”