Twin Earth

Chapter 5

We landed on a make shift air strip and disembarked the uncomfortable helicopter onto what could have been a mars landscape if it wasn't for the few pylons blown over from the blast. By now it was morning in the Moroccan desert and the early sun was already heating up, with a slight wind blowing in from the West. I knew our mission was going to be tough before I had even acknowledged the minor dust storm around us, as hordes of people were surrounding the area. It was mainly the local military taking charge, but there were also hundreds of locals wandering around trying to get to see the giant space rock. Helicopters buzzed overhead, but I couldn't tell who was in them, possibly news teams from around the world. There were even people on camels wandering around. Other than that, there were no significant signs of any asteroid hitting Earth. In fact, the landscape looked fairly normal, just a flat, baron, sandy looking landscape with red, rocky mountains dotted in the distance. A few Sherpa tents lay strewn across the desert, clearly flattened by the blast, but other than that you wouldn't have known anything had happened.

"Is this it?" I asked confused.

"Like I said, it's weird," Robert replied as we made our way over to some military tents that had been put up away from the crowds.

"Mr Takahashi, Miss Jenkins, my name is Fiona" a short portly looking woman with a faded ESA badge and slight French accent muttered as she shook our hands and ushered us into one of the tents. "Am I glad you're here. It has been absolute chaos."

"I can see," Robert remarked walking over to a couple of computers that had been set up at the back.

"There has just been so much dust in this damn place!"

"Is it a sand storm or from the blast?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not sure, but it is hindering all of our progress. I am expecting a report soon to find out exactly what is causing it."

"How's the object?" Robert asked as he poked at the computers.

"It is in a single piece," Fiona remarked. "We are all in total amazement."

"So, nothing broke up on entry?" I asked stunned.

"It is in a perfect condition. There is not even any kind of crust formation. It is as if it literally dropped onto the desert from space and bounced. It is absolutely remarkable."

"And I hear hardly a crater has formed?" I continued in amazement.

"Barely a crater indeed. More like a... graze of about a mile wide. Even in this sandy landscape it is absolutely remarkable."

"How is this even possible?" Rachel asked.

"Well, the locals certainly heard it, that's for sure. Some people have been taken to hospital with hearing problems and there has been some minor damage to nearby buildings, fallen roofs, chimneys that kind of thing, but no fatalities reported as of yet."

"Can we see it?" Rachel asked.

"I am just waiting on Trevor to arrive and then I will drive us out there. We have to be out of here by three this afternoon though."

"How come?"

"The local government want to preserve it and send in their own scientists."

"You mean sell it," Robert snarled sarcastically.

"We just need to be quick," Fiona quipped. "I agree, it is incredibly frustrating as I would love to get some of my colleagues over from my team at ESA to study this in more detail, but the Moroccan government is being incredibly difficult already."

"At least we're first on the scene," Rachel replied. "That has to be something."

"Ah here is Trevor," Fiona announced walking back outside.

"This is ridiculous," Robert muttered. "We get a once in a lifetime opportunity to study a huge meteorite, which that in itself is unusual, but one that has had a remarkable landing from a remarkable journey and all we get is a few hours to study this thing? I mean who do they think they are? It's ridiculous."

Neither Rachel or I replied as we watched Robert pace back and forth, wiping his brow from either the heat or his stress, I couldn't tell.

"Hi," a slight Texan sounding voice announced from behind us. "Trevor. NASA. Pleased to meet you."

Shaking hands, I introduced myself and looked around the group that had formed.

"Shall we go?" Fiona smiled.

"Please," I replied enthusiastically.