Twin Earth

Chapter 6

We bounced across the baron red landscape in a rather forlorn four by four jeep for about an hour, across a mix of sandy and rocky roads. The closer we came to the crater the more obvious it finally did become, with various poorly constructed buildings left in crumbled pieces along the roadside. My heart did sink a little though when I saw some beautiful Moroccan architecture such as arches and tiled facades now laying in broken and smashed piles. The area was deserted with a heavy military presence so whoever had lived here had long gone or been taken to hospital. It still amazed me that there had been no reports of fatalities.

Eventually we arrived at a makeshift military check point and were quickly ushered through, then the road began to suddenly dip down and become more broken up.

"We are now entering the crater," Fiona shouted over the road noise.

"I can certainly feel it," Robert complained, clinging on to the door handle.

Robert had always been more of an office guy than an adventurer and I could tell from experience that he hated being here, even if it was the discovery of the century. Me however, I couldn't hide my excitement, and, on a few attempts, I had to remind myself not to smile so much.

A few minutes later the road seemed to completely disappear, and we struggled to find a path up to another tent further on in the distance, so Fiona decided to pull over. We all jumped out, but our focus was immediately taken away from the awful journey to the huge slab of shiny rock now glistening ahead of us in the desert sun.

"This is it," Fiona smiled ushering us towards the vast object.

Suddenly, I realised something obvious.

"Wasn't it supposed to be much bigger than this?" I remarked. "I'd estimated it was about hundred metres or so. It also seems much flatter." In fact the object was extremely flat with barely any signs of bumpiness or irregularity. "It looks almost alien like," I added.

"I thought you were better than that Tom," Robert quipped. "Let's not jump to any ridiculous conclusions just yet."

Laughing Fiona agreed, "I know what you mean, but from what we have gathered so far, it is of normal geological formation. Nothing unusual in that respect. We believe its shape has occurred due to it hitting something and sheering off."

"That would explain its size," I agreed. "It must have happened when it hit the anomaly, which would suggest that other fragments are still out there."

"That is what we believe, and we have indeed discovered some new fragments near to where the object initially went missing, but they are very dim, so we think they are quite small in comparison to this piece."

"I'm intrigued. Can I take a closer look?" I asked.

"Yes of course. Rachel, Robert, Trevor, will you join the others in the lab tent. I will take Tom over to the object now."

"Very well," Robert acknowledged.

I followed Fiona over to the meteorite and gasped at the sheer size of the strange object up close. If I didn't suspect it was iron based it could easily pass as a huge slab of slate, wedged in the ground as if it had been there for a millennium. It was very long, but only by about forty metres or so and it was incredibly smooth. I watched as Fiona climbed up onto its top face where a few scientists were sat with various instruments.

"Do not worry, it is not hot. There is zero thermal radiation. If anything, it feels quite cold."

I was surprised to see she was right. I leaned over and felt the shiny surface and it was icy to the touch, but what amazed me more was the complete lack of any crust formation from the atmosphere. It was as if it had skipped that part of the journey altogether.