Digital Life Form - part 1

 

Night falls swiftly and silently in the Kern County corner of the Mojave Desert, the sky shimmering a pale orange as the sun sets towards the Pacific Ocean, glowing faintly to the south from Los Angeles light pollution, turning ink black to the east with only the faintest hint of Las Vegas burning like an ember in the distance.  Twenty-three miles northwest of Edwards Air Force Base the rapid change from day to night, from scorching sky to freezing desert, was marked solemnly by the oil exploration crew fighting the mechanical failure while the small amount of light remained.  Chuck Evans looked at his watch, knew that his work for the day was complete regardless of the progress by the engineer swearing at the jammed drill chuck.

‘Leave it, Sam,’ he said, resting his palm on the big man’s shoulder, feeling the muscles ripple as Sam Corbet braced against the wrench as he heaved hopelessly to free off the jammed mechanism.  ‘Soak it overnight, we’ll bring the heavy gear tomorrow,’ he added.  Sam didn’t respond, just pulled hard and steady until he felt a fraction of movement.

‘Ten minutes, Chuck,’ he said, not looking, ‘I think I can separate the main shaft before we return to the base camp.  If I leave it jammed like this overnight the temperature change is gonna make it twice as hard tomorrow, especially if you Geologists sleep in as usual.’  Chuck laughed, walking away from his friend and two mechanics.  They’d worked on oil exploration projects all over the country for nearly eight years, both being recruited from the class of ’71 in their respective disciplines.  Sam was a workaholic, a problem solver of all things mechanical, and didn’t trust any technology he couldn’t tweak with a wrench or a screwdriver.  ‘Go and find some of those fancy rocks from space you keep talking about,’ he added, ‘that should keep you quiet.’ 

Chuck grinned at his friend and turned towards the Jeep, shaking his head.  ‘I’ll start throwing the rest of the gear in and call base to let them know we’ll be late,’ he shouted as he walked away, ‘let me know if you need me to keep any tools or long levers out.’ 

Bracing, he clasped a canvas bag containing core samples pulled from the ground during the day and heaved them onto the truck bed.  As the Jeep’s springs compressed the rear frame dipped and a flash of light caught his eye.  The flare of the meteorite intensified, and he realised by the faint hissing sound that it was close, real close.  The impact sound, a muffled thud, was probably less than thirty feet away, certainly no more than forty.  Chuck’s heart raced – the meteorites weren’t unexpected, there had been a number showering the west coast for several days and he’d witnessed several flying past as the night crept in – but the chances of seeing one land so close?

Running across the scorched, barren ground towards where he believed the rock to have landed Chuck tried to keep his focus on the rapidly darkening desert.  He knew there were Joshua trees dotted in this direction and he guessed that the rock had landed inside the cleared perimeter the drilling crew had created.  If he reached the Joshua trees then he’d have gone too far, if he ran into one he’d regret it, the barbs raking his skin would leave him sore for hours.  Stopping to regain his bearings Chuck looked forward, scanning no more than thirty degrees each way.  The trees marking the perimeter were fading into the blackness of the desert about ten feet ahead and there was at least one to his right.  Turning on his heel he spun slowly back towards the drilling rig, scanning the near ground carefully for some indication of disturbance.  Shuffling forward, sliding his right foot from side to side, dragging rough silica as he went, Chuck explored slowly. 

As the rig faded into the darkness he saw a faint glow two feet to his left.  Stooping, then kneeling, Chuck cupped the rapidly cooling meteorite carefully in his hands, the leather geologist gloves insulating him from the heat of the rock.  Suppressing a cry of joy he scooped up the rock and made his way back to the rig, guided by the swearing from Sam.

‘You’re a good omen Sam,’ he shouted as he drew level with the Jeep, ‘if only you could use that skill for finding oil.’

‘You got one, that quick?’ asked Sam, standing, wrench hanging slackly by his side, the grin telling Chuck that Sam had beat the shaft.  Chuck held out the meteorite, dusting the sand off the top surface where it had melted onto the rock on impact.

‘Bout a pound weight, pound and a half tops,’ he said, ‘I’ll do some analysis tonight instead of throwing my bonus away on you guys playing cards.’  Sam ignored the comment, Chuck won as much as he lost and hell, the guy earned more than he could spend any time.  He reached out with an ungloved hand and felt the warmth of the rock.

‘Jeez, it’s hot.  It just landed?’ he asked.  Chuck nodded, shook his head in the direction of the impact site.

‘Saw it land, nearly lost it again in the dark.’  Michael, one of the mechanics leaned forward to look.

‘Don’t we have to give it to the government or NASA or something like that?’ he asked.  Chuck shrugged, shook his head.

‘I’m not aware we have to,’ he said.  ‘Anyway, if we give it to the government then they’ll just ask a geologist like me to analyse it.’

‘So why not leave it with the best?’ asked Sam, throwing his tools into the back of the Jeep.

‘Exactly,’ replied Chuck, dragging the glove off his free hand by clasping it between his knees.  As the glove waved in front of him he carried out an exploratory feel of the surface.  ‘It’s cooling rapidly,’ he said, laying his ungloved hand carefully on the meteorite, feeling the scarred and pitted surface, tried to guess the composition just by touch.  ‘Just think, a few minutes ago this was hurtling through space, it’s possibly travelled for eons through countless galaxies before ending on a rat run around our solar system.  And then today it loses its fight to fly for eternity and plummets to within a few yards of this spot.  If it’d landed a few minutes earlier or later I’d have missed it and it would have been pure chance whether anyone would have found it, ever.’ 

Chuck stopped and looked at the three faces staring at him, then smiled.  ‘Not a big deal to you guys, I guess,’ he said, pushing the rock into the canvas bag he kept his personal gear in, swinging it into the back of the Jeep.  They answered him wordlessly by loading the rest of the gear in a few swift movements.  Within a minute he and Sam were sat in the front with the two mechanics stood holding onto the anti-roll frame, knees ready to absorb the three-mile cross-country drive to the base camp where the two other crews would have converged already.

‘You call to say we were running late?’ asked Sam.  Chuck shook his head and reached for the Motorola radio.

*************************************************************************************

Digital Life Form will be back with part 2 tomorrow.  Can't wait?  Like all of my books Digital Life Form is available as an eBook and paperback on Amazon and can be read for free if you're an Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited customer.