CHAPTER 10
A week later, Ben was in his laboratory when Jarvick walked in; the tables with the samples from the asteroid had been removed. When Ben noticed Jarvick, he asked him how his trip went.
“They put me to work up there.”
“Sorry, that was the only way I could get you a seat. Did you bring anything back down?”
“Yes, the bridge section. It was blown free of the rest of the ship and it looks like there is some equipment that is salvageable. It took us a while to get it in the cargo bay, but it’s now on the way here on a flatbed truck with a tarp over it. I stayed at Edwards to arrange the transfer; where can I put it when it gets here?”
Ben thought a moment, then said “Have them deliver it to the Mars Hangar. It’s on the east end of the campus, next to the Mars Yard.”
“Mars Yard?” asked Jarvick.
“Fifty years ago, they built a spacecraft called the Mars Rover. It was used to remotely explore Mars and send back pictures and data. They built a mockup of the Mars terrain so they could test the rover in it. The hangar isn’t used anymore and it’s empty; so it should be big enough for your needs.”
Jarvick looked around at the lab and asked “Where are all the rocks that were here?”
“I moved them over to the building next door. It’s bigger and we have room for three separate labs that we set up. We’ve discovered some interesting things about your asteroid deposits; come on, let me show you.” Ben motioned for Jarvick to follow him as they left through a side door out of the lab. Ben led him through a short, narrow hallway that ended at a locked door with a sign that said HANGAR 2 on it. Ben had to swipe his ID through a card reader, the door clicked, then opened into a large aircraft hangar that had partitions that separated three different areas of the concrete floor. They were standing in a roped off walkway that ran the length of the hangar, and there were men in lab coats typing into their computers amid a sea of scientific equipment.
The two of them walked to the far end of the hangar to the first section where there were tables and platforms set up with test equipment and computers, electrical wiring and meters, scales, welding gear, a blast shield and various other experimental equipment that Jarvick had never seen before. There was a handwritten sign that said BLUE STATION, and Ben turned to Jarvick and said “Obviously, this is the area where the experiments on the blue crystal deposits were done. We found that it has at least two characteristics, or properties, that we know of. The first one is that it can be a source of an enormous amount of electricity under the right circumstances. The second is that it has some kind of kinetic projection forces that we are still trying to define. When we put the crystal under pressure, like squeezing it in a vice or putting it under weight, it generates a large amount of electricity; the greater the pressure, the higher amount of power. It doesn’t take much and you have to be careful; if there is no outlet for the power to release to, it builds up and feeds back on itself and there can be catastrophic results. That’s probably what happened to your geologist in Australia.”
Jarvick nodded and said “That’s right, he hit it with a rock hammer and it killed him. What about the kinetic properties you mentioned?”
“The electricity that it generates when under pressure is direct current, or DC, like static electricity, but more like lightning. When we exposed it to alternating current, or AC, different objects around it in the lab moved around by themselves. Most of them moved away from the crystal, and some of them moved closer. This stuff is amazing, but it also has great potential. We’re still learning about it.”
Ben pointed to a light bulb on a counter. “You see that light that’s on? It is being powered by a sample of a blue crystal the size of a pencil eraser that is under a small amount of pressure. We placed a stapler on top of it and ran two wires to the bulb.”
Jarvick could only shake his head and say “Wow.”
Ben motioned for him to follow and they walked to the second section, the sign read ORANGE STATION.
“This compound is easier and safer to work with, the orange deposit. We think it has only one property; it reacts to sodium chloride, or salt. When you put some in your hand when you were sweating, it turned invisible. When it was submerged in the ocean, it was invisible then too. We don’t know how it works, but it has some kind of light refraction capability. Watch this.”
Ben picked up a spray can and pointed it at a lamp, spraying it with a liquid. The lampshade disappeared.
“We mixed it with some saltwater and put it under pressure in this spray can. As you can see, it works quite well. The invisibility can be washed off with a little fresh water. Some of the guys around here are real jokers; one of them even sprayed himself and walked around invisible messing with people. We now keep this in a locked cabinet.”
Jarvick laughed, “Why isn’t the spray can invisible?”
“I think it’s because there is no light inside the can.” Said Ben.
“What about the green rocks?” asked Jarvick.
Ben began walking toward the third section, “You’re not going to believe what we have there.” Jarvick followed him to the GREEN STATION sign and the both of them entered into the area.
One of the tables had several pieces of the green crystal on it, and there was a hole in one end of it. Ben picked up one of the pieces and tossed it to Jarvick; and what he saw was just like Ben had said, he could not believe his eyes. When Ben tossed it into the air toward him, the piece no bigger than a grape, gently floated toward him like a soap bubble. Slowly, it drifted in an arc and very lightly landed in his hand, almost weightless, as if it was in slow motion.
All Jarvick could say was “Fascinating!It weighs almost nothing.”
Ben then said “We discovered that it also is influenced by an electrical charge, depending on the polarity. With a positive charge, it shoots into the air, as if it is fighting against gravity. With a negative charge, its weight seems to amplify.”
Ben pointed at the hole in the table. “That is the result of one our tests. It crashed through the table and hit the floor very hard.” Jarvick could see the splintered edges around the hole, and said “It’s just like Kalderite!” as his mind started racing and ideas were taking shape, then he thought about his brother.
Jim, I’m going to need your help again.