Chapter 4

“Adam, I meant to ask if you were able to get a sample of that petrified sand, which was crystallized and bonded to the meteorite?”

“No, I need a pry bar of some kind to pry it up so I can break it loose from the meteorite itself. I managed to dig beneath it to loosen it from the sand particles on the lake bottom.”

“Let’s go back and see if both of us can break it loose. They won’t be back for a few more minutes.”

“Sure, maybe the two of us can break a piece off large enough to analyze in the lab. Honestly, the more I look at it and hammer on it, the more I’m convinced that it really is some form of heat fused synthetic diamond.”

When we dove into the warm water and swam down to the red alien rock, again I felt like I was entering the bedroom of my home – I was that comfortable here. Adam had left his hammer and chisel lying near the base of it and I passed them to him, before pointing my finger at the side of the meteorite where the crystallized sand had bonded.

The laser buzzed and hissed in the water as I cut a hardened sand wedge loose from the meteorite, then gave it to Adam. There was a bright, reddish-orange glow coming from the side of meteorite where I had cut the wedge of sparkling, crystallized sand away from it.

When I leaned closer to take a look – it was like I could see inside. It appeared to be molten hot in there and what looked like lava to me, was actually boiling and moving inside.

I touched the spot with my fingers and there was warmth, but no extreme heat. I pressed on the side and my fingers penetrated the glowing red slit. Adam grabbed my arm and told me to take my hand out – that it may be dangerous for me to keep it in there. I pulled out a handful of molten, boiling magma and we launched ourselves to the surface

“Boyd, you’ve got to stop taking chances like that! You could have lost a hand doing that!” Adam scolded me.

“I felt like my hand was drawn to the opening in the meteorite, Adam! ... Look at this stuff, I wonder what it is?” I held my hand out and the molten lava was bright red and glowing in my open palm.

“I have no idea but it looks like lava. I can even feel the heat from here. Does it not burn your hand?”

“No. I mean it’s warm but not hot. Is there anyway you can analyze it without anyone knowing about it?”

“I can take a few days and go to the lab with this and the rest of the samples we’ve collected. I’ll need Andrea to go with me, to cut down on lab time.”

“Here they are now. Do you think we can put this in a glass container and keep it?”

“We’ll have to try. If not that, we’ll have to try an earthen bowl or vase of some sort. I doubt any kind of metal container would work.”

Savana and Andrea were both drinking a glass of tea and they’d brought Adam and me a glass. This was just what we needed. They handed us a pint jar of tea with a handle on the side like a beer mug. I turned mine up and drained it.

“Boyd, were you thirsty?” Savana asked, laughing at me.

“Yes, but we needed a glass container for this,” I said, dumping the ice, then dropped the molten lava into the glass.

I wasn’t sure if the glass would contain it or shatter, but the glass held. I looked at my hand and it was clean. Not even a blister or burn.

“What is that, Boyd? It looks like magma from inside a volcano,” Andrea said as she looked at it closely. The glob of red lava matter was still rolling and boiling, but there was hardly any heat.

“That’s exactly what it is. Boyd took this from the inside the meteorite – with his bare hand,” Adam told them, glaring at me.

“Andrea, I want to take all our findings to the lab in Stillwater. I’ll need you to assist me so we can be back here in at least three days. If we leave this afternoon, we can be in the lab before dark and return by the weekend.”

“Sure, Dad. I know we need all the information we can get. I’ll miss Savana and Boyd as I’m sure you will too, but this part has to be done...

“Dad, I’d like for us to use your radar gun and clock Boyd in flight, before we leave. That is if we can even clock him at the speeds he travels.”

“Sure, Boyd and I talked about it earlier...

“Boyd, let’s move up along the flat plain above the lake bed to get a better reading on you.

“Andrea, I’d like to get a timed reading on his speed, as a check against the laser reading with this handheld gun.”

“Sure...

“Savana can you help me with this? We’ll take dad’s hundred foot tape and mark off a strip so he can be timed from one point to another.”

“Boyd, while they’re getting set up with the ground-speed timing, why don’t you make a few low level passes up here? Try passing east to west, then west to east, and we’ll see if this device is capable of clocking your speed.”

With a slight spring by simply bending my knees, I was airborne. I wanted to try a few passes, pushing myself for that top speed I knew was inside me somewhere.

For my first pass, I went vertical over the river. Looking back, I saw Adam standing a few yards from the van, and began my descent.

Where I once had used a frog kick with my legs to attain more speed in my earlier flights, I’ve discovered I can get the same results with just a thought. And now, I propelled myself downward in a path that took me to within a hundred feet of the earth’s surface.

Leveling off, I flew parallel to land as I passed Adam’s position. Then I made another pass, flying from west to east. I felt as if I was flying at even a greater speed on this second pass. Even then, I had this nagging feeling that I wasn’t flying as fast as when I eluded the fighter jet that tailed me out of Oklahoma City. I settled back to earth beside Adam as he was writing on a note pad.

“The first pass must have been a warm up, you were flying 279 miles per hour, but the second pass was off the scale on this device ... I can go into the circuit board and make a few minimal corrections to the circuitry and kick the range up another two or three notches.”

“How long will that take?”

“By the time Savana and Andrea have timed your ground-speed, I’ll have the corrections made.”

I asked Savana and Andrea how they had it laid out so we could get the speed test done. I was really anxious now that Adam told me I was flying faster than three hundred miles per hour. This was pushing the limits of what a college educated, Oklahoma born and bred, Cherokee Indian could comprehend.

They had marked off one hundred yards, then added another hundred yards to that stretch of level ground. I walked it out first, to make sure there were no holes or sticks across the path I would run.

They timed my speed two ways, one from a start like a sprinter in a race. Another when I was already running hard as I crossed the starting point. I ran back to Savana and Andrea, and I could tell they were excited about my speed.

Andrea pointed to her numbers and said. “Boyd, you just broke all the sprint records ever recorded, by more than half. In the dead start, you ran the hundred yard dash in 4.3 seconds. In the running start you ran the hundred in 2.7 seconds. This is incredible, and you’re barefoot...”

“I knew I was kicking up dust, but I had no idea I was moving this fast. It felt like I was strolling, even though I was trying hard. I still feel as if there’s more somewhere inside me, just as it is when I fly. I wonder if there’s an adrenaline factor which kicks in when I feel the need to really move it?”

“Boyd, we want to clock you with the stopwatch as you fly low-level through the same marked points you just ran.”

“Sure, I’ll make my first pass from east to west, just as I did for Adam. Then I’ll come at you from west to east. Do you want me to make two, or three reps?”

Andrea told me, “Dad’s not ready for you, so let’s make three reps each.”

“Here we go,” I said, leaning forward this time, and without the least bit of spring in my legs I was flying. This was getting easier as I gained more experience, and more confidence with my ability to lift off and fly.

I came so low to the ground on the first pass, there was a swirl of red dust in my vortex when I flew vertical and looked back. I made a wide circle to let the dust settle, then went into a dive that really made the ground a blur on my second pass.

I was trying to think of a way to make the next two passes as if I were being tailed once again by the fighter jet. I flew in circles above the starting point, then with a deep breath, I went into my dive right at the river. I flew just above the treetops along the river bank, then out over the open plain along the north side of the lake. I knew I was close to all out, compared to my previous passes. I made my second pass and without hesitation I turned and flew the next pass, mustering all I could, by mentally willing myself to reach back and grab more.

“Wow, Boyd – Look at this,” Savana said as she handed me the calculator.

“Is this in miles per hour?”

“Yes and look at the last pass that Andrea has.”

“I am fast, huh?” I smiled.

“You are one sexy, fast, wild-ass Indian, Boyd Lightfoot! We timed you at twelve hundred, eighty-four miles per hour on the third pass. THEN – you hit sixteen hundred and twenty-five on the last pass.”

“Hey, I know you’ll recheck all your numbers, but that’s fun to know, and WOW – was it ever fun to feel!”

Adam walked over to see their numbers, then told me. “Boyd, I have the laser gun ready to try another speed check if you’re ready.”

“I’m pumped by the fact that I was flying over sixteen hundred miles per hour! I feel like I’m capable of breaking that, if I ever learn what it is that gives me that extra burst of speed.”

I took one step and soared into the air.

I was really feeling good now. I wanted to blow it out for this test. If there is an after burner on my ass, I want to flip the switch and smoke the wind. I flew over the home place, down along the river bed and went into a vertical climb. I had no idea how high I was at any time, but estimating it to be close to a mile, I started my dive directly at the river bed. As I neared the river, I leveled off to the west. I knew I was close to the speed I’d flown earlier this morning in the skies over Oklahoma City when the fighter jet locked on me.

I was no more than fifty feet from the ground when I passed Adam. Then, still in my top-speed frame of mind - I went vertical once more and came back to make another pass, from west to east.

This, was the one I wanted. This pass will surely put to rest, the question of how fast I can fly.

With my hands at my side, my face toward the ground, my legs straight, I flew through the checkpoints again. I never saw Savana, Andrea or Adam as I zoomed past the van. When I made my turn again over the river, I looked back to see all three of them running to the north, out of the dust trail that had a series of dust devils kicking up.

The dust devils were in the rolling whirl of dust caused by my vortex. I looked back at them again and all three of them had their hands over their ears as they ran.

I had no idea why they were doing that...

I settled to the ground next to Adam and he was grinning.

“Boyd, you just broke Mach-3! That last pass was twenty-two hundred and ninety-one miles per hour. There were sonic booms trailing you as you made the last two passes. This is all going to come out one day, when you break the sound barrier over a town or in an open area where people can see and hear you.”

“Why didn’t I hear the sonic booms?”

“The same reason a pilot never hears his aircraft break the sound barrier. You were gone before the sound came out. At Mach-3, there is a series of sonic booms, causing a shockwave much as you described the meteoroid’s sound the night it came rumbling through at low level...

“That’s the reason we were running with our ears covered. We were getting hammered by the shockwaves caused by sonic booms in rapid succession.”

Andrea told me, “We timed you at twenty-two hundred and ninety, on the same pass. This double-check should be as close as we’re able time you with our limited methods.”

“Boyd do you not feel the wind when you fly that fast?” Adam asked.

“I feel like I do when I’m in the water, as if this shroud – or shield is around me, Adam. Almost like a protective layer of air space, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.”

“We still need to come up with some sort of shield for your face, just in case. Traveling at that speed, an insect the size of a gnat would penetrate your skin and even pierce your eyeball.”

“Whoa ... Then we need to get that ASAP,” I agreed.

“I’ll work on that while we’re in the lab. I have some bullet proof, transparent Poly-Carbonate face shields I was working on at one time. I think I can convert them. I know you’ve seen similar shields on athlete’s faces in basketball games, and hockey matches.”

“Yes, I’ve seen those. Will you make it to form-fit my face?”

“Yes, and if you and Savana will come with us, we can do this tonight.”

“We’ll fly up just after dark. Then as soon as you get the mold made, we’ll head back to make sure there’s no one around the place. We can’t afford to let any of this get out.”

“That will work. Just wear some sort of safety goggles like you’d wear in your shop.”

“I have plenty of those in the shop, where I keep my machinery.”

“Good...

...”Andrea, lets get all our gear together that we’ll need and head out as soon as we can. We need to have as much information as we can get, ASAP, before we use the water for its healing powers. We need to find out the true composition of the meteorite’s magma also.”

I could tell Adam was ready to get to his lab and get started. I was glad he was here working with us.

All of us knew our work was just getting started. In the days to come, we would be discovering more and more extreme changes to nature, not to mention the changes to Adam and myself. I rode back to the mobile home with them in the van so we could talk on the way. This was the first time I’d been in a vehicle since Andrea and Adam arrived.

We said our goodbyes and Andrea became emotional, which caused Savana to become emotional. I reminded them that we’d be in Stillwater in a few hours, and that she and Adam would be back here in two or three days at the latest.

I called the builder who had built the metal shop for me a few years ago. He referred me to a home builder who built his home. I called the man and made an appointment for him to come out early tomorrow and bring plenty of plans for a large ranch style, split level home that we wanted to build along the north shore of the lake.

Savana and I spent a long time outside with Custer. He was playful and ready for some attention too.

“We need to start taking him with us when we go to the lake, he misses us since we’re gone all day,” Savana said.

I agreed with her. “We’ll take him with us from now on. He’s used to being with us everyday since he came here as a pup, and it’s not fair to leave him like this.”

I walked out to the triple row of Poplar trees planted on the north, west and south sides of the home place. The leaves had already put out and were nearly full size. This amazed me. I thought the trees were surely dead after seeing them with no leaves and the bark burned brown. The grass around what had been the back yard, was already up and covering the surface with a brighter, greener color than ever before.

Savana wanted to fly naked, so I compromised. We took her backpack with us so we could fly naked in the dark on our return trip.

I took two pair of the clear safety goggles from the shop for us to wear. Savana put her backpack on and we were off. Custer barked and jumped as we lifted off slowly. To him, this was another of the games we were playing.

After what Adam had told me about an insect penetrating my skin, I wasn’t about to fly that fast, carrying Savana and our babies with me. I knew after the events of today, that nothing would or could ever penetrate my skin ... not even a bullet...

I was sure we could be in Stillwater in less than an hour by flying under a hundred miles per hour. My only problem was, I had no way to determine my air speed. Savana was thrilled to be flying in the early evening. The lights across the earth’s landscape look like Christmas lights strung across the countryside. With the small towns lit up like trees during Christmas season. I knew there would be air force jets patrolling the air space around Tinker Air Force Base east of Oklahoma City, just as there would be near Vance Air Force Base south of Enid. I set a course east, then turned due north, parallel with I-35, to fly up the east side of the interstate.

Savana was lying on my back, holding onto my shoulders with both hands. She felt really good against me and I knew we were in for a very sensual trip home. I felt good just thinking about her sitting astraddle my waist as we soared free as a bird.

She knew exactly where we needed to set down without being spotted. I saw where she pointed and settled to the ground close beside Adam’s van.

Adam’s laboratory is underground and has only one exit that actually opens directly to the outside. Savana tapped on the metal door and we waited until the door slowly opened with Andrea peeking out to see us. We hurried through the door and hugged her as if we had been apart for weeks.

I asked her, “How are the tests coming? Have you been able to get any of them set up?”

“Oh yes. We started first, with the ones we knew would take the longest. Then we worked our way down to the ones which take the least amount of time. We have all the operations running now and we’ll start recording data before morning,” Andrea explained, then added. “Daddy has the face shields ready, and he thinks he may have some that will fit your facial features until he can mold you a couple of personal shields.”

“Great. I was afraid to fly very fast with Savana on my back, after he told us about being hit by an insect. I was afraid of hitting a bird or a bat as we flew.”

“I’ve asked Daddy to make Savana and me a Kevlar helmet with a polycarbonate, pull down face shield so we’ll be protected when we fly with you.”

“Great idea. I wasn’t that worried about myself, except for maybe my eyes. But I was very concerned about Savana flying this far, even inside my shroud. I like the idea of the protective helmets and face shields for both of you.”

“Let’s go back to where Dad has the molds he used when he worked on the new crash helmets for the university. OSU patented three different models, with his design and specs.”

Adam was glad to see us and went right to work taking measurements on Savana and Andrea, then he put an odd looking mold over their heads and closed it for a few seconds. The interior was some kind of memory foam which would keep their facial shape. He would use this to make his mold for the polycarbonate face shield. He used the same technique to mold a shield for my face.

Adam looked at me, smiling as he said, “Boyd, I’d like make one shield with an all darkened face except for the eyes, for day flight. I’ll make you another that is completely clear for night flight.”

“Sounds good to me.”

His efforts to make this as safe as possible were appreciated, since none of us knew anything about the risks of flight by a man, except inside an aircraft.

Savana and I stayed with them for an hour, then we left. We shook Adam’s hand and turned to hold Andrea tight, patting the small bump on her belly. When we stepped out into the darkness, we stripped. Savana packed our clothes into her backpack and pulled it up over her shoulders. As I stooped just a bit, she draped her arms over my shoulders.

As soon as I stood, we flew vertical into the night sky over the campus. I continued vertical for a few hundred feet, then headed south-southwest toward home.