when dave miller (grant williams), the head of san angelo's district geological office, returns from a business trip, he finds ben's corpse in a rock-hard, petrified state and the office's lab damaged by large rock fragments. dave's girlfriend, teacher cathy barrett (lola albright), takes her students on a desert field trip; young ginny simpson (linda scheley) pockets a piece of the black meteorite rock, later washing it in a large tub outside her family's farmhouse. in town dr. e. j. reynolds (richard h. cutting) performs ben's autopsy and cannot explain the body's condition; he informs dave and police chief dan corey (william flaherty) the body is being sent to a specialist. martin returns to the wrecked office with dave where he recognizes the large fragments as the same type of black rock ben had been examining.