Obligatory XKCD reference: if somebody saw it fall, it wasn't a meteorite :-) explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1723:_Meteorite_Identificatio‌​n

I've checked the book, the name is spelled "zebedee" with one less "e". I've checked the biblical character with the same name, but there is no connection to springs or diseases, so it's probably just a coincidence. The word is Italian slang for a part of the male anatomy that is distinctly ovoidal, but this is certainly a coincidence :-)

Why was this question closed, and not the most recent one? The guidelines listed here scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5167/… do not help much: both questions are informative, both were answered correctly and the answers themselves were well-written; usually in this case shouldn't the newer question be pointed here?

If the answer is Contact, I officially feel old ("a long time back", indeed! :-) )

@TylerH edited. The size of a legion and a brigade is defined in the Appendix. No idea of how large a "battle group" is, but context suggests that it's smaller than a brigade.