Shake, Rattle, and Roll

On my other blog, I posted a challenge: write a story to explain the recent spate of earthquakes. I answered my own challenge during my recent travels and will be posting it in a series of posts. Here is the first section:

"What is it, Fisian?" Honorr asked, holding on the console as the whole TADPOLE continued to shake.

"These readings are jibberish. Do you sense anything, Val?"

Valorie hadn't bothere to grab onto anything, merely lifted her feer from the floor in a partial trance. She had already been seeking, knowing what Fisian would ask. she had considered inviting the others to hold onto her, but didn't bother. Fisian was fully occupied at the controls and Honorr could never get past what his eyes told him, would never believe a floating figure more stable than one locked to the shaking deck and bulkheads.

"Earth, of course," Val said. "something in the space-time fault line has shifted," she said, though until she spoke, she had not known the answer. At times, Honorr accused her of making things true with her words, but Valorie left such things to God and the universe. she was merely a reported, using the Unreal to guide her. "Honorr, chek the broadcasts. I'm sure there'll be earthquakes, floods, some disaster and the TAD shock wave won't be much ahead of the EM braodcasts."

Fisian sighed in relief as the sensor displays settled back to normal but shook her head. "What are they playing at this time? Humans are a short-sighted careless lot at the best of times, but I didn't think they were-"

"Their technology is more like a candle to a torch, nowhere near that powerful and they haven't organized the information explosion well enough, yet, for the next leap. Someone else has been playing in their backyard. NDM probably"

"A few Monolith corpses from eons ago is hardly an indicator that they'll return," Honorr chimed in.

"I just said maybe."

"Anyone from this universe would have been noticed," Fisian acknowledged. "You can't just take a hand drill and shift a planet, even one on gaping faultline like the Sol Cascade. It may not be Monoliths, but it's sometthing from the N-Dimensional counter universe poking around."

"As if they needed any help messing up that poor planet," Val grumped.