"Amuck"

[OdileCondacin 0]

Things were going boom. Well, not "boom", exactly. "Shake" and "crash", maybe. Maybe even "clunk".

 

Now, to be sure, earthquakes were moderately common on tectonically active planets -- and a fair share of ones that were not. However, even though Odile wasn't a geologist she was loosely aware of the fact that large-scale earthquakes were verging on "common" as well. But multiples along unconnected faults? Now that was odd.

 

Her gut reaction -- well, second -- was "weapon". It wouldn't be a horrible shock to her if the Soltans had found some awful way to exploit seismic disaster to their advantage. It would be just crafty enough for a few other species, too, if they wanted to start playing nasty and take advantage of the Federation when it was down. Odile frankly wouldn't put it past the Rest of the Universe.

 

Well, idle speculation was foolish, especially with the readings they were getting. Frankly, the wave patterns were erratic. Too erratic to to constructed, really. Most of the play with SAT (Seismic Alteration Technology) that Odile had seen needed even pulses of energy to maintain the seismic waves -- even pulses that manifested themselves in similar bursts through the planet's crust. Unless something went wrong, there were always patterns.

 

Odile paused, her train of thought derailing. Now, there was an idea. Could something have gone wrong? Not a weapon, per se, but something? A new energy technology, or research, or... well, scientific progress gone kersplat?

 

With a growing frown, she started poking at some more information, as well as some sci-journals coming out of it. Something was amuck.