Chapter 16

Step back a few years ... to 2006 ... Far below the earths' crust ... below the lithosphere ... below the asthenosphere ... down where science tells us the temperature is hot enough to melt the very heart of the planet ... there was a glitch. This part of the asthenosphere was approaching melt down. Part of it was caused by the United States' need to test the bombs that civilized man hoped and even prayed would never have to be used again.

Twice the most primitive of those bombs ... the newly born ... were used against humanity ... to save American lives. The people of Japan suffered 250 thousand casualties from the blast of two of the most primitive of nuclear weapons. It ended the war but it began another. A reluctant ally during the recent conflict obtained the wizardry to concoct their own nuclear demons...

America was unaware until the former ally detonated its own primitive copy of the weapon. Unlike the United States, Russia trumpeted its success.

The race was on. Radiation levels in the atmosphere demonstrated rather convincingly that those weapons could eliminate life as we know it without ever having been exploded on foreign soil or used against each other. The Americans began underground testing. Drill a vertical hole in the ground. Place the device. Detonate it.

WIKI QUOTE:

"When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere.

The extreme heat and pressure of an underground nuclear explosion causes changes in the surrounding rock. The rock closest to the location of the test is vaporized, forming a cavity. Further away, there are zones of crushed, cracked, and irreversibly strained rock.

Following the explosion, the rock above the cavity may collapse, forming a rubble chimney. If this chimney reaches the surface, a bowl-shaped subsidence crater may form.

The first underground test took place in 1951; further tests provided information that eventually led to the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which banned all nuclear tests except for those performed underground.

From then until the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, most nuclear tests were performed underground, in order to prevent nuclear fallout from entering into the atmosphere." WIKIPEDIA

Testing in Nevada produced an almost checkerboard of blast subsidence craters. Mother Earth groaned. The Lithosphere was irretrievably broken over an immense area. This caused the Asthenosphere damage. Molten rock rushed from the north west to repair the more solid yet still viscous secondary layer. The area under the Juan de Fuca Plate was weakened ... the weight of two pressing tectonic plates was nearing the point of collapse.

"Shut up, Ed. I'll get it read when I get it read." Persephone and Missy had their heads together and the watch and wrist captured while one read out loud and the other pushed buttons and lifted levers and pushed more buttons and closed said levers.

"Well ... just how much more is there to go?"

Missy was the one reading at this very moment while Seph was dicking with the buttons and levers.

She said, "We're on page," and she looked, "seventeen." and she looked at the very back..."Whoops ... that's Spanish." She thumbed forward, past German and French til she got to the end of English ... American English..."The last page number in the American section is 216."

"Shit! sorry ... no excuse for using bad language in front of a minor ... I'm getting hungry."

"We're almost to a stopping place. Couple three more pages and we'll have it programed so it doesn't stop time pieces if you take it off." She grinned, "We'll feed you then." She got an almost embarrassed look. "I mean ... if it's ok with you Seph." Seph just nodded and kept on keeping on.

"Don't you have school or something?" Ed asked.

"It's Saturday."

"Sorry, brain fart..." Ed laughed, "Well it feels like we've been doing this a week ... my hand is turning purple."

And it was ... Seph exclaimed, "I'm sorry, Ed." She eased up on the pressure. And that caused Ed to shout out in pain.

"Oh shit that smarts..."

"What?"

"The blood restoring circulation."

"Oh ... shall I squeeze it again?"

"Oh god, NO!"

For years there had been signs that not all was well along the coast, in 2008 the glitch began to show itself. Six hundred minor earth quakes in the middle of the Juan de Fuca plate ... all in the middle of the plate and not on the edges.

Rumbles and grumbles, tremors and shaking, the old continent ... ancient remnant of one of the first Supercontinents nearly sighed ... well it did give off an enormous fart ... a massive leakage of sulfuric gas.

"What is that awful smell?" All along the coast, residents awoke to the stench of rotten eggs. One of the more adventurous of the investigative reporters stopped by the local high school and inquired of the chemistry teacher.

"No," he said, "Although, it was one of the first things I checked this morning ... but, no. No student or member of the faculty played with rotten egg gas today, that's scheduled for next week. It should be warmer and we'll be able to open the windows. Perhaps you ... no ... that's a dumb thing ... but maybe..." Gathering up his courage ... the reporter was extremely cute and he was very lonely... "Perhaps you'd care to come by and tape a class..."

She suddenly realized he was tall, blond, good looking in a geeky sort of way ... and he had these blue eyes that looked into your soul ... She blinked. 'Oh god, I'm so horny, ' she thought. Unconsciously, she reached up and unbuttoned a button on her wool dress. "I'd love to come in and do a class."

Her cameraman was positively shocked ... the ice queen?

The teacher ... finally coming into his own ... asked, "How about dinner tonight ... we'll discuss it?"

"I'll cook ... you bring the beer ... sevenish?" She was instantly planing a multitude of ways to serve oysters. "Seafood?"

"I love seafood." 'Yes!' "Sevenish." He thought for a moment as she walked to the door... "Wouldn't you rather have a good wine?"

"I'm allergic to grapes. Beer, but good beer ... microbrew ... something dark and hoppy." She turned and walked through the door and did something she hadn't done since high school ... she strutted.

The girls were positively jealous.

He watched her walk all the way to the stairs ... the bell rang. He shut the door.

"Today class, we're going to explore what happens to water when hydrogen sulfide gas is bubbled through it ... Ah, Miss Yoni ... you're late ... and Mr. Johnson..."

Through the windows ... if one looked ... there were bubbles on the ocean.

"Finally!" Ed grabbed his hand back. "Can we eat now? I'll go warm up the BillyBuilt."

Seph shook her head no. "No Ed, Missy is coming ... we need the Volvo or the Bus." She turned to Missy, "You do want to come? We're going to the BusyBea ... best breakfast in town. Ask your parents if we can borrow you for the day ... scoot."

She scooted.

"Ed, be a dear and call out to Forest Hill and ask them to warm up the Beech?"

"Oh ... we're going to THAT BusyBea." He fumbled for his cell. "I'm hungry now."

"Use the watch to call, Ed. We'll get some breakfast sandwiches of the way to the airport."