Chapter 19

Meanwhile, simmering off the coast of northern California and in to Oregon, Washington and a bit of British Colombia, the Juan de Fuca plate had increased its movement from 60 millimeters to 18 centimeters ... that's almost 10 inches ... accompanied by outgassing (bubbles) and a noticeable drop in local sea level.

The Cascade Arc of volcanoes were pooting and poofing a little more regularly and the forest was yellowing like mad. Fishing in the neighborhood sucked and boats needed painting ... the high acidity of the water was doing terrible things to both the fisheries and the boats. There was a pervading smell of crude oil.

Lung cancer was up and the abandoned Nuclear Facility storage tanks at Hanford were leaking. Seismic activity in Nevada was on the increase and the Madrid fault was experiencing an upswing of small quakes on the west side of the floodplain.

It SELDOM quakes in east Tennessee ... but there was a very noticeable 3.7 on the Virginia/Tennessee border. Knoxville bounced around nicely. Knoxville is a hundred and twenty-five miles from the epicenter.

Nifty and neat things were happening all over the eastern half ... the western half was looking like a coming disaster ... If they only knew ... well, they did ... know. But the honchos in Washington, DC had other snakes in an untied tote sack and the snakes were getting out and biting politicians on the ass.

Global Warming was turning out to be one great big truth ... no matter what the Shrub claimed in the previous presidency. Backing the Banks to save the Bankers had turned around when the Bankers paid themselves multi million dollar bonuses with bailout bucks. And now ... and NOW ... AND NOW ... a president wanted to begin the elimination of the Bill of Rights because the Articles were dangerous for children.

The first non dodge-able evidence was the broadcast from the International Space Station ... public, mind you ... that there was a red glow in the ocean just where the Juan de Fuca Plate made it's ever so unstable home. It was visible just for a few seconds ... and then it was the biggest volcano in history ... and most of prehistory, too.

The Juan de Fuca Plate split in the middle, subducted ... both ways. Some of it went under the Pacific Plate and the rest went under the North American Plate. The North American Plate pushed the San Andreas fault ... and its assorted population centers ... west ... very fast ... faster that that. Speed of sound fast. The edge of the continental shelf isn't very far from the California coast ... not far enough to stop the crust with all those population centers from sliding off the edge into deep water.

All those little, medium, and big quakes had destroyed the structural integrity of the underlying mantle, the asthenosphere magma said, "Holy Shit ... I need to plug that hole."

The inner core said ... very deep voice here... "I - WANT - OUT-!" The iron core shifted ... trying to get out before the magma plugged the hole. It didn't move far ... about 100 kilometers towards the missing Juan de Fuca Plate ... just enough to change the axial tilt from 23.4 degrees to 20 degrees. What could it hurt?

A plug formed ... temporarily ... the word from DC was, "It's plugged. Things will be fine."

The message from the people? "Take my guns? The apocalypse is NOW."

The message from the governors? "We don't have time Mr. President. The National Guard is performing emergency duty ... maybe in a few years they can confiscate the peoples' guns. But I doubt it."

Enter the Asteroid.

It's not even a big asteroid ... as asteroids go. City Block by City Block by City Block (410 x 410 x 410 ... feet... ) It's not the size ... it's what you do with it ... or, in this case, what it's made of. This one was base elements, with a scattering of organics. Pretty much, if it's on the atomic chart and it's stable ... it's included ... occluded? Naturally, since this chunk has been roaming the universe for three billion years ... it had gathered a few elements that don't exist on Earth.

That's not to say they never did exist here ... it's saying they boiled off in the construction state. Like a wax sabot formed around a cube or a key and fired from a large bore rifle. Bang! the wax melts away and what's inside keeps going. Shoot that through a series of paper targets and several of the targets will have square holes ... or, in the case of a key ... a genuine keyhole.

This asteroid was recently smacked by a meteorite of sufficient size and weight as to make the principle artifact tumble. Our rock is still out past Pluto ... I know, I know, I know... science has renamed it ... that's a crock of shit. Pluto. Mickey Mouse's dog.

Two thousand two hundred eighty five days ... six and a quarter years ... more or less ... depending ... from Pluto to Earth. There are a lot of things that make up coincidence ... accidents ... weird shit ... the right place at the wrong time ... the wrong place at the right time.

"We're expecting the close pass of an Extraterrestrial Object of indeterminate size in six years, Mr. President."