Tumble: The Andaman Event
by Bob TriggsPublish: Feb 06, 2019Series: TumbleThriller Science FictionBook Overview
Abnormal geological activity in the Bay of Bengal in 2014 leads to the discovery of a 200-kilometer rupture in the Australian plate. Dr. Robert Andrews, the head geologist at the Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar, India, suspects he's found a legacy of an antediluvian disaster, but a distension in the plate to e... ach side of the rift bothers the scientist. He is alarmed when a second visit to the same location in 2017 shows dramatic changes in the topography that should have taken more than 11,000 years to form. Fearing that the atypical mechanics within the rift will precipitate a violent seism, he files an application to fund a scientific expedition to study the anomaly.December 26, 2019
Minutes after the approval for the survey lands on Robert’s desk, a sudden jolt hits the building, and it begins shaking. He staggers from his office to the control room to check on his staff. It rumbles on for four minutes and forty-one seconds before ending with an abrupt jolt stranger than the one at the start, throwing everyone to the floor.
After checking that no one was injured, Dr. Andrews waits for several agonizing minutes while the mainframe processes the data collected by the sensors. He is astonished when the animation is displayed on the digital monitor. The Institute is over 2,000 kilometers from the epicenter west of the Andaman Islands, where an aberrant earthquake unleashed a nonpareil force majeure synonymous to the Archaean eon when titanic upheavals were quotidian. Gargantuan shockwaves propagating from the hypocenter jostle the continental and oceanic tectonics into each. The violent interaction provokes a concatenation of seismic events along the convergent boundaries, releasing pent-up stress in subduction zones and fault lines across the globe. It was responsible for a series of tsunamis, and an insuperable underwater landslide undermines the Indian subcontinent to the west and Southern Thailand on the east.
The earthquake that scientists said could never happen, became known as the Andaman Event because of its rare characteristics. But it is the catalyst for a disaster so cataclysmic it dwarfs the one that created it… and for six months it lay dormant.
June 22, 2020
A series of perplexing failures in the worldwide weather satellite network operated by Infinity Meteorological Database Systems is angering the subscribers, investors, and management. The first satellite to malfunction in eleven years of impeccable service shuts down with a "data out of range" error message, but when they run a diagnostic on the system, it shows the equipment is working. However, when the satellite is rebooted, it goes offline again with the same error code. The company CEO, Steve Jaeger, suspects a hacker has planted a virus, but Brad disagrees. Their system operates on a special coding making it impossible for any computer to connect to it. There is only one device in existence that can link up with the satellites, and Brad and Steve are the only two people in the world who know it exists, where it's stored, and how it works. Even if hackers had found a way to connect to the satellites, it would take years to crack the code.
Without a better idea in mind, he instructs his team of technicians to look for a virus, but where would they start? Satellites continued to drop out of service every couple of hours with the same error code, and on day four, Danny Walker, the lead technician, locates a tiny spike across one of the sensors. Furthermore, it appears in the same place on each of the failed satellites, but not on the units that are still operational.
This leads Brad Bentley to make a startling discovery that he feels should go straight to the White House. Steve Jaeger pushes for an urgent appointment with President Lloyd Sinclair, and later in the afternoon, he is on his way to Washington DC from Palo Alto, California, with a package Brad put together.
Sinclair is wary when he is presented with the evidence, much of which was too technical for him to understand. Despite his skepticism, Lloyd seeks the opinion of renowned astrophysicist, Dr. Jack Bailey, PhD., of Harvard and faxes the paperwork for him to analyze. The professor's preliminary evaluation is inconclusive, and he says it will be twenty-four hours before he can respond with a reasonable answer.
The following morning Sinclair is greeted with the news that most of the major satellite TV stations have gone dark. The technicians are mystified because they can still communicate with the units, and they appear to be broadcasting, but they are unable to pick up the signal.
A fax from Dr. Bailey says the conclusions made by Infinity are correct, but the summary is too vague, and he has the academic flown to Washington. Before he arrives at the White House, a malfunction with the GPS constellation results in the greatest disaster in aviation history. Commercial flights on a GPS-guided landing missed the runway at airports across six continents within a three-second period, and 253 airliners crashed, killing 82,873 passengers.
The media are clamoring for answers, and while he has nothing of consequence to impart, he is advised to address them before they draw their own incorrect conclusions. Sinclair appeases them by declaring the satellite malfunctions are a terrorist attack—and he points the finger at Infinity technician, Danny Walker.
After the conclusion of the press conference, Sinclair heads for the Oval Office, where a hostile Dr. Bailey is waiting. When the doctor tells him that the oblique orientation of the earth's axis is shifting at a daily rate of 0.2106° and details the effect it will have, Lloyd is unable to grasp the concept. If he acts on the doctor's absurd summarization, he will look foolish to the world, and the repercussions would be disastrous for an incumbent in an election year. But then he's reminded about the failing satellites because if the doctor is right, the tumble is already dismantling the technologies.
Dr. Bailey tells him he can't hide the news from the world indefinitely. Time is his enemy, and he has three days—perhaps four if he's lucky. read more
