Versequake

A versequake is a localized tremor that occurs through a large area of a universe. Instead of being limited to a small area of a planet it can happen in space itself and it covers areas much larger than those. Space itself trembles and shakes. They can be as small as a few light seconds or as large as several thousand light years.

Anything caught on a versequake is shaken along with it, possibly being destroyed in the process do to its force. Solar systems are ruptured with their planets being thrown out in random directions. They can tear planets and even stars apart and even break galaxies apart, dividing them in two. A versequake powerful enough and that happens in exactly the right place could hit a black hole in such a way to cause matter that had already fallen into the event horizon, but probably not in the singularity, to be thrown outside of it.

Most ships are also powerless to survive being hit by such a catastrophic event, except maybe for the ships with higher structural integrity and most powerful engines and, even then, they would only be able to survive the less extreme quakes. Objects that are caught up on the waves of the quakes and taken along with them as it crosses through space are the ones that suffer most for, instead of just being hit by the quake while it passes them through, they continue to be affected by it as long as the tremors last and they are not thrown out of the wave by its force. There have been attempts by some advanced civilizations to surf these waves with specially made ships but there is no report of any successful attempt. Basically, versequakes cause space itself to shake uncontrollably. Any object made of any type of matter exists necessarily within space so, in theory, no object would be able to resist such tremors intact if they happen to go through space it occupies. If an object is just next to a tremor it can survive, depending on its density but if is crossed by a quake, the theory says that it would need to have infinite density to survive it, like the singularity of a black hole. Another speculative theory says that fundamental particles can probably resist being broken apart into smaller pieces by a quake even if it goes through them directly, so if it where possible to devise a macroscopic object that would count as being a single fundamental particle to the laws of physics, it would also resist being broken by it. Some civilizations have managed to deploy huge energy converters similar to our own wave energy converters with the difference being that they are doing it in space at a much larger scale, not on water to capture the energy of its waves. There are even some experiments of using such convertors at such a large scale and in such quantities to the point that it is expected they could slow down or even kill and versequake, in an attempt of forming a protective barrier against them. This would work under the principle that capturing energy from a wave removes that energy from the wave itself, making it smaller and less powerful. The same is expected to work against a versequake if the scale of the converters is large enough and if they are sturdy enough to survive its required close proximity. All this is dependent on the ability to predict them and there are spacial seismographs capable of detecting vibrations on the space-time itself, allowing for early detection.

They move at the speed of light and tend to spend their energy fast. But, as they warp space in unpredictable ways, it is perfectly possible for space to be warped in such a way that distant points in space get to touch allowing the quake to jump between those points, in that way spreading to far away places as if at faster than light speeds. They can also cross through pre-existing worm-holes to achieve the same result and such worm-holes are usually collapsed or warped in the process, becoming chaotic and unpredictable from that point. Very few end up stabilizing again but there is no guarantee that they will stabilize connecting the same points in space as they did before. Most remain on an unstable state and end up collapsing after some time due to that instability. Entropy makes it very rare for them to stabilize by themselves naturally.

Despite their size, they tend to be short lived, cosmological speaking, that is. They can move through space leaving areas of destruction behind but a single area doesn't usually shake for very long. More than a few hours is somewhat rare with the most common ones lasting no more than a few minutes.

There are several hypothesis for what causes such extreme events:

* The accumulation of many strong gravity waves on the same place interacting with each other in unusual ways could release all their energy on a combined and uncontrolled gravitational based quake that would spread through space itself until all its energy would be released.
* Having too much energy on a small area of space could cause the space-time fabric to become unstable and burst into a quake, using all or part of that energy in the process and better spreading it over a larger area in doing so.
* Events outside of the universe itself, like collisions with other universes that are not strong enough to cause a larger destruction like actually rupturing space-time in one or both and mixing their realities or even fully destroying such universes.
* Technological or magical attempts of breaking through space-time for some reason, either to breach into other dimensions or to open up worm-holes to travel over large distances or even through time. These attempts, if made without enough care and precision could cause space-time itself to become unstable giving birth to a quake on the near vicinity of the experiments. A quake could also occur on the desired target point of a failed attempt at opening a worm-hole to such destination.
* Creating too many worm-holes on a small area or creating them in dangerously close proximity to a black-hole, a pulsar or some other unstable or extremely powerful stellar body. The high gravity or a black-hole or the energy bombardment of a pulsar could interact with the worm-hole opening in unexpected ways. A versequake could be one of the possible results.
* Attempting to move a star, or maybe even just a planet, or similar body of mass, through a worm-hole. The mass could be too much for the worm-hole to handle, causing it to collapse into itself and release all that mass in the form of energy as a versequake.
* The uncontrolled collapse of a worm-hole could cause a versequake along its path.
* Warping space more than should be done, possibly in order to achieve FTL travel, could cause such warped space to quake.
* Other types of space manipulation could do the same, like trying to artificially increase the expansion of space or maybe to stop it, the creation of pocket dimensions or the attempt at tearing out pieces of space or time, etc. Attempts at messing with the curvature of topology of space-time, in short any type of dimensional engineering.
* Natural expansion of space could cause quakes to occur, when it expands over whatever stability limits it has.
* The actual fabric of space-time can be unstable or have areas of instability analog to tectonic plates or topological defects over which versequakes tend to occur more frequently and with more drastic effects.
* It could be space-time changing its curvature or topology for some reason. Maybe it is constantly in a slow process of such a change that usually goes unnoticed but which can sometimes cause these events if some hard point happens to be in the path of the curvature change or if, due to some elastic property of space-time, some change snaps unpredictably.
* They could be the result of a cosmological string or cosmological superstring moving around in some particular way in the affected area.
* It could be a failed creation of a new big bang on an area of space or it could be the consequence of a successful big bang erupting on a point of space but outwards of this universe, creating a new one attached to this by that point that would work somewhat as an umbilical cord.
* The event could be the direct manifestation of some cosmic entity's power.
* The side effect of having one or more Space-Time Worms feeding on the space-time fabric of the universe.
* Some believe the universe to be the body of a slumbering creature with the quakes happening when it moves on its sleep.

Structures larger than universes can also suffer their own, much larger, quakes. A quake at a multiverse level could easily tear several universes apart at once. It could also appear as a versequake moving inside a part of a universe only to disappear as it would cross over to the next one and so on.