Phobos: Mayan Fear by Steve Alten

Michael and I have returned to the States, accepting an invitation from my rival and former colleague, Pierre Borgia, to debate the Doomsday prophecy at a Harvard symposium.
    What Pierre does not know is that my real purpose in accepting his invitation is to use the symposium to expose the illegal and heinous acts taking place on a remote Air Force base located in the Nevada desert. These acts and the covert operations illegally funded through our tax dollars have but one purpose—to further empower the elite while indenturing the rest of us to servitude. Armed with startling videotaped evidence, I shall once and for all prove to the world that we are not alone in the universe, and that the advances we used forceful means to render from our cosmic cousins were, in fact, a gift intended to benefit all of humanity … while preventing our own self-inflicted demise.
    Tomorrow is but an opening shot. In the weeks to come, more than three hundred additional eyewitnesses shall come forth to join a courageous physician hosting a symposium in Washington, D.C., that will forever change the world as we know it.
    The odds are long and the enemies of truth legion, with vast resources and influence in the halls of government. Our own vice president feeds this machine as he monopolizes energy policies with the very entities that continue to reap personal fortunes by shunting off our future. I fear for my family, yet I also have a responsibility to my Maker to do what is right. And so I steel myself for the battle ahead, knowing failure is not an option.
    As Rabbi Brandwein wrote, “What is a life worth living without enemies?”

    —JG

    Note:
Professor Gabriel suffered a fatal heart attack moments after delivering his speech at Harvard on August 24, 2001. All grants supporting archaeological investigations into the Mayan calendar were suspended three weeks later following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

3

When asked: “What did God do before He created the
universe?” Augustine didn’t reply: “He was preparing
Hell for people who asked such questions.” Instead, he
said that time was a property of the universe that God
created, and that time did not exist before the beginning
of the universe.

—STEPHEN HAWKING,

    A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

Earth News & Media

May 2, 2047: The US Geological Survey registered a magnitude 7.9 seaquake at 11:40 p.m. (local time Indonesia). The epicenter was located in the Banda Sea, 140 miles NNW of Saumlaki (Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia). Coastal towns in the Tanimbar Islands, Ambon, Jakarta, and the Northern Territory in Australia were struck by seven–to twelve-foot tsunamis. Government officials had evacuated the areas, keeping casualties to a minimum.

    PEKI’IN, ISRAEL

    T he western Galilee town of Peki’in is one of the most ancient villages in Israel. The population of twelve thousand is dominated by the Druze—Greek Orthodox Arabs who live in peace (usually) with their Christian, Muslim, and Jewish neighbors. Peki’in is old stone houses and olive trees, with grapevines as thick as your waist that wrap around windows and doorways. The town’s synagogue contains carvings that date back to the Second Jerusalem Temple after the Roman destruction.
    Peki’in is also the site of an ancient cave used by a great sage to channel energy from the Upper World two thousand years ago.

    Orthodox Jews, dressed in their traditional long black suits, matching hats, and white shirts, bob and pray in groups by the barricades. Tourists, dressed in shirtsleeves and sunglasses, mingle along the roadside, having just arrived by tour bus. The groups are wary of each other, though both are here for the same reason—to connect with the light of the soul of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
    Tonight at midnight marks the beginning of the festival of Lag b’Omer, a holiday occurring thirty-three days after the last night of Passover. Many worshipers have arrived early, hoping to camp out by the cave