recognized his responsibility here. “I’ve been, frankly, a little thrown, here. I-you know-the shock, and now this…”
“Let me rephrase,” the president said. “Do you see a possible risk now, and, if so, on what do you base your speculation? Is that a little easier to handle?”
“There is a calendar-the Mayan-that marks the end of this age as being this coming December 21. The winter solstice occurs on the day earth crosses both the galactic equator and the solar ecliptic. A highly unusual conjunction.”
“What’s so absurd about this,” Samson said, “is that it assumes that the ancient Maya knew about galaxies. A bunch of blood-soaked head-hunters. The very idea is ridiculous.”
Martin decided that he loathed this man, a rare intensity of emotion for him. He reserved his intensity for love of wife and kids. He did not indulge hate. But General Samson invited it. “The date is there,” he said. “And no matter what the Maya knew or didn’t know, the position of the earth is there, too.”
“What does it mean,” the president asked. “You’re telling me a whole human civilization was killed in a day, Doctor. What should that be saying to me in the here and now?”
An aide finally produced water and Martin drank all of it at once. “I’ve still got the desert in my throat,” he said.
“All right,” the good general said. “You can do this, you can say it.”
“Yes. This prophecy-the 2012 thing-it’s always been a mystery that it was so exact. And it required tremendous calculational ability-the whole Mayan long-count calendar-and apparently a knowledge of the position of the earth in relation to the rest of the galaxy-and I’m sorry if that gives offense-“
“Which astrophysicists are still arguing about,” Samson said.
“Tom, will you stop interrupting him?”
“I’m trying to help, here, Mr. President!”
“Doctor Winters, please continue,” the president said.
Martin swallowed. His throat was dry again. He was not used to intensity like this. There was terror in every eye, and the stink of sweat rising in the room. “Yes. I’m looking at these things coming up out of the ground, and thinking about the fact that so many ancient cultures speak of beings that came through gateways-“
“Aliens, as per NASA?”
“Not aliens, as from another planet. Given the distances involved, present thought leans more in the direction of UFOs being projections of some sort from parallel universe or universes. All right here, right around us. Now.”
“Aw, come on! Mr. President, we don’t need this kind of speculation,” Samson said.
The president exploded. “General, for God’s sakes, will you shut up!”
Samson would not be silenced. “I think this man needs to be removed, he’s obstructing-“
“You listen to him, Tom, god damn you!” The president roared.
Samson’s mouth snapped shut.
“Go on, Doctor,” Bo Waldo said softly.
“Uh, the, uh-the Sumerians called them Annunaki, the Babylonians Akpallus, the Hebrews Nephilim-the list is long. Always, they were powerful, dominating people-somewhat human looking, but with a reptilian cast of eye-who came from another reality. Some were hostile, others more benevolent. Almost as if there were two warring factions, with different agendas for us. They fought among themselves, at one point, and then were no longer present here.”
“And this relates to our situation?”
“Maybe the reason that the end-of-world predictions in the old calendars are so exact is that there is something in the astrophysical situation that opens these gateways. Maybe that’s what the lenses are. If so, then we can expect that they’re the worst things it is possible to imagine.”
Silence.
He didn’t say it, but as he spoke the words, they just tasted right. He paused, then decided to take the plunge. “Um, I would therefore say that a machine has been turned on. I think, between now and December the twenty-first, we can expect
“Let me rephrase,” the president said. “Do you see a possible risk now, and, if so, on what do you base your speculation? Is that a little easier to handle?”
“There is a calendar-the Mayan-that marks the end of this age as being this coming December 21. The winter solstice occurs on the day earth crosses both the galactic equator and the solar ecliptic. A highly unusual conjunction.”
“What’s so absurd about this,” Samson said, “is that it assumes that the ancient Maya knew about galaxies. A bunch of blood-soaked head-hunters. The very idea is ridiculous.”
Martin decided that he loathed this man, a rare intensity of emotion for him. He reserved his intensity for love of wife and kids. He did not indulge hate. But General Samson invited it. “The date is there,” he said. “And no matter what the Maya knew or didn’t know, the position of the earth is there, too.”
“What does it mean,” the president asked. “You’re telling me a whole human civilization was killed in a day, Doctor. What should that be saying to me in the here and now?”
An aide finally produced water and Martin drank all of it at once. “I’ve still got the desert in my throat,” he said.
“All right,” the good general said. “You can do this, you can say it.”
“Yes. This prophecy-the 2012 thing-it’s always been a mystery that it was so exact. And it required tremendous calculational ability-the whole Mayan long-count calendar-and apparently a knowledge of the position of the earth in relation to the rest of the galaxy-and I’m sorry if that gives offense-“
“Which astrophysicists are still arguing about,” Samson said.
“Tom, will you stop interrupting him?”
“I’m trying to help, here, Mr. President!”
“Doctor Winters, please continue,” the president said.
Martin swallowed. His throat was dry again. He was not used to intensity like this. There was terror in every eye, and the stink of sweat rising in the room. “Yes. I’m looking at these things coming up out of the ground, and thinking about the fact that so many ancient cultures speak of beings that came through gateways-“
“Aliens, as per NASA?”
“Not aliens, as from another planet. Given the distances involved, present thought leans more in the direction of UFOs being projections of some sort from parallel universe or universes. All right here, right around us. Now.”
“Aw, come on! Mr. President, we don’t need this kind of speculation,” Samson said.
The president exploded. “General, for God’s sakes, will you shut up!”
Samson would not be silenced. “I think this man needs to be removed, he’s obstructing-“
“You listen to him, Tom, god damn you!” The president roared.
Samson’s mouth snapped shut.
“Go on, Doctor,” Bo Waldo said softly.
“Uh, the, uh-the Sumerians called them Annunaki, the Babylonians Akpallus, the Hebrews Nephilim-the list is long. Always, they were powerful, dominating people-somewhat human looking, but with a reptilian cast of eye-who came from another reality. Some were hostile, others more benevolent. Almost as if there were two warring factions, with different agendas for us. They fought among themselves, at one point, and then were no longer present here.”
“And this relates to our situation?”
“Maybe the reason that the end-of-world predictions in the old calendars are so exact is that there is something in the astrophysical situation that opens these gateways. Maybe that’s what the lenses are. If so, then we can expect that they’re the worst things it is possible to imagine.”
Silence.
He didn’t say it, but as he spoke the words, they just tasted right. He paused, then decided to take the plunge. “Um, I would therefore say that a machine has been turned on. I think, between now and December the twenty-first, we can expect
Similar Books
Raw, A Dark Romance
Tawny Taylor
The Secret Life of Uri Geller
Jonathan Margolis
Spare Brides
Adele Parks
A Coven of Vampires
Brian Lumley
Before The Scandal
Suzanne Enoch
Air Time
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Animals in Translation
Temple Grandin
Spheria
Cody Leet
His Holiday Heart
Jillian Hart
High Price
Carl Hart