For my father
Lawrence Alten
in loving memory
And for my friend and literary manager
Danny Baror
with love and respect
It is with great pride and appreciation that I acknowledge those who contributed to the completion of Phobos: Mayan Fear and the continued success of the entire Domain 2012 series.
First and foremost, to the great people at Tor/Forge, with special thanks to Tom Doherty and his familymy editor, Eric Raab, and his assistant (now editor) Whitney Ross. Thank you to my copy editor, M. Longbrake. My gratitude and appreciation to my personal editor, Lou Aronica at the Fiction Studio (), whose advice remains invaluable, and to my literary agent, Danny Baror of Baror International, for his friendship and dedication. Thanks as well to his assistant, Heather Baror-Shapiro.
A very special thanks to Dr. Steven Greer, former chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in North Carolina, and the founder and director of CSETI and the Disclosure Project, who generously allowed me to use quotes from his incredible press conference held on May 9, 2001, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. I encourage everyone to visit his website at www.DisclosureProject.org and to watch the entire news conference. As always, my gratitude to my cover artist, Erik Hollander ( www.HollanderDesignLab.com ), for his amazing cover art, and to forensic artist William McDonald ( www.alienUFOart.com ) for the original artwork found within these pages.
A heartfelt thanks to the brilliant Jack Harbach OSullivan, who offered me his scientific advice; my friend and webmaster, Leisa Coffman, for her continued dedication; and editor Barbara Becker, who also works tirelessly in the Adopt-An-Author program.
To my wife, Kim, and my kids, Kelsey and Branden, for their love and tolerance of the long hours involved in my writing career, and last, to my readers and fans, who have given this series continued life beyond 2012 mere words cannot express my gratitude.
Phobos is the third book in the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy series that began with the release of Domain in 1999 and continued with Resurrection in 2004. Back in 1999, few people knew about the 2012 prophecy, and fewer still probably cared. Nevertheless, over the years I have often been asked, Do you think humanity will really end on the winter solstice of 2012? My answer is always to explain that either a natural disaster (asteroid strikes, Yellowstone caldera erupts) or man-made threats (biological weaponssee Fort Detrick and Battelle Labs) could do the job. As the 2012 date approached and mans ego gave us runaway greed, corruption, and new lows in human morality, I often wondered if wed even make it to 2012.
Phobos simply scares me. Had I known about this very real threat when I penned Domain I would have written the book you now hold in your hands back then. But this threat didnt exist back then, and ultimately the series is better for it. Still, Phobos gives me nightmares, just as its conclusions scare a small minority of scientists attempting to use legal action to shut down a ten-billion-dollar science experiment. Sadly, unless the silent majority gets behind their gallant effort, far worse than the Mayan prophecy may come true. Theoretically, it may already be under way.
Whenever possible, I seek out the advice of experts whose opinions can improve key parts of the story. Upon reading the original conclusions I put forth in Phobos , a quantum physicist far smarter than this former Penn State physical education major rendered the following comment:
Steve, Im wowed. Aside from the story line la CERN Hadron: if {IF!} your scenario were a naturally occurring phenomenon (and I perceive that very well might be fact) then the posit that your description makes is indeed the very process of planetary expansion with the monster rather becoming a quasi-white-hole aka balanced gray hole---->core-star---->making the very planet a version of a plasma-breach transdimensional bleed-through reactor---->AND these reactors DO EXIST and the SUPER-COLLIDERS are inadvertently COPIES of the general ELECTROMAGNETIC RING that these plasma-breach hypergravity-lobe bleed-through reactors actually are
Let me make two points abundantly clear: I have no idea what the hell that means, and my brain hurts when I read it. What I do know is that, as a writer of science-based faction, I take pride in researching my topic to exhaustion before penning digestible conclusions designed to entertain my readers while standing up to the scrutiny of experts. And thats why Phobos scares me: first because I know the scenario is plausible; and second because anytime you combine mans ego with atom splitting or colliding, bad things are apt to happen.
As you read this passage they are happening right now.
In Geneva.
All should leave Geneva; Saturn turns from gold to iron.
The contrary positive ray will exterminate everything.
There will be signs in the sky before this.
NOSTRADAMUS, CENTURY 9, QUATRAIN 44
The LHC [Large Hadron Collider in Geneva] is certainly, by far, the biggest jump into the unknown.
BRIAN COX, CERN PHYSICIST
Unauthorized access or viewing of the following document without the appropriate authorizations will result in permanent incarceration or sanction by authorized use of deadly force.
TOP SECRET / MAJESTIC-12
PROJECT GOLDEN FLEECE
EXTRATERRESTRIAL HUMAN SUBSPECIES (HUNAHPU)
&
ACCESS TO ZERO-POINT ENERGY
6 NOVEMBER 2042
The following report summarizes GOLDEN FLEECE, an UMBRALEVEL NASA program initiated outside of MJ-12 jurisdiction in January of 2013 by President Ennis Chaney following the discovery of an extraterrestrial starship ( Balam ) buried beneath the Kukulcan Pyramid (Mayan, circa AD 900) in the Yucatan Peninsula (Chichen Itza). Subsequent investigation of subjects involved in discovery and activation of spacecraft led to the confirmation of a new subspecies of Homo sapiens classification: Hunahpu . DNA origins trace insemination into humanoid gene pool 10,000 years ago (est.). Hunahpu subspecies has (potential) access to zero-point energy. Based on pressure by President Chaney, all atom-smashing experiments were banned in 2013, and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva) was shut down. This report seeks to reverse that moratorium.
BACKGROUND:
On 14 December 2012, at approximately 14:30 hours EST, an electromagnetic force field equivalent to several billion amperes activated across the ionosphere, destroying more than 1,200 inbound nuclear ICBMs and SLBMs fired from US, Russian, and Chinese launch platforms. NORAD traced the EM array to nodes and relay junctures within and/or below the ancient structures of Angkor Wat (Cambodia), the Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt), Stonehenge (Britain), the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan (Mexico), and under the fortress of Sacsayhuaman (Peru). Triangulation of the EM relay junctures pinpointed the origin of the pulse to the Kukulcan Pyramid in Chichen Itza, specifically to a vessel buried beneath the structure. Discovery/ access of the starship and subsequent activation of the EM array was credited to MICHAEL GABRIEL and DOMINIQUE VAZQUEZ.
MICHAEL GABRIEL bio: