Science Fiction

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While the Enigma belongs in the Vision/Metaphysical category, elsewhere it is also listed under Speculative Fiction. In the absence of such, I shall list it in the Science Fiction, which covers a broad spectrum of subjects explored in this book.

Excerpt
0 MINUS 30: A Near Miss.
Chapter 1, excerpts.

It didn't really start with the Enigma. The errant asteroid came before it. There were also those sporadic meteor showers that started a minor panic at the Moon Base that our friends from NASA had been attempting to build ­ but that came even later. There were also those earthquakes that didn't quake, inundations that submerged some lands only to expose others, and a number of other events that didn't make much sense. Scientific sense, that is. They were things that defied logic. That belonged in Hollywood tabloids.

Then came the viral diseases ­ more like plagues really. It was as though Nature had taken over and decided to run things her own way, relegating man to the role of a dumfounded spectator, powerless and basically unprepared. But what really upset John Hydon was that I, his own little Hey, wasn't disturbed by any of this. Ever. Or so it seemed to him. Even JJ found his own escape from the mounting dilemmas. Only John Hydon, Ph.D., the man others referred to as The Brain, seemed progressively more lost with each day.

"Even now I just don't understand it," my father muttered to himself. I remember: he was looking out through the triangular latticework of aluminum tubes that kept us alive. The view was breathtaking. But all that came later. Many years later.

That's as close as I remember it from my dreams. The rest is conjecture. Mostly derived from talking to about two thousand people. Sometimes I can't be sure. Lately I seem to be losing the distinction between what is real and what isn't. Did it all really happen? I strongly suspect that all things are real. All events, all feelings, ideas, whatever we perceive as such. Even dreams. Isn't the Universe infinite? Maybe there's no limit to the versions of reality.

Occasionally, my perception of reality takes off on a tangent. I don't seem to have too much control over it. Never did. You'll just have to bear with me.

But now we really are well ahead of the story. We would better take a deep, a really deep breath, and start at the beginning. Some thirty years ago. About the time I was born.

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