chapter V
TIKAL
GUATEMALA
5.1 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Miami International Airport
Gerald Crabbe's plan was to go to Flores, Guatemala and wait for Catherine to come and join them for further investigation in the jungle.
But at their first stop over at Miami Airport, one thing happened that changed the whole ball game.
There was a press conference held in the empty space beside Mexican Airline check-out counter. Mayee Tang （唐美儀）, a Chinese International Movie Star, and Melanie de Baux （薄樂妮）, a French Film Producer, were sitting behind a long table and facing a motley crowd of reporters, photographers and Tang's fan groups.
They were there to announce their new company De Baux Mondes Film's first production.
But the conference was interrupted by Cassandra, who slipped away from Rohardoon's watch and came to ask for help.
Cassandra recognized Tang and Melanie, the linkage being the 'Chinese Jade Exhibition' at Musée Pellimét.
The jade pieces including the Ciong and the Amethyst was actually donated by Alphonse de Baux , Melanie's brother, and Mayee Tang's fiancé.
Alphonse de Baux mysteriously disappeared one day before the opening of the jade exhibition. Since Alphonse was still missing, this conference was presided by Melanie de Baux.
Cassandra handed a napkin to them, and asked them to e-mail her mother, Dr. Catherine Denver, the massage on the napkin, which said: "Maman, nous allons au Guatemala en avion. Viens me trouver."
5.2 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Miami International Airport
Alphonse's disappearance without any notes to his fiancé and sister, made both ladies uncomfortable and unbearable to attend the opening ceremony of the jade exhibition. Therefore, after the ceremony, they left the museum right away and returned to Tang home in Los Angeles. They had no knowledge of the theft of the 2 art pieces and the abduction of Cassandra.
Tang send the message to Catherine, and also anxious to know what had happened at the exhibition by asking a lot of questions.
Catherine shortly responded, and via e-mail conversation, Tang realized that the mother and daughter had been separated under a very strange situation. She decided to help Catherine to be reunited with her daughter again.
Under her plan, she would charter 2 jet planes, one for Melanie and herself fly to Guatemala City International Airport hoping they could catch Cassandra there. The other would be waiting at Miami International Airport for Catherine to arrive from Paris and then taking her to Guatemala to meet with them.
At the Guatemala City International Airport, they had to wait 10 hours for Catherine's arrival, Tang and Melanie discovered at a Pollo Campero Fried Chicken eatery a napkin with crayon drawing of a flower underneath a skull.
When Catherine saw the napkins, she burst into tears, they were Cassandra's drawing and writing, and the flower underneath a skull indicated Flores was the city and Tikal would have to be their final destination.
The Jet Plane staff told Tang that they could take jet plane directly to a small airport near Tikal, instead of going to Flores. Thus, Gerald Crabbe's plan was altered completely.
5.3 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Tikal Maya Jungle
In a lodging near Tikal National Park, they received an e-mail from Gerald Crabbe. He told them they had moved ahead of his original plan, so they would have to go into the jungle on their own.
But he had prepared all the necessary equipment and instructions for them to advance to a spot in the jungle and wait for Rohardoon and Cassandra to arrive.
Early next morning, as instructed, they went into the Tikal National Park, at the 6th Temple (Temple of the Inscriptions), a spider monkey delivered to them a campus and the coordinates of the spot.
In a lodging at Flores, Rohardoon began to notice that the Old Man was aging fast.
Then without warning, the Old Man pointed the index finger at Rohardoon and shot a spark into his forehead, and disappeared.
With this implant, Rohardoon vaguely realized he was to take a leading role in this expedition, yet, the Old Man provided very little information to him, which forced him to follow his instinct. The Old Man had prepared for them a strange but unique means of transportation to go to the Maya Jungle, a Llama.
As Cassandra and Rohardoon rode on its back, it became airborne and flew them to Tikal and landed in the middle of the jungle.
It was in pitch black, Rohardoon brought the Crystal Skull Paperweight with him, it generated some week illumination, but he asked Cassandra to let Amethyst, which also generated some illumination, to lead the way. By day break, they were still wondering in the jungle. But, Rohardoon noticed that they were circling a strange mount. He decided to investigate, they climbed the mount, and halfway through, they stepped into a hole and were chuted into the belly of the mount.
5.4 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Tikal Maya Jungle
Among our 3 heroines, only Catherine had actual archaeological experience. Therefore their advancing into the rain forest was led by her. But since Mayee Tang was a Kung Fu master, she was closely following Catherine so she could offer both Catherine and Melanie some extra protection.
According the coordinates that the Old Man gave to them, Catherine brought them to a small opening area in a dense forest.
But they did not find any hut, as indicated in the given information.
They stepped out of the opening and to the surrounding area for exploration. But what they walked into next were nightmares out of this world. First they were attacked by a swarm of insects similar to firefly that could set any surface immediately on fire upon contact.
Yet as they panicked trying to extinguish the fire on their clothing, hair, and body, Tang realized that the fire was not real, just some kind of mirages.
But their nightmare was not over, next they found they were rained down by a crude-oil-like liquid and it plunged them into pitch black darkness. Catherin and Tang quickly grabbed each other's hand, but they lost Melanie.
They lost all their senses, dared not to even move a muscle.
Fortunately and strangely, the black rain ebbed away. They searched to find Melanie and she had been mysteriously returned to the opening in the woods.
They decided to set up camp for the night.
This time, they encountered a huge snake with a head on both ends.
They scattered and hide behind a large tree, but in turn they startled an old man with long robe already hiding behind the tree.
The old man shrieked in a high-pitched female voice and then disappeared, but dropped a purple crystal skull to the ground.
Catherine picked it up, they all returned to rest in the tent for the night.
5.5 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Tikal Maya Jungle
In the meantime, Rohardoon and Cassandra found themselves in the middle of a typical Mayan underground chamber.
From the time they landed in the jungle, Rohardoon had been asking the Amethyst what they were looking for. This was because the Old Man had disappeared and he could not get any instructions from the spark in his forehead.
Through Cassandra, the answer was just one thing -- a 'bed.'
Now in a side chamber, they found the 'bed.' Rohardoon finally realized that it was a 'Stasis,' a sleeping and recharging unit for distant space travelling astronaut.
The Old Man did not leave any instruction as what to do next. But he began to analyse the situation. First, the Old Man disappeared was because replenish of energy was desperately needed. The Stasis could exactly serve this purpose.
But the Old Man was not here, he took out 3 objects: Cong (the jade piece), clear crystal skull (his own), and a large amber colored crystal skull.
He understood that all these crystal and jade stuff were 'Proxys' of its owner, so theoretically speaking, the Stasis should be able to revitalize the owners too.
He consulted with Cassandra and the Amethyst. They decided to try to put the amber-colored crystal skull into the stasis. But when the stasis began to distort and melt down the skull, Rohardoon rescued it. Then the entire ceiling of the chamber fell down upon them.
They barely escaped death by jumping out of the way of the tons of the falling dirt.
As they were thinking how to get out of the belly of the mount, a crystal crocodile appeared from nowhere and began to lead them to the exit.
5.6 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Tikal Maya Jungle
The crystal crocodile led Rohardoon and Cassandra directly to the ladies’ camp site.
But Melanie thought it was another bad guy, she kicked Rohardoon's buttock, he hit his head on a tree trunk and that knocked him out.
By the time he regained his consciousness, Cassandra had already reunited with her mother and missed out on the emotional commotions among the ladies.
He was bombarded with numerous questions from the ladies, about the whole mess and about the Old Man.
Then a white robed old man passed through their camp and tent, seemed holding something in his empty hands, like Hamlet, murmuring to himself. They were wondering who he was and what was the thing holding in his hand?
Catherine returned to the tent and brought out the purple crystal skull. Suddenly the white-robed old man reappeared and demanded them to return the skull to him.
But when he saw Cassandra, he opened his mouth and tried to swallow Cassandra. (Because she contained 'good eggs.') Catherine and Rohardoon grabbed each of Cassandra's hand and engaged with the old man in a tug of war.
At that moment, Gerald Crabbe re-appeared and stopped the white-robbed old man's wired behavior.
What happened next was Gerald Crabbe started to clarify everything for everybody by an enquiring conversation with Jerrona （解蓉娜）-- the white-robbed old man.
5.7 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Tikal Maya Jungle
Gerald Crabbe first thanked Catherine, Mayee Tang, and Melanie de Baux for their involvement of this expedition.
Then he gave everyone a brief history of their earth life.
The Spacecraft
Tens of thousands of years ago, a spacecraft crashed into the Antarctic Pole on earth. It was an advanced and specially designed spacecraft in several ways: It was not made of metal, but of an 'eternal' and 'living' crystal that were never existed on earth.
It was planned for extreme long range space travel - the destination was a planet 10 million light years away from their original planet. It was the planet that the 'eternal' crystal came from.
The Astronaut
There were 3 Astronauts, hibernating in their own cryostasis. 2 were of Tuwenwen race, the 3rd Huwuhen race. Tuwenwen was an amoeba-like creature and totally black in color. Huwuhen was most closely resembled a humanoid.
The spacecraft also had a captain who was in charge of the navigation and maintaince for the entire trip.
But the Astronaut, the captain, they were all dead long time ago!
The Parasite
Gerald Crabbe and his entourage only took the identify of the alien astronauts.
In reality, they were just a single-cell, nano-parasite that hitchhiked all over the galaxy, searching for a symbiotic host. They hopped on the special spacecraft and dwellet inside of the hibernating Astronauts.
The Captain & The Sarcophagus
But the Captain, as a giant hermit-crab-like creature, his own life was sustained and extended thousands of years by sleeping and revitalizing in a special Sarcophagus.
This Sarcophagus was discovered by Tuwenwen scientists on their planet. After initial examination, they believed that they had touched immortality!
The granite-like material the Sarcophagus was made of was not only organic, but also living. Several generations of scientists studied and analyzed it, they realized that this organic stone was an eternal living being!
The Scientists managed to harvest certain kind of crystal from the Sarcophagus and by using the crystals, they built this special spaceship designed for a very long journey back to the origin planet of the Sarcophagus.
Unfortunately, only halfway through their journey, the spaceship crashed into Earth's south pole. Eventually the three astronauts all died, along with the nano-parasites that co-existed with them.
But the Captain outlasted them for another millennium, so did the nano-parasite that co-exist in his body.
During this time, the Captain studied and researched into the spaceship technology and attempted to salvage the mission but failed.
Eventually his life ended too.
The Ore, the Inner Decoction, and the Crystal Skull
The nano parasite survived this natural death by migrating from the deceased Captain and seeped into the living Sarcophagus.
At the nano-molecule level, they inherited the immortal material's entire memory. The memory included all the knowledge of the Universe and its Advanced Technology. So the nano-parasite became highly intelligent, and pared with the Captain's research and development spirit, they were able to create the Old Man Gerald Crabbe and his entourage.
They were a collective of million nano single cells in a projected image of human form (and the solid body as well, if concentrated).
This miraculous magic was performed with the aid of 3 tools: the first being the ORE, a small piece taken from the Sarcophagus; the second the INNER DECOCTION of each character's spirit; and the third the CRYSTAL harvested from the Sarcophagus, forged into the shape of a human skull.
Out of the Deep Sea
The Captain acted as their Leader, and the first thing he did was transported two males (Jerrod and Jerome) out of the Antarctic sea and landed them in Sichuan, China and set forth the Sanxingdui Civilization.
The Female Astronaut (Jerrona) joined them later, as her development into a projected astronaut was slower than the males.
Yet her arrival caused an un-foreseen problem, a mating rivalry and love triangle evolved among them.
Into the Maya Jungle
The Old Man decided to send the troublemaker Jerome back to the Antarctic sea and move Jerrod and Jerrona to the Maya jungle. He also transported the 2 stasis for male astronauts to the Maya jungle and ruled that Jerrod and Jerrona each in turn should sleep in the stasis for 500 years for recharging their metabolism.
As for the rotating 500 active years, each acted as the Sharman for the Maya Kings and people as well.
Afterwards, Gerald let Jerrona and Jerrod tell their own story to explain what happened in the Maya jungle.
Jerrona's Story
She said that some one had tricked her to step into the stasis where Jerrod was resting, and somehow made Jerrod to swallow her up.
But eventhough he swallowed her, she managed to overpower him, that was the reason she took on a male body.
She did not know who was responsible for all these mess up.
Jerrod's Story
Gerald separated Jerrona and Jerrod, so Jerrod could tell his story.
Some one tricked him to swallow Jerrona, took away his ore, inner decoction and crystal skull. Without all these tools, he turned dormant inside Jerrona.
Jerome's Return and Revenge against Gerald
Before the Mayan stage of their history, Jerome was sent back to the Antarctic sea by Gerald.
While inside the spaceship, he became almost more powerful than Gerald. He secretely returned to the Maya jungle, stole the Ore (Cong) and the Crystalized Inner Decoction (Amethyst) from Jerrona; tricked Jerrod to swallow Jerrona, and then pushed her to become a wondering spirit of the Mayan jungle.
The Crystal Reefs/Crystal Ark
During all these times, the Old Man Gerald Crabbe went on for another mission, he created the Crystal Reefs (or the Crystal Ark) to take care of deep sea creatures and save endangered sea animals.
5.8 Time: Continuous timeline
Locale: Tikal Mayan Jungle
Tokyo Sensei（東京先生 - Eli Charmoon - 梶兵猶太郎）
Suddenly their briefing was interrupted by Tokyo Sensei's arrival. He was air-lifted down from a helicopter.
At Rohardoon's Montreal apartment, Gerald had tricked him to believe that the destination was Cancun. When he found out it was false, he used one of his collections of Alien Artifacts - a Dragon Head Stick（龍頭拐杖）, to pinpoint the Mayan jungle location.
He still desired to gain the possession of the Amethyst. But this time, he had to deal with Jerrona, since the Amethyst was hers. She suggested that a ball game to be held at the ball court of the Tikal National Park, and they were to bet on the outcome of the game to determine the owner of the Amethyst.
Ancient Mayan Ball Game
Tikal National Park issued a permit to De Baux Mondes Film for filming a docudrama about the Ancient Mayan Ball Game.
The Movie Production
Melanie did a thorough job in setting up the production, which included making up the rules of the game; selecting players and appoint referees for both teams; invigorating the surrounding Mayan communities by hiring several Concheros Dance Troupes from Mexico City for the movie's Ritual Dance Sequence; bringing in devoted Mayee Tang's Fan Groups from New York and Florida as the game audiences, etc.
5.9 Time: The Next few days
Locale: Tikal Mayan Jungle
The Ball Game
The players: Mayee Tang and Rohardoon for Jerrona's team; Haruhana Wakako and Ninja Warrior Tengai Ryunosuke （天外竜之介）for Tokyo Sensei's team.
The Game itself turned out to be violent and deadly, particularly for Rohardoon, because from the start, Haruhana's intention was to seriously injure him, to revenge him of his defeating her at the Paris Museum of looting the Amethyst.
But in the end, Tokyo Sensei's team lost, by that, he devoldged the whereabout of Dr. Hennessy Law, Cassandra's father and Dr. Catherine Denver's estranged husband.
Dr. Law at the present was in a secrete and unknown place near Sanxingdui in the Sichuan province of China（四川成都 三星堆）. Also, according to Tokyo Sensei, Alfonse De Baux was with Dr. Law in China too.
After the game, Tokyo Sensei and his people returned to Tokay, but Jerrona decided to go with him, she was able to do that after the Old Man gave the purple Crystal Skull back to her.
The Amethyst wanted to go with Cassandra.
In the meantime, the crystal Crocodile decided to follow Haruhana Wakako back to Tokyo.
