"It seemed more likely that it referred to the months of the year, since the Maya based their lives on their annual calendar. But, unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. As you recall, Ava discovered the hidden mirror symbol, which was aligned with the segments six and seven of the vault. I puzzled over this for a very long time, and then, once I had interpreted the meaning of this, I was ready to proceed with the deciphering of the symbols contained within each segment."

"You see, it was a very clever way of disguising the true meaning of the symbols. Because the mirror symbol could not be detected with the naked eye, there was no way to establish the purpose of the vault. By finding Ava, you found the key that would unlock the mystery. I must apologize in my reference to you in such a manner, Ava. I do not mean it as a disrespectful slur. It is just that without your special gift, we could have proceeded no further. None of what I am about to reveal would make any sense."

"I have berated myself for not seeing the obvious sooner. I had only to examine my own ancestors methods to see the truth. The whole Maya culture has a fascination with duality. If you study any of the ancient texts and burial sites, you will always find an accompanying reference to a duplicate.......a god, a vessel, etc. No one knows why this was carried out, but now, I think I may have an answer."

"This is so complicated and yet it is beautiful in its simplicity. I will try to explain this with as much clarity as possible. Firstly, let us examine the divisions, which is actually the basis for the whole theory. It seems like we have run into this many, many times. Let us examine your own unique situation, so that we can compare the two races."

"You were sent here from your planet in duplicate form. The duplicates were then divided to further ensure their survival. Of course, we must acknowledge that your ship was never meant to crash.....that was an unfortunate accident, and one that was unanticipated. The pods were distributed in a country that had its own political and civil divisions that have existed almost from its inception.....North and South. As a result of the separation, the podsters developed according to their own geographical and familial influences."

"Now, when we compare this to the Maya tradition, their duplicates were never separated. They are always found in close proximity to one another. Mirror images of one another."

He paused to look at the two sets of duplicates that faced him now."Just as you are now becoming mirror images of one another," he proclaimed. "It is the key to everything."

"I must add, with regret, that your two companions were never meant to participate in this ritual," he said with sadness in his eyes, as he turned to Zan and Ava. "As in any union, there is always the possibility of deception, and with this, the inevitability of destruction. As in King Chac’s case, his incrimination was induced by deception which resulted in his untimely death."

"However, your companions were killed for a very different reason.....to disrupt the chances of this ritual taking place at all. As you must realize by now, all the New York podsters were meant to be killed, and it would have succeeded, except for the fateful exclusion of one person......Ava. If she had also been killed, your hopes for success would have been dashed. Her devastation over the death of Zan, was his ticket to reincarnation, so to speak."

"When you visited the vaulted cavern, her distress was clearly felt by the spirits, if you will, of the ancients. In order for the plan to succeed, it was necessary to bring Zan back to life. Once his location was determined from Ava’s grief stricken memory, it was only a matter of instigating the return. You must not underestimate the viejos powers. They are what have protected you thus far from your own destruction."

"Now that I have established the importance of duality, I will begin to decipher the riddle for you. As you recall, the twelve divisions were divided equally, six to the left and six to the right, by the mirror symbol. I have now determined that this was meant to divide the message into past and future events. Those to the right reflect the past while those to the left indicate future events."

"Now, here is where it gets really interesting," he said, rubbing his hands together in glee. "This tale is interwoven with many colourful threads. In the chant Max related that day, we were able to determine the seventh day with River Dog’s help and we then surmised that the eight visitors referred to the Roswell eight. I am still convinced that this is the case."

"But we failed to determine the last part of the chant "Seven stones fall". Well, I am pleased to tell you that I have finally figured it out. The seven stones refer to each set of seven symbols within each division. Remember, these symbols were usually carved into stone and the *falling* refers to the passing of time. Is it not a clever use of language?" he chuckled. "The final seven *stones* will *fall* on Wednesday, the day of reckoning. And the divisions can loosely be interpreted as significant events in the past and the future, and not as months as we originally thought."

He sat back to catch his breath, while the teens absorbed this extraordinary news. It was all starting to make sense and now, all they needed were the directions to carry out their final duty. They started bombarding Balam with questions, but he held up his hands to ward them off.

"I will answer all your questions as I take you through the interpretations," he assured them. "I will be glad to answer any more questions you have when I have completed my dissertation. Now let us begin with the first division. This, as you would expect, deals with the pre-dating of the Maya race, when your people arrived in Mesoamerica to establish the new race. It also verifies my suspicions that they were an offshoot from the Egyptians, sent to this part of the world for its more favourable climate. I will not go into the specifics of each symbol, but you may look at my notes later on to satisfy your curiosity."

"The remainder of the divisions located in the past section, deal with the catastrophic events that fell upon your own race. I will explain these in a moment. This is actually the first occurrence we have of linking your race directly with the Maya. The symbols in El Diablo do make reference to your ancestors, but only as it affects their existence on Earth. It also establishes the fact that these histories were written many, many years apart, and you will see the significance of this in a moment."

"Max, when you first came to Earth 5000 years ago, you were just 17 years old. You were already an established leader on your home planet but in order to maintain the success of the race that had been established in Egypt, you were chosen to lead those who left Egypt and to establish a successful new race in Mesoamerica."

"Once you were satisfied that the colonists could carry on without you, you returned to your home planet to continue your rule. Several years had gone by and you were now in your middle age. You had a wife and several children, who all returned with you. While you were gone, civil war had broken out, and you were shocked at the deterioration that had occurred in your absence."

"The government was ruled by a corrupt inner core who had not expected your untimely arrival. A plot was hatched to remove you by force, and to kill you if necessary. And as you are aware, they succeeded. Now, you should be thinking that if this happened 5000 years ago, why did it take so long to bring you back?"

"Well, this is the crux of the matter. I need you to listen very carefully to what I am about to say. When I was interpreting the first set of symbols, there was a reference to a jar, the same one that was unearthed in the Temple of the Sun, I was to discover. I set about restudying the photos of the symbols you had taken, certain that this was of utmost significance."

"Now, this jar has been carbon dated to about 4800 years ago, so it is highly unlikely that it would have been used in the Temple of the Sun, since that structure was not built until 2000 b.c. Therefore, it must have been moved there at some other time. But why would a jar that would have been at least 800 years old, be so important as to be kept in such a holy Temple?

"What is so intriguing about this jar, is the fact that it contained one piece of evidence that referred to the fate of your planet and, until this dilemma is resolved, will seal the fate of this one. Most of the symbols were familiar and fairly straightforward to interpret. But there was a set displayed on the bottom of the jar, that were unfamiliar and proved most difficult to decipher. Finally, I was able to establish a pattern and I roughly translated the following phrase."

"Their past is our future"

"At first, this did not mean anything to me. Who were *They* and *Us* referring to and what was all this nonsense about a shared past and future? Then, as I began to interpret the divisions one by one, it finally dawned on me." He paused dramatically. "Your planet had been in stasis for almost 5000 years. They have no recollection of the past 5000 years because they did not exist for them."

There was another chorus of questions, but Balam held firm.

"Shortly after your death, the corrupt rulers on your planet, instigated a plan to destroy the colonies on earth........those in Egypt and Mesoamerica. They were determined to erase any memory of their existence on this planet and to sever all ties with their ancestors. They had an ulterior motive for doing this. They were also planning attacks on the other four planets in your star system, and since the Terran colonists were composed of groups from all five planets, they were anxious to erase any resistance from these colonists to their evil plan."

"They began to assemble a battalion of 500 ships to complete their mission, and time was of the utmost importance to them. They had been informed by the infiltrators they had placed on the other planets, that word had been sent to the colonists of the impending attack. They had recently developed a new technology that enabled their ships to travel at higher than normal velocities by using a time travel corridor they had just discovered."

" Unfortunately, they had not taken into account the vast number of vessels that would be using this time enhanced tube and were unaware of the backlash effect this would have on the planet. As each vessel was pulled through the tube, it set up a vibration on its perimeter. This enlarged the size of the tunnel, which began to break down from the violent gyrations. As the last vessel entered the tunnel, the corridor exploded, destroying everything inside."

"The explosion caused a ripple effect and the planet was enveloped in a *shield of time* as it were. It caused a state of equilibrium......a stasis. The other planets stood by helplessly, unable to reach their friends on Antar. They knew of nothing that could penetrate this invisible shield. They did send word to the colonists by using the communication orbs, who were grateful that at least they were not under the threat of attack anymore."

"They had no desire to return to their former planets. They had adapted to life here and many of them, who still had family and friends on Antar, had nothing to return to. They were determined to make a viable colony on Earth and to that end, they continued the efforts of their forebears."

"To ensure their continuance, they sent delegations further north, into what we now call New Mexico, and one can presume that is where you have made your discoveries.......... in the caves at Carlsbad, and your most recent discovery from which I was able to retrieve this whole history. The inhabitants of the other four planets questioned the infiltrators once they were discovered, and that is how your people we able to record the events of your past so accurately, as word of their deception was received by your ancestors."

"Over time, they lost their enhanced abilities, mainly from lack of use. Their language evolved into the Maya we know today and all traces of their former lives were erased, except for the records in the caves. Those that traveled north, gradually became assimilated into local tribes, and they also lost the link with their past. They were able to pass on their knowledge of the universe to their new tribesmen, and that is perhaps why the Anasazi also had such an appreciation for the cosmos."

"Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the other planets, worked tirelessly over the years to free Antar from its impenetrable shield. Unfortunately, they were unable to discover a means of doing so. After thousands of years, however, the shield started to collapse on its own, from the continual bombardment of meteorites and other galactic debris that would have normally been destroyed as it passed through the planets protective atmosphere."

"You can imagine your people’s shock upon the discovery of their fateful incarceration. Unfortunately, the corrupt cell still existed, although greatly reduced in numbers, since many of their followers had been killed in the fatal explosion of the time corridor. However, that did not stop their determination to control the governing of Antar and the remaining four planets of the system."

"You were the only hope your people had. They re-engineered you and your sister, Max, as well as Michael and your former wife Tess. You were to be sent to Earth to recruit help. Unfortunately, your ship’s structural integrity had been compromised, and when you entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it was unable to maintain it’s orbit, and crashed."

"You remained in stasis from 1947 until 1989, a period of 42 years. Meanwhile, civil war had again broken out on your planet and your people were anxious to hear from you. They had no knowledge of the crash, as the protectors were unable to use the orbs since it requires two to communicate, and one of them was still in the custody of the government."

"Your protectors did the best they could to hide you from your enemies on Earth, and until you re-activated the orbs, your location was kept a secret. Meanwhile, the corrupt cell back on Antar, was re-evaluating their former scheme to send a battalion of ships to Earth by using another time corridor they have recently discovered. They now plan to send thousands of vessels and this time, they are determined to destroy Earth itself."

"They tried to kill you and your companions several times so that this would not be necessary, but your stubborn refusal to die has forced them to escalate their plan. As you recall, the stranger that has been haunting you all these months took on your form, Max, to make the discovery in the cave in Carlsbad. That was the only way he could gain access to the message in the cave."

"He was also a member of the crew on your ship and, as luck would have it, he survived the crash, too. He was the one who sabotaged your vessel, and he volunteered to die so that you and your companions would no longer be a threat. He has been waiting a long time to complete his mission."

"They were aware that two sets of pods existed, and by discovering the location of the second set, they would be able to destroy all resistance to their takeover. It took them many months to find the New York podsters, and if Ava had not survived, they would have succeeded in their plan, because she and Zan are vital to the success of this mission.........as are all of you," he added.

He paused to catch his breath, and to answer the inevitable questions he was sure would ensue, but they were too dumbfounded by his revelations to formulate a single sentence. They sat there in silence, trying to digest all this news.

Max was the first to find his voice. "Will we succeed?" he asked.