Chapter 10 – A Tale of Two Agents
Chapter 10 – A Tale of Two Agents
DWX Lab
Xander had given the Doc two hours to work on the pair he had rescued from Antarctica; time he used to see if the Engineers and their 'apprentices' needed any further help on the Delta Flyer…which they didn't so instead he had used it to analyze the sensor logs of the behemoth Mothership that had emerged from the Ice, so to speak.
Dawn had gone off to regenerate for the day so that left him all alone in front of the Sensor station. It was two hours of analysis that left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. A fully-fledged Starfleet Defiant, Sovereign or Prometheus class would find this Mothership a tough nut to crack. Upgrading them with Borg technology extensively would even the odds in a one-on-one battle, but what about on a Fleet scale, when numbers were important as much as the quality of the ships.
The FTL mode of the Mothership was quite ingenius. The Antarctic Mothership hadn't landed on the Moon near its counterpart; in fact, it had steered in completely the opposite direction. Then it had projected a field around itself that seemed to bleed every quark, boson, and other subatomic particles from within, creating a 'depleted vacuum' around the ship, a perfectly frictionless environment…the ship was in fact, 'existing' outside of the light barrier and could jump at a moment to the equivalent of Warp 6; three hundred and ninety two times the speed of light. That translated to roughly a Light-year distance covered per Earth day.
Well, that was pedestrian compared to Slip speeds. But it didn't matter much in the scheme of things since what was needed wasn't to be able to go fast, but to…fight and liberate Earth.
That brought up the fact that they had to first build a shipyard somewhere on Earth without any government getting wind of it, cloak it, equip it to shipyard standards, get holographic Engineers installed, provide the bulk matter for the Industrial Replicator, and only then could a Defiant class be built.
In addition, they didn't know how many Motherships the aliens had in their fleet, how much space they dominated, where their homeworld was, nor what they were planning for Earth, it was all a big unknown. Well, there were two people in Sickbay who could potentially alleviate that unknown a little.
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DWX Sickbay
Xander entered Sickbay and his eyes immediately fell on the two unconscious forms lying on neighboring Biobeds. They were dressed in the loose blue sterile patient clothes that 24th C Doctor's usually issued, Xander was pleased to see that the Doc was adopting the nitty gritty of future medical practice as well.
The woman was actually quite attractive, if a little short, her face was soft with no hard lines and a pointed chin with nice lips that complimented her nose in an indefinable way; what people referred to as the 'X' factor. The guy, on the other hand, tall and lanky, his face broad with a permanent dour expression seemingly etched on it.
"Xander," nodded the Doc, staring thoughtfully at a long DNA chain projected on the Multi Function Wallscreen.
"Eh, whatsup Doc?" grinned Xander, anyone would try to find something to laugh about after seeing those sensor scans. Doc Howser rolled his eyes at the Bugs Bunny quip and walked over to a nearby tool tray and picked up two hand-sized leather wallets and handed them over. Xander opened both at the same time and his eyes nearly felt like they wanted to pop out of their sockets. "You're kidding me?!" he demanded.
"Afraid not," said the Doc dryly.
"What on Earth are two freaking FBI agents doing in Antarctica? Climbing out of an alien space ship?"
"I'm a Doctor, not a Clairvoyant," griped Doc Howser frowning irritably at Xander, his mouth twitching afterward somewhat ruined it.
"Been dying to give that line a try haven't you?" smirked Xander.
"Give me a break, I loved Dr McCoy's character on the original show," laughed Doogie. "But getting serious, yes, it seems that we have ourselves a pair of Feds. Special Agent Fox Mulder and the pretty one is Special Agent Dana Scully."
"Ok, what can you tell me medically about them that you think is relevant?"
"I've treated both for the early stages of hypothermia, but what you'll find interesting is Agent Scully's test results. They are…in a word, amazing and has both answered questions and posed even more questions," said the Doc, visibly gathering his thoughts. "I can say with certainty that she was exposed to the alien virus, because you can still find it in her system at this very moment. Scans show that the virus began to break down internal tissue structures and began to grow a cancerous mass within her…but it was arrested with a vaccine administered to her not more than three hours ago before it could be life threatening."
"So obviously someone else took the time and effort to create a vaccine against a highly evolved alien pathogen," mused Xander. "It doesn't seem possible with current medical tech…"
"There is a way to develop a vaccine for something like this currently. You're forgetting how more than half of the medical advances we have today were obtained," said Doc Howser, his expression turning dark.
"Ah, forced human experimentation the Nazis did on all the 'undesirables' during World War 2," said Xander scowling.
"That is one source," nodded the Doc a faint look of disgust on his face. "It's a conflict that every Doctor has to face today when they go through their training. 'Do I make use of a medical technique that was perfected by using an innocent human test subject who died immediately afterward, or do I use what was essentially murder to save a life today? Because if I don't, that life currently on my table will die and I will be guilty of death by negligence.'" The Doc sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. "If I did not have morals, ethics and did not vow to the Hippocratic oath, then I could conceivably create a vaccine by exposing as many genetically diverse people as possible to this virus. The human immune system is a remarkable thing in many ways, it can adapt to many different forms of bacteria and viruses. We wouldn't be here today without it. Anyway, I would then draw constant blood samples and start to see how the virus reacts to certain individuals…if some show a heightened resistance then I would find a common biological factor and attempt to isolate it. A long process of trial and error later and many deaths…and tada! We have a vaccine." The Doc's face twisted into a bitter anger.
"So clearly someone out there has no morals but is clearly working to fight the aliens," said Xander thoughtfully. "You said that the virus was breaking down this Agent Scully's tissues and a cancerous mass was growing inside her…the vaccine stopped that, but what would've happened had it not been there?"
"Her tissues would continue to break down and the cancerous growth would expand as it happened."
"So the tissue degeneration could be a result of the growth using it as a fuel source for replication," theorized Xander.
"That is the most likely scenario," agreed Doc Howser.
"But this virus is intelligent perhaps even fully sentient, so this cancer growth is result of it 'deciding' to do this."
"Again, likely; given what I observed the virus doing and its complexity."
"Then why? What is the purpose of 'killing' it's host by causing this cancer? Surely it can kill in a more efficient manner like any other 'less evolved' virus?"
"I'm not sure, but I've also found something else unusual in Agent Scully, in the back of her neck is an extremely small chip. It's like nothing I've ever seen…I ran it against the medical database and the closest match I get is a Borg nanoprobe."
"And since she's not a drone and there's only one chip inside her, have you any idea of its function?"
"No, since it's a computer chip, I thought you might take a look at it."
"All right…Doc…what is it?"
"God help us," said Doc Howser suddenly pale, as a revelation seemed to dawn on him. "I might have an answer, not on the chip…the-the other thing…but I need to confirm it. Excuse me…" he started to rush towards his office, but Xander halted him.
"Wait, before you do that…get thorough scans and samples of that vaccine in Agent Scully, I have a feeling we'll be needing it."
"Obviously," said the Doc dryly. Xander left him to his work.
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DWX Lab
Researching the life of anyone would merely a decade ago, have involved tedious manual files stored in physically secured locations and if it was stored on computer, then it would be exceedingly primitive and located in those locations as well. Thankfully, a lot had changed since then.
The advent of computerization into all parts of life was happening quite fast. As evidenced by databases compiled by companies on their customers, government records scanned into digital form, computer controlled power and utilities, the rapid spread of the Internet, online banking, financial data and so on.
The most obvious search thread to start on was the FBI; and find the employment file and history of the two Agents in Sickbay. Obviously the FBI mainframe computer system was heavily defended by firewalls and encryption, and by the fact that it wasn't physically connected to the Internet. The FBI Internet site was run off a separate server. It was of little consequence when you had access to a 24th C sensor array and a Computer that utilized bio-neural and isolinear circuitry and measured it's processing power in the trillions of calculations per nanosecond scale.
He found the exact coordinates of the Hoover Building first, and then directed the array to that location and scan for the servers he wanted. He encountered the encryption used and his inner Data found it laughingly easy to break the seven hundred and thirty bit encryption.
He found both Agents' files and transferred them to the DWX computer and to a padd. He next sent out feelers to on the Internet to any credit card companies…a few minutes later he also had the purchases both FBI agents had ever made with their cards. He stopped at that point, since a quick glance at the FBI file showed that it was quite a comprehensive summary of the Agent's lives.
He began to read.
He got more engrossed the more he read…he tapped the padd faster and faster, scrolling page after page.
When he was done he whistled to himself in astonishment. He had new threads to search now and turned his attention back to the Sensor station and began to tap on the controls with a furious pace as only an android could. It would take some doing reconstructing the data since it had all been seemingly erased a few months ago…but deletion subroutines of the current era were very inefficient.
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DWX Conference Room
Two days later all the Scoobies had assembled again for the 'debrief' as it were after their actions of the past few days.
"What have you found out about our new 'guests'?" asked Giles intently, his tone getting his irritation across.
"They have a complicated history," said Xander after a moment, glancing at each of the people in the room. "I asked the Doc to keep what he knows about them under wraps because I didn't want anyone to act rashly when they hear it…" He couldn't help but glance at Willow and Joyce when he said that.
He shook his head and decided to get it over with. A push of the button and a holographic flat screen appeared above the table, which showed the front-page summaries in the FBI files of Mulder and Scully. Xander knew the bold letters of 'FBI' that hovered over the ID photos would get instant attention.
Willow gasped. Joyce paled. Angel grimaced. Oz merely frowned slightly. Giles muttered a rather lurid expletive. Cordelia paled as well. T'Jen merely raised an elegant eyebrow in Vulcan manner. Dawn was unsurprised, as she had done some of the infosearch as well.
"Say hello to FBI agents Fox William Mulder and Dana Katherine Scully," began Xander mock dramatically. "And believe it or not we, as in the DWX Scoobies, actually share similar interests and even have a similarity of vocation with them both."
"W-what do you mean?" said Giles.
"Both belong to a very small Investigative unit of the FBI that was started by J. Edgar Hoover himself, called The X-Files. Its purpose is to investigate cases that are seemingly 'paranormal' and unexplainable by conventional science by using non-traditional means and thinking. For example one of their cases involved a series of rather grisly murders where people's livers were torn out with bare hands, what made it unexplainable was that at each crime scene the victims were in locked rooms and no viable point of entry could be determined for the killer. But an elongated fingerprint was found at an extremely narrow vent at one scene measuring no more than six inches by eighteen."
"A Tortum demon, quite rare, they look mostly human but can elongate and twist themselves into nearly any shape," said Giles at once.
"I hate those guys," said Angel blandly, everyone turned to him at that comment. "They creep me out," he explained almost sheepishly.
"And that coming from a vampire, says something," said Xander wryly. "Ok, getting back to our Agents, in the end they ended up killing the demon…apparently he got shredded and mushed by an escalator that was near his nest."
"Nasty," said Oz.
"Quite," agreed Xander, "this case is just the tip of the iceberg of course. But in summary, they've investigated magic related murders; other forms of demons (they don't call them that, merely genetic mutants), and of course our alien 'friends' on the Moon and their activities on our fair planet. Now since they have to file official reports they have to water down and talk between the lines, but its obvious when you know what we know, what they are actually referring to." He brought up a stack of padd's and handed them to each Scooby. "Those are the X-Files, at least those that were digitized on the FBI mainframe, and you can read them at your own leisure. I've included a summary that should get you by if you don't wish to read though the somewhat mind numbing style of some of the reports."
"Getting back to Mulder and Scully themselves, well they seem polar opposites at first glance," said Xander. "In their psych evals Mulder is the open minded, idealist, whilst she is the scientist and skeptic. Now Mulder makes for interesting reading…his involvement started when he was a teenage boy and he witnessed his younger sister being abducted by the aliens…no one believed him. But it's what probably spurred him into his profession…to find her and later to unmask the government conspiracy to hide the existence of ET's. He has First Class Honors from Oxford in Psychology and worked in the FBI Behavioral Science Unit quite successfully and was a brilliant agent until his partner was killed. He became a maverick agent after that before he 'discovered' the X-Files in '91 and reopened them."
"Scully on the other hand, has a Degree in Physics and is a qualified medical doctor, and was recruited by the FBI almost immediately after she finished. She initially instructed at the FBI Academy in Forensic Pathology but was later assigned to partner Mulder in the X-Files to 'provide a sound scientific basis' to his investigations…more likely she was sent to debunk Mulder's work…if you read the files you'll understand why I say that."
"Ok, so we've got an idea now of who they are, but let's look at the here and now," said Doc Howser. "It certainly explains somewhat why they were in that alien Mothership. Agent Scully was infected with the Alien virus and it was slowly eating her alive in laymen's terms. There is a vaccine to the same virus in her blood that is destroying it. She also has a residue on her body that suggests she was placed in some form of advanced liquid immersed stasis that was most likely in use on the Mothership."
"Mulder went to rescue her, and inject her with the vaccine," theorized Willow brightly.
"Perhaps, but his possession of the vaccine is…suspect," said Doc Howser and explained to the group how he theorized the vaccine was made. Willow paled at it, which quickly became a flush of anger when the Doc mentioned the Nazi experiments. "I also finished running a computer simulation of what the virus would do to person infected with it, the scans of Agent Scully were invaluable in that regard. If the virus had finished its work, I think that a person would be totally consumed by it…and…and…" He trailed off and took a deep fortifying breath. "And a newly formed alien would emerge."
The looks of horror and disgust were on every face in the room, even Xander.
"Are you certain of this, Doctor?" said Giles gravely.
"Eighty nine percent certain, at least according to the simulation," said Doc Howser with a wince. "It depends though, as you know the alien virus is sentient…so it must decide to do this. It can also just lie dormant within the body. Add this to the bee farm Xander and Angel reconnoitered as a delivery system for the virus…well I think the term Armageddon comes to mind."
"As if it's not enough we have demons to worry about on that score," said Giles in exasperation, "now we have technologically superior aliens."
"It's almost like we're under siege, humanity I mean," said Joyce in a small voice.
"It seems that way," said Xander with a sigh.
"But we cannot submit to defeat," said Giles suddenly in a strong voice, slamming his hand on the table. "Can you replicate that vaccine, Doctor?"
"I can, but it'll take time, I know the structure of the vaccine, but I have precious little of the alien virus to derive that vaccine from."
"So we need to get you a large amount of the alien virus?" said Xander.
"Essentially."
"We'll start looking," nodded Xander. "Now there's the question of what to do about the Agents?"
"Are they still in need of any medical attention, Doctor?" said Giles.
"No, and I've gotten all the data from Scully that I need."
"Then perhaps we can simply cut them loose near a random transportation terminal."
"We need to know what they saw in that mothership Giles, and what else they know," said Xander intently.
"What can they possibly tell us that our sensors didn't pick up when the mothership left? And we have the X-Files…"
"Not all of them, most of the X-Files were still on hard copy files, but an 'apparent' fire destroyed them," countered Xander, "and the X-Files themselves don't tell the whole story…you know the enormity of the threat, G-man, do you think they would really write down in an official report what they really know about the extent of government collusion with the aliens?"
"How do we know they're not in on it too?" said Angel. "The X-Files might all be simply disinformation."
"It's possible but unlikely," said Dawn. "We've corroborated a lot of the events these X-Files mentions to other independent sources as well."
"This is an opportunity," said Oz.
"You think we should 'co-opt' them?" said Xander in surprise.
"It would be logical," said T'Jen neutrally. "If we simply try to interrogate them without some form of disclosure or trust, they would think us part of the conspiracy. As FBI Agents they have plausible access to 'human intelligence' is the term, which we would not. In return for their assistance…we could help them in their work on the X-Files. They do not need to know of the more relatively 'implausible' resources we have access to."
"Maybe we could approach them as agents of the Watcher's Council," said Dawn…seeing Giles' expression she hurriedly said, "I mean, we don't have to mention them by name…just what they do…you know, fighting the good fight behind the scenes and so forth."
"You're forgetting the resources they have access to," said Giles with a frown, "they could identify us by sketch artist and facial recognition, even if we use aliases."
"I have a way around that," said Xander non-chalantly.
"Well, we're all ears," countered the Watcher.
Xander grinned and began to speak.
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Fox Mulder was a very worried man. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, feigning continued unconsciousness, but his other senses told him that while he wasn't in the middle of the Antarctic tundra anymore, but in an infinitely more comfortable setting…had Scully managed to get them home?
He was ensconced in a bed, that had the rough durable feel of hospital sheets, it was a testament to his life that he had had so many stays in medical wards during the course of his work of the FBI and later the X-Files, that he could identify it by merely feeling the bedding. There was also the smell of the place…that pervasive odor of bleach disinfectant used to clean the places. He heard the hum of car engines, the patter of footsteps, the announcements for doctors to report to this place or that.
His curiosity finally got the better of him and his eyes blinked open. The walls of his room were Spartan and white, with very little adornment. A TV in the far corner was blaring a daily talk show, whilst the light from the window shining through the closed curtains, it seemed to be early morning. His eyes found the other bed a few feet away to his right and he immediately sat up.
"Scully."
No response, she was still sleeping it seemed, and a Saline IV was attached to the back of her hand and providing sustenance directly into her. He stared at the back of his hand and could see the residue of a plaster and a small red puncture wound…he had required it too it seemed. But it made sense that she would need longer to recover…her body had been fighting off that damn virus.
"Greetings, Agent Mulder."
Mulder snapped his head around to see a man standing in the doorway. He stood with impeccable posture and wore a designer gray suit that probably would've cost half the salary he made in year as an FBI Agent. Otherwise the man seemed…ordinary…average height, average build, with short stylish brown hair, parted in the middle. Mulder guessed his age to be just shy of thirty.
"How are you feeling?" asked the man kindly with a smile on his face, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. He was carrying a leather briefcase in his left hand and stood at the foot of his bed. "I asked you a question, Agent Mulder."
Mulder finally seemed to snap himself out of his funk and disorientation. "Fine, thanks. Um, who are you?"
"We will get to that," said the man, his accent was definitely not local…almost British. "But first your partner needs to be in on this conversation we are about to have." He walked over to Scully's bedside and produced out of his briefcase a subdermal injection gun. Mulder was about to rush over and stop him when he said, "Rest assured Mr Mulder, it's nothing but a counteragent to the sedation we put you both under. We thought she could use the extra sleep, but since you're awake…" He placed barrel of the injector against her neck and there was a snapping sound as the contents of the gun shot into Scully.
"It should take about a few minutes, depending whether or not her body decides it needs more rest," said the man, putting the injector back into the briefcase, snapping it closed and walked to the window and peered through the curtains in an almost absent minded manner. "Oh, by the way, your identification in addition to your partner's are in the personal effects drawer to your left. In addition to a change of clothes for the both of you."
Mulder took a note of that but didn't break his gaze on the unknown man, he would have to turn to see if that was the truth…and he didn't trust the seemingly benevolent rescuer.
"That is an extremely good attitude to have, Agent Mulder," said the man approvingly, "never turn your back to a potential adversary, a simple common wisdom…that is unfortunately lacking in this world of ours. It's almost as lacking as those who are open minded…a unique rare breed they are…something you and I have in common."
"How did we get here? Where is here?" asked Mulder.
"I see you are not to be diverted," said the man, "you will not wait for Agent Scully to awake? She deserves the same answers. And I suspect that she needs to see I actually exist…she might not believe you otherwise."
Mulder frowned and was quickly losing his temper…this guy clearly had done some homework on them…whoever he was. "Scully! Wake up!" He threw off his bedsheets, twisted and moved to stand…he winced as his legs protested the movement…how long had they been unconscious?
"Easy there," advised the man.
Mulder regarded his blue hospital pajamas with interest…quite comfortable, and moved over to Scully. "Wakey! Daanaa!" He shoved her shoulder slightly and finally she produced a moan of frustration and rolled over away from him. The man chuckled at this, and Mulder gave him a glare before he tried again.
"What? Hmm, Mulder…" she turned back and her bleary eyes focused on him, "Mulder…why are you over my bed?"
"Scully, we're in hospital…you remember…the bee, my apartment…we were on the ice…"
"Um, oh…oh yes, we were…walking through a dark place, there was water…things were trying to grab us, you pushed me up…then a massive ice field, we ran because it was breaking up, then you fell unconscious…I dragged you…and…" She sat up in alarm and pounced on Mulder in a hug. "Oh my goodness…we're ok…"
"Yes, it seems so," said Mulder softly, unable to resist tenderness from this quarter.
"I remember losing consciousness before we could get away…how…" she finally registered the presence of the 'mysterious' man, with his enigmatic expression.
"The how Agent Scully is we saw you emerge from the ice, your escape from the rising spacecraft was quite death defying…your perseverance is to be commended," said the man with a grin.
"Who are you?!" she said in alarm, breaking the hug from Mulder.
"That is the question of the hour, isn't it?" he laughed. "My name is not important, any name I give you would be useless, an alias, I've got quite a few of them. So tell me which you prefer…Mr Smith, Johnson, Smythe…"
"The truth would be nice," said Mulder snidely.
"Truth takes time, Agent Mulder, and trust…which you two have none of with me, so you can call me Mr E."
"Clever," said Mulder wryly.
"I try," said Mr E condescendingly. He reached into his suitcase again and produced a cellphone sized device and activated it…a pulsing noise pervaded the room briefly and it began flashing a blue light. The TV in the corner of the room abruptly started to show only static. "That takes care of the NSA. Now you are both in Ward 5 of the Maryland Institute, under false names and identities I've taken the liberty to arrange for you. There is also enough cash in the drawer to pay your hospital bill and rent a car. You are free to leave at any time. There is a catch however."
"There always is," said Mulder with a sigh.
"It's the way of things," said Mr E. "If you leave immediately then you will have less than nothing to go to the FBI with to explain your little jaunt in Antarctica, since you requisitioned FBI resources to hire the plane to take you to McMurdo. If you stay and hear me out and answer some question of my own, you can leave here with evidence that the 'Conspiracy' thought was destroyed but wasn't and we can help each other in the future."
"What evidence do you have?" said Mulder, eventually after a long silence.
"What would you say if I had been to certain 'bee farm' in the middle of the desert before their incineration teams destroyed it?" Mr E grinned knowingly.
"I'd say that either you have a deal, or you're part of the same 'Conspiracy' merely trying to yank my chain again…I've had two Conspiracy members turn informants to me, both are dead and gone," said Mulder darkly.
"Oh dear, my chances aren't good then," said Mr E looking slightly troubled, but then smiled. "But lucky for me I'm not a member of the International Conspiracy to organize a planned alien invasion of Earth."
"Then who do you work for?" said Scully rolling her eyes.
"Tsk, tsk, you doubt me when I say that and your partner when he says it…well, those doubts will disappear soon enough," said Mr E. "I will say this…I am part of an organization that has existed since the dawn of the written word…our goal back then as it is now is simple…defend humanity using every knowledgeable means at our disposal. And we have a lot of knowledge. Most stemming from sources I doubt even you would believe Agent Mulder." He grinned at them both. "So…what do you say?"
Mulder groaned inwardly…there was still a big chance that this was all just another setup, another manipulation…could an organization really exist dating back that far? He knew of rumors and popular conspiracy theories relating to the Illuminati…the Freemasons and the New World Order…who didn't? But none of them claimed as ancient origin as Mr E claimed his own organization had.
"We'll hear you out, for now," said Mulder, "but if we don't like what we hear, we're outta here. Clear?"
"As crystal, Agent Mulder," said Mr E. "Now, I want to know what you know about the 'Conspiracy'?"
"You seem to know quite a bit already," retorted Mulder.
"I do, but there are limits to what my organization can uncover…we don't really have much in the way of 'hum-int' is the term on the members of the conspiracy…a lot of the evidence only exists in the minds of whoever they are, and sadly I am not a telepath nor a very diligent investigator. Now please…an answer, or we terminate our conversation right now and the evidence goes out the window."
"Very well…" said Mulder.
"Mulder…" interrupted Scully in warning. Mulder cursed inwardly and made a gesture for her to be silent, he couldn't afford her damn skepticism now…not when they both were assuredly facing a Review board when they returned to Washington, and his gut, instinct or whatever you wanted to call it, was telling him that Mr E, while obviously having his own agenda…was actually speaking the truth when he spoke about defending humanity.
"I don't know their real names, only by codenames or nicknames that we've given them, but the 'Conspiracy' as you call it, is actually a Syndicate of global interests…an assemblage of powerful former government leaders and international businessmen. It began after the Roswell UFO crash, when an ultrasecret conference of powerbrokers in the US, Soviet Russia, Britain, China, France, West and East Germany signed a treaty of cooperation with regards to the alien spacecraft and any technology gained from it."
"Eventually, these men broke off from their parent governments and became independent…using their knowledge of extraterrestrial life and reverse engineered technology to further their own agenda."
"Such men today would be quite old, they'd be in their sixties and seventies," mused Mr E.
"Yes, but the power they wield is almost absolute," said Mulder darkly. "They walk the corridors of the FBI with impunity…I'd not be surprised to find that any other government agency can become their stomping ground at a whim. They make use of contracted agents who operate above the law to persecute the Syndicate's agenda."
"The agenda being the planned Armageddon of the alien invasion…with the alien virus in bees as a delivery system," said Mr E, staring at Scully pointedly. "You can be very glad Agent Scully that your partner found a vaccine…otherwise you'd be very dead. Our Doctors estimate you had but another twenty hours left before even that vaccine wouldn't have saved your life."
Scully apparently didn't know what to say and merely settled for giving a thankful glance at Mulder…despite her reservations of what she was hearing.
"But what I don't understand Agent Mulder…is why? Why is the Syndicate, human beings, contributing to the end of their and our own race?"
"They're not…well, not really," said Mulder with a sigh, shaking his head, remembering what Well Manicured Man had told him before he had committed suicide by climbing in his own limo and activating a car bomb. "The Syndicate, while power hungry in their greed for alien technology and control over global interests, power and money, are only pretending to play along with the Alien Colonists. The vaccine is the Syndicate's creation…they assist the alien's as a means to an end, to buy time."
"To develop the vaccine?"
"Yes," nodded Mulder, "its taken them forty years to do it at the cost of I don't know how many people's lives. But I don't think they're planning to distribute to the whole world…only their little elite cadre will get it while they allow the rest of us to become mindless slaves with the alien essence in our blood, controlling us."
"But I bet the aliens didn't tell them about the virus mutating and using the body to fuel a gestation of a new EBE," said Mr E grimly.
"Well, I can't say for sure, but I imagine they were rather shocked," said Mulder. "Their other goal is an order from the Aliens, that they must attempt to create an alien/human hybrid…for what purpose I don't know…but I've seen the aliens shapeshifting, heal themselves and others in seconds, pick up a grown man as if he was a feather; so a hybrid would have all that."
"Perhaps they intend them as soldiers…"
Mr E frowned in thought, looking troubled and then seemingly nodded to himself. He opened the briefcase again and produced two enclosed plastic cylinders one long the other short and placed it on the food table used by the patient to eat; the short cylinder was filled to the brim with dead bees, the long one held a mash of plant material, stalks from the polygenic wheat field. He next also produced what was a new model Nokia mobile phone next to flashing jammer device and closed his briefcase again.
"What can you tell me about the individual Syndicate members?"
"The member Scully and I've most run into is Cigarette Smoking Man or Cancer Man," said Mulder scowling at the mere mention of that SOB.
"Named as such because he has a fondness of smoking I assume?" said Mr E wryly.
"He's like a Morley brand chimney," said Mulder matter-of-factly. "Sometimes I knew he was at a scene simply by seeing the discarded cigarette butts. He's the Syndicate's primary North American enforcer and liaises between them and the US government. He's a former special ops officer at Fort Bragg in 1962, and was a deadly assassin doing black ops work when he was seemingly made to disappear from all records. Some…friends of mine believe he was involved in both Kennedy and King assassinations after that."
"So you would say he has the dirt on a lot of the Syndicate's schemes?" said Mr E, his eyes narrowing.
"Oh yes," said Mulder emphatically. "We've met three others, but they're not an issue since they're dead. We also think that the Syndicate leader…who would know everything, is a Nazi war criminal and scientist who can't enter the United States…he's living somewhere abroad."
"No name?" asked Mr E.
"Nope, sorry," said Mulder.
"Well, my organization has extensive documentation on the Nazis since they were so heavily involved in using or trying to use the occult to further the Third Reich…perhaps a deductive analysis can pinpoint who this individual is," mused Mr E, who then glanced at his watch. "I think it time I take my leave of you…Agent Scully, Agent Mulder…it was good to meet you and hopefully this is the beginning of a fruitful partnership. I have a feeling that it's perhaps one on which the fate of our race might depend."
Mr E pointed at the blinking jammer device…or at least that's what Mulder assumed it was. "This I will leave with you…when you want to have a conversation that no one could possibly detect, via electronic or other means…push the button. It has a radius of ten meters." He then pointed to the Nokia. "This is a secure phone which you can use to reach me. Its' impossible to trace, bug, triangulate or intercept."
"How is that possible?" asked Scully. "The NSA can intercept any electronic transmission…"
"Let's just say that the technology the phone uses isn't…conventional, Agent Scully, and leave it at that. And please don't try to have anyone you know with a more technical background try to open it or pick it apart. Not unless you wish them to lose their eyebrows and any facial hair they may have when the devices self-destruct."
"As I was saying, if you want to contact me, enter the number '78278735' and press dial," he handed Mulder a card with the number on, "please memorize this and destroy it. Oh, the Infrared port doubles as a fingerprint scanner…only you and Agent Scully can use the phone. Again if someone other than you tries to use it, it will blow up in their hands."
"If goodness forbid you should lose or have both devices confiscated, you can get to any other phone and dial the same number, when it picks up, say one word, 'Qa'pla'," Mr E grinned shamelessly at the obvious Star Trek Klingon phrase. "I will then also know to get in touch with you."
Mr E inclined his head to them and walked towards the door. "Good luck at your review." And with that he exited the room and disappeared from view.
"That was a risky move, Mulder," said Scully softly.
"I know." He picked up the flashing Jamming device curiously. It's weight was negligible, rather amazing for what it could do. He pushed the button and immediately the TV in the corner resumed its normal operation. Picking up the Nokia phone it also looked utterly unremarkable despite being the latest model. It was already powered on and showing that it was connected to a network…its power was at full. That reminded him that he'd need to get a charger cable for this specific model. "But with this…" he gestured at the evidence cylinders, "we might have a chance for even reopening The X-Files."
"If that is the actual bees and stalks from that field we were in," said Scully pointedly. Mulder activated the Jammer again before saying.
"Our new 'friend' knows too much and if he was a member of the Syndicate he's just signed his own death warrant by giving us this evidence, Scully," countered Mulder. "You don't know this yet, but when you were abducted after being stung by that bee I was contacted by the British Syndicate member. He basically defected when he learned of what the alien virus was actually going to do; he handed me that vaccine…so I could save you, for the sake his own children. The instant he was done he committed suicide."
Scully sighed and moved to get out of bed. "We'll talk more later…let's get out of here…"
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Mr E stood on the roof of the building opposite the Maryland Institute and saw how Mulder and Scully emerged hurriedly from the front entrance and walked out of the hospital grounds. They called for a cab and got in and the vehicle merged into the traffic flow.
"Did it work?" asked Giles, moving to stand next to Mr E.
"Yes, we have an understanding, I've also got more specifics on the conspiracy," said Mr E.
"Enough to begin?"
"Yes," nodded Mr E. "We have two leads to pursue and hopefully the two intrepid Agents will keep us apprised of anything they dig up in the future."
"Good, it's about time we made some positive headway on this front. There are other matters to deal with as well."
"Vamp activity picking up again?"
"Angel says he killed two last night."
"That's easy pickings, we're not even halfway through summer yet, by the way, have you kept Buffy up to speed on events?"
"I met her yesterday, she's understandably flummoxed about this whole alien 'bad guy' business," said Giles. "Then again, I'm still not sure I've taken it all in yet myself." His tone was as dry as sand.
"We'll need her in the future against the alien's, she's the Chosen One, defender and champion of humanity after all," said Mr E with an easy grin.
"Not so much as we'll need you," countered Giles.
Mr E shrugged and both men walked out of sight only to disappear in a twinkle of blue light.
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DWX Lab
The bottle of champagne was lifted and turned over, abruptly it rose into the air, swung with tireless holographic arms and came back down, where it abruptly broke with high snapping sound, and the liquid inside burst upon the sharp hull of the newly christened Alpha Flyer. The audience, hologram and humanoid alike that had worked on the new ship burst into spontaneous applause and exchanged satisfied handshakes and even hugs in one or two cases.
"Amazing job everyone," said Geordi, carefully lowering the remains of the large bottle after the din had died down. "This is a huge accomplishment, but it's only the first small step…and unfortunately, we can't rest now. There's still a planet to save."
"Hear, hear," said Giles.
"To that end, Xander has an announcement," said Geordi, beckoning Xander to take his place standing in front of the Flyer and address everyone.
"As Geordi said, this is…huge," said Xander with a grin. "But we must go forward, thus far, this campus has housed everything that we've been working on…but now that must change. As G-man would say, 'We have too many eggs in one basket.'" Xander had actually modified his voice to an exact replica of Giles when he spoke. The Watcher gave a gimlet eye stare in retaliation. "Therefore, we have to create a secondary DWX. Its location will be critical, as this is where we will also be building bigger ships…it must be isolated, in a remote area…where the local government can be easily made to look the other way and where the Alien Colonists do not have much interest in."
"Is there such a place?" said Oz.
"Yes, in the mountains bordering the Skeleton Coast in Namibia," nodded Xander.
"Africa?" said Willow a bit dubiously.
"It's the best place we could find matching all the conditions we need," said Dawn. "There's a specific valley forty miles inward from the South Atlantic coast that is surrounded by mountains on all sides. We will begin to build cloaking field generators with micro-fusion plants that will form a Phase Cloak all over the entire four mile length of the valley…making it look like nothing at all is happening out of the ordinary…even if someone was to walk through the valley they'd be in the wrong phase and would walk straight through anything that we build there none the wiser."
"Once that is done, we can begin infrastructure development; shields, shipyard, housing, etc."
"Xander there are too few of us to do all that," said Giles in astonishment.
"G-Man, how did you think we finished the Flyer?" asked Xander rhetorically, gesturing to the holograms.
"Oh," said Giles blinking.
"However, we poor flesh, blood and mechanical beings will have to do the initial work of setting up the Cloak and Holographic field generator in the valley. From that point Geordi has volunteered to lead the current and new Engineering teams we will program to begin work there."
"You're welcome," said Geordi with a smile.
"So when are you gonna fly that thing?" asked Cordelia, as nonchalantly as possible, studying her nails.
"That is another reason why we held this gathering," said Xander, this time he gestured to T'Jen and she began to speak.
"We need to know the status and disposition of species within our region of space," she explained. "To achieve this, Xander, Dawn, and I will take the Alpha Flyer out in two days to make a reconnaissance cruise of the systems where we believe there is sentient life, we will begin with Andoria, Vulcan and then Tellar…then move on to the other possibilities. Thanks to the Slip drive I estimate our mission will take no more than two days to a week, depending on what we might encounter."
"But…but…" said Willow, her face scrunching in consternation. Oz hugged her and nodded that he understood.
"I realize that you wished to be on the first flight of the Alpha Flyer, Willow, Oz," said T'Jen, a slight hint of empathy leaking into her voice. "But there is no telling what we will encounter out there. There will be no rescue or backup if something goes wrong. Therefore, only those with the experience, memory, and training of Starfleet Academy can go. As Jonathan Archer would say…you don't have your 'space legs' yet. Until we know more, it's safer for you to stay on Earth."
"I have to admit that it's a bit of a relief actually," said Giles, breathing a slight sigh. "I very much like to keep two feet on Terra firma, thank you very much. Oh, I'll go if you really need me out there it's just…"
"We get it G-man," said Xander with shake of the head.
"There's too much healing here to do on Earth anyway, before I can go explore with a clear conscious anyway," said Doc Howser sadly, "however, like Giles, if I'm needed specifically I'll go."
"Well, I'm just an middle aged art gallery owner," said Joyce with self-deprecating shrug. "Not much call for that in the galaxy I imagine."
"We can't just let you uncool people out into the galaxy," said Cordelia haughtily. "Therefore, I de…would appreciate if you started a Starfleet short semester education program or something."
"Cordy, are you actually volunteering to learn…that high level science and all that…" said Xander in astonishment.
"Of course," said Cordelia with a frown, "if there's one thing that I'm good at, then it's seeing a trend…and I think that in the future, those of us with this knowledge are gonna be in high demand…which equals lots of…reward."
Xander snorted…typical Cordy. Give her bigger ears, brown skin and big lobes, she'd be a perfect Ferengi.
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Xander settled himself in the forward Pilot station of the Alpha Flyer, it had all the same control layouts of the original Delta version, but instead of the superfluous Captain Proton inspired controls to the pilot's right was a holographic 3D interface panel. Situated above him was the Tactical Station to his left, and Engineering to his right, occupied by T'Jen and Dawn respectively. Both stations made use of a combination of standard touchpad controls and holographic interface.
He looked down from the view out the front viewports, which showed nothing but the wall of the lab.
"Begin checklist. Thrusters?"
"Online," replied Dawn.
"Internally metered pulse drive?"
"Powered up and in the green." The Flyer began to resonate with a hum as one of its main systems came online.
"Slip drive and quantum induction core?"
"Activated and cycling…ready."
"Tactical systems?"
"Armor generators, regenerative shields and Phase cloak are online and ready," said T'Jen, tapping her controls and manipulating the holographic controls hovering in mid-air over her panel. "Torpedoes and Thasers report nominal."
The Thaser was what the Scoobies had agreed to call the beam weapon used by the Borg. Visually, it fired a green beam that lanced instantly across space to intersect its target. Scientifically, the beam was actually a contained stream of modulated theta radiation, which could be easily adjusted into different frequencies and wavelengths. Such a weapon was only possible due to the ZP power core of the Flyer. A M/AM reactor while also powerful could only react so much before you ran into containment problems.
"Ok, here we go," said Xander, feeling the excitement of the moment finally hit him. "Engage Cloak."
The Alpha Flyer seemed to blur for a moment and then simply vanished.
"Xander to Giles, you see us out there?"
"No, you're invisible," confirmed the Watcher, who was standing on the far side of the lab.
"Good, open the roof."
The roof of the warehouse building seemed to simply split and fold inward as the actuators slowly brought the sections out of the way, and the Flyer saw the open starlit evening sky for the first time.
"This is the Alpha Flyer, see you soon."
The Flyer rose out of the lab structure and pointed its sharp nose skyward and shot off, going from zero to eighteen thousand kilometers per second or one quarter impulse. Of course, since the Flyer was out of phase, this meant that there was no reaction by the atmosphere to the sudden maneuver. If the three Scoobies had wanted to they could fly through the Earth and come out the other side, but that was rather pointless. In moments, the Flyer reached orbit and headed out into interplanetary space.
"All systems nominal, increasing speed to half impulse," reported Xander, adjusting his holo-controls. The Flyer now moved to thirty seven thousand kilometers per second with no problems. They continued moving impulse up incrementally, performing diagnostics as they went at each new power level, since technically this was a shakedown cruise for the Alpha Flyer.
"Full Impulse," said Xander.
The Flyer now coasted at its maximum rated sublight speed…a quarter of the speed of light.
"Any problems, ladies?"
"Nope," said Dawn with an excited grin.
"Nothing to report," said T'Jen stoically.
"Ok, plotting a course for Andoria…" said Xander, his hands beginning to blur at the holo-controls, and on the small viewer a sector diagram of their route took shape. "Vectoring…"
The Alpha Flyer slowed somewhat and then turned gracefully toward the galactic rim, pointing its nose on a slightly upward Z axis towards the it's target.
"Engaging deflector…field looks good…slipstream in 5…"
Blue energies began to blossom on the nose of the Flyer, beginning to slowly snake backward along the angular hull of the craft as it began to manipulate and warp the fabric of space-time on a quantum level.
"…4…3…2…1…"
The Alpha Flyer stretched forward into near infinity with a snap, for a brief moment the ship had seemed to consist only of the energies it was manipulating…stars vanished…to be replaced with a seemingly neverending blue tunnel of circular subspace, that sped past the small ship.
"Andoria here we come!"
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A/N: Yeah! How'dya like at? Nitpick: In Star Trek 3:SFS when Kirk steals Enterprise out of Spacedock…he gives the command 'one quarter impulse power'. As you've seen here, that's 18000kms…Kirk&Co and Enterprise should've destroyed 'emselves the instant he gave that order. Spacedock in 23rd C is 3km interior width. Ouch.