To stay, or not to stay

The four clones depart from the dinning room and Reyes asks, "Have you tried following them?"

Mulder nods, "There is only one door to this place. It is like an airlock. We can get through the first door but the second door will not open if any of us are in the airlock."

Scully says, "Shall we retire to the lounge?"

They leave the dinning room and cross the hall to another large room with a central fire place surrounded by comfortable chairs. Scully asks Reyes if she remembers how she got to the Moon. Reyes tries to remember, but her last clear memories are from the meeting with the Westlake lab group. "I have fragments of memories from the parking garage under the U of M Medical Center. I remember shooting at one of the clones."

Scully speculates, "I think they use a drug that causes retrograde amnesia. As soon as I was put into their van, they injected me with something. I have only fragments of memory from my own abduction, even though I know I was conscious when they dragged me out of the conference and put me in their van."

Reyes remembers that she has a bone to pick with Mulder. "Mulder, what were you thinking when you got Dana into this?"

Mulder does his almost whining 'what, little ol' me?' routine, "I wanted to find whoever has been experimenting on people like Dana, the "interventionists". When I learned about her work on the branched DNA in her brain, I thought we could use that information as bait to bring the Interventionists out into the open. I did not realize that the Interventionists do not care if their advanced genetic engineering technology leaks out."

Dana puts a hand on Monica's arm. "Don't badger Fox. I had my own motives for wanting to find the source of branched DNA. It was me that got Mulder involved in all this."

Reyes shifts her ire towards Dana, "Don't tell me you're thinking about joining forces with these clones!"

"Maybe it is an idea that should not be dismissed automatically." Everyone is looking at Scully like she has three eyes. "Look, I think Fox and I have both been through this before and we both have always decided to go back. Where does that get us? We are left with no idea of what we are really up against. Maybe if I stayed here I could work from this side."

Langly says, "Dude! Do the Mata Hari!"

Byers complains, "But what's the point? We are SO in over our heads. These nanodroids are a billion years ahead of us."

Scully shakes her head. "No, I don't think its not that bad. The clones indicated that the alien nanodevices are restricted in what they can do on Earth. The aliens have some rules that they have to follow and so only humans like these clones we have met are permitted to interact with humans on Earth. We may be in over our heads, but that just means we have to learn to swim."

Frohike says, "I wonder which of these alien-inspired factions is right. I mean, what if the Interventionists are right? Then you'd be working for the wrong side, Dana."

"It does not sound like these clones want to stop the Interventionists." Scully explains, "It seems like they just want to keep the Interventionists in line with the "rules of alien intervention ."

Langly asks, "But what if Earth is in a crisis? Maybe this is not the time to be clamping down on attempts to save Earth. Maybe the rules need to be bent- or broken."

Scully holds up her hands. "Maybe. Maybe. But there is something else I have been thinking about. What if there is some way we could go back to Earth with our memories intact?"

Reyes asks, "Do you know a way to prevent them from scrambling our memories?"

Scully shrugs. "I suspect there might be a way to chemically block the drugs they use to erase memories, but we have no access to drugs and no way to know which drugs they actually use. I suspect that by this time tomorrow, all of you will be back home wondering who is going to win the Final Four."

"But not you?"

"What if the change to my brain is something other that what the clones have described? Let me tell you why I ask. I have always had a good memory, but increasingly over the past few years my memory has improved. It turns out that recent research is indicating the cingulate cortex as a part of the brain where certain memories are stored. What if the Interventionists are really trying to find a way to build-up and strengthen our brains and our memory systems so that the clones cannot take our memories away any more? What if the growth of my cingulate cortex is proof that there is a way to do this? And what if the clones can no longer take away my memory? Maybe that is why they want me to stay here."

Mulder grins. "The seems like a lot of good questions, but not a basis for making life-altering decisions."

Byers is doubtful, "Pardon me for objecting Dr. Scully, but your hypothesis sucks. Why would your bulked up cortex prevent drugs from acting on your synapses and dulling your memories?"

Dana explains, "I'm led to think along these lines by the nature of the genes that were introduced into my brain cells. Some neurotransmitters have growth-promoting action in the brain. One of the genes that was inserted into my cells was the gene for endocan-2. My CSF now has unusually high levels of endocan-2. Endocan-2 is a neurotransmitter known to be important for memory and there have been some reports that it can stimulate cell division. My guess is that the Interventionists wanted to engineer human brains to be able to make enough endocan-2 so that our memories cannot be erased. I think that the growth of my cortex was a side effect of the elevated endocan-2 levels."

Byers shrugs, "You're still just guessing."

They hear a commotion in the hallway. The clones carry a body into one of the bedrooms. Dana, Reyes and Mulder go to look. When the clones move away from the bed, Reyes looks at the person on the bed and exclaims, "Its Westlake!" Dana steps out and returns quickly with some bandages and antiseptic and starts to change the bloody bandage on Westlake's left arm.

One of the clones says, "My brothers on Earth had to pick up Westlake, he was refusing to take Skinner's advice to keep quiet about your case, Dana."

Dana tries to belittle the effectiveness of the clones. "The more people you abduct, the more other people will ask questions."

Reyes asks the clone, "Would you let me talk to Skinner?"

The clone replies, "Sorry, but I already turned down Skinner's request to talk to you and I have no interest in creating an opportunity for you to pass information to Skinner." The clone leaves.

Reyes wonders how the clones abducted Westlake. She figures that the clones just waited until Westlake went home, but would Skinner have left Westlake unprotected? It occurs to Reyes that she never heard how Mulder and the Lone Gunmen were abducted. "Hey, Mulder, how did the clones capture you?"

"Scully had a radio transmitter hidden in her large intestine. We followed the clones to an abandoned lumber mill outside of Ashville. By the time we got there, just a few minutes after they did, the ship was already gone. We figured they would go to their base, somewhere on Earth, so we followed the signal from Scully."

Reyes asks, "Did it cross your mind that you should have had some serious backup?"

Mulder smirks. "I suppose you think I should have asked the FBI for help. When are you going to admit that the FBI can't deal with these kinds of unconventional issues? Anyhow, we tracked the signal from Scully's transmitter into the mountains. We figured that the clones would be trying to figure out who else on Earth knew what Scully knew. One of the clones broke into Scully's house and we used the video conferencing system of Scully's computer to tell him that we were prepared to tell the world about the branched DNA they had put into Scully. We had parked about a mile from where we thought their space ship was hidden. Langly was working by satellite relay out of the Lone Gunman van back to the internet connection in the Lone Gunman office. Byers and I had hiked into the forest to where we thought the ship was, thinking we might find a hidden base. They must have known we were coming. They had detected the transmitter inside Scully. By the time we got near the transmitter, the ship was gone, but two of the clones were waiting for us with the transmitter they had taken out of Scully. They took Byers and I with ease then got Langly and Frohike from the van. After their space ship dropped Scully off on the moon it came back and picked up the four of us."

Scully is done re-dressing Westlake's wound. She pulls up the back of Reyes shirt and sees blood on her bandage. "You might as well let me change your bandage, too."