All Is Silence (Part 2)
by
Osiris-Ra
Nothing fails the all knowing ... the All Knowing will never fail his creation...
"A Horse! A Horse! My Kingdom for a horse!"
Jack moved the last of his four chess pieces on the board, a rook, two pawns and a knight. The opposing team, Daniel's side, had most of his original players, both rooks, both knights, the Queen and a few pawns. Daniel smiled.
"Don't do it Jack."
"Oh?" Jack shot him a sarcastic glance. "Why is that?"
"It's not wise, is all I'm saying."
"I think I'm wise enough, buddy." He moved his knight in the usual L pattern towards the Queen. After he had made his move, he noticed Daniel wasn't paying attention.
"Something on your mind?"
Daniel looked at him suddenly.
"Hmm? No, I was just thinking ... about something."
Daniel moved his queen piece.
"Oh?" Jack said."What? Or should I say ... who?"
"It's nothing, really. I was just remembering something someone once told me. They said that ... it was just something that I don't think ... she was entirely right about."
"Ah ha!" Jack said triumphantly. "I knew it! 'She'. Who's 'she'?"
Daniel smiled.
"Make your move already Jack."
Later, in an office...
Agent Fox Mulder was scratching his head. He was tired, tired of all these stupid papers in the stupid boxes in front of him. But he had to continue his search. He was in an old government building, rifling through documents that were not supposed to exist within a few minutes. Moments later he heard footsteps come down the hall and two airmen joking with one another. He grabbed a few files and slipped away into the nearby shadows ...
One of the airmen stood over the boxes. They were all in order and each box was stamped in big red letters:
EYES ONLY, CONFIDENTIAL.
"What do you say?" The airman said to his partner slyly,"Do a little reading?"
The other airman smiled. His buddy grinned.
"We're supposed to take 'em to the incinerator. Come on, help me, will ya?"
They began picking up boxes and taking them down the hall with them.
Mulder peeked his head out from the shadows and listened to the ominous sounds of the truth being dumped into the incinerator down the hall, the door being closed and the truth being burnt - never to be seen again ... except for the few documents he clutched in his hands.
Later, in a hotel room...
Agent Dana Scully was watching a video tape of last weeks channel 7 news program. There was the body of that Jackson character, being zipped into a body bag and hauled into the ambulance. She remembered him very well. His sweet intelligent looking face that was furrowed in worry. What was he so scared of, she wondered, what was it he knew?
The door opened.
"I've got a present for you, Scully."
Mulder said with dry enthusiasm. He put the documents on the night-stand and took off his coat.
"What are they?" Scully asked.
"Proof." Mulder began proudly as he retrieved a water bottle from the fridge. "Proof of what I've known all along. Where's the ice?"
"In the freezer. What proof, Mulder? For God's sake, I don't even know why I'm here. You drag me across the -"
"Cups?"
"Over by the bathroom door - you drag me halfway across the border talking some nonsense about a phone call you get from some mystery character who tells you about -"
"Water?"
"No thanks - about this place - Cheyenne Mountain? It's some kind of military base? What -"
"- Not just a military base - and these files prove it."
Mulder happily handed her the files and took a long drink of water. Scully went over them with a fast, observant eye.
"What am I looking at?"
"Copies of mission briefings from a project called StarGate."
Scully looked at him with her less than jovial, nonchalant expression. She repeated dryly:
"StarGate."
"I mean, talk about your characters. It's like real life Star Trek - except there's no Klingons, no Tribbles and they go through a big circular thing - kinda unimaginative but I guess that's real life aliens for you."
Scully gave him on of her looks. Mulder grinned.
"Mulder, where did you get these?"
"Trash room."
"The one in Cheyenne Mountain oris itderivedfrom the fluff fastly accumulating in your head?Are you just more bored than I ever possibly thought you could be? What are you rooting around in the trash for? Have I not been paying enough attention to you or something?"
"Scully, did you even read them? How could I come up with something like that, how could even the best writer come up with something like that? It's cheesy, that's a given, but so what? Life can be cheesy!"
"Mulder, you're not going to define your argument on the basis that it's cheesy but not cheesy, are you?"
Mulder sat on the bed.
"This is a government funded program, the president knows about this. Hell, he allowed it! He's the superior of whoever runs this group. This StarGate was discovered in Giza, Egypt in the late 1920's. This archeologist - Dr. Daniel Jackson - discovered how to use the StarGate - well actually it wasopened a long time ago hewas just the one who figured the rest ofit how, how to dial it, so to speak,how to get back home, etc. So at first they went, right? As explorers, but then they encounterd some alien beings who proved hostile and so that has led to a use of it by the United States government to collect new technologies to use in defense of this earth by that race of hostile extraterrestrials known as the Goa'uld."
Scully stared blankly at him for awhile.
"Who called you, Mulder?"
"He calls himself Agent X,"
Mulder and Scully shared a look of amused blankness.
"I think he works within the project itself - and he most likely sent me these."
Mulder went to his coat and pulled out a thickly packed airmail folder. He opened it and took out a small plastic bag witha tiny objectinside. It was a small grey square with chiseled edges, as if to fit in something. Scully examined it.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
Scully turned it over.
"It looks like a puzzle piece or a ... lego block - I don't -"
Mulder handed her the rest of the mail folder. Scully sighed and dug inside. She took out a small round device with a medium sized orange stone in the center. She looked questioningly at Mulder.
"That didn't come from Agent X. Remember the space craft that had come on it's mission of colonization?"
Scully rolled her eyes. That was a bit of her life she didn't care to remember.
"I found that. I took it off that ship and I brought it here with me. This isn't in my mind, Scully, this is the truth. We're getting closer to it. They've kept this under wraps for too long, the truth will come out. I guarantee it. And this man will help us."
He pointed to a photo that had fallen out of the mail folder. It was a newspaper clipping of a senator, and standing next to him, Colonel Jack O'Neill in full military dress.
Scully stared at the picture with a slight frown.
"Who's he?"
"He's the key."
Later, in Jack's house...
Jack was feeling the pain of an earlier loss in chess to Daniel - but it wore off quickly. Now all he was thinking about was whether to wear his new shoes or the old ones which though worn, still looked new. Maybe he could trade them in for some cheaper spit-shine penny loafers. No .. too casual. Penny loafers were leather too ... well, not leather leather, a different kind of leather .. like different kinds of Pistachio ice cream. The green kind was horrible.
Jack slipped on his old shoes as he half munched a granola bar and let his random morning thoughts pour through his brain. He had to get to work early for the next debriefing. SG 1 was going on a mission to some place that supposedly was the home of some whiz kid who had built some high tech gizmo gadget Carter was hot to get her hands on - she had told in him quite lengthy detail about it, but after about the first 10 seconds it all became a blur. Jack rose and froze subsequently in his steps.
A tall lanky guy with a black coat and a gun pointed directly at him was staring him down. Jack shifted slightly and raised his hands.
"I paid my cable bill, I swear."
The man focused his firey eyes on the perplexed Colonel.
"Colonel O'Neill," The man began, "I've come into contact with some information that has subsequently led me to you."
"That's nice. Don't believe a word of it."
"I know everything. I know about the StarGate program, I know about the extraterrestrial life forms that have put this planet on the verge of destruction, I know that president knows this and has allowed it for the span of around 4 years, I know that -"
"Do you know a rather large African American man is about to clock you from behind?"
Mulder spun around but seconds too late - Teal'c had hammer fisted him on the back of the head and was now standing over him, crumpled in a pile on the floor. Teal'c looked at Jack.
Jack shrugged.
"Guess he didn't know."
Much later, on Central Ave ...
Scully was walking down the sidewalk, headed to the grocery store. She had to pick up a few things and make a little phone call to see where Mulder was and what her partner was up to.
She was entering the small Stop 'n Shop on the Ave when she thought she heard a familiar voice talking with someone at the check out counter.
It was Daniel and another woman with well coifed blonde streaked hair and low key clothing. Scully stopped dead in her tracks, shocked that the same man she had found dead on the beach was standing before her - quite alive. Daniel turned for a moment and saw Scully.
He too stopped in his tracks. The other woman peeked over and saw Scully. She smiled and mouthed 'hi' - though Scully could see she didn't know what was going on. Daniel said his byes to the woman and after saying something about meeting her later in the SGC went over to Scully.
"Hey."
"Hi." She smiled meekly.
"Um ... "
Daniel paused. Scully tossed some cans of soup in her hand basket.
"I take it you watch the news?" Daniel said with a half smile.
"I do." Scully said quickly. "It's very interesting to say the least."
"Yeah ... um ... I've kind of been wanting to talk to you about that. Could we ... ?"
"I don't know exactly what's happening here, but I think I know what it has to do with."
Later in an SGC holding cell...
Mulder was pacing a dull, depressing grey cell with a hard bunk bed and some awful musty smell, annoyed, pissed, and wanting to have all the questions torturing his brain answered. He finally charged over to the door and banged.
"I want to see the Colonel! Colonel O'Neill!"
The guard gave him a blase glance and went back to obdiantly gaurding the door. Mulder slammed on the door with his hands and went back to pacing the room.
Jack was walking down the halls with General Hammond.
"You say this fellow says he knew about the StarGate?"
Jack made one of his little faces.
"Far as I know, he might not. It might all be a ruse to try to get in here. Others have done it."
"But he said specifically the Stargate?"
"Yep."
General Hammond motioned for the airman to open the door to Mulder's cell. They entered.
Mulder immediately went on attack mode.
"I want to know what the hell is going on!"
"So do you and a million people." Jack said nonchalantly. "We may never know why A.J Quartermaine does the things he does."
General Hammond glanced at Jack and went back to Mulder.
"Sir, I want to know who you are and what you are doing in my base."
"The names Mulder. I have a little bone to pick with you - a giant bone in fact. This whole place seems to be the marrow of that particular bone."
"What's with all the bone analogy?" Jack muttered.
"Mr. Mulder, " General Hammond began, " I do not have the time, nor the patience to deal with a civilian intruding upon this base. I could have you transferred -"
"Don't give me your routine, "I don't what you're talking about" confidentiality bullshit! I know about the StarGate. I know a whole hell of a lot more, and you're not gonna get rid of me this time."
"Sir, "General Hammond continued calmly, "whatever it is you think you know is not as you think it is."
Mulder shifted his gaze to Jack. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, Isn't it true that you lead a team through an alien portal device known as the StarGate. Isn't true that you have encountered extraterrestrials known as the Goa'uld who have plotted numerous times to annihilate this planet and assimilate it's peoples into their kind, the ones they take as hosts? Isn't true that these creatures hold a symbiotic nature and form and are capable of hiding in humans while planning ways to take us down through government and soul?"
"Mulder," Jack began, "I don't know where you think you are or where you got those wild stories, to say the least, but nothin' goes on in here except Deep Space Radar Telemetry ."
Mulder scoffed.
"We track satellites and do other spacial surveillance scans and all that jazz here and needless to say, it is a very boring thing to be doing all day. I mean, ack, I pray you'll never know how boring. Now I dunno, maybe you should go back to watching one of those cheesy sci fi films people watch, but I can personally guarantee you, nothing that has to do with government conspiracies and UFO's takes place here. General, what do you say, why not give him the grand tour?"
General hammond was exploding inside. What in hell is wrong with Jack?
"I'd rather have him escorted off my base. Airman!"
The guard opened the door.
Jack waved a halting arm to the gaurd.
"No. No, no, no, hold the phone, let him see. Ease his troubled mind."
Mulder looked on as the two military men shot looks at one another. General Hammond finally sighed and said defeatedly:
"Fine."
He stepped aside.
"You first, Mr. Mulder."
Mulder replied, "No, no, I insist, ladies first." .
Later in the park ...
Daniel and Scully were walking along the park sidewalk. The current conversation had left eachwith abitter taste in their mouths- it was like invisible walls were slowly caving in around each of them, borders never meant to be crossed were now open, and most dangerously so.
"I work with a - a branch of the government if you will, that specializes in, um, projects of - of global connotations, really. It's a kind of an experiment."
"Uh huh."
Daniel could see Scully wasn't buying it. Another skeptic! How annoying!
"It's - what you saw was a test gone bad, really. It - it was never meant to be exposed."
"Mm hmm, like the StarGate was never meant to be exposed, right?"
Daniel looked at her.
"I'm sorry?"
"The StarGate. Some sort of interdimensional portal that sends people places?"
Daniel was looking at her with his alert, questioning expression.
"Portal? Oh - is - is that some kind of story, or ...?"
"It sounds like it, I'll admit, but scientists have been talking about it for years."
"Really? That sounds interesting."
"It would, theoretically take an enormous amount of energy to do, but a distortion in space/time could be created and with some poking and prodding, theoretically create a - a wormhole."
"Uh huh." Now Daniel was the skeptic.
"Well, " he went on," it all sounds very interesting, the primordial stuff of science fiction, but, I wouldn't know anything about it - "
"Not even about the device that was found in Giza, Egypt in around the late 1920's?"
"Nope."
"So, no space travel experiments are being held in a place called Cheyenne mountain? It really is just another military base."
"I suppose. I'm not familiar with Cheyenne mountain but... as far as I know."
"As far as you know. Dr. Jackson, I get the distinct impression that you are lying to me."
"I don't know why I would."
"I think I do." Scully said with a slight glare, "You know, maybe Mulder wasn't so off after all."
Scully walked off. Daniel looked after her. After all his worrying about himself, after all his wanting to see her again, this government employee was turning out to be a problem.
Later in the SGC...
Jack was walking casually down the halls with his hands behind his back - occasionally waving them about as he narrated the tour.
"And these are the personnel quarters, pretty much everyone who's anyone on this base can use these - kind of like a camp tent - you know, those wood ones with the plastic bug shield windows and creaky floorboard - yeah, anyway, there's the quarters. Moving on, the cafeteria, Tuesday's fried tuna patty day. Skip it, trust me."
"Satisfied so far, Mr. Mulder?" General Hammond asked.
Mulder grinned knowingly. "I know what you're doing. You think you can hide the truth forever?"
Mulder scoffed and turned to leave. The accompanying airman followed him.
"I hope you enjoyed your tour!" Jack shouted, "Brochures on the way out!"
General Hammond took Jack by the arm.
"Jack, what did you think you were doing? Something could've happened! The gate could've opened with hundreds of alien refugees, wounded SG team personnel!"
"What?" Jack whined innocently,"I was just showing him we have nothing to hide. And we don't."
Jack grinned and walked off humming "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz."
Later, in the forest on offbase Cheyenne mountain...
An airman lay unconscious hidden under a piles of leaves and soft moss. Mulder who had been satding in a clearing listening to the humming of traffic coming from outside the forest turned, made his way out of the clearing and into a crop of small trees. He halted again. There was nothing but green stuff for as far as he could see. As he scanned, he duduceda high security base like this wouldn't just have one way in and out - there had to be some hidden alternate exit. He noticed a large tube like structure cleverly concealed under some bushes. He approached it, feeling sure he had found his entrance. There was a large wheel on the top, which he turned. The shaft opened and Mulder climbed down the stairs.
He hopped to the bottom and looked around. There was a door. He was about to open it when he heard voices outside it speaking. He waited until the voices had passed, then he slowly turned open the door.
He was staring down a long vacant hall. He could almost hear the cries of wounded men, writhing from battle wounds, wishing and hoping only to fulfill their promises to their government in the hopes of once again seeing family and feeling safe. That's all anybody ever wants really, he thought to himself, to feel safe.Mulder walked down the hallway, carefully looking around the corners as he went. He scanned the halls hoping he would spy something that would tell him where he was going. There were more voices down the hall. He pressed himself into a small cubby and waited ... the men soon passed. There was a tall man in strange arabesque clothing with some sort of Z-shaped weapon in a holster. He spoke in a blunt, quick tone about some sort of - 'off world situation'. Mulder tried to listen, but the voices soon faded as they turned a corner. Mulder peeked out and went on.
Mulder found his heart beating louder and louder as he ventured more and more through the base. He'd been in this very same situation before, and he was never afraid. Afraid of nothing more than getting cuaght and punished for the crime of curiosity. But now he had proof. Proof of what he'd been trying to discover all along. Voices were now coming from everywhere. Within hallways, down corridors, through the walls he pressed himself against. He knew it. He was getting closer, so close, so, so near. There was suddenly an awful blaring sound - a klaxon.
"Shit - "
Mulder's eyes darted around, looking for shelter. Footsteps were running now, running towards him! From left to right - left - right - Mulder saw a door - it read: armory - he ran towards it, pushed it open and entered, softly closing the door behind him.
The running sounds of boots clomped past the door. It was dark in here, Mulder could smell the gun oil and metal. He knew he was surrounded by weaponry - oh shit, what if someone needed something? Had to come in? He unholstered his gun - in case he might have to do the unthinkable - and cringed into the corner. Much as expected footsteps approached the door.
A female voice shouted:
"Colonel, what's happening?"
"Not now Sam, we've got our stuff, come on!"
The door opened anyway. A woman with short honey blonde hair entered. Mulder watched her hand go for the light switch ...
Behind her armed men were running, armed to the tooth with high tech assault weapons and heavy duty skirmish uniforms. One man ran past, dark skinned, bald, a strange medallion on his forehead and a long chrome staff. Colonel O'Neill ran in and caught the woman's arm before she turned on the light.
"Carter, we gotta go, I've got your weapon."
The woman backed out of the room and headed down the hall. Colonel O'Neill's eyes caught Mulder's, exactly where he was crouching. He could have sworn the colonel winked at him as he closed the door and ran off.
Later in Scully's car ...
Scully was sitting in her car staring distantly out of the window. She almost didn't want to believe it herself ... that ... no, it was just so -
Her phone rang, shattering her train of thought. She picked it up.
"Hello?"
There was silence ... then after awhile, a sly voice spoke on the other end.
"Scully, Scully, Scully ... ignorance is bliss isn't it?"
Scully frowned. "Who is this?"
"That's a very good question. You know what? I'll even answer it, but right now, I think you have to go and help someone."
"Who are you, how did you get this number?"
"That's not important. What is important is who's number will be called if he doesn't get out of a certain high level security mountain within ... oh ... 30 minutes."
"Are you talking about Agent Mulder?"
"No, the tooth fairy - yes! Now, look, you can't go about this any old way. You gotta be sly about it. 'Cause see, agent, they're watching you. And not just them. The others."
"What others?"
"That's not important. What is important is you help your friend. I'll be in touch."
"Wait -"
The caller had hung up. Scully closed her cell phone and exhaled heavily.
Later in Daniel's house...
Daniel was sitting in his darkened bedroom, staring into the blackness until his eyes clouded over with the darknessand had to blink. He snapped himself out of his trance several times before he finally turned a light on.
He looked at his bookcase. It was sparsely lined with different relics he had collected over the past years. Some were fromEarth - others were from his travels through the StarGate - the ones he was allowed to keep. He found himself wondering ... what was it all for? All this time he had led himself to believe that what he was searching for was through the stargate. He hadn't gone to be an explorer or an adventurer. He had gone because he loved his wife. Dear, dear Sha're, his love, gone forever. He raised his head. There it was. That was it. The end of his normal life. That was when the hurt and confusion had begun to torment him. When she whispered those last faint words to him "I love you Daniel." And then he was gone.
(Flash - a darkened space. Flat, no sense of time or being. Daniel slowly moves through the black, fearless of what might be within - "Daniel ... Daniel ... come with me..." he looks right ... Sha're is standing there, looking exactly as she did the day they first met. She raises her hand out to him. "Daniel ... Daniel ... come with me ... please...")
Daniel's eyes closed hypnotically. He felt himself slowly going ... slowly ... heart slowing ... heart beat ... fainter ... fainter ... fainter ...
Tapping noises woke him back up - alert. Tap tap tap. Knocking? The door.
Daniel opened the front door. Scully was standing there, a serious look clouding hereyes.
"Can I come in?"
Meanwhile, in the Gate room ...
"All non essential personnel, please evacuate the base immediately! This is not a drill! All non essential personnel ..."
Hammonds voice boomed over the base loud speakers. Jack and Sam were standing in front of the gate ramp as hundreds of people, Tok'ra and others in civilian Romanesque attire came running through the gate. Colonel Makepeace came flying through the gate in a spray of dirt and explosion of staff weapon fire. The last of the people hurried down the ramp.
"Close the freakin' iris!" Makepeace shouted.
The iris slid shut and moments later there were two loud thumps then the gate wormhole disengaged. Makepeace rose dizzily and staggered down the gate ramp. He faced Jack. His eyes were clouded over in shock.
Jack came up to Makepeace.
"What the hell was that?"
"I don't know.. I don't know ... But it was big Jack - "
"Hey, hey!" Jack shook his flustered friend out of it. "What's up?"
"They were huge. Me and the team were just scoutin', next thing we know, this huge ship comes and - and - Jack - it nearly blew me away."
Sam chimed in. "What did it look like, was it Goa'uld?"
Makepeace only shook his head.
"Asgard?"
Again he shook - no.
"Could you tell at all?"
"Major .. I've never seen anything like it before."
Carter frowned. What could make thisusually composedcolonel so disturbed?
Suddenly a long beam of light materialized on the gate ramp. Makepeace's eyes bulged and he staggered back, tripping into a run as he ran out of the gate room screaming:
"No! You'll never take me! Never!"
Thor soon appeared, and his big black eyes showed he wasn't too happy about something.
"Thor." Carter said, surprised. "What - what are you doing here?"
"There is a slight situation on Orilla."
"Oh god," Jack started, "not those damn bugs again?"
"No." Thor said, glancing at Jack," It is something far different. I believe the Major may be able to help me deduce what it is."
Thor looked at Major Carter who glanced around nervously and with a slight smile joined Thor on the ramp.
"We will return as soon as possible."
Thor said amidst the departing beam of light. Jack watched as they left, a grim certainty in his eyes...
Meanwhile, in Daniel's house ...
Scully brushed past Daniel who proceeded to close the door. She turned and faced him.
"Why's it so dark in here?"
Daniel went by her to the kitchen.
"I can think in the dark. Water? Apple juice ...?"
"No thanks."
She approached him.
"I need your help, Dr. Jackson. It's to do with a friend, a very good friend. He's in a dangerous place right now and I think you can help him."
Daniel cracked open a soda pop and stared at her as he drank it. He coughed a bit over the bubbles.
"Why would I do that?" He rubbed his neck.
"Because you work for the people who'll hurt him."
"I'm an archeologist, I study ancient artifacts - "
" I know your background. I also know that you deciphered the Stargate, and you're a very talented individual. Sir, if you can help me, I might be able to help you."
Daniel scoffed and rubbed his neck again.
"Me? How?"
"I received a call today. They warned me that my partner was in trouble. Think you know what it has to do with."
"How does that help me, though?"
She looked at him, studying his cold, red streakedeyes, his pale face. All at once, she felt emmensely sorry for him.
"You don't believe me ... but I've been in your situation before."
"What situation?" Daniel sipped his drink. Scully's eyes focused on his. Daniel blinked uncomfortably.
"You've been taken, haven't you?"
Daniel took another long drink of his soda and looked away.
Scully sighed and put a hand to her face in exasperation.
"If you help me, I'll help you figure out what's going with - with everything, I've been in this situation before! You - you think that some thing's wrong with you, that's you're somehow different - tainted by these - these creatures that have raped your mind! You can't keep it bottled in, it'll eat at you, it'll haunt your dreams! You want that for yourself?"
"You have no idea how I feel, Dana."
Daniel's tone was cold and deep. Scully looked almost desperate.
"Please ... my partner might be dead right now. If you don't help ... his blood will be on your hands."
She walked back to the door. Daniel defiantly took a long drink of his soda. Scully paused at the door.
"They'll come back. They'll ... remind you of what happened. They've taken a piece of your soul and ... somehow ... it's still with you. You see things in different ways, think different thoughts, feel different things. You'll begin to believe you are different and then ... that's when thedesperation sets in."
She opened the door.
"Wait."
She turned - she'd been waiting for those words.
Daniel was swirling his soda can. There was a long moment that seemed to last too long for Scully in that creepy dark house.
Daniel finally spoke.
"Okay."
Meanwhile, somewhere in the SGC...
Mulder sneaked along the walls of the base. His finger was wrapped tight near his gun.. The klaxon had stopped wailing but red alarm lights still flashed stomach churningly above him. There were the occasional voices, the soft tones and footsteps. Mulder found a door. Within it, two voices were talking. It was the Colonel and another man in Airman uniform.
"They believe it to be a foothold situation." The Colonel was saying.
"Good." The other man replied, "Then we will continue with our previous plans."
"What about the Mulder person?"
"He is a threat. He must be dealt with."
"The Asgard will know."
"Not if it is done the right way. I cannot trust you to do this, G'nesh. It must be one of the others."
"The human O'Neill had high security clearance! I must do it!
They'll never suspect him!"
"Ne, G'nesh! Ne! Ares lok tah anies. All will be silence from you!"
The man looked angry with O'Neill. He touched O'Neill's chest with his fist.
"Hail and farewell."
Mulder ducked as the other man left the room. He was crouching right besides the door. The man exited the room and left, never looking Mulder's way. Mulder crept backward and when he looked back and saw it to be clear, he ran down the hall back to the armoury.
Inside the armoury, he crouched in the dark. What the hell had he just seen? Why was Jack talking like that - well he definitely wasn't who he appeared to be. Mulder found himself shuddering a little. Suddenly, the door opened, the lights flicked on, and Jack stood looking down at him. His eyes glowed florescent for a long time. Mulder was exposed, nowhere to run, He looked on in terror, enclosed suddenly by Jack's hypnotic eyes ...