X-Seven/1

U2
Langly is sitting in front of a computer screen, going through email addressed to The Lone Gunman. One item is from "WaWa@spoook.net" and is titled "satellite images". Langly opens the email and his screen fills with an image showing the deck of the Floreana. The circular profile of the salvaged disc is visible. He clicks on a button that says "forward" and types "fmulder@gmail.com into the "to" field and then hits "send".

May 6, 2005 3:10 am, W 94.34

In the middle of the night another space ship arrives above the Floreana and uses a tractor beam to lift the salvaged disc off of the deck. The mineral-encrusted disc rises gently and slides into the hold of the larger space ship. The guard watches, at first he is stunned and motionless, then he raises an alarm and the rest of the crew soon comes out on deck. First the guard then the rest of the crew is lifted up into the air and pulled into the space ship.

In the control room of the Floreana, the helmsman watches everything that is happening on the aft deck as shown on a video monitor. He cannot see the space ship hovering above the Floreana. He goes to the radio consol and puts on the headphones. He types "1650 kHz" into the keyboard and says, "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Floreana out of San Diego."

Two men who look like identical twins leap out of the hold of the space ship and fall feet-first towards the Floreana. One lands on the narrow walkway that rings the control room; somehow what should have been a bone-shattering landing is gentle as a cat step. He opens the control room door, enters and points two fingers at the helmsman.

Out of the corner of his eye, the helmsman notices the man enter the control room. The helmsman turns and continues to talk, "Captain and crew taken off ship! Pir-"

A crystalline projectile erupts from between the two fingers of the clone, ripping into the chest of the helmsman. The helmsman springs from his chair and attacks the clone, but as soon as he grabs hold of the clone's still out-stretched arm, his legs buckle and he falls to the floor. The clone steps to the helm consol and shuts off the engines of the Floreana.

The other clone goes below deck and into a room that holds the video archives. He pulls open one of the drawers that line one wall of the room. Inside are neat rows of magnetic tapes. He puts pieces of plastic sheet over the two ventilation ducts in the room then opens all the tape storage drawers a crack and sets a small canister on a desk and departs. Soon the canister emits a cloud of orange acidic mist that ruins the video tapes.

The two brothers perform a quick search of the rest of the ship, find nobody else on board and then they step out on deck and are pulled back up into the space ship.

The hold of the space ship closes and the ship slips away silently into the night. Inside the hold, the two bothers are separated from the crew of the Floreana by a semi-transparent barrier. One of the clones holds up a hand, "Greetings, we mean you no harm. Our only interest is the space ship you salvaged from the ocean floor."

The Captain of the Floreana shouts, "You can't get away with this kind of piracy!"

The clone signals to his brother who activates a control switch on the wall. A gaseous form of their knockout drug starts to spill into the part of the hold containing the crew of the Floreana. "Relax and sleep. Everything will be fine." The crew members start to stagger and collapse. The two clones turn and exit from the hold.

Geer up
Reyes and Doggett are doing paper work in the X-Files office. Doggett is looking for something that is lost in the papers on his desk and he accidentally knocks some file folders on the floor. Doggett groans and says "I really am ready for the paperless society."

Reyes looks up from her work, sees the mess on the floor and goes to help pick up the items that went sliding out of the folders and across the floor. She says, "Maybe we should put through another request for an office assistant."

John and Monica pick up the assorted photos, reports and other items and try to figure out which folder each belongs in. "We may be 'special agents' but we are not special enough to get a secretary."

Three times in a row they each reach for the same folder and they do a funny little juggling of the folders. Monica giggles and gives up, letting John finish the last few items. "They are not called 'secretaries' anymore." She leans against John's desk and crosses her arms.

John looks up at her, "Ya, I'm just a politically incorrect flat foot. I'd use the term 'lord high master of executive file folder management' if it would get some of this drudgery off my back." He picks up the last item from the floor and stares at it. "Hey, this report is what I was looking for." Task complete he stands up, places the miss-filed evidence report on his desk and takes the folders to a filing cabinet. "Thanks for your help, Monica. I guess I should not complain, and should be grateful for what I do have. I hate to think how really awful this job would be without you here to share in the glory of endless paperwork."

Monica says without conviction, "You're a luck man, John."

Doggett closes the file cabinet drawer and strides back towards his desk. He starts to speak but stops and watches Monica. She suddenly seems a million miles away. Or at least a quarter million. During the past month she has continued having flashbacks and dreams concerning the events during her abduction. She has become increasingly persistent in her belief that the group of abductees was taken to the Moon. Doggett at first had dismissed the idea, but he had since heard the same from Mulder.

He leans close to Monica's face and blows a little puff of air onto her forehead. She is startled out of her day dream. "Am I lucky or just trigger happy?" He has a little flashback of his own, the sight of the clone's head rupturing and the wall behind suddenly turning glittery with the light of reflected red neon.

Monica tries to regain a sense of good spirits by sheer will. "We have to put the past behind us. I have to trust that Scully knows what she is doing." She stands up straight and takes several slow and sauntering steps over to John. Slowly she rises up on her toes and looks him in the eye, "And you, Mr. Doggett have to trust your instincts. Nobody has questioned your shooting of that clone."

He looks pleadingly into her eyes, "But Monica, think what we might have learned if I had just wounded him and we could have questioned him. Or maybe we could have done a trade for Scully."

She slowly shakes her head and lets her heels sink back to the floor. "What would you do, call the Moon and say, ‘we seem to have misplaced a former FBI agent, care to swap?’ Drop it, John, and move on. It should be your instinct to go after these aliens with a head shot. We know that might be the only chance of stopping them."

"The problem is, based on the autopsy and from what you and the other abductees reported, these clones are not aliens."

Monica wrinkles her forehead, "I don't know John. Its all too fuzzy now. They may have brain washed us into believing that."

"Are you suggesting that the autopsy results were faked?" He shakes his head emphatically. "That guy I killed was as human as we are. I did not have to kill him."

Monica realizes that she is not going to win this staring contest with John. She backs down and sits down at her desk, takes stock of her progress on the day's work and tries to cheer John with a change of subject and some flippancy. "We could have some fun with this. I could nominate you for FBI office assistant of the month."

Doggett chuckles. "You'd just get us farther onto the bad side of the executive staff."

Reyes gets really mischievous, "Or we could have some sort of contest where the winner does get to have an office assistant for a month. If you win, I have to do all of the paper work for a whole month."

Doggett says, "Why do I think you are planning a contest that you are sure to win?”

Reyes is glad that they have again broken the gloomy spell cast by the loss of Dana. Before she can answer Doggett’s question, the office phone rings. Doggett picks up, "Hello."

It is Assistant Director Skinner's office assistant calling. "John, can you and Monica come to a meeting?"

Doggett is ready to do anything to put an end to the paper work. "Sure. I mean, when is the meeting?"

"Right now. Conference room 1. Skinner is putting together an emergency task force."

"We're on our way." Doggett slams down the phone and grabs Monica's hand as he rushes past her desk. "Come on, something has come up."

Agents Doggett and Reyes open the door to the conference room and twenty pair of eyes turn to them from the gloom. The lights are low and an image of the Floreana is projected onto a screen at the far end of the room. Skinner turns and says, "Come in, Doggett. Reyes. I thought you should hear this. Agent Geer, do a thirty second recap, then continue your briefing." John and Monica sit on a small bench in a corner of the room.

Agent Geer is standing at the far end of the conference table. She points with a laser pointer at the circular disc on the deck of the Floreana that is easily visible in the black and white image projected on the screen. "This is a satellite image of the artifact that was raised from the floor of the Pacific. The salvage team reported that it was glowing with self-generated lights and had an anomalously low mass."

She advances to the next image which shows a color aerial view of a Coast Guard cutter alongside the Floreana. The salvaged disc is gone, and a military VTOL aircraft rests on the cargo hatch which had previously been under the salvaged disc. "The Floreana was returning to its home port with the artifact, then it was attacked by pirates. The entire crew, except one man, is now missing. The salvaged disc is gone.”

Geer turns the room lights back up half way. "This is the recording of the mayday."

They hear, "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Floreana out of San Diego. The guard sounded the alarm and when I looked, the artifact was gone! Then everyone started floating off the ship! Just drifting right off the deck! Captain and crew taken off ship! Pir-" There is a loud clatter in the recording, some faint noises then silence.

Geer explains, "The crewman who made the distress call was the only person left on board. Analysis of the recording shows that low frequency noise from the engines cut off soon after the crewman was silenced." Geer shows the next image, a close up of a wound on a man's chest. "He was incapacitated by some sort of drug, introduced into his body by a glass projectile."

Reyes says, "Analysis will show that it is plastic, not glass. A biodegradable plastic that will leave no permanent residue."

Geer asks, "You've seen this sort of wound before?"

Reyes is ready to reply but Skinner silences her with a glance. Skinner stands up and goes to stand beside Geer. "Let me re-cap, since I misjudged this case from the start. Certain terrorist groups have become very active in open sea piracy. Initial indications were that the Floreana had salvaged some archeological artifact or maybe a piece of lost military hardware. I now think these explanations unlikely. This case increasingly resembles several past X-file cases...."

"Geer interrupts, "Sir, you already put me in charge of this case."

Skinner heaves a deep sigh and pauses before replying, letting his ire at having been interrupted dissipate. He has long experience with the rush of excitement and possessiveness experienced by agents given their first major task force to run. "And you remain in charge, Agent Geer. But this is going to take team work. Agents Reyes and Doggett filed a fifty page report on this type of wound last week. I'll summarize. This type of wound is produced by a crystal projectile that carries a potent neuroactive drug, inducing unconsciousness in less than ten seconds. This type of projectile has been used sporadically all over the world during the past thirty five years. The CIA thinks that the drug was developed in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The plastic is similar to certain polymers created by a French chemist in the 1950's, but never commercialized because of their unstable chemical structures." Skinner turns control of the meeting back to Geer who sets the special task force in motion along the lines of a piracy investigation.

When Geer ends the meeting, Skinner signals for Doggett and Reyes to follow him back to his office. Just inside the door Skinner stops and huddles with John and Monica. "Guess where you are headed?"

Monica and John both say, "San Diego."

Skinner nods and grins. "The one remaining crewman from the Floreana has been taken to the Naval Air Station Hospital there. He's in exactly the same drug-induced coma that John was in for two days. I want you there when he wakes up."

John says, "He is not going to remember much."

Skinner shrugs. "Do the best you can. Try to confirm if he was shot by one of the clone brothers that took Scully."

Hearing Skinner talk about Scully and the clones sends a shiver up Monica's back. She is rocked by a nightmare-like doubt about Skinner's intentions with respect to Scully. She blurts out, "Sir, are you telling us everything you know about Scully?"

Skinner is surprised by Monica's outburst and stops just before speaking, leaving his mouth hanging open. John is surprised too and he says, "Monica, what are you implying?"

Reyes has a sever sensation of vertigo and stumbles to a chair. She starts to sweat and her respiration is deep and fast. Doggett takes her pulse at her neck and Skinner brings a cup of water. Doggett takes the cup and presses it to Monica's lips. She takes a sip then grabs the cup and pours its contents over her scalp and face. Skinner thinks she's having heart attack and opens the door and starts to shout orders to his assistant, "Medical emergency, call..."

Doggett shouts at Skinner. "No! Wait, she's okay!"

Skinner looks at Monica, "Are you okay? Can you talk?"

Monica nods and replies, "I'm okay. It was some sort of anxiety attack."

Skinner turns back to his assistant, "Have Dr. Josselsen call me." He closes the door again and pulls a chair up next to Reyes.

Doggett takes that chair and continues holding Monica's hands in his. She is still sweating but her hands feel stone cold.

With clear exasperation Skinner pulls over yet another chair and sits down with Reyes and Doggett. "What the hell is going on?"

Reyes shakes a drop of water off the tip of her nose. "I'll be fine, sir."

Doggett says, "Shut up, Monica. She's not fine. She's been dealing with all sorts of strange shit for the past month. Nightmares. Flashbacks."

Skinner says to Reyes, "You've been having these panic attacks for a month and not reporting them?"

Reyes sighs deeply. "No. I've never felt what I just felt. Sir, I had this, I." She tries again. "I knew you were not telling us everything you know about Scully's abduction."

John squeezes Monica's hands, "Monica, do you want to force Skinner to put you on medical leave? There's no-"

Skinner puts a hand on John's shoulder. "No, John. She knows what she is talking about. I don't know how she knows, but she's right. But I can't tell you what I know." Skinner has taken a business card out of his wallet and is writing on the back of it. "You are both going to have to trust that I am doing what's best for Scully."

He hands the card to John, he reads it and hands it to Monica. "Meet Jeff. Mem. 1h," is what Skinner wrote on the card. Skinner keeps talking while they read, "As long as you are physically and mentally fit, Agent Reyes, I need you to get out to San Diego.

Reyes looks up from the card and nods to Skinner. Doggett helps Reyes get to her feet and half carries her out of Skinner's office as she tries to fight off remaining dizziness.

One hour later Reyes and Doggett have booked a flight to San Diego and are on their way to National Airport. They meet Skinner at the Jefferson Memorial. They move off away from the tourists. Reyes and Doggett wait for Skinner to speak. Finally he says, "After John shot that clone, I got a phone call from his brother."

Doggett asks, "One of the clones called you by phone?"

Skinner hangs his head. "I made a deal. The clone said that everyone who had been abducted would be safe if I kept what I knew about Dana's branched DNA to myself. I accepted the deal."

Reyes slaps Skinner's face and screams, "You gave them Scully? You bastard!"

Some tourists are starring at the FBI agents. Doggett takes out his badge and holds it up towards the tourists. "FBI. Everything is under control." He grabs Reyes arm and pulls her over into a dark alcove of the memorial's structure.

Skinner follows along but says nothing. Reyes figures she didn't hit Skinner hard enough. She winds up to really slug him, but John puts her in a bear hug. "Hold on now, Monica! Let him finish!" Then he demands of Skinner, "Is that it? Is that all you have to say?"

Skinner straitens his back and lifts his head. "I assumed Scully would be back. I..." His voice breaks.

Reyes can see tears in Skinner's eyes and she stops straining against Doggett's restraint. She takes one of Skinner's hands in both of hers. "I'm sorry."

Skinner shakes his head, "You are right. It was wrong to make the deal. We never deal with terrorists."

Doggett says, "Don't try to be cute. We are not dealing with terrorists here."

Skinner, sneering, asks Doggett, "What are we dealing with here? Can you tell me that?"

Doggett fires back, "Then name the terrorist organization behind this! You know this is an honest-to-God X-file. Standard FBI rules do not apply."

Reyes does not want Skinner and Doggett getting into a pissing match. She tries to diffuse the cloud of testosterone. "Look, I was there with Dana. She wanted to stay. I'm sure of that now."

Doggett thinks she is just trying to take some of the weight off of Skinner and John is not buying that. "You are not sure of anything. Your memory was turned inside out by those clones."

Reyes looks Doggett in the eye and says, "I know what I know, John"

Doggett smirks, "Ya, right. You know only what those clones programmed into your brain."

Skinner cuts off their bickering. "This is pointless. Either you trust me or you don't. I say," He pauses, "You have no choice. In any case, I'm counting on you two. I can count on you two?"

Reyes and Doggett both say "yes." Skinner turns and walks away.

Reyes takes hold of Doggett’s hand, "Come on, hurry, we're going to miss our flight."

Brave New World
May 10, 2005

Scully looks at herself in the mirror and thinks, "My butt has not looked this good for twenty years." With the low gravity of the Moon, her body has been reshaping itself for the past month, under the guidance of the amazing nutraceuticals available on the Moon. Scully had been worried about bone and muscle atrophy that should occur in people living under the low gravity conditions of the Moon. She has learned that those problems were routinely averted by a cocktail of drugs that stimulate bone and muscle strength. After a month of taking these drugs, Dana has never felt more fit. She looks at her rippling muscles in the mirror.

Dana chuckles to herself. Month. She realizes that she has orbited the Earth once now and wonders where the time has gone. She leaps high in the air, almost hits her head on the high ceiling, and completes a half dozen axial rotations before landing on the floor. She has been like a kid in a toy store, learning about all of the high tech gizmos known to the Lunatics and adapting well to life on the Moon.

Scully now has her own research lab and her own house and she has been learning about the people who populate this underground Lunar city. Most of them do not concern themselves at all with Earth. Many are artists and Scully is still trying to understand the many novel art forms that are popular on the Moon but unknown to Earth. Some of these involve the sophisticated and ubiquitous computers that are natural components of everything in this world. Dana says, "Mirror, mirror, who's the fairest?"

The computer-generated personality that is an integral part of her dressing room replies, "Current dating service polls rank Jenni Detrin of South Park as the fairest of them all."

Scully titters and can't resist a peek. Show me a picture of her." A holographic projection of Jenni Detrin appears beside Scully. Jenni looks to be in her late teens and is shown wearing what looks like some kind of uniform; by Earth standards maybe a stewardess uniform for a 1950's airline. Scully knows that this is a popular current fashion for the Lunar city's young ladies. The holographic image says, "Hello, Dana."

Dana is still a bit nervous talking to such simulations. "You are cute. Do you have a boy friend?"

Another projected simulation appears beside Jenni: a young man with cheerful good looks. The simulated Jenni says, "This is Rani Umahrto, my current partner." Then unexpectedly, "Hey, I saw you on the Earth Report. You're a new immigrant!"

Scully has learned that not many people come up from Earth and get to integrate into Lunar society and that as one of these select few, she is a minor celebrity. The Rani simulation asks, "How are you adapting to life on the Moon?"

Scully realizes that she is a little irked with herself for being so happy on the Moon. Whole days now go by with hardly a thought of Earth; she has been too busy learning about the amazing advanced medical knowledge available on the Moon. Dana has been trying to formulate a plan that would eventually get her back to Earth so she could share some of what she has learned.

The Jenni simulation asks, "Did you leave someone special behind on Earth?"

Scully shouts at the dressing room computer, "Shut them off!"

The simulation images evaporate. The dressing room computer says, "They're just simulations. No point in getting mad at them."

Scully finishes getting dressed. "What about you? Are you just one of these simulated personalities?"

The voice of the dressing room computer sounds hurt. "I'm an autonomous mind. I'm pleased to be your dressing room expert."

Scully leaves the dressing room, walks through her luxurious bedroom, down a hall, down a flight of stairs, down another hall and into the living room of her house. What looks like Mulder is sitting in a chair watching a holographic simulation of a baseball game and drinking a beer. Scully thinks to herself- this has got to be the biggest mistake of my life.

The Mulder robot springs to his feet, turns his baseball cap around to point backwards and sweeps Scully up in his arms. She thinks- well, he is a great kisser. She pushes her way free from the robot's grasp and says, "I'm going out," and turns to leave.

The Mulder robot says, "Why don't you ever take me out?"

Scully stops in her tracks and slowly turns around. "I can't believe you said that."

The robot shrugs. "I could make you very happy, Dana."

Dana looks at the ring on her right index finger and twists a small lever protruding from it. The Mulder robot shuts off. She says to the room computer, "I want this thing gone when I get back. And if I ever start talking about making another, remind me how much I came to hate this one." She turns and strides out the front door of her house.

Dana lives in a part of the underground city known as Aventine. The individual dwellings are mostly under the ground level. The ground level resembles a garden with paths for walking. Dana looks up at the simulated sky; today it is pink. Every day the residents can vote for the sky color of the day.

Dana starts to skip down a path and soon each leap sends her flying high into the air. The sensation of near-flight that is possible on the Moon is possibly her favorite part of living here. As her spirits lift with each leap she tells herself that she was correct, as a scientist, to experiment with the available robots. But she has learned that it is a mistake to try to simulate a real person. Rather than satisfy a longing, it just magnifies the absence.

She reaches the entrance to the local Lezaro and enters by going down the stairs. Scully has learned that most of the many habitation domes of the city have a Lezaro, a sort of combination art gallery and bar. She goes to the section of the Lezaro that resembles a sidewalk cafe, or maybe what a sidewalk cafe might be like on Titan. A robot worker shows her to her favorite table and takes her order.

Scully looks around and recognizes many of the patrons. Her eyes keep drifting back to a new woman who seems to be watching Dana. Dana judges the woman to be approximately 30 years old, but she has learned that many anti-aging technologies are used on the Moon and residents are often much older than they look. The robot brings Dana her meal and inclines its head towards the woman who has been glancing at Dana. The robot says, "Her name is Roberta Lincoln, and she would like to join you for dinner."

Rater than just glancing, Dana now stares at the woman. They exchange small nods of their heads. Dana decides that the women chooses to show the world a rather conventional good looks, somewhat out of fashion for this Lunar city where all manner of exotic personal looks are crafted and displayed by the residents. Dana tells the robot, "Very well, invite her over."

Roberta comes over to Scully's table and introduces herself to Dana. The robot brings Roberta's dinner over and the two women settle down to eating. The first thing Roberta does is drop her spoon on the floor. The robot server is there instantly with a new spoon. Dana asks, "You do not seem to from around here, are you from Earth?"

Roberta dribbles some soup down her chin and nods, "Yes, that's why I want to talk to you. I was told that you are also a recent immigrant." Dana is intrigued by the sound of Roberta's voice- it could be that of a teenager.

Scully says, "I prefer the term 'visitor', I never agreed to stay here forever." Dana plops another shrimp in her mouth. She has learned that most of the food is some sort of synthetic combination of bacteria and insect ingredients, but she does not care, it smells, tastes, and crunches wonderfully. Dana has to admit that she will miss the food when she returns to Earth.

Roberta picks up the huge crystal cylinder holding her blueberry milk shake, puts it to her lips, guzzles some down, and looks at Scully without removing the pale blue milk mustache from her upper lip. "The longer you stay the harder it will be to ever go back. Do you ever think about going back? I do all the time. Sure, it is fun here, and these robots are wild! I mean, I wonder if I'll ever find a real man who can do it half as good. But still, I just have to get back to Earth." After that machine gun-speed prattle Roberta falls silent and rests her chin in the palm of one hand and looks at Dana with what strikes Scully as contrived gravity. Roberta's thin pink tongue makes half a dozen sorties out to clear the cream off of her lip, seemingly without Roberta being consciously aware of it. Dana can't keep from laughing. Roberta asks, "What's so funny?"

Dana tries to explain, "You are looking at me like I'm a laboratory specimen."

Roberta grins and now tries to treat Scully like an old friend. "Yes, I'm a scientist like you. We have much in common. I feel like I can read your mind, like I know you very well, Dana." She extends her index finger along side her delicate nose and tilts her head to one side, "But I need to know if I can really trust you."

Scully sits back and sips her wine. She is vastly amused by Roberta. Scully can't remember ever having met a scientist who seemed so- ditsy. Scully tries to rewind and start the conversation over. "How did you come to be here on the Moon?"

Roberta proceeds to tell Dana her life story. Half an hour later Dana needs to pee and Roberta is just getting into telling the story of her college years. Roberta pauses to take a huge bite of chocolate cream pie, giving Dana a chance to ask, "But Roberta, what brought you to the Moon?"

Roberta takes a sip of coffee and seems to realize how far she has wondered from where even she wanted the conversation to go. Dana wonders- is she blushing? Roberta collects her wits, such as they are, and asks, "Do you follow the Earth News?"

This is an around the clock news service that never really mentions Earth. It covers what might be called Earth-related gossip and works of art that purport to depict the culture of Earth- almost entirely fantasy concoctions by Lunar residents. The Earth News also tries to intrude in the personal lives of new immigrants from Earth and report on how the adapt to life on the Moon; thus the 'Earth Report', mentioned earlier by Jenni. "I've seen it and find it shallow and offensive."

Roberta giggles like a school girl. After thirty seconds she has regained enough control to talk again. "I'd love to hear them report that comment on the Earth News. Dana, you simply must give them an interview and slip that in." Roberta laughs again, dabs a small tear from her eye and asks, "What was I saying?"

Dana pleads, "Can you tell me how you came to be here on the Moon?"

Roberta replies, "Surely you know. It has dominated the news for the past week. I've seen myself on Earth News half a dozen times. The Floreana?" Dana looks at Roberta blankly. Roberta repeats herself with a jiggly shaking of her head, "The Floreaaaaanaaaaa?"

Scully is clueless. "Is that some sort of flower?"

Roberta throws her hands up in the air. "Really, Dana, you must have heard. The marine research ship Floreana? We were all brought up here together, the crew, all of the research staff."

Dana says, "Oooooh. Ya." Dana vaguely remembers having heard that a large group of people had been briefly brought up from Earth for memory restructuring. "I think I did hear something about that. I thought the crew was sent back to Earth?"

Roberta reaches across the table and puts a hand on top of Dana's. "They were. Everybody went back, except me."

Dana had long felt Roberta's story was heading towards this. Scully says, "Then we really do have something in common. But tell me, why you? Why did everyone go back except you?"

Roberta squeezes Dana's hand and says, "Maybe you can help explain it. I'm a marine biologist, so I do not understand what they told me, but they said that I'm a carrier of some virus, an alien virus, and they do not want me to go back to Earth."

Dana's head swirls with possibilities. Immediately she want to bring Roberta into her laboratory for some tests, but Dana tells herself to slow down and be sure of the facts. "What sort of work were you doing on that research ship?"

Roberta winks at Dana. "If you want to call it work. Dr. Pernell just took the opportunity to have me to himself for a few weeks. His wife can be really nosy and it does get tiresome sneaking around behind her back all the time."

Dana's jaw nearly hits the table. She takes a sip of her tea and collects her thoughts. "You went along on the voyage so you could carry on an affair with a married man?"

Roberta nods. "Ya, that's the idea." Roberta notices the disapproval on Dana's face. "Hey, don't look at me like that. It was a vacation for me, alright. Anyhow, Dan, Dr. Pernell, he's been separated from his wife for five years."

Dana sighs. "So if you are a marine biologist but you were not working on that voyage, what sort of work do you do?"

Roberta explains, "I'm a taxonomist. I specialize in marine microorganism identification. I work at the same research institute with Dr. Pernell, but we're in different departments. He works on nudibranchs."

Scully asks, "Nude what?"

Roberta explains, "Nudibranchs are hermaphroditic sea slugs."

Scully now recognizes the term. Dana is surprised that Roberta can actually sound like a scientists when discussing biology. She asks, "Why did you say you have to get back to Earth? Do you have a family?"

Roberta replies, "No, I have nobody special to go back to. Dan is a fun guy, but it is clear I'll never be anything permanent for him. I think he's on a mission to sleep with every single woman at the Institute. Everyone jokes that....well, I don't want to repeat that sort of thing. Its just negative energy. Anyhow, I want to get back to my work. Its important, and nobody else can do it."

Scully is mystified by Roberta. One second she's a New Age twit and the next she's rattling off the scientific name of hermaphroditic sea slugs. Scully notices that even Roberta's tone of voice changes as she shifts between her two personalities. Scully can't imagine how Roberta could be so indispensable. Scully watches Roberta eating her way through a seemingly bottomless bowl of after dinner mints. Dana realizes that the foods are all very low calorie, but the smell of mint and the little 'sniks' of Roberta's teeth cutting through the mints is starting to make Dana feel ill. She excuses herself and empties her bladder.

Returning from the restroom, Dana finds that Roberta has finally stopped eating and is over looking at one of the props of the Lezaro, one of the robot artists that has set up a canvas and is painting Saturn as seen from a cloud-top city of Titan. Dana hears the robot say, "I lived there for a long time until the human space exploration program forced the closure of the cloud cities."

Roberta sees Scully and takes her arm. "There you are. You know, it is a bit tempting to forget about Earth. I would love to travel to another star. What a trip that would be!"

They stroll through some of the art galleries. Dana is aware that it is possible to travel to other space bases in the Solar System and even to other star systems. "What is it that you do that makes you indispensable?"

Roberta replies, "I'm the only living contract taxonomist for cyanobacteria in the world."

Scully is still mystified. "But what exactly do you do? I mean, why were you hired by....what Institute did you say you work for?"

"I was hired by Dr. Bernak, head of the Photobiology Department at the Chula Vista Marine Science Institute. His team is solving the global warming problem."

Dana is astounded and cannot make a connection between marine biology and global warming. She repeats, "Global warming problem."

Roberta says, "Dr. Bernak just gave me a huge raise to keep me from jumping ship and going to work for Monsanto. I'm the only reason that our team knew to test the Prochloroflexus genus for carbon fixing efficiency. All of our success has grown out of that, and it was my idea."

Dana is starting to understand. She had heard the argument before. A large fraction of the global warming problem was due to rising levels of greenhouse gases like atmospheric carbon dioxide. If a way could be found to increase the rate at which photosynthetic plants and microorganisms converted atmospheric carbon dioxide to sugar, it might be possible to start lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Dana asks, "What is Prochloroflexus?"

They are in another room of the Lezaro watching another robot artist paint a landscape. A whole side of the room is a simulated view of a Mons Olympus on Mars. The robot has just started marking in a few wisps of high clouds to accentuate its depiction of the mountain. Scully has been absently puzzling over the absurd hat that the robot is wearing; it looks like a collection of rat tails dangling from a birds nest.

Roberta walks over to the robot and yanks one of the "rat tails" off of the hat and uses it to start spraying dye onto the robot’s canvas. The robot objects, speaking in the dominant language of the Lunar city, "Ye, misralo! Plekdy mas wholly!"

Roberta has made a small green blob in the sky next to Olympus Mons. She says to the robot, "You can do another one! I want to show my friend something."

The robot looks at Scully then turns back to Roberta with a low bow, and speaks in fluent English, "Go right ahead, madam! I now recognize you both as distinguished guests. Dr. Lincoln and Dr. Scully. Please, "He gestures to the canvas, "I might learn something!"

Roberta gives the robot a peck on the cheek. "You're a doll." She points to the green blob and says to Scully, "This is a typical photosynthetic bacterial cell. Very small, the whole ocean food chain is designed to make use of the energy it captures from the sun. But that energy capture depends on carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolved in the ocean."

Roberta hands the green dye dispenser back to the robot and she says, "Blue." The robot takes the green dispenser and hands Roberta one loaded with blue dye which he pulls from his hat. Roberta paints a slightly elongated blotch next to the round green one. "Some photosynthetic bacteria are bigger and live deeper in the ocean and make use of wavelengths of light that pass right through the common bacteria. When he hired me, Dr. Bernak was trying to genetically engineer such bacteria so as to make new types that would allow the capture of all the light that is normally wasted in the ocean."

Scull asks, "How much could you increase world carbon dioxide capture with such modified light-capturing bacteria?"

Roberta shrugs and hands the green dispenser back to the robot. The robot takes it and waits expectantly for her next request. The robot says, "Not much I'll bet. Most of that captured carbon dioxide will go right into the food chain as sugar and right back to carbon dioxide when the sugar is burned for fuel."

Roberta nods. "There's a robot that did not sleep through high school biology. The real trick is to sink the fixed carbon dioxide to the ocean floor as quickly as possible, before the sugar can enter the food chain."

The robot asks, "Aren't there organisms on the sea floor that would utilize the carbon, releasing it as carbon dioxide?"

Roberta smiles at the robot and turns her had from palm up, ready for the next dye dispenser, to facing the robot. She says, "Good question! High five!"

The robot looks at her, looks at Scully, and shrugs. Having heard the robot speak she decides that despite the ambiguous visual clues, the robot is trying to simulate a male human. Scully realizes that the high five has not penetrated Lunar culture, and the robot is clueless. She steps between Roberta and the robot and gives Roberta a high five. Dana wiggles her fingers in front of the robot's face, "Five fingers. High five."

The robot produces a perfectly human chortle of mirth and gives first Scully and then Roberta a high five. Roberta looks around and realizes that a small crowd of bystanders has gathered and is watching. Scully has learned that this is the art form that residents of the Lunar city love best. Spontaneous public gatherings where artists argue and banter. She can't imagine that they are going to want to hear Roberta discussing global warming and photosynthesis. Roberta seems to appreciate the audience and speaks a little louder. "What does happen to carbon that reaches the bottom of the ocean?" She looks around at the onlookers and a few give her a smile and a shrug.

One man replies, "Sedimentation?"

Roberta gives a whoop of delight and goes over to give the man a high five, which he executes a bit awkwardly but with good spirit.

Roberta is clearly playing to the whole crowd now and loving it. She explains, "Turns out that it is a bit tricky. Some parts of the sea floor have excellent conditions for forming rich sediment that efficiently traps carbon. Other parts of the sea floor efficiently release the carbon back into the water as carbon dioxide before it gets trapped in sediment." Roberta turns to Dana, "That's why Dr. Bernak was on the Floreana, one of his projects is to model sea floor carbon dynamics." She turns back to face the bulk of the onlookers, "But the good news is, the data seem to suggest that if you get the carbon of photosynthetic bacteria to the sea floor, most of that carbon will be trapped in sediment."

Roberta snaps her fingers at the robot artist, "So how do you get more bacteria to sink?"

The robot squints at the two bacterial cells Roberta had drawn on the canvas, takes a dye dispenser from its hat and quickly sketches in an excellent Paramecium, fuzzy with cilia, depicted as eating the bacteria. He says, "Maybe if you made the bacteria taste bad, they would not get eaten and they would be more likely to escape the food chain and fall to the sea floor." With great skill, the robot puts a 'yuck" face on the paramecium and gives it a lolling 'yuck' tongue. The crowd laughs and the robot gives a little bow.

Roberta applauds the robot along with the crowd. "Not a bad idea, but paramecia do not have taste buds. When I joined his research project, Dr. Bernak was trying to genetically engineer photosynthetic bacteria that would kill anything that ate them."

The crowd responds with gasps and groans. Roberta holds up a hand to quiet them, "I know, I know, that's just sooooo totally a male domination and over-kill plan, and worse, it does not work. It would kill the whole aquatic ecosystem and actually result in a catastrophic loss of carbon dioxide fixing capacity, not to mention destroying the major fisheries that a huge fraction of the world population depends on for food. So this is where Dr. Lincoln comes to the rescue!"

Most of the onlookers do not know that they are being addressed by Dr. Lincoln. The Robot artist steps up on the rim of a nearby foot tall decorative flower pot and announces in a dramatic voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen, three cheers for Dr. Lincoln for coming to the rescue!"

The onlookers dutifully give a rousing, "Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!"

Roberta has a smile from ear to ear and bows repeatedly until the tittering crowd quiets again. "When I started working with Dr. Bernak's research group, I was one of the few people in the world aware of the fact that half of the carbon reaching the sea floor is in the form of one genus of photosynthetic bacteria, the little known Prochloroflexus genus.  With my help, the lab soon zeroed in on Prochloroflexus marinuslargus as the best choice for solving the global warming problem. We have spent the past three years sequencing its genome and modifying its genome to make a super carbon fixing bacterium."

Roberta holds out her hand to the robot artist and says, "Red!" She makes red streaks raining down from the Martian sky onto the flank of Olympus Mons. "Prochloroflexus marinuslargus is a giant filamentous photosynthetic bacterium with a thick cell wall. Such filamentous bacteria normally do poorly in the deep ocean, and tend to represent only a tiny percentage of fixed carbon in the ocean, still, because they sink so fast, they represent about half of the carbon reaching the sea floor. We are close to having a genetically modified form of Prochloroflexus marinuslargus that we think will vastly increase carbon transport to the sea floor, allowing a net reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide. By scavenging genes from other species, we have given Prochloroflexus marinuslargus a one week life cycle phase in which it forms loose mats right on the ocean surface where it can efficiently trap atmospheric carbon dioxide. After that one week period, the mats disintegrate and the dying filaments sink."

Roberta holds out her hands to her sides like she is waiting for applause.

A man in the crowd asks, "Won't the presence of these genetically modified bacteria alter the aquatic ecosystem, maybe catastrophically disrupting the ocean food chain?"

Roberta shrugs. "That's what we do not know yet and why I must go back to Earth. We were about to start some field tests. I expect there will need to be some modifications to our laboratory strains to make them fit into the ocean ecosystem."

The crowd applauds politely and then disperses. A few men linger to flirt with Roberta and the robot artist starts preparing a new canvas. Scully is thinking furiously about what Roberta has described and the plans that the clone brothers have for her. It occurs to Dana that she has never heard of any research on Earth aimed at doing what Roberta has described. This might be just what the clones are on the lookout for, an interventionist plot to use advanced genetic methods to solve human problems on Earth. No sooner does Scully think of the clones, when she notices one of them nearby.

He nods and smiles at her and walks over. "Hello, Dana."

Scully has learned to distinguish the clones. This one is Rupert, the one with natural leadership qualities. Scully has learned that while all of the clone brothers are unique personalities, Rupeert tends to dominate policy decisions. "What are doing here, Rupert?"

Before he can answer, Roberta is at his side and then literally in his face, "Are you following me? Can't you give me one evening of peace?"

Rupert tries to be civil, "Good evening, Roberta. I understand you had a nice dinner with Dr. Scully."

Roberta is not going to give him any slack. "You worm. I'll bet you listened to every word we said."

Rupert blushes a very pretty pink. Scully asks him, "Were you listening to us, is that how you knew where to find us?"

Rupert replies, "I've never lied to you Dana, I want you to remember that."

Chapter 4
May 15, 2005 Gary Seven returns Roberta Lincoln and Dana to Earth (San Diego). They work on the genetic engineering of Prochloroflexus marinus.

Chapter 5
September 23, 2005 Scully and Roberta Lincoln are at an estuary of the mouth of the Colorado river doing field tests on their engineered Prochloroflexus marinus. The bacteria are having some trouble adapting to conditions outside of the lab.

Chapter 6
Mulder meets with the Lone Gunmen, they tell him about a clone sighting at Scully's former rental house in Damascus. They speculate, Mulder decides to shadow Doggett and Reyes.

Chapter 7
Doggett and Reyes given new assignment by Skinner, follow up on recent spat of clone sightings. No sooner do Doggett and Reyes leave his office and Skinner is contacted by a clone. Skinner demands to know how Scully is. The clone says they have located her in San Diego. They want the FBI to pick her up. Skinner agrees, sends Doggett and Reyes, but makes plans to prevent Scully from actually going back into the hands of the clones.

Chapter 8
September 24, 2005 Doggett and Reyes first go to San Diego, learn about the field station.

Funny scenes with Mulder and Skinner each watching Doggett and Reyes and everyone just barely missing seeing each other.

Mulder checks at front desk of hotel for message from Lone Gunmen, goes to elevator, desk clerk runs after him calling name, jumps into elevator with Mulder. Skinner hears Mulder's name, but Front desk wont reveal Mulder's room.

Chapter 9
Skinner trying desperately to get the cooperation of Mexican authorities.

Chapter 10
At night, Gary Seven arrives and gives Roberta Lincoln a new virus to modify the Prochloroflexus marinus to make it able to adapt to the ocean. Dana discovers Roberta infecting the bacterial cultures with the virus and does a test, discovering that she was using an alien branched DNA virus.

Chapter 11
Hands up! (this could be a funny serries of reversals of fate) September 25, 2005
 * 1) Scully confronts Roberta about the virus.
 * 2) Gary Seven comes to take Scully back to the Moon.
 * 3) Doggett and Reyes arrive, capture Gary Seven, free Scully
 * 4) Clones arrive, capture everyone, say they will shut down Gary's project
 * 5) Mulder and the Lone Gunmen arrive, they find the clones' space ship and (funny scene, fly off with it)
 * 6) Clones have to start making a deal with Gary for the use of his ship, he agrees to let them have his ship and Scully if he can take the bacteria.
 * 7) Skinner arrives with Mexican army, frees Scully, Clones fly off (Reyes stows away on the space ship), with the help of Isis, Gary escapes with the carbon fixing bacteria.

Chapter 12
September 26, 2005 Mulder and the Lone Gunmen have crashed the alien ship in the Mexican desert. They are all trying to hike to civilization

Chapter 13
September 27, 2005 Scully with Mulder in hospital as Mulder regains consciousness. She tells him that Reyes is still missing.

Chapter 14
September 28, 2005 Doggett being assigned a new partner (Keri Ann Wold) by Skinner, and a new project.

Chapter 15
Doggett ignores new project and continues trying to find Reyes. Goes to see Mulder and Scully (now back at Scully's house in Damascus). Funny scenes as Doggett keeps making up stories and busy work for his new partner.

Scully suggests that Doggett tries to blackmail Gary Seven; Scully will not reveal alien source of carbon fixing bacteria if he gets Reyes back

Gary Seven arrives and blanks their memories. Creates a new bond between Keri and John, Fox and Dana as expedient for shifting their thoughts away from recent events.

Where next
Yes, there is going to have to be a second X-Seven story in which Doggett and Reyes are re-united. This has the potential makings of some rather heated and happy ending DRR.

Part II of X-Seven is going to see the re-uniting of John and Monica. I'm thinking that Monica is going to be tied up in an alien operation on Earth (think Patty Hearst) and be trying to manipulate John (and his new partner) while trying to double-cross the aliens. John will be forced to work on an assignment that he is uninterested in, but he will learn that it leads to Monica. Once they are back together they are going to kick some alien butt.

Maybe the clones can be trying to gain access to Skinner so they can manipulate his memory. They put Monica on some other "dummy mission" while using her presense on Earth to set a trap for Skinner.

Gary Seven will be trying to help Skinner (in order to work against the clones). Also using Roberta to feed Doggett clues about the case he is on, so he can figure out it is a cold "clones case" and actually leads to the current location of some of the clones (and Monica).

"cold case": several years previously (okay, this has to be the unexplained teaser for Part II) Gary Seven is on Earth trying to prevent the September 11 attacks. The clones foil his attempt to do so, but leave behind some key evidence of how they operate on Earth.

Doggett and Keri are initially assigned a new X-File case dealing with the theft of some Sept. 11th Commission documents. (Some funny report of Roberta "magically" getting into a high security document storage facility.) Then Roberta shows up at John's house with the documents and tries to get him to understand how they are related to the clones and Monica.

Teaser