X-Seven Chapter 6
Aids to the reader: list of characters in the X7 Trilogy and a glossary.
It is important for Gary Seven that he completes his mission and that it appear that Rupert also completes his mission. Upon entering his space ship with Roberta and Reyes, Gary is well aware that Rupert and one of his brothers had snuck on board. Gary had purposefully made it possible for the two clones to force the pattern recognition lock on his space ship’s hatch. Rupert does not allow Gary a chance to even discuss matters and fires three crystal projectiles into Gary’s back. From another angle, Rupert’s brother does the same. Gary turns and fires an electrode at Rupert’s brother, shocking him into unconsciousness with a high voltage pulse. With the same motion Gary tumbles behind a control consol and tries to estimate where Rupert is located. Rupert has ducked back into the alcove of the ship’s entry port where he waits until Gary Seven stops moving. Rupert calls to Reyes and Roberta, “Just relax. Everything will be fine.”
Roberta calls back, “I’m not going back to the Moon with you!”
Rupert judges that Gary is under the influence of the drug from the crystal projectiles and enters the control room of Gary’s ship. “You really have no choice, Roberta.” Rupert goes to where Gary is sprawled on the floor and rolls up Gary’s shirt sleeve, revealing the electrode canon. Rupert detaches the weapon from Gary’s arm and stuffs it in his pocket. He then checks on his brother, who is stunned, but regaining full consciousness. Reyes has already mostly recovered from the electric jolt she got from Gary, but she is wearing her own hand cuffs and cannot remember most of the past twenty minutes. Roberta helps Reyes get to her feet and Rupert helps his brother get up off the floor. Rupert says to his brother, “Watch these two. If they cause trouble, knock them out, too. I’m going to go get Scully.” Rupert straps the electrode canon onto his brother’s arm. Rupert exits the space ship with a final glance back at Gary’s inert form on the floor of the control room.
A black cat enters the control room from the adjacent crew lounge and goes over to Gary’s body. “Mrow!”
Roberta takes hold of the hand cuffs on Monica and says to the clone, “Can we get her out of these cuffs?”
The clone asks, “Where is the key?”
Reyes checks the key compartment of her hand cuff holster and does not find the key. She does not know what happened to the key and shakes her head. Roberta says, “Gary must have it.” She goes to Gary and searches his pockets, of which there are only two, She finds the key in his shirt pocket and shows it to the clone. He nods approval for her to release Reyes. The clone is watching Roberta try to figure out how the key works. The cat moves close behind the clone and morphs into the shape of a dark haired woman.
Reyes notices the movement behind the clone and the clone notices Reyes’ reaction. The clone turns just as the woman fires an electrode into him. The clone collapses and the woman says, “Thanks for distracting him, Roberta. He’ll wake up again in just a minute and we need to be ready.”
Roberta pulls the cuffs off of Reyes and turns towards the dark haired woman, “Glad to be of service, Isis.”
Reyes watches in fascination as Isis kneels next to the clone and kisses him on the lips. Roberta goes to a drawer of one of the control consoles and gets a small silver object that Reyes cannot see. Roberta goes to Gary and touches the small object to his neck. Both Gary and the clone begin to regain consciousness. Isis morphs back into the form of a cat. Gary gets to his feet, takes off his shirt and lays down on a flight couch and pretends to still be unconscious. Roberta sits on the edge of the couch and winks at Reyes. The clone looks around the control room groggily. “What- ?”
Reyes tries to speak but words will not come to her lips. Her thinking has cleared enough that she is sure she is not dreaming, but she has no idea what is going on. But who says alien abductions have to make sense? She goes and sits in the couch next to Roberta. Finally she finds something she can get into words, “Are we going back to the Moon?”
Roberta shrugs and looks at the clone. “He’s in charge.”
Reyes is trying to figure out if she can trust Roberta. Is an enemy of the clone brothers her friend? Monica is having a hard time imagining why it is that Roberta, Gary and Isis do not simply take control of the ship. Is it possible that they are just waiting for a chance to escape from the ship? Reyes has a vague dream-like memory of Gary putting her into the ship. Monica asks, “Do you know Dana Scully?”
Roberta starts rubbing the small medical servo over the bloody wounds on Gary’s back. Reyes is startled to see the blood disappear and the wounds start to heal right before her eyes. Roberta replies, “I’ve known Dana for about four months.”
“You have been with her for the past four months?” Roberta continues to heal Gary’s wounds and nods. Reyes asks, “Do you know where she is now?”
Roberta replies, “I presume she is outside, talking to Rupert.” She gets up and returns the medical servo to its drawer. Reyes touches one of the six pink scar-like spots on Gary’s back. Her fingers tell her that there is something moving under her finger tips. She looks at her finger tips and sees what looks like a moving film of glistening oil. The oil seems to home in on an abrasion on her wrist that was caused by the hand cuffs. She watches the raw skin change hue and the pain goes away. Soon the ache in her arm from the recent dog attack also fades away.
Gary starts to stir and Roberta brings him a small bottle of liquid. Gary sits up, takes the bottle from Roberta and takes a drink.
The clone points his arm at Gary and says nervously, “Don’t try to get up. I have your weapon.”
Gary says quietly to Reyes, “There is a problem outside. Mulder. Can I use your phone?
Reyes takes out her cell phone and decides she is going to trust Gary. Anyone that runs with women who can turn into cats is worth cultivating as a friend. Monica hands Gary her phone. Gary does not take it. He asks, "Do you know Mulder’s number?” Monica calls out of her phone’s memory the number for Mulder’s cell phone. She initiates the call and hands the phone to Gary.
The clone says, “Hey, what are you doing with that phone?“ Then he falls silent and stares blankly into space. Gary walks past the clone and into the crew quarters of the ship. Just as Gary exits the control room, Rupert enters through the hatch from outside.
Outside, Mulder watches Rupert enter the door of the space ship and disappear from the top of the rise. “What the- “
Dana explains, “It’s a space craft. Almost invisible”
Mulder’s phone has started to ring. He takes out his phone, “Mulder.” He listens for a moment and then hands the phone to Dana. “It's for you.”
Gary says, “Dana? This is Gary Seven.”
Dana is surprised to be talking on the phone to Gary. There is a pause while Dana tries to recover her wits. Dana finally says weakly, “What do you want?”
Gary replies, “I’d like to continue working with you, but Mulder scared Rupert off. Please come up to the ship. Rupert will let you in.”
Dana laughs, “Sorry, but I’ve learned my lesson. I’m reluctant to continue to be a puppet for you or Rupert. The only way I’ll go with you is if we can trade. Let Reyes go.”
Fox grabs Dana’s arm and says, “No, Dana! You can’t trust them!”
Dana hears a low pitched throbbing from the ship. Gary is speaking very quickly, “Hurry to the hatch. Roberta is an Earth woman just like you. She has worked with me for over thirty years. She’ll explain everything to you.”
A gust of wind sweeps down on Dana and Mulder and a blur moves from the top of the rise off into the stormy sky. Gary says, “Until we meet again.” The phone connection goes dead. Scully and Mulder climb up the rise, pick up Doggett and haul him back into the administration building.
Dana and Fox place the unconscious Doggett on the couch in the visitors’ waiting room. Dana says to Fox, “Well, you were right. I was totally helpless for the past four months. I was the perfect puppet. I can only be thankful that I was only doing genetic manipulations on bacteria. It could just as easily have been people.” Her voice breaks as she thinks about how her efforts have only led to Monica being abducted again. “It could have been more people than just Monica. My God, Mulder, that’s enough.”
Mulder places a hand on her shoulder, “Reyes just got in the way again. She’ll be released, just like last time.” Mulder asks, “What is this place, Dana? What has been going on here?”
Dana does not know how to explain it all to Fox. Somehow the past few months seem like a distant dream. She flops into a chair. “We created a solution to global warming.”
Mulder figures that Scully can’t be joking. “Ah, that’s a bad thing?”
Dana tries to explain, “We did it with alien technology. Illegal technology.” She laughs. Mulder is still confused. “Call Skinner. Tell him that we lost Reyes.”
Mulder takes out his phone and calls Washington. The cook, Guadalupe comes in. “Dr. Scully. Ah, will your guest-“ She notices Doggett on the couch. “Will your guests be staying for dinner? I’m canceling the cookout.”
Mulder turns his back and talks to Skinner. Dana replies to Guadalupe, “Dr. Lincoln went….to San Diego. This is Fox Mulder, he and I will be here for dinner.” She gestures towards Doggett. “And that is John Doggett. He’s….very tired and will not join us for dinner.” Guadalupe nods, takes a last dubious look at Doggett and heads back to the kitchen.
Mulder ends the phone call, “We’ll expect you in about six hours. Right” He explains to Scully, “Skinner is flying in tonight. He’s hoping Reyes will be released just like the last time the clones took her.” He looks at Doggett, “What should we do with John?”
Dana has decided that they can take care of Doggett until he wakes up. “Let’s haul him over to Roberta’s cabin. We can share my cabin.” Dana kicks off one of her wet shoes and rubs her foot on the inside of Mulder’s thigh. “After dinner I want to show you something I learned on the Moon from a robot named ‘Fox’.”
Mulder grabs her leg and strokes the firm curve of her calf. “Wait a minute, a robot….named….Fox?”
Dana nods, “I had a whole month to explore the advanced technology of the Moon. Granted, some things are only possible in one sixth gee, but I’ll settle for the basics tonight.”
Mulder drops her leg and pulls her to her feet. He places his hands on the sides of her face. “So you were fooling around with another guy on the Moon while I was wondering if I would ever see you again, and now you expect me to….”
“Oh, yes, my expectations are now sky high.” And she figures that her embarrassment over having to explain the Fox robot will be compensated for by- what? Can a man be jealous of himself? Then she gives up temporarily on that speculation and abandons herself to trying to figure out the secret of that “Mulder look” that she could never quite reproduce in the robot. “If I ever again start to talk about needing to try something different, oh, like staying on Moon, or some planet, I want to have plenty of memories of good reasons to stay here on Earth. Let’s get started on those memories, Fox.”
Fox runs his fingers through Dana’s rain-wetted hair. He knows that he must always keep trying to push the world closer to recognition of the fact that aliens have long been on Earth. He is grateful for the fact that Dana has miraculously come back, but he can never make his enjoyment of that, or anything, deflect him from his duty. “I wish you had contacted me and let me know that you were back on Earth. When I could no longer imagine where you were, I….suffered.”
Dana moves her hands up Mulder’s chest and rests them on his shoulders. “Fox, I’m quite sure that these clones and the people who did experiments on me are not aliens. They are as human as we are. They just have access to technology that is more advanced than what we have on Earth. And Fox…”
Mulder notices that she is lost in thought. “Yes, Dana?”
Scully comes back to Earth and looks into Fox’s eyes. “All that mumbo jumbo about altering the memories of people abducted from Earth. That’s just a smoke screen.”
Fox is confused. “Come on, Dana. I’ve felt it, everyone who was abducted has felt the holes in their memory and other odd effects. It's chemical brain washing. How can you deny that?
Dana explains, “Because I did not go through the memory alteration treatment. Do you remember that Fox? When you were on the Moon? You and the others went through the memory change sessions. That was your ticket back to Earth. But I was not handled like that. I suspect I cannot be handled like that. But I have been going through problems with my memory and being forced to live with restrictions on what I can talk about. There is something else at work. Some more subtle way by which our thoughts and actions can be controlled.”
Fox is skeptical. “How do you know? Maybe they erased your memory of going through the brain washing process.”
Of course, Dana cannot be sure. But she must go with her intuition. “I stayed on the Moon in the hope that I could learn something, something that I could bring back to Earth. I think what I got was this idea that there is something we are missing, something we have not yet understood about how the people of Earth are manipulated.”
Fox feels a shiver run up his spine. “Dana, you’re really creeping me out. I can live with seeing shapes in the shadows, but I feel better if you are always optimistically finding a way to light the darkness. Don’t tell me all you can see is the dark and the shadows.”
Dana takes Fox’s hand and tugs him towards Doggett. “Come on. Lets get Doggett bedded down. It's almost time for dinner.” Dana is ready to take refuge in the peace of mind that comes from work and the necessities of life. But she knows that like Fox, she is obsessed with the truth and her own duty to serve it. Particularly if she is the only person on Earth who has been given the gift of what she now knows. How could she ever abandon the responsibility of finding a way to share her knowledge with the world? And it might even be fun trying to get Fox to accept the truth, a truth that even Fox thinks is just too strange.
As they lift Doggett off the couch, Dana sees him as sleeping humanity, with Mulder tugging at one end and Dana holding up the other. Dana tries to find a faith in the idea that humanity will wake up.
End of Chapter 6[]
This is the end of the X-Seven episode.
"X-Seven" is the second episode of an X-Files trilogy.
It is best to read the three stories in the correct order: Fly Paper -> X-Seven -> Moon Reyes
- Continue to Moon Reyes.
- Return to the start of X-Seven.