7ABX03 The Sixth Extinction

Scully: [voiceover] I came in search of something I did not believe existed. I've stayed on now, in spite of myself. In spite of everything I've ever held to be true. I will continue here as long as I can... as long as you are beset by the haunting illness which I saw consume your beautiful mind. What is this discovery I've made? How can I reconcile what I see with what I know? I feel this was meant not for me to find but for you... to make sense of — make the connections which can't be ignored... connections which, for me, deny all logic and reason. What is this source of power I hold in my hand — this rubbing — a simple impression taken from the surface of the craft? I watched this rubbing take its undeniable hold on you, saw you succumb to its spiralling effect. Now I must work to uncover what your illness prevents you from finding. In the source of every illness lies its cure.

---

[Mulder is in a padded cell going in and out of a foetal position, Dr Harriman and Skinner watch him on a video monitor]

Dr Harriman: He's been quiet for the last 36 hours, but he doesn't sleep. There's activity in the temporal lobe we've just never seen. It won't allow his brain to rest or shut down, manifesting in episodes of aggression... sometimes against himself.

Skinner: You can't sedate him?

Dr Harriman: Yes. We slow him down for short periods and put him in the neuro ward. It's the only way we're able to run tests. But over time... his brain is going to just die.

---

Dr Ngebe: My God. What happened here? [There are dead locusts are all over the tent] They said you speak English.

Scully: What do you want?

Dr Ngebe: I am sorry. You must wonder who I am. I am Amina Ngebe. I've come to see your discovery.

Scully: I asked that no one be told about it... nor that I'm here.

Dr Ngebe: Yes. Well, uh, it is still a secret but a well-known one, I'm afraid. Dr Merkmallen called it the African Internet, God rest him.

Scully: You knew Dr Merkmallen?

Dr Ngebe: I, too, am a professor of biology at the university but, uh, hardly one qualified to say what must have gone on here.

Scully: Well... I was working late last night by lamplight and, uh, I saw a man... who vanished... and then they just swarmed.

Dr Ngebe: You must not let the men know what happened to you last night — the vanishing man, none of it.

Scully: Why?

Dr Ngebe: They are animists, believing nature is vengeful. They'll take this as a sign to leave what you have found alone, a bad omen.

Scully: Caused by the ship out there?

Dr Ngebe: Mm-mm. Caused by god... who will be much less helpful than those men if we are to continue this work.

---

Skinner: Agent Mulder. I want to help you. I don't know what to do. I don't have much time. [Mulder taps the bed with his bound right hand] Can you write? [Mulder nods and Skinner places a pen in his hand. Mulder slowly and deliberately writes the letters K-R... on Skinner's hand]

---

Scully: [voiceover] I feel you slipping away from me with every minute I fail here. What are the elusive meanings I cannot see, that are hidden here? If I could understand it, know how it affected you, learn how to use its power to save you.

---

[A vehicle pulls up in Scully's camp in the middle of the night, she gets up and, going outside, approaches the truck armed with a machete]

Scully: What is it? [The African driver speaks to her in his native language] Look, I'm sorry. I don't speak your language.

Dr Barnes: Perhaps you need an interpreter.

Scully: Stay away from me! [She raises her machete defensively]

Dr Barnes: Are you going to hack me up in front of my driver? Word is you're under suspicion already.

Scully: You're the murderer here.

Dr Ngebe: Murderer of who?

Scully: Dr Merkmallen.

Dr Barnes: I murdered no one, but I won't be sent away from here. I know what we've got. This craft that's come ashore? Its extraterrestrial origins?

Scully: You don't even believe in that.

Dr Barnes: Nor do you. But here we are.

Scully: I'm here only to help my partner.

Dr Barnes: Then let me help you... to read it. I've spent my life looking for what's out there... the answer to what theologians have pondered for millennia... the key to everything... to life itself. I've already been threatened by men in Washington about what I know. How long would your secret keep if you were to send me away? [Dr Barnes' driver calls to them, beckoning them to the shore]

Scully: What is it?

Dr Ngebe: It is a sea of blood.

---

Skinner: Michael Kritschgau.

Michael Kritschgau: It's 6 o'clock in the morning.

Skinner: I don't know if you remember me. My name's Skinner. I'm here to talk to you about Fox Mulder.

Michael Kritschgau: Yeah, I'm listening.

Skinner: He's in serious condition, Mr Kritschgau; he has to talk to you.

Michael Kritschgau: I got nothing to say to the man. [He starts to close the door but Skinner holds it open] You know, I had a job... with a government pension coming, and two years ago Fox Mulder asked me to do him a favor — blow the whistle on Uncle Sam's UFO propaganda mill. And all it got me was this swanky address.

Skinner: Look, he doesn't have much time.

Michael Kritschgau: Hey, I'm not a doctor. What is it you think I can do for him?

Skinner: All I know is that he asked for you.

---

[Mulder is in restraints and apparently comatose, eyes wide open. His brain activity is being monitored]

Michael Kritschgau: Can he even recognize me?

Skinner: To be honest, I don't know.

Skinner: Agent Mulder? [The monitor registers some brain activity, but there is no physical response]

Skinner: His brain is on constant redline. They've got him on Haloperidol just to keep him on the monitors.

Michael Kritschgau: Haloperidol?

Skinner: He becomes violently agitated. He just won't speak or sleep even when he's medicated. There's activity in part of his brain they've never seen before.

Michael Kritschgau: Was his... [He stops speaking as the monitor registers more activity]

Skinner: Was his what?

Michael Kritschgau: I started to ask you a question about his prior mental state but he anticipated it. Second time. Agent Mulder? [The monitor registers activity again]

Skinner: He claimed to be hearing voices.

Michael Kritschgau: I might know why Agent Mulder asked for me. Doesn't mean I can do anything for him.

Skinner: What just happened?

Michael Kritschgau: I think he responded to a question that... I didn't ask.

---

Skinner: I don't know how long we can keep him out of that unit. We can be held responsible.

Michael Kritschgau: You asked me to come down here. You better be prepared to accept the responsibility, Mr Skinner. [He prepares a syringe]

Skinner: You're going to inject him?

Michael Kritschgau: No. You are. With a thousand milligrams of Phenytoin.

Skinner: I'm not injecting him with anything, not now and not 'til after I've talked to his doctor.

Michael Kritschgau: He's being given the wrong treatment.

Skinner: You're not a doctor.

Michael Kritschgau: No, but I've seen his condition. Who do you want to trust?

Skinner: Seen it where?

Michael Kritschgau: In a study. There's something like ESP called remote viewing.

Skinner: Whose study?

Michael Kritschgau: The company's — the CIA, Mr Skinner. Extreme subjects would go into arrest their minds working harder than their bodies could sustain. They became, in effect, all brain. Phenytoin was the only thing that could slow the electrical impulses to a normal rate.

Skinner: Agent Mulder knew about this. That's why he asked for you. [He injects the syringe into Mulder's IV line. Mulder immediately responds and he becomes more aware]

Mulder: They're coming.

---

Fowley: Who last saw him?

ICU Nurse: I'm looking here.

Fowley: I come here and find a patient missing, and nobody knew?

ICU Nurse: I just came on. Sorry. Fox Mulder, right? He's restrained, it says; and he's not in his bed?

Fowley: No. How many times can I say it? [They enter the room to see Mulder lying peacefully on the bed and Skinner standing next to him]

ICU Nurse: He's right here.

Fowley: He wasn't here when I came in.

Skinner: No, we just found him down the hall. I just got him back into bed.

ICU Nurse: Who are you?

Skinner: I'm his boss... and hers.

ICU Nurse: Well, I don't know how he could have gotten up by himself or pulled all this stuff out.

Skinner: Well, I hope someone's calling, a doctor making a report on this.

ICU Nurse: He's got to remain in this bed.

Skinner: I'll stay with him. Agent Fowley, why don't you see if you can help her? That's an order, Agent Fowley. [She leaves the room, following the nurse]

Mulder: She knows.

Skinner: You can read her mind?

Mulder: Yeah. We got to act fast.

Skinner: The doctor's on his way.

Mulder: No doctors. Get me Scully.

Skinner: I don't know where she is.

Mulder: Look... I know you've been compromised. I know Krycek is threatening your life... Blackmailing you. You don't think I can trust you but it's not you that I need.

Skinner: Then who? [Michael Kritschgau enters the room]

Mulder: Him. Kritschgau. Ask him to prove it.

Michael Kritschgau: Prove what?

Mulder: What's causing this.

Michael Kritschgau: It's a brain abnormality. It's how you're able to read minds.

Mulder: What's causing this is alien. That's why my doctors can't help me.

Michael Kritschgau: I don't believe in aliens, Agent Mulder. I think you know that.

Mulder: I do. That's why I need you.

---

Scully: [voiceover] The work here is painstaking — a slow and tedious piecing together. It appears to be a craft, its skin covered in the intricate symbols you and I both saw, but which I now understand are part of a complex communication. Dr Barnes has broken some of the symbols into letters using an ancient Navajo alphabet and, though it has helped to uncover some of what's here it has also made for greater confusion. On the top surface of the craft I'm finding words describing human genetics. [On graph paper she translates the names of the four basic nucleotides — Cytosine, Guanine, Ademine, Thymine] Efforts to read the bottom of the craft have been harder. Our workers were scared away by phenomena I admit I can't explain — a sea of blood, a swarm of insects. But what little we have found has been staggering — passages from the Christian Bible, from pagan religions, from Ancient Sumeria... science and mysticism conjoined. But more than words, they are somehow imbued with power. I've ignored warnings to quit this work, remaining committed to finding answers, afraid only that our secret here won't last and that I might be too late.

---

Dr Ngebe: I have something to show you... more pieces of the puzzle. I couldn't believe it. I thought I was making it up in my head, that it could not be true.

Scully: What?

Dr Ngebe: What this is. What the symbols spell out is a passage from the Koran. Qeyaamah. The day of final judgment. On a spacecraft? Teachings of the ancient prophet Mohammed?

Scully: I found more, too. [The section of rubbings she has been piecing together]

---

Scully: 24 panels... One for each human chromosome. A map of their makeup — maybe a map of our entire genetic makeup... A complete human genome. I mean, it's like... it's the most beautiful... intricate work of art.

Dr Ngebe: It is the word of god. [Dr Barnes enters the tent]

Dr Barnes: You're wrong. There is no god. What's out there on the water... is only what we call god... What we call creation — the spark that ignited the fire that cooked the old primordial soup... made animate from inanimate... made us.

Dr Ngebe: I believe he is mad from the sun.

Dr Barnes: Mad? I'm perfectly sane... because today I understand everything, beginning and end, alpha and omega, everything in between. It's all been written. But the word is extraterrestrial.

Scully: You're sick, Dr Barnes. You need to get off your feet, lie down.

Dr Barnes: You think you're going to take the credit? This is my discovery. [Waving Scully's machete about threateningly]

Scully: I'm only here to help my friend.

Dr Barnes: You can't help him. You're wasting your time reading it.

Scully: It has power.

Dr Barnes: It is power... the ultimate power. Your friend just got too close. No one leaves here before me.

---

[Skinner and Michael Kritschgau have set up three small video monitors facing away from Mulder but within his reach. Several different pictures, including one of a flying saucer, flash in random sequence on each of them]

Michael Kritschgau: We developed this to test remote-viewing capabilities. It works much like a card trick. You tap the monitor where the saucer image appears when it appears or when you think it does. Okay?

Mulder: Who you going to call? [They start the test and Mulder begins tapping the monitors in succession. Only a few times does he hit the correct monitor when the flying saucer appears] Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now.

Michael Kritschgau: All right, Agent Mulder, fine. You're at about five percent accuracy.

Skinner: I'm assuming that's low.

Michael Kritschgau: Yeah. At the CIA a high degree of ability was 20%. 25% was extraordinary.

Mulder: But I see them in my head.

Skinner: You saw his ability earlier. It was you who pointed it out.

Michael Kritschgau: Well, our tests showed that some people have psychic abilities, sure. I mean, ESP, clairvoyance, remote viewing, but it was never attributed to aliens.

Mulder: You don't want to believe. You're not looking hard enough.

Skinner: One more time, faster. [Michael Kritschgau reluctantly starts the test again, this time increasing the speed of the images. Mulder begins tapping rapidly, with perfect accuracy]

Michael Kritschgau: He's ahead of the images. He's anticipating.

---

[Dr Barnes is still holding Scully and Dr Ngebe prisoner when, what seems to be, a low-level earthquake hits nearby. He looks down at his sack of fish, surprised to see it moving and pulls out a handful of very alive fish]

Dr Barnes: They've come back! They were dead! They've come back to life! The ship — it brought them back to life! [While he's distracted, Scully hits him over the head with a chair. She and Dr Ngebe run to the truck and quickly drive away]

---

Scully: We have to get to the police.

Dr Ngebe: That is where I'm going. This is the road to Abidjan. [Ahead in the middle of the road, Scully sees the Primitive African Man]

Scully: Stop! [Dr Ngebe slams on the brakes, but when Scully looks again, the Primitive African Man is no longer there] That was him. That was the man I saw in the tent... in the road. [She turns to look at the empty road behind them, but when she turns back to Dr Ngebe she sees the Primitive African Man sitting in her place]

Primitive African Man: Some truths are not for you. [He reaches out and touches her forehead and she sits frozen in place. Suddenly, the Primitive African Man is once again Dr Ngebe]

Dr Ngebe: Are you all right?

Scully: Oh, god. What are you doing?

Dr Ngebe: You were cold. I was just feeling to see if you were still alive.

Scully: What happened to you?

Dr Ngebe: To me?

Scully: You slammed on the brakes. There was a man.

Dr Ngebe: That's right — in the road.

Scully: No. He was right there — sitting right where you are in your seat.

Dr Ngebe: The men were right. This is a bad sign. A sign to give up. [She starts the engine and begins driving again]

Scully: Turn us around.

Dr Ngebe: Not back to the beach.

Scully: No... I'm going home.

---

Skinner: Agent Mulder. Agent Mulder, I don't know if you can hear me but we're going to try to get you out of here.

Michael Kritschgau: AM nurse is on in five minutes. We got to move.

Skinner: I don't think he's in any shape.

Michael Kritschgau: I'm going to hit him pretty hard. Maybe we can get him on his feet. [Skinner grabs the bottle of Phenytoin from Michael Kritschgau's hand] What are you doing?

Skinner: I know what you're doing.

Michael Kritschgau: I'm trying to help him.

Skinner: No, this isn't about him — it's about you, it's about revenge against the government for trying to destroy your life.

Michael Kritschgau: I was destroyed to protect what Mulder knew all along. Now he's the proof — he's the X-File.

Skinner: We can't just keep shooting him full of drugs. It's gone too far!

Michael Kritschgau: How far should it go?! How far would Mulder go?! [Skinner hands the drug back to Michael Kritschgau. He gives Mulder the injection, just as Diana Fowley, followed by Dr Harriman and a nurse, storm into the room]

Dr Harriman: Hey! What's going on here?

Fowley: Let me see your hands. Hands! [Michael Kritschgau holds up his now empty hands] Step away.

Skinner: Agent Fowley, what the hell do you think you're doing?

Fowley: What am I doing? What are you doing, sir, with this? [She holds up the used syringe that was lying on the bed and turns to Michael Kritschgau] I want you to face the wall. Do you hear me? Face the wall.

Skinner: Let me explain.

Dr Harriman: What was this man given? What was in this syringe?

Fowley: Phenytoin.

Skinner: Let me tell you what it does.

Dr Harriman: How much did you give him? What dosage was this?

Skinner: Let me tell you why we did it. [Mulder's monitors start beeping wildly as he starts convulsing]

Dr Harriman: He's going into seizure. Watch his head. Mr Mulder? Hold him. Hold him.

---

[Mulder is lying in bed in restraints]

Fowley: I know what's happened to you. I know what you're suffering from. I've been sitting back and watching. I know you know. I know you know about me... That my loyalties aren't just to you... but to a man you've grown to despise. You have your reasons but, as you look inside me now you know that I have mine. Fox... Fox, I love you. I've loved you for so long. You know that, too. And I won't let you die... to prove what you are, to prove what's inside you. There's no need to prove it. It's been known for so long. Now we can be together.

---

Scully: Where is he? Is he still in the hospital?

Skinner: Where have you been?

Scully: Is he still at Georgetown Memorial?

Skinner: You can't get to him.

Scully: Do you know where he is or don't you?!

Skinner: He's in the neuro-psych ward but it's no good, Agent Scully. [Scully starts to leave]

Skinner: Agent Scully!

Scully: I have been on a plane for 22 hours. I have to see him.

Skinner: Then I think you should know what you're going to see if you can even get on the ward. There's been some trouble.

Scully: What kind of trouble?

Skinner: I got this man, Kritschgau, involved.

Scully: Kritschgau?

Skinner: It's a long story, but it ended badly. They've got Mulder under security now around the clock. I take full responsibility.

Scully: Responsibility for what?

Skinner: He can't even communicate, Agent Scully. They won't treat him because they don't know what's wrong with him! They said he was dying. I had to do something.

Scully: He's not dying.

Skinner: I'm afraid it's true.

Scully: He's not dying. He is more alive than he has ever been. He's more alive than his body can withstand and what's causing it may be extraterrestrial in origin.

Skinner: I know. But there's nothing to be done about it.

Skinner: They're going to deny you access.

Scully: Maybe as his partner... but not as his doctor.

---

Scully: Mulder, it's me. I know that you can hear me. If you can just give me some sign. I want you to know where I've been... what I found. I think that, if you know, that you could find a way to hold on. I need you to hold on. I found a key... the key... to every question that has ever been asked. It's a puzzle... but the pieces are there for us to put together and I know that they can save you if you can just hold on. Mulder... please. Hold on.