06x22 - Biogenesis

[bunniefuu]

From space it seems an abstraction, a magician's trick on a darkened stage.

And from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive.

It first appeared in the sea almost four billion years ago in the form of single-celled life.

In an expl*si*n of life spanning millions of years, nature's first multi-cellular organisms began to multiply.

And then it stopped.

440 million years ago a great mass extinction would k*ll off nearly every species on the planet. leaving the vast oceans decimated and empty.

Slowly plants began to evolve.

Then insects.

Only to be wiped out in the second great mass extinction upon the Earth.

The cycle repeated again and again.

Reptiles emerging independent of the sea, only to be k*lled oft Then dinosaurs struggling to life, along with the first birds, fish and flowering plants.

Their decimations: Earth's fourth and fifth great extinctions.

Only 100, 000 years ago h*m* sapiens appear.

Man.

From cave paintings to the Bible, to Columbus and Apollo 11, we have been a tireless force upon the Earth and oft: cataloging the natural world as it unfolds to us.

Rising to a world population of over five billion people, all descended from that original single cell.

That first spark of life.

But, for all our knowledge, what no one can say for certain is what or who ignited that original spark.

Is there a plan, a purpose, or a reason to our existence?

Will we pass, as those before us, into oblivion?

Into the sixth extinction that scientists warn is already in progress?

Or will the mystery be revealed through a sign?

A symbol?

A revelation?

Professeur! Professeur! Professeur, venez voir!

Tout le monde, venez voir! Venez voir, tout le monde.

Allez. C'est la-bas. C’est de l'autre côté. Suivez-moi.

Yes. Get me the international operator. I need to place a call to the United States.

Excuse me. I am looking for the biology department, for a Professor Sandoz.

Dr Sandoz? Professor Sandoz. I'm Solomon Merkmallen.

My God. I thought something had happened to you.

Oh, did you not get my message? We were delayed in Frankfurt.

Look, the important thing is you're here now and you're safe.

You brought me something. This discovery of yours.

Yes. I'm quite anxious to see it.

I was concerned I might be relieved of it in customs.

There was some trouble with the x-ray machine in Germany.

What kind of trouble did you have?

I told you of its power. Yes, of course.

My credentials were the only thing that prevented me from being further detained.

I can't explain how it is, but the two pieces have become one.

I hoped they'd match the piece you found, so that you might see for yourself its magic.

Have you had any luck reading it?

You're not Dr Sandoz, are you?

Damn.

A case like this, I thought of your interest. Dr Merkmallen's views being what they were.

I believe Agent Mulder's familiar with his work.

Dr Solomon Merkmallen. Professor of biology, University of Ivory Coast.

He flew in yesterday from Africa.

Two hours later he was apparently m*rder*d at American University.

His body is missing, but there was blood on the floor.

Two students spoke to him when he asked them for directions to find a Dr Sandoz. also a professor of biology.

Both men espouse a theory called panspermia.

It's the belief life originated... Elsewhere... in this universe.

You've heard of this? Yeah. It's the idea that Mars or other planets were habitable long before Earth.

And that cosmic collisions on these planets blasted microbes into our solar system, some of which flourished here. You'd accept that as plausible?

Well, almost any scientist would... theoretically. I mean, it's just a theory.

That's about it, though.

Think this has anything to do with his death?

Dr Merkmallen found an artefact in his country. This is a rubbing of that artefact.

He claimed it contained a message of the very meaning of human existence.

Much less plausible.

Dr Sandoz, the man he'd come to meet, made a similar claim in a science journal.

He said he'd found a artefact almost identical to that with similar writings on it.

And what was it supposed to say? We'd have to ask Dr Sandoz that.

Well, why don't we? We can't. He's missing.

What are we doing, Mulder? This is a police matter at best.

Skinner wants us on the case.

You gonna convince me you have no personal interest in this case?

I am just a hired g*n for the FBI. Oh, come on.

I wonder if there's something to this.

Two men suggesting we're all Martians. Why would they possibly come into foul play?

That's what we're being asked to figure out.

I can't stand here...

I mean, this endless pursuit of the truth, Mulder.

It just doesn't make any sense to me now.

Mulder?

Did you hear a word of what I just said?

Well, maybe you didn't wanna hear it. No, I... l couldn't hear it.

Mulder?

Look, after all you've done, after all you've uncovered - a conspiracy of men doing human experiments, men who are all now dead.

You exposed their secrets.

I mean, you've won.

What more could you possibly hope to do or to find?

My sister.

Guess I was right about this being a police matter.

Detective. Can I help you?

Agents Mulder and Scully, FBI. What do you have?

Probable w*apon. Blood and hair on it. Prints, too.

Any word on this Dr Sandoz? No, But we're being told the prints are likely his. Told by whom?

The man your partner's speaking with.

I'm Fox Mulder with the FBI. I'm Dr Barnes, head of the department.

They've asked me to suspend classes and organize interviews.

Any ideas about what happened? There's plenty of speculation.

About the missing Dr Sandoz? Apart from his laughable ideas, he was capable of almost anything to advance his questionable reputation.

Capable of m*rder?

Dr Sandoz's notes are full of talk about a artefact coming over from West Africa.

But, like the man bringing it, it has yet to be located.

Are you speaking of this?

Mulder?

Dr Sandoz believes this writing was from aliens.

These are trivial men with no patience for the scientific process.

They're happy to read their names in the tabloids. Pseudo-scientists.

Beyond embarrassment.

What is it, Mulder? I don't know.

This, uh, hollow noise.

The same thing that happened to me at work in the elevator this morning.

Do you have a fever? No.

This sounds weird, but I think it's that thing.

You're not kidding.

It's just a piece of paper.

I recognize the ideography.

You're late.

I'm sorry. I thought this was my office.

Fox.

I called Chuck cos I knew you would, for authentication.

And to get his professional opinion on how it's affecting you.

Fascinating. You don't believe it?

No, no. You know me! This is right up my twisted little alley.

So, uh, what exactly are you experiencing?

Noise, aural dissonance. It comes and it goes.

Is it happening right now? No, but it was a few minutes ago.

And it's only affecting you? Triggered by the rubbing?

Wow. That blows me away. Why?

Because the rubbing is a fake. And I'm not the first one to say so.

The writing is Cree. Phonetic Navajo. But no literal interpretation makes any sense.

And the fact it was found in Africa makes it all the more suspicious as a fabrication.

Suspicious of what? D'you know what a magic square is?

Yeah, it has to do with the occult. Right. Very cool.

They first appear in the ninth century in history.

But, uh...

as the story goes, God himself instructed Adam in their use, and then handed down the secret to all his saints, prophets and wise men as a way of trapping and storing potential power to the person whose name or numerical correlative exercises that power.

That's what this thing is? Someone would have you believe it is.

How do you know that? Neither of us had to go very far to find out.

Barnes documented Sandoz's fakery once before.

If he was blunt about his colleague when we met him, here he is brutal.

Does he back any of that up? Well, it's quite scholarly, actually.

Barnes has made something of a career exposing science and religious fraud.

Name your wonder of the world. He's been there, debunked that...

Yeah, but wouldn't it be in his great interest to hide something that he couldn't disprove?

Mulder, if it were real, why would an American Indian artefact be fused in rock on the west coast of Africa?

In 1996 a rock from Mars was found in Antarctica. How did it get there?

It was from outer space.

Begs the question, doesn't it?

Why produce a fraud with Navajo writing... in Africa?

Mulder?

Hey.

Step outside.

Step outside.

You're in pain.

No, no, it's gone away.

Mulder, whatever's causing this, I think it needs immediate attention.

I'm gonna schedule you an imaging scan. No, I'm OK. I really am.

You're not OK. If nothing else, you should be at home in bed.

I'm not going home to bed, Scully. I think I know what's causing this.

I know what happened to the two professors.

I had a sense of it when I met Barnes. You had "a sense of it"?

Yes. This man, Solomon Merkmallen, is dead. Barnes knows it.

He k*lled him. He k*lled him in that lab.

I hope you're not going to suggest we arrest him on that baseless assumption.

No, I'm not.

Not until after I show you what he did with the body.

I've been through it. Know what you're lookin' for?

We'll let you know if we find it.

Cops have been here too, you know. They couldn't find nothin' either.

We'll come get you... Yeah, yeah.

Whatever happened to Dr Sandoz, he liked to fly south for the winter. A lot.

Gallup, New Mexico. Navajo country.

Well, I think I know who he was going to see.

That's Albert Hosteen. A World w*r II codetalker.

Maybe he was using him to read the symbols on the artefact.

Or write them.

Mulder, you also said we'd find a body.

Care to make good on that prediction?

Scully, you packin' any latex? No. Why?

Doesn't it smell like somebody forgot to take out the garbage?

Oh!

Oh, God.

So you think Dr Sandoz is innocent?

He's afraid for his life because of what he knows and what he has.

This. A genuine artefact.

One of several pieces of an unknown haul.

Dr Barnes has one now, too. That's why he k*lled Merkmallen.

But the way his body was disposed of? It was to incriminate Sandoz.

It's also to hide something. Something no one would think to look for.

Scully, could you please tell... what your medical exam found in the lab report?

Parts of his body were missing. His arms, his hands, parts of his vital organs and his thyroid.

All of which would retain telltale traces of radiation.

Radiation from what? The artefact.

0n Agent Mulder's urging, I ran tissue samples through what's called a charged particle directional spectrometer.

There were traces of a kind of radiation called CGR.

Cosmic Galactic Radiation.

It's a type of radiation found only outside our solar system.

Agent Scully?

I don't know how to explain it, but I feel we can make an arrest.

Forget the arrest. We gotta find the artefacts.

Agent Mulder?

There's someone else on this case, sir. Excuse me?

There's someone else on this case. You're not telling me!

What the hell's he talking about? I hear it. In my head.

Mulder, let's go.

Mulder, you're losing it. I'm not.

Listen to me. He's not telling the truth. I'm hearing people. He's spying on us.

Mulder, you need to see a doctor.

I need to find those artefacts. I'll find them. You need to go home now.

Mulder?

Is there something you're looking for? Yes. I was looking to speak to Mr Hosteen.

Mr Hosteen cannot accept any visitors at this time.

I understand. I saw him wheeled out in an emergency.

Can you tell me what's wrong? I can't give out that information.

I know him. He's helped me in the past.

I'm sure that he wouldn't mind you telling me.

Albert has cancer. He's suffering from its effects.

He's dying.

Dr Barnes?

Hey!

Hey!

OK. I need answers from you.

Are you the man who called?

Dr Barnes?

Yes. Dr Barnes, you and I are... destined to be great friends.

Albert was the only translator who didn't dismiss me out of hand.

When I showed him the original artefact he sensed immediately its power and importance.

Trouble was it was only one fragment.

Not enough to read. But then other pieces surfaced.

Dr Merkmallen found two more in the tidal shallows. He sent me a rubbing.

Suddenly Albert was able to make a real translation.

A passage from the Bible on an artefact that you're saying is extraterrestrial.

And, uh, how did the aliens get it?

They gave it to us. The text came from them.

I can prove it.

It's written here. I'm sure of it.

Albert was translating another section when his health turned.

And, uh, this was going to tell us what?

I don't know yet. Albert said It just seemed to be random letters.

Hello?

Hello? I'm sorry. I'm trying to reach Fox Mulder.

Hold on, please. Fox?

Hello. Where are you?

I'm here. I'm resting. Where? Who answered the phone?

I'm home. It's OK. Where are you?

I'm in New Mexico with Dr Sandoz.

Does he have the artefact?

Mulder, this artefact.

If I'm to believe what I’m being told about it... What?

It has a passage on it from Genesis.

Scully, that artefact is extraterrestrial. Mulder, it can't be.

You know what that would mean? It would mean nothing.

No, it would mean our progenitors were alien. Our "genesis" was alien.

That we're here because they put us here. That is science fiction. It holds no water.

You're wrong. It holds everything.

Don't you see? All the mysteries of science, everything we can't understand.

Every human behaviourism. Cosmology, psychology, everything in the X-Files.

It all owes to them. It's from them. I will not accept that. It is just not possible!

Then go ahead and prove me wrong, Scully.

Yes, it's Diana Fowley calling for him.

I received a call from Agent Mulder this evening.

He was in a particular state of distress.

I don't know why, but I'm staying here until I find out.

..preparations for mass destruction on a scale that can only be imagined.

What can we do to stop them?

There appears to be nothing we can do to prevent it.

It becomes a question of managing the crisis, otherwise we face annihilation ourselves.

It began with an act of supreme v*olence.

A big bang expanding ever outward.

A cosmos born of matter and gas.

Matter and gas.

Ten billion years ago.

Whose idea was this?

Who had the audacity for such invention?

And the reason?

Were we part of that plan ten billion years ago?

Are we born only to die?

To be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth before giving way to our generations?

If there is a beginning, must there be an end?

We burn like fires in our time, only to be extinguished.

To surrender to the elements' eternal reclaim.

Matter and gas.

Will this all end one day?

Life no longer passing to life?

The Earth left barren like the stars above?

Like the cosmos?

Will the hand that lit the flame let it burn down? Let it burn out?

Could we, too, become extinct?

Or if this fire of life living inside us is meant to go on, who decides?

Who tends the flames?

Can he reignite the spark even as it grows cold and weak?

The ceremony's begun, if you want to go in. No.

I don't think that's right. I don't share in their faith.

The doctors say they've done everything they could.

I know. I think they have.

I'm sorry.

Scully.

It's Skinner. Where are you? I'm with Dr Sandoz.

Where? In... Gallup, New Mexico. Where are you?

Georgetown. It's bad news. Mulder's in serious condition.

What happened? Nobody knows.

Do whatever you can to get here as soon as possible.

I have to go. I have to leave.

Please. Don't let anyone know where I am.

Until we know for sure.

They told me he's in the psychiatric unit. I told you on the phone...

No, you said that there was bad news. You didn't tell me what was wrong.

Look, I'm sorry. It just took me three flights to get here.

I don't know what to do. Dana. No one else does either.

I knew you'd wanna be here to see him, to talk to the doctors.

What?

What is it?

Thank you for coming. He was asking for you last night.

You really shouldn't be in here. What's wrong with this man, Fox Mulder?

I'm not sure what's wrong with him, and we don't know what to do for him.

He has abnormal brain function, but no signs of stroke. We're waiting to run more tests.

Waiting for what? He's violent.

With what we've given him, he should be in a coma, But there's brain activity in areas we've never seen.

I wanna talk to him. No. He's a danger to anyone.

Not to me. Can we speak in the hall?

About what?

Agent Scully?

Scully!

When did all this start?

When we took this case. When Skinner gave it to us.

What kind of case is it? Investigation into a m*rder.

Of whom? It has nothing to do with what's happened.

Agent Scully says it does.

You know my background, my work on the X-Files. If I can help...

The X-File here is a fraud. Scully has ample proof of that.

Evidence authenticated by a scholar in authority.

I never sent you that report.

Anyway, the case is being resolved.

Not as far as it affects Agent Mulder.

If you know what's happening, tell me. Why were you with him last night?

He called me. I found him in a university stairwell. He could barely speak.

He said I was the only one who'd believe him. About an artefact.

You're a liar.

Scully.

You're both liars.

Hello? Agent Scully.

Dr Sandoz. I didn't know how else to reach you.

There’s something... I don't know if this is a secure line.

Yes, all right. But I realized something.

The letters Albert translated on the artefact, I know what they are.

What they are? Yes. They're coordinates.

For what? Genes.

They're symbols for gene clusters. The human genome.

Are you there? Yeah, I think it's all here.

The map to our human genetic makeup. Every gene on every chromosome.

Proof of what I've been saying.

If only we could find more pieces.

Dr Sandoz?

Hello?

Dr Sandoz?

It's the same. I'll take you, but they are afraid.

I made this!