X-PROOF

PART NINE:

“Tell you?”  Terry rounded his desk and leaned on the front edge, crossing his arms

while he collected his thoughts.  Cliff-jumping time.  “Very well.  Since you have

already spoken to us of some fantastical things, I will ask you to accept that we have

some fantastical…explanations of our own.  Namely to do with how it is that we look

like characters from movies you may or may not be familiar with.  Yes, that really is

Wendell White,  from  ‘LA Confidential.’   Yes, John is the sheriff from  ‘Mystery,

Alaska,’ and I am Terrence Thorne, from ‘Proof of Life.’  But our origins are not

from any effort on the actor’s part to replicate himself, not through cloning, not

through genetic contributions.  We are, you might say, incarnations that have gained

lives of our own.”

Scully and Mulder sat staring up at him, expressions a mixture of wide eyed interest

and disbelieving scrutiny.

“I spoke of Sid.  Have you seen ‘Virtuosity’?  No?  To make a long story short, the premise

of the movie is that technology is developed to create a creature from whole cloth entirely

out of nanobots.  The purpose in the movie was to create an ultimate training subject for

use in law enforcement and…”

“…and the creature that was made compiled the personalities of several hundred of the

most  warped  and devious criminal minds,”  Mulder chimed  in, eyes sparking  with

realization.  “I have seen it!  And the version they create becomes so intelligent that it

learns to escape the programming it was created in.  It gets out of the computer and

terrorizes everyone,” he added, turning to explain to his partner.  “Sid, you say?”

“Sid, version 6.7.”

 “What if I were to tell you that Sid not only escaped within the movie, but he escaped

the movie itself?  Became live, in this reality, in this world?”  Terry asked.  “And when

that happened, he became rather fascinated with the concept of his…erm…for lack of

a better  term,  his ‘creator’ making more than  one personality of  Himself…took

umbrage that the Creator would want to create any other personality than Sid 6.7. 

And for reasons that I can’t even explain well enough in the time we have, he decided

to create the technology to make what was otherwise an impossibility: to go inside the

movie itself and ‘retrieve’ the character of interest…and make him a part of reality as

well.”

Mulder’s face went through several contortions of wonderment and disbelief, whereas

Scully’s eyebrows went sky high in full-blown skepticism.

“You’re asking us to believe  that an intelligence  within an entertainment medium

suddenly gained self-awareness enough to leave the confines of…?” she trailed off, not

liking how it sounded coming from her own mouth. “Now I know I’ve heard everything,”

she told Mulder.  She stood up from her chair.

“It's why I said I should show you instead of tell you,” Terry replied, grimly.

“Wait a minute, Scully,” Mulder said, holding out his arm to keep her from heading for

the door.  “I want to hear the rest of the explanation.”

“May I say something?”  Deidre asked.  She had kept quiet for much of the meeting,

with the exception of Rachel’s defense, sitting quietly with her hands tucked under her

legs as if to keep  herself from  gnawing on her nails.  Terry nodded.  “I’m a scientist,

Agent Scully. Archaeologists have to be. If we don’t have science to back up our findings,

we’re just a bunch of grave robbers, right?”  The agents gave their own nod.  “I met

Terry while on a…an expedition…of sorts,” she glanced at Terry and they both grinned

at each other, “not knowing who he was or where he came from.  He offered me a job

here at NanoCorp with the prospect of using my knowledge of ancient Mediterranean

cultures for research.  I didn’t question too much about the kind of research, because

let’s face it – archaeology’s  not exactly  a lucrative  field that’s  pursued  by  major

corporations.  So when I got here, I was ready for anything. But let me tell you something

…the last thing I ever expected  to find was a creature like Sid.  And I say ‘creature’

because he certainly isn’t human.  And then Terry…and Bud…explained things about

what the research was really for and I…” Deidre faltered, not quite certain how to

proceed. 

“Sid’s real,” she continued after a moment of collecting her thoughts. “Terry and Bud

and John and…they’re not clones, not by any stretch of the imagination.  And it's

because Sid found a way to force himself into this reality.  He’s capitalized on it, used

his own intelligence in nanobots to generate an entire income, an entire system by which

he can continue to capitalize on it, in every sense of the word.  I don’t understand all the

science about nanotechnology, but it exists, Agent Scully.  I saw it used and I…” she

hesitated again, looking back at Terry, who gave her yet another nod to tell her to keep

going.  “I participated in it using it as well.  It's what brought Terry and Bud and John

and…” a deep  breath, “others  into being.  What  you see  is what  you get.  Whole. 

Complete.  Individual.”

Dana Scully watched her with a softening expression and slowly sat back down. 

“So you volunteered for the blood tests as well?”  Mulder asked, and his question fell

in the room like a large clunk.

“No!”  Deidre was losing patience, more with herself than the querents.  “I’m trying

to explain to you…look, if there’s a scientific reason we can demonstrate to you that

not only did Sid extract himself from a movie but that he was able to extract these guys,

then will you allow us to show you?  If you’re able to walk about and believe in the

existence of aliens with scientific proof, then we should be able to show you how Sid

and the others came about.”

There was a brief electric moment when all of them sat staring at her, absorbing her

words.

“What you need is proof,” Deidre added weakly, blushing under their scrutiny.

“Sounds like someone I know,” Mulder said, looking over at Scully with a huge grin.

“Blood tests,” Scully quipped.  She seemed to be viewing Deidre in a different light.

Deidre sighed.  “What about?”

“I’d like to see blood tests on Terry, Bud, and John.  And this Sid person.”

“Scully…”

“That’s a singular means of proof right there, Mulder,” Scully argued.  “Not that

your impassioned appeal didn’t hit home, Deidre, but it would be a start…for me, at

any rate.”

“To prove what?”  Bud asked.

“That you’re not clones.”

Terry straightened, drawing a deep breath.  Whatever it took.

“I’ll call John up. I’m afraid we’re not going to be able to get Sid to participate. There’s

been…a miscommunication of sorts and he is…out of contact.  Believe me, I would love

for him  to show  up right  about now,  because he has  issues  to deal with  that  have

summarily crippled us in our work.  For now, it’ll have to be the three of us.”

Everyone stood and seemed to relax until Mulder decided to hit them with another

question.

“And what of an employee named Cort?”  He gave them a look of bland curiosity, but

the timing was such that it was obvious he knew what he was doing. Terry began to get

a bit annoyed with his style of questioning.

It was Bud’s turn to break in.

“Cort is the one that Dimetri betrayed and is the reason why Rachel is not here to acquit

herself along with the rest of us,” he said matter-of-factly. “Dimetri’s employer abducted

Cort and Rachel left to track him down and bring him home.”

“Do you think she knew that Tom was connected to Dimetri?”  Mulder pursued.

“She didn’t have anything to do with the murder,” Bud growled.  “How many times do

we have to say that?”

“No!  She didn’t know.  If she had, she never would have said anything at all about why

she needed Tom’s training,” Terry replied, voice tight and low.   Deidre had turned to

the window and faced away from them all in an effort to keep from exploding.  “She

wasn’t supposed to say anything anyway, but it was a bit hard not to since Tom was also

part of our tech crew for the warp.  She would never have jeopardized Cort’s life that

way if she’d had any idea that Tom was selling information on our…research.”

“The warp?”

“It’s the scientific proof you need to understand how Sid has done what he has.  And if

you’ll come with me now, we can run those blood tests and get on with this,” Terry said

with a final tone in his voice, pointing to the door.

........................................................................................................................

The five of them stood in the control room of the warp chamber in the after-hours of the

work day, the only ones in the specialized department with the exception of one control

tech who agreed to stay and help them in the test.  Terry and Bud had small flesh-toned

band-aids on their fingers from the lance used to draw blood for the typing test Scully

took in the medical clinic.  John had returned to his duties after it had been confirmed

that his blood type was a distinctive B,  whereas Bud had blood type O, and Terry a

unique AB.  “Right down to the cellular level,” Deidre joked, referencing a comment

made by a reviewer of one of Crowe’s movies.

Terry opened a drawer in a filing cabinet and pulled out a disk. 

“This,” he said as Scully and Mulder leaned over the edge of the small desk, “is a training

disk of what our nanotechnology research, what Sid himself designed, made so to perform ‘retrievals.’  In this instance, various objects are the goal, some that were filmed into the

disk, others that were taken in.  If you’ll come into the next room, we can begin to show

you.”

He led them into a small side chamber that held nothing more than another computer

monitor at one end and a large flat-screen television mounted on the wall behind it. They

all crowded inside as Terry sat down at the computer, inserted the disk, and turned on

the television so that a pleasant wide field with a tall willow next to a lake stood in the background.  There were tall dark hills in the background and the sky was a silvery

blue.  In the foreground sat a table covered with a red cloth, close enough to the camera

so that the viewer could easily see any objects that might be set upon it. 

“We chose to film outdoors as the same type of lighting cannot be achieved indoors and

Mother Nature tends to be a bit more random,” Terry said, as he pulled out another

drawer and held up various items: a few strands of Mardi Gras beads, a small ball, a

feather.  Finally, he pulled out a little odd-shaped device not unlike an iPod, with small

buttons in a panel.  Terry got up from the desk, and stepping in front of the others, took

the device and aimed it to a non-specific point in the air before him, his thumb

punching one of the buttons.

With a small electronic whhrrrrrp, the air in front of Terry appeared to ripple into an

oval-shaped field hovering a few feet above the floor.

“This field is only designed to receive small objects.  If we wanted to send a person in,

we’d have to go back into the main chamber,” Terry explained.  He picked up one of the

strands of Mardi Gras beads and tossed it in.  They all turned back to the screen in time

to see the beads flop onto the table and slide off into the ground.  “Guess I’ll have to go

in after those,” he said, ruefully. 

Scully and Mulder were speechless, entranced.

“I can go,” Deidre said, and stepped to the door.

“Are you sure?”  Terry looked at her worriedly.  Had it really only been days since they

fell out of the warp chamber, in and out of confusion and hurt and anger?  Deidre looked

pale, but the chin went up as she nodded with emphatic assurance.

“Bud, help her out,” Terry said, and picked up another strand of beads and gave them to

Scully.  “You want to try?”

“Do I get a prize if I loop it around a soda bottle?” she asked as she stood in Terry’s place. 

She tossed them towards the warp field with an underhand pitch while Mulder watched

the screen.  The second strand landed squarely in the middle of the table.

They had managed to throw in the ball and feather, both of which fell out of sight, by the

time Bud  called that  Deidre was ready to  enter the demo-disk.   Mulder and Scully

hastened to join him and the control tech as they watched Deidre enter the warp chamber

and disappear as the doors slid shut.  Scully and Mulder returned to the side room and

saw Deidre stroll into view, looking a little shaken, but nevertheless, intact.  She stood contemplating the table for a moment, figured out which angle she should face and waved

in an oblique way to the viewers.

“Do you have something  personal  that  we can use?”   Terry asked the FBI agents. 

They looked at each other, fumbled in their pockets.  Mulder produced a few coins and

Scully a small kerchief.  Mulder finally shrugged and took off his FBI badge. 

“I don’t think it would be wise…” Scully began.

“We’re getting it back, right?”  Mulder replied and handed it to Terry, who then tossed

it into the warp field.

It fell right on top of the other items that Deidre had collected, falling open to show the

large blue letters that stood for Federal Bureau of Investigations, with Mulder’s scrawl

of a signature plain as day beneath his picture.  Deidre picked it up and held it open to

the angle she had figured would be the one everyone could see.  “Don’t know about you,

but I’d be worried about a man named Fox,” she chirruped lightly.  Scully gave Mulder

a knowing look, whereas Mulder looked disgusted.

“May I go in?”  Scully asked Terry.

Terry hesitated.  On the one hand, there was no better way to convince the skeptical than

to give them the full benefit of experience; on the other, Scully may not be prepared for

the physical experience of the warp itself.  That was part of what the training was about: bringing the trainees to physical preparation weeks ahead of time, and even that was

stressful. 

“I have to warn you,” he finally said, “it's not a pleasant experience for someone who

hasn’t been prepared for it.  More shocking than debilitating, but still unpleasant.”

“I can be the judge of that,” Scully said.

Mulder opened his mouth to protest this time, but did not get far when Scully leveled uncompromising blue eyes on him. 

“You’re not going to be able to hear us,” Terry informed her as she stepped into the

warp chamber.  “There is no communication with the outside, other than the warp shell,

which will only activate your ability to get out of the film. Bud has given one to Deidre

to come back when ready.  You two decide when you want to return and hit the button.”

“…like plunging into a vat of dry ice!”  They heard Scully call out and she strode into

view towards a mildly surprised Deidre, who handed her Mulder’s FBI badge with a

smile.  “My God, Mulder, it's like I've been…transported.  You should see this place,

it's…”

A thunderclap rolled in the background and Deidre’s hazel green eyes got wide.

“Uh oh, I forgot about this!”  she cried.

“What, rain?  What’s a little rain…?”  Scully responded and the downpour began.  

Deidre pulled out the warp shell, hooked arms with Scully and pressed the button.

“My shoes!”  Scully groaned as the warp chamber doors slid open once more to reveal

two water-doused women. 

Mulder’s expression stopped her dead in her tracks.  He seemed to have moved beyond amazement and curiosity and was looking at the two look-alikes once more, his gray

eyes serious.

“You’re not clones,” he said, and he seemed shaken, as though he were searching hard

for words to express  the realization  and failing.  “Can…can nanotechnology have

advanced so far?  To have created life from the inanimate?”

“Where Sid is concerned, it may very well have,” Bud said. “We are who we were in the

movies we came from, as simple as that.  But we’re as much flesh and blood as anyone

else.  And it's all because Sid used nanotechnology to pull us out.”

“My God, the implications of this!  Scully, if this is what Tom was transmitting, whoever received it…this technology…imagine the devastation!”  Mulder leant against the wall

to regain his balance. “If the nanobots used in Skinner were derived from the information

stolen from NanoCorp…if the technology reached their hands, Scully….”  Mulder was stammering now.

“Is it possible to place a moratorium on the blood supply that NanoCorp has been making

for the hospitals?”  Scully asked, remaining more calm than her partner, but just as

disturbed.  “Mulder and I have learned that these things have a way of coming back on you

and if you wish to keep NanoCorp solvent, then that may be the precaution you have to

take until we can find out more information about where the espionage leads.  It might

also buy you time to find out more about your work here,” she looked around at the

warp control room, “how Tom’s work might have affected it as well.”

“You think the presence of the nanobots in his blood might have been used as a base for

the general supply?”  Deidre asked incredulously.

“The alien clones were specifically bred for high level experimentations, high level

thinking.  They will explore any and all possible avenues, even if it involves the very

entity that gives them cover.  Until you are able to determine for certain that the patent NanoCorp created has not been compromised, you should shut down those operations immediately, Mr. Thorne,” Scully repeated.

“If it hasn’t been done, it will be now,” Terry said.

ON TO PART 10

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