Thursday 24 February 2022

Ice Station Zebra






2 : 
May I join you?

6 : 
You're a good neighbour, I hope?

2 : 
There are 
people who talk 
and 
people who don't
which means 
some people leave this place 
and 
some who do not leave.

You are obviously staying.

6 : 
You're just as much a prisoner as I am.

2 : 
Of course, I know too much - 
we're both lifers.

I am an optimist. 
It doesn't matter 
who Number One is.

It doesn't matter 
which side runs The Village.

6
It's run by one side.

2
But both sides are becoming identical.

What has been created is 
an international community, 
a BLUEPRINT 
for World Order.

When both sides realise 
they're the same, 
they'll see this is the pattern 
for The Future.

6 : 
The whole earth as The Village?

2 : 
That is My Hope.
What's yours?

6
To be the first Man on The Moon.



SCENE 14 
MULDER'S APARTMENT
(Scully turns on Mulder's desk light and shines it through the window on the "X." Later on, she falls asleep. There is a knock on the door and she wakes up. She opens the door and sees X standing there. X is surprised to see her.)
SCULLY: Where is Mulder?
X: Sorry, I must have the wrong apartment.
(He starts walking down the hall. Scully walks after him.)
SCULLY: Where's Mulder? I need to know, damn it!
X: I'm sorry, you've mistaken me for someone else.
SCULLY: I'm losing time!
(He presses the button on the elevator and gets in.)
X: I'm sorry. I can't help you.
(The door closes. X lets out a deep breath and looks down at the floor. The elevator stops and the door opens. X goes to leave but his path is barred by Skinner.)
Excuse me.
SKINNER: Did you tell her what she needed to know?
(X looks at him with a strange face, then goes to pull out his gun in realization. Skinner grabs him by his trenchcoat and slams him up against the back wall of the elevator.)
How hard do you want to make this?
X: No harder than it has to be.
(X headbutts Skinner then punches him with a right hand, knocking him back. X once again goes to pull out his gun but Skinner grabs him and punches him in the gut. He then delivers his own headbutt and throws him into the corner. He grabs him by the trenchcoat again but before he can pick him up, X points his gun in Skinner's face. Skinner as a big cut on his forehead.)
I've killed men for far less.
SKINNER: You pull that trigger, you'll be killing two men. Now I want to know where Mulder is.
(There is a knock on Mulder's door. Scully opens it and sees Skinner standing there, looking ragged and disheveled. Blood runs down the side of his face from the cut. His nose and lips are bloody.)
Agent Mulder took a commercial flight to Tacoma, Washington. From there, he caught a military plane to Deadhorse, Alaska.
(Scully looks at him, shocked. She motions for him to come in. He does so and walks over to the table.)
He used his F.B.I. credentials to charter a Rollagon all-terrain vehicle. It's still a ten-mile hike across the ice.
(He leans over and writes something down on a piece of paper.)
These are the coordinates of his final destination.
(He hands the paper to Scully.)
SCULLY: How did you get this?
SKINNER: Unofficial channels.
(Mulder looks at a small digital control he has that charts his location. Carrying a flashlight, he walks a little farther and sees the top of the submarine sticking out above the ice. He walks around and climbs up the ladder. He opens the hull door and climbs inside. The room is dark and quiet. He takes off his hood and unzips his coat. He shines his flashlight around the equipment. No signs of life. He shines it down on the floor and sees a man lying dead. Moving the flashlight more, he sees two more men slumped down on the floor. Suddenly, there is a bang and footsteps.)
MULDER: Hey!
(He runs after the noise, gun in hand.)
Stop!
(He walks down a ladder and looks tentatively down the hallway. There is another bang and he turns to see a man running down a hallway a few doors down. He runs after him and sees another ladder going down. He hears a clang to the left of him and goes toward it. There are a few more bangs and he spins around to see a man wedged in between a pipe and a wall. The man gasps.)
Who are you?
MAN: Lieutenant Terry Wilmer.
MULDER: Step out of there!
(The man slowly starts to move out of his spot.)
Come out!
(He moves out from between the pipe and the wall. Afterwards, the man is sitting down at a desk, the flashlight in front of him, shining in his face. Mulder is standing in back of him and to the right. When the man speaks, it is very shaky, like whimpering.)
What happened to you?
MAN: I don't know. We, uh... we just lost power. We, we... we drifted under the ice for days. Then, um... then we hit a...
(He turns his head towards Mulder, who points his gun.)
MULDER: Don't look at me, face forward!
(The man turns back.)
MAN: We hit a shallow patch and punched through, okay? That's what happened.
MULDER: So why did you run?
MAN: A man came. He, um... he sealed most of the men below decks without any air and, uh... and then he started to execute the rest of us.
(Mulder moves directly behind him. The man is crying.)
Every... they're all dead. I, uh... I thought you were him, I didn't know if you were him.
MULDER: How is it you managed to survive?
MAN: I hid under the body of a chief petty officer, okay? I, uh... I played dead.
(Mulder flips a switch and the submarine regains power. The man looks around and hears a clicking. He looks to see that Mulder has handcuffed him. Mulder holds the gun to the back of the man's neck.)
What's this for? What are you, crazy?
MULDER: No. I'm just tired and you're not getting back to your ship until I get the truth. Now tell me where my sister is.
MAN: I don't know what you're talking about.
MULDER: Base of the neck! Now, you tell me how I can find her and I'll let you get back to your ship before it's destroyed!
MAN: Please... please...
(His voice suddenly changes to a very strong tone.)
You're making a really big mistake.
(He tosses Mulder across the room. The man stands and Mulder looks up at him. The man suddenly grows taller and his features change. He is the Alien Bounty Hunter. Mulder looks on in awe as the Bounty Hunter tugs at the handcuff and tosses Mulder back the other way.)
ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: If I wanted to, I could've killed you many times before.
MULDER: Where is she?
(The Bounty Hunter throws him back down to the floor.)
ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: Is the answer to your question worth dying for? Is that what you want?
MULDER: Where is she?
(Mulder is thrown back to where he was. He groans and coughs.)
Just tell me where she is.
ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: She's alive. Can you die now?
(The Bounty Hunter starts dragging him out the door, knocking over the chair. Mulder grabs his gun off of the floor and shoots the Bounty Hunter in the back. The alien leaks green and looks back at Mulder, who screams in pain as the toxic gases attack him. Mulder is dragged up the hull and thrown onto the floor. The assassin starts to climb back down, looks at Mulder and closes the hull, snapping the handcuffs in two. Mulder tries to hang on but drops down to the ice and tumbles beneath the wing. He groans and coughs, his face discolored from the cold and the poison. The riding lights come on. The wing turns and assumes a vertical position. The sub starts to sink, the wing speeding down at Mulder, about to chop him in half. With the last of his strength, he rolls out of the way.)



SCENE 15 
EMERGENCY ROOM; EISENHOWER FIELD
(Scully bursts into the emergency room. Mulder is sitting in a tub, an oxygen mask on. The people are talking in the background.)
NURSE: No change in B.P. or pulse.
(Scully looks at Mulder and holds up her badge.)
SCULLY: I'm Dana Scully, I'm Agent Mulder's partner. What are his vitals?
(The doctor walks over to her.)
DOCTOR: He's suffering from extreme hypothermia.
SCULLY: No... you've got to get him out of the tub.
DOCTOR: He's dying, he's lost all his body heat.
SCULLY: You've got to listen to me! If you keep him in there, you're going to kill him! The cold is the only thing that's keeping him alive.
(Mulder flatlines.)
NURSE: His heart stopped!
DOCTOR: Give me one amp of epinephrine in a cannula!
SCULLY: You don't know what you're dealing with here! Agent Mulder has been exposed to a retrovirus resulting in hyperviscosity syndrome.
DOCTOR: I want you out of my E.R. right now. Nurse!
(A nurse walks over to her.)
NURSE: Yes, doctor. Ma'am...
SCULLY: His blood has thickened...
NURSE: Ma'am...
SCULLY: That's why his heart is failing!
(The doctor spins around.)
DOCTOR: No, his heart is failing because he's lost all his body heat!
SCULLY: No, the only thing saving him right now is the hypermetabolic state induced by the cold. Now, if you don't do what I'm saying, you are going to kill him!
(The doctor stares at her for a second. She takes off her coat.)
Let's get him out of that tub now.
(The doctor holds an oxygen mask over Mulder's mouth as Scully readies the defibrillators.)
MAN: A hundred joules, charged and ready.
SCULLY: Clear!
WOMAN: Clear.
(She puts the defibrillators down on Mulder's chest and they go off. Still no pulse.)
No rhythm.
MAN: Charge?
DOCTOR: No.
SCULLY: Clear!
WOMAN: Clear.
(Scully tries again. A slight pulse picks up.)
DOCTOR: I'm picking up a faint pulse.
(Scully puts the defribillators down.)
SCULLY: I want a digoxin 0.1 milligram I.V. Hang a heparin drip at 1,000 units per hour. And get him two units of fresh frozen plasma now.
(The nurse runs off to do so.)
DOCTOR: This patient's not even in...
SCULLY: He's going to make it.
(She runs her hand through his hair.)
MAN: Let's get the plasma going. Okay, let's get a second line ready.
OTHER MAN: Push the adrenaline...
(Later, Mulder lays on his hospital bed, oxygen tube in his nose. Scully sits at his bedside. We hear her voice over the scene.)
SCULLY: Transfusions and an aggressive treatment with anti-viral agents have resulted in a steady but gradual improvement in Agent Mulder's condition. Blood tests have confirmed his exposure to the still unidentified retrovirus whose origin remains a mystery. The search team that found Agent Mulder has located neither the missing submarine nor the man he was looking for.
Several aspects of this case remain unexplained, suggesting the possibility of paranormal phenomena... but I am convinced that to accept such conclusions is to abandon all hope of understanding the scientific events behind them. Many of the things I have seen have challenged my faith and my belief in an ordered universe...
(Later, a nurse opens the door to Mulder's room for Scully, who sits down at his bedside. He no longer has the oxygen tube and is looking much healthier than before.)
...but this uncertainty has only strengthened my need to know, to understand, to apply reason to those things which seem to defy it. It was science that isolated the retrovirus Agent Mulder was exposed to, and science that allowed us to understand its behavior. And ultimately, it was science that saved Agent Mulder's life.
(Mulder groans. Scully looks up at him and smiles. He slowly turns to look at her.)
Hey. How you feeling?
(Mulder can only whisper.)
MULDER: Like I got a bad case of freezer burn. How did I get here?
SCULLY: A naval reconnaissance squad found and choppered you to Eisenhower Field.
(He nods.)
Thanks for ditching me.
MULDER: I... I'm sorry, I... I couldn't let you risk your life on this.
SCULLY: Did you find what you were looking for?
MULDER: No. No. But I... I found something I thought I'd lost. Faith to keep looking.
(She smiles.)
[THE END] 



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