Gratitude

 

Generation-X were not well dressed, because there was no reason to dress smartly. 

They were not career-minded, for there was no reason to pursue the corporate dream. 

They were seen largely as apathetic, 

but it was an apathy born of a logical assessment of the options rather than just innate laziness. 

They were often well-educated and creative, 

and were usually portrayed as being talkative and self-obsessed. 

If they had A Mission, of sorts, it was 

To Work Out How to Move Forward

from Where They Were. 

“One of the things that’s really struck me hard about the disintegration and corruption of the universities is the absolute ingratitude that goes along with that. 

Criticism, as I said, is a fine thing, if it’s done in a proper spirit, and that’s the spirit of separating the wheat from the chaff. 

But it needs to be accompanied by gratitude, and it does seem to me that anyone who lives in a Western culture at this time and place in history, and who isn’t simultaneously grateful for that, is half blind, at least. 

It’s never been better than this, and it could be so much worse — and it’s highly likely that it will be so much worse, because, for most of human history, so much worse is the norm. 

Then there’s this little story that crops up, that seems, in some ways, unrelated to everything that’s gone before it. But I think it’s also an extremely profound little story. It took me a long time to figure it out. 

It’s The Tower of Babel.

My Generation asked me to read this:

"We're not good friends. 

Most of us never found the time to get to know you, 

but that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. 

We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. 

A lot of weird stuff happens here."

The Chorus :

Zombies! 

Hyena-People! 

Snyder! (laughter) 

"But, whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, 

you seemed to show up and stop it. 

Most of the people here have been Saved by you, 

or helped by you at one time or another. 

We're proud to say that the Class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. 

(applause from the crowd) 

And we know at least part of that is because of you.  

So the senior class, offers its thanks, and gives you, uh, this —

  Jonathan produces a multicolored, glittering, miniature umbrella with a small metal plaque attached to the shaft. 

It's from all of us, and it has written here : -

' Joss Whedon —

Class Protector ' 

The Occult — Well, You Know, The Supernatural and All That Magick bit.

So, there’s also some fun to be had in thinking :

“Ok, if this is actually playing out in some symbolic fashion, then what might the Aeon of Ma’at look like, artistically.

The Brig : 

You've been agitating for a new assistant ever since Miss Shaw went back to Cambridge.

The Doctor :

Liz was a highly qualified scientist. 

I want someone with the same qualifications.

The Brig :

NONSENSE. 

What You Need, Doctor, as Miss Shaw herself so often remarked, 

is 

Someone to pass you your test tubes 

and to 

Tell you how brilliant you are. 

• All Very Worthwhile Functions, BY THE WAY — •

Miss Grant will fulfil that function admirably.

(The Doctor is working on Bessie's engine.)

JO: 

But it really •is• The Dawning of The Age of Aquarius!

DOCTOR: 

So?

JO: 

Well, that means The Occult —

Well, you know, The Supernatural and all that magick bit.

DOCTOR: 

Well, goodbye, Lethbridge Stewart. 

BRIGADIER: 

Bye. 

DOCTOR: 

I'll make contact as soon as possible. 

JO: 

WE’LL make contact as soon as possible. 

DOCTOR: 

We? 

JO: 

We. 

DOCTOR: 

Nothing I can say to dissuade you? 

JO: 

No. 

DOCTOR: 

Oh. 

[ He holds The Door open for her — people •did• that, back then... ]

JO: 

But that's impossible! 

DOCTOR: 

Yes, well of course it is. 

So what do you think would happen? 

JO: 

Whumph! 

DOCTOR: 

Yes, exactly. 

Extinction. 

Utter annihilation. 

Now do you still want to come? 

JO:

 It •is• my job — remember? 

DOCTOR: 

Glad to have you aboard, Miss Grant.  

•salutes•

JO: 

Glad to BE aboard, Doctor! 

•salutes back•

Speaking of this new myth and ethos, for a few years now you have been speaking about the Aeon of Ma’at. Is this the strongest current you see in humanity these days?

GM: It’s still a subcurrent at the moment, as the patriarchal Aeon of Osiris bows out kicking and screaming but I think it’s the only one that gives us any chance of survival right now. 

It’s not like this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. 

For me these ideas are interesting metaphors; they’re filters, and I find that if I apply this particular filter suggested by Kenneth Grant and Crowley it allows me to see things in a different relationship, which is very creatively rewarding if nothing else.  Viewing the world through the filter of these Thelemic notions, what’s happening right now all around us suddenly becomes not only obvious but almost predictable.  

It’s important to emphasize that this is not something to ‘believe’ in. This is a metaphor and not a belief system. But new metaphors can change whole cultures as we know from our history.

Crowley said that the general tenor of the last six thousand years of human civilization could be summed up by the personalities of a family of Egyptian gods. And the first two thousand years up to the birth of Christ, this was the Age of Isis, the Mother Goddess, where people were hunter/gatherers or early agrarians living off the land, relying on ‘Mother Earth’, the seasons and the tides. 

So, the next Aeon from Christ onward is The Aeon of Osiris, The Dying and Resurrected God. 

Osiris is also The Law Giver and He brings with Him The Written Word, so now ideas can be enshrined in books and books can outlast generations and they take on the aura of Gods Themselves. Oh? Read Them, have you...?

God Himself is present in the works of the Bible. God Himself is present in the Quran. 

So certainly, there’s this programming code language, the instructional Dad Language, which can take people over just from reading a book and turn them into Agents of The Dad God’s Expansionist, Controlling Agenda. This is when Nature goes from Provider to something that exists to be tamed and exploited. 

That’s The Aeon of Osiris.

Following Osiris, comes this fiery breakdown, the child Horus is the son of Osiris and he’s every jihadi, every warrior, every rock star reformer, every young man who sees as his sacred mission the tearing down of structures, the questioning of rules. It’s punk rock, “I gotta tear it all down.” But running in tandem with that, according to Kenneth Grant, is the shadow Aeon of Ma’at, Horus’ sister and she’s the goddess of truth and balance and harmony and all that Wonder Woman stuff.

For me, having gone through the Abyss of Da’ath in the Thelema structure of initiation — having undergone that in a really experiential and exhausting way, I found myself in the Qabbalistic sphere of Binah, and The Entire World suddenly looked very different and made sense in different configurations which re-energized the work I’d been doing.  

So, I decided to accept that The Aeon of Ma’at was coming down fast and I tried to align all my thinking with that, which provided me with a new bunch of metaphors and ways of framing the world. 

Imagine all this division and deconstruction was just a corridor we’re passing through. All the fractioning and separation —that’s typical of Horus. We can see the hand of Horus in the modern-day tearing down of monuments and statues. He’s kicking The Fuck out of formerly stable systems all around the world. That’s exactly what you would expect of this spirit that Crowley said manifested first in 1913. But for me, I think he made his presence felt quite clearly on 9/11.

“You can easily organize The Evidence to suggest that there is an Aeon of Horus occurring now. 

Where Systems are being taken-down, where everything’s being Questioned and Audited, and The Past is subject to Major Revision. 

So, there’s also some fun to be had in thinking “Ok, if this is actually playing out in some symbolic fashion, then what might the Aeon of Ma’at look like, artistically?’

And to me it looks like the rise of marginalized voices, it looks like more women coming into the discourse. 

It looks like trans people coming into the discourse. 

It looks like all the opportunities for groups who were disempowered by the Patriarchy, who couldn’t speak before to have their say.

Ma’at – What would her signature disease be? 

Well it might be a distributed network, a viral malady that could attack All of Humanity. 

What would happen if She emptied The Houses of The Old Gods as a Show of Possibility? 

You remember at the height of the first lockdown, all the churches were empty, all the sports stadiums were empty, all the mosques were empty, all the temples were empty. 

So, The Dad God had nowhere to go.

In Britain, I know, and I’m sure in America, there was a strange uprising of praise for care workers. 

People would go out every Thursday here and bang on pots and pans and basically thank the nurturing spirt, this caring spirit, for its very existence. 

It was a very religious, ritualistic thing that we were all doing. That’s Ma’at right there. 

Then there’s Mother Nature with hurricanes tearing down borders, storms ravaging everyone’s homes. It all suddenly makes sense in a new context if you use the filter of Ma’at to look at The World. 

For me, I’ve found some creative applications for it, like in Brave New World and the Wonder Woman comic that I’ve done.”

RoboCain and Able

DATA’S DAUGHTER : Father, what is The Significance of Laughter? 


DATA: It is a human physiological response to humour. 


DATA’S DAUGHTER : Then judging from their laughter, the children at school found my remarks humorous. 

So without understanding humour, I have somehow mastered it. 

•proud stance•

•Data looks REALLY sad•


DATA: Deck fifteen. Lal. 


DATA’S DAUGHTER : Yes, Father? 


DATA: The Children were not laughing WITH you — They were laughing AT you. 


DATA’S DAUGHTER : Explain. 


DATA: One is Meant Kindly; The Other is Not.


DATA’S DAUGHTER : Why would they wish to be Unkind? 


DATA : Because You are Different. 

Differences sometimes scare people. 

I have learned that some of them use Humour to hide Their Fear. 


DATA’S DAUGHTER : ....I Do Not Want to Be Different.

Monkey Brains

MAN LOOKING AT GRAPH: 

There's a contaminant in The System!

(Cancer Man looks at the graph in HORROR --)

Cigarette-Smoking Man : 

Mulder has The Vaccine!

If it fooled you, it will fool The Cybermen. 

They're robots, but they've got Monkey Brains. 

You can always fool a Monkey Brain with a little bit of Theatre.

Let’s go in there and give Them something They cannot digest. 

Something They cannot process. 

Something So Toxic, 

So Dangerous, So Powerful.. 

That it Will Breed, 

and 

Destroy Them UTTERLY.

Not Destroy Them – turn Them into Us. 

Because That’s What We Want. 

We want everybody to be cool. 

We don’t want to go in and think: 

“That guy over there’s gonna kill me; that guy hates me; that guy’s got some fucking weird agenda.”

Don’t we just wanna talk? And let it all go, and just say: 

“Hey, I’m interested in you; 

What have you got to tell me?”

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? 

We communicate; 

We join up; 

We make networks; 

We make things happen.

And there are Some People in The World 

Who Don’t Wanna Do That.

So let Us infect Them.

Infect Them to the point where They become Us.

Where there’s nothing left in This World, but Us.

And then some kid’ll come up and fuck that as well.

And that’ll be exactly what we need at the time.

And that’s me finished, so thank you very much.

SCENE 20 

HOSPITAL

FROHIKE: 

What are you doing?

LANGLY: 

Reading his chart.

FROHIKE: 

Put it down.

LANGLY: 

I'll put it down when I'm ready.

BYERS: 

I think he's coming out of it.

LANGLY: 

He's coming to.

(The screen now shows a close-up view of our boys, The Lone Gunmen, as they hover over Mulder's hospital bed. Mulder is being fed oxygen through a tube in his nose, his head wrapped in bandages.)

FROHIKE: 

Hey, Mulder? Mulder?

MULDER: 

Oh my God. 

Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Toto!

Frohike's not pleased with the joke, 

but at least his friend is all right. 

Mulder tries to sit up and winces in pain, holding his head.

MULDER: 

What am I doing here?

BYERS: 

The bullet grazed your brow and (by itself?) your temporal plate.

LANGLY: 

A few centimeters to the left and we'd all be playing harps right now.

FROHIKE: 

You've been unconscious since they brought you in.

MULDER: 

(shooting up in the bed) 

Where's Scully?!

BYERS: 

We put together you called 911. 

That call must have been intercepted.

FROHIKE: 

Scully had a reaction to an Africanized honeybee 

we found in your hall.

Frohike holds up a vial containing the bee.

MULDER: 

I've got to get to her.

(Mulder attempts to stand up, is woozy and staggers a bit before sitting right back down. His door opens and Skinner walks in, going quickly to the staggering Mulder and helping to hold him up before he falls on his butt.)

SKINNER: 

Mulder, easy, easy. Look, you're staying right here.

MULDER: 

You don't understand, 

This goes all the way back to Dallas.

SKINNER: 

Tell me where she is, I'll find her.

MULDER: 

I don't know where she is! 

But I can think of someone who might.

SKINNER: 

You leave here unprotected, how far will you get? 

How far will they let you get? 

Because they'll know the minute you walk out of here!

LANGLY: 

What can we do?

(Mulder half-looks around at Langly, thinks a minute then formulates a plan.)

MULDER: 

You can strip Byers naked!

BYERS: 

What?!

Mulder reassures him they haven't slipped into a gizzie-penned fanfic! 

[An old atxf newsgroup joke! ]

MULDER: 

I need your clothes.

Mulder begins to tenderly remove his head bandage, 

wincing again. 

Next we see Langly, Frohike, and Mulder, disguised as Byers, exit the room. 

The guard outside the room looks in and sees "Mulder" 

lying on the hospital bed and Skinner pacing beside him talking into his cell phone. 

The three men walk down a hallway, Mulder's suit just a teeny bit too small for him and he picks up his cell phone.

MULDER: 

(into phone) 

It’s Mulder.

Langly closes the exit door behind Mulder. 

Next we see Mulder running down a nighttime street, 

ditching his jacket as he runs. 

The scene changes to an alleyway as Kurtzweil walks along, 

his senses alert to any footsteps behind him. 

He goes to open what we assume is the alleyway door to Casey's Bar 

and is shocked to be confronted by .... 

The Well-Manicured Man!

SCENE 21 

CASEY'S BAR

WMM: 

Dr. Kurtzweil, isn't it? 

Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil?

Kurtzweil backs away, turns around and begins walking quickly down the alley. 

A black car pulls into the other end of the alley, trapping him. 

The Driver gets out, Kurtzweil stares in shock and concern 

and we cut to inside Casey's Bar as Mulder bursts in the door. 

He looks around the bar for Kurtzweil, but doesn't see him. 

Mulder leaves through the back door, entering the alleyway. 

He sees WMM and His Driver slamming the trunk of their car closed. 

WMM turns to face Mulder.

WMM: 

Mr. Mulder.

MULDER: 

What happened to Kurtzweil?

WMM: 

He's come and gone.

MULDER: 

I want to know where Scully is.

WMM: 

holds up a small pouch 

The Location of Agent Scully 

and 

The Means to Save Her Life. 

(gesturing to the car) 

Please....

Mulder contemplates this offer for a minute, 

then figuring he has nothing more to lose, 

he walks to the car as he and WMM 

never take their eyes off each other. 

They each open their own doors and enter the car. 

It takes off immediately. 

As they cruise past The White House, 

WMM hands Mulder The Pouch.

SCENE 22 

INSIDE WMM'S CAR

MULDER: 

What is it?

As WMM speaks, Mulder opens the pouch 

and pulls out a small bottle of green liquid 

and a piece of paper with this written on it :

South 83 Deg Lat 

East 63 Deg Long

WMM: 

A Weak Vaccine against 

The Virus Agent Scully has been infected with. 

It must be administered within 96 hours. 

That leaves you little time to reach those coordinates.

MULDER: 

You're lying.

WMM: 

No. Though I have no means to prove otherwise. 

The Virus is extra-terrestrial. 

We know very little about it except that it was 

The Original Inhabitant of This Planet.

MULDER: 

(unbelieving) 

A Virus...

WMM: 

What is A Virus, but A Colonising Force 

that cannot be defeated? 

Living in A Cave, underground, 

until it mutates ... and attacks.

MULDER: 

This is what you've been conspiring to conceal? 

A Disease?

WMM: 

No. For God's sake, you've got it all backwards! 

AIDS, the Ebola virus, 

on an evolutionary scale they are newborns. 

This Virus Walked The Planet 

long before The Dinosaurs.

MULDER: 

(smiling in disbelief) 

What do you mean 'walked'?

WMM: 

Your Aliens, Agent Mulder. 

Your Little Green Men 

arrived here millions of years ago. 

Those that didn't leave have been lying dormant underground since The Last Ice Age 

in the form of An Evolved Pathogen, 

waiting to be reconstituted by The Alien Race 

when it comes to colonize the planet -- 

Using Us as Hosts.

 Against this we have no defense, 

nothing but a weak vaccine. 

Do you see why it was kept secret? 

Why even The Best Men, 

Men like Your Father, 

could not let The Truth be known. 

Until Dallas we believed The Virus 

would simply control us, 

that mass infection would make Us 

A Slave Race. 

Imagine our surprise 

when They began to gestate. 

My Group has been working cooperatively 

with The Alien Colonists, 

facilitating programs 

like the one you saw, 

to give us access to The Virus 

in The Hope that we might 

be able to secretly develop A Cure.

MULDER: 

To save your own asses.

Well-Manicured Man : 

Survival is The Ultimate Ideology. 

Your Father wisely refused to believe this.

MULDER: 

But He Sacrificed My Sister. 

He let Them take Samantha.

Well-Manicured Man : 

Without a Vaccination, the only True Survivors of The Viral Holocaust will be those immune to it - 

Human-Alien Clones. 

He allowed Your Sister to be abducted, 

to be taken to a cloning program, 

For One Reason...

MULDER: 

So She Would Survive. 

As a Genetic Hybrid.

Well-Manicured Man : 

Your Father chose 

Hope over Selfishness.

 

Hope in the only Future he had, 

His Children.

His Hope for You was that you would uncover 

The Truth about The Project. 

That you would stop it, 

that you would 

Fight The Future.

Mulder lets it all sink in. 

The Driver's eyes look at him 

through the rear-view mirror. 

Darn good driver 

if he ain't watching The Road!

MULDER: 

Why are you telling me this?

Well-Manicured Man : 

For The Sake of My Own Children. 

Once it's learned what I have told you, 

My Life Will Be Over.

WMM looks ahead, possibly at The Driver. 

Mulder looks at The Driver.

MULDER: 

Where's Dr. Kurtzweil? 

(no response) 

I'd like to get out of the car now. 

(to The Driver)

 Stop The Car!

WMM: 

Driver. 

The Car pulls to a stop in yet another alleyway.

The Men I Work With 

will stop at nothing to clear the way 

for what They believe 

is Their stake in The Inevitable Future.

 

I was ordered to kill Dr. Kurtzweil, 

as I was ordered to kill you.

Suddenly, WMM grabs a gun (from his lap?) 

and shoots The Driver in the back of the head, BLAMMO! Mulder recoils.

MULDER:

Ow!

WMM: 

Trust No-One, Mr. Mulder.

WMM opens his own door and exits, holding the door open.

WMM: 

Get out of the car.

MULDER: 

Why? The upholstery is already ruined.

WMM: 

Get out of the car! 

(Mulder scoots over to WMM's door and exits the car.) 

You have precious little time. 

(Mulder slams the door shut angrily.) 

What I've given you 

The Alien Colonists don't yet know exists. 

The Vaccine you hold 

is The Only Defense against The Virus. 

Its introduction into An Alien Environment 

may have The Power to destroy 

the delicate plans 

we have so assiduously protected 

for the last 50 years!

MULDER: 

What do you mean, "may" have?

WMM: 

Find Agent Scully. 

Only then will you realise 

The Scope and Grandeur 

of The Project. 

Go. Go now!

WMM points his gun in Mulder's face. 

Mulder starts to walk away, 

WMM opens his door again, a rat scuttles past, 

WMM reenters the limo, closes The Door 

and it explodes, knocking Mulder off his feet. 

He sits on the ground watching the flames burn, 

then pulls out The Pouch and checks to see that the bottle is still intact. 

It is. He puts it back in the pouch, gets up and after one last look at the burning car, begins to run for His Life.

SCENE 23 

WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA 

48 HOURS LATER

Through the vast whiteness of the snow-covered land we see a small black dot. It's Mulder driving a Sno-Cat. He wipes away the condensation forming on the inside of his window and squints his eyes to see where he's going. The camera shows his vehicle leaving tracks in the virgin snow. He whacks his gas gauge and it keeps flipping back to empty. He checks the coordinates again, stops the Sno-Cat and holds up a hand-held thingy which tells him he's at the exact place he's supposed to be. He looks out the window at a hillside, sighs and we next see him struggling up the hill. He reaches the top, slips a little, then hunkers down and looks at a base of some kind in the distance. He whips out a pair of binoculars and looks through to see more Sno-Cats lined up, one of them moving. It stops, he adjusts the power to see closer and spots Cancer Man in the vehicle. He puts the binoculars away and starts to walk towards the base. It soon turns into a jog as he gets closer, but he suddenly falls through the ice as it collapses beneath his feet. He falls quite a way through a snowy tunnel, then lands in an icy crevice. 

He takes a minute to catch his breath, stands up slowly 

and peers down a hole leading off from the crevice, 

steam rising from it. 

He positions himself so he can crawl down this hole 

and turns around at the end so he drops feet-first onto a huge metallic structure. 

It's a type of hallway and on either side of him are containers of some sort. 

He whips out his flashlight to investigate further. 

Wiping the snow away from one of the containers, a cryopod, he spots a prehistoric man encased in ice.

Meanwhile, back on the surface, a Sno-Cat drives up, 

Cancer Man seated inside, and it stops. 

Cancer Man looks at Mulder's abandoned Sno-Cat 

and takes a slow puff of his ciggie.

Back under the ice, Mulder finds stacks and stacks of these coffin-like cryopods, piled row upon row. He walks further into the structure and finds an area opened up, somewhat like a hospital's operating theatre. He stands in the middle and looks in awe at the huge structure before his eyes. Hundreds, more than likely thousands of these rows stand before him. Where to begin looking for Scully? 

A movement catches his eye near the bottom of the rows. 

A rack of these cryopods are moving as if on a conveyer belt. 

He looks through his binoculars, but I can't tell you what he sees, it's very vague! 

Must have seen something though as he springs into action. 

He begins to maneuver his way down to the moving cryopods, 

hanging by his hands, his feet dangling over The Edge.

Suddenly, he loses his grip and shouts ...

MULDER: 

Oh, shit!

... as he begins to fall helplessly. 

He falls down the side of a wall, sliding out of control until he lands harshly on a ledge, hanging by one hand as he teeters over the edge. A bottomless well of metal lies below, the belly of the beast-ship. Using his legs and feet to anchor himself, he makes his way around the edge-corner and ends up sitting, catching his breath. The flashlight in use again, he slides gently over a huge cylinder, landing on a walkway. At the end, he finds an empty cryopod ... containing Scully's clothes and her cross necklace. He grips the necklace in one hand and sets off determined to find her. He comes upon a rack of the cryopods, shining his flashlight from one to another, a frozen face in each caught by his beams. The eyes on each one are open in shock, their mouths held open by a tube, a picture of silent horror. Finally, the flashlight lands on his quarry .... Scully! Using his hand and then the butt of his flashlight, he begins to hammer at the ice keeping her captive.

(Back above the ice, we see a Sno-Cat driving, then we cut to somewhere else inside the base, a flurry of activity as soldiers scurry about and Cancer Man barks instructions.)

CSM: 

Secure the station! 

I want everyone else down below! 

If you're not armed, arm yourselves! 

We have a breach!

(Cut back to Mulder who has now hauled off a piece of a nearby cryopod and is pounding on the ice as he desperately tries to save her from her ice-coffin.)

(Cut to Cancer Man hustling his men down some ladders.)

CSM: 

Let's go, let's go!

(Back to Mulder as he finally breaks through the ice releasing an ocean of goo which encased her naked body. He pulls away the few remaining shards of ice and stares at her face. Is he too late? Mulder unwraps the bottle of vaccine and fills the needle. He injects the vaccine into Scully and it's effect is immediate. Within the tube connected to her mouth a liquid appears to retreat from her body, the tube begins to shrivel and die.)

MULDER: 

Scully?

(As he goes to touch the now dead tube and pull it from Scully's mouth, a violent shaking takes over the ship, a reaction to the vaccine's unwanted intrusion.)

(Cut to Cancer Man in a room full of equipment and monitors. A man is seated in front of a monitor showing a graph of some kind.)

MAN LOOKING AT GRAPH: 

There's a contaminant in The System!

(Cancer Man looks at the graph in shock.)

CSM: 

Mulder has the vaccine!

(Back to Mulder. The cryopod hallway he's in begins to fill with steam as it shoots out from the floor and ceiling. Mulder turns back to Scully and sees her move. He grabs the tube and begins to drag it out of her throat. Once it's all removed, and it's a long sucker, so it takes a sec or two, Mulder stares at her, waiting for a sign of some kind.)

MULDER: 

Breathe! 

Scully, can you breathe?!

(Scully begins to cough, spitting out what's left of the slimy goo. Finally she starts breathing on her own, gasping for each sweet taste of oxygen. She tries to speak and barely manages a weak ..)

SCULLY: 

Cold ... I'm cold.

MULDER: 

I'm going to get you out of there.

(He starts to whack away at the ice with a metallic cylinder next to him, probably shaken loose by the rocking and rolling the ship is still experiencing.)

(Cut to the graph/monitor room, sparks flying from various machines as the men are tossed like ragdolls. It's time to give up the ship, boys.)

CSM: 

Abandon your posts! Evacuate!

(Cancer Man walks towards one of the ladders the men are now scrambling down. Another man stops and says ..)

MAN:

What's happened?!

CSM: 

It's all gone to hell!

MAN: 

But, what about Mulder?!

CSM: 

He'll never make it!

Cut back to Mulder as he gently lifts a naked Scully out of the cryopod, her body glistening with goo, and lays her down on the floor. Next we see him carrying her. She's now wearing some of Mulder's clothing, right down to a pair of boots, don't ask me where THEY came from! He reaches the bottom of a metallic shaft, sunlight beaming down upon them.)

(Cut to outside as an alarm sounds and men race out from the domes, running for the various Sno-Cats. Cancer Man gets into one, his mouth dangling open in shock as it "all falls apart". The vehicles drive off.)

(Back to Mulder and Scully as he drags her up a ladder. Far below them, the defrosting has begun and water drips down the walls.)

(From above, we see the Sno-Cats leaving, one passing within inches of the top of a shaft leading to our heroes.)

(Cut to inside where Mulder and Scully have found a momentary resting place. Scully is coughing and weak. Mulder urges her on.)

MULDER: 

We gotta keep moving. Come on!

SCULLY: 

I can't.

MULDER: 

Yeah, you can.

(Mulder picks her up and carries her in a fireman's lift, over his shoulders. He walks down a row of crypods, all ominously dripping with water from the defrosting ice. He spots a vent.)

MULDER: 

Scully, reach up and grab that vent!

(Suddenly, he spots movement in one of the pods. The creatures within have begun to stir. The vaccine has affected the whole structure, as the bodies were all obviously attached to the one creature.)

MULDER: 

Scully, grab the vent! (no response) 

Scully?

(He looks at her face on his shoulder, she's passed out. Mulder slides her off his shoulders, placing her on the floor and checks for a pulse. The creatures nearby, still encased in the swiftly melting ice are now violently thrashing about and emitting their high-pitched screams. With one eye on the creatures and one eye on Scully, Mulder begins performing a mean version of CPR.)

MULDER: 

Please, breathe. Breathe ... breathe .... BREATHE!

(Scully begins to cough and splutter as she regains consciousness.)

MULDER: 

Breathe in, breathe in, breathe!

(She begins to try and speak, he has to place his ear almost on her mouth to hear.)

SCULLY: 

I had you big time.

(She smiles at him. No time for jokes, Scully, the aliens are coming! As Mulder pulls her to her feet, the ice-encased cryopods around them start to crack open as the creatures within begin to break free. He holds her up to the vent above her.)

MULDER: 

Grab the vent. 

Pull! PULL!

(Scully grabs the vent and pulls herself up. Mulder starts to climb up. One of the aliens breaks the pod and reaches out with its hand for Mulder. It grabs Mulder's leg. Scully stops and turns his head.)

SCULLY: 

Mulder!

MULDER: 

Keep moving, Scully!

(Mulder kicks it away and pulls himself up. They both climb through the tunnel, Mulder yelling encouragement from behind.)

MULDER: 

Go! Go! Come on!

(He keeps checking behind him as the alien screams continue, looking for any which may be chasing them. The light at the end of the proverbial tunnel gets brighter as they climb on.)

MULDER: 

Almost there, keep going!

(They pull themselves up to where Mulder first stopped after he fell through the ice, a slight turn in the vent. Just as Mulder clears the turn, an alien lashes out from behind but is cut off by the twist in the tunnel. They step over the part where Mulder first fell all the way down and make their way out the hole he originally made. Scully falls onto the snow, exhausted and Mulder perches next to her on one knee. He hears a sound and looks around for the origin. It's the ice ... it's cracking under their feet! He grabs Scully and throws one of her arms over his shoulder as they begin to run away. He stops for some ungodly reason and looks back seeing vents of steam starting to shoot out of the ice. They begin to run again as the ice begins cracking and falling away causing a huge crater to form. Suddenly the crater overtakes them and they disappear into the hole, but next we see them shoot into the air and slide off of the surface of the rising ship. They land on the edge of the crater. Mulder watches the spaceship as it flies overhead, his face glows with a heart-melting grin of childlike wonder and awe. Scully's face is turned towards the snow, too tired to move, as Mulder says, almost along with the audience ...)

MULDER: 

Scully, ya gotta see this! Scully!

(It's quiet, it's barely a mutter above a whisper, but we hear ...)

SCULLY: 

I see it.

(Spent from exhaustion, Mulder drops his head into the snow. Scully, finding the strength God gave 20 hearty men, scoots her body over to cover him from the freezing cold. She lifts his into her arms and cradles him as the camera pans back to show two lone figures perched alone on the edge of the bottomless crater left by the departing spaceship. Cut to Washington and don't start with me on how they got out of the Antarctic, there was extra gas can in the Sno-Cat, I don't know!)