The X-Files s02e19 Episode Script

Come on! All right! Get down there, now! Just leave it! Get out of my way! - This is mutiny! - No, sir.
It's survival.
They'll come for us! They're sendin' help.
By the time they get here, it'll be too late.
It may already be too late.
Don't do this.
That's an order! Lieutenant Harper! Shoot me if you want, Captain, but I'm not waiting around so I can wind up like the others.
Gotta go.
Throw up the line.
Cast off! Hit me.
- It looks like she's just driftin'out there.
- Mm.
We're headin' for her.
This is the Lisette, Canadian fishing vessel CV233.
Please identify.
This is the Lisette.
Come in, please.
Cut the engines and meet me up on deck.
Hello, out there! Hey! We're throwin' ya a line! Grab it; we'll pull ya in! Is everybody all right? Are there any injured Scully, thanks for coming.
What was so urgent that you couldn't tell me over the phone? I didn't want to waste any time.
A Navy destroyer escort, the U.
S.
S.
Ardent, has been missing in the North Atlantic for the past 42 hours.
- Missing? - No radio contact and no distress signals picked up.
Search planes and satellites haven't picked up anything either.
You're saying that a ship and its entire crew just vanished? Well, that's what it looked like until last night.
A Canadian trawler picked up 18 survivors.
- Well, they must have reported what happened.
- Only one is still alive.
He's been taken into the I.
C.
U.
Under heavy security.
- What was wrong with him? - That's what I was hoping you could tell me.
They won't let me in to see him, but because of your medical background, I was able to get you a clearance code.
I want your opinion on this.
His name is Harper, Lieutenant Richard Harper.
- Mulder - Meet me back at my office when you're finished.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
Is this Lieutenant Richard Harper? That's what his wristband says.
And he's been positively identified? All military personnel are fingerprinted.
Those records were cross-checked.
Then I think there's been some kind of a mistake here.
According to this report, Lieutenant Harper is 28 years old.
Why hasn't a systemic workup been ordered on this patient? I wasn't aware that my diagnostic decisions required your approval.
I'm the physician in charge of this patient.
Let me see your clearance.
Can you tell me what's going on here? How can you explain what happened to this man? This clearance code is invalid.
Where'd you get this? Who are you? I am a medical doctor, and I would like to see the autopsy reports on the victims.
I haven't got time for this.
Give me my patient's chart and leave before I have you removed.
Something very strange is going on here, Mulder.
Did they let you in to see Lieutenant Harper? Yeah, I saw somebody, but whether it was actually the lieutenant - What do you mean? - He looked about 90 years old.
Off by about half a century.
You don't seem too surprised.
I wanna show you something.
This was the course of Ardent when she disappeared.
Now, I've been tracking the points of departure and destination for each of these "X" files.
On December 12, 1949, a Royal Navy battleship disappeared between Leeds and Cape Perry.
The sea was calm, the weather, sunny.
In 1963, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a fleet of Soviet minesweepers left from here for Havana.
All six vessels vanished without a trace.
All in all, I've counted nine unexplained disappearances.
Each of them passed through here, the 65th parallel.
- Another Bermuda Triangle? - It's more like a wrinkle in time if Lieutenant Harper is any indication.
- Wrinkle in time? What? - Do you know anything about the Philadelphia Experiment? It was a program during World War II to render battleships invisible to radar.
But then the Manhattan Project heated up, and it was discontinued.
And most of the scientists were relocated to Los Alamos.
- Except none of those scientists made it to Los Alamos.
- Where were they sent? Roswell, New Mexico.
Are you suggesting the Philadelphia Experiment used alien technology? Less than nine months after the alleged crash of a UFO in Roswell, the U.
S.
S.
Eldridge did more than just hide from radar screens.
It disappeared altogether from the Philadelphia Navy Yard only to reappear minutes later, hundreds of miles away, in Norfolk, Virginia.
That's not possible, Mulder, not without defying all laws of time and space.
Those physicists may have been trying to manipulate wormholes on Earth.
- Wormholes? - Actual portals where matter interfaces with time at a relatively decelerated or accelerated rate.
I'm betting the military never stopped the work it began 50 years ago.
- And that's what you think happened to Lieutenant Harper? - I'll find out soon enough.
- I'm booked on an 8:30 flight to Norway.
- Have you let Skinner in? No.
I'm giving myself a 24-hour head start before I give Skinner my report.
I want this one myself.
I'm going with you.
If that really was Lieutenant Harper, I wanna know what happened to him.
What is it, Mulder? Why are they so afraid? My father spent the better part of his life at sea.
He had a healthy respect for the ocean, but he never feared it.
- I see fear in these men's eyes.
- Bruntdland couldn't have taken you out there anyway.
A ship has to be classified ice-class before it can even go past the Lofoten Basin.
My name is Trondheim, Henry Trondheim.
The ship you want is the Zeal, a 50-ton trawler with a double hull.
It's my ship.
- You're American.
- I was born and raised in Pensacola.
I ran a charter business there.
I got fed up with tourists.
How do you feel about the sea north of Beerenberg? - This time of year, it'd be ten hours minimum each way.
- So you've been there? A few times.
A few times I got some of my best hauls out of there.
- Why is everyone else so afraid to go there? - Well, legends.
- They grow up on stories.
- What stories? A huge stone came out of the sky, crashed into the pack ice.
- A meteorite.
- An evil god.
They worship it by stayin'away.
So, exactly what is it that you're lookin' for up there? A number of things.
- How good are you? - About as good as you're going to get considering no one else will take you there.
- When can we leave? - As soon as we shake on a price.
Feeling any better? You're lucky you inherited your father's legs.
- What? - Sea legs.
It's been about 12 hours.
You said it was gonna take 10.
What's going on? I told you before.
The visibility is lousy.
I've never seen it this thick.
- How much longer till we get there? - We're right where you wanna be.
I even think we've got what you're lookin' for.
- One minute it's right in front of us.
The next, it's not.
Like something's messing with my radar and my navigation system.
- I can't explain it - Captain! We're gonna hit! Halvorsen, check the hull for damage.
I don't get it.
This is what you're lookin' for? It's the U.
S.
S.
Ardent.
It's a destroyer escort.
All right.
What do you want with it, anyway? It's a ghost ship.
Look at all this corrosion.
No one's been aboard this vessel in 20, 30 years.
Hey, Scully.
Let's check the crew quarters first.
Mulder.
They almost look mummified.
Like they've been dead a very long time.
Except for this strange residue.
What was that? - An engine.
- My ship! No! - That's my ship! - Hey! Who the hell has taken my ship? - Hey! Hey! That's my ship.
Nope.
All right.
Try it again.
No.
What is it? It's caked with the same residue that's covering everything.
So we can't even send a distress signal.
The engine's so corroded down there you can't even tell what it is.
I've never seen anything like it.
Halvorsen's trying to salvage the parts, but basically what we are is dead in the water.
Well, the radio's dead too.
Somebody's not telling me what's goin' on here.
Now, look, that ship was not just my livelihood.
That was my life.
I have a right to some straight answers.
What we're seeing here may be the result of some kind of military experiment.
- Military experiment? - An artificial time band where matter moves through time at an accelerated rate.
- Tell me in English.
- Time may be speeding up.
Right.
That's almost as crazy as Halvorsen's "there's a rock that comes down from the sky" This ship was launched in 1991.
I don't know how else to explain the extent of the corrosion or the decay of the bodies down below.
You're not buying any of this, are you? Oh, God.
- What happened? - His skull's been fractured.
Who is that? Halvorsen.
Who are you? Captain Barclay, Commanding Officer, U.
S.
S.
Ardent.
Here you go.
Captain Barclay, according to your log, shortly after the navigation system failed, several of your crew members saw something in the sea: A growing light.
It came up through the fog in the middle of the night like it was on fire.
- Do you have any idea what it might have been? - Power loss.
Everything stopped.
Everything.
Even the sea.
Even the wind.
And the ship my ship She began to bleed from the hull through the rivet seams.
He's a drunkard! He's a drunkard! And he killed Halvorsen.
To hell with him! I don't have to listen to his lies.
I'm no liar.
It happened.
First to some of my men, then to all of'em.
What happened? Time got lost.
That's okay, Captain.
You can take it easy.
We're gonna do whatever we can to help you out.
What can you do? You can't do anything.
I'm 35 years old.
- There's no way he killed Halvorsen.
- Yeah.
I'd have to agree with you.
The blow that killed Halvorsen was delivered with considerable strength, and he can't even hold a glass with two hands.
That means there's somebody else on board.
You were a good first mate.
You left me alone, and you did your job.
It's a shame this had to happen to you so young.
Put it down! Put down the pipe! Put it down.
- I could kill you for what you've done! - Back off! - He killed Halvorsen! - He may be our only chance to figure out what happened.
- Look at him.
Look at him.
He hasn't aged.
Back off.
- His name's Olafsson.
- You know him? Everybody in Tildeskan knows him.
He's a pirate whaler.
He's a wanted criminal.
He supplies whales to theJapanese black market.
- Blues, belugas, sperm.
- Ask him how he got here.
I don't need a translator for that.
We'll question him later.
I don't wanna leave Scully alone in case there are others.
I think we found who killed Halvorsen.
He'd have killed me too, if it wasn't for Mulder.
The ship's log said something about four sailors picked up when their vessel had sunk.
I guarantee it was Olafsson's men who took my boat and left him stranded there.
It's just like these dogs to slit each other's throats.
- Maybe we should ask the captain some more questions.
- Mulder, Barclay is dead.
I don't know how it happened.
It was just in the last 15 minutes.
It's just like those men below.
It's more than rapid aging, Mulder.
- It's almost as if he's turning into a pillar of salt.
- Is that what this is? It appears to be crystalline, but beyond that All right.
We're all tired.
Let's stow the captain's body, tie up Olafsson, so we can all get some rest.
I'll take first watch in case he's not alone.
- Scully? - Hmm? I just fell asleep.
- You want a few more minutes? - No.
I'm up.
- Scully? - Mulder, what happened to you? Time acceleration is an equation, Mulder, a theory.
Then theoretically, it's possible.
What else could it be? Whatever it is, it isn't a time warp.
None of us has directly observed any of the phenomena recorded in the ship's log.
- There is no hard evidence to indicate this is a time warp.
- We're the evidence, Scully.
Look at us.
We're aging by the minute.
If this is rapid aging phenomena, why hasn't our hair grayed or started to fall out? And what about him? Huh? What about him? Why isn't he getting old? Relax.
- Relax, Trondheim.
Save your energy.
- I don't have to listen to you.
- It's because of you that we got into this.
- Nobody twisted your arm.
I signed on to bring you here, not to die.
- Mulder, what do you know about free radicals? - Is this a quiz? They're highly reactive chemicals containing extra electrons.
They can attack DNA proteins.
They can cause our body tissue and cell membranes to oxidize.
- Grow old, you mean.
- Is the prevailing theory on how our bodies age.
So you think something is triggering that reaction in us? This is just a theory, but what if this ship is drifting towards another massive metallic source like a meteor.
Maybe it's way down deep in the ocean or embedded into an iceberg.
But the two could effectively be acting as positive and negative terminals with the ocean itself being a kind of giant battery.
That level of electromagnetic energy could be exciting the free radicals and effectively oxidizing every piece of matter in its field.
It makes sense, Scully.
The organic equivalent to rust would be rapid premature senescence.
What the hell? Captain Barclay said the ship was bleeding.
It's not blood, Scully.
It's rust.
Trondheim, you keep an eye on Olafsson.
- Where are you going? - Mulder, where are we going? I'm not sure yet, but we don't have much time to get there.
You see this yellow pipe? It's the only one that hasn't corroded through.
Olafsson and his men.
Why were they holed up here? This is the only drinkable water on the ship.
We were both wrong, Scully.
It's the water.
- All the other water's been contaminated.
- Contaminated how? Something must've got into the de-salination tanks where all the ship's portable water is stored.
But water in the sewage system is recycled again and again.
It doesn't come from the sea.
If you're right, then Captain Barclay's drinking binge is what kept him alive.
- And the water from this tank will do the same for us.
It doesn't sound like there's very much left.
What happened? You were supposed to watch him.
I feel pretty bad about it.
I shouldn't have dozed off.
Wait a minute.
What do you want me to say? He's gone.
He got away.
- I wanna know what happened.
- You're the one that tied him up.
There's nothing wrong with my knot.
This rope's been severed.
I don't like being interrogated.
I don't owe you any explanations.
Trondheim! Let go of me.
Look.
We have a lot of work to do here.
I'm gonna need blood and urine samples from both of you.
- What for? - We found out what caused the aging.
What is it now? The two of you are full of theories.
First it's one thing, then another.
- By the time you figure out what it is, we'll be dead.
- It's the water, Trondheim.
Something got into the de-sal tanks, but the water in the sewage system is untainted.
It kept Olafsson alive this long.
Maybe it'll slow the process in us.
This is good news, isn't it? So what happens now? "It has been 18 hours, 45 minutes since the onset of symptoms.
Rudimentary blood tests have revealed impossibly high concentrations of sodium chloride: Salt.
Though the contaminated water itself is not saline, it appears to catalyze existing body fluids, causing massive and rapid cellular damage.
The untainted water has slowed the degenerative progression in Trondheim and me.
But Mulder has fared less well, perhaps because of the dehydration he suffered on the way here.
" I think I just lapped George Burns.
I'll be right back.
If you've got something to say, say it, but don't hover behind me like that.
The water isn't helping him.
- Then maybe we should double his ration.
- What for? - A lake full of water isn't gonna bring him back.
- We don't know that for sure.
- Not yet.
- Look at him.
- We've wasted too much water on him as it is.
- Who are you to decide? You don't have to be a doctor to see that he isn't gonna make it.
But you and me, Scully, you and me We'd better start lookin' out for ourselves.
"Mulder's urinalysis continues to indicate his kidneys'failure to excrete the substance I'm calling 'heavy salt.
' Whether the untainted water taken from the sewage system is even helping him at all is unclear.
What does remain clear to me is that I can't give up trying.
" Trondheim? - What are you doing? - Listen to this.
You know what that is? It's a funeral bell.
There's only a few gallons left, maybe less.
There's enough to keep us all alive for a few more days.
Or one of us alive long enough to be rescued.
Don't come any closer.
What are you gonna do? Shoot me? Trondheim, listen to me.
The Navy knows where we are.
They know these coordinates, and they're gonna be here soon.
- So why don't we just go back into the mess hall - Why don't you shoot me? - If you think that I'm gonna let Mulder have another drop Trondheim? Trondheim? You're almost out of pages.
It's good you kept a record.
Trondheim's locked himself in the sewage hold.
He's back-flushed all the water, and he's keeping it for himself.
I looked everywhere, and this was all I could find.
It's sardine juice, half a dozen lemons and the water from a snow globe.
It's not Evian, but - You go ahead and drink it.
- No, Mulder.
It's the only logical choice, Scully.
You're a woman.
Your life expectancy is greater, and your body retains more water in fatty tissues.
That's more reason for you to drink it.
You have a much greater chance of surviving till help comes.
Don't do this, Mulder.
Don't be so stubborn, Scully.
You know I'm right.
Well, there isn't much liquid to make a difference anyway.
There might be.
No.
What was that? The outer hull must've finally corroded through, which means we're taking on water.
Mulder the water.
Open.
Okay.
Open the door! Help me! Help me! Help me! Help me! Help.
Help I always thought when I got older I'd maybe take a cruise somewhere, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.
The service on this ship is terrible, Scully.
It's not fair.
It's not our time.
We still have work to do.
Mulder when they found me after the doctors and even my family had given up I experienced something that I never told you about.
Even now it's hard to find the words.
But there's one thing I'm certain of.
As certain as I am of this life we have nothing to fear when it's over.
I'm so tired.
You should sleep.
"Agent Fox Mulder lost consciousness at approximately 4:30 this morning, the 12th of March.
There is nothing more I can do for him or for myself.
Supplies are exhausted.
No food or liquid consumed for over 24 hours.
The outer hull most probably flooded, though for now the inner hull is supporting the ship's mass.
Among Halvorsen's belongings, I found a children's book of Norse legends.
From what I can tell, the pictures show the end of the world.
Not in a firestorm of damnation as the Bible teaches us, but in a slow, covering blanket of snow.
First the moon and the stars will be lost in a dense white fog.
Then the rivers and the lakes and the sea will freeze over.
And finally, a wolf named Skoll will open his jaws and eat the sun, sending the world into an everlasting night.
I think I hear the wolf at the door.
" Agent Scully? Agent Scully, can you hear me? Mm.
- Yeah.
- It's been 36 hours since your rescue.
I've got you on dialysis with a high flux filter.
You're obviously responding well.
Your electrolytes are almost back to normal, and your fluid status has been corrected.
Mulder.
Where is he? His endocrine system was considerably more compromised than yours.
Frankly, we didn't think that he'd make it, until we discovered this.
Based on your observations, we're giving him a course of synthetic hormones, which seems to be working.
Whatever caused this is still out there.
I have to talk to a Naval liaison.
- We have to salvage the ship in order to study the salt.
- The ship was taking on water.
It sank less than an hour after you were rescued.