(Under SCULLY's voiceover, we see some stock footage of scenes of the Earth as viewed from space, the ocean, single celled organisms squirming around, then a dry desert landscape. Then plants, insects, a crocodile, picture of dinosaur, birds, more plants, early man, footage from the movie of the cavemen running over the snow, cave paintings, modern man, Apollo launch, lots of cars, DNA helix, interspersed here and there with deserts every time she mentions extinction.)

SCULLY: (voiceover) 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 explosion of life spanning millions of years, nature's first multicellular organisms began to multiply... and then it stopped. 440 million years ago, a great mass extinction would kill 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 killed off. 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, Homo Sapiens appear-- man. From cave paintings to the bible to Columbus and Apollo 11, we have been a tireless force upon the earth and off cataloguing 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?

(FADE TO: African coast. Men are shouting excitedly in Swahili. They kneel down at the water's edge and look at a broken metal fragment that is sticking up out of the sand. It has strange writing on it. Close up on fragment as the water washes over it.)

SCULLY: (voiceover) Or will the mystery be revealed through a sign, a symbol, a revelation?

(Same scene as teaser. One of the men calls to DR. MERKMALLEN who is sitting under a canopy at his desk on the beach. They call him "Proffesor." DR. MERKMALLEN follows them back to the shore and looks at the fragment also. He appears quite interested and awed.)

(Later, DR. MERKMALLEN is alone in his office. Beautiful job by the set designer. The fragment is on his desk. He opens a cabinet and removes a leather wrapped object. He carries to the desk and unwraps it. It is a similar fragment. He holds the two pieces up and examines them like puzzle pieces. Suddenly, like magnets, they fuse together into one piece and then it flies out of his hands and across the room where it impales a book. DR. MERKMALLEN cautiously walks over and pulls out the book. It is a copy of the Bible. He carefully removes the fragment from the now torn book, gazes at it, then sets it down on the desk. It begins spinning there, faster and faster. Shocked, DR. MERKMALLEN puts his hand on it, stopping it from spinning, then quickly wraps it up in the leather and runs to the rotary phone.)

DR. MERKMALLEN: (on phone, urgently) Yes, get me the international operator, please. I need to place a call to the United States.

(Back at the desk, there is a close up on one of the verses right above the tear in the Bible: Genesis I:28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.")

(Night. Plane lands.)

(Later, still night, DR. MERKMALLEN is walking through the campus {which is very similar to that of UCLA J]. He sees two female students.)

DR. MERKMALLEN: Excuse me, I'm looking for the Biology Department for a Professor Sandoz.

(They point him in the right direction. Inside the building, a MAN wearing a lab coat is in one of the labs which has lots of monkeys in cages. They are chittering quietly. He is watching through the window and waiting. DR. MERKMALLEN enters.)

DR. MERKMALLEN: Dr. Sandoz? (shakes his hand) Professor Sandoz, I'm Solomon Merkmallen.

MAN: Dr. Merkmallen. My God, I thought something had happened to you.

DR. MERKMALLEN: (surprised) Oh. Did you not get my message? We were delayed in Frankfurt.

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

DR. MERKMALLEN: Yes.

MAN: Uh... you brought me something-- this, uh... this discovery of yours.

DR. MERKMALLEN: Yes.

MAN: I'm quite anxious to see it.

DR. MERKMALLEN: I-I was concerned I might be relieved of it in customs. There was some trouble with the X-ray machine in Germany.

(They sit at the desk.)

MAN: What kind of trouble did you have?

DR. MERKMALLEN: I told you of its power.

MAN: (pause) Yes, of course.

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

(As DR. MERKMALLEN pulls out the fragment and unwraps it, the monkeys begin to get louder and very upset.)

DR. MERKMALLEN: I can't explain how it is... but the two pieces have become one. I was hoping they'd match the piece that you've found so that you might see for yourself its magic.

MAN: (holding the fragment) Have you had any luck reading it?

DR. MERKMALLEN: (staring at the MAN) You're not Dr. Sandoz, are you?

(The MAN stands threateningly, and we hear sounds of a fight. Camera pans over to the monkeys in their cages. They are now screaming hysterically. Short time later, the MAN comes out into the stariway. The monkeys can still be heard screaming. He leaves the building. Back inside the office another man, DR. SANDOZ, enters the office. He sees the leather piece lying empty on the desk, then he goes around the cages and sees DR. MERKMALLEN lying dead, a pool of blood under his head. He backs away in panicked horror.)

(SKINNER's office. MULDER and SCULLY are with him.)

SKINNER: A case like this I, of course, thought of your obvious interest-- Dr. Merkmallen's views and theories being what they were. I believe Agent Mulder is familiar with his work.

(MULDER hands the file to SCULLY. It has a picture of DR. MERKMALLEN. FBI file number 46742.)

SCULLY: (reading) Dr. Solomon Merkmallen, Professor of Biology, University of Ivory Coast.

SKINNER: He flew in yesterday from Africa. Two hours later, he was apparently murdered at American University. His body is missing but there was enough blood found on the floor to make a fair assumption. A couple of students also confirmed that they spoke to him when he asked them for directions to find a Dr. Steven Sandoz, also a Professor of Biology.

(There is also a picture of DR. SANDOZ.)

MULDER: Both men espouse a fringe theory called "Panspermia." It's the belief that life originated...

SCULLY: … elsewhere... in this universe.

SKINNER: You've heard of this?

SCULLY: Yeah. (glancing at MULDER) It's the idea that Mars or other planets were habitable long before Earth and that, uh, cosmic collisions on these planets blasted microbes into our solar system - some of which landed and flourished here.

SKINNER: You'd accept that as plausible?

SCULLY: Well, almost any scientist would... theoretically. I mean, it's just a theory. That's about it, though. You don't think this has anything to do with his death, do you?

SKINNER: Dr. Merkmallen found an artifact in his country. This is a rubbing of that artifact. (He hands SCULLY a pencil rubbing of the fragment) He claimed it contained a message- not only of his Mars theories but the very meaning of human existence.

SCULLY: (pointedly to MULDER) Much less plausible.

MULDER: Dr. Sandoz, the man he'd come to meet made a similar claim in a … (pointedly to SCULLY) … "science" ... journal. He said he'd found an artifact that was almost identical to that with similar writings on it.

SCULLY: And what was it supposed to say?

MULDER: Well, we'd have to ask Dr. Sandoz that.

SCULLY: Well, why don't we?

MULDER: We can't. He's missing.

(Later, MULDER and SCULLY get on the elevator. Doors close and they are alone. MULDER pushes the button for the basement, then looks carefully at the rubbing of the artifact. They stand close together.)

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

MULDER: Skinner wants us on the case.

SCULLY: Are you going to try and convince me that you have no personal interest in this case?

MULDER: I am just a hired gun for the FBI.

SCULLY: Oh, come on.

MULDER: What if there's something to this?

SCULLY: Two men suggesting that we're all Martians. Now why would they possibly come into foul play?

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

(Several other people get on the elevator. MULDER and SCULLY move out of the way. MULDER looks at the rubbing again. SCULLY continues talking, but MULDER can barely understand her. From his point of view, she is suddenly speaking through a distant dull cacophony of voices. He glances around at the other silent occupants of the elevator, then stares at SCULLY in confusion.)

SCULLY: (barely understood) I don't understand you, Mulder. You're willing to pursue any case involving aliens no matter how tenuous the connection. There has to be some limit to your interest... I mean, this endless pursuit of the truth, Mulder it just... it doesn't make any sense to me now.

(The other people get off the elevator and the cacophony fades. SCULLY realizes that MULDER is staring at her blankly. )

SCULLY: Mulder? Did you hear a word of what I just said?

MULDER: (softly) No.

SCULLY: No? (sadly) Well, maybe you didn't want to hear it.

MULDER: (confused) No... I couldn't hear it.

(MULDER hands her the rubbing and starts to head for his office.)

SCULLY: 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?

(MULDER looks at her with a small sad smile.)

MULDER: My sister.

(SCULLY follows him to the office.)

(DR. SANDOZ's lab. Someone is looking out the window as MULDER and SCULLY cross the campus. Lots of police. Full crime scene procedures are going on.. Pictures are taken of the scene and a large bloody bone? Pestle? Big white thing? is already bagged as evidence. The MAN who met with and killed DR. MERKMALLEN is standing near the monkey cages. MULDER stares at him as soon as they walk in the room.)

SCULLY: Guess I was right about this being a police matter. Detective?

DETECTIVE: Can I help you?

SCULLY: Agents Mulder and Scully with the FBI. What do you have here?

DETECTIVE: Probable weapon-- blood and hair on it. Looks like prints, too..

SCULLY: Any word on this Dr. Sandoz?

DETECTIVE: No, but we're being told the prints are very likely his.

SCULLY: Told by whom?

DETECTIVE: The man your partner's speaking with.

(MULDER has crossed over to the MAN, DR. BARNES.)

MULDER: Fox Mulder with the FBI.

DR. BARNES: I'm Dr. Barnes, head of the department. They've asked me to suspend classes and organize interviews with the faculty.

MULDER: Any ideas yourself about what happened here?

DR. BARNES: There's plenty of speculation.

MULDER: About the missing Dr. Sandoz?

DR. BARNES: Apart from his laughable ideas my colleague was capable of almost anything to advance his rather questionable reputation.

SCULLY: (joining them) Capable of murder?

DR. BARNES: Dr. Sandoz's notes are full of talk about an artifact coming over from West Africa but like the man who was bringing it that artifact has yet to be located.

SCULLY: Are you, uh, speaking of this?

(SCULLY hands DR. BARNES the rubbing. MULDER suddenly puts his hand to his head as once again he hears a cacophony of sound. He goes out of the room. SCULLY is concerned.)

SCULLY: (worried) Mulder?

DR. BARNES: Do you know Dr. Sandoz believes this writing was from aliens? These are trivial men. They have no patience for the scientific process. They're happy to read their names in the tabloids. Pseudo scientists. Beyond embarrassment.

(Out in the hall, MULDER is splashing water from the drinking fountain on his face. The cacophony has faded again. SCULLY joins him.)

SCULLY: What is it, Mulder?

MULDER: I don't know. It's, uh... a hollow noise. The same thing that happened to me at work in the elevator this morning.

(MULDER dries his face with a handkerchief. SCULLY puts her hand to his forehead.)

SCULLY: Do you have a fever?

MULDER: No. This is going to sound weird but I think it's that thing.

SCULLY: You're not kidding. (She looks at the rubbing.) It's just a piece of paper.

(X-Files office. SCULLY and familiar face, CHUCK BURKS are looking at images of the rubbing on a very cool overhead projector.)

CHUCK BURKS: I recognize the ideography.

(MULDER enters.)

SCULLY: You're late.

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

(MULDER and SCULLY both smile and MULDER shakes CHUCK BURKS' hand.)

CHUCK BURKS: Fox.

SCULLY: I called Chuck as I knew you would for authentication, and to get his professional opinion on how you say it's affecting you.

CHUCK BURKS: Fascinating, Mulder.

MULDER: You don't believe it, Chuck?

CHUCK BURKS: No, no. You know me. This is right up my twisted little alley. So, uh... what exactly are you experiencing?

MULDER: Noise. Aural dissonance. It comes and it goes.

SCULLY: Is it happening right now?

MULDER: No, but it was a few minutes ago.

CHUCK BURKS: And it's only affecting you, triggered by the rubbing. Wow. That blows me away.

MULDER: Why?

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

CHUCK BURKS: The writing is Cree-- phonetic Navaho-- but no literal interpretation makes any sense.

SCULLY: And the fact that it was found in Africa makes it all the mores suspicious as a fabrication.

MULDER: Suspicious of what?

CHUCK BURKS: Do you know what a Magic Square is?

MULDER: Yeah. It has to do with the occult.

CHUCK BURKS: Right. Very cool. They first appear in the ninth century in history but, uh... (changes the image on the projector to show a Magic Square) … as the story goes God himself instructed Adam in their use and then handed down the secret to all his saints and prophets and wise men as a way of trapping and storing potential power to the person whose name or numerical correlative exercises that power.

MULDER: That's what this thing is?

SCULLY: Well, that's what someone would have you believe this is.

MULDER: How do you know that?

SCULLY: As it turns out neither of us had to go very far to find out.

(SCULLY puts a magazine article up on the projector. It is by DR. BARNES. "Science Update - God Spelled Backward - Manufacturing Religious Artifacts for Fun and Profit.")

SCULLY: Barnes documented Sandoz's fakery once before. If he was blunt about his colleague when we met him, in here, he is downright brutal.

MULDER: Does he back any of that up?

SCULLY: Well, it's quite scholarly, actually.

CHUCK BURKS: Barnes has made something of a career exposing science and religious fraud. (puts up another article on DR. BARNES) Name your wonder of the world-- he's been there, debunked that.

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

SCULLY: Mulder, if it were real then why would an American Indian artifact be fused in rock on the west coast of the African continent?

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

SCULLY: It was from outer space.

(MULDER throws his arms up triumphantly.)

CHUCK BURKS: Begs the question, doesn't it? Why produce a fraud with Navaho writing... in Africa?

(CHUCK BURKS puts the image of the rubbing of the artifact back on the overhead projector. MULDER once again is assaulted by the cacophony of sound. In pain, he puts his hands to his head.)

SCULLY: Mulder? Hey.

MULDER: Hmm.

SCULLY: Let's step outside. Step outside.

(SCULLY leads MULDER out into the hall among the file cabinets. The cacophony fades.)

SCULLY: You're in pain.

MULDER: No, no, it's going away.

SCULLY: Mulder, whatever is causing this I think it needs immediate attention. I'm going to schedule you an imagining scan.

MULDER: No, I'm okay. I really am.

SCULLY: Mulder, you're not okay. If nothing else, you should be at home in bed.

MULDER: I'm not going home to bed, Scully. I think I know what's causing this and I know what happened to those two professors and that artifact. I got a sense of it yesterday when I met that man Barnes.

SCULLY: You had a sense of it?

MULDER: Yes. This man Solomon Merkmallen is dead. Barnes knows it. He killed him-- killed him in that lab.

SCULLY: Well, I hope you're not going to suggest that we arrest him on that rather baseless assumption.

MULDER: No, I'm not... not until after I show you what he did with the body.

(They head back to the office.)

(The LANDLORD, an irritating little man with a very strange accent, lets MULDER and SCULLY into DR. SANDOZ's house.)

LANDLORD: I been all through the place. You know what you're looking for?

MULDER: We'll let you know if we find it.

LANDLORD: Ah...cops have been here, too, you know. They couldn't find nothing, either. (waves in disgust at the apartment) Feh.

SCULLY: We'll come get you to …

LANDLORD: (ignoring her) Yeah, yeah.

(LANDLORD leaves. Movie theme music. MULDER goes into the bedroom and finds a suitcase in one of the very organized closets. He looks at the old tags on the handle.)

MULDER: Whatever happened to Dr. Sandoz, he certainly liked to fly south for the winter-- a lot. Gallup, New Mexico. It's Navaho country.

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

(SCULLY looks closely at a framed picture of DR. SANDOZ and a familiar old Native American man - ALBERT HOSTEEN.)

MULDER: That's Albert Hosteen.

SCULLY: Your World War II code-talker

MULDER: Maybe he was using him to read the symbols on the artifact.

SCULLY: Or write them. Mulder, you also said that we'd find a body. Care to make good on that prediction?

(SCULLY follows MULDER as he goes confidently into the kitchen. He puts his hand over his nose.)

MULDER: Scully, you packing any latex?

SCULLY: No. Why?

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

(MULDER gets a dishtowel and opens the trash compactor. They both gasp at the smell. Flies buzz out. MULDER gingerly opens the black plastic bag inside the compactor exposing DR. MERKMALLEN's face and dismembered body. Flies are crawling over the remains. Very disgusting.)

SCULLY: Oh, God.

(SKINNER's office. SKINNER is looking at a picture of DR. SANDOZ and at the rubbing. Throughout the scene, MULDER has his head bowed and a pained expression as he tries to concentrate on the conversation through the other noises that he is hearing.)

SKINNER: So you think Dr. Sandoz is innocent?

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

SKINNER: (pushing over the rubbing) This?

MULDER: A genuine artifact-- one of several pieces of an unknown whole. Dr. Barnes has one now, too. That's why he killed Solomon Merkmallen.

SKINNER: The way his body was disposed of...

MULDER: … was to incriminate Sandoz, to make him look like the killer. It's also to hide something. Something that no one would think to look for. (losing focus) Scully, could you please tell... what your medical exam found in the lab report?

SCULLY: Parts of his body were missing-- his arms, his hands, uh, parts of his vital organs and his thyroid.

MULDER: All of which would retain telltale traces of radiation.

SKINNER: Radiation from what?

MULDER: The artifact.

SCULLY: On 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 C.G.R.

MULDER: Cosmic Galactic Radiation. It's a kind of radiation that's found only outside our solar system.

SKINNER: Agent Scully?

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

MULDER: Oh, forget the arrest. We got to find these artifacts.

(MULDER hears the cacophony get louder and grabs his head in pain.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Is there someone else on this case, sir?

SKINNER: Excuse me?

MULDER: (accusing) There's someone else on this case-- you're not telling me.

SKINNER: What's the hell's he talking about?

MULDER: I hear it... in my head.

SCULLY: Mulder, let's go.

(SCULLY leads MULDER out into the hall, MULDER slamming the door behind them.. SKINNER opens the door a crack and eavesdrops on them. Bad Skinner.)

SCULLY: Mulder, you're losing it.

MULDER: No, I'm not. Listen to me-- he's not telling the truth. I'm hearing people. He's spying on us.

SCULLY: Mulder, you need to see a doctor.

MULDER: I need to find those artifacts.

SCULLY: I'll find the artifacts. You need to go home right now. Mulder...

(MULDER, nods quickly, then he and SCULLY leave. SKINNER closes the door all the way, then goes to a cabinet in his office. From the hidden video camera there, he removes a tape, then hands it across his desk to KRYCEK. KRYCEK takes the tape, smiles, and leaves through the other door. SKINNER looks really guilty.)

(SCULLY watches as an unconscious ALBERT HOSTEEN is wheeled out of a hospital room by several orderlies. SCULLY finds another rubbing of the artifact on the bedside table and picks it up. On the back of the paper is a crudely handwritten copy of Genesis I:28. A NURSE enters the room.)

NURSE: Is there something you're looking for?

SCULLY: Yes, I was looking to speak to Mr. Hosteen.

NURSE: Mr. Hosteen cannot accept any visitors at this time.

SCULLY: Yes, I understand. I saw him wheeled out of here in an emergency.. Can you tell me what's wrong with him?

NURSE: I'm not allowed to give out that kind of information.

SCULLY: (showing her badge) I, um, I know him. He's helped me in the past. I'm sure that he wouldn't mind you telling me.

NURSE: Albert has cancer. He's suffering from its effects. He's dying.

(SCULLY, of course, empathizes with that.)

(American University campus. DR. BARNES walks down the hall. Also, MULDER, wearing jeans, t-shirt and black pullover sweater, is walking through the crowded hall of the biology building. He goes into DR. BARNES office. He is looking for something. He checks the desk, then opens the file cabinet, then hears someone talking to DR. BARNES out in the hall and slowly closes the drawers again.)

STUDENT: (voice in the hall) Dr. Barnes?

(DR. BARNES enters his office and sets his briefcase on the desk, notices something amiss, then looks around the darkened office suspiciously. He enters the adjoining lab. We see that MULDER is hiding behind one of the monkey cages. Monkeys are chattering. MULDER suddenly winces in pain as the cacophony in his head increases in intensity. Sounds like DR. BARNES may be getting a phone call. Short time later, DR. BARNES leaves the lab and walks down the hall to a stairwell. MULDER follows him, still in pain and confusion, hearing voices, staring at the students passing him. He enters the stairwell after DR. BARNES, but only makes it up to the first landing before he collapses from the pain.)

(CUT TO: SCULLY waiting in the New Mexico hospital room. She is sleepy. Looks like she has been waiting a long time. The orderlies bring ALBERT HOSTEEN back to the room. He is in bad shape. She looks up and sees DR. SANDOZ at the door. He sees her and runs. She follows.)

SCULLY: Hey!

(He pushes a man out of his way. She follows him through several halls and loses him. She pauses, listening, and the camera moves close to her ear [like the Bionic Woman super-hearing moments for those readers old enough to remember]. She hears a ringing. It is the stairwell alarm. She runs into the stairwell and runs to the first landing and points her gun at DR. SANDOZ who is a few steps above her. He freezes and she lowers the gun.)

SCULLY: Okay... I need answers from you.

(CUT TO: MULDER still lying in his stairwell at the university. The cacophony is deafening, and he is in agony. Music is from 4th season ep Teliko. KRYCEK enters the stairwell and walks past MULDER who vaguely notices him. KRYCEK follows DR. BARNES out onto the roof of the building.)

DR. BARNES: Are you the man who called?

KRYCEK: Dr. Barnes...

DR. BARNES: Yes.

KRYCEK: Dr. Barnes you and I are... destined to be great friends.

(Krycek holds up the videotape he got from SKINNER.)

(CUT TO: ALBERT HOSTEEN's hospital room. DR. SANDOZ and SCULLY have entered. ALBERT is unconscious.)

DR. SANDOZ: Albert was the only translator who didn't dismiss me out of hand. When I showed him the original artifact he sensed immediately its power and importance. The trouble was, it was only one fragment-- not enough to read.

SCULLY: But then other pieces surfaced.

DR. SANDOZ: Dr. Merkmallen found two more in the tidal shallows. He sent me a rubbing. Suddenly, Albert was able to make a real translation.

SCULLY: (looking at the translation) A passage from the Bible on an artifact that you're saying is extraterrestrial. And, uh, how did the aliens get it?

DR. SANDOZ: They gave it to us. The text came from them. I can prove it.. It's written here. I'm sure of it.

(DR. SANDOZ pulls out another fragment of inscribed metal and sets it on the tray table.)

DR. SANDOZ: Albert was working to translate another section when his health turned.

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

DR. SANDOZ: I don't know yet. Albert said it just seemed to be random letters.

(On its own, the fragment begins spinning on the table. SCULLY glances under the table, then slaps her hand down on the fragment stopping it from spinning. They stare at each other.)

(CUT TO: Phone ringing in MULDER's apartment. He is lying in a real bed, all tucked in. He is groggy. A WOMAN stands beside the bed. She answers the phone.)

WOMAN: (on phone) Hello?

SCULLY: (on phone) Hello? I'm sorry. I'm trying to reach Fox Mulder.

WOMAN: (on phone) Hold on, please.

(She hands the phone to MULDER.)

WOMAN: Fox?

MULDER: (on phone, sighs) Hello?

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, where are you?

MULDER: (on phone) I'm here. I'm resting.

SCULLY: (on phone) Where? Who answered the phone?

MULDER: (on phone) I'm home. It's okay. Where are you?

SCULLY: (on phone) I'm in New Mexico, with, uh, with Dr. Sandoz.

MULDER: (on phone) Does he have the artifact?

SCULLY: (on phone) (sighs) Mulder, this, uh, artifact if I'm to believe what I'm being told about it...

MULDER: (on phone) What?

SCULLY: (on phone) It has a passage on it from Genesis.

MULDER: (on phone) Scully, that artifact is extraterrestrial.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it can't be.

MULDER: (on phone) Did you know what that would mean?

SCULLY: (on phone) No, it would mean nothing, Mulder.

MULDER: (on phone) No, it would mean that our progenitors were alien, that our genesis was alien, that we're here because of them; that they put us here.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, that is science fiction. It doesn't hold a drop of water.

MULDER: (on phone) You're wrong. It holds everything. Don't you see? All the mysteries of science everything we can't understand or won't explain, every human behaviorism- cosmology, psychology, everything in the X-Files-- it all owes to them. It's from them.

SCULLY: (on phone, frustrated) Mulder, I will not accept that. It is just not possible.

MULDER: (on phone) Well, then, you go ahead and prove me wrong, Scully.

(MULDER hangs up and rolls over in the bed. The WOMAN is DIANA FOWLEY. DIANA takes the phone and walks into the living room, takes off her jacket, and makes another call.)

DIANA: (on phone) Yes, it's Diana Fowley calling for him. (pause) 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.

(She sets the phone down and strips off her shirt as she begins walking back into the bedroom. Plain white bra.)

(CUT TO: Meeting room. Men sitting around a conference table. CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN hangs up and continues listening to a man talking.)

MAN: ...final preparations for mass destruction on a scale that can only be imagined. There appears to be nothing we can do to prevent it. It becomes a question of managing the crisis. Otherwise, we are facing annihilation ourselves.

(New Mexico desert. Under SCULLY's voiceover, we see bright lights that focus into several car headlights parked near a small Native American structure. There is also a fire. SCULLY and DR. SANDOZ follow as several men carry ALBERT HOSTEEN on a litter into the structure. SCULLY does not enter the building. Instead she stands outside, looking up at the star-studded desert night sky, then pulls aside the blanket over the door and looks inside where the men are preparing for a ritual.)

SCULLY: (voiceover) It began with an act of supreme violence-- a big bang expanding ever outward, 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?

(SCULLY looks inside again. DR. SANDOZ comes to her.)

DR. SANDOZ: The healing ceremony has begun if you want to go inside.

SCULLY: No, I, uh, I don't think that's right. I don't share in their faith.

DR. SANDOZ: The medical doctors say they've done everything they could.

SCULLY: I know. I think they have.

(SCULLY's cell phone rings. Wow. Service in the desert. Gotta love DC Cellular!))

SCULLY: I'm sorry.

SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.

SKINNER: (on phone) It's Skinner. Where are you?

SCULLY: (on phone) I'm with Dr. Sandoz.

SKINNER: (on phone) Where?

SCULLY: (on phone) In Gallup, New Mexico. Where are you?

SKINNER: (on phone) A hospital in Georgetown. I'm calling with some bad news. Mulder's in serious condition here.

SCULLY: (on phone) What happened to him?

SKINNER: (on phone) Nobody knows, Agent Scully. You should do whatever you can to get here as soon as possible.

(SCULLY hangs up.)

SCULLY: I have to go. I have to leave.

DR. SANDOZ: Please, don't let anyone know where I am... until we know for sure.

(He looks down at the fragment in his hand and, as SCULLY leaves, he goes back into the structure.)

(Later, SKINNER is sitting in the hospital hallway. He looks up as SCULLY approaches.)

SCULLY: (worried) They just told me he's in the special psychiatric unit.

SKINNER: I told you on the phone...

SCULLY: No, you said that there was bad news. You didn't tell me what was wrong. (SKINNER doesn't say anything) Look, I'm sorry. It took me three flights to get here.

SKINNER: I don't know what to do, Dana. No one else does, either. I knew you'd want to be here to see him, to talk to the doctors.

(Long tense pause. SKINNER takes her hand.)

SCULLY: What? What is it?

(SCULLY and SKINNER enter a room where DIANA FOWLEY is standing in front of several monitors of patients in psychiatric cells. One of the patients is MULDER, pacing the small area. He is wearing a hospital gown.)

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

(SCULLY glances at DIANA, then watches as MULDER paces. She is very upset. A DOCTOR enters.)

DOCTOR: You really shouldn't be in here.

SCULLY: What's wrong with him? This man right here, Fox Mulder?

(MULDER suddenly faces the camera and begins screaming SCULLY's name.)

DOCTOR: We don't know what's wrong with him and we don't know what to do for him. He's got extremely abnormal brain function but there is no signs of stroke. We're waiting to run more tests.

SCULLY: Waiting for what?

DOCTOR: He's extremely violent. With what we've given him he should be in a barbiturate coma but there's brain activity in areas we've never seen before.

SCULLY: I want to talk to him.

DOCTOR: No, he's a danger to anyone.

SCULLY: (confidently) Not to me.

DIANA: Can we speak in the hall?

SCULLY: (defensively) About what?

SKINNER: Agent Scully.

(SKINNER holds the door open. MULDER yells "SCULLY" clearly and directly to her through the camera. She stares at his image, then goes with SKINNER and DIANA into the hall. SKINNER stands behind SCULLY.)

DIANA: When did all this start?

SCULLY: When we took this case... when Skinner gave it to us.

DIANA: What kind of case is it?

SCULLY: Investigation into a murder.

DIANA: Of whom?

SKINNER: The case has nothing to do with what's happened to him.

DIANA: Agent Scully says it does. Now, you know my background my previous work on the X-Files. If I can help on this case...

SKINNER: The X-File here is a fraud. Scully has ample proof of that-- evidence authenticated by a scholar and authority.

(SCULLY turns and stares at SKINNER.)

SCULLY: I never sent you that report.

SKINNER: Anyway, the case is being resolved.

DIANA: Not as far as it affects Agent Mulder. If you know what's happening, why won't you tell me?

SCULLY: Why were you with him last night?

DIANA: 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 artifact.

(SCULLY stares at DIANA.)

SCULLY: You're a liar.

(SCULLY starts to leave. SKINNER grabs her hand.)

SKINNER: Scully!

SCULLY: You're both liars.

(SCULLY jerks her hand away and leaves. SKINNER turns and looks at DIANA.)

(The Native American building in New Mexico. Navajo men are chanting over ALBERT HOSTEEN. DR. SANDOZ watches, then suddenly gets up and crosses outside.)

(CUT TO: X-Files office. SCULLY enters and begins frantically searching. She stares up at the newly installed? smoke detector. A hidden camera is inside it. It shows SCULLY climbing up furniture to get to it. Just as she is reaching for it, the phone rings. She answers.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Hello.

DR. SANDOZ: (on phone in the desert) Agent Scully, Dr. Sandoz. I'm sorry, I didn't know how else to reach you. There's something...

SCULLY: (on phone) Dr. Sandoz, I-I don't know if this is a secure line.

DR. SANDOZ: (on phone) Yes, all right, but I realized something. The letters Albert translated on the artifact... I know what they are.

SCULLY: (on phone) What they are?

DR. SANDOZ: (on phone) Yes. They're coordinates, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: For what?

DR. SANDOZ: (on phone) For genes. They're symbols for gene clusters-- the human genome.

(SCULLY, shocked, does not respond.)

DR. SANDOZ: (on phone) Are you there?

SCULLY: Yeah.

DR. SANDOZ: (on phone) 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.

(Horses nearby are restless. DR. SANDOZ looks around nervously.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Dr. Sandoz? Hello?

(Over the phone SCULLY hears a gunshot. She glances up at the smoke detector.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Dr. Sandoz?

(The phone clicks off. In the desert, we see KRYCEK standing over DR. SANDOZ's body. He picks up the metal fragment that DR. SANDOZ has dropped. Fade to …)

(… African coast.)

(An AFRICAN MAN is speaking Swahili and showing the rubbing of the artifact to several other African men. They answer him and he turns to SCULLY. She is dressed in a very lovely long-skirted beige outfit.)

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

(The men lead SCULLY down to the water's edge. The AFRICAN MAN takes her to a certain spot, then leaves her. She kneels down and brushes the sand away from a much larger metal plate with inscriptions on it. She looks around realizing something and slowly stands. An overhead shot shows that she is standing on top of a ship, the very top of which is just visible under the waves. The music swells.)

[TO BE CONTINUED ...]