THE X-FILES
"AROUND THE WORLD IN TWELVE MONTHS"
Part Three
'AN INCIDENT IN THE ICE'
By Alien Girl
comixgirl@juno.com

Rating: PG

Classification: Adventure, Mulder/Scully Romance

Spoilers: none

DISCLAIMER FROM PART ONE APPLIES TO PART THREE AS WELL

Song Disclaimer: This part's song is "Sloop John B", and it's done by The
Beach Boys, (ironically enough...) This isn't a romance song; in fact, in
doesn't have anything to do with relationships in any way, but it goes
with the plot, (which will hopefully make more sense than the previous
one.) 

Author's Notes: This is part three of a twelve part series I am doing, a
sequel to the five-part "Accumulation" series. Please read that series
and 'A Day With Dolphins' and 'An Adventure in the Amazon' before reading
this story. Everybody cool with that? And speaking of 'cool'...

On with the show!

---------------------------------------------------------
***********"Around the World in Twelve Months"***********
.................'An Incident in the Ice'................
**********************By Alien Girl**********************
---------------------------------------------------------

'Sloop John B'

(Sorry, don't have the lyrics yet.)
---------------------------------------------------------

	2:54 A.M.
	Wednesday, September 1st, 1999
	Atlantic Ocean

	KRAKA-BOOM!!!!

	Lightning split the sky in two jagged pieces, illuminating the
night with the brief yet horrid light of day. The drumroll of thunder
that followed would have been deafening to anyone who heard it...but no
one could hear anything above the eternal torment of rain that hailed
down from the cloud-blackened heavens.
	"I NEED HELP WITH THESE ROPES!!!" Mulder's voice sounded out as
loudly as possible above the thousands of silver missles striking the
wooden deck without stopping. The howling wind whipped through his dark,
dripping hair as he tried to grasp one of the ship's ropes in his cold,
numb hands. 
	Scully, keeping her head low and back to the wind, struggled
against the rain towards where Mulder was trying to untie several
overhead ropes to take them down. She and Mulder worked at the seemingly
impossible knots with cold fingers desperately, even as another wave
swept over the deck, drowning them both for a few seconds. Scully grasped
the pole instinctively to prevent herself from sliding to the other side
of the deck completely. 
	The storm had begun without warning less than half an hour ago.
Out of a cloudless, starry sky there had suddenly appeared an army of
angry storm clouds, and with them came nasty winds that howled against
the sides of the ship. Within minutes it had begun raining. At first it
seemed as if they could wait out the storm, but then the wind brought in
the rain at a crazy angle, and waves began pounding the ship one after
another after another. The huge houseboat was tipping from one side to
the other so far and so dangerously that it immediately became evident
that if they didn't do something, the enitre boat would tip over. 
	"I CAN'T GET ENOUGH ENG-"
	Margaret's words to no one in particular were drowned out by
another lightning flash and roar of thunder. Margaret was almost more
afraid of the ship being struck by lightning than of the ship tipping
over. It seemed impossible that any force of nature could possibly knock
down the huge houseboat. But experience had taught her to respect nature,
and that any vessel, even their own ship, could easily by knocked down by
enough wind and waves.
	Mulder tossed the few ropes they had undone to Samantha, who
scrambled precariously to the hatch opening that led below deck and threw
the ropes down into some storage area. 
	Margaret stuck her head out of the door to the captain's quarters
and shouted to the four still out on deck, "I'M GIVING HER ALL SHE'S GOT,
BUT SHE'S STILL IN DANGER OF CAPSIZING! WE NEED TO PUT EQUAL BALLAST ON
BOTH SIDES OF THE SHIP TO KEEP IT STEADY!!" 
	Mulder nodded in agreement. He ran doggedly to a ladder on the
outside of the captain's quarters; he knew there were a few heavy things
up there they could use as ballast. Lightning flashed again as he
scrambled to the tiny storage compartment atop the small building.
Shielding himself against the rain, he stared out into the angry sea
beyond. The Atlantic was a raging war, with crushing waves one after the
other pounding against 'The Believer' and one another. Each wave was
getting bigger and harder than the previous. They had already lost all of
the deck furniture, and it was clear that the houseboat couldn't take
much more of this torture.
	'How long can we fight this thing?!'
	His brief pause was interrupted by Scully's voice calling to him
from below, shouting at him to hurry up and throw down some ballast.
	Mulder's fingers fumbled uselessly at an old lock on the door of
the storage compartment, and he threw it open with a bang. Just as he was
about to reach inside, another wave swept over the entire ship, covering
the entire vessel in water.
	Mulder felt icy salt water surge down his nose and throat as he
was thrown aside, latching himself onto a nearby handlebar just before he
completely fell off the top of the ship. He coughed up a lungful of
seawater and tried to wipe the salt and grime from his eyes. Suddenly
fearful, he clambered to the edge of the roof he was standing on and
looked down below. Scully, Samantha and Troi had all fallen to the deck,
and were coughing up just as much water as he was, but were apparently
uninjured. 
	Returning to his former task, he reached inside the storage
compartment and began grabbing at the nearest boxes, not bothering to
read the labels and find out what he was throwing to the deck below. He
shouted down to his friends on deck and threw down two cardboard boxes
and a bag filled with something. Somehow, Scully and Sam managed to catch
both boxes, even against the rain and wind and waves.
	Lightning flashed and another wave struck the hull as he
continued to throw down ballast one box after another after another, his
breath of steam and salt water, his entire body cold and numb, his eyes
squinting from the rain and salt within them. 
	"I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH!!" He heard Samantha shout from below. And
not a moment to soon. Almost the moment he threw down the last box,
another wave had reared up and attacked, knocking him to the edge of the
roof like some stuffed toy. Picking himself up again, he descended the
rain-wetted ladder three rungs at a time to help the remaining three tie
equal amounts of ballast down on either side of the ship.
	Mulder staggered along the deck blindly for some way to steady
himself and ran into Scully, where they managed to steady each other.
Scully looked at him with frightened, salt-brimmed eyes through locks of
wet auburn hair; lower lips trembling from the cold. He could feel her
shivering in his arms...a horrifically familiar feeling.
	"The storm's getting worse," She said through chattering teeth.
	All he could do was shake his head. He grabbed at a tangle of
ropes that Sam had reproduced from below deck, and began to secure some
of the ballast to the seemingly weak rails that lined the boat deck.
Scully tried to help; she snatched her own rope and twisted it around the
metal pole with agonizing slowness. Mulder stared at her as she worked
relentlessly. They had been battling this storm for nearly an hour, and
it was only getting worse and worse. He knew that she couldn't take much
more of this.
	'I don't know if *I* can take much more of this...'
	Mulder twisted his head as he saw another humongous wave
approaching the ship, the cold, black water rushing up in all its
intensity. Knowing what was coming, he shut his eyes, sucked in his
breath and ducked his head low.
	The wave washed over him and Scully; countless gallons of ocean
water drowning him for what seemed like an eternity and throwing his body
against the nearby rail with a dull clang. Then in an instant, the wave
was gone, leaving him battered and bruised on the cold wooden deck of the
houseboat, coughing up all that he had accidentally swallowed.
	But Scully was gone.
	Mulder felt a shout of horror try to work its way out of his
cracked, salt-filled throat, but all that came out was a racking cough.
He searched frantically all around him, but saw nothing except the rain
and waves on either side of the ship.
	"SCULLY!!"
	There was no answer except a calp of thunder that followed the
lightning flash.
	"SCULLY!!!"
	Howling wind, pounding rain.
	He looked at the rail, and saw the rope; the one she had been
using. It was tangled in a half-knot, half-loop around different parts of
the rail. But the rope tugged and strained as if it were a fishing line.
	Mulder heaved himself to his feet and grasped the rail in an
effort to look out into the maddened sea beyond. What he saw seemed to
make his heart stop.
	The rope Scully was using had become entangled around her waist
and neck when the wave crashed down, and swept her overboard. She was
struggling uselessly against the waves of the sea, unable to make a cry,
the rope that secured her to the ship saving her and strangling her at
the same time. She looked like a fish on a line getting dragged into the
shallows to be caught, desperate, choking for air.
	"GOD, NO! SCULLY!!" Mulder roared at the sea, hands fumbling
clumsily for the rope that held her, grasping it, trying to pull it back.
He found himself almost powerless as the ocean struggled to claim Scully.
Straining, hot sweat mixing with the cold rain down his spine, he began
to pull, not knowing where the strength was coming from but using it
anyway, hand over hand, teeth grinding, the rope slowly, slowly returning
to his pulling. 
Scully felt two forces pulling her in both directions at once. The ropes
bit into her veins and waist, choking the breath out of her lungs, while
the waves did well to refill them with salt water. She felt powerless,
useless, against this force, too cold and in too much pain to even move
her arms. Yet another wave stormed up and dropped over her, submerging
her in a black and blue wateryness. The wave was like an anesthetic, a
drug, knocking  her down into peaceful, painless darkness.
	Mulder watched helplessly as Scully disappeared underneath
another monster wave for what seemed like an eternity, the rope still
straining. But when she finally emerged again, she was only half-visible
out of the water; no longer struggling, looking limp and dead in the
foaming waves.
	Mulder pulled on the rope that held her with renewed force, his
thoughts gone astray and confused, the realization of what had happened
throwing him into shock. As he kept pulling, he finally remembered what
he should've done first...
	"MAN OVERBOARD!!!!!"
	Troi and Samantha both heard Mulder's cry. They dropped the ropes
and boxes they were holding and stared at Mulder's form through the rain,
dumbfounded. 
	"Dana......?" Samantha muttered, the realization hitting her.
	"No!" Troi yelled, sprinting to the side of the ship. She and
Samantha were both knocked down by yet another wave cascading over the
ship, preventing them from getting to the other side of the deck.
	Mulder pulled on the rope, even as it seemed to grow longer and
longer and slipperier and slipperier in his hands, knowing that Scully's
life depended on it. He slowly began to drag her still form back towards
the houseboat, his heart thudding in his chest as heavily as the rain on
the deck below. No longer able to stay above the surface; Scully kept
getting towed under by every wave that washed over her, and she seemed to
be submerged longer with every new wave. Several times he felt the rope
silp as the ravenous water towed her under, but he fought back with all
the strength he had, his only thought to save Scully. 
	Mulder didn't know how he ever managed to pull her back. It had
taken all his will and power to fight against the sea's might, but
somehow, he pulled her back to the ships hull. But when she was finally
beneath him in the water below the rail, he almost didn't proceed to pull
her back aboard. She hung miserably from the rope that encircled her
waist and neck limply, like some corpse hanging from the gallows. He
yanked the rope hand over hand faster than most sailors could, not
wanting her to be strangled by his own efforts to save her.
	Finally, after an eternity of hell passed, Mulder pulled her
aboard and laid her flat on the deck just as Troi and Sam managed to get
over. Scully was unconscious; body limp, like a doll's, her skin pale and
lips tinged blue, a dark purple scar around her neck like some deadly
omen. She wasn't breathing.
	The rest Mulder didn't remember; it was like clockwork. Ignoring
desperate pleas and questions from Sam and Troi, pressing his lips
against hers, mouth to mouth. One, two, three, four, five, breathe. One,
two, three, four, five, breathe. Come on, Scully. One, two, three, four,
five, breathe. Irony...This had happened before. She had woken then.
Please let her wake now. Please... One, two, three, four, five, breathe.
Breathe, Scully! One, two, three, four, five, breathe.........She gagged,
coughed, spat up sea water, strained to breathe again. He cradled her as
she regained consciousness, slowly regained breathing, too weak to talk
or move. Another lightning flash, another wave, more water on top of
them. 
	Mulder scooped up Scully, taking advantage of the momentary lull
in the waves to make a dash for the cabin. She felt so light in his arms,
almost as though she wasn't even there. He could feel her struggling to
breathe, feebily coughing up more water. He reached the door, Samantha
jerked the door open for him, as another blast of wind buffetted them,
whipping the door out of Sam's grasp, and slamming it against the side of
the ship as though it were no more than a splinter of wood. Inside the
cabin, Tina gasped, and moved forward to help him into the cabin. He
lowered Scully to her feet, but then caught her again as she started to
slip to the floor, still stunned. Tina placed her arms around Scully,
motioning Mulder back to the door.
	"We'll take care of her, Fox. You have to get back out there." 
	"But..."
	"She'll be alright, Fox. You know you've saved her life. But you
have to go now. Samantha and Troi need you."
	Mulder stood there and watched, as his mother supported Scully as
they stumbled below deck. All he could do was breathe, try and regain his
senses, try and carry on, just breathe. How could he keep fighting this
storm if he wasn't by Scully, making sure she was alright? How could
he...
	Lightning flashed, then the boom of thunder, and the storm raged
on. He headed back into the storm, praying it would stop soon, so he
could run back to Scully's side. Where he belonged. His strength.
	He picked up another box to try again, hiding his face from the
rain, as if in shame.

	7:12 A.M.
	Thursday, September 2nd, 1999
	Atlantic Ocean

	The day dawned on a gray morning, although calm. The raging waves
of the storm had been reduced to simple ripples; the sea was once again
calm and still, just as if nothing had ever happened. A thick, misty,
dream-like fog covered the still water, revealing the rising sun only as
a distant glow in the back of some silver curtain. Nothing could be heard
except the faint, barely audible plops of leftover raindrops from the
poles dripping onto the hull, still wet and salty. 'The Believer' still
sailed, tall and proud upon the waters, a survivor after the unexpected
storm.
	Dana Scully walked out of the hatch onto deck, squinting her eyes
at the glow beneath the silver. She rubbed the purple bruise on her neck
tiredly and pushed some loose strands of wet hair out of her eyes. She
had not seen the outside since the night before, filled with rain and
bursts of light and dark, cold water. 
Mulder was already on deck, leaning tiredly against the side of the
captain's quarters. He looked up as Scully came on deck, looking none the
worse for wear. 
	"Scully...."
	"Sorry I ruined a perfectly romantic evening," She sighed, giving
him a small smile.
	He walked up to her. He had talked to her last night, after the
storm had finally ended, but he still felt something inside him. "Scully,
I...I was so afraid that you would be..."
	"...killed? Not if you're there to help it," She answered.
	"Weren't you afraid?"
	"I *did* feel frightened, in fact, I felt absolutely
terrified...but I didn't feel helpless."
	He put his arms around her. "Then I was more terrified than you.
You trust me too much."
	"You know you're the only one I trust..."
	He kissed her forehead gently. Scully stood there, suddenly
feeling very warm and comfortable within his arms....so much, that she
was disappointed and almost angry when she saw her mom coming towards
them. Mulder sighed.
	Scully looked at her mom expectantly. "Where are we?"
Margaret stared out hopelessly into the blanket of fog that surrounded
'The Believer'.
	"I don't know."

	Scully studied the large map that they had posted on the wall in
the captain's quarters while trying to avoid stepping on any glass left
over on the floor. One of the windows had shattered last night during the
storm, and there were still some tiny shards of glass littering the floor
that hadn't been picked up. On the map she saw the red pins at Miami,
Banes, Cap-Haiti, Grenada, Paramamibo, Manaus, Bele'm and Fortaleza, all
the places they had stopped so far, and the red marker line indicating
their route. But now the red line ended abruptly in the Atlantic Ocean,
where they were now. Scully studied the map for a minute, raised her
eyebrows, and then turned back to her mom.
	"You mean you don't have *any* idea where we are?"
	"I'm afraid not. I'm positive that the storm blew us completely
off course, there's no way that we could still be on the route we had
charted for Africa."
	"Can't we just check the compass and chart a course back to
Africa?" Scully protested.
	Samantha, who was staring dejectedly out at sea, answered with a
groan, "You see that nice window without the glass and therefore doesn't
work? Well, that's also our compass."
	"Great."
	"What about the navigational computer?" Troi insisted, turning to
the deskful of monitors and keyboards that had miraculously survived the
storm. "Won't that just tell us where we are?"
	"It would, except that it uses information from nearby landmasses
to navigate by. It tells you where you are by looking at the information
last given to it; where you last touched land, but it does so by radar.
Any stormy weather screws it up for a while, and you often have to
reinform the computer where you are to get it navigating again."
	"Can we say, 'cheap'??" Troi groaned aloud.
	"It is actually very modern, it just uses a rather unreliable
technique. It's meant more to tell you where you were and where you are
going, not where you are. All it needs is some land to figure out where
we are; it recognizes land masses, but all ocean looks the same."
	Mulder looked out the window. "Right now, I'm afraid land is in
short supply."
	Scully's eyes widened. "You mean we're stuck here, in the middle
of the Altantic Ocean, with no idea of where we are or where we could be
going or when we'll get there?!?"
	"That storm hit us pretty hard." Margaret sighed.
	"But we can't be *that* far off course! We should at least be
within radar distance of the coast of South America! Can't that stupid
computer tell us where we are from there?!"
	"Again, it will....as soon as this fog lifts."
	Scully's shoulders slumped as she stared out the window at the
gray mist that clung to the boat, preventing anything within less than a
mile and beyond that from being seen. "When the *fog lifts*?!"
	"...And we don't know when that will be," Troi said worriedly.
	"Exactly! It could be weeks before it clears up, who knows! And
by then, we'll probably be halfway to Australia and with no idea how we
got there!"
	"This is great," Mulder moaned, just as upset and anxious as
Scully. "Just great..."
	"Fox..." Samantha began.
	"What if another storm hits?" He blurted.
	"Fox, I think Maggie made it pretty clear that there's not a
whole lot we can do right now. If we have to wait until the fog lifts,
then we'll wait until the fog lifts. And if we have to wait until we find
some land, we'll wait until we find some land."
	He sighed. "I guess you're right...I'm just so tired, that's all,
and now this..."
	"I'm not surprised."
	"Fox, I think you and Dana should go below deck and get some
rest. You both need some sleep; you haven't had any for hours and you've
been working all night. Whenever you feel like it, come back up and help
us clean up the ship, it's quite a wreck."
	"Hey, don't say that, it's bad luck," Mulder said as he and
Scully headed below deck.





	3:45 P.M.
	Monday, September 13th, 1999
	Atlantic Ocean

	Eleven days later, the fog still remained, just as thick and
inpenetrable as ever. 
	Without any knowledge of its position or where it was going, 'The
Believer' simply ploughed along the Atlantic waters slowly in the same
direction, just as it had been for the past	week and a half. 
	Mulder was getting seasick again.
	For the past two days he had been complaining about stomach
cramps and feeling nauseated, and often ended up emptying his stomach
over the boat rail every now and then. Throughout the trip he had
experienced several lapses of seasickness, but this was usually after
they had been ashore for a long time and he had to regain the feeling of
being on a boat. No one knew why he felt seasick now, and there was
little they could do about it. 
	Well, almost...
	Scully walked up onto deck just in time to catch Mulder bent over
the edge of the rail, face green, lurching forwards miserably each time
he vomited. She frowned, annoyed. 'I've been warning him not to come out
on deck so often, it'll only make it worse,' she thought. 'Why can't that
man ever take good advice to heart?!'
	She waited until he was finished before walking up and tapping
him on the shoulder. He spun around in surprise, then relaxed at
realizing it was only her.
	"Mulder, what have I been telling you for the past couple of
days?! You need to stay in your bed below deck and get some rest to get
over this. Standing around in this fog puking isn't going to help you get
better any faster."
	He groaned, running his fingers through his hair. "I'm fine,
really... I just ate too much for breakfast."
	Scully rolled her eyes. "Come with me, I'm taking you to your
room. You really need to get some rest."
	"Aw, Scully...this whole thing is just about too much to bear. I
wanna go home!"
	Samantha, who was passing by, cocked a smile at him and started
to hum, 'I wan-na go home....This is the worst trip I've ev-er been
on...'
	He glared at her as she went away, smiling with her joke.
	"Mulder, come on," Scully repeated.
	Mulder started to resist again, but finally allowed Scully to
take his arm and lead him to the hatch that led below deck. Besides, he
was almost looking forward to Scully's
you-just-lie-down-and-I'll-doctor-you-forever-and-ever-because-I-know-what's-best-routine.
He waved a hand to try and ward off the fog that swirled around them.
	"I think we're heading south...it's been getting a lot colder
lately," Mulder said, trying to start some form of conversation. 
	"I've noticed that, too. I think maybe we've crossed the tropic
of capicorn. We're going from subtropical regions to more cool areas."
	"Does it really get this cool in South American regions?"
	"Not close to shore usually, but more out in the ocean it's
cold."
	"Great. That means we're nowhere near land."
	"You don't know that. As soon as this pea soup is gone, maybe we
can find out where we are and how to get back on track."
	"Any sign of the pea soup getting thrown out yet?" He complained.
	"I'm afraid there's none whatsoever. Mom says it could be like
this from anything to a few more hours to a few more weeks. This fog bank
is really weird; quite unexpected."
	"Maybe an X-file?"
	"May-be..."
	Mulder sighed dejectedly at the reminder. "So what's going to
happen when this is all over? We've just exposed a major government
conspiracy and saved the world from enslavement by extra-terrestrials.
Now we're spending a year or so at sea, going on this wonderful voyage
around the world, and before we know it it will be over and we'll be back
in Washington D.C. So then what do we do? Go buy a house, go back to
working as partners at the FBI, go on with our lives now that they're
finally somewhere close to normal?"
	"Normal? With you? Never." She grinned. 
	They reached Mulder's room, and Scully forced him down on the
bed. But he was reluctant to lay down, and wanted to continue the
conversation, so he propped himself up on one elbow. "Maybe we should
just stay on the houseboat forever, and never go back to Washington D.C.
All we'd do is sit around at office desks all day and yell at drug
dealers via the phone and get asked to do an interview every ten minutes.
After all this, normal life seems so.... *boring*."
	Scully pulled up a chair for herself. "Mulder, that's like trying
to run away from our problems...we've got to face the world sooner or
later. It's inevitable. I personally would love to just spend the rest of
forever on the ocean on this boat, doing all these incredible things. But
we're going to have to go back sooner or later," She studied him
carefully, sighing as she stared out his window at the inpenetrable fog.
"But the whole reason why we took this trip is to try and relax and not
think about that sort of thing now. Come on, Mulder, get some sleep.
We'll talk about stuff tomorrow."
	"Like we have anything else to do on this foggy field trip," He
said with a heavy sigh. 

	7:32 A.M.
	Saturday, September 25th, 1999
	Atlantic Ocean

	Troi yawned and stretched slowly as she returned to wakefulness,
and proceeded to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She pushed some loose
hair out of her face and gazed up at the ceiling, deciding that she
wasn't going to get up and out for another half-hour yet. She wanted to
avoid the cold ocean wind blowing in her face as long as possible, so she
refused to leave the comfort of the warm blankets. She squinted at the
bright morning sunlight streaming through her window.
	Her eyes snapped open again at the realization...
	Bright sunlight?!
	Troi sat up in bed excitedly and yanked up the shades on her
largest window. Her suspicions were conformed...there was sunlight
streaming directly into her face to prove it. The fog was gone!!
	Troi whooped with joy and ran out of her bedroom, throwing on a
few extra clothes in the process. She banged eagerly on the doors to the
other five on the ship, much to their complaints and protests. "Mulder,
Dana, wake up! Come and see, the fog's gone! It's gone completely, we can
get the computer working now!!"
	Mulder swung his door open a crack and glared at Troi with sleepy
eyes. "Since when did you become my wake-up call?"
	"Since the fog burned off! Come and see!!"
	"Couldn't the fog have burned off an hour or two later?"
	Scully, who had heard Troi's excited exclamantion, came to the
same realization. "That means we can use the navigational computer to
steer a course back to the mainland!" She said. 
	"At least *someone* here understands me," Troi said.
	Less than 15 minuts later, all six were in the captain's
quarters, watching eagerly as Maggie booted up the computer. "Now that
there's no fog, it should be able to tell us where the nearest landmass
is by radar."
	She typed in a few commands as the computer came to life. It
began to work immediately, causing everyone to grin. ....Until a small
error box popped up.

		Error: Cannot compute information
		Cause: Magnetic Interference

	Mulder's grin dropped into a frown. "What does it mean by
*magnetic interference*?!"
	"Oh, no...."
	"What?!"
	"It means that we're so close to the south pole that the magnetic
field of the pole is interfering with any radar or radio transmissions.
We've crossed the antartic circle."
	"We're going to *Antartica*?!!" Scully cried, eyes wide. "Well
then, we've got to turn the ship around!! We've got to go north!"
	"We can't do that, either. We don't know *where* we are within
the antartic circle, or what direction we're going in. We could still be
going south, or east, or west, or even north in a roundabout route, all
without even knowing it."
	"So what can we do?"
	"Nothing, except keep the ship going and hope we hit an island or
some other form of land. Turning around or going in a different direction
may only lengthen our trip. And time is not something we have a lot of
right now."
	"Or food," Samantha added. "It was only supposed to take us about
a month to get from South America to Africa, so there's only enough food
for about a month, which is about how long we've been at sea since the
storm. If we don't reach land soon, we're going to run short of food.
I've had to start rationing our meals to ensure enough for later."
	 "So much for "Good morning, sunshine," Mulder moaned. "We
*still* have no idea where we are or where we are going, and now we're
running short on supplies."
	"...Not to mention engine power," Margaret added. "Our fuel won't
last forever, and because it's been getting so cold, we've been running
our heaters overtime. If we're going to conserve fuel, we need to stop
using the heaters."
	"We're in the *antartic circle* without any food, and now without
heat. Anybody else find this ironic?!" Mulder exclaimed.
	"Well, at least you and I have past expeiriance, Mulder." Scully
muttered irritably. 
	"We'll just have to improvize. We can find other means of heat,
and food when we run out completely."
	"So now what do we do?" Mulder said with outstretched arms.
	"Well, what have we been doing for the past month?"
	"Sitting around and waiting for us to find some land."
	"Well, better get to work."

	1:55 P.M.
	Saturday, October 2nd, 1999
	Atlantic Ocean

	A chill wind blew slowly across the wooden deck with something
like a low whistling sound, breathing a hole momentarily through the fog.
The fog had returned again that morning; it had been coming and going at
intervals throughout the week. Right now, it was thick and clinging
again. The air, like the sea, was cold as ice and therefore slow. Frost
lined the boards of the deck like icing on a slice of chocolate cake;
like snow, crunching underfoot. Long icicles hung from the rails and
ropes from freezing water. 'The Believer' was close to being frozen over,
like some great creature slowly meeting its end in the frozen wastes. The
fuel was near empty, and the houseboat plowed through the waters
sluggishly, as if in pain. Using fuel other than to power the boat was
now forbidden; there was no heat, no hot water, no electricity. Nothing
could be wasted. What little food there was left could not be cooked.
Instead the six people were left to do nothing except watch for any sign
of land within the frozen wastes and try and keep warm. Several times
they had passed icebergs, signifying that they were much farther south
than they ever thought they would be. 
	Mulder and Scully were sitting side by side on the back end of
the cabin/captain's quarters, facing the direction that they were heading
away from. Fog surrounded them on all sides, preventing them from seeing
anything very far away. Scully watched with slight fascination as her
breath came out in seemingly tangible puffs of steam, and then seemed to
freeze midair. The steam changed to tiny ice crystals that wafted away on
the chill wind that blew in, causing her to pull her jacket tighter
around her. 
	Mulder tightened his own leather jacket around him as he felt the
breeze too. He coughed on the fog in spite, almost anger. This kind of
cold was familar to him...and he hated it. He had been unable to sleep at
night for almost the entire week; he had just laid awake and stared at
the ceiling. The familiar cold, and the darkness that he felt all around
him... it was too recognizable. He was almost afraid that if he went to
sleep that he would never wake up again, or that if he did wake up it
would be like before, the feeling of being weightless, formless.....
	"...Mom's worried that we won't be able to see any icebergs in
the path of the boat because of the fog," Scully's voice interrupted his
thoughts abruptly. "Things haven't been looking any brighter, and we're
down to our last notch of fuel for power."
	Mulder sighed. His lips were dry and he wanted to lick them to
try and regain the moistness, but he was afraid if he did they would
freeze. "What about food and warmth? Sam told me that we only have enough
food for about two more days."
	"She also told me that we have some fishing nets we can use to
catch fish," Scully answered. "We can break down some unused furniture or
boxes to make fires so we can cook what we can catch. Sam's pretty
confident that we'll find fish, even in these waters."
	"What about keeping warm?"
	"Sam and Troi are up there in that storage compartment now
getting some extra blankets and sleeping bags for each person's room.
That's about the best we can do for now." 
	"I find it ironic that Skinner and everyone else warned us not to
go and get lost at sea, and yet, here we are."
	"You always were one for disobeying orders, Mulder."
	"Are you kidding? Me obeying orders is right up there with me
being able to steer a boat."
	"Which is impossible."
	"Exactly."
	"What I find ironic is that we're in this situation again, after
having been in it so many times before."
	"What? Being lost at sea?"
	"No, I mean us right now. Huddled together in a small space,
trying desperately to keep warm, and talking about the most ridiculous
things."
	"Like....?"
	"The other time we were in Antartica, while we waited in your
snowcat for someone to come and help. We didn't talk about what had just
happened at all, we talked about the most pathetic things you ever could
create a conversation out of."
	"Or all those times we were in the woods," Mulder smiled,
memories coming back. "We were stuck on a rock in the lake looking for
Big Blue that one time, and I asked you if you thought you could ever
cannibalize someone."
	Scully grinned and stiffled a giggle. "Or that other time when we
were in the woods and you had wounded your shoulder."
	Mulder was trying to stiffle his own snickering. "...And I said
that I had once heard that the best way to regenerate body heat was to
crawl into a sleeping bag naked with someone else who was already naked.
And then you said..."
	"Yeah," Scully laughed, "And then I said, maybe if it rains
sleeping bags you'll get lucky..."
	WHUMP.
	Both Mulder and Scully were plunged into blackness as something
large, heavy and soft fell from the heavens on top of their heads. They
both struggled against the thing for a minute, trying to untangle
themselves from the mess. When they finally did, they noticed that they
were both entangled in a large sleeping bag.
	"Sorry about that!" Troi's voice called out from above, where the
storage compartment was. She had dropped one of the boxes she was
carrying. "You can keep that one if you want!!"
	Mulder gave Scully a mischevious grin. "Oooh, can we?"
	Scully was about to reply when a new sound rang out, something
like a-
	KRRUNNNCH.
	And to add to the KRRUNNNCH, there was a sudden lurch and jolt in
the ship, knocking Mulder and Scully and everyone else on the boat to the
deck in one unaminous THUD. Something like a heart-wrenching groan
sounded from within the ship and another crunching.
	And then silence.
	Scully was the first to recover. "We've must've hit an iceberg!"
She cried, suddenly fearful. "We could've sprung a leak!!"
	Mulder silenced her with a wave of his hand, and listened to the
wind across the deck. "No.....I don't think we hit an iceberg. The ship
as stopped moving completely, like when we hit the mudbank in the
Amazon."
	This thought caused Scully to brighten. "Then that means...we've
hit land!!"
	"Literally," Mulder added, getting quickly to his feet. He pulled
Scully up with him, and they ran to try and find the others. The other
four had already made it to the captain's quarters, where Margaret was
already setting to work checking out via computer info what had happened
to the ship and if there was any damage. She frowned as she observed a
quick blueprint of 'The Believer' that appeared on the screen.
	"There's a large dent down the left side of the prow. Possibly
some large rock or other sharp fixture struck the ship from one side as
it was moving and created an inward dent..."
	"Are we taking on water?" Scully questioned anxiously.
	"Well, no..."
	"Oh, good!....Why not?"
	"Because we've run aground," Her mother continued, turning on the
navagational computer. It took a few minutes to compute imformation, then
popped up with a map showing a blinking red dot the edge of a big white
blotch.
	"According to this, we are on Cape Norvegia, close to Queen Maud
land, on the coast of Antartica."
	"Antartica," Mulder said, his voice toneless. "Why am I *not*
surprised." 
	"So *now* what do we do?!"
	"I'm afraid if we back the ship back out into the ocean that the
water will cause the dent to widen into a crack and we'll be flooded,"
Margaret sighed. "And even if we did find something to fix the dent, it
would take us three weeks at the least to make it to the nearest land,
which would be South Africa. We only have enough fuel to last about a
week, and practically no food."
	"So we're stranded here on the coast of Antartica with no food
and no way to get back home."
	"To put it bluntly."
	They stared out of the broken window in silence for a moment. At
that moment, the fog lifted, revealing what they had collided into...a
large snow-covered area, with ice floes drifting about in the surrounding
water like white sailboats. Wind whipped snowflakes about in the breeze
all around the snowy landscape admist the icy air. A white-winged bird of
some sort flew overhead, with the wind. 
	"There isn't much we can do on board right now..." Margaret
sighed. "We could go ashore and see if we can find anything close by."
	"Oh, but of course they have food and gasoline and metal for
repairing  ships in abundance in the antartic regions..." Troi moaned
sarcastically. 
	"Well, it's not like we have anything else to do," Scully
decided. "Come on, we might as well get off this oversized yacht for a
while and stay on land. There's little we can accomplish by staying on
the ship."
	The rest reluctantly agreed. They dug out pairs of tough boots
and large artic-protection jackets for each person and quickly put them
on. Mulder grabbed up one of their best flashlights and any other
supplies they might need. Then, all six descended one of the ladders on
the side of the ship. When they got on the ground, the first thing they
did was to assess the damage to 'The Believer'. 
	The ship had run itself into a large ice-covered rock projecting
from the shore. The boat now had a large dent in it extending from below
the waterline to above it; the dent itself was about six feet long. 
	Scully grimaced. "That's not a lovely sight. Do we have any wood
or stainless steel or something we can use to repair that somehow?
Something that can at least last us to South Africa?"
	"We've got some lumber in storage, but I'm afraid it may not be
plenty enough or a strong enough material to support that dent. If we
could find something stronger and lighter it would be of great help."
	Mulder gazed off into the frozen landscape that lay before them.
He was feeling a strong sense of Deja Vu; he saw nothing but the endless
snow and ice. He wondered how close they were to Base 1. He wasn't sure
exactly where that black-walled craft had lain when he had driven to it
painstakingly in the snowcat; they were probably nowhere near it. But it
didn't make any difference now, not since all the ships on both land, sea
and air had been destroyed. The wind bit at his exposed skin, numbing his
senses and chilling his flesh. He bit his lip and motioned with his hand
for the others to follow him. "Come on," He called, his teeth beginning
to chatter. "There's got to be something we can do....."
	They stared around at the snow for a minute, then started off
into the whiteness.
	Mulder led the way through the blinding snow and ice that lay
before them, sheilding his head against a fierce, biting wind that nipped
at his face. He wasn't sure what they were looking for, or if they would
ever find this mystery place they truged towards slowly, or if it even
existed. It was almost like the other time he was alone in these frozen
wastes...nothing to do except to keep going, keep walking, forward,
without stopping, and hope that he found whatever he was looking for,
just keep walking....
	He didn't know how long they had walked along the coastline
before a word was spoken. It may have only been a few minutes, it may
have been hours. But when someone finally did speak, it was Troi, and her
voice sounded dull against the wind...
	"Hey, look! There's a cave, over to the left!"
	They turned and looked, and saw what Troi had noticed: a small
black hole in the middle of the whiteness, not very far away, embedded in
the coastline cliff that loomed over on their left. Without hesitation,
they turned and headed for it. No one really knew why they were so
interested in the cave, it could offer them little to solve their
immediate problems, but it was something new from the endless snow and
ice, and they were eager to reach it. 
	Scully was the first to reach the black hole. Now that she was
closer she could see that the cave opening wasn't very large, maybe about
seven feet tall and three feet wide, like an icy doorway. No sound came
from within, but there was a faint smell, something she could barely
identify. 
	"I doubt there's anything in here, but it wouldn't hurt to take a
look," Scully said through clenched teeth as Mulder and the others caught
up to her. Since Scully was the smallest, she went first, unsure if the
cave would be wide enough for even her, much less for Mulder, or even
Troi.
	Inside the cave it was slightly warm, providing some relief from
the wind and snow in her face. The walls were narrow, and slippery with
ice and condensation. She felt the quick, wet feel of some substance from
above dripping onto her hair and down her spine, and she moved out of the
way cautiously. 
	She stumbled forward as her boots hit firm ice, and tried to keep
herself from sliding forwards. But her boot treads failed, and she found
herself slipping down a long, narrow slope, crying out with surprise as
she disappeared down the tunnel.
	"Scully!" Mulder excalimed with surprise. Without hesitation, he
squeezed himself through the narrow opening and into the tunnel in an
effort to go after her. He got stuck momentarily in a narrow spot in the
tunnel, but managed to free himself with much effort.
	"Hey, wait for me!" Troi yelled, following behind Mulder into the
black hole. She too disappeared from view.
	The other three were left standing outside the cave.
	"Well, I guess we should've expected as much from them," Samantha
sighed. "I think the rest of us should stay here, if we go in, we may all
get stuck." The two mothers agreed, although doubtfully. Samantha yelled
into the cave entrance, "FOX!! DANA!! TROI!! YOU DOWN THERE?!"
	There was no answer. 
	She tried again. Still no response. 
	"Uh oh."





	Troi landed on something soft and heavy, although she didn't know
what....
	"Troi, get offa me!!"
	...But she quickly learned that it was Mulder. She scrambled off
of his back and onto the cold ice floor of the cavern they had landed in
after sliding who-knows-how-long down the tunnel. 
	Scully glared with irritation at Mulder and Troi. "Why did you
try to come after me?! Now all three of us could be stuck here because
you two just decided to play follow the leader!"
	"Well, we were worried," Mulder mumbled his excuse as he picked
himself up. "You could've been hurt, I needed to know what had happened
to you..."
	"Never mind," Scully sighed. "It may take us a while to try and
get back up the tunnel, but we can try..."
	Just then, Troi led out a horrified shout.
	Scully turned, and jumped back with her own cry of fright. She
was staring right into the eyeless sockets of a grinning skull, staring
at her menacingly.
	Mulder caught the two girls as they started to sprint in a panic
and tried to calm them. He looked at the skull, and at the skeleton it
was attached to. The figure was still clad in clothes, artic ones, like
the ones they had. So the idea that he died from freezing was unlikely,
although possible. 
	Mulder let himself gaze around the cavern they were in. It was
rather large, with the ceiling at least a hundred feet above their heads.
They must have slid a long way underground for the cavern to be so large.
A phosporescent glow seemed to illuminate the cavern; he hadn't even
noticed it yet. The skeleton was draped over a large rock in front of
them. Beyond that, there was a large outcropping of rocks, hiding the
source of the glow and what lay beyond. 
	"Come on," Mulder reassured Scully and Troi. "It's only a
skeleton, you guys just got spooked. Let's see what else is back here,
haven't you noticed how it's not pitch-black? Maybe there's some source
of light."
	He led the two past the bony corpse carefully and cautiously, and
helped them over the large, ice-covered boulders that loomed in the way.
What lay on the other side made them start. 
	There was an old, abandoned snowcat, rusty and covered with ice.
Yet another skeleton lay in the driver's seat, artic clothing hanging
from the bones, giving the scene an eerie chill. 	
	"I guess they were both in the snowcat, and one tried to get away
from whatever had killed them," Mulder mused.
	"You don't think they died from the cold?" Scully quiered,
surprised.
	"No, I don't think so..." Mulder said thoughtfully. "I don't
think that this used to be a cave, it used to be on solid ground. This
entire cavern was formed here not to long ago, probably recently. That's
why the ground is still slippery, it would've hardened and not been
skid-proof if it had been here longer."
	"Then what do you think caused the cavern? And how did these
people die?" Scully asked.
	Troi, who was staring beyond the snowcat, gave her answer. "How
about *that*?" 
	The entire cavern floor beyond the snowcat was like something out
of a nightmare. The floor and walls rippled like liquid, slowly and
rhythmicly. The waves of snow and ice seemed to glow from underneath with
a purple essence, like shining a flashlight from underwater. The entire
cavern glowed with an unreal radiation, as if standing in the presence of
some great beast. The ripples in the ground created a sound like an
electric hum that they had failed to notice before. The three stared at
it in awe before they slowly began to back away from the glow.
	"What *is* that?" Scully questioned in a nervous voice as she
stumbled backwards.
	"I don't know," Troi replied. Mulder didn't answer, but just kept
staring at the thing closely, as if trying to identify some bird that he
had read about before but couldn't quite recognize. "Is that some kind of
living being? Cause if it is..."
	"No, I don't think so," Mulder interrupted. "I think it's some
kind of natural phenonemon. Haven't you noticed how it's somewhat warm in
here? I think that glow is sending off some kind of heat."
	"But it still hasn't melted any ice," Troi mused thoughtfully. 
	"What do you mean by *natural phenonemon*?!" Scully stated, still
apprehensive. 
	Mulder didn't answer for a moment. As they walked backwards, he
got a better look at the skeleton that lay hunched over in the driver's
seat of the old snowcat. The figure was small, in fact; very small, maybe
even about Scully's size. But as he looked closer, something else caught
his attention-the jacket that was still wrapped pitifully around the
corpse. There was something...familiar...
	"Mulder, where are you...?" Scully started to ask as Mulder began
to walk towards the snowcat cautiously. He climbed with great care into
the other seat next to the skeleton; the door had fallen off and lay a
few feet away. Being careful not to touch the corpse, he felt at the
material of the jacket, observing the material of the tough artic leather
and fur lining. 
	Then he looked down at his own artic jacket. He remembered how he
had borrowed it from the company that had rented him the snowcat, but had
never remembered to give it back. He had kept it with him away somewhere
until they had packed it along with all of the other things when they had
left D.C. He remembered putting the jacket on Scully to keep her warm
after having just freed her from those strange ice chambers in Base 1. He
looked at his jacket, then back at the one on the skeleton.
	They were the same one. 
	Mulder scrambled back out of the rusty vehicle as fast as he
could, the skeleton staring back at him seeming to be telling him to get
out. He landed on the snow and stared at the size and shape of the
snowcat the corpse lay in. It was the same snowcat he had rented when he
had gone to find Scully. He turned and looked at the phosphorescent glow,
at the skeleton in the snowcat, and then back at the skeleton that was
draped over the rocks just a few feet beyond. 
	"Mulder, what is it?" Scully questioned anxiously as Mulder
stumbled back to her and Troi, eyes wide. 
	Mulder pointed slowly at the two corpses in front of them on both
sides. "Scully......that's us."
	"*What*?!"
	Mulder ran back over to the other corpse that lay on the rocks
and looked it up and down. He backed away again, and pointed at the
skeleton in the snowcat. "Scully....that's you...." He said slowly,
staring at the jacket-clad bones. "....And this is me," He finished,
pointing at the skeleton that lay at his feet. 
	Troi put on a disgusted expression. "You mean that horrible dead
thing is *you*?!"
	Scully gave Mulder a surprised look, which melted into a confused
look, and finally hardened into an annoyed one. "What on earth are you
talking about, Mulder? I don't know what you're thinking, but those
people *aren't* us."
	"...And that even more horrible dead thing is *Dana*?!!..."
	"Yes, they are."
	"Mulder, take a good look around. We're both standing right here,
talking, both very much alive and perfectly healthy. So if we're here,
then it is impossible for those people to be us."
	Mulder walked quickly back to Scully and Troi.
	"Scully...what did we do after we had just gotten away from Base
1? Do you remember?"
	"Mulder, what..."
	"Just try and remember...what did we do?"
	"Well, I can't really remember...but I know that we lay in the
snow for a while before you finally woke up again. Then we crawled back
to the snowcat you had on the other side of those hills and we radioed
for help. Then we just stayed there until some people came and picked us
up by helecopter, and we went to a hospital."
	"Anything else?"
	"Well, not in much detail..."
	"Think about it. We couldn't get the radio to work properly
because it had frozen over. And we were debating over whether or not one
of us should go and get help or have both of us stay and try to work the
radio anyhow."
	"...I know, I think that we decided to stay and work the radio.
It took a while, but I think you found some sort of a lighter somewhere
in the back. We got it to work and held it near the radio until the ice
melted off and we finally got it working again..."
	"...Exactly." Mulder pointed back to the bony figures and the
rusty vehicle. "What if we *hadn't* decided to do that? What if we
decided that one of us should try and find help alone? What do you think
would've happened?"
	"I don't know...."
	Mulder gestured back to the corpses. "I do: we would have both
died; both frozen to death. I had gone to find help and collapsed not far
from where I had left, and you had just died in the snowcat..."
	"Mulder, you're not making any sense! First, you'll notice that
both of us are not dead! And supposing maybe we *had* decided to do it
the other way, how would that make us suddenly stumble across our own
selves in the middle of Antartica?"
	Mulder looked back at the glowing ripples of land. "Some kind of
time warp...a rift in space or time. Sudden, drastic changes in the earth
can stimulate such occourences. And when those time warps appear, little
snatches of other dimensions get accidentally transported to our
dimension."
	"Other *dimensions*, Mulder?"
	"There's theories," He continued, "Very interesting
theories...that for every important choice you make, another dimension is
created for if you had made a different choice and the outcome would have
been different. Do you remember the Malikudda, from Malibu? A drastic
change in the earth; something from another dimension is transported,
someone else's different choice, maybe an extremely drastic choice...What
if we had died in Antartica, in the snowcat? How would things be
different?"
	"...I would still be at the Home..." Troi murmured slowly.
	"There must have been some sort of drastic shift in the earth,
something like a landslide or an earthquake, that promted the time warp
to occour. Probably that earth-changing event is what caused this cavern;
that's why it seems like it was made not long ago."
	"Mulder....."
	"Scully, just imagine...so many variables! What if both of us or
one of us had died previously? All those times...what if Pusher, or
Pfaster, Duane Barry, any of those had killed you? What if I had died in
New Mexico, what if I really had committed suicide, what if you had died
of cancer, or never came back, or what if I hadn't been able to come
back?....Think of what could've happened!"
	"The world wouldn't be the same place," Troi said. 
	Scully raised her eyebrows. "Black oil aliens? Colonization being
carried out to its fullest?"
	"Then that weird glow..." Troi motioned back to the ripply ground
beyond. "...Is actually a time warp."
	"I think we need to get out of here," Mulder concluded, heading
for the tunnel exit. He attempted to climb back up the slippery surface
of the tunnel, but it was like a five-year-old trying to climb back up a
slide at the park; he was getting nowhere fast. Scully tried to help him
up, and tried not to look at the skeletal remains grinning at her
mockingly from just a few feet away. Even hers and Troi's combined help
couldn't lift Mulder a few feet upwards into the tunnel.
	Mulder leaned forward as far as he could into the icy passage.
"SAM, MAGGIE!! HELP!!!"
	He stopped and listened. There was no answer but his echoes
bouncing off the ice over and over and over. He tried again: "SOMEBODY,
HELP!!"

	Samantha glanced back to the tunnel entrance, thinking she heard
sounds inimating from within its dark depths. Tina had gone back to 'The
Believer' to get a rope; Samantha had decided that she should go down
after them to make sure they were okay. At first she hadn't been worried,
but after a considerable time with no sound from below, she had started
to get anxious. Now she leaned down closer to the tiny tunnel entrance to
determine what it was that caused the noise.
	"SAM, ANYBODY!! HELP!!!"
	She heard it again. That was definitely Mulder's familiar
oh-I'm-a-damsel-in-destress-please-oh-please-come-and-save-me yell.
"FOX!! DANA, TROI!! ARE YOU DOWN THERE?" She shouted down the tunnel in
response.
	There was a few moment's time before she got a reply. "YES, WE'RE
HERE! WE CAN'T GET OUT, SEND DOWN A ROPE OR SOMETHING!!"
	"MOM WENT TO GET A ROPE RIGHT NOW!! DON'T WORRY, WE'LL GET YOU
OUT OF THIS!"
	"DON'T YOU ALWAYS?!"
	Samantha sighed, then brightened as Tina truged back up to her
and Maggie with several coils of long rope. "This is all I could find,"
She said nervously through chattering teeth. "I hope it's enough..."
	"We'll soon find out," Samantha responded, grabbing the rope and
beginning to unravel it for usage.
	She stopped as she felt the snow vibrate beneath her feet. A
dull, low rumble, a swift tremor, rippled through the ground underneath
her and traveled through her body like an electric shock. She recognized
that feeling anywhere...
	"Earthquake!!!" 

	Beneath the ground, the three frightened prisoners of the cavern
felt the quivering from within the earth as well. The ground shook
violently, as well as the entire cavern. The bones of the two skeletal
remains rattled together with some eerie sound. 
	"We have to get outta here!" Scully cried as she clinged to the
icy wall for support. "This whole cavern could collapse on top of us!!"
Mulder grabbed Scully and Troi to try and uphold them both as the ground
jumped in deadly waves. He felt his heart thundering in his chest as the
two smaller people clung to him. Glancing over in the direction of the
outcrop of rocks, he noticed something that multiplied his anxiety....the
ripples of purple glowing ground beyond began to expand, the ripples
heightening into waves, the hole of time rifts growing with each tremor
in the earth. The time warp was coming back with the earthquake.
	"We *really* have to get out of here!" Mulder shouted above the
noise. "The time warp's getting bigger!!"
	Troi took notice of Mulder's observation and exclaimed,
"Something even worse could be transported to us!!"
	"Forget that!! *WE* could be transported to another dimension!!"
Mulder wailed in response. 
	"We're not going to be transported to any other dimension because
other dimensions *don't* exist!!" Scully demanded.
	"I don't really think this is the time to argue, Scully!!"
Unlike most earthquakes, this one seemed to be enjoying itself and taking
its time, getting only worse and worse. And with each tremor of earth the
glowing waves of purple essence expanded more and more, getting closer
and closer to them. It caught up with the two skeletons and the snowcat.
The bodies and the vehicle seemed to evaporate into thin air within the
purplish glow without a trace. Mulder held Scully and Troi to him
tightly, realizing that if they didn't do something fast, they'd be the
next to go....
At that moment, a thick coil of rope was dropped from the tunnel beyond
practically on top of him. He thought that he heard Samantha or Maggie or
something yell something, but he couldn't make it out. He shoved the
others to the rope. 
	"Scully, Troi!! Climb up that, I'll be right behind you!"
Scully glared at Mulder. "No, *you're* going up first, we'll follow!"
	"Scully, I'm not going to argue with you! You first, hurry!!"
	Instead, Scully shoved Troi in front and forced her to start
climbing the rope. "You got it?" She yelled above the clamor, supporting
herself against Mulder as she tripped again on a ripple of earth.
	"Yes, it's fine!! Hurry up!!!" She yelled back. Scully looked at
Mulder, then reluctantly grasped the rope with both hands and heaved
herself upwards into the icy tunnel. Mulder glanced behind him and
noticed that the time warp-essence was no more than a few feet of him,
getting closer and closer. 
	The moment Scully was out of sight, he grasped the rope himself
and began to pull up, hand over hand, despite his numb fingers and aching
limbs. He could see Scully above him, trying desperately to pull herself
up with both arms. Looking back down, Mulder saw with shock that the
purple glow seemed to be *following* them back up the tunnel, even as the
earthquake began to subside, as if it were wanting to trap them in itself
and thrust them into who-knows-where-or-when-or-what. "MOVE IT!!" He
shouted up the tunnel to the two in front of him. 
	He climbed with Scully above him for what seemed like hours,
pulling his own weight upwards with agonizing aching in his body, until
they finally got to a point where the slope became less steep and they
could partially walk, partially climb up the tunnel. 
	"I think I see light!!" He heard Troi exclaim from ahead. Mulder
took an uneasy glance back down, and saw to his relief that the time warp
was disappearing back down the tunnel as the earthquake that had caused
it ground to a halt. He had no idea how long they had been climbing
vigorously to get away from that thing. It seemed like hours. But
finally, he heaved himself out of the narrow opening to the cave and onto
the snow, where Scully, Troi and Samantha helped him up. The ground was
still; the earthquake had finally stopped.
	"Now *that*," Troi said between gasps, "was interesting!"
	"What on earth happened to you down there, Dana? We thought you
three had been hurt or worse, we didn't know what to do, and then there
was the earthquake..."
	"I know, Scully wheezed as she helped a groaning Mulder to his
feet. "I think we need to get back to 'The Believer' right now..."
	
	4:36 P.M.
	Saturday, October 2nd, 1999
	Coast of Antartica

	All six of 'The Believer's crew sat in the deck cabin trying to
keep warm as the day receded. In the antartic regions the day only lasted
for a few hours at the most. Scully concluded that there was little they
could do for the rest of the day, and they should just try and keep warm
until tomorrow when they could decide what to do. 
	Mulder had related to Samantha, Tina and Maggie what had happened
below in the cavern and his theory on the skeletons, along with
interruptions from Troi on how gross the corpses were and how
spooky-looking the purple ripples in the ground were, and inserts from
Scully on how Mulder's story was purely theoretical and that she thought
the corpses and snowcat were the tragic result of a cave-in and the fact
that the skeleton was her size and had Mulder's jacket was purely
coincidence. 
	But even after that rather interesting discussion, all six found
themselves at the same depressing conclusion...they were right back where
they started. No food, no fuel, and no way to get home. 
	"Mulder, Troi, Samantha and I could set out again first thing
when it's light," Scully suggested as she tightened her blanket around
her. "We can try and find one of those artic bases that they have all
over various parts of Antartica. I'm not sure where the nearest one is,
but we can try and find one..."
	"I wouldn't count on it," Mulder sighed. "Those bases are few and
far between. We could be hundreds of miles from the nearest one, and it's
below zero out there practically 24/7. We would freeze to death before we
ever found anyone."
	"Well, what else do you expect us to do?" Scully snapped back
irritably. "It's not like we can just go out and find enough fuel to last
us three plus weeks all the way back on course to South Africa or enough
food for that time. We can't just sit here waiting to freeze to death!!"
	Mulder bowed his head, frowning. "I was just pointing out a
factor."
	Scully started to open her mouth, then stopped and sighed.
"...Sorry, Mulder. I didn't mean to yell at you like that. I'm just so
worried that we'll never get out of here, I can't see any way that we can
repair the boat or find sustenance or anything...and it's so cold...."
	Mulder nodded slowly. The others didn't bother to answer. What
Scully said was true...at this point, there didn't look like there was
anything they could do to fix the situation. 'What if we had made a
different choice awhile back,' Mulder thought to himself sullenly. 'If we
had taken a different route to Africa and had not gone through the storm,
if we had decided to try and go forward despite the fog, and hadn't run
into Antartica, we could be in Africa by now. Because of this, we could
all freeze to death...' The thought made him shiver uncomfortably. 'With
all that's happened to Scully and me, there must be a million different
dimensions for us, each one with one of us or both of us lying dead...I
don't want the existance I know to be another one, not after all we've
been through-'
	"HALLLOOOOO!!"
	His thoughts were interrupted by a distant voice, one he didn't
recognize. He lifted his head and stared at the other five, who were
equally surprised. 
	"GUTEN TAG?! BON JOUR?! HELLO??" The voice came again. This time,
Mulder picked himself up and walked out of the cabin to the boat rail to
see where the voice had come from. 
	A look at the snowy ground below confirmed his suspicious. There
was a man standing below in the snow, dressed in warm artic clothes was
staring up at 'The Believer' with obvious curiosity. Beyond that Mulder
thought he could make out a large artic vehicle, like a snowcat, only
bigger and with some equipment on the back. He also thought he could see
two or maybe more people in the large vehicle.
	The man noticed Mulder's appearance. "SPEAK YOU ENGLISH??!" The
man hollered, cupping his hands to his mouth.
	"YEAH!" Mulder yelled back down.
	"YOUR VESSEL APPEARS TO BE DAMAGED. DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE?" Came
the reply. 
	Scully appeared on the deck beside Mulder. "I SHOULD SAY WE DO!!"
	The man in the snow looked at Scully, then back at Mulder. "TELL
YOUR WIFE WE'LL BE UP TO ASSIST YOU SHORTLY!"
	Mulder grinned cheekily at Scully. "THANKS!!" 

	3:39 P.M.
	Thursday, October 7th, 1999
	Atlantic Ocean

	"The radio said there could be another storm coming."
	"Yeah right, Mulder."
	'The Believer', having been at sea for the past five days, pulled
through the cold Atlantic Ocean steadily, letting neither spray nor salt
stand in its way. After much talk and even more work, 'The Believer' had
been made seaworthy again. As it turned out, Jack, the man who had found
them on the ship, had been a head researcher at one of the nearby bases
on Antartica about 50 miles from where they had crashed. They had come to
the spot where they were because of the earthquake. Every time there was
an earthquake or avalanche or whatever within 100 miles of their base, a
group of researchers would go out and study the results of the tremor.
The group that had been sent out after the earthquake had found the cave
and followed a long trail of footprints back to 'The Believer', where
they found Mulder and Scully and their family. 	There was a lot of
discussion and arrangements, and then repairs. Jack's crew brought
several planks of stainless steel and other materials necessary for
repairing the dent in the ship. They were able to hammer the dent
somewhat back into place and attach steel to the inside of it to
reinforce the repair. Once they got to Africa they get could get better
repairs on the ship to make sure the dent wouldn't reappear again, not to
mention getting another compass, radio and window. They were also given
enough fuel to last until Cape Town, as well as food and water. 
	Despite the fact that they were heading north at a good speed, it
was still too cold for comfort outside, and Scully found Mulder in his
room. She carried a tray of Sam's lunch in both arms, although it had
practically become as cold as the icebergs outdoors.
	"Why didn't you show up for lunch today? I thought you'd be
*happy* that we have something to eat besides water and half-cooked
arctic carp."
	"I've just been thinking," Mulder replied, his arms clasped
behind his head. 
	"You do that a lot."
	"Well, don't you take time out to think?"
	"I do. Just not very often. I've been trying to enjoy myself on
this trip. I've been trying to make up for two months of hell for twelve
months of peace and enjoyment...with you." 
	"That's always good," Mulder commented, taking the tray from
Scully but not touching the food yet.
	"I've just been thinking."
	"About?..."
	"Us. And changes."
	"You never told me you were such a deep thinker, Mulder," Scully
grinned.
	"I mean about what we saw in the cave in Antartica...that
happened because we made the wrong choice. If you consider all that's
happened to us, there must be practically *thousands* of other dimensions
lying around all over the place."
	"So? Even if there are other dimensions, the one I'm familiar
with is this one, and personally, I'm enjoying it...even if we are in the
middle of the Antartic circle and it's a hundred degrees below outside."
	"I know. But it got me wondering...wondering if there is ever one
correct dimension, or reality, or whatever you want to call it. What if
the one we're in is another wrong one? Would it be better for you, and
for me, if we had never met? You would probably be married, now, settled
down, a famous doctor...I could be doing something else, too..I guess.
What if it is better another way?"
	Scully sat down on the bed next to Mulder. "Mulder, I've said it
before and I'll say it again...even if I knew for certain everything that
would happen to us...I wouldn't change a single day."
	Mulder smiled at Scully. All of his worries, anxieties and
thoughts were suddenly swept away as he looked into her eyes and
remembered why he loved and cared for this woman so much.
And suddenly, Antartica seemed a whole lot warmer.

-------------------------------------------------------

	THE END OF PART THREE

-------------------------------------------------------

	Author's Notes: That's all for part three, folks!! I NEED
FEEDBACK!! MUST GET FEEDBACK!!! Is the plot better or worse than the
previous two, and am I developing their relationship well enough, and are
things making sense, and are you getting annoyed with the way I seem to
end all of the stories with a similar scene?!! Please inform now so I can
improve on the next ones!!! Flames are accepted, although not as
cherished as praise. (But flames are accepted *only* because this is a
series and I want to improve...if you're flaming just to say I suck, then
go waste your time elsewhere because I won't write back...otherwise I
will!) 

Okay, that was a pointless shpiel...

Part four is coming soon, and things will get better! Hope you liked this
one!!