From drjudd@rainbow.net.au Fri Aug 30 08:44:08 1996 OFFSPRING DESLEA R. JUDD drjudd@rainbow.net.au Copyright 1996 DISCLAIMER This book is based on The X Files, a creation of Chris Carter owned by him, Twentieth Century Fox, and Ten-Thirteen Productions. Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner, and a number of lesser characters including Bill Mulder, Mrs Mulder, Samantha Mulder and her clones, Maggie Scully, Melissa Scully, Captain Scully, Sharon Skinner, Kimberly Cooke, the Cigarette Smoking (Cancer) Man, the Well Manicured Man and his offsider, Frohike, Quiqueg, Gautier, Jean Gautier, Ellen, and Alex Krycek remain the intellectual property of those parties. A number of other characters are the author's creation and are copyright, and may not be used without her written permission. These include but are not limited to Dr Karen Koettig, Agent Grbevski, Melissa Samantha Scully, Grace Skinner, Clone 1 (Cynthia), Clone 3 (Carolyn), Clone 4 (Catherine), Dr Sam Fieldman, Dr Paul Sturrock, Dr Marion Pieterse, Wendy Tomiris, Serena Ingleburn, Amarette, Dr Jillian Maitz, Hallie, and Emily Trent. Any queries concerning ownership of minor characters not mentioned here should be directed to the author. (See Pt 1 for complete spoiler, content, and comments info). A few spoilers from Pilot, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Colony, Endgame, Anasazi, Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, 7.31, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, and Avatar. I've rated this book R just to be on the safe side, but I think it's more PG-13, in truth. There's some low-level sex (three scenes, more emotional than anatomical), low-level bad language, low-level violence, and that's about all. Comments, good and bad, are welcome; but make sure they're constructive, please! My e-mail is drjudd@rainbow.net.au, but don't worry if you see something else in your "reply" header like magna.com, because Rainbow.Net shares a server with another ISP called MagnaData. And if you think my work's worth stealing, I'm flattered; but don't even think about it. Archivists, feel free to add this to your collections; but be sure to let me know. OFFSPRING BY DESLEA R. JUDD (6/18) THREE 5th Floor Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D.C. November 22, 1996 "Mulder, take a look at this," Scully called. He went to her. "What is it?" he asked. Scully was holding a sheaf of flimsy thermal paper. "It's from the American Scientific Database. Everything that's been published in the major scientific journals since 1898. I asked them for lists on everything ever written by Paul Sturrock and Marion Pieterse. I wanted to see if they'd ever done any work that Pieterse herself had forgotten which might have been relevant. They faxed me these. Prolific writers, the pair of them." "Hardly a fiery pastime," Mulder observed. Scully shook her head. "No, I think this is right up your alley, Mulder. We figured them for their forties, right? Which would put them through university in the sixties." He nodded. "There are articles by an M. Pieterse dating back to 1932." "Her father?" he quizzed. Scully shook her head. "That was what I thought, too; until I noticed that Sturrock's articles began at about the same time. And the first Pieterse-Sturrock joint effort appeared in Scientific American in 1934. So I got a copy of the first one. The bio describes Dr Marion Pieterse as 'Oregon's first female graduate of a higher degree, graduating in 1931.' Same story for Sturrock - he's described as having graduated in 1932." Mulder's brow puckered. "But that would make them about ninety! No way on earth is Pieterse ninety!" Scully raised an eyebrow. "I don't have any solutions for you, Mulder. But this makes a difference. It's a common and isolating factor to the two of them. We have to know who and what we're dealing with." Mulder frowned. "What about that woman on the news when we went to see Pieterse? She shut up like a clam after she saw that. She looked maybe seventy, but she was a hundred and twenty. Fifty years' difference - about the same difference as that between the good doctors' appearances and fact." "So what are you suggesting, Mulder? That the three of them got stuck in a time warp in the late forties or early fifties? And where does this woman - Ingleburn - fit in, anyway? She hasn't gone up in flames, so far as we know." He thought for a moment. "Didn't they say she escaped when staff were distracted by a small fire?" "Yes," Scully conceded, "but there's a difference between a small fire and two people going up in flames." "True," he agreed. "But maybe she did it. Maybe that's why she's been locked up all these years." Scully looked at him dubiously. "Let's say she did, though I don't for one second believe it. That doesn't explain how the three of them could have ceased to age, or had their ageing process slow down." Mulder shrugged. "I can't explain that, Scully. But maybe Ingleburn's files can." So saying, he picked up the telephone, and dialled a Virginia number. Anderson Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre Anderson, Virginia November 24, 1996 "Would you mind filling us in on Serena Ingleburn's history, Dr Maitz?" Dr Jillian Maitz opened the file before her. "In honesty, Agent Scully, there isn't much to tell. Serena Ingleburn was born in 1875. During childhood there were a number of fires associated with her - mostly very small conflagrations. Understand, she wasn't an arsonist; it was more like what we might now call pyrokinesis. She seemed capable of controlling it except in times of extreme stress. But that changed at puberty, when fires began around her, seemingly quite spontaneously, with increasing frequency. As with anything misunderstood in those days, she was admitted by her family to this institution in 1889, when she was fourteen years old. Since her family's deaths, her place here has been givernment funded." Mulder leaped on this statement. "How?" he asked. "From where?" "It's a discretionary payment. I believe the rationale was her inability to control her talent and her resulting danger to society." Scully looked at Maitz closely. "Is she really a danger to society?" Maitz considered her for a moment, then said, "In all honesty, I think society is more of a danger to her. She's lived in this institution for one hundred and seven years. She knows nothing of twentieth century life - nothing. It's really a tragedy that she's lived so long, and I think on the outside she would have suicided long ago." "Do you have any explanation for her longevity, and the fact that she doesn't seem to have aged in some decades?" "None at all, Agent Scully." Mulder asked, "Has she been the subject of any investigations - either into her ageing or her pyrokinesis?" Maitz gave a dull laugh. "Serena Ingleburn is a prime example of welfare system complacency. When I came here nineteen years ago, I found a woman who was not being treated in any sense of the term and who had no condition which we would classify as mental illness. Frankly, the only reason I kept her here was that she was so damaged by the system that I felt to release her would probably kill her. In many ways, Serena Ingleburn is still a fourteen year old nineteenth century schoolgirl. I believe there was a brief study in the late forties, with occasional followup for about five years after; but nothing eventuated. The study was into the pyrokinesis." Scully spoke. "is there any information available on that study?" Maitz nodded. "We keep our records here until seven years after the patients' deaths. That's quite beyond our statutory obligations, of course; but I and the chief of staff who preceded me both believe very strongly in the value of a complete medical history; particularly as a number of our patients have rare and unusual psychiatric illnesses." She paused. "We're something of a dumping ground for cases no other psychiatric hospital wants to touch. I want them. I believe I have an obligation to them...an obligation to treat." She looked at the two agents. Mulder's expression was of understanding, Scully's of respect. She gave a little self-deprecating laugh. "I do get going on my pet subjects - all so-called experts do, I guess. But yes, we have the files. They're archived, but I can get them within a couple of days." Scully indicated that they would like that, and asked, "Dr Maitz, where do you think Serena Ingleburn is? Really?" Maitz seemed to consider the two of them. Finally, she admitted, "I think she's dead, or will be soon enough. Understand me, Serena Ingleburn is not a depressive personality. But she's had a pretty rotten life. She's been incarcerated for a hundred and seven years, lived a hundred and twenty one in a life from which the normal release of death has not occurred. Some people want immortality, but those who know Serena know it isn't a blessing, but a curse. She isn't depressed in any clinical sense, but she's exhausted. Mentally, she has been at the end of her life for two decades but she has lingered on. She would like it to end. Some days, I would like to give her the means to end it. But because she lives - lived - in a psychiatric facility, she has not had the opportunity to do so. Now she does. She may wander the city for a few days or weeks out of sheer curiosity, but the day is coming when she will seek that release. Personally, I hope she isn't found until she can do so." Scully nodded. "I understand." Dr Jillian Maitz gave her a piercing look. "But you'll still look for her." Her tone was bitter. "Yes," Scully admitted. "I'm afraid we have to." Basement Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D.C. November 30, 1996 "Scully, come and take a look at this." Mulder's tone was excited. Scully thought that his excitement, at eight fifteen in the morning, was quite tiring - if not positively indecent. "As long as it's not a tie," she said, approaching his desk. That she couldn't take without her first coffee of the day. "Not even the flouroscent green one?" he queried, and she shot an aghast look at his neck to confirm that this was not the case. It wasn't. "Especially not the flourescent green one," she shot back. "What have you got?" Mulder looked at his papers. "The research lab is a typical government department. They either destroy vital papers or keep them in quadruplicate. Luckily, the lab does the latter." He paused. "I raided their archives. Pieterse was recruited straight out of college in 1932, and Sturrock in 1934. Their employment records show birth years of 1906 and 1908, respectively. Everything progressed quite normally until 1967. Then, in the last month of Sturrock's tenure as Chief of Staff, the entire personnel section was blitzed. Everyone was to finish in the last week of August. During the first week of September, a temporary was brought in, and the new staff commenced in the second week of September." Scully spoke. "What happened during that first week in September, 1967?" "The temp was killed in a car accident in 1969. However, she obviously was into archiving, because the files still exist - which is something Sturrock may not have wanted." Mulder paused. "Both Sturrock and Pieterse negotiated new contracts which conveniently were to commence on September 1. Apparently, Sturrock had the temp create new personnel files for both and archive or dump the old ones, effectively making it appear, at least superficially, as if both had just commenced employment there. They also took that opportunity to change both of their birthdates to unknown." Scully said dubiously, "Are you suggesting that they stopped ageing before or about that year and then falsified their work records so that they could go undetected?" Mulder nodded. "Basically, yes." He paused. "Besides, there's more." "Do I want to know?" He ignored her. "Pieterse was due for a tenure as Chief of Staff, to commence next month. She's on the Board, and she recently suggested a consultancy review of the operations of the personnel unit. My guess is, she and Sturrock were paving the way for another blitz, another set of new employment files, and another coverup." Scully groaned. She wanted coffee. "And that's not all, is it?" "Afraid not," Mulder confirmed. "Pieterse and Sturrock conducted the 1952 study into Serena Ingleburn's pyrokinesis. They were relatively junior on the project - the primary study wasn't their area of speciality, but they'd been called aboard to investigate the question of whether or not the ability was hereditary." Scully hung her head in her hands. Mulder went on, "Do you want to know what I think?" She looked at him, her eyes bleary for lack of sleep. After a long moment, she said truthfully, "No, I don't. I want coffee. Want some?" He shook his head, stunned, and she rose and walked out. Scully returned an hour later, her expression considerably more alert. "I've had a walk and I've had a coffee and I've had a croissant," she announced. She'd also thrown up violently, but saw no reason to say so. <> she thought drily. "Now, where were we?" "You'd just refused to hear my speculations on the case," he said. "I'm quite hurt." She gave an impatient little sound and a toss of the head. "Rubbish. If you were hurt every time anyone refused to hear you out you'd be in a constant state of paranoia and insecurity-" she stopped short. "Sorry. Bad example." There was mischief in her eyes. "Thank you, Oprah," he said crossly. He wasn't in the mood. She just laughed. "Stop sulking, Mulder. What have you got?" Her smile was infectious, and he returned it in spite of himself. He motioned for her to sit down. "All right. I think Sturrock and Pieterse had some sort of anti-ageing project on the side at the same time as the pyrokinesis study. I think they used Ingleburn as a guineapig, then used it themselves. You heard Dr Maitz; she hasn't exactly revelled in her immortality. She's out now, and she's well and truly pissed. She's used the only weapon she has against the two of them: her ability to set things on fire by sheer will. She killed Sturrock, but you got to Pieterse before she could finish the job." Scully was skeptical. "Mulder, even if they were able to somehow turn off the ageing process, that doesn't confer immortality. She still should have died of disease by now. And Ingleburn doesn't seem able to control her ability, anyway - that's why she was admitted in the first place." Mulder raised an eyebrow. "She couldn't then. She's had a hundred and seven years to practice," he pointed out. Scully made a small gesture of concession on this point, but her expression remained dubious. <> he thought with a wry grin. "Well, have you any better ideas?" he demanded. "No," she admitted. "But do you remember Pieterse talking about reading about Ingleburn in the journals?" At his nod, she continued, "Well, I called Jillian Maitz. She's quite sure no such article ever appeared. There's no reference on the medical journal databases, either. So it looks as though Pieterse got her information somewhere else, in any case." Mulder regarded her. "I think maybe it's time we had another chat with Dr Marion Pieterse." Scully grabbed her coat. "Let's go." Andrew Wellings Memorial Burns Unit Georgetown Medical Centre Washington, D.C. November 30, 1996 Marion Pieterse and Wendy Tomiris were talking with animation when the two of them arrived. Scully cleared her throat. "Dr Pieterse...Ms Tomiris," she said gently. Wendy leaned forward and very gently kissed her partner's ruined lips. She got to her feet. "I'll go. Agent Scully, good to see you again," she added as an aside, and quickly left. Pieterse looked from Scully to Mulder and back again. Mulder thought her expression was frightened. "Yes?" she said shortly. He decided to jump in with both feet. "We're here to talk about Serena Ingleburn." Pieterse shrunk back in her bed. "I have nothing to say," she said firmly, too surprised to lie. Mulder frowned, suddenly impatient. Dammit, they were trying to protect her and the stupid woman was working against them! "Dr Pieterse, what you know could kill you if you don't tell us!" he snapped. "You're so busy covering up what you and Paul Sturrock did that you've forgotten that she'll kill you! Is the secret really worth a six foot burial?" That seemed to affect her. Scully suddenly had a flash of memory...Marion Pieterse saying quietly, <<"Some people are born to survive. They want it - no matter what. I'm one of them. So was Paul.">> She could suddenly grasp the motivation for whatever it was that the two of them had done: the survival instinct gone out of control. Pieterse was deathly quiet for a few moments, but then she spoke. "It was an exciting time, the late forties and early fifties," she said. "Paul and I had always worked in the area of hereditary, and then, right at the height of our careers, came this incredible discovery: the identification of DNA. My God, we worked with DNA night and day for six years, trying to assess its implications. I don't think we even scratched the surface of what we know now." She paused. "In 1951, we identified what we believed - what I still believe - was a genetic marker for the ageing process. There were a variety of genes involved, but one marker common to all. By 1952, we'd fashioned an antibody which would attach itself only to genes with that marker, and we found a way of attaching a toxin to the antibody. That way, we could immobilise those genes while not affecting any others." Scully nodded. "The same basic idea was used later to develop ways of killing cancerous cells while leaving healthy ones intact," she commented. Pieterse nodded. "That's correct. In 1952 we were also called in on the pyrokinesis project. Ingleburn is probably the only properly documented pyrokinetic subject in the western world. The study was an attempt to find out how she could do what she could do; whether she could control it; and to a lesser extent, whether or not it was hereditary. It was the last question that we were called in on. I may say as an aside that the study turned up absolutely nothing. You might call her a freak of nature." She stopped a moment, before going on, "But what interested Paul and I was that she was old - seventy seven - but in very good health. And she was what you might call a captive subject." Mulder looked at her piercingly. "You used her as a guinea pig?" Pieterse had the good grace to look away for a moment. But she looked back again and met his gaze steadily. "Yes," she said defiantly, "we did." Scully added grimly, "And then used it on yourselves." Pieterse nodded. "We monitored Serena until 1956. We were quite satisfied that it had worked, and that there had been no ill effects. Then, as you say, we used it ourselves." "And now she's back," Mulder said. "And she wants revenge." Pieterse looked from one agent to the other, genuinely puzzled. "For having the closest thing there is within science to immortality? She can still die by accident or disease, that's true; but otherwise - why, she could live for centuries!" Scully's look was one of disgust. Dear God, how could these people be so blind, so lacking in insight? "Dr Pieterse, you're a scientist with a successful career and a loving partner. The years have been kind to you. Serena Ingleburn is a woman with an anomaly which has made her a psychiatric patient, despite no evidence of mental illness, for over a century. She has never married, never had children, and never had a career. She is quite incapable of functioning in society, and because of her circumstances, quite incapable of suicide, too. This woman's life is a living hell, and you and your psychotic friend went and gave her fifty years more of it! For God's sake, ethics aside, surely you didn't expect that she would never come back for her pound of flesh!" Mulder stared at her, stunned by her ferocity. He shouldn't have been, of course; he knew how she felt about scientists playing with life and death. Scully had always felt that there were certain lines that should never be crossed...certain lines which could be crossed by God alone. Part of that was Scully, the scientist...a greater part of it was Scully, the Catholic. Pieterse was staring, too. Her expression was one of disbelief, mingled with vague understanding. "It never occurred to me," she said at last. "That someone could not want to live...no matter how they lived. Do you really think that's so?" she asked, incredulous. Scully nodded. Her tone became more even, but her voice was grim. "Yes, I do." The three of them were silent for several minutes, while Pieterse mulled over this idea. Quite abruptly, however, she looked at Scully. "She's here." "What? Why didn't you tell us?" Mulder demanded. Pieterse's voice was frightened. "I told you. It never occured to me that she might be...angry. I thought she just wanted to talk to us. I thought Paul was an accident, if it were her at all. She couldn't control it, last I heard." She paused. "She's working as a volunteer, or at least pretending to be one. She's stuck her head in a couple of times, but each time, I've had someone with me." She paused. "Do you really think she killed Paul on purpose?" Mulder shrugged. "Who the hell knows? Maybe she did. Maybe she just saw him and got so damned angry the power just leaped out of her. Either way, Dr Pieterse, the same could very well apply to you. The danger is very real." Marion Pieterse looked him in the eye. "All right," she said. "What do we do now?" "<> do nothing," Scully retorted. "Agent Mulder and I will have you put under guard until Serena Ingleburn can be located. In the meantime, I suggest you ask your partner to keep away. If Ingleburn is about, she could be in danger, too." "By association?" Pieterse asked, dubiously. "No," Mulder replied. "By proximity." Recognition dawned in Pieterse's eyes. "You don't think you can stop her, do you?" Mulder shrugged. "I don't know. We don't know if she has to be close by for her to direct her power - if indeed she has any control over it at all. I may say that the circumstances of her escape from her institution suggest that she does have some control of it. As you yourself said, she is the only properly documented pyrokinetic case study in the western world. We don't have enough information to know." Pieterse looked from Mulder to Scully, grimly. "You don't think much of me, do you?" Mulder was discreetly silent, but Scully met her eye. "No," she said evenly. "I don't." "And yet you will protect me. Why?" Scully regarded her steadily for a moment. "Justice takes place in a civilised forum. People should be held accountable for their actions before their peers. When one wronged person takes matters into their own hands, that's not justice. That's revenge." Pieterse nodded. "Very well. But tell me, Agent Scully: documentation or not, what jury in the world will convict her?" Scully snapped in response, "What jury in the world will convict you?" With that, she turned on her heel in disgust, and left. Coming In Part 7: The Flame Of Justice/Wendy Tomiris' Screwy Robot/Scully On The Edge -- _______________________________________ | | |Deslea R. Judd (drjudd@rainbow.net.au) | |"The Owls Are Not What They Seem" | | - The Log Lady, Twin Peaks) | |_______________________________________|