THE DEEP AND DAZZLING DARKNESS
by suricata
He nodded, and she sank into her chair, crossing her arms on the desk and laying her head down on them, all in one graceful motion. He admired the curve of her spine for a moment, then got up and fixed her a cup of coffee.
#
"Sir..." "Is there a problem, Agent Scully?" Scully looked at Skinner, and shook her head. "No, Sir. No problem." "Good." Skinner closed the file, handed it to Mulder, and looked at them expectantly. Taking the not-so-subtle hint, Mulder and Scully left the office. Mulder waited exactly one second after the door closed before pouncing. "What was that all about?" "What was what all about?" Scully responded, not looking at him. "That," and he gestured back at Skinner's office. "You looked like you were going to refuse this assignment -- and Skinner expected you to. What's the deal with this Doctor Worth, anyway? I take it you know him?"Scully shrugged. "When I was a kid," she said briefly, willing Mulder to leave it at that. Mercifully, he did. For the moment.
#
Mulder looked up from his case file to stare out the window at the water passing underneath their plane. Dr. Worth's laboratory was on a small island off the Florida coast. Once on land, theywould have to drive an hour to reach the town of Brackweld, and from there they would be ferried across to the island. It seemed a long way totravel just to investigate reports of unusual behavior among dolphins. Mulder had studied a number of the reports on dolphin-human interactions, and Worth's name had never come up. So who was he, what was he doing, and why did his name make his partner so damn jumpy?#
Several hours later, Mulder had no answer to his questions. Scully had refused to answer any conversational gambit with more than one or two words, and he had finally been forced to admit defeat. Now, seated in the cabin of the small boat ferrying them to Worth's lab, Mulder knew only what was in the thin file Skinner had handed him that morning: One Adam Worth, along with his wife Joanne, were thought to be at the root of several substantiated attacks upon humans by dolphins. That had occasioned Scully's only comment on the case -- "it isn't true." While Mulder had to admit that he'd never encountered anything like this, in the X-Files or out, he had to point out to Scully that the evidence was pretty damning. She had simply turned away from him, taking refuge in a medical journal.
"There they are." The skipper's words broke Mulder out of his fugue,and he looked up in time to see a pod of dolphins jump out of the water ahead of them, dancing alongside the boat briefly, then swimming away, towards the island. "Hey Scully, did you see that?" He turned to his partner, then stopped. Scully was staring at the water where the dolphins had been with an expression of-- Mulder could only describe it as a mixture of pain and longing, that shook him to the marrow. "Scully?" She turned to him, and that expression was gone, replaced by the coldly professional mask she had worn all day. "Yes?" "We're almost there," he said carefully, watching her as though she were a potentially-violent suspect. She nodded, then returned to her reading. Mulder stared at her a moment longer. Something was wrong, but he didn't know how to get through the `no trespassing' signs Scully had posted everywhere. He didn't even know if he should. The ferry pulled up to a small, carefully-tended dock, and Mulder stepped onto the gangplank and walked gratefully to the ground. It wasn't that he didn't like sea travel, just that he preferred terra firma. With a deep and abiding passion. A tall, slender man was waiting to meet them. Although his file said that Dr. Worth was in his early 60's, the man in front of them had a much younger appearance, only reinforced by the open expression on his face, and the joyful light behind his wide grey eyes. "Since we're not due for the mail packet, I'll assume that you're the investigators the government's sicced on us," Dr. Worth said, coming forward to shake Mulder's hand. "Agent Mulder, and I believe you know my partner, Agent Scully." Mulder stepped aside to let Scully off the plank, carefully observing Worth's reaction. It was, to say the least, edifying. The older man stopped dead in his tracks, looking at Scully in wonder. "Dana." He swallowed, took a step forward, then stopped, obviously unsure of her reaction. "Adam." Her voice was a little shaky, but otherwise devoid of emotion. "Last I heard, you were going to medical school." She nodded. "I did." Worth smiled then, the light in his eyes spreading to cover his entire face. "You always were an overachiever, D.K.." There was a pause. "Well, let's get you up to the house, shall we? I'll show you where you can drop your stuff, and Jo is waiting to meet you. She'll be pleased to see you again, Dana. As will... the others." Mulder noticed a slight hesitation in Worth's words, and wondered at it. According to the report, Worth and his wife lived here alone most of the year, with only a small staff of lab workers who lived on the mainland. Who else could there be? Walking up the crushed-shell path to the main house, Mulder couldn't help but notice that Worth kept making small movements, as though wanting to reach out and touch Scully, only to pull back at the last moment. He wondered if the older man was aware of this, and found himself almost insanely curious as to what history lay between the two. In the three years he had known Dana Scully, she had never seemed so uncomfortable, as though fighting dual impulses, both unpleasant. And that oddly blank stare in her eyes had him worried. A woman came out of the house, her long, greying hair flowing behind her. Joanne Fordham. According to the file, she was a biologist with a specialization in animal linguistics. Mulder wondered, idly, what kind of thesis defense was required for that PhD. They came closer, and Mulder saw that she had the same welcoming expression on her face as her husband. Unlike him,however, she showed no surprise on seeing Dana, but rather gave a nod of agreement, as though confirming something she had already known. "Dana." "Hello, Jo." His partner sounded defensive, as though waiting for a scolding. Instead, the older woman simply smiled. "I thought it might be you. They've been agitated all morning." Mulder looked from one woman to another, then to Dr. Worth, who was looking quietly thoughtful. Mulder hated it when everyone had the script except him. "You should go say hello," Dr. Fordham continued. "They've been waiting." Scully took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "All right." Her voice was strained, and she had that same expression of fearful longing that Mulder had seen earlier. "Scully?" She shook her head, not looking at him. "Not now, Mulder. Later." He nodded, letting the biologists lead him into the house. When he looked back, Scully was standing where they had left her, staring out to the sea.#
"So you're saying that none of the dolphins you're currently working with could have been involved in the, um, incidents?"
"Yah." Dr. Worth -- Adam -- sat in the chair across from him, handing him a glass of iced tea. "Not that I believe a word of these so-called reports. I don't care how many eyewitnesses they've got. Dolphins would have no reason to attack a human, especially if they weren't provoked." "Are you saying that a dolphin could attack, if provoked?" Adam shrugged. "Any animal will defend itself, Mulder. I simply find it hard to credit that there would be a rash of such incidents in such a short period of time, without us hearing about it." "And how exactly would you hear about it?" Mulder asked, putting his drink down. There was something these people weren't telling him, and he wished, not for the first time, that he knew where the hell his partner was. It had been almost an hour, damnit. Who was she with? As though summoned by his thoughts, Scully appeared in the doorway. Her face was pale, but the strain in her face was gone. "Scully?" She smiled at him briefly, then took a seat next to Adam. "Okay. So we're assuming that it wasn't dolphins doing the attacking. What was it?" Obviously she had been listening to the discussion for a while. Joanne spoke for the first time since Mulder and Adam started discussing the situation. "The eyewitnesses swear that they saw dolphins." Mulder nodded, although it hadn't been a question. "That's not something locals are likely to be mistaken about." Adam admitted. "So we're looking for something that's dolphin-like, but aggressive. Man-made or animal?" Scully shook her head, pouring herself a glass of iced tea from the half-empty pitcher on the table. "It could be either. There are plastics now that could mimic dolphin flesh." Mulder frowned into his iced tea in bemusement. Usually he was the one positing the wild theories, but here he was the -- well, the fish out of water. But he would be damned if he would play Doubting Thomas to Scully. If Adam and Joanne were willing to accept what Scully referred to - more than once - as Mulder's Loopy Theories, well, Mulder, he told himself, don't question your luck.. "If the government were testing new spy devices, this would be an ideal place for it. Not too many people, even during tourist season, and enough military bases nearby to work from." He looked up to see how that MLE was received. Joanne was staring out the large oceanside window. Mulder wasn't sure she had heard anything he said until she turned to her husband and asked him something in a quiet voice. Adam shook his head, then stood and left the room. Scully nodded in agreement to Mulder's statement, handing the empty pitcher to Adam as he passed. "That would make sense. As would their desire for this to be blamed on the local dolphin population." Mulder did a fake doubletake. "Agreeing with me so early in a case, Scully? I may never recover from the shock." She looked at him then, and he was relieved to see a sparkle in her eyes. "Don't push it, Mulder. Besides, that doesn't explain why a spy device would be attacking people." Adam returned before Mulder could marshal a suitably witty response. He deposited the fresh pitcher carefully on the table, poured himself a glass, and resumed his seat. "I put e-mail in to Woods' Hole. A friend of mine there has a number of ties to the R&D sector within the military, and has been helpful before. Hopefully we'll have a better feel for what they're capable of sometime tomorrow. Until then, all we're doing is conjecture and I, for one, need sleep more than I need more ideas. What do you say we table this until the morning?" Joanne smiled, patting his hand. "Translation -- he's too old to pull all-nighters anymore. I've discovered that he gets cranky if he doesn't get eight hours of shut-eye. Come, Dana. I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."
#
Mulder woke to sunshine streaming in the window. According to his travel clock, it was just after 6am. Much to his amazement, he had slept the entire night without once waking. "Maybe I should buy one of those sound machines, set it to waves," he told himself, grabbing a towel from the chair by the door and shuffling down the hallway to the bathroom.
He came out to hear Adam and Joanne arguing on the patio outside. About Scully? Hating himself, he moved closer to the open window in an attempt to hear better. "...her own time..." "...sure this is the right thing..." "...trust them...got to trust them..." And then the sound of his own name. "..can't be sure..." Adam's laughter, low and comforting. "...hate to see her hurt..." Mulder suddenly realized that he was standing in the hallway wearing only a towel, and continued back to his room, wondering what the hell he had overheard. When he came down the stairs, Scully was already at the table, sipping from an oversized mug. "You slept," she said with a smile. He nodded, struck by how... young she looked. It was more than the jeans and sweatshirt -- he had seen her dressed casually before, although he had to admit that the bare feet were a new touch. But something else was different, something strange, but oddly familiar. Shaking his head, he decided that it didn't matter. Whatever had bothered her about working with Adam had obviously been worked out, and they had a job to do. He started to sit down, but Joanne came in just then and shook her head. "Don't bother getting comfortable," she told him. "Grab a mug and let's go." "Go where?" he asked even as he filled a waiting mug with some of the best-smelling coffee he'd had in years.Joanne grinned, hoisting a bucket of fish. "To meet your suspects."
#
When Mulder had read about this case, he had known that he would have to, at some point, get close to the dolphins being accused of the attacks. Intellectually, he had accepted it. But now, standing by the side of the pool where Adam did much of his work, he realized that the knowledge had never gotten past his brain. "Mulder." Joanne came up beside him, her hand reassuring on his arm. "It's okay. They're really very friendly. I've known most of this pod for years." "Um-hmm," he said noncommittally, trying to fight down what he knew was -- probably-- a completely irrational fear. "Don't worry," she repeated. "Worst case, they won't like you, in which case they'll just ignore you." She laughed, something she seemed to do easily. "But I don't think that'll be a problem." Before Mulder decide if that was a good thing or not, Joanne was kneeling on the flagstones lining the area around the steep-sided pool. She slapped the water once, then sat back on her heels and waited. There was a flash of shadow below, where the pool fed into the ocean, and a grey streak broke the blue-grey surface, splashing water all over them before falling back into the water and splashing them all over again. "Ajax!" Joanne yelled, more amused than upset. "You showoff." Mulder wiped the water out of his eyes in time to see her leaning over to rub the side of a silvery-grey dolphin that lay almost motionless in the water alongside the edge of the pool. She pulled a fish out of the bucket and slipped it into the dolphin's mouth, between surprisingly sharp teeth. It -- =he= Mulder reminded himself -- made a chirruping sound, and Joanne laughed. "Maybe later, Ajax. I've got work to do now." She stood, and gestured to him. "Come on, Mulder. Honestly, they don't bite." Nodding, Mulder stepped to the side of the pool and knelt down, reaching out one hand. =Nothing to it= he told himself, hoping that dolphins couldn't smell fear the way dogs could. The dolphin rose out of the water, arching against his hand. The dolphin's skin felt warmer than Mulder had expected; firm and slick and somehow =familiar.= Suddenly Mulder felt a sense of rightness flow over him, erasing the fear as though it had never been. His hand stilled, trying to analyze the feeling before it faded, leaving him feeling as he had that morning, rested and completely alert. Ajax bumped against his hand once, then dove in obvious indignation when Mulder did not resume the caress. "Come on," Joanne said, breaking into his thoughts. "I'll show you where we do most of our work." "What about Scully?" He looked back at the house several hundred yards away, where they had left his partner still nursing her coffee and bagel. Joanne looked at him, a small smile on her face. "Dana already knows about our work," she said. "She'll join us later." Mulder noted, but didn't comment on, the fact that twice now Joanne Fordham had said "our" work, not "Adam's." What was going on here? After a quick tour of the facilities, Joanne showed Mulder the primary `office,' which was a small, glass-sided building set into yet another pool. They had to go down a short flight of steps, ending up halfway underwater. From what Mulder had seen of the island, the entire ocean side was pockmarked with similar pools to this and the tank where he had met Ajax, all connected to the ocean via wide tunnels. "Most of them are natural," Joanne had explained when he commented on it. "We just expanded existing inlets to suit our needs."She had smiled. "It's amazing what private funding can accomplish."
"So you're not connected with any government projects," Mulder asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"You knew that already, Agent Mulder. I'd say there isn't much about us that you don't know." "Except the nature of your" and he stressed -your- "work." And what your connection to Scully is, he thought, but didn't say. Joanne glanced at him, then laughed. "It's no secret, Mulder. Communications." "You're working on a language program?" "No." She gave him a sly, sideways smile. "We're communicating." Mulder did a doubletake, but didn't press her for more information. She was too obviously expecting him to, and he felt manipulated enough already. She pointed him now to a chair beside a complicated control board that looked like a cross between a recording studio sound board and the display of a nuclear sub. "This is SAM." Mulder jerked out of his seat, then realized that Joanne was talking about the control board which, he noted, was hooked up to a small but obviously powerful mainframe. "Simultaneous Audio Manipulator," she continued with pride. "It takes the delphinade vocabulary, translates it into the closest human approximations, and vice versa." She stopped, shrugging. "I haven't the faintest idea =how= it works, just that it does. My little brother took Adam's notes and showed them to some of his techie friends, and this is what they came up with." "So you type into it, and the dolphins understand what you say, and you understand them?" Mulder was impressed. "But -- " "Why haven't we announced this to the scientific community?" Joanne laughed again, gently amused. "To what purpose, you should pardon the pun? To have the government use it to make them into spies? Or letmedicine turn them into test cases, or the entertainment world turn them into sideshows? No. We're doing something much more important that all of that, Fox. We're building a bridge, the first of its kind. A bridge between the two sentient species of Earth." Seeing that Mulder was going to question her further, she shook her head, reaching past him to make a few keystrokes. "Here. You be the judge of their intelligence." Mulder looked at her, then at the CRT display. ANYONE LISTENING? glowed back at him in all caps. As he watched, a clicking noise came over the speakers set into the walls, and lower case letters appeared beneath Joanne's question. >machu here. jo talk? jo want play?< A sleek grey head appeared against the glass wall, peering in at them. >who with jo?< "Go ahead," she urged. "Introduce yourself." Hesitant, yet fascinated, Mulder reached over to type his name. HELLO. MY NAME IS MULDER. >hello mulder. mulder? mulder? mulder.< Mulder looked at Joanne, puzzled. "That's his pod name, Machu," she said, smiling at Mulder. "He chooses not to use his given name." Mulder shot a startled glance at her, only now realizing that she had called him Fox earlier. Well, obviously Scully had told her, also that he preferred not to use it. The dolphin, Machu, bumped against the glass, claiming his attention. >why no use?< Mulder started to give his standard line, but then reconsidered. It was something Adam had said last night, about dolphins having a much simpler understanding of basic facts. They didn't understand avoidance -- a psychologist's nightmare.. He typed his answer slowly, trying to decide what a dolphin might be able to relate to. IT REMINDS ME OF THINGS -- PEOPLE -- LOST. The dolphin studied him a moment longer, then rose to the surface, rising onto his tail and dancing backwards, creating a stream of sounds that sounded like nothing Mulder had ever heard before; a inhuman aria, or one of those chants that Scully was so fond of. He looked at the screen, but nothing new appeared. Machu finished, and disappeared as quickly as he had come. "What...?" "That was their way of mourning," Joanne said softly. "He was sharing your grief." Mulder swallowed, suddenly feeling very humble. "He understood you when you spoke -- this translates speech as well?" For the first time, Joanne appeared hesitant. "Some words," she said finally. "But I'm never sure if it's going to work properly. For now, we've stuck to typing. It's less prone to creating misunderstandings." Mulder leaned back, grinning broadly. He could now count at least two alien contacts to his resume. Maybe he'd quit the FBI and go to work as a sort of trans-species ambassador. The thought tickled him, and he wanted to share it with Scully. Scully. He sobered suddenly. "Jo?" "Hmmm?" She was looking at him, calmly expectant. "How long have you known Scully?" There, it was out. He'd sworn to himself that he would never pry into his partner's life, but this was different. He wasn't sure why, only that it was. Joanne looked to her hands, folded in her lap. "Isn't that something you should ask Dana?" "Please."She sighed, standing up. "Come on. I'll show you the rest of the island."
He thought that she was brushing him off, but as they toured the island, she began to speak.
"I met Dana when she was just ten. Adam was working with a research group that was associated with a naval base in California, and all the kids used to come by and watch the dolphins. Adam let them hang around, sometimes giving the older kids jobs, errands to run, that sort of thing. Dana..." Joanne smiled, lost in her memories. "Even then she was this tiny thing, all big eyes and flame-red hair. I used to see her, every morning, stopping by on her way to school. She would stand by the gate, just.. watching. She was so still, so quiet, that one day I stopped to ask her what she was thinking. She looked up at me, so solemn, and said that she was.. .listening." Joanne swallowed, looking out over the sandy beach they were walking along. "I asked her if she wanted to meet some of the dolphins, and her face lit up, like I'd just offered her the keys to the candy store." Mulder could see the scene, adding it to the picture he was forming of his partner as a child. "And..?" He prompted Joanne when it seemed like she was going to stop. "She worked with the dolphins all that year. They loved her, used to wait for her to come by. I thought we had a budding oceanologist on our hands. Then her father --" Joanne stopped, turning to face Mulder. "Dana loved her father a great deal. Maybe too much. When he told her not to spend any more time with us, she agreed." Mulder was confused. "Why would he --" Joanne shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mulder. I really am. But that's something that you're going to have to take up with Dana, not me. Now, let's go meet the rest of the pod."#
Mulder spent the rest of the day taking notes on the fourteen dolphin Adam and Joanne were currently working with, and before dinnertime he was convinced of one thing -- these animals hadn't attacked anyone. It was a purely emotional reaction, he admitted, but one he couldn't shake. Sitting in Adam's office, he placed a number of long-distance phone calls, and got the same response. Nobody believed it. Which left only two hypotheses. Either someone -- military or otherwise -- was testing dolphin-like devicesin the area, or... Mulder smiled. Oh, he couldn't wait to try the second theory out on Scully. But first he had to find her.
He stepped outside of the office and looked at the skyline. Dusk was beginning to fall, and the palm tress were casting their shadows over the beach where he and Jo had walked. There was no-one there. Playing a hunch, Mulder retraced his steps to the first pool, where he had meet Ajax. Sure enough, Dana was sitting there, her feet in the water, staring out at the ocean. "Hey." She looked up at him, smiling faintly. "Hi. Busy day?" "Busy enough. And you?" "I went through Adam's notes for the past few months, since the time that the attacks were first reported. His handwriting's gotten worse."He smiled, gesturing for her to continue.
"There seemed to have been some unusual agitation among the dolphins, but nothing worth following up on. There's a lot that goes on out there that Adam can't follow with the current system -- just not enough words. And Jo..." She stopped speaking.
"And Joanne couldn't sense anything from them." Scully shook her head, laughing slightly. It was the same laugh he had heard from Joanne that morning, a slow, wondering kind of laugh. "That's one of the things that I love about you, Mulder. Your absolute inability to accept normal, rational explanations."Mulder looked at her, surprised. "It wasn't that big a leap, really. I mean, there've been accounts of people having psychic links with dolphins for as long as therehave been reports of dolphins themselves. And Joanne was a little too, evasive, about her part in Adam's research." He sat down on the flagstone lining the edge of the pool, carefully not looking at her.
She knew about Joanne's talents. Knew, and didn't tell me. What else has she been keeping from me? "What part did you have in that research, Scully? Jo said that you worked with them when you were younger."
"I was chief bottle-washer, mostly," she said dismissively. "I got underfoot a lot, made copies, learned to feed live fish to the dolphins..." Her voice trailed off. "I believed in them, Mulder. In what they were doing. I had no doubt that they would learn how to talk to each other." Mulder fought the familiar urge to pull her into his arms, her sadness a heavy cloak over both of them."But your father didn't believe." It wasn't a question.
"Dad thought that they were wasting the taxpayers' money, filling my head..." she let out a soft laugh that might have been a sob. "Filling my head with all sorts of nonsense."
"But you were right," Mulder said. "They did learn how to communicate." He looked out to where the moon was rising over the water. "You were right to believe." Scully shook her head, but he sensed that it wasn't in response to anything he had said. "So much wasted time. So much... wasted." "Scully?" She looked at him then, as though seeing him for the first time. "Come on, Adam's got mahi mahi on the grill, and you haven't lived until you've had Jo's plum sauce." Clearly, this discussion was over. "For now," Mulder told himself. For now.#
Dinner was a lively affair, with Adam and Mulder arguing the logistics of FTL travel, while Joanne made scribbles on napkins as ideas struck her from the twists and turns of their conversation. Scully kept refilling the glasses, laughing when Mulder occasionally had to give ground, occasionally putting her two-bits in but mostly content to listen. Mulder kept forgetting that they were there to investigate a case, basking in the company of people who not only didn't scorn his ideas, but had intelligent thoughts to add. He looked up at his partner, catching her raising her wine glass to her mouth. She smiled at him over the rim of the glass, and he smiled back, feeling ridiculously at peace with the world.
Only after dinner, when the last dish had been cleared and Adam loaded the dishwasher -- "it's your turn, Adam. No it's not. Yes it is. No it's not. Adam... Okay, okay, it's my turn." -- did the four of them return to a discussion of the day's work. "According to my friend at Woods' Hole, the government was working on a project to create small submersibles with a surface that would mimic whale skin to a sonar, but as far as he knows, that work was scrapped in the last round of budget cuts. And it was an expensive project, so it's doubtful anyone made it into a garage hobby." "But the technology is out there," Scully said, pulling out her notebook. "Yah," Adam said. "And any number of ideas on how to use it."Mulder looked up, surprised, at the bitterness in Adam's tone. It was a too-familiar sound. Dr. Worth's aversion to government funding suddenly made a bit more sense. Interesting. That, combined with Joanne's talents -- oh yes, he could understand why they'd kept their work quiet. No wonder he hadn't been able to find any of their works in the usual publications. He grinned, thinking that they had more in common with "Spooky" Mulder than it seemed. But the real test of their open-mindedness would come when he unveiled his latest theory.
"What if it's not a machine?"
"Mulder, you're not suggesting..." Scully's voice trailed off as she realized that was exactly what he was suggesting. "What?" Adam looked up expectantly. "A new life-form? Impossible. That much the dolphins would have been able to tell us. And they would have, believe me." "Unless it was something that they didn't have words for," Joanne said slowly. "Something that unnerved them enough that they didn't want to investigate -- and didn't want us to get near. That would match up with what I've gotten from them -- a sense of foreboding, but also a complete refusal to discuss it with me." Mulder noted that Joanne seemed not at all hesitant to discuss her side oftheir work in front of him now. Obviously Scully had been doing more than helping to baste fish while he was sent off to wash up. "I thought at first it was an interpod thing," Joanne continued, "but maybe..." Mulder watched, amazed, as once again his theories were treated not just with consideration, but with matter-of-fact acceptance. They weren't missing a beat."Where have you two been all of my life?" he said softly.
Scully kicked him under the table "I don't think they're ready for the Mighty Morphin' Bounty Hunter," she said in an equally low voice.
"I'll take what I can get, when I can get it," he said. "So I've heard," she returned, and when he shot her a startled look, she smiled primly and turned back to the conversation. Adam got up to retrieve the journals Scully had been reviewing, flipping through the pages to find anything which might back up Mulder's hypothesis. Scully went around the table to hang over his shoulder, occasional pointing out one passage or another, and the two of them would argue about it for a few moments before moving on to another page. After a while, Scully pulled a chair over and sat next to him, their heads close together over the oversized notebook. Joanne caught Mulder's eye, and jerked her head to indicate that they should leave the room. "It's best to just let them roll along at their own pace," she explained once they were outside on the patio. "Any distractions will just make them slow down. When they find something for us to work with, they'll let us know. But I wouldn't count on anything for several hours. Unless Dana's changed greatly, they'll argue it out several times before coming to a consensus." Mulder leaned against the brick wall and gazed out into the stars, clearly visible in the early summer sky. "Do you think that we'll find what attacked those people?" he asked. "Will we find out? Yes. Will it be something we can tell other people?" She paused, sitting on the low swing across from him. "Probably not. Does it matter?" Mulder started to say `of course,' then stopped. So often in recent cases he had been forced to stop short of the complete truth, never knowing, rarely able to bring the truth into the light. And yet, did it make what they were able to accomplish any less? And what remained unknown -- was that always a terrible thing? Mulder had always thought so. Now... Now Joanne was asking him to reevaluate everything he had always held sacred. A voice came like a bullet out of his memory. I've always held science sacred. Damn. Could he do any less than what he had asked -- demanded -- of his partner? "Someone very wise, whom I suspect had more than a passing contact with the dolphin mind, said that "the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." We live in a world of mysteries, Fox. Leave some of them be. In the end, that beauty may do more to comfort you than all the solutions ever could." He turned to her, startled. "You do more than read dolphin minds, don't you?" She smiled, not at all offended. "I don't read minds, Fox. I share them.And implicit in that is the fact that nothing can be shared that is not first offered." She swung back and forth gently. "It's not a talent, not a toy, not something to be studied and categorized. It's simply what I am." "Is that a warning?" "A piece of advice. The truth isn't always a blinding burst of light, you know. Sometimes it's a slow darkness, a deep and dazzling darkness, that illuminates -- and burns -- just as surely."And with that she stood and returned into the house, leaving Mulder still staring at the stars.
#
The next morning, Adam showed up at Mulder's bedside at 5 AM, shaking him awake gently. "Up-and-away," he said, far too cheerfully for Mulder's taste. "No lazy man Washington hours around here." Mulder, recognizing only that someone had actually =woken him up,= considered shooting his attacker, considered shooting himself, considered the distance he'd have to move in order to reach his gun, and gave a muffled "whumph" as he fell face-first back into bed. "Not a morning person, is he?" Adam said to someone beside him. There was a low response that Mulder missed, then Adam moved away and the other person came closer, bringing a smell of.. Mulder's nose twitched involuntarily. Coffee. There was coffee. There might be a god after all. Some time later he made it down the stairs to the kitchen, dressed in a pair of jeans, a heavy sweater, and a bright yellow squall jacket Adam had left for him. The sleeves were several inches too short. Scully was standing by the sliding glass door, sipping coffee. She was dressed similarly, except that her clothing all fit. "I knew what to pack," she said smugly, catching his envious glance. "I hope you remembered to pack the Dramamine as well," he said glumly, catching a glimpse of the storm-grey sky outside. "Don't worry, Mulder," she said comfortingly. "You'll be too busy to get seasick." "Promise?" "Come on, be a good little sailor and I'll buy you a toy when we're home." Mulder made a face, but followed her out the door and down to the boathouse where Adam and Joanne were waiting in what Adam called "the wee putt-putt." Mulder shook his head. "I don't want to do this, Scully.""Stop whining, Mulder. A few hours, some splashing in the water, and you'll be back on solid ground." Under her breath she muttered "landlubber."
#
Scully threw her head back, the wind tangling her hair into knots. Leaning the prow of the "Lady Del," arms clasping the brass rail, Mulder thought that she looked like one of those figures carved into the prows of old sailing ships. If Frohike could see her now, he'd join the Navy. The engines died suddenly, and Mulder had to lean against the side of the cabin to keep from being thrown off balance. Adam came out of the cabin, clapped him on the shoulder, and handed him a foot-long fish. Mulder managed to hold on to it, but just barely. "And what am I supposed to do with this?" he asked in a reasonably calm voice, adjusting his grip to avoid the sharp gills. "No, let me guess. I get to play waiter." He held the fish up for inspection. "May I recommend the sushi today?" Scully came back to join them, picking another fish out of the bucket in Adam's hand. "Come on, Mulder. Let a pro show you how it's done." He followed her back to the side of the boat, stepping carefully around the piles of electronic equipment and coils of rope. "Like this," and she held the fish by the tail, leaning out over the bow. "Shouldn't you wait for --" Before the words left his mouth, a streak hurtled out of the water, took the fish delicately from her hand, and landed back into the water. "See how easy it is?" It took several tries for him to hold his hand steady enough for the dolphins to take the fish, but that first glow of accomplishment made the effort worthwhile. He helped Adam empty the bucket, almost able to ignore the toss of the boat underneath his feet. The sun came out around midday, and he took off his jacket, then the sweater, feeling the sweat form under his t-shirt. "Hey, Mulder!" He looked up at Scully's call, then spluttered in astonishment as cold, salty water hit him in the face. Laughing, she dropped the empty bucket and dove into the water in a flash of red. He hadn't even seen her change into her bathing suit. Leaning over the rail, he watched in amazement as she swam around one of the dolphins -- Echo, he thought. They played tag for a minute then, grabbing the dolphin's dorsal fin, she let it tow her in a circle around the boat. Another dolphin came up and bumped them, causing her to drop off. She went under the surface, then burst upward like a dolphin herself, splashing water in every direction. Pushing the hair off of her face, she trod water for a moment, looking up at the boat. "Come on in, Mulder!" He shook his head, enjoying the view. "I don't think so, Scully. I'm not much for water sports.""Coward," she taunted, looking up at him with a grin on her face.
"Cautious," he countered. "But you go on, enjoy yourself."
She smiled. "Oh, I will," she said, backpeddling. He frowned, something in her manner alerting him, but too late. Arms wrapped around his legs, lifting him up over the railing and tossing him into the water. Mulder felt the shock of the water, then he was struggling to breathe. There was pressure under his knees, pushing him to the surface. He wiped the water out of his eyes and looked down, seeing a sleek grey shape between his legs. Grabbing reflexively, he found himself astride one of the dolphins, hanging on to the dorsal fin for dear life. =What the hell am I doing?!= The dolphin had a faint white scar running from the side of it's head to just before the fin. "Hey, Su-su," Mulder said, patting her side. "Thanks for the save." He let go, sliding off as she swam forward, then looked around for his partner. She was lying on her side, one arm thrown over a huge grey shape. Ajax, Mulder guessed. He was the only one that big. He swam over, splashing a gentle wave of water in his partner's face. "Hey" she said, not opening her eyes. "Cut that out." "We're supposed to be working," he reminded her. "Spoilsport," she muttered, but pushed away from Ajax and began swimming back to the boat, Mulder and Ajax behind her. Ajax bumped against him in a friendly manner, much like a large dog might in order to get your attention, then dove, beating them to the boat easily. Joanne was setting a smaller version of SAM up. Mulder grabbed hold of the rope ladder and hung there, shrugging out of his now-sodden jeans, thankful that he had worn his bathing suit underneath to save time. Although he supposed he didn't have anything Scully hadn't seen before, this was neither the time nor the place he would have chosen to test that theory.Joanne handed a cable to Adam, then tossed the microphone down to Scully, who caught it, hooking it up to a fixture on the side of the boat.
"Remember, talk slow, and use simple words. This equipment isn't as sophisticated as the Mommy SAM, so we're not sure how much will translate. If there's any hesitation, repeat the question, and be patient."
Scully nodded, obviously impatient to get started. Mulder had a sudden vision of her in medical school, all revved up and ready to go. That aspect of her personality, the exuberance, always fascinated him. He wanted to find answers, but the process itself wasn't what interested him. He supposed, if he were going to be analytical, that was the reason he sometimes got sloppy. With Scully, he had the feeling that the research was as important to her as the end result. The process of discovery, she had called it once. Well, she had certainly gotten a double handful of that working on the X-Files! "Ready?" He nodded. "Let's do it." The four of them had discussed this the night before. Joanne had felt that the pod might be more willing to answer questions away from the human debris of the island lab. This sheltered cove was a "special place," accessible only by water. Joanne and Adam had met the rest of the pod here, years before. The dolphins felt safe here, protected. And, more to the point, Joanne felt that the pod would believe the humans would be protected here as well, thereby relieving some of the hesitation she had sensed on their parts. "It's just a feeling," she had warned them, but that was all they had to go on. If this didn't work, if Ajax and the other dolphins still refused to tell them anything, then the investigation would be at a dead end, and the local authorities would be free to shut the lab down. Adam seated himself behind the terminal and nodded. "Ready to go, folks. Tape's rolling and the dolphin's are a waitin'." Scully gave him a thumb's up and adjusted the lightweight, waterproof headset. Mulder reached up to take a set from Joanne, and did the same. There was a soft crackling, and then a series of clicks as Adam adjusted the volume. Joanne would ask the questions he and Scully had written out on the trip out here, using both SAM and her own senses to make sure that the questions were phrased properly. He and Scully were simply observers, although he wasn't sure how much he would be able to learn from the facial reactions of a species that always seemed to be grinning.He looked over at Scully again. She's really enjoying this, he thought. Well, at least he knew what to get her for her next birthday -- FAO Shwartz had this -huge- stuffed dolphin in the window last time he walked by the store.
He wondered again at Scully's reluctance to see Adam and Joanne again. She obviously cared a great deal about them, and they for her. So why her obvious discomfort? She must feel like she's betraying her father somehow he thought, watching as several members of the pod swam around the boat, responding to Joanne's summons. Well, they were together again now. And it looked like they were picking up right where they left off, based on the way Adam and Scully had been bouncing ideas off each other. Mulder felt a twinge of what he had already identified as jealousy, and admitted to himself that he would be just as happy when this case was closed, and he could take his partner back to Washington.
A soft nudge broke him from those thoughts, and he looked down to see Su-Su at his side, her rounded beak tucked under his arm. "Okay, okay," he said. "I'm paying attention." He rested one hand on the dolphin's broad head, watching while Scully tried to deal with Ajax and Echo, who had decided that it was still playtime. "Joanne, tell them to behave!" she cried after a particularly severe dunking. Joanne just laughed, spreading her hands helplessly. "You tell them, Dana. They're not listening to me. I think that they think you've gotten too serious." "Fancy that," Mulder said to Su-Su, who responded by diving out from under him. When he surfaced, spitting salt water, he was convinced that he could hear dolphin laughter. "Very funny." He had just managed to get the water out of his eyes when there was a tug at his leg and he went under again. That wasn't a dolphin, he thought. That was a Scully. On the boat, Joanne and Adam sat back and laughed as the three dolphins and two humans splashed and swam, all thoughts of the investigation forgotten for the moment. The dolphins seemed to think that it was particularly funny to see Mulder trying to grab one of them, only to have his hands slide off slick dolphin skin. Giving up, he grabbed Scully instead. She squirmed in his grasp, calling to the dolphins to help her. Outnumbered, Mulder gave up, finally accepting defeat. Floating on his back while trying to catch his breath, Mulder saw Ajax come up alongside him out of the corner of his eye. The big dolphin swam under him, then around him twice. "He wants you to grab his fin," Joanne called out. Mulder looked at the dolphin doubtfully. "Come on, Mulder. You'll hurt his feelings if you don't." That was from Adam. Mulder looked at his partner. She was watching him, a secretive smile on her face, one arm thrown around Echo's back to keep her afloat. That was definitely a challenging smile, he told himself. Chicken out now, and you'll never hear the end of it. "Okay, sport," he said, reaching out to curl his fingers around the dorsal fin. "Let's --" The words were lost in a blast of wind as Ajax took off, Mulder barely managing to pull himself onto the dolphin's back in time to avoid getting dumped. Terrified beyond belief, he crouched over Ajax's back, letting the water take most of his weight. After a few seconds, he began to actually enjoy himself. It wasn't too unlike riding a motorcycle without a helmet. Although, he reminded himself, generally you controlled the motorcycle. This ride's got a mind of it's own. And what happens if he decides to dive? Eventually Ajax turned back to the boat, dumping Mulder with a ceremonious splash in front of Scully, who only laughed and splashed water back at them. And that started them off again. After a while, the humans at least were worn out, clinging to the rope ladder, trying to catch their breath. The dolphins circled, waiting patiently, recognizing that playtime was over, and it was time to work. "Ajax?" Joanne's voice was soft, patient. "Do you know what attacked those people?" Ajax swam in tight circles in front of them, clicking and whistling in an agitated manner. There was a hesitation, then SAM began to translate. >water disturbed. water cold. not-dolphins come. not-dolphins. taste.smell. see. listen. leave. hide. cause harm. cause harm. make go. go.< Echo joined in, his sounds overlapping, causing another hesitation in the translation. >not-dolphins. not-humans. not-right. make go. protect. protect water.< "Protect from what?" Joanne asked, so quiet that Mulder and Scully could barely hear her. The dolphins were silent. "Please," Scully said, laying one hand on Echo's side. "We need to know." Ajax nudged Echo sharply, and the younger dolphin dove and disappeared, as did Su-Su. "Ajax?" Scully floated in front of the remaining dolphin, her tone calm but curious. "Talk to me, baby." Mulder had the eerie sensation that his partner had completely forgotten about him, about everything except the dolphin in front of her. Almost holding his breath, he added a silent prayer to her words. Come on, come on, tell us, damnit! Ajax pulled away, rising up out of the water and singing -- Mulder could think of no other word -- singing in a high-pitched voice, a rising and falling tone that made Scully cringe away, and Mulder to pull off his headphones with a curse. It didn't matter, there was no translation. SAM was silent. Ajax held the last note for an eternal instant, then flicked his powerful tail and disappeared into the distance. "What the hell was that?" Adam asked. Mulder could only shake his head. "He was telling us what he saw. What attacked those people." Joanne was in tears. "They killed it," Scully said with a dull certainty, clinging to the side of the boat. Tears mingled with the seawater, reddening her eyes. "Something that didn't belong here attacked humans, and they killed it. To defend us. That's why they didn't want to talk about it, Mulder. They're ashamed."
#
Later that night Mulder woke from his sleep with the last remnant of his dream chasing itself out. He lay there a moment, hearing the not-so-distant sounds of water against sand, and muted voices talking. Joanne and Adam, he identified them sleepily. Familiar noises, comforting.
He was about to roll over when something from his dream came back into focus. Something about the dolphins, and Einstein? He was dreaming about Einstein? That was weird, even for him. They were sitting in the boat, and the old scientist was scolding him, gently and kindly, like a father might have... Mulder shut those thoughts out, trying instead to remember what the dream had been about. It hadn't been one of his run-of-the-mill cable-inspired dreams, so his subconscious was trying to tell him something. Something Joanne had said... that quote. It was from one of Einstein's books. What had he been talking about? Mulder searched his memory to find the exact quote, and found it. But something else about that quote was familiar. Where had he seen it before? And why was it so important?"The truth isn't always a blinding light. Sometimes it's a deep and dazzling darkness, that illuminates -- and burns -- just as surely."
Rising, he slipped on a pair of jeans and went quietly down the stairs, not questioning the certainty that led him across the patio, down the beach to the boathouse, where a lone figure sat at the end of the dock, the moonlight catching her hair and turning it the color of fresh, dark blood.
Scully looked up as the sound of his footsteps reached her, but she didn't say anything until he stood beside her. "Insomnia strikes again, Mulder?" Her upturned face was pale and shadowed in the moonlight, and Mulder fought down a wave of panic that he might say the wrong thing, somehow wreck the peace that she seemed to have found over the past few days. She sighed, patting the wet deck beside her. "Sit down, Mulder." He sat, letting his feet dangle over the water alongside hers. She had nice feet, he noted absently, her toenails painted pink in a small vanity that touched him. He dipped one toe and flicked water on her leg, making her smile. They sat there, quietly, for uncounted minutes. Mulder tried several times to formulate the question that had been chasing around his brain, but couldn't force the words from his mouth. It had been a long day, and he had wanted only to sleep when he finally hit the pillows. To sleep, and not dream of aliens, or dolphins, or anything. But now he was wide awake, his mind running like a hamster on a treadmill, and he didn't know what the hell he was doing out here. "Can you hear the dolphins, Mulder?" Scully asked finally, breaking the delicate silence. He tried, but could hear only the motion of the water around them, the soft shhhing of wavelets as they hit the beach, and the crackle as they broke against the legs of the dock. Even the gulls, so raucous during the day, were silent, subdued by the enormity of the darkness. A city boy by choice, Mulder felt almost suffocated by it, until Scully's hand crept into his, and the feeling retreated. "I can." He had almost forgotten the question. He turned to look at her, but said nothing, waiting. "I can hear them, Mulder. When I was younger. Now. Today, out in the water, when Ajax finally told us what happened." She paused, staring out into the water, then continued before he could say anything. "Only hearing isn't the right word, really. Jo said that she used to receive actual words, but I always... heard pictures, saw smells -- synesthesia, it's called. A disease. Only for the dolphins it's normal. They don't comprehend the world the way we do, Mulder. What we hear through SAM, it's not right, not accurate. They understand things so differently, you can't translate. Time is different for them. It's completely non-linear, flowing in every direction at once. Everything is now for them, even the distant past just a moment away. And when I listen to them, I can see that too, like endless waves crossing and recrossing each other." She stopped to take a breath. Mulder stroked her hand gently, trying to follow her words. He knew that he should be surprised, amazed, -something.- But all he could bring to the surface was a peaceful sort of sadness. He had known, he supposed, from the moment he saw her reaction to the dolphins. Joanne had given him enough hints; it had just taken a while for all of the pieces to come together. "Your undergrad work in physics. And the thesis. You were trying to put what they saw, felt, into some understandable context." "Einstein loved dolphins. Said that they were the only creatures that truly understood the universe. And they do, but it's so difficult to follow. You can either take it for granted, what Jo calls water-think, or it will drive you mad. Songs of chaos that make perfect sense while you're singing." Her voice broke on a sob. "I hated it, Mulder. But at the same time I was like a junkie, I couldn't get enough." "Until your father took it away." She looked out over the ocean, her cheeks wet with tears he hadn't noticed before. "He thought he was doing what was best for me." Mulder felt anger stir inside him, that she could still defend her father after all that had happened. All that she had seen, been forced to believe step by painful step, when it could have been so simple, if Captain Scully had only let her be -- let her believe. "Scully - Dana. Why couldn't you tell me?" A wealth of questions underlying that one. He wondered which ones she'd answer. Scully swirled the water idly with one foot, watching the ripples in the dark water. "Jo met Adam the summer she was seventeen. He was twenty, doing research at the local marine lab. He introduced her to dolphins as a way to impress her, ended up waking her skills without knowing what it was she had, what she could do. It took years for Joanne to figure out what she could do -- and what she couldn't. Long, painful years, Mulder. She's proud of what she can do, now. But she almost gave it all up, almost tore the skills out at the roots and never used them again." Mulder sat, barely breathing, feeling her hand tremble in his. It was like a car wreck, he couldn't look away, couldn't bear to hear. Whatever Dana said next, it would lay bare her soul, and he didn't know if he could handle that. And yet, he couldn't stop her, not if his very life had depended on it. "One day, that first summer," she continued, "they were sitting on the beach, and she was trying to explain to Adam what it felt like, being inside a dolphin's thoughts, thinking water-think, and she felt herself push. That's what she called it, pushing. One minute she was trying to get a point across to him, the next -- the next she was inside his thoughts, forcing him...forcing him to respond, taking responses out of his mind." Her voice broke, and she had to pause to recover. "That's what dolphins do, Mulder. They dart in and out of each others' minds, and it's perfectly natural. They don't see boundaries, have no concept of privacy." Scully turned to look at him for the first time. "Could you stand that, Mulder? Could you handle one day hearing my voice in your head, not knowing if a decision was yours, if it was truly yours, or if I had influenced you, without your ever knowing it?" Mulder reached over and pulled her into his arms, feeling her shake with soundless tears. "Every day I hear you in my head," he whispered. "Every decision I make I'm influenced by you, guided by your thoughts." "That's not what I'm talking about," she said, muffled by his shoulder. "I know." He laid his check against the top of her head, closing his eyes. "That's why your father made you stop working with Adam, because you told him what was happening to you." "He said I was imagining it. That none of it was real. That dolphins were just animals, and I was letting my imagination run away with me, and that those feelings would go away." She stopped, pulling away to look him in the eye. "But they never did, Mulder. Not really.""And working on the X-Files just made it worse," he said, feeling unbearably guilty. "Why didn't you tell me?" But he already knew. Joanne's words echoed in his damned memory, as though she were there with them. It's not a talent, not a toy, not something to be studied or categorized. He would have done just that, insisted that she tell him every detail, studied her like she were an object, not a person -- not his partner.
God, the arrogance he had! He would have dug up every piece of evidence she could give him, and that would have been wrong. He had been wrong, so many times. And Scully had suffered, unable to confide in the one person who would believe her, because of that.
"I'm sorry." It was painfully inadequate, but it was all he had. She leaned back against him with a sigh, and he could feel her body relaxing inside the circle of his arms. >images, jumbled like frames of film cut and pasted with a sloppy hand. Too many to recognize, too fast to assimilate. Waves of emotion sliding over him like silk against velcro, some catching, some slipping past. The strong beating of a heart -- whose? mine/yours/one/two it didn't matter. a sense of reassurance, a wash of love. there were no words, no separation. again, it didn't matter.<In the distance, a dolphin leaped out of the water, twisting in the air for countless seconds, slipping back into the dark and dazzling waves.
=end=