- This is mutiny! - No, sir, it's survival.
They'll come for us. They're sendin' help.
When they get here, it'll be too late. It may already be too late.
Don't do this.
That's an order!
Lieutenant Harper!
Shoot me if you want, Captain Barclay, but I'm not winding up like the others.
Cast off!
Hit me.
It looks like she's just driftin' out there.
Mm. We're heading straight for her.
This is the Lisette. Canadian fishing vessel CV 233. Please identify.
This is the Lisette. Come in, please.
Cut the engines and meet me up on deck.
Hello out there!
Hey!
We're throwin' you a line! Grab it - we'll pull you in.
Is everybody all right? Are there any injured...
Thanks for comin'.
- What's so urgent? - I didn't wanna waste any time.
A navy destroyer escort, the USS Ardent,
has been missing in the Atlantic for 42 hours.
- Missing? - No radio contact, no distress signals.
Search planes haven't picked up anything.
You're saying a ship and its crew vanished?
That's what it looked like... until last night.
- A trawler picked up 18 survivors. - They must have reported what happened.
Only one survivor is still alive. He's in the ICU under heavy security.
- What is wrong with him? - That's what I was hoping you'd tell me.
They won't let me in, but your medical background gets you a clearance code.
I want your opinion. His name is Lieutenant Richard Harper.
But, Mulder...
Meet me at my office when you're finished.
Thank you.
Excuse me. Is this Lieutenant Richard Harper?
That's what his wristband says.
He's been identified?
All military personnel are fingerprinted.
Those records were crosschecked.
Then I think there's been a mistake here.
According to this report, Lieutenant Harper is 28.
Why hasn't a systemic workup been run?
I wasn't aware that my decisions required
your approval. I'm in charge of this patient.
Let me see your clearance.
What's going on here? How can you explain what happened to this man?
This clearance code is invalid.
Where'd you get this? Who are you?
I am a medical doctor. I'd like to see the autopsy reports on the victims.
I haven't time for this. Give me my patient's
chart and leave, before I have you removed.
- Something strange is going on. - Did they let you see Lieutenant Harper?
I saw somebody, but whether it was the lieutenant...
What do you mean?
He looked about 90. Off by half a century.
- You don't seem surprised. - I wanna show you something.
This was the Ardent's course when she disappeared.
I've tracked points of departure and destination for each X-File.
On December 12 1949 a Royal Navy battleship disappeared...
...between Leeds and Cape Perry. The sea was calm, the weather sunny.
In 1963, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis...
...a Soviet fleet left from here for Havana.
All six vessels vanished without a trace.
I counted nine unexplained disappearances.
Each passed through here: the 65th parallel.
- Another Bermuda Triangle? - More like a wrinkle in time...
...if Lieutenant Harper is any indication.
- Wrinkle in time? Wh... - Heard about the Philadelphia Experiment?
It was a programme during World War Two to render battleships invisible to radar.
But it was discontinued and most of the scientists were relocated to Los Alamos.
Except none of them ever made it to Los Alamos.
- Where were they sent? - Roswell, New Mexico.
Are you suggesting that the experiment used alien technology?
Nine months after the alleged crash of a UFO in Roswell...
...the USS Eldridge disappeared altogether from the Philadelphia navy yard...
...to reappear minutes later miles away in Norfolk, Virginia.
That's not possible, not without defying laws of time and space.
Those physicists may have been trying to manipulate wormholes on Earth.
Wormholes?
Portals where matter interfaces with time...
...at a decelerated or accelerated rate.
I bet the military never stopped the work it began 50 years ago.
That's what you think happened to Harper?
I'll know soon enough.
- I'm booked on an 8.30 flight to Norway. - Have you let Skinner in on this?
I've given myself a 24-hour head start before
I give him my report. I want this one myself.
I'm going with you.
If that really was Lieutenant Harper, I wanna know what happened to him.
Nei, nei, det er altfor farlig.
0 for 5.
What is it, Mulder? Why are they so afraid?
My father spent the better part of his life at sea.
He had a healthy respect for the ocean, but he never feared it.
I see fear in these men's eyes.
Brundtland couldn't have taken you up there anyway.
A ship has to be classified ice class
before it can even go past the Lofoten Basin.
My name is Trondheim. Henry Trondheim.
The ship you want is the Zeal.
It's a 50-ton trawler with a double hull. It's my ship.
- You're American. - I was born and raised in Pensacola.
I ran a charter business there. I got fed up with tourists.
How do you feel about the sea north of Beerenberg?
This time of year, it'd be ten hours each way.
- So you've been there? - A few times.
Got some of my best hauls out of there.
Why is everyone else so afraid to go there?
Well, legends. They grew up on stories.
What stories?
A huge stone came out of the sky, crashed into the pack ice.
- A meteorite? - An evil god.
They worship it by... stayin' away.
So... exactly what is it that you're lookin' for up there?
A number of things.
How good are you?
About as good as you're going to get,
considering no one else will take you there.
- When can we leave? - As soon as we shake on a price.
Feeling any better?
Oh... Lucky you inherited your father's legs.
- What? - His sea legs.
It's been 12 hours. You said it'd take ten. What's goin' on?
I told you before. The visibility is lousy.
I've never seen it this thick.
- How much longer till we get there? - Well, we're right where you wanna be.
I even think we've got what you're looking for.
Except one minute it's in front of us, and the next it's not.
Like something's messing with my radar.
And my navigation system.
- I can't explain it. - Kaptein! Pass på!
We're gonna hit!
Halvorsen, check the hull for damage.
I don't get it. This is what you're lookin' for?
It's the USS Ardent. It's a destroyer escort.
All right.
What do you want with it, anyway?
It's a ghost ship.
I mean, look at all this corrosion. No one's
been aboard this vessel in 20, 30 years.
Scully.
Let's check the crew quarters first.
Mulder.
They almost look mummified.
Hm. Like they've been dead a very long time.
Except for this strange residue.
- What was that? - An engine.
It's... my ship!
- No! That's my ship! - Hey!
- Somebody's taken my ship! - Hey!
Hey!
- That's my ship! - Trondheim!
No.
All right. Try it again.
No.
What is it?
It's caked with the same residue that's covering everything.
So we can't even send a distress signal.
The engine's so corroded you can't even tell
what it is. I've never seen anything like it.
Halvorsen's trying to salvage some parts, but basically we are dead in the water.
The radio's dead, too.
Somebody's not tellin' me what's goin' on here.
Now, look, that ship was not just my livelihood, that was my life!
I have a right to some straight answers!
What we're seeing here may be the result of a military experiment.
Military experiment?
A time bend, where matter moves through time at an accelerated rate.
- Tell me in English. - Time may be speeding up.
Right. That's almost as crazy as Halvorsen's.
"There's a rock that comes from the sky..."
This ship was launched in 1991.
I don't know how else to explain the extent
of the corrosion or the decay of the bodies.
You're not buyin' any of this, are ya?
- - Agh!
Oh, God.
- What happened? - His skull's been fractured.
Who's that?
Halvorsen!
Who are you?
Captain Barclay...
...commanding officer, USS Ardent.
There you go.
Captain Barclay... according to your log, after the navigation system failed...
...several of your crew members saw something in the sea.
A growing light.
It-it came up through the fog in the middle of the night.
Like it was on fire.
- Any idea what it might have been? - Power loss.
Everythin' stopped.
Everythin'.
Even the sea.
Even the wind.
Then the ship, my ship, she began to bleed.
From the hull, through the rivet seams.
He's a drunkard.
He's a drunkard!
And he killed Halvorsen.
To hell with him! I don't have to listen to his lies.
I'm no liar. It happened.
First to some of my men, then to all of 'em.
What happened?
Time got lost.
It's OK, Captain. You can take it easy.
We're gonna do whatever we can to help you out.
What can you do?
You can't do anythin'.
I'm 35 years old.
- There's no way he killed Halvorsen. - I agree.
The blow was delivered with considerable strength...
...and he can't even hold a glass with two hands.
That means there's somebody else on board.
You were a good first mate.
You left me alone and you did your job.
It's a shame this had to happen to you so young.
Gud være med deg.
Put it down! Put down the pipe!
Put it down!
- I could kill you... - Back off!
- He killed Halvorsen! - He may help us figure out what happened.
Look at him! He hasn't aged. Back off!
His name's Olafsson.
- You know him? - Everybody in Tildeskan knows him.
He's a pirate whaler. He's a wanted criminal.
He supplies whales to the Japanese black market. Blues, belugas, sperm.
Ask him how he got here.
Hvordan kom du hit?
Gå til helvete.
I don't need a translator for that.
We'll question him later. I don't wanna leave Scully alone.
- Get in the hull! - I think we found who killed Halvorsen.
He'd have killed me too if it wasn't for Mulder.
The log says four Norwegians were picked up when their vessel sank.
I guarantee Olafsson's men took my boat and left him stranded.
It's just like them to slit each other's throats.
We should ask the captain some more questions.
Captain Barclay's dead.
I don't know how it happened. It was just in the last 15 minutes.
It's just like those men below.
It's more than rapid ageing, Mulder.
It's as if he's turning into a pillar of salt.
Is that what the substance is?
It seems to be crystalline, but beyond that...
We're all tired.
Let's stow the captain's body.
Tie up Olafsson so we can all get some rest.
I'll take first watch, in case he's not alone.
- Scully? - Hm?
I just fell asleep.
- You want a few more minutes? - No, I'm up.
Scully!
Mulder, what happened to you?
Time acceleration is an equation, Mulder. A theory.
Then theoretically it's possible. What else could it be?
Whatever it is, it isn't a time warp.
None of us has observed the phenomena recorded in the ship's log.
No evidence indicates this is a time warp.
We're evidence! We're ageing by the minute!
If this is rapid-ageing phenomena, why hasn't our hair greyed?
Then what about him? Huh?
What about him? Why isn't he getting old?
Hvorfor blir du ikke gammel?
- Relax, Trondheim. Save your energy... - I don't have to listen to you!
It's because of you that we got into this.
Nobody twisted your arm.
I signed on to bring you here.
Not to die.
- What do you know about free radicals? - Is this a quiz?
They're highly reactive chemicals containing extra electrons.
They can attack DNA. They can cause our body tissue and cell membranes to oxidise.
Grow old, you mean.
It's the prevailing theory on how we age.
Something is triggering that reaction in us?
This is just a theory...
...but what if this ship is drifting towards
another metallic source, like a meteor?
Maybe it's deep in the ocean or embedded into an iceberg.
But the two could be acting as positive and negative terminals...
...with the ocean itself being a kind of giant battery.
That electromagnetic energy could be exciting the free radicals...
...and effectively oxidising every piece of matter in its field.
Makes sense, Scully.
The organic equivalent to rust would be rapid premature senescence.
What the hell...?
Captain Barclay said the ship was bleeding.
It's not blood, Scully.
It's rust.
Trondheim, you keep an eye on Olafsson.
- Where are you going? - Mulder... where are we going?
I'm not sure yet, but we don't have much time to get there.
D'you see this yellow pipe? It's the only one
that hasn't corroded through.
Olafsson and his men.
Why would they hole up here?
This is the only drinkable water on the ship.
We were both wrong, Scully. It's the water.
- All the other water's been contaminated. - How?
Something must have got into the desalination tanks,
where the water is stored.
But the water in the sewage system is recycled. It doesn't come from the sea.
If you're right, then Captain Barclay's drinking binge is what kept him alive.
And the water from this tank will do the same for us.
But it doesn't sound like there's very much left.
You were supposed to watch him.
I feel pretty bad about it.
I shouldn't have dozed off.
What do you want me to say? He's gone.
I wanna know what happened!
I can ask the same of you. You tied him up.
There's nothing wrong with my knot! This was severed.
I don't like being interrogated. I don't owe you any explanations.
- Trondheim! - Let go of me.
Look, we have a lot of work to do here.
I'll need blood and urine samples from both of you.
- What for? - We found out what caused the ageing.
What is it now? The two of you are full of theories.
First it's one thing, then another.
By the time you figure it out, we'll be dead.
Something got into the desal tanks,
but the water in the sewage system is untainted.
It kept Olafsson alive this long. Maybe it'll slow the process in us.
This is good news, isn't it?
So what happens now?
It has been 18 hours, 45 minutes since the onset of symptoms.
Rudimentary blood tests revealed
impossibly high concentrations of sodium chloride: salt.
Though the contaminated water itself is not saline...
...it appears to catalyse existing body fluids,
causing massive and rapid cellular damage.
The untainted water slowed the degenerative progression
in Trondheim and me.
But Mulder has fared less well.
Perhaps because of the dehydration he suffered on the way here.
I think I just lapped George Burns.
I'll be right back.
If you've got something to say, say it, but don't hover behind me like that.
- The water isn't helping him. - Then maybe we should double his ration.
What for? A lake of water won't help him.
We don't know that for sure.
- Not yet. - Look at him!
- We've wasted too much water on him. - Who are you to decide?
You don't have to be a doctor to see that... he isn't gonna make it.
But you and me, Scully...
...you and me, we'd better start lookin' out for ourselves.
Mulder's urinalysis continues to indicate his kidneys' failure...
...to excrete the substance I'm calling "heavy salt".
Whether the untainted water from the sewage system
is even helping him at all is unclear.
What does remain clear to me... is that I can't give up trying.
Trondheim!
- What are you doing? - Listen to this.
You know what that is? It's a funeral bell.
There's only a few gallons left. Maybe less.
There's enough to keep us all alive for a few more days.
Or one of us alive long enough to be rescued.
Don't come any closer.
What are you gonna do? Shoot me?
Trondheim... listen to me.
The navy knows where we are. They know
these coordinates and they'll be here soon.
So why don't we go back to the mess hall...
Why don't you just shoot me?
If you think that I'm gonna let Mulder have another drop!
Trondheim!
You're almost out of pages.
It's good you kept a record.
Trondheim's locked himself in the sewage hold.
He's back-flushed all the water and he's keeping it for himself.
I looked everywhere...
...and this is all I could find.
It's sardine juice, half a dozen lemons...
...and, uh... the water from a snow globe.
- It's not Evian, but... - You go ahead and drink it.
No, Mulder.
It's the only logical choice. You're a woman.
Your life expectancy is greater and your body retains more water and fatty tissues.
More reason for you to drink it.
You'll have a much greater chance of surviving until help comes.
- Don't do this, Mulder. - Don't... don't be so stubborn, Scully.
You know I'm right.
Well, there isn't much liquid to make a difference anyway.
There might be.
No.
What was that?
The outer hull must have finally corroded through,
which means we're taking on water.
Mulder...
...the water.
I can't open the door!
Help!
Help me!
Help me! Help! Help!
Help me!
Help me! Oh... Oh...
I always thought when I got older I'd maybe take a cruise somewhere.
But this isn't exactly what I had in mind.
The service on this ship is terrible, Scully.
It's not fair.
It's not our time.
We still have work to do.
Mulder...
...when they found me...
...after the doctors and even my family had given up...
...I experienced something I never told you about.
Even now it's hard to find the words.
But there's one thing I'm certain of.
As certain as I am of this life.
We have nothing to fear when it's over.
I'm so tired.
You should sleep.
Agent Fox Mulder lost consciousness at approximately 4.30 this morning, 12 March.
There is nothing more I can do for him.
Or for myself.
Supplies are exhausted. No food or liquid consumed for over 24 hours.
The outer hull most probably flooded,
though for now the inner hull is supporting the ship.
Among Halvorsen's belongings
I found a children's book of Norse legends.
From what I can tell, the pictures show the end of the world.
Not in a sudden firestorm of damnation, as the Bible teaches us...
...but in a slow-covering blanket of snow.
First the moon and the stars will be lost in a dense, white fog.
Then the rivers and the lakes and the sea will freeze over.
And finally, a wolf named Skoll will open his jaws and eat the sun...
...sending the world into an everlasting night.
I think I hear the wolf at the door.
Agent Scully?
Agent Scully, can you hear me?
Mm, yeah.
It's been 36 hours since your rescue.
I've got you on dialysis with a high-flux filter.
You're obviously responding well.
Your electrolytes are almost back to normal...
...and your fluid status has been corrected.
Mulder? Where is he?
His endocrine system was more compromised than yours.
Frankly, we didn't think that he'd make it.
Until we discovered this.
Based on your notes, we're giving him synthetic hormones, which seem to work.
Whatever caused this is still out there. I have to talk to a naval liaison.
We have to salvage the ship...
Agent Scully, the ship was taking on water.
It sank less than an hour after you were rescued.
I made this!