Subject: "Fugitive" DrWho/XFiles X-Over (2/3)

From: [email-masked] (Cliff K Chen)
Date: 6 Dec 1994 18:10:46 GMT

Fugitive -- Part 2
by Richard Salter

"What did you do that for?!" the Doctor screamed without actually
shouting.
   "I got you out didn't I?" Ace replied, her eyes surveying the
terrain ahead from their vantage point behind a pile of boxes.
   The Doctor was seething with anger. "I didn't need rescuing!"
   She glanced at him and noticed his attempts to shake the brick dust
from his person had failed. He resembled a character from Scooby Doo
who had fallen into a vat of flour and had decided this would be a
cunning way to scare off the local populace.
   "I thought your spell in Space Fleet had cured you of your fixation
with things that make loud bangs and cause lots of damage!"
   "Naaaaah," she sneered sarcastically. "It just went on hold. Come
on, we have to go."
   She rose into a crouching position, took hold of the Doctor's
sleeve and moved off. He grumbled but offered no resistance. "I have
to find whoever killed that man I found," he explained lamely.
   "All in good time, Doctor," Ace insisted. "All in good time."

"Can you explain these marks, Scully?"
   She had to admit that she couldn't. When Mulder had insisted they
head for the pathology lab, she'd been sceptical about what they would
find there. And now here she was, staring at a dead body with a wound
of a type she had never seen before. It was like some fused burn, but
the *impact*, the *force* of the heat blast was incredible.
   "The shot entered his chest cavity and exploded outwards,
practically cooking his major organs," the pathologist told them. He
was a short, stout, weasel of a man in a white, blood-splattered coat
and thick glasses. "Never seen anything like it."
   "Thank you," Mulder told him. "You've been very helpful." The short
man nodded and moved away. Mulder turned to Scully. "Convinced yet?"
   Scully gave him a look of incredulity, "Convinced of what? That
there's some guy on the loose with some sort of hi-tech stolen
military equipment and a weird guy who's escaped from a police cell
who could very well be one and the same person, I'm convinced. That
there's anything way off the planet here, I think your evidence might
be a bit lacking."
   Mulder's expression had remained reticent during her onslaught. Now
he gave a shallow smile and said, "Well I am."
   "Good!" snapped Scully. "You stay here and chase your aliens. I'm
going back to DC." She turned to go.
   "Wait!" Mulder called.
   Despite herself, she turned and fixed him with a stony glare.
"What?"
   "I can prove it," he said. "There's one thing that's bound to
convince you."
   As she said it she knew she was going to live to regret it. "All
right Mulder, we'll keep playing your little game. But I warn you, one
more piece of unmitigated, circumstantial, irrelevant 'evidence' and
I'm gone."
   He smiled. "Trust me."

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Scully lamented.
   "Do you ever stop complaining?" Mulder asked her as they picked
their way through the brush and dead leaves that littered the ground
of the park.
   "Only when I'm not being dragged through a wood in the wet and the
cold." It seemed to be constantly freezing in this country. She could
see why air conditioning was so scarce here. And as for the weather,
well it never stopped raining. It had rained when they had arrived at
Heathrow, it had rained on the way to the hotel, and it hadn't stopped
raining since. They'd been searching for well over an hour now, and
Scully was soaked through and decidedly fed up.
   "What are we looking for anyway?" she asked after a brief pause
filled only with the crunch of their boots upon the foliage as they
walked.
   "You'll know when we find it."
   "Great," mumbled Scully without much enthusiasm. She thrust her
hands into the pockets of her raincoat and wished she'd brought some
gloves. An umbrella wouldn't have gone amiss either. Why did she and
Mulder always end up trudging through woods in bad light searching for
things she didn't believe in anyway?
   "Just so you know, my report on this little escapade is likely to
be highly critical of your methods and wasting of..." Her voice tailed
off as they entered a small clearing. She stared open mouthed at the
sight that confronted her, a million questions bursting into her head
at once. What really riled her was that Mulder had been right.
   There, in the middle of the clearing, standing incongruously with
its back against a wide oak tree was a British Police Public Call Box.
A pile of leaves had blown up against the dark blue, panelled, double
doors indicating that the box had stood here for some time. It was
authentic right down to the lamp on top and the St. George's Cross on
one of the panels.
   "I do not believe it," Scully admitted.
   "I'd say we found what we were looking for," Mulder said, stepping
forward and boldly approaching the mysterious object. "Wouldn't you
say that, Scully?"
   She followed him, scanning the surrounding area for evidence of how
the box had been transported here. She found none. "There must be some
explanation. These things were all over this country at one time."
   "At *one* time," Mulder repeated, stressing the past tense of the
statement.
   "How did you know it would be here?"
   "Well," he said, running a hand against the surface of the door,
"it made sense to land this thing away from houses, and this was the
nearest park to where the dead body was found." His expression altered
from a look of curiosity to one of surprise. "Feel it, Scully. It's
alive."
   She snorted derisively, but placed a cold hand on one of the wooden
panels. She recoiled, flashing Mulder a quizzical look before
replacing her hand once more. There was definite vibration beneath her
fingers, and the surface certainly didn't feel like wooden. "Is there
some sort of electrical equipment in there?" she wondered aloud.
   "Only one way to find out." Mulder pushed against the door but it
refused to yield. To Scully's surprise he raised a fist and banged it
four times on the door. The sound seemed to reverberate around the
inside of the box, as if the interior were some vast chasm.
   "What are you knocking for?" Scully asked. "Who's going to answer?"
   Mulder ignored her. "Hello!" he called loudly, directing his voice
towards the box.
   That did it for Scully. He'd finally flipped this time. The box was
big enough to hold at the most three people, and they were hardly
likely to hang around in such cramped conditions waiting for two FBI
agents to come knocking on the door.

Bernice lifted her head with a start. She'd been so engrossed in the
history of the Farrel system that she'd forgotten the passage of time.
The noise had sounded like someone knocking on the TARDIS door. That
meant Ace must be back, presumably without the Doctor or he would have
just used his key.
   She put down her book and left the library, heading for the console
room. Once there she operated the scanner and was presented with an
image of a man and a woman, both in suits. The man was knocking on the
door. She reached over the console and turned up the audio control.
   "I want to speak to the Doctor," the man was saying. "I'm Special
Agent Fox Mulder, FBI. Open up please." His tone was pleading,
imploring rather than commanding.
   "FBI," thought Bernice aloud to herself. "This is a bit out of
their area." Still, what harm would it do to let them in? Maybe they
would have news about Ace.

Scully was just about to unleash a blistering attack detailing
Mulder's obvious insanity when the Police Box door opened. To her
surprise, a woman poked her head out from inside. She was slim, with a
short black bob and intelligent eyes. She was probably in her early
thirties, and when she spoke it was with a distinctly English accent.
"Can I help you?" she asked politely.
   "Yes," Mulder replied quickly. It was as if he had quite expected
her to be inside there. "I need to talk to the Doctor. Can we come
in?"
   Scully stared at him. Did Mulder have a secret fetish for enclosed
spaces? The idea of cramming three people into the box was not high on
her list of things to do.
   The woman seemed to consider this for a moment. "He's not here at
the moment," she said. "I suppose you could come in and wait for him,
but be ready for a shock." She disappeared inside but left the door
open for them.
   Mulder stepped inside, and with a moment's hesitation Scully
followed.
   What she saw next took her breath away.
   The room into which she walked was impossibly large. Bright white
light flooded her vision, in stark contrast to the dull grey of the
outside world. She presumed the world was still outside; it was hard
to tell exactly where they were.
   As her eyes adjusted to the light her attention was directed on a
mushroom shaped, multi-faceted console standing alone in the middle of
the room. The woman stood by it. She pulled a lever and Scully heard a
noise behind her. Spinning round she was just in time to see two large
double doors swing closed. Scully resisted the urge to run to them and
try and prise them open in her desperation to escape.
   A million questions crowded into her brain, but Mulder got there
first. He had been standing near the console, gazing about him like a
child in a candy store and when he spoke it was with an intense
eagerness for knowledge.
   "Welcome to the TARDIS, Scully, the Doctor's travelling machine,"
he said matter-of-factly.
   The woman glared at him. "That's not what you're supposed to say,"
she protested. "You're supposed to say 'Why is it bigger on the inside
than on the outside?' or something."
   Scully was dimly aware of the double doors swinging open behind
her, but she was too intent on trying to guess what Mulder had slipped
into her food to turn around.
   "It's some form of dimensional transcendentalism isn't it?" Mulder
asked the woman in reply.
   "Congratulations, Agent Mulder," came a voice from the doorway. The
Doctor walked in, another, younger woman in tow. "I'm impressed."
   "I do my homework, Doctor," Mulder told him.
   "I'm sure you do. Allow me to introduce you to everyone." He
indicated the woman by the console who had let them in. "That is
Professor Bernice Summerfield, and this," he put an arm around the
shoulders of the woman who had followed him into the TARDIS, "is Ace.
She, er, rescued me from that cell."
   "Hi," said Ace sheepishly.
   "FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully," Mulder said for
the benefit of Ace and Bernice. "May I ask why you returned to Earth,
Doctor?"
   Mulder received odd looks from the three women. "Returned to
Earth?" Scully repeated. This was way out of her league. She'd seen
some pretty strange things in her time with Mulder, but this was
beyond all reasonable explanation.
   "Well, in this time zone," Mulder corrected himself. "You do travel
in space and time don't you?"
   The Doctor withdrew his arm from Ace's shoulders and coughed
modestly. "When the old girl lands me in the right place, yes." He
crossed to the console, operating the door control and turning back to
face them again. "As for what I'm doing here, I suppose I owe you an
explanation."
   "And us," Ace added. "I'd quite like to know too."
   The Doctor removed his hat and placed it on top of a cyclindrical
column standing vertical in the centre of the console. "Several days
ago, an expedition from the Ragamon Dynasty..."
   "Your hypothesis was correct then," Mulder interrupted.
   The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"
   "About the energy weapon that killed that man."
   "Oh yes, yes I was. Well, this expedition landed here and sent out
a survey team to assess whether or not the planet was suitable for
inhabiting."
   "And was it?" Scully asked. She was now convinced that this
experience was all drug induced, so she might as well enjoy it.
   "No. I don't think they'd realised how densely populated this
planet is. So they left, for Mars probably."
   "Of course, Mars." Scully murmured.
   "Inadvertently it seems they left one of their number behind. I
think they had to leave in a hurry."
   "So it was that one who killed the man with the energy weapon."
   "Correct, Agent Mulder."
   "How do you know all this?"
   "We saw it," Ace chipped in as she slammed a fresh clip into an
advanced looking gun.
   "That's where we've been since I broke out of prison. I realised
what it was, and it tied in with the reason I landed here, which was
because in passing I noticed that the Ragamon were in the vicinity of
the Sol system. I wanted to make sure their intentions were good."
   "So why did the Ragamon kill that man?" Bernice asked.
   The Doctor looked pensive for a moment. "I don't know," he admitted
at last. "the Ragamon are dangerous, certainly, but they're not evil -
they wouldn't kill for fun."
   "Maybe the dead guy threatened it," Ace suggested.
   "So what's our course of action?" Scully asked.
   Mulder took a step towards the Doctor. "I want a look at that
creature," he implored the little man.
   The Doctor raised a hand, "Patience, Agent Mulder. I intend to find
it again, and this time communicate with it. I want to offer it safe
passage back to its ship before any more harm is done."
   Mulder nodded. "Seems reasonable."
   "First I need a pulse wave oscillator."
   "A what?" Ace asked.
   "It emits a signal that, at a guess, will attract the Ragamon,"
Mulder replied.
   The Doctor gave him an admiring look. "Do you know, Mr Mulder? You
happen to be one of the most open minded human beings I have ever met.
It's such a refreshing change."
   Scully looked at Mulder. "What does he mean, human beings?"
   "Another time, Agent Scully," the Doctor told her, ducking under
the console and removing a section of panelling.
   "My God, now you're telling me he's not human!"
   Mulder rounded on her. "Does any part of your current surroundings
look remotely human made?"
   She looked around herself again. Coming to a sudden decision, she
brought out her camera. She was determined to obtain solid evidence to
prove she wasn't hallucinating. She began snapping away at the console
room, not even surprised any more that none of the TARDIS crew made
any attempt to stop her, nor that the Doctor put on a charming smile
when she took his picture as he rose from beneath the console, a piece
of electronic equipment in his hand.
   Mulder regarded her with an amused half smile.
   "When Agent Scully has finished, I think we ought to be off," the
Doctor suggested, adjusting a small controller on the side of the
device.
   Scully realised that everyone was looking at her. She lowered the
camera and gave an embarrassed smile. She placed the camera back in
her bag. "OK," she confirmed. "Let's go."

[End Part 2]