Subject: The Talisman 1/7

From: [email-masked] (Monture & Wicks)
Date: 05 Dec 1994 01:20:11 GMT

This is my first posting in this forum ... I hope everyone likes my story.  It
contains shamanism, shape-shifting, pseudo-science, and a lot of speculation.
 I  started writing it after Scully disappeared, and this represents the way
I would have like to  have seen the plot develop, but alas ... and because I
like Mulder, he is the central focus of this story.

Also please note that the Mohawk words used are phonetic representations,
rendered as much as possible in an English format.  I have included a
phonetic key at the end of the story.   There are also aspects of this story
that are not (and I repeat not) in keeping with traditional Native American
practices, so don't for one minute think that it represents any of those
sacred ceremonies and rites.  I have ultimately created my own intepretation
of what may or may not happen, but among my people, there are still those who
practice the craft of the "wadayoneras".  I hope I have treated the idea of
their art with the respect and reverence that it deserves. 

This story is based on the characters and situations created by Chris Carter,
Ten Thirteen Productions and the Fox Broadcasting Company.  No infringement
of copyright is intended.

			The Talisman ... An X-Files Tale (1 of 7 parts)

Prologue

New York State, 50 miles west of Albany
October 17, 1994
10:02 p.m.

	The strange light careened in front of the rain-streaked windshield, darting
back and forth, coming forward and then bolting away again teasingly just at
the edge of his vision.  Mulder cursed under his breath, squinting through
the heavy downpour, trying to keep one eye on the winding road, keeping the
car away from the railings marking the  Mohawk river valley beside him, and
the other eye tracking the peculiar light. 
	He was in deepest upstate New York, far away from the lights of the Big
Apple and in a hilly, somehow desolate region of the country.  The towns he
had passed through were ancient, some of them having gone bust in the years
when the Erie Canal was the major transportation artery, others full of
historical plaques and markers, Colonial houses looking skeletal in the
autumn rain.
	He had come here on the trail of what his sources at NICAP told him was a
week of unprecedented activity in an area hitherto devoid of sightings.  The
folks at NICAP thought it was weird that such intense energy be expended in
an area without the usual targets, such as a military base or a nuclear power
facility, but Mulder knew better.  He was carrying with him a classified
document bearing the location of a secret base just west of Albany codenamed
Arrowhead Peak.
	He kept on hand on the steering wheel and turned on the interior light,
fumbling with a map that marked the base's location.  Scully was still in
hospital in Washington, her memory gone.   She kept mumbling something about
a secret base and five men, and could only whimper uselessly when pressed. 
Her fine mind seemed to have disintegrated, and Mulder hurt more than he
believed was possible.  He had vowed to find the parties responsible for her
abduction and obvious brain injury. 
	It had taken two nightmarish weeks of furtive investigation and running
around in circles to get this far.  Mr X would not help him.  A fool's
errand, he said.  Let it go, he said.  But Mulder couldn't let it go.  And at
last, Mr X gave him the map.  It was the only lead he had.
	The maddening light that he had been following for the last five miles chose
at that instant to flare at the edge of the car's hood.  Mulder threw an
instinctive arm to shield his eyes from the sudden explosion of light,
brighter than any sun.  The car lurched forward and he had only time to brace
himself as the car left the rain-slicked pavement and plunged in the dark
valley below.	

Part 1 of 7 ends