This is mutiny!
No, sir. It's survival.
They'll come for us!
They're sending help.
By the time 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 waiting around
so I can wind up like the others.
Cast off!
Hit me.
It looks like she's just drifting out there.
Mm. We're heading straight for her.
This is the Lisette,
Canadian fishing vessel C-V-2-3-3.
Please identify.
This is the Lisette.
Come in, please.
Cut the engines and meet me up on deck.
Hello up there!
Hey!
We're throwing you a line!
Grab it and we'll pull you in!
Is everybody all right?
Are there any injured...?
Scully, thanks for coming.
What was so urgent that you couldn't tell me over the phone?
I didn't want to waste any time.
A Navy destroyer escort,
the USS Ardent, has been missing
in the North Atlantic for past 42 hours. Missing?
Yeah, there has been no radio contact,
no distress signals picked up.
Search planes and satellites
haven't picked up anything either.
You're saying that a ship and its entire crew just vanished?
Well, that's what it looked like, until last night.
A Canadian trawler picked up 18 survivors.
Well, they must have reported what happened.
Only one of those survivors is still alive.
He's been taken into the ICU under heavy security.
What is wrong with him?
That's what I was hoping you could tell me.
They won't let me in to see him,
but because of your medical background,
I was able to get you a clearance code.
I want your opinion on this.
His name is Harper. Lieutenant Richard Harper.
But, Mulder...
Meet me back at my office when you're finished.
Thank you.
Excuse me, is this Lieutenant Richard Harper?
That's what his wristband says.
And he's been positively identified?
All military personnel are fingerprinted.
Those records were cross-checked at the time of admittance.
Then I think there's been some kind of a mistake here.
According to this report,
Lieutenant Harper is 28 years old.
Why hasn't a systemic workup
been ordered on this patient?
I wasn't aware that my diagnostic decisions
required your approval.
I'm the physician in charge of this patient.
Let me see your clearance.
Can you tell me 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'm a medical doctor,
and I would like to see the autopsy reports
on the remaining victims.
I haven't got time for this.
Give me my patient's chart and leave
before I have you removed.
Something very strange is going on here, Mulder.
Did they let you in to see Lieutenant Harper?
Yeah, I saw somebody,
but whether it was actually the lieutenant...
What do you mean?
He looked about 90 years old--
off by about half a century.
You don't seem too surprised.
I want to show you something, Scully.
This was the course of the USS Ardent
when she disappeared.
Now, I've been tracking the points
of departure and destination for each of these X Files.
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 fleet of Soviet mine sweepers
left from here for Havana.
All six vessels vanished without a trace.
All in all, I've counted nine unexplained disappearances.
Each of them passed through here-- the 65th parallel.
Another Bermuda Triangle?
It's more like a wrinkle in time,
if Lieutenant Harper is any indication.
Wrinkle in time? What...?
Do you know anything
about the Philadelphia Experiment?
It was a program during World War Two
to render battleships invisible to radar.
But then the Manhattan Project heated up,
and it was discontinued,
and most of the scientists were relocated to Los Alamos.
Except none of those scientists ever made it to Los Alamos.
Where were they sent?
Roswell, New Mexico.
Are you suggesting that the Philadelphia Experiment
used alien technology?
Less than nine months
after the alleged crash of a UFO
in Roswell, New Mexico, the USS Eldridge
did more than just hide from radar screens,
it disappeared altogether from the Philadelphia Navy Yard,
only to reappear minutes later
hundreds of miles away in Norfolk, Virginia.
That's not possible, Mulder,
not without defying all laws of time and space.
Those physicists may have been trying
to manipulate wormholes on Earth.
Wormholes?
Actual portals where matter interfaces with time
at a relatively decelerated or accelerated rate.
I'm betting the military
never stopped the work it began 50 years ago.
And that's what you think happened to Lieutenant Harper?
I'll find out soon enough.
I'm booked on an 8:30 flight to Norway.
Have you let Skinner in on this?
I'm giving myself a 24-hour head start
before I give Skinner my report.
I want this one myself.
I'm going with you.
If that really was Lieutenant Harper,
I want to know what happened to him.
Oh for five.
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.
Brooklyn couldn't have taken you up there anyway.
Your ship has to be classified ice class
before you can even go past the Lofoten Basin.
My name is Trondheim. Henry Trondheim.
The ship you want is the Zehar.
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 would be ten hours minimum each way.
So you've been there.
A few times. 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 staying away.
So... exactly what is it
that you're looking 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... you're lucky you inherited your father's legs.
What?
His sea legs.
It's been about 12 hours.
You said it was only going to take ten.
What's going 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 want to be.
I even think we've got what you're looking for.
Except one minute it's right in front of us,
and the next minute it's not.
Like something's messing
with my radar.
And my navigation system.
I can't explain it...
Captain!
We're going to hit!
Officer, check the hull for damage.
I don't get it.
This is what you're looking 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.
Like they've been dead a very long time.
Except for this strange residue.
What was that?
An engine.
My ship.
No! That's my ship!
Hey!
Taking my ship!
Hey!
That's my ship!
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 down there,
you can't even... can't even tell what it is.
I've never seen anything like it.
Halvorsen's trying to salvage some parts,
but basically what we are is dead in the water.
Well, the radio's dead, too.
Somebody's not telling me what's going 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 some kind of military experiment.
Military experiment?
An artificial time band 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 down from the sky..."
This ship... 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 down below.
You're not buying any of this, are you?
Oh, God.
What happened?
His skull's been fractured.
Who's that?
Halvorsen.
Who are you?
Captain Barclay,
commanding officer, USS Ardent.
Here you go.
Captain Barclay, um, according to your log,
shortly after the navigation system failed,
several of your crew members
saw something in the sea-- a growing light.
It came up through the fog
in the middle of the night
like it was on fire.
Do you have any idea what it might have been?
Power loss.
Everything stopped.
Everything.
Even the sea.
Even the wind.
Then the ship-- my ship--
she began to bleed from the hull
near 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 them.
What happened?
Time got lost.
It's okay, Captain. You can take it easy.
We're going to do whatever we can to help you out.
What can you do?
You can't do anything.
I'm 35 years old.
There's no way he killed Halvorsen.
Yeah. I'd have to agree with you.
The blow that killed Halvorsen
was delivered with considerable strength,
and he can't even hold a glass with two hands.
Yeah. 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.
Put it down!
Put down the pipe!
Put it down.
I could kill you for what you've done!
- Back off, Trondheim! - He killed Halvorsen!
He may be our only chance to figure out what happened.
Look at him. Look at him-- he hasn't aged.
Now back off.
His name's Olafsson.
You know him?
Everybody in Gildeskal 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.
All right, I need a translator for that.
We'll question him later.
I don't want to leave Scully alone,
in case there are others.
I think we found who killed Halvorsen.
He'd have killed me, too, if it wasn't for Mulder.
The ship's log said something about four Norwegian sailors
who were picked up when their vessel had sunk.
I guarantee it was Olafsson's men.
Took my boat, and left him stranded there.
It's just like these dogs to slit each other's throats.
Maybe we should ask the captain some more questions.
Mulder, 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 aging, Mulder.
It's almost as if he's turning into a pillar of salt.
Is that what this substance is?
Well, it appears to be crystalline,
but beyond that...
All right. 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.
Hmm?
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?
Well, whatever it is, it isn't a time warp.
None of us has directly observed
any of the phenomena recorded in the ship's log.
There is no hard evidence to indicate
that this is a time warp.
We're the evidence, Scully.
Look at us. We're aging by the minute.
Well, if this is rapid-aging phenomena,
then why hasn't our hair grayed or started to fall out?
Then what about him?
Huh?
What about him?
Why isn't he getting old?
Relax.
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.
Mulder, what do you know about free radicals?
Is this a quiz?
They're highly reactive chemicals
containing extra electrons.
Now, they can attack DNA proteins
that can cause our body tissue and cell membranes to oxidize.
Grow old, you mean?
It's the prevailing theory on how our bodies age.
So you think something
is triggering that reaction in us?
Well, this is just a theory,
but what if this ship is drifting towards
another massive metallic source like a meteor?
Maybe it's way down deep in the ocean
or imbedded into an iceberg.
But the two could effectively be acting
as positive and negative terminals,
with the ocean itself being a kind of giant battery.
That level of electromagnetic energy could be
exciting the free radicals and effectively oxidizing
every piece of matter in its field.
It 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, 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.
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 has been contaminated.
Contaminated how?
Something must have got into the desalination tanks
where all the ship's potable water is stored.
But the water in the sewage system
is recycled again and again.
It's doesn't come from the sea.
Well, if you're right,
then Captain Barclay's drinking binge
is what kept him alive.
The water from this tank may do the same for us.
It doesn't sound like there's very much left.
What happened?
You were supposed to watch him.
I feel pretty bad about it.
I shouldn't have dozed off.
Wh-What do you want me to say?
He's gone. He got away.
I want to know what happened!
I could ask the same of you; you were the one that tied him up.
There's nothing wrong with my knot!
This rope's been 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'm going to need blood and urine samples
from both of you.
What for?
We found out what caused the aging.
What is it now?
The two of you are full of theories.
First it's one thing, then it's another.
By the time you figure out what it is, we'll all be dead.
It's the water, Trondheim.
Something got into the de-sal 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 have revealed
impossibly high concentrations of sodium chloride-- salt.
Though the contaminated water itself is not saline,
it appears to catalyze existing body fluids,
causing massive and rapid cellular damage.
The untainted water has 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 full of water isn't going to bring him back.
We don't know that for sure.
Not yet.
Look at him.
We've wasted too much water on him as it is.
Who are you to decide?
You don't have to be a doctor to see that...
he isn't going to make it.
But you and me, Scully...
you and me, we better start looking out for ourselves.
Mulder's urinalysis continues to indicate
his kidneys' failure to excrete the substance
I am calling "heavy salt."
Whether the untainted water taken 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 going to do, shoot me?
Trondheim...
listen to me.
The Navy knows where we are.
They know these coordinates,
and they're going to be here soon.
So why don't we just go back up into the mess hall...
Why don't you just go ahead and shoot me
if you think
that I'm going to 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, Scully.
You're a woman.
Your life expectancy is greater,
and your body retains more water in the fatty tissues.
That's more reason for you to drink it.
You have a much greater chance of surviving until help comes.
Don't do this, Mulder.
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.
Open!
I can't open the door!
Help me!
Help me! Help me!
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 that 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,
the 12th of 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's mass.
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 considerably more compromised than yours.
Frankly, we didn't think that he'd make it,
until we discovered this.
Based on your observations, we're giving him a course
of synthetic hormones,
which seems to be working.
Whatever caused this is still out there.
I have to talk to a Naval liaison.
We have to salvage the ship in order to study the salt...
Agent Scully,
the ship was taking on water.
It sank less than an hour after you were rescued.