TITLE: "Atomic-Powered Sex" (1/1)
BY: Ten
E-MAIL ADDRESS: kristena@ocean.com.au

CATEGORY: V; MSR; Humour (though it may not look like it
at the start)
RATING: PG-13 despite the title because no detail is gone
into with the adult situations
SUMMARY: As colonisation sweeps the land, salvation is at
hand.
TIMESPAN/SPOILER WARNING: A spoiler for issues
raised/possible explanations for events in "Biogenesis",
but this vignette assumes that the events of Biogenesis
didn't actually happen. If that makes any sense... lol.
It is set post "One Son".

ARCHIVE INFO: It goes to Gossamer through xff. Can be
archived anywhere as long as my name, addy and disclaimer
stay intact.
FEEDBACK: Love it. Brings joy to my world!
THANKS AND DEDICATION TO: Cynthia Moore, for such great
feedback and for giving me the phrase that set this all
off! (ie, the title.)

ADDITIONAL THANKS TO: Gerry, Debbie, Ainon, Suzanne, Mac,
Frog and Shawne.

My website for all my X-Files fanfiction, thanks to the
wonderful Skyfox, is at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Keep/1351
My site may be moving soon. Any change of addy will
appear in the intros of future stories, but my ocean e-
mail will be the same.

DISCLAIMER: The X-Files, the episodes referred to, Mulder
and Scully and all other characters from the show belong
to Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions and Fox
Broadcasting, and are used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended, no profit will be
gained. Characters not recognised from the show are mine.


The X-Files: "Atomic-Powered Sex" (1/1)
By Ten, July/August 1999

xXx

Present, December 31st 1999:


Mulder lay atop the covers of an olive-green military-
style cot. He was on his back, head resting on his folded
arms. He sighed and stared at the ceiling. He didn't want
to look at his watch. He didn't want to know how much
time he had left before they came for him.

There wasn't even anything much for him to look at in
this featureless, underground bunker.

But the aliens knew where the base was now, and it was
only a matter of time before 'They' found their way in.
Often the hum of the flying saucers would fill the air.
They sounded like huge swarms of bees. Indeed, the crafts
sometimes disgorged precisely that. The awesome UFOs
would sweep across the ground, scanning, hunting...


*********


"They're going to vaporise us!" had come the cry at the
emergency meeting a few hours ago.

"No." Scully was ever the voice of reason, even when her
belief system had had to undergo a sharp turnaround, or
at least an ACCEPTANCE at last. Invasion and colonisation
would tend to do that. "They've had ample opportunity to
angle a laser beam at us, but as Col. Peters has said,
the aliens -" only a slight quiver in her voice "haven't
attempted deploying any weaponry in this area. That could
be because we're putting up a fight and we have the
vaccine, so they have to tread very carefully. And the
readings we got on their latest 'sweep' have finally been
translated." Here she paused, and glanced at Mulder
before dropping her eyes to the tabletop.

He tensed. He'd been out on a recon mission, so all this
was news to him.

"The scan was an attempt to ascertain our numbers, but it
was also doing a DNA scan. Looking for a certain match. A
certain person." She looked up at Mulder, her expression
a near-replica of when she and Mulder were in the SWAT
team's van at the hospital during the first Pusher case.
"You. And a broadcast has been picked up on all radio
frequencies. A looped message, over and over. Asking for
you to come to negotiate with them. No one else. Even
transmissions from the President in his bunker have been
ignored. And They are insisting that this Meeting occurs
today."

"What, before the Millennium Bug hits?" he joked. It went
down as flatly with her as his 'Think I can get the
Playboy Channel?' remark had.

Col. Peters sighed. "They want you, Mulder. They may be
holding off destroying the base, just because of you.
They want you alive."

Mulder had managed a grin. "Well, that's reassuring. Then
let's use that to our advantage."

"Yes, to give us time to produce more vaccine and use it
to the optimum advantage. Though there may be a way to
defeat them without having to do all that." Peters pulled
out some folders. "I have a few plans and options here.
But..."

"What?"

"I don't think you're going to like them." However, it
was Scully's gaze that Peters seemed intent on avoiding.

The options were then discussed. A course of action was
chosen, over Scully's vociferous objections. She, the
logical one, the one who knew in her head that this was
the only way, the choice and chance they HAD to take, had
been anything but rational when it was clear things were
not going to go the way she wanted them to. His partner
was emotional, angry, and when the decision was made, she
stormed out.

Because it had been agreed that in two hours time, the
scientists here would prepare Mulder for his little solo
sojourn into enemy territory. Give him the means to
destroy their centre of operations when he met with the
aliens an hour later. It might even be enough to affect
the creatures that weren't just in the immediate
vicinity.

Unfortunately, an unavoidable side-effect of this would
be his own death.

He had gone after Scully, wasting precious minutes of his
two hours in searching the bunker. He found her huddled
in a storage room.

"Scully, please, I want to talk to you. We can't leave
things like this."

Her voice was cutting. "In a few hours you'll be either
dead or a mindless slave for Them. Either way, you'll be
free. But I won't be. Just go away and leave me alone.
I'm used to it."

She was implacable. Unbending. After all the losses that
he and the X-files and colonisation had cost her, this
was the final straw for his partner. He reluctantly left
her and went to the dormitory, which was empty, and lay
down to have a think. Should he write her a letter? Go
and try again? Use this time to think back over his life?

/Ha. Mulder - what life?/


*********


Present:


The dormitory door opened quietly and she slipped through
to join him in the spartan room, face flushed from
crying. He guessed there was only so long she could mope
with mops in the storage room. But...how was she?

He stood up from the bunk. "Still mad at me?"

"Are you going to go through with this kamikaze mission?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm still mad at you."

"Dana -"

Her eyes flashed. "Don't try to soften it for me!" She
stalked up to him. "It's a suicide mission! Either the
aliens will kill or capture you, or you'll die trying to
do them in."

"It has to be done. You know that. This is the break
we've been needing."

Her lip trembled. "Why does it have to come at the cost
of your life?"

"I'm only one person. Each day, each hour longer, we're
losing so many people... I can't be compared to that."

"You ARE special. They want you! WHY do they want you?
You're of some great importance, and we're just handing
you over without knowing why!" She was restating points
she'd made in the meeting.

And he wondered what everyone else in that room had
wondered: is she thinking as a scientist or are her
feelings for Mulder clouding her judgement?

/Feelings for ME.../ The implications rocked him. He knew
she loved him, sure, but he had convinced himself for
ages that it was just the love of very close friends. It
was in his nature to doubt that anyone - especially
Scully - could possibly be IN love with him.

"We should find out why you're so important to them..."

"There's no time. You know that. It's me they're after.
That's what they want, Scully. Let's give them what they
want - and a bit extra they aren't expecting."

"Well, what about what *I* want, huh? After all these
years, when is it going to be about what *I* want?"

"What do you want, Scully?"

"I want to go with you. But since I can't... I'll have to
settle for giving you something to remember me by..."

"Scully..."

Scully turned away from him, stuck her head out of the
dormitory door, and hailed a nearby sentry. "Hey, Sue,
make sure that we're not disturbed for the next half
hour. Not for ANYTHING. I don't care if the base is being
overrun by Martians, got that? I've got to give a
condemned man his last request. I've wasted enough time
already."

"Yes, ma'am."

Scully closed and locked the door and stalked towards
Mulder again, but this time there was a totally different
look in her eyes. She unbuttoned her coat.

Mulder stood and stared. A tiny remnant of doubt
remained. "Scully, you don't have to do this just
because..."

"You don't have your videos anymore, Mulder. Let me give
you a live show instead. Audience participation
ESSENTIAL. No dollar bills required."

He saw the way she was looking at him - desire mixed in
with something else... The look that she always reserved
for him - which he thought was a sort of amused affection
though occasionally he got glimpses of more that made him
wonder. Now it was amplified, unveiled... Finally he
recognised it for what it really was.

And there was no room left for even the tiniest piece of
doubt.




Several minutes later screams resounded from behind the
dormitory door. They were not screams of anger. Sue shook
her head and grinned at her fellow guard. "Good thing
They already know where we are, or else this would be a
dead giveaway!"

"Make love, not war."




Observation Tower, Several miles from Rebel Base:


The Cigarette Smoking Man stood in the conference room,
awaiting the assembling New, post-BBQ, Consortium. Life
was good. Well, for HIM, anyway. He looked in
satisfaction at the group filing into the room, which
mainly consisted of young men. They were pale and shell-
shocked at the speed of the invasion. The results. But
they were safe. Their positions ensured them and their
families immunity from what the rest of the world was
experiencing. Safe in this huge tower, with a panoramic
view of the Plan in action at last. And when the dust
settled, they would repopulate the earth in a new world
order.

Young men, who for all their scheming minds and ability
to keep up with the technological advancements of this
decade, were unable to cope with this reality. But HE had
prepared for this for so long. And now they were all
looking to him, for guidance, for reassurance. To liaise
with the aliens. For leadership.

The incineration of the Old Consortium at El Rico air
base had been so convenient. Relieving him of the burden
of that pack of bores and stale-minded thinkers.

So, CSM stood there at the immense window, taking a
packet of cigarettes out of his pocket - that had been
another perk, a guaranteed supply of his addiction-weed
and a green-blooded healer at his disposal in case of
pesky lung cancer cropping up again. He watched the
flying saucers glide by, casting their shadows; the bees
thick in the air, hunting for anyone still left in the
general vicinity.

He gloated. He was king of the world.

And soon a vital piece would fit into place in his grand
scheme of things. Intelligence had informed them that
Mulder would come to the tower in a few hours. Just as
CSM had planned. With one quick sensor sweep of Fox's
body as he entered the sanctum, CSM's lackeys would
disable the device Col. Peters and Co had been so sure
was undetectable and foolproof. Then Fox Mulder would be
quickly pacified and wired into the machine that would
fulfil his destiny as CSM's tool - the ultimate weapon
that he would control. Even the aliens would fear CSM
then.

CSM thought of Diana, who was downstairs now, overseeing
the priming of the machine. He smiled. His daughter was
looking forward to having Fox back in their clutches. Any
pangs about losing the chance of resuming a physical
relationship with him - even a one-way one since Fox had
shown no interest in that aspect - were more than made up
for by the promise of the potentials of using his mind.
Power was better than sex.

Bless Daddy's ambitious little girl. Too bad Jeff Spender
hadn't proved to have the family mettle.

Ten years ago when Fox and Diana were married, Fox only
ever ended up meeting Diana's mother and step-father. CSM
never became actively involved in his children's lives
until they were at an age to be of use to him. He had
made himself known to Diana in 1996, but had pulled the
strings of her career for a while before that - like her
investigations of the MUFON groups in Europe. He wondered
how Bill's son would react to the realisation that his
nemesis was also his ex father-in-law.

The meeting was ready to begin. Everyone in the
conference room was human - the aliens would be present
via the monitor screens since their actual presence made
the men jittery. At least that was what CSM had managed
to convince the creatures. He was granted permission to
speak for both sides. Liaise. He gloated inwardly. That
made both sides so much easier to manipulate to his own
ends.

He lit his cigarette and turned away from the window.

And behind him came a thunderous boom and the flash of a
thousand suns.

He ducked and shielded his eyes. When the glow faded, he
looked out the window and saw an enormous mushroom cloud
billowing up on the horizon.

"They nuked us!" someone screamed. "The aliens reneged -
they're blowing the whole world up!"

"How do you know it's not US doing the nuking?" someone
else whimpered from under the conference table.

CSM frowned. "Wait - there's something strange about that
cloud..." He'd never seen one give out that colour, that
light, before... "Readouts - what's happening?"

Someone fumbled with the computers. Diana's startled
voice was coming over the mike, asking the same
questions, but CSM ignored her as he listened to the
report. "It's in the vicinity of the rebel base - the
explosion occurred right there. It was the epicentre.
Seismographs give TWO simultaneous shockwaves in the same
place. How is that possible? And... and...there's no
damage. No crater. I don't understand..."

CSM realised. The cigarette fell from his mouth. "Mulder
and Scully have just had sex..."

"Indeed they have. And it serves you right," said a very
familiar voice.

CSM whirled around and gaped. There stood - or rather,
hovered - the Well Manicured Man. His body was
translucent. And his face was positively satisfied.

"Serves you right," the old, and dead, Englishman
repeated. "You kept them apart for so long that they've
gone nuclear."

A yell of female rage and denial was heard from the mike.

CSM ignored it and tried to deny the evidence. "But...but
Mulder can't have tapped into his powers - he has no idea
they exist. He needs the pertinent magic squares to do
that. And we have them here." They were hooked into the
machine. Once Mulder was exposed to them, his brain would
be a conduit for the powers even if Fox himself tried to
resist. CSM could then direct the channelling of the
power. The talents that had made Fox Mulder so 'Spooky'
as an investigator would be enhanced beyond most people's
comprehension. And it was the turn of the millennium,
which meant the force was at its height. A happy new year
indeed.

WMM gave a very dignified snort. "You never learn, do
you? You think you hold all the cards. Mulder didn't NEED
the magic squares to access his powers. Scully is his
key. His channel. His sanity. You should have been more
subtle. The all-out invasion was bad enough, but forcing
their hand so that Mulder had no choice but to come to
us, to try to sacrifice himself... If life had proceeded
as normal on the outside, this would never have happened.
Mulder and Scully would just have pottered along, getting
fragments of the truth, admiring each other from afar.
Only using fragments of the power and not realising it.
The strength that has kept them going through so much and
kept them coming back to each other despite near-death
and rifts. It was THEIR power. They fit together so well,
mentally AND physically." WMM smirked.

CSM looked out the window. The mushroom cloud was still
settling. This could not be right. The aliens had
insisted on colonisation happening on this timetable, and
he had gone along with it, keeping his full plans for Fox
Mulder from them. The creatures knew some of his worth,
certainly. If the colonisation hadn't happened, CSM
simply would have had Mulder abducted by this date
anyway, to take advantage of the millennium turnover. Or
got him afterwards and still had plenty of power to use.

But this...

Trying not to let his hands shake, he took out another
cigarette and lit it. He put it in his mouth and took
deep, reassuring puffs. It was a lie. It had to be.

"Do you always smoke after sex?" the WMM mocked. "Though
it's been so long for you that lighting up after others
is as close as you get."

CSM glared. He and WMM had always had a rivalry, so he
could understand the Englishman's delight at this
situation. But death had certainly turned him into a
chatterbox. "They've destroyed themselves," CSM
countered. There was no way the pair could have survived
THAT.

"Ahh, but they didn't destroy themselves. And what's even
more incredible is that they're just warming up..."

CSM blinked. What - had that been the result of mere
foreplay? WMM shook his head.

Blubbering howls issued from under the board table.

"I don't believe you. That was just a fluke. They aren't
the human equivalents of the Ark of the Covenant," CSM
said.

"Well, they're at it again."

It was CSM's turn to snort. "No man can be ready again
that quickly. Not even with a healing alien on standby,
or all that power."

"Together, they can achieve ANYTHING. Even that."

A noise was heard. It was like two crystal goblets
tapping together, ringing out a perfect pitch, which
became a resounding swell of trumpets, a chorus of
millions of joyful voices singing a hymn. The glow was
gathering on the horizon, a golden glow. It suddenly
radiated outwards across the ravaged city.

Images appeared on the screens. On the banks of monitors.
Images coalesced before CSM's eyes as he stared,
incredulous.

Alien beings were caught in the glow and turned to ashes.
Bees became flower petals. UFOs transformed into flocks
of doves, which by miracle didn't crap anywhere except on
the building that CSM was in, before flying off.

He heard Diana's voice over the intercom, howling
"Noooooooooo!" in sobbing outrage.

WMM was laughing, dabbing at ghostly tears with a
handkerchief. "Scully just sent your daughter a little
visual postcard of their activities. You know the sort:
having a lovely Mulder. Glad you're not here."

A flicker of it appeared in CSM's mind, and he recoiled
at the sheer satisfaction on the faces of his enemies. As
the image faded, Scully had a final parting shot at
Diana: "You never rocked his world like this, bitch."

CSM looked out the window again - as best as he could see
past all the bird crap. The glow spread forth once more,
touching the streets and restoring them. Trees filled
with buds.

He mourned all that lovely power gone to waste.

Then a huge and beautiful rainbow arced out in the now
clear and sunny sky.

WMM laughed. "I think that one is Scully's touch. Women
always want the last word, don't they? Goodbye." He
vanished.

The cigarette snuffed out. CSM pulled it from his lips,
and, in denial, tried to light another. If he could just
have a smoke, he would relax and the solution would come
to him. However, the matches kept going out. His next
cigarette then dropped from his lips as the building
shook under his feet. He knew that only this building was
affected. A very selective earthquake.

And as this knowledge sunk into him, and as a slab of
ceiling fell down towards him, CSM's last words were:
"We're screwed."


THE END.


Note: I'll probably reuse this opening in another story
because I want to explore this situation with an angstier
ending too.

Comment from Ainon after reading this story: "No wonder
Mulder didn't have a life. If he had one, the entire
American continent would have sunk by now."