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The entire structure vibrated as Mulder strug-gled on, fighting his own flagging energy as he half-carried, half-pulled Scully as quickly as he could down the fog-shrouded corridor.
Approaching the place where Mulder first slipped down into the passage, the walls were now slick with ru
Its body was no longer encased in solid ice. Through the layers of ice and translucent skin the embryonic creature inside could be glimpsed, turning very slightly as though coming awake. Mulder gazed at it transfixed, then quickly turned and stared up at the ceil-ing.
"Scully, reach up and grab that vent."
She did not respond. He looked downward and saw that she had lost consciousness. With gentle urgency he laid her on the floor. "Scully, come on, Scully—"
He hastened to unzip her jacket, his fingers moving across her neck as he sought a pulse. "Scully—"
She strained harder to breathe as he thrust his fingers into her mouth, clearing her pas-sageway.
"Breathe, Scully." He straddled her, palms flat against her chest as he pumped hard, forcing air into her.
One. Two. Three.
He leaned down and put his mouth against hers, feeling how cold her lips were, and her cheeks. He breathed into her, turning his head away and listening for the telltale gurgle of air in her lungs.
Nothing.
He pumped her chest again, his move-ments growing more and more frantic as her eyes bulged and her face darkened from scarlet to nearly purple.
One. Two. Three.
His mouth against hers, breathing; his ear against her chest.
Still nothing.
Behind him, unseen, the embryonic crea-tures thrashed within their hosts, as the ice around them began to fall in chunks to the floor. At the sound, Mulder turned and saw them striving to escape, and realized their urgency was even greater. With new haste Mulder continued CPR, oblivious to anything but Scully. Abruptly he drew back from her.
Then beneath him she suddenly moved. A shudder as she sucked in air, and then began to cough. The awful bruised color drained from her face, as did that dreadful panic. She gazed at Mulder, eyes focusing on his, and her lips parted.
"Mulder—" she said in a pained whisper. He lowered his face until it brushed hers, lis-tening raptly.
"Mulder—
"Had you big time."
The faintest grin flitted across his face. Before he could reply, a loud chunk echoed from behind him.
Mulder whipped his head around.
"Holy shit—"
Through the haze of fog he could just barely make out dark forms moving in the cor-ridor. Spindly arms and legs thrust from the cryopods, as their three-fingered hands beat and shattered the crumbling ice.
The creatures were begi
Mulder whirled to look the other way. The same scene greeted him: slush pouring from the pods as the creatures' powerful feet kicked holes in their icy tombs. He turned back to his partner.
"Scully! Reach up and grab that vent—"
Her mouth moved but no words came out. With all his remaining strength Mulder stooped and lifted her, turning to where the vent opened in the wall above them. He propped her against his shoulder and pushed her toward the vent. She grabbed it and pulled herself up, and then disap-peared through the opening. Behind her Mulder jumped and found a handhold, propelling himself by kicking at what was below. With a hoarse cry a creature burst free from its cryopod. First one hand, then the other shot out, ripping through what remained of the host body. The jellied flesh slid to the floor in a gray heap as the creature grabbed at Mulder's foot. He kicked at it furiously as its claws slid down his legs. Just as it stumbled from its pod, Mulder yanked himself from its grip and in one smooth motion swung himself up and into the vent.
Inside Scully moved feebly.
"Scully!" he shouted. "Keep going!"
She made a guttural sound in reply, moan-ing softly, but moved ahead.
"Keep going, Scully—"
They inched onwards, Mulder pushing her when she no longer had to strength to con-tinue. At last the vent opening loomed above them, a square of pearly gray light. Mulder pushed her through and followed, gasping at the bite of cold fresh air as he crawled forward. He looked back constantly to see if any of the creatures were following.
He and Scully were in the space formed by the air pocket, where Mulder had first fallen down from the ice shelf. All around them, the ice and snow which formed the walls of the cavern were melting.
Overhead a crater-sized hole had opened, and they could see bright blue sky through the whirling mist. Mulder shakily got to his feet. Again he looked back.
With an inhuman shriek, one of the crea-tures leaped from the vent opening, claws extending toward him. Before it could reach him, a blast a steam erupted and sent it hurling back down. There was a low, threatening rum-ble. More steam curled up from the vent. With a cry Mulder grabbed Scully by the shoulders. He threw her toward the far wall, leaping after her and covering his eyes.
Behind them, a volcanic blast of steam shot from the vent they had just left, exploding upwards and melting what remained of the snowy walls. There was a deafening hiss as the blast subsided. Mulder grabbed Scully and stumbled toward where there was now a slop-ing embankment, leading up to the surface of the ice sheet.
They reached the top; Scully coughing as she caught her breath, Mulder panting heavily. Together they staggered away from the vent. They came to a small rise and clambered up it, falling often in the soft snow. When they got to its summit, they turned to look back.
Below them was the ice sheet. A series of regularly spaced holes had appeared in it, and through these steam was blasting, defining the circular structure beneath. The white domed tents, dwarfed now by the gargantuan edifice under the surface. As they stared, steam from below blasted with hideous force, the sound so loud they covered their ears against it. Mulder grabbed Scully's sleeve and pulled her protec-tively towards him.
Through the cloud of condensing steam the ice station could just be glimpsed, like an abandoned toy village in all that waste. Suddenly the ice beneath it rippled, and with-out warning the entire sheet gave way. The ice station plunged downward, caving in to the very center of the buried ship. As it did so shock waves radiated outwards. The ground trembled as the horrified Mulder realized what was happening.
"We've got to run!"
He dragged her after him, the two of them looking back to see where the ice shelf was col' lapsing.
Magnificent geysers shot hundreds of feet into the air, powered by the superheated core below. Ice sheared off in an ever-expanding circle, and steam vents erupted everywhere now; they now fled through a hellish landscape of smoke and flying snow, chunks of ice and burning debris. In the center of the collapsing shelf a black shape appeared, resolving itself into a dome as the ice and steam burned off. The black dome grew more and more immense as they ran, struggling to outrace it.
With a cry Scully fell, arms flailing at the soft snow. Mulder yanked her back to her feet, his ears numbed by the roar of the emerging spacecraft. He grabbed her hand, but before they could flee farther the ground beneath them sheared away.
They fell, and fell, and finally landed, hard, on the flat surface of the ship. As it lifted into the air they slid off it and down, plummeting through the air until they crashed onto the exposed ice sheet below. Ice chunks fell in a terrible rain all about them. Mulder crouched over Scully, trying to shield her from the deadly hail of debris, as the vast black hull of the spacecraft continued to rise above them, so huge that it blotted out the sky. Faster and faster it rose, gaining momentum as it broke free of the frozen weight of the icy crater that had imprisoned it. Scully moaned, her face pressed down into the snow. Above her, Mulder stared awestruck as the ship lifted clear of the earth, rotating slowly as it hovered in the sky. For the first time he could see it clearly, the network of spokes and cells that held it together and the smooth central dome.