SEASON 1

SEASON 2

SEASON 3

SEASON 4

SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

SEASON 6

SEASON 7

SEASON 8

SEASON 9

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They are led down a hallway, and Scully’s hair seems to have calmed down a bit. Mulder sees a photo from the Gemini VIII mission. He gives Scully a brief history of the mission, and mentions that Col. Belt nearly died on it. The look on Scully’s face says “geek!” Apparently she never wanted to be an astronaut when she was a kid. I did. Then I saw Apollo 13. They go into Belt’s office and introduce themselves, and Mulder turns into a total fangirl. It’s adorable, but I also want to smack him and tell him to stop embarrassing himself. Scully takes out the X-ray of the APU valve, and asks Belt if he has any reason to suspect sabotage. He says no, and is offended that Scully would even make such accusations about the program. Scully asks if he would consider postponing the launch until an investigation is conducted, but he won’t hear of it. Mulder asks if he and Scully can watch the launch from Mission Control, and continues gushing. As they leave the office, Scully quips, “Didn’t you want to get his autograph?” Heehee.

Downstairs, they show the APU valve X-ray to a scientist who claims that a material analysis was never ordered. Doing so would delay the mission for months and incur a huge cost. As they walk upstairs, Scully asks Mulder if he thinks Col. Belt was lying. Mulder doesn’t want to believe that his hero would endanger the astronauts’ lives, and hopes that the X-ray is a fake.

They look down onto Mission Control, where everyone is prepping for the launch that is 90 seconds away. Technobabble. Stock footage. The shuttle launches, and everyone breaks out into applause. Michelle and Mulder (who looks positively giddy) give each other the thumbs up, and Scully rolls her eyes. Oh Scully, won’t you let the boy have his fun?

Mulder and Scully walk through a hallway in their hotel later on, ready for an evening of platonic chit-chat and nothing more. Mulder says that he fulfilled one of his childhood fantasies, and Scully fires back with “It ranks right up there with getting a pony and learning to braid my own hair.” Funny, but again, let the boy have his fun. Michelle runs after them, shouting “Mulder, wait!” You know missy, Scully’s right there. Pretending she doesn’t exist won’t make her go away. She tells them there was a problem with the shuttle and they need to get back to Houston.

They follow her in their car down a dark, rain-slicked road. Mulder says that there’s a press blackout in effect, and that the media probably doesn’t know about the problems. They follow Michelle as she makes a turn. Suddenly, a blurry face comes flying towards her from outside the windshield, and she crashes her car. Mulder pulls over and manages to help get Michelle out from the overturned car, and she says that something came at her in the fog. Scully asks if it was an animal. “No. It had a face. It was… it was grotesque.” Uh-oh. Mulder helps her to their car they continue on their merry way.

At Mission Control, the orbiter is communicating with Houston. Michelle walks in and asks what’s happening, and a man who we’ll call Scientist Guy explains that they’re having problems with something or other that I won’t bother to transcribe here. He looks up at Michelle, whose forehead is covered in blood, and asks what happened. She says she was in an accident. This whole time, I feel the need to take a damp washcloth and hold it on her forehead. That’s a nasty gash. Here comes the exposition fairy. Mulder goes over to Scully and explains to her (and the audience) that the manoeuvring system has malfunctioned, and the shuttle can’t rotate away from the sun in order to make sure the orbiter stays cool. The back-up systems have failed, and they can’t do anything from the ground. Scientist Guy says that “it’s like somebody’s interfering with the telemetry.” Ooooh…I wonder who that could be? Michelle says that if somebody is screwing with the systems, they’d be in the data banks. So they rush up there.

Mulder walks in with his weapon drawn. I tried thinking of a way to phrase that so it can’t be interpreted as dirty, but it’s impossible. Or maybe I’m just 12. Anyway, he’s followed by Michelle, then Scully. When Mulder’s back is turned, someone (or something) runs past. The power goes out, but back-up generators kick in a few seconds later. Mulder gives his federal agent spiel, and a man in a lab coat comes out from his hiding place in a corner. He kinda looks like a younger, paler, geekier version of Governor Bill Richardson. Michelle checks his clearance. Bill explains that a sensor went off because of a telemetry malfunction. Mulder gets all drill-sergeanty and orders a lockdown of the facility, saying that nobody gets in or out unless they have proper clearance. Wow. Bossy Mulder is kinda hot.