Chapter Six - Conspiracies and Punishments The huge gray dome hovered briefly over the frozen ground before coming to rest gently. A group of people waiting nearby began walking toward the spaceship, looking grim. When they neared it, lights flashed wildly and the faces of the people melted to reveal very different personas inside. Most of them took the form of a large muscular male human. But the faces were deformed by what appeared to be stitches closing off the eyes and mouth. Only three of the beings remained unchanged. They might have been recognized by several FBI agents as being Billy Miles, Gene Crane, and CIA operative Knowle Rohrer. A mighty door slowly creaked open in the side of the huge craft, and in the light a small figure could just barely be made out. It tipped its overlarge head in curiosity at the group which awaited it at the bottom of the ramp, then extended a long thin arm. A grotesque finger beckoned them forward. "Does this mean you have changed your minds and wish to be reunited with our Plan?" the alien asked its visitors telepathically. Actually, it did not use words strung together in a sentence, but rather a gestalt of images and feelings which conveyed the essence of its thoughts much faster and more effiently than lumbering speech would have. The Replicant Billy Miles stepped forward. "We have not," he began stiffly, unused to telepathy as a young child is to speaking. He was not as versed in hiding the intensity of his emotions while communicating this way, and his anger burned through his thought-sending. "There is another factor against you." "A human child has been born. His parents are immune to your virus. This boy's body...will reject Purity." The alien flushed brightly with shock and anger. The force of his rage burned them all; the others flinched at the intensity of the sending, the alien himself seemed out of control of his own thoughts for a brief moment. Replicant Billy Miles recovered first from the shockwave. "And there are others." The Gray sank slowly down to the floor and lowered his head in a oddly human pose of despair. "Tell me," he uttered. The cold of winter blew through his sending. One of the Bounty Hunters sent. "You must abandon this planet. The vermin resist at every turn. It is not worth this division between us, this tainting of our noble blood with these who are no better than food for our young. Are we so desperate for eternal health and life that we would risk defeat at these hands?" He held up his own hands as he spoke, knowing them to be merely a mask. Genetically, he should look just like the Gray. He kept his human form because it was the best protection against the virus which the colonists would not hesitate to use against the Rebels to bring them back into compliance. "They outnumber us," Billy took up the thread. "Without our co-conspirators, by sheer physical number they could defeat us. Even sick and dying, they could conceivably cause us as much physical pain as a birthing of one of ours does for them. I have seen what some are capable of even in the throes of painful death." He spoke in the majority although he was not affected by the same inherent weaknesses of the true aliens. He still had a remnant of human will in him. All the replicants so far had been miserable failures. The new virus made a new being it was true, but the alien creations turned against their makers to work towards defeating the Colonists. "Now these babies, born with a natural immunity, are becoming more and more commonplace. Ray and Theresa Hoese's daughter. Rick and Angela Yemmen have two children, both immune. This newest one, William, will shortly be joined by another. Marita Corravubias is pregnant. She is immune because of Alex Krycek, who once worked for you. And there is something else to consider." He paused in his sending for dramatic effect. It wasn't necessary. His pompous thoughts tones were import enough. "It won't be long before this man, Mulder, realizes he and his mate are immune. He will realize how this came to be and work harder than ever to insure that many humans receive this same treatment. More and more, the humans are becoming unfit as a slave race, if ever they were fit to serve us in the first place." Gray regarded them with its huge black eyes. "I will show you something," he sent bitterly, and rose to lead them further into the ship. ------------------- They came after many twists and turns through the labyrinth of the ship to a small white room with a cryotank in the center. Floating in it, looking incongruously at peace, was Jeremiah Smith. He was the last remaining survivor of the group that broke from the aliens to defend the right of the humans. Not because they found humans unworthy of hybridization, but because they believed them noble of spirit, able to achieve and transcend their base natures and becomes so much more than what they were. This small group believed in the soul of Mankind. And this one was the last. "He is the one," the colonist hissed. His distaste and dislike of the being within was apparent by the simple body language he used near the tank. "He has saved many humans which would otherwise have mutated into replicants." With an ironic glance to Replicant Knowle, "Into apparently rebellious and failed replicants." Knowle nodded absently, staring into the tank at what was, to him, a hero. This being had spread the immunity. Perhaps unknowingly, but his actions had caused many abductees to go home to their loved ones and continue with their lives, unknowing of the miracle wrought within the very cells of their body. All the abductees had been healed by the Jeremiah Smiths not only of the wounds inflicted on them by torture, but the Replicant virus as well. They were all immune. And many had families, families which could easily grow with the addition of babies. These babies would also be immune to the coming apocolypse. The Bounty Hunters also showed respect to the last Jeremiah. They had once tried to stop them, on orders from a man that they believed served a rebel agenda just as they did. Now, they recognized the enormity of what this last one had done. Singlehandedly, he may have assured the survival of the race he seemed to value so highly. The Colonist knew the gist of their thoughts and nodded grimly. None of them could hide anything from the others. It was always so with a telepathic race, no secrets could be kept. The rebels knew also, that this last Jeremiah would suffer a terrible punishment in recompense for his crimes against the Plan. "So," ventured Replicant Knowle. "Is it finished?" "It is not for me to decide," responded the Colonist. He seemed unutterably weary. "A meeting will be called to discuss the possible ramifications of growing immunity on our attempts to colonize this troublesome world." "Only after much debate, can we abandon this much desired planet and begin the long search for another." He bowed his head in grief. "It will be difficult to find one with such an adaptable species as these. The humans may be our last hope." He showed them to the great door by which they had entered and watched for a long time as they trudged away, growing smaller and smaller against the endless white landscape.