Mulder's attention, however, was fixated on the car speeding in front of them. "I'm not going to stop until he tells us the truth, Scully!" There was no talking to Mulder when he was as intent as this. All that Dana could do was hold on tight and pray that he wouldn't crash. High speed chases down rural, deserted roads weren't exactly her idea of a good time.

But she didn't have long to dwell on that. At that moment Mulder's hands tightened on the steering wheel as he made another sharp turn. Not sharp enough, though. The car swerved off the road, leaping into the air as the ground dropped beneath them. Scully braced herself for a hard landing, felt her stomach flip as the car descended...

And opened her eyes to find them still in the car... in a mall. Sort of. The car was just sitting there as if they'd dropped in from nowhere, and from the looks on people's faces, it might have. That's how it all looked at first glance. But as one of then approached the car, her eyes opened wider..and wider...

This person wasn't human! How else could you explain someone with really strangely spotted skin, red eyes, and no hair? And he (she hoped she was right about he) was not the only...non-human. More than she could ever find words to describe. This place was beyond odd. The signs in this shopping area weren't always in English or any language she recognized. Many were in multiple strange languages. But it was hard for her to take her eyes off the spotted alien.

Mulder rolled down his window. Over the babble of voices in the background Scully was able to hear the spotted one speak into some sort of communications device.

"I don't know, Chief," he said. "They just came out of no where. In the Zocolo. In some sort of vehicle."

A voice responded from the device. "All right, I'll be right there. Don't let them go anywhere."

Mulder was strangely enjoying the sight of this place. Suddenly, he turned to Scully with a small smirk. He was enjoying how uncomfortable she was! "Okay, Mulder," she muttered, "you were right." But before Mulder could count this as a victory over the skeptic Scully, she added, "If this place is what it seems. Which I didn't say."

Conversation stopped as a man, apparently "Chief", showed up. Scully was more comfortable looking at this uniformed human than the...alien. "Chief" whispered something at the alien, then approached Mulder's open window.

"Okay," said the man. "Do you have an explanation for showing up in a classic car in the middle of the Zocolo?"

Mulder started to respond in his usual way. He pulled out his badge. "Fox Mulder, FBI-" he began.

"Wait a second, let me see that badge," the man demanded.

Mulder handed it to him. But he didn't get any response he expected. "1997!!" the man exclaimed.

"Is there a problem?" Mulder asked. "I assure you it's correct."

"Great" muttered "Chief" sarcastically under his breath. Then he tapped a device on the back of his hand. "Captain Sheridan" he said into it.

"Go ahead, Mr. Allen," came the response.

"Sir, I seem to have a pair of time travelers on the Zocolo..."

"So you're saying that you are from 1997 Earth? And you have no idea how you got here? Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe."

Mulder frowned. They'd been going through this for the past hour. "I assure you, Captain, we've told you everything we know. If there's some way to convince you that we're telling you the truth...?"

Captain Sheridan shook his head. "That won't be necessary. Commander Ivanova is checking out your stories."

Scully hadn't said a word the entire time. Partly it was that she was still very confused and overwhelmed by the situation. But now that she was in a room populated with only a few uniformed humans she was far more comfortable. So, she had taken to observing their hosts. Now, she saw that this Captain had purposely phrased his question to see their response. Presumably, had they been lying about their origins their response would show it.

But that obviously wasn't the case. "That will be fine," stated Mulder calmly.

A that point a uniformed woman, presumably the afore mentioned Commander Ivanova, entered the room. Captain Sheridan turned away from Mulder to face her.

"Well, what did you find?"

"It took some work, Captain," she began, crossing the room, "but I found them. and," she activated a monitor on the wall, "they're telling the truth."

The Captain started. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know. They were listed as missing. An investigation was conducted, but that was found were the tire tracks going off the top of a hill. There was no wreckage or other clues."

Mulder took that moment to speak up. "See? It's as we told you. We told you the truth."

"Yes," Captain Sheridan said. "now we have just one problem. "

"What's that?"

"Where are the two of you going to stay until we figure out how to get you home?"

The next morning Dana Scully found herself awake long before she meant to be. She just found it hard to sleep in this strange place. The strange beings she had seen stayed in her head. so, she had been long awake and dressed when there was a chime at the door.

"Come in!" she called.

The door slid up and open, revealing Commander Ivanova. Scully was still overwhelmed by the strangeness of this all, but she tried not to show it.

"Commander Ivanova. What can I do for you?"

Ivanova smiled. "I just thought you might like to get some breakfast. Also, afterwards the Captain wants to see you and your partner and discuss how to get you home."

"Oh, sounds good."

Scully followed Ivanova's lead down the corridor. You know, if the were going to be here for a while, it might be a good idea to get to know some of these people. So, Scully decided to take this opportunity to speak to Ivanova.

"Are we meeting anyone else for breakfast?" she asked as they entered some sort of elevator.

Ivanova nodded. "Yes. Our resident telepath, Lyta Alexander, and Ambassador Delenn will be meeting us there."

Scully tried not to let the word "telepath" phase her. This place was already strange enough without her dwelling on that. "Ambassador? From where?"

They stepped off the elevator and turned the corner. "Minbar," answered Ivanova.

Scully didn't have time to ponder this, for now they turned another corner and entered an eating area. Though more questions filled her head, she was unable to ask them as she followed Ivanova to get food and find a table.

Once they sat, Scully tried to word her many questions. "Umm, Commander Ivanova..."

"Susan."

Scully smiled. "Okay, Susan. And my name is Dana." She paused, uncertain of how to continue. "Well, I wanted to ask-"

"Good morning!" a woman's voice interrupted.

Ivanova turned to see who spoke. "Dana," she said, "I'd like you to meet Lyta Alexander and Ambassador Delenn."

Scully forgot all of her questions and tried hard not to stare at the Ambassador. She really was not doing well at adjusting to all of these non-humans. And the Ambassador certainly wasn't human. Not that she was as alien as some that Scully had seen the day before. Still... Mulder is never going to let me hear the end of this.

The rest of breakfast went by very slowly. And very quietly. For all that Susan tried to engage her in conversation, Dana had not rediscovered her words or her previous questions. To say the least, the entire situation made her very uncomfortable. Consequently, she was very glad when breakfast was over.

"Well, we certainly don't seem to be getting anywhere with this," muttered Captain Sheridan.

Scully couldn't have agreed more. They'd been talking about how to get her and Mulder back where they belonged. And no one had a clue.

"It would be a help, Captain, if we knew how they got here in the first place," Ivanova said. "But we couldn't find a single clue."

At least Mulder didn't seem to be enjoying this as much now that it was clear they might never get home. And he wasn't teasing her about dealing with non-humans...aliens, extra-terrestrials...which she had so ardently denied the existence of. That surprised Scully slightly, but she didn't mind. This whole thing was so strange!

But before she could reflect on just how strange this all was, an urgent voice broke into the room, "Captain Sheridan!"

The Captain tapped one of those communication devices. "Yes?"

"Sir, we have an unidentified craft approaching!"

"Have you contacted the pilot?"

"Yes, but he refuses to speak to anyone but the time travelers."

Mulder, Scully, and the Captain exchanged confused looks. Finally, Sheridan responded, "Put the message through in here."

One of the view screens changed to reveal a space ships cockpit. Slowly, through a haze of smoke - cigarette smoke - emerged an alien. Yet with a very familiar face.

"So here's where the two of you have been! Have you enjoyed your vacation?"

The phone ringing woke Mulder from a sound sleep. 3:34. Who could be calling at this hour?

Groggily, hr picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Mulder," came Scully's stern voice. "I am never again watching science-fiction with you before I go to sleep!" The phone clicked as she hung up.

Hmmm? Oh well, it could wait until tomorrow. for now, Mulder fell asleep. To dream. Of...

"Space. The final frontier..."

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