held a plastic cup with deep brown contents in front of her nose. "Here. It's far from the original, but I had to bring you something with caffeine."
She happily took the mug, kissed him on the cheek and whirled away into the opaque jungle of technology and cables. "Oh Gibbs, you are so good to me today."
He just shook his head, laughing softly, although he could have laughed out loud because of the now completely confused-looking Mulder.
Abby reappeared a moment later, McGee in tow, leaning against a hopelessly cluttered table and staring Mulder and Gibbs under their thick bangs. "Well, my silver-haired fox, what can I do for you today?"
He handed her the tube he'd taken from Scully. The dark substance flowed slowly along the glass. "A detailed analysis of this material. I want to know what it is and what it consists of. Ducky and Agent Mulder's partner are currently examining the bodies of the five Marines found.They will bring material that you should compare with this. "
Abby whistled through her teeth. "Respect. And all of that this night? You already realize that ..."
"... such analyzes take a lot more time. Abby, I know. Just skip the time, okay?"
She made a face and took the remaining tubes from Mulder. "I do my best."
Gibbs held her back by the arm and met her eyes hard. "It's not me who's urging this time. But still, there is no trying. Do it, Abbs."
The young woman sighed deeply. "If you leave McGee for support."
Mulder cleared his throat in the background to get the attention back to himself. "Um ... with these computers ... can you use them to access the Internet from here too?"
Abby wriggled from the grip and beamed at the FBI agent. "Of course."
"Also via secure lines?"
She waved her hands in the air conspiratorially."Be sure, Spooky, that I have everything to grant your conspiratorial desires."
Mulder seemed seriously concerned now, especially when he saw the sour expression on McGee's face. He didn't seem to like the way Abby handled the agent. "Then I can offer help. A few friends of mine have worked with this material before. We can use their experience for our research."
"THAT's an offer. But I doubt I'll need any help." She winked, put on disposable gloves and went to the only free table.

The hours flitted by as Abby and McGee pored over the various samples and Dr. Mallard and Scully scoured the dead Marines for clues and clues. The hand of the clock was moving towards one o'clock in the morning when Scully finally came into the lab, exhausted, with a few small vessels of samples balanced on her arms. Dark circles showed under her eyes, but she smiled as she walked over to Abby's table."I'm bringing the autopsy samples. You must be Abby. Dr. Mallard has talked a great deal about you in the past few hours.
The black-haired woman looked up and then carefully removed the vessels from Scully. "Just don't believe everything he says. He's an incredibly resourceful person, but sometimes he just gets away with it."
Scully smiled. Yes, you could call it that. She knew a lot more about Jethro Gibbs now than he probably would have liked. For what motives Ducky had been so talkative about himself, however, she did not know how to answer.
"Have you been able to find out anything about the liquid?
Abby sighed, then motioned the FBI agent to follow her. Mulder stood in front of one of three personal computers with McGee, trying to understand what the young NCIS agent was doing. A complex base structure could be seen on the monitor next to it. However, nothing that would have said anything to these two.Scully recognized it immediately and the lump in her stomach tightened painfully.
"All we can say is that all these samples are one and the same substance. Only this one," she held up the tube in which, according to the label, the sample from the bridge was closed, "were still to find human cells. I'm not exactly sure, but the entire material has a strong resemblance to humanoid cells. However, completely torn from their natural cohesion. "
Scully nodded and sat on a freestanding stool. Mulder handed her a bottle of lukewarm water. It was still incredibly humid. "The autopsy of the men showed that the virus was only present in the captain's body. All other marines were untouched." She rubbed her tired eyes. "His body was basically nothing more than a shell. All of his organs had already dissolved or were dissolving into a jelly-like mass.He must have endured terrible pain. "
She felt Mulder's horrified gaze rest on her. "It's dead, Mulder. Don't worry. Dr. Mallard is currently arranging for the bodies to be cremated. This should avert any danger."
Curious, Abby pushed herself in front of Scully's eyes and looked inquiringly from her to her partner. "Sorry if I ask stupid questions, but ... WHAT is dead?"
"The being that develops out of the virus. When it is ripe, it breaks out of its host body and thus kills it for good. The captain saved our lives with his suicide."
“WHAT?” She stared at Mulder in disbelief, then turned to McGee for help. However, he casually waved it off. "He's been telling us that all day."
"Cool."
Now it was McGee's turn to look disturbed. He couldn't see anything about the idea that he would call cool in any way. That reminded him too much of the alien films. Awful."I would like to compare these results. On the one hand with the captain's tissue and on the other hand with the older results that my friends have achieved."
Abby grinned crookedly. "Of course, Agent Mulder. I'm already at it. If it's the same or related substances, it won't take too long." She scurried away, then glanced around the corner and pointed at McGee. "You should discuss everything else with Tim."
Mulder eyed the very young agent for a moment, as if weighing to what extent he was trustworthy. "I need a completely secure line."
McGee started typing on the keyboard, then paused and glanced up at Mulder looming over him. "Um ... and where to?"
Mulder wrote him the address on a small piece of paper, which he immediately cut into tiny snippets.
A little later the connection was established and Mulder was surprised to see even his friend's gaunt face on the monitor."You don't know. Look who pays us a visit at nighttime. Mulder! Where in the world are you? And who is that baby face in front of you?"
Had McGee known how, he would have bared his teeth. As it was, however, he only looked slightly irritated and somewhat embarrassed at the slim blonde who had just thrown this at his head.
"Langly, stop insulting my colleagues and wake up the others!"
The blonde brushed his long hair from his forehead and grinned. "Ohh, if that doesn't smell like a forbidden solo effort again. I thought you were in the office now?"
Mulder rolled his eyes. "Langly, PLEASE. You are definitely not the right person to preach appropriate behavior to ME.
We're going to send you some dates now. They should look familiar to you. I want you to compare them with your database. "
“What is it?” He watched curiously as McGee worked intensely on sending the sample results and then, just a few heartbeats later, looked at the monitor under the webcam.His eyes went wide.
"I think this question was probably unnecessary."
Langly's gaze wandered from the monitor to Mulder in bewilderment. "That ... FROHIKE! BYERS! Move your lazy asses here, but a little suddenly.
Tell me, Mulder, where are you actually? "
The FBI agent leaned against a shelf with his arms crossed. "In Tennessee."
"Not really. About the missing Navy cruiser?"
"Now he is no longer missing."
The figures of the other two appeared in the background, still somewhat disheveled from sleep. They didn't seem nearly as happy about the nightly disturbance, but that changed suddenly when they recognized Mulder.
"Now that the dream team is complete, maybe you could take care of my request? You will understand that this is very important to me."
"Mulder, you know exactly what we're going to do." Langly sounded almost a bit reproachful.
"But I want it in front of me in black and white. We don't have the means here to clearly identify it."The blonde began to work without saying another word.
“Who are they all?” Frohike scratched the hair that protruded wildly from his head and squinted past Mulder through his glasses. Abby, closely followed by Gibbs, had entered the webcam's field of view. She looked nervous.
"The captain's tissue samples agree so far with the substance found. Only here he seems to have already completely fused with the human cells." She wrung her hands and looked unhappily at McGee, as if he could help her. “I can't decipher one of the samples, though. I don't know what it is.” Something like this had never happened to her before, not even a partial result was available.
“Mulder, who are they?” Frohike repeated his question, but this time with a delighted look at the slim scientist.
Abby, for her part, blinked back a little confused, then crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow provocatively."THESE are from NCIS. We're running the investigation here and working with Agent Mulder and Agent Scully. May I find out who you are now?"
Frohike threw himself proudly on the chest and answered before his friends could stop him. "We are the Lone Gunmen, dearest ones. The rescuers in need." He winked at Mulder.
For a moment it seemed as if Abby was losing all of her temper. She squeaked happily and then jumped closer to the webcam with her braids bobbing. "Is that a possibility? You really are the Lone Gunmen? THE Lone Gunmen?" Her gaze wandered over to Mulder, whom she beamed at with a broad grin. "Man, it's like Christmas and Halloween put together. I should seriously consider who to work for in the future."
A rough pat on the back of the head ended her storm of enthusiasm and she looked guiltily at Gibbs. Usually he never did that to her.
Langly stepped