An Illustrated Conspiracy

[truemyth.livejournal.com]

My ambitions often get the better of me in fandom. I was planning on writing an original fiction, but the story is still sorting itself out. While dreaming of my plot, I spent quite some time staring at the X-files Timelines on the web. Logically, my second idea was to do something with these timelines.

I have a love-hate-love relationship with the X-files Conspiracy Mythology. It was one of the things that engaged me so strongly as a new fan. Mulder's quest for his sister, tied in with the concept of a shadow government and amazing science, set my teenage mind abuzz with possibilities. I took deep personal offense and continuity errors and double-talk that couldn't quite be explained away by dubious sources such as CSM and Deep Throat. Ultimately, I believe the conspiracy mythology is one of the X-files greatest contributions to modern television; setting a formula for story arcs that are still used today by some genre shows.

So, do you know what really happened?

This is presented in two parts. Part one is Prehistory through Scully's abduction and return. Part two, the final resolution of the conspiracy, will be posted for Mulder's birthday, 'cuz you know that would be the bestest present Mulder could get... ;)

Much credit to The X-files Conspiracy Timeline from which the majority of this text was borrowed and The X-files Archive: I Still Believe from whence the original images were gathered.

The following is very image heavy and formatted for a full LJ page, so please open the link in it's own page/tab and not just the cut.

Prehistory A rock is blasted off the surface of Mars by a meteor impact and lands in Siberia. It contains dormant biological organisms capable of entering living bodies. ("Tunguska" & "Ice," 4x08 & 1x10) A virus sometimes known as the Black Oil and that has the ability to take control of humanoid species is the "original inhabitant" of the planet Earth, according to the Well Manicured Man. ("Fight the Future")

	The 1800's An Extraterrestrial Biological Entity may have been frozen in ice near a glacier in the Yukon Territory. The body found there in 1997 may also be a hoax. ("Gethsemane," 4x24) Aliens settle as religious sect near Steveston, Massachusetts. ("Genderbender," 1x14) Other aliens form small groups in different regions. ("The Unnatural")
	1940-1945 Scientists of Germany's Third Reich conduct a series of experiments on unwilling human subjects intended to be the basis for a eugenics program to improve the race. After Germany surrenders, many of the scientists of the German eugenics program are brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. ("Paper Clip," 3x02) A Japanese medical unit, 731, conducts human experimentation similar to that of German Victor Klemperer, experimenting on human subjects. Takeo Ishimaru is a leader of the effort. ("731," 3x10)

1945-1950 A B-29 transporting a nuclear bomb, an escort squadron of P-51 Mustangs, and a triangular-shaped UFO all crash over the Pacific. The United States submarine Zeus Faber is dispatched to locate the planes, which it does. When a Japanese destroyer approaches, the submarine hides on silent running, and crew members develop radiation burns. The captain is taken over by an alien that can occupy human bodies using 50 weight diesel oil as a medium. Of 144 men, only 7 survive, some of whom are hospitalized for years. They never receive an explanation, though some are questioned by a Cigarette Smoking Man. The UFO, the aircraft and the nuclear bomb are all left in place on the ocean floor. ("Piper Maru" & "Apocrypha," 4x15 & 4x16) The first X-files case is opened regarding a case of apparent lycanthropy. ("Shapes," 1x19) The cases, labled "Unexplained Phenomena," are filed under "X" to ease clerical pressure. ("Travelers," 5x15) On July 8 a news release is issued from Roswell Army Air Field claiming to have recovered a crashed "disk" in New Mexico. From this crash, humans recovered alien DNA and technology and began to reverse engineer both. German and Japanese scientists began human studies, coding their research in Navaho. ("The Erlenmeyer Flask," "Anasazi," & "The Blessing Way," 1x24, 2x25, 3x01) In 1947, it was also agreed that any country who recovered a live E.B.E. would be responsible for its extermination. ("E.B.E.," 1x17)

1950-1960 According to the Bounty Hunter, early in the cold war the Soviets gain the capability of cloning in a program called "Gregor." ("Colony" & "End Game," 2x16 & 2x17) The U.S. government learns that the Soviets are experimenting with eugenics. In reaction, clones are born and raised in a controlled compound at a place called Litchfield. ("Eve," 1x11) The Majestic Program begins flying aircraft using antigravity propulsion systems. It is learned that antigravity propulsion operates by bending space-time. It is also learned that lost time is a common symptom of close proximity to antigravity propulsion systems. ("Dreamland," 6x04 & 6x05)

1960-1970 Takeo Ishimaru reportedly dies, but continues his work in secret, attempting to combine alien and human DNA. The conspiracy relocates him to a Hansen's Disease Research facility. ("731," 3x10) The Gemini 8 mission suffers serious thruster malfunctions. Astronaut Marcus Aurelius Bolt was on this flight, and some entity intercepted the spacecraft and somehow took at least partial control of Belt's mind. He will be forced to participate in sabotage of certain space missions. ("Space," 1x09) The Litchfield Project discovers that at around age 12 the Adam and Eve clones begin to develop psychoses. ("Eve," 1x11)

1970-1973 State Department staff members have learned that the aliens are planning to colonize Earth in a process that will kill all humans. They negotiate to delay the colonization by agreeing to work with the Colonists as a way of stalling for time while they try to develop a defense against the Black Oil. Bill Mulder is the only dissenting vote. When the aliens provide an alien fetus to the Consortium, providing DNA with which to develop the hybrids, Mulder devises a plan to use the DNA to create a vaccine, so that the entire human population might be saved. The aliens demand that each give up a child or other loved one into the custody of the colonists, with the promise that they will be returned when the colonization begins. The plan is that they will receive the alien genes and become hybrids themselves. As time goes by and no vaccine is developed, some members of the Consortium come to believe that slavery for the human race is better than death. They become more interested in their personal futures and gaining preferred status from the Colonists. Other members of the Consortium, however, apparently remain pure to the original goal of defeating the Colonists. ("Two Fathers" & "One Son," 6x11 & 6x12)

1973-1979 Bill Mulder tells his wife that Samantha must be taken. Bill Mulder and the Smoking Man also argue. Tina Mulder says her husband asked her to decide which child should be taken, but she could not and hated her husband for making the choice. The evidence in a West Virginia mine indicates that Fox was originally chosen, but the decision was changed, with Samantha ultimately taken. ("Demons" & "Paper Clip," 4x23 & 3x02) On November 27, 1973, Samantha Mulder and Cassandra Spender both disappear. Cassandra Spender, wife of C.G.M. Spender, is later confirmed to have been kidnapped repeatedly by the government conspiracy, working to make her a human-alien hybrid. C.G.M. Spender is later determined to be an alias of the Cigarette Smoking Man. ("Two Fathers," 6x11) Fox Mulder was babysitting when his sister was taken and remembers her cries but was paralyzed and could not help. He represses many of these memories. ("Conduit" & "Little Green Men," 1x04 & 2x01) Samantha ends up in the care of C.G.M. Spender, and she lives with his family in residential quarters on the April Air Force Base in California. Samantha is subjected to repeated tests that she comes to hate. When she is 14, she runs away. She believes that those performing the tests have taken her memories -- she has only vague memories of a brother. She is picked up by police as a runaway and taken to Dominic Savio Memorial Hospital, suffering from paranoia and what are considered to be self-inflicted wounds. She gives no name and allows no one but the emergency room nurse, Arbutus Ray, to touch her. Late that night, a group of men arrives to take Samantha, but the nurse finds that Samantha has disappeared from a locked hospital room, never to be seen again. ("Closure," 7x11)

The 1980s In "The End" (5x20), the Lone Gunmen say that Diana Fowley was Mulder's "chickadee" at the time he graduated from the FBI Academy, in 1986. On the other hand, Diana implied that she and Mulder knew each other in 1991, when she graduated from the Academy. One conclusion is that they had a relationship dating back to 1986, and she applied to the FBI later. Members of the high school class of 1989 of Bellefleur, Oregon, begin suffering a series of unexplained disappearances and deaths. ("Pilot," 1x01) Mulder is stationed in Washington DC. His supervisor, Reggie Purdue, comes to greatly respect Mulder's intellect. ("Young at Heart," 1x16) Mulder meets The Lone Gunmen while perusing Susanne Modeski. Modeski, a research scientist at the Army Advanced Weapons facility at Whitestone, developed a gas that causes fear and paranoia, which the military plans to test on civilians. There is a gunfight between Mulder and agents of the Conspiracy, who want to take Susanne into custody. ("The Unusual Suspects," 5x03) Mulder works with Dr. Heits Werber to use regression therapy to remember the night his sister disappeared. ("Pilot," "Conduit," & "Closure," 1x01, 1x04, & 7x11) A team of Russian geologists locates rock from the Tunguska meteorite. Russians begin perfecting a vaccination using prisoners. ("Tunguska," 4x08) Working for the conspiracy, Dr. Bonita Charre-Sayre uses her position as a consulting physician for a chain of convalescent homes to test patients with Black Cancer, without their knowledge. She begins a relationship with the Well Manicured Man. She also begins advocating the destruction of the last samples of smallpox virus, held in research laboratories following eradication of the disease. ("Terma," 4x09) Fox Mulder interviews former FBI agent Arthur Dale who opened an X-Files in 1952. Most of the original FBI report has been edited out. Dale's story provides Mulder the first clues to his father's past and the greater X-files archive. ("Travelers," 5x15) The Church of the Red Museum moves from California to Delta Glen, Wisconsin. They refer to themselves as the second souls of the first bodies, making them what Mulder later calls "Walk-ins." ("Red Museum," 2x10) The Conspiracy succeeds in manipulating alien DNA to create a hybrid. Zeus Storage, somewhere in the Washington DC area, is where the first DNA transplant was made, and the first human/alien hybrid created, with six terminally ill human subjects volunteering... if you believe Deep Throat. ("The Erlenmeyer Flask," 1x24) Mulder is officially assigned to the X-files. His initial work attracts the attention of the Conspiracy. They look for a way to reign Mulder in without making him a martyr. He tries to access certain information, but is blocked by higher offices. ("Pilot" & "Deep Throat," 1x01 & 1x02)

1992-1993 Dana Scully is assigned to the X-Files. Mulder initially distrusts Scully, believing she has been assigned to debunk his work. On their first case, nearly all the evidence is stolen or destroyed save for the metal fragment which Scully retains and then turns over to her superiors.("Pilot," 1x01") Deep Throat first approaches Mulder, warning him to leave a case of a missing USAF pilot alone. Mulder infiltrates Ellens Air Force Base in southwest Idaho anyway. It is demonstrated that the Conspiracy has the capability to selectively erase human memory. ("Deep Throat," 1x02) Ruby Morris disappears from her home in Sioux City, Iowa. Mulder and Scully investigate based on a tabloid article. Ruby is eventually found in a coma, displaying evidence of prolonged weightlessness. ("Conduit," 1x04) At Icy Cape, Alaska, all of the members of an ice drilling team kill each other, or themselves. Mulder and Scully discover a worm-like organism that infects bodies, driving the hosts insane. The worms came from ice cores that were drilled deep into an ancient meteor crater under the ice. As a result of the events of this episode, Mulder and Scully come to realize how much they have come to trust each other. ("Ice," 1x08)

1994 A UFO, first detected by Air Force tracking over Connecticut, crashes near Townsend, in eastern Wisconsin. "Fallen Angel" is identified as the term for a downed UFO. The public is told a train derailment has released toxic waste. An invisible survivor of the crash kills several people, by severe radiation burns (similar to burns associated with the entity in "Piper Maru"). Epileptic Max Fenig, of NICAP, a South Dakota native, disappears, apparently taken by a second, larger UFO. Deep Throat blocks an investigative committee from closing the X-Files. ("Fallen Angel," 1x10) Max is eventually returned, and continues his efforts to learn the truth about his repeated abductions. He sends frequent letters to his sister, describing his efforts in detail. ("Tempus Fugit," 4x17) An Iraqi jet shoots down a UFO. The Fallen Angel team recovers the wreckage, and ships it cross country by semi truck. Near Reagan, Tennessee, the driver sights a UFO, and Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate. Deep Throat tries to steer Mulder away from actually finding the UFO. In spite of this, Mulder and Scully locate a secret installation where the Extraterrestrial Biological Entity from the crashed UFO was taken. Deep Throat tells Mulder the E.B.E is dead. ("E.B.E.," 1x17) Mulder discovers the experiments run out of Zeus Storage and the connection to the Human Genome Project. Scully finds evidence of alien DNA. In the pursuit of these truths, a doctor is killed and Mulder is captured. Scully trades an alien fetus for his return, but Deep Throat is killed for coordinating the exchange. ("The Erlenmeyer Flask," 1x24) The X-files are closed. Based on information from Senator Matheson, Mulder goes to Puerto Rico to attempt to obtain data intercepted from space by the Arecibo Observatory, failing to report for FBI duty as a result. At an abandoned facility associated with the Arecibo radio-telescope, Mulder finds evidence of a signal from space, and believes he has a visitation from an extraterrestrial that looks just like one he saw when his sister was abducted. Scully and Mulder barely avoid a Green Beret UFO recovery. Skinner reprimands Mulder, and sends him back to his stakeout duty. Again, the evidence is lost. ("Little Green Men," 2x01) Alex Krycek is assigned to work with Mulder. Krycek, however, is actually a subordinate of the Cigarette Smoking Man. ("Sleepless," 2x04)

Scully's Abduction After a lengthy hostage drama, Dana Scully is kidnapped from her apartment by Duane Barry, a former FBI agent. He believes that if he offers a replacement abductee, he can escape further abductions and apparently tracks her using his implant, which she still carries in her pocket as she did in "Pilot." Scully is taken captive, kidnapped by aliens or the governmental conspiracy. Krycek disappears, after sabotaging Mulder's effort on a tramway to save Scully, and killing Duane Barry. Krycek stops the tram to keep Mulder from getting to the summit, notifies his superiors that Mulder has been stopped, and then turns the tram back on, allowing Mulder to get to the summit. Mulder later discovers his duplicity. Skinner reopens the X-Files. ("Duane Berry" & "Ascension," 2x05 & 2x06) Scully is experimented on, later recalling the face of Takeo Ishimaru, a white room, and the presence of other women. Her ovum are extracted and used to create clones and hybrids. Note: Mulder says Scully was missing for four weeks. This cannot be resolved with "Duane Barry" being clearly set in August, and other details showing Scully's return to be in November.("Emily," 5x07) Dana Scully appears at a hospital, in a coma. Scully's blood is found to contain protein chains that contain branched DNA that could be a biological marker, but it is inactive. Mulder locates the Cigarette Smoking Man at home. He tells Mulder he has watched Presidents die, and that Scully was returned because he likes both Scully and Mulder. He is in the game because he believes what he is doing is right. "If people were to know the things that I know, it would all fall apart." Mulder passes up a chance to shoot CSM or solve the conspiracy in order to be with the unconscious Scully. Scully wakes up, and Mulder returns her necklace to her. ("One Breath," 2x08)

TO BE CONTINUED

Comments

[fueschgast]

Oh, this is good! The thing is, I was late to the whole internet thing and so I wasn't in The X-Files fandom, don't know the websites. Everything's better with pictures anyway, so thank you for this! Can't wait to read it.

By the way, just right-clicking and opening an LJ-tag in a new tab will work - no extra link needed to open the entry directly.

[truemyth.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad it might prove useful to you. I'm always surprised how well the conspiracy tracks... at least through Fight the Future.

And thanks for the LJ tip. Back when I was using LJ more, the direct cut link opened a new page, so I'm not quite sure how to cope with the change. I've modified things slightly. :)

[write-out.livejournal.com]

Even though I watched from the start, this is still extremely helpful. What an awesome way to lay it all out. I'm looking forward to part 2!

[truemyth.livejournal.com]

Cool, I'm glad you like it. It gives a different perspective to see it laid out chronologically, right?

[wendelah1]

This is wonderful. The illustrations make it much easier to follow.

[truemyth.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[szgrey.livejournal.com]

I'm intimately familiar with the experience of staring at timelines, trying to figure out how my story ideas might be stitched into existing canon into X-Files canon, and I've always appreciated the public service of those who compile the information. The more informative they are, though, the more of a slog it can be to read through all that text, so I really love the way you've integrated pictures here- it makes it much more fun & engaging to read through, and they're great visual references. Thanks!

[truemyth.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I actually cut out some detail to better fit within the images, but the deeper details of names and places can be found elsewhere. To understand the whole conspiracy, less is more.

[juniperphoenix]

This is wonderful. Thanks for putting it together.

[truemyth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment! I hope everyone enjoys the walk down conspiracy lane. :)

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I'm putting it in my memories, this will come in handy when I resume writing fic. Thank a lot for this.