From: k.morse@ntlworld.com   
      
   Part 4 Echoes  (disclaimer in part 1)   
      
      
   "Something tells me that may be a few    
   years too late to be Concorde cruising    
   over."  Mulder hauled himself to his    
   feet, his partner with her arm around his    
   back as extra support. "I'll come out    
   with you."   
      
   "No, no, you'll catch your death, I'll    
   manage, been doing it for years. You sit    
   relax, keep warm."   
      
   "Katherine, if you think I'm letting    
   you go by yourself out there after that...."     
   Mulder was adamant and he saw the old lady    
   mulling it over for all of ten seconds    
   before she finally caved.   
      
   "Ah, macho pride. I'll play. This time.    
   Okay, but wrap up well... its freezing and    
   you're already sick."   
      
   "Mulder, I'm coming too," Scully insisted,    
   her eyes flashed him a look he knew too well.    
   One that brooked no argument. What worried   
   her most then was that not only was her lover's    
   spooky radar going off, but her's had kicked as    
   well. Mulder was right. No way were they letting    
   Katherine go out there alone.    
      
   "Do you have any idea what that was Katherine?"    
   Mulder ventured, donning the thick blue parka    
   the older lady handed him in the hall.    
   "..because I don't know about you but with    
   some of the stuff I've seen.., what Scully's   
   seen, that scores a ten on my weird-shitometer."      
      
   "Let's just say that up here.....you have to    
   expect the unexpected. Here...."  She picked    
   up two torches and handed him one. Scully   
   zipped her coat up and snagged the other one.     
      
   "I thought the house was going to crack in two.   
   Are we on an earthquake fault here? I mean    
   the land formations and stuff by the causeway    
   must have been forged from tectonic disturbance    
   at some point in history. I know there was an    
   earthquake in England recently .... but wasn't    
   sure about this area."     
      
   "No seismic activity in Antrim that I know    
   of and I've been here a good few years    
   now, and lived in Derry and Belfast during    
   the troubles long enough to know that this    
   wan't a bomb. Too well acquainted with those   
   ....but this coast,.. there have always been   
   .....well," Katherine's mind searched for an    
   appropriate phrase as she opened the back door   
   to the wind swept courtyard. "folklore, odd    
   lights in the sky, strange unatural cries    
   from the beaches. You know the legend of    
   Fionn mac Cumhail?"  He nodded as her words    
   were almost snatched away as a gust wind    
   whirled around their heads.    
      
      
   The air was electric, it smelled of ozone    
   and something Mulder couldn't quite put    
   his finger on. Whatever it was, the almost    
   fetid damp was seeping down into his chest    
   and he could feel the air being squeezed    
   tight against his ribs. Was that a scream    
   in his mind or the wind?  It was like it    
   was mocking him, laughing at his expense.    
   It felt....odd, making the hair stand up on   
   his neck.   
      
   They staggered  about in the buffeting wind    
   as they all hurried across the courtyard to    
   one of the barns that housed the generator.    
   Mulder sandwiched in between Scully on one    
   side and her aunt on the other, holding    
   them both for dear life lest they blow away.    
   There was some light from the full moon    
   but as their torchlight raked the cobbled    
   pathway and when he flicked it up a    
   touch he just made out a faint green    
   haze above the far cliff top about three    
   miles away up the gully and what looked    
   like an electrical storm dying out to sea.    
   Weird Lightning? It looked so eerie and    
   after all that noise he half expected to    
   see aliens or a UFO hovering over the bay.    
      
   "Mulder....you okay," came his partner's    
   voice through the gloom.    
      
   "Yeah.." Mulder found his breath and shone    
   the torch trying to locate the door handle.    
   After finding it stuck fast he managed to    
   shoulder it open for them and they all    
   blustered inside. Momentarily rendered    
   breathless by the blasts of wind all round    
   them, they stood still for a moment to catch    
   their breath listening to the wind making    
   an unearthly evil sound like a dying    
   creature circling all around the barn.     
   Almost like it had stalked them from    
   the house over here.  " Fionn mac    
   Cumhail,the legend about the Giant's    
   causeway and how it was forged is well    
   documented.  I had to do a paper on it    
   in college. Took a fill in class for    
   mythology."   
      
   "Really? Is that the giant that supposedly    
   created the causeway by hurling rocks at    
   another giant in Scotland?" Scully asked,    
   shivering in the cold as she watched her    
   partner get all manly with the generator.       
      
   "Yeah Scully, that's him." Mulder worked    
   on the generator as he reached into his    
   eidetic memory for the story.  "As the    
   legend goes an Irish Giant (read alien    
   bounty hunter) lived on an Antrim headland    
   and one day when going about his daily    
   business, a Scottish Giant named Fingal   
   began to shout insults, hurl abuse and    
   flip him the bird from across the channel.    
   Quite close to here actually. Angry Dude    
   Finn lifted a clod of earth and threw    
   it at the giant as a challenge, the earth    
   landed in the sea.   
      
   Fingal pitched a rock thrown back at Finn    
   and shouted that Finn was lucky that he    
   wasn't a strong swimmer or he would have    
   made sure he could never fight again or    
   father future generations. Well, Finn was    
   kinda pissed off and began lifting huge    
   clumps of earth from the shore, throwing   
   them so as to make a pathway for the    
   Scottish giant to mosey on over in person    
   and open up a can of whup ass. However,    
   ....however, by the time he finished doing    
   an Extreme makeover, coastal edition on the    
   crossing he hadn't slept for a week and so    
   instead devised a cunning plan to fool the    
   Scot, and remembered not  to bend down    
   anywhere near Michael Moloney. "   
       
   "What? ....More Mulder more!" Scully waggled    
   the torch at him unable to hide her laughter.   
   Mulder grabbed it from her and stuck it under    
   his chin making a creepy caricature of himself.   
   He pulled a silly face and went cross-eyed    
   then took a deep breath as he turned his   
   attention back to his work and his storytelling.   
   "I'm getting to that..." he grunted as he    
   tried to force the spanner under the bolt    
   to free it on the generator side panel but    
   it just wouldn't budge. He feared it was    
   rusted up, probably from the perpetually    
   damp air.   
      
    "Sooo, Finn disguised himself as Fro... I    
   mean a baby in a cot and when his adversary    
   came to face him, Finn's wife told the Giant    
   that Finn was away at the Consortium karaoke    
   marathon with CGB but showed him his son    
   sleeping in the cradle with a big green    
   pacifier in its mouth. The Scottish giant    
   became apprehensive, for if the son was so   
   huge,... cast that dirty thought from your    
   mind Scully, ..what size would the father be?   
   In his haste to escape, Fingal sped back    
   along the causeway Finn had built, tearing    
   it up and farting up a storm as he went. He    
   is said to have fled to a cave on Staffa which   
   is to this day named 'Fingal's Cave' where he    
   stayed forever, discovered Ratboy hiding out    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)