The eXode-Files

X-7

Fifteen years ago I wrote my first fan-fiction story, "Fly Paper". At that time, I imagined that The X-Files television series was complete, but then we eventually had "seasons" 10 and 11. Back in 2018, half of the Mulder-Scully duo bowed out and said "no more X for me". So, why am I thinking about The X-Files here in 2020?

In 2015 I imagined a global-scale Y-Files television show that would depict fantasy scientific investigations in the spirit of The X-Files. Rather than feature entertaining agents of the FBI, why not expand the scope of the stories with an International Scientific Investigation Organization (ISIO)?

Replicoids in space.

Currently, I'm writing a new first chapter for A Search Beyond. I've decided to try starting the Exode Saga with the death of Nirutam, an alien visitor to Earth. At first, I imagined Nirutam quietly "disappearing" after having completed "her" mission on Earth. I was cheerfully writing about Nirutam's grave and a sad little pile of stones to cover her dead body. Then suddenly I realized that it might not be so simple to make Nirutam "disappear".

ISIO
I was ready to have two agents from ISIO appear and investigate the disappearance of Nirutam. But wait... not so fast!

Fitting The X-Files into the science fiction genre puzzle.

On second thought, maybe the idea of having ISIO agents appear within just a few days of Nirutam's death is too much of a coincidence. I don't really mind wild coincidences in science fiction stories when they advance the plot, but why ruthlessly drop needless coincidences on readers when you can avoid them?
                                                         For Example

1995 edition

In Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel", we are taken into a future time when humans have begun to spread outward into space from Earth, having established a base on the Moon. A few wealthy tourists can even afford a trip to the Moon.

Peewee not wearing her spacesuit.
Original 1958 cover art
by Edmund Emshwiller

Heinlein's story reminds me of Vandals of the Void by Jack Vance and Asimov's Oceans of Venus. I hate the idea that science fiction authors in need of a paycheck would quickly write "juvenile" stories and not put much care into devising a sensible plot because, after all, the young kids reading it will not notice or care if there were absurd coincidences driving the plot.

First Contact Coincidence
In "Have Space Suit - Will Travel", right when Earthlings are just starting their Space Age, coincidentally, another species from a nearby star system has recently sneaked into the Solar System and those aliens casually kidnap some humans, including a young girl (Peewee).

cryovolcano on Pluto (1958)

Oh, and by the way, these sneaky aliens are ugly (the "wormface" species) and they like to eat humans. Heinlein wanted to depict some really Evil™ and easy-to-hate aliens for his young readers and then, in the end, give those Evil™ aliens the death penalty and kill off the entire wormface species in a planetary act of genocide. Just the ticket for young impressionable minds!

Another Coincidence
Meanwhile, back on Earth, another young Earthling (Kip) happens to be out for a walk one evening while wearing a space suit. An alien spaceship lands on him and out pops Peewee who has escaped from the aliens. Sorry, but even when I was 12 years old, these coincidences did not sit well with me.

Eliminated from our universe by
the warm and fuzzy Dr. M. Thing,
the Evil™ Wormface was
spun into the Dr. Whoverse

Double Abduction
Next, both of our young protagonists are abducted by the Evil™ aliens and we are off on an adventure to the Moon and then Pluto and then Vega and then another galaxy...

The alien abduction industry was ju$t getting $tarted in the 1950s (example) and Heinlein jumped on-board with "Have $pace $uit - Will Travel".

In Search of the Source
The 1946 comic "Futura" contained the same basic plot used by Heinlein in his 1958 "Have Space Suit - Will Travel". In "Futura", the spunky Marcia Reynolds is abducted by aliens, but she manages to escape by stealing an alien spaceship. In Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel", the spunky Patricia Reisfeld (A.K.A. Peewee) is abducted by aliens, but she manages to escape by stealing an alien spaceship.

Marcia Reynolds is alien abduction Specimen 9 (Futura 1946)

Jose Chung's "The X-vengers".

More Alien Invaders, Please
Rumor has it that when he created The X-Files, Chris Carter had read only two science fiction novels, one of them written by Heinlein. Carter wanted a core theme in The X-Files that would involve mysterious alien visitors to Earth. After Carter was hired by Peter Roth, a tug-of-war began... would The X-Files be science fiction, horror, fantasy? Why not all of the above? Throw in the kitchen sink and even include some sexual tension.

The Avengers
I can remember my older brother intently watching The Avengers on television. That TV show had little meaning for me: I was too young to tune in to the sexual tension and as a budding science nerd I was put-off by its silliness.

Transformation of Peewee through time.

But Chris Carter was the same age as my older brother. While creating The X-Files, Carter wanted to include the kind of male/female partner dynamic that had been pioneered for television by The Avengers.

Yes, I confess; when I was 12 years old and in my personal Golden Age of discovering science fiction, I eagerly gobbled up several Heinlein stories (including Orphans of the Sky). And, like most viewers, I enjoyed the on-screen relationship between Mulder and Scully in The X-Files. However, I have a long history of impatience with silly alien invasion and alien abduction stories.

source

Now that I'm dealing with my own alien invader (Nirutam), I want to avoid silly alien invasion tropes like aliens who eat humans and aliens are coming to raid Earth and take our gold.

eXode
For the Exode Saga, I'm now imagining two members of a tryp'At remnant group on Earth who pretend to be ISIO agents. They arrive on the scene soon after the death of Nirutam and they search the house of the Editor for Nirutam. The editor watches nervously while the guest house is searched, but Nirutam's severed finger is no longer in the freezer. Zeta notices that Nirutam's pet cat is now missing, too.

Next: Maturin the Selfie

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