In Alaska, a team of scientists working for the Arctic Ice Core Project meet an inexplicable and violent end when they kill each other and themselves. After reviewing disturbing tapes of their final transmissions, Agents Mulder and Scully head to the outpost during a three day window between Arctic storms. Accompanying them are Dr. Hodge, a medical doctor; Dr. DaSilva, a
toxicologist; Dr. Murphy, a professor of geology; and Bear, the only pilot willing to fly them up there.
Upon entering the outpost, the group find the bodies of the scientists, as well as a dog that attacks Mulder and Bear. Upon tranquilizing the dog, Scully notices black nodules on its skin, a symptom of the bubonic plague. The group also notices something moving underneath the dog's skin. When cleaning his wound from the dog attack, Bear starts feeling ill and notices the black nodules on him as well.
Autopsies reveal that the scientists all killed each other by strangulation, except for the last two, who shot themselves. None of the corpses display the black nodules. Murphy finds an ice core sample in the scientists' lab, and believes it to originate from a meteor crater. When ammonium hydroxide is detected in one of the corpses, Murphy theorizes that the core sample might be 250,000 years old.
Bear wants to leave, but the others are worried about infecting the outside world with whatever the scientists' bodies and the dog have. Bear still insists on leaving. When the others ask for a stool sample from him, Bear smashes a glass jar over Mulder's head and tries to flee. The others find something moving underneath his skin and remove a small worm, but Bear ends up dying as a result. Without a pilot to fly them back, Mulder calls in a transmission to pick them up, but is told help won't be available because of the weather.
The worm removed from Bear is placed in a jar of ammonia, and another one is recovered from one of the corpses. Mulder believes the worm to be from an alien world and wants them kept alive, while Scully feels that they should be destroyed to risk from infecting others. The agents and doctors check each other for black nodules, but don't find any (though Mulder reminds Scully that this may not be a definitive proof of infection since the nodules on the dog disappeared after a while) and go to sleep. That night, Mulder hears some noise and finds Blood dripping from the freezer. He opens the Freezer and finds Murphy inside, dead with his throat slit. After being caught outside his room, the others—including Scully—believe Mulder became infected and killed Murphy. Mulder is then locked up in the store room.
While investigating the worm, DaSilva accidentally mixes two drops of infected blood. Scully and DaSilva discover that two worms together will kill each other. They place one of the worms into the infected dog, which results in the dog's recovery. Hodge and DaSilva decide to put the other worm in Mulder. However, Scully is cautious, thinking he may not be infected after all. But Hodge and DaSilva go rogue and lock up Scully and forcibly restrain Mulder, trying to put the worm into him. However, Hodge notices a worm moving under DaSilva's skin and realizes she's infected, not Mulder. He and Mulder restrain DaSilva and put the last worm inside of her.
Upon returning to civilization, DaSilva is quarantined; Hodge, Mulder and Scully are released. Mulder wants to return to the site, but Hodge tells him that it was destroyed by the
Centers for Disease Control after their departure.
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