xf_book_club | Story 267: "America's Games" by Sarah Segretti

I love angst and fix-it fics (and the writing of prufrock's love) but I'm ready to take a break from the post-series, post-IWTB setting, and read something set earlier in the series. This rec comes from last year's The Ten Greatest XF Fics You've Ever Read. Read what

zinnia03 had to say about "America's Games":

America’s Games by Sarah Segretti. Author’s synopsis: “Assigned to the bioterrorism squad at the 1996 Summer Olympics, Scully tries to make sense of confusing evidence, her baffling partner and her uncertain place in a world where the X-Files don't matter.” Set just post-Talitha Cumi and Herrenvolk. Sort of a fish-out-of-water story with Scully temporarily assigned away from Mulder and the X-Files, though of course Mulder can’t stay away long. Scully tries to puzzle out the information from files they found at Strughold Mining, and Mulder wants to investigate ginseng farms in Canada. Both are frustrated by their lack of progress, plus there's an undercurrent that is making them snipe at each other. High tension story that fits the mid-series tone.

Read America's Games.

I'd love to know what you thought of the story. The nomination post is always open for your suggestions and I will get back to posting them soon. You can also read this fic at Sarah Segretti's Author Page at Gossamer.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I had to split this into two comments.

SCULLY: Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only in contradiction to what we know of it. And that's a place to start. That's where the hope is.

Having read the fic before rewatching the episodes and again afterward, my conclusion is that this story might work better if you don't know the canon. Now that my knowledge has been refreshed, I can see how carefully Segretti has placed this story within the final events of "Herrenvolk," in German, "master race," and actual current events.

In 2001, Segretti's unstated goal was to address and weave together the dropped plot threads from "Paper Clip" and "Talitha Cumi/Herenvolk." She does a fine job of that, especially given what she had to work with. She has Scully continuing to work that case even while she's temporarily reassigned to Atlanta. I like seeing Scully be a scientist, in the company of other scientists.

In the story's critical scene, she proposes to Mulder that they return to the Strughold Mine from "Paper Clip" to re-examine the miles of files in light of the new information the FBI pulled from Jeremiah Smith's data base. That is such a great idea, and it would have made for terrific television.

She and Mulder have a fight about it (when don't they?). He wants to return to Alberta to look for another Samantha clone, and says as much to her. She has what she believes is hard evidence, something that can lead to the people behind the human experiments. Here's the problem, and it's not Segretti's fault, but it kind of undermines her story.

"Okay," he said, his face dangerously blank. "Then if those files are so critical, why didn't we re-examine them a year ago?"

"Because it was dangerous? Because I'd been suspended and you were officially dead? Because my sister was dying and I wanted to go home? You ought to know what that feels like."

His flinch made her feel gratified, and then mean, but she was too angry to care. He recovered and whirled on her.

"So what makes it less dangerous now?" His voice headed lower as hers went higher.

"We have something to link them to now," she exclaimed. "Facts, Mulder."

The miles of files weren't "facts"? Come on. Of course they were. This was a huge breakthrough. It never made sense that Mulder and Scully didn't go back to those mines once they'd been reinstated to the X-Files. In this story, Mulder's explanation that they were unimportant is baloney and so is Scully's excuse--that it was dangerous and she was grieving for her sister. Everything they do is dangerous. And at the very end of "Paper Clip," in that moving scene in front of Melissa's empty bed, they reaffirmed their commitment to searching for the answers. They don't follow through because Chris Carter never cared about the credibility of his characters or the continuity of his fictional universe. He still doesn't! Witness season ten!

Sorry. I'm still steamed about his ridiculous retcon of the first nine seasons and two movies of XF canon.

They don't follow through because Chris Carter never cared about the credibility of his characters or the continuity of his fictional universe. He still doesn't! Witness season ten!

Oh yeah, PREACH!! Ugh...

Story 267: "America's Games" by Sarah Segretti

"That's where the hope is" part 1

RE: "That's where the hope is" part 1