3. PURITY CONTROL: Personnel and Goals

We've seen a number of scientists involved with the Purity Control experiments. The first generation of scientists included Dr. Ishimauru/Zama and Dr. Victor Klemper. The latest generation of scientists is represented by men like Dr. Berube and Dr. Larson, although Dr. Larson was more of a mercenary, who carried out the tests, rather than an innovator who developed the hybridization technology.

We never saw the results of Dr. Klemper's experiments, although the hybrids we saw gassed in the rail road car in THE BLESSING WAY may have been the products of Klemper's experiments. They had huge, misshappen heads, large black eyes, long fingers and leathery wrinkled skin. They may have retained the toxic biology of the aliens since they were killed by a hydrogen-cyanide gas grenade rather than by bullets, which would have exposed the trigger men to toxic alien blood. Dr. Ishimauru/Zama's hybrids were slightly more human appearing. They still had the large heads, but they were more rounded and less elongated. They still had elongated fingers, but their eyes appeared more human and their skin was not leathery. Their biology appears to be less toxic than the other hybrids since the soldiers that executed them wore no gasmasks and suffered no ill effects from their blood. Dr. Berube's hybrids, while they may have later developed alien physiological traits, appeared completely human on the surface. Their blood, nonetheless remained highly toxic.

How are these hybrids being created? Dr. Berube's hybrids were created using gene therapy, that is by injecting alien DNA suspended in bacteria directly into the test subject's cells. This way the subjects began as humans and ended up as alien-human hybrids.

Dr. Ishimauru/Zama's hybrids may have been created differently. There was some suggestion that they could have been humans drafted from the ranks of the homeless, the institutionalized and the insane, but they could have been human-alien hybrids from the moment of their birth. We know that Dr. Ishimauru/Zama's experiments in NESEI and 731 are the same experiments Scully was abducted for in ASCENSION and returned from in ONE BREATH. Scully had a distended belly (at least she remembered having one) and her system was full of "branched DNA." Langley, of the Lone Gunmen, suggested that Branched DNA could have been used to graft something human onto something inhuman. Was Scully (and the other female UFO abductees) used to gestate an alien-human hybrid? Was the hybrid later removed and incubated artificially? The "Kurt" clone in MEMENTO MORI suggested that Scully's ova were harvested and he and his fellow hybrids were gestated in artificial womb-tanks.

The big question remains: "Why create a alien-human hybrid?"

No absolute answer to this question has been forthcoming from Chris Carter and Co, but there are a couple of theories that have been suggested by past episodes.

The Hybrids created by Dr. Berube's experiments in THE ERLENMEYER FLASK were immune to cancer, and perhaps a whole range of other human ailments. So perhaps the goal of the hybribization experiments using gene therapy was to create some kind of universal panacea. Of course, there were other side benefits such as the ability to extract oxygen from water, superhuman strength, and the ability to survive massive physical trauma and shock. All big plusses if the goal of the experiments is to improve the quality of your soldiers.

The experiments Dr. Larson was performing in RED MUSEUM involved treating humans and cattle with growth hormones derived from extra-terrestrials. The results were kids that quickly matured, grew extra-large and were extra-aggressive. Perfect combination if you're looking to improve your military recruits.

Dr. Klemper's experiments during WWII (from the episode PAPERCLIP) involved exposing test subjects to extreme low pressures. His experiments were designed to help pilots survive at higher altitudes (and eventually in space). Perhaps, because the alien visitors are space travellers, Klemper's hybridization experiments with aliens were meant to adapt humans to the environment of space.

The Leper (from the episode 731) said that Dr. Ishimauru/Zama's experiments on hybrids involved exposing them to things that resulted in "terrible burns." Perhaps Dr. Ishimauru/Zama was testing the hybrids' resistance to various terrestrial and perhaps extra-terrestrial weaponry.

The Red Haired Man (from the episodes NESEI and 731) hinted (mostly by playing on Mulder's paranoia) that the alien-human hybrids were a weapon "more valuable than `Star Wars' or nuclear weapons." The hybrids were the proto-types for a standing army immune to radiation, chemical and biological warfare agents.

Most of the clues presented so far point towards Purity Control's hybridization experiments being part of a "super-soldier" program. But an army of super-soldiers to be used against whom? The Leper in 731 said that the hybrid test subjects were exposed to things that gave them terrible burns. Terrible burns? Like those that resulted from the aliens' radiation weapons as seen in FALLEN ANGEL and APOCRYPHA. Is this army of radiation-resistant soldiers to be used against the aliens? There may be another, more obscure answer and it's connected to the relationship between The Majestic Consortium, the aliens and the aliens designs on the earth.

If there is a faction of aliens intent on colonizing the earth (and events from COLONY, END GAME, TALITHA CUMI, HERRENVOLK, and MOMENTO MORI seem to point to such a "project'), then there may be a section of the Majestic Consortium that believe that the aliens will be successful, no matter what humanity tries to do. Perhaps the reason hybrids are being created is that the Majestic Consortium expects mankind to be supplanted by the alien invaders and figures the only way mankind will have a place in the invaders world is if humanity can adapt, evolve . . . hybridize. What did The Well Manicured Man say? "We predict the future, and the best way to predict the future is to invent it." Is the future, the future of mankind? And does the Majestic Consortium plan to "re-invent" humanity is order to preserve some fraction of it in the "brave new world" of the alien invaders?

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