The Lichfield Project : first human clones

Throughout the second half of the 20th century it would appear that genetic research was much more advanced than what was made officially known. During the height of the Cold War, in the 1950s and 60s, a secret race for feats in genetics accompanied the arms race in the open. In the United States, research in genetic engineering resulted in the Lichfield experiments, named after the research comound where they took place: for the first time, several human clones were created. “The boys were called Adam and the girls were called Eve”, after the biblical first Men.

As part of the experiment, these clones were given five extra chromosomes compared to the normal 46  for a human: “additional genes, heightened strength, heightened intelligence”. An unforseen result was also their heightened psychosis and violent behaviour, which made the experiment to be discontinued. One of the Eves, Eve 8, continued the experiment by creating clones of herself through in vitro fertilization by working as a doctor in the 1980s.

The 1973 agreement: the Method

The failure of the Paper Clip scientists to create a successful alien/human hybrid pushes the group of government officials to contact the aliens directly in 1973. An agreement is passed, one that seals the fate of the human race. The group of humans, that will be known as the Syndicate, abandons all hope to resist the aliens and decides to collaborate with the aliens: preparing the colonization (the Project) in the exchange of survival for the Syndicate and their families. But just as it had been surmised before when it had been decided that a hybrid soldier race would have to be created, survival from the viral colonization would only be possible if the Syndicate itself became hybrids. Thus the focus changed from creating hybrids that would fight for the humans to changing a human into a hybrid. And the Syndicate, no longer answering to any government, became a shadow group.

To assist the Syndicate in this task, the aliens provided them with two things: an alien fetus, from which fresh and perhaps stem cell tissue could be drawn (unlike the dead, mutilated and mature bodies of the Roswell crash); and the Method. The Method was that which allowed the human scientists to best mix human and alien DNA, knowledge and technique which the human civilization had not yet reached. Thanks to this, the experiments strove forward.

The cloned hybrids

To seal the agreement with the aliens, the Syndicate had to give away one of their family members to the aliens. Those family members would be frequently abducted by the aliens and would also serve as the main test subjects for the hybridization experiments. Fuelled with newfound knowledge of the Lichfield cloning experiments and the Method, the Syndicate scientists embark on creating an entire new class of hybrids: the cloned hybrids. The following method was used:

	1) Genetic material (DNA in the nucleus of a cell) is taken from the original Samantha Mulder and from cultures issued from the original alien tissue (the alien fetus).
	2) The two DNAs are mixed together, creating a hybrid DNA. Different ways of mixing them together result in a more or less perfect, ie successful, hybrid.
	3) The hybrid DNA (or nucleus) is inserted in an ovula (egg) that has previously had its nucleus taken off. The ovula is then fertilized, the ovula becomes an embryo.
	4) The embryo is placed inside a vat where it grows, then it’s placed in a greater tank until it comes to full maturity.
At this stage, we have a first-generation alien/human hybrid. It can look like the human it spawned from (the Samanthas, the Gregors) but not necessarily (deformed like the Merchandise hybrids). From there on we can create clones out of this original hybrid, almost exactly in the same way the Dolly sheep was created:
	5) The nucleus of the hybrid is taken and inserted in another enucleated ovula.
	6) The resulting embryo is grown in vats and tanks in the same way.
The result is a clone of the original hybrid, exactly similar to that hybrid.

The Syndicate family members’ DNA is taken, mixed with alien DNA to create a hybrid, inserted into ovula taken from women that have been abducted for that purpose, and grown into a hybrid being. Multiple similar hybrids can be created with that method: they are clones. They are not, despite their similar appearance, exact genetic clones of the original family member, as they are hybrids. The growth of a hybrid is much faster than a human being’s: thus after 1973 the Syndicate was able to create hybrids that would appear to be children, young adults or elderly people. Time passed in the tanks probably determines the apparent age of the hybrid. The biochemistry of the hybrid is different from that of a human: a green oozing fluid, toxic to humans, flows in their bodies.

Cloned hybrids – 1973-1999 – who: young and adult Samantha Mulders; the ‘Gregors’; young and adult Kurt Crawfords; Dr. Calderon – method: hybridized egg from human and alien material, accelerated growth in tank – immune to the Black Oil – green toxin as blood – weak spot on the base of the neck – used as work force for menial tasks by the Syndicate

Thus it is very likely that all of these cloned hybrids come from some Syndicate family member: Samantha Mulder, Kurt Crawford, Jeremiah Smith, ‘Gregor’, Calderon…

As the experiments to create a better hybrid continued, these cloned hybrids were used as a work force for repetitive or menial jobs.  They were employed in the Project taking care of bees and crops for the colonization; they classified and updated data on the general population through for example the Social Security Administration; they worked in hospital or fertility clinics to have access to medical equipment that would help them in the creation of more hybrids; they took care of the growth of more of their own. They were a separate race, not alien nor human. By the aliens and the Syndicate both, they were treated as inferior beings, created only to serve a purpose, slaves to the Greater Purpose of colonization. After the colonization, they are likely to be exterminated or serve as slaves.

As a result it was not rare that these hybrids exhibited rebellious behavior against the Project and their masters. In 1995 a group of separatist Samantha and ‘Gregor’ clones attempted to free themselves and create a “colony” of their own. They hoped they would be allowed to live in peace along with the future masters of the Earth, the alien Colonists. But they were not tolerated; the aliens sent an Alien Bounty Hunter who exterminated them. In 1997 a group of Kurt clones attempted to save the women that had provided the ova thanks to which they were created — the closest thing they had to mothers — who were dying of cancer as a result of their abduction. They were also exterminated by the Syndicate.

They can only be killed by the insertion of the alien stiletto at the base of their neck, a stiletto held only by the aliens and given to the Syndicate on special occasions. It was probably developed by the aliens to execute the Shapeshifters on the previous colonization effort, since they have the same weak spot. One of those stilettos somehow came into the possession of William Mulder, who hid it in his cottage in Quonochontaug. Another stiletto was entrusted to the Syndicate by the Alien Bounty Hunters in 1997 so that the Syndicate would police its own hybrids and no longer call upon the aliens themselves for that.

Towards a successful hybrid

These cloned hybrids served no other purpose than to understand the human-alien genes interaction, to see the effects of a particular ‘mix’ of genes using the Method would create. These hybrids were not an end but intermediate results towards the creation of a hybrid through gene therapy — to turn the living Syndicate into hybrids.

In 1996 or earlier was developed another strain of hybrids, one that can be called successful in that it has all the desired elements a successful hybrid was expected to have — only that it was born a hybrid, not made into one through gene therapy. These hybrids were able to shapeshift, to self-heal and to heal others. After their creation, the Syndicate finally knew what balance of alien and human genes was necessary to obtain a successful hybrid, and they would attempt to re-create that result on living humans.

The Jeremiah Smith clones, working in the Social Security Administration, rebelled against the Syndicate; they were tracked down by the Alien Bounty Hunter and exterminated — all but one. In 1997-1998, some of these clones were entrusted with the alein stiletto by the Syndicate so as to take over the role of the Alien Bounty Hunter: to police the Syndicate’s projects.

‘Successful’ cloned hybrids – 1996(?)-1999 – who: Jeremiah Smiths; Syndicate henchmen “Dark Suited Men” – same characteristics as the other cloned hybrids – ability to shapeshift – ability to self-heal and heal others – ability to read minds – used as work force for menial tasks or as executioner police by the Syndicate

Many, if not all, of the attributes of the cloned hybrids are shared with the race of the shapeshifters (the Alien Bounty Hunters and the Rebels), confusingly enough. This is because the shapeshifters were created by the alien Colonists using their own genetic material. All three races — Colonists, Shapeshifters, Humans — share a common genetic heritage. From the resemblance of the Colonist/Human hybrid with the Shapeshifter, we can surmise that the Colonists too must possess the ‘green toxin’ in their development. It is likely that after the body of the grey Colonist becomes fully mature, the Black Oil retreats to the brain and the rest of the body is occupied by this ‘green toxin’.

Key episodes: 1X10: Eve, 2X16: Colony, 2X17: End Game, 4X01: Herrenvolk, 4X15: Memento Mori, 5X07: Emily, 5X14: The Red and the Black, 6X12: One Son
See also: Primer 3