 Trondheim is later attacked by a Norwegian pirate whaler named Olafsson , who has not aged despite being on the ship for the past two days . Mulder , Scully , and Trondheim eventually begin to age unnaturally . Scully develops a theory that the Ardent is sailing near a metallic object beneath the ocean , and that it has caused free radicals to rapidly oxidize their bodies and age them . When Mulder notices that the ship 's sewage pipe is the only one not corroded through , the agents realize that something from the ocean contaminated the Ardent 's potable water and led to the aging ; Olafsson 's men remained unaffected due to their consumption of recycled water from the sewage system . Desperate to survive , Trondheim kills Olafsson after he reveals the secret , and sets out to keep the water for himself . 
