Useless Knowledge
by Layton Colt
"I don't think I should say anymore than I already have while we're here, Jack," Daniel tells me. "He could be listening."
"Daniel, I can't help you if I don't know what's going on. I'm flying blind here, I need you to tell me what happened."
"I will, Jack. But not here, it isn't safe," Daniel's voice is sure, he isn't going to budge on this.
I sigh and lean back in the chair, "What can you tell me about this Garcia character, then?"
"Well, he'd follow through with his threat about keeping us locked up here," he tells me. I suspected as much. "But I don't think we have to worry about torture. Ed is squeamish, he faints at the first sight of blood."
I don't think I want to know how Daniel knows that.
"Who is he?" I ask. "How does he have so much power?"
"Ed is a millionaire. He grew up in Boston, but he was born in Mexico. When he returned here, he made quite a few powerful friends by bribing them with money. As for why he hates me so much . . . well, apparently he spent his whole career searching for the fountain of youth. He . . . he kind of blames me for never finding it."
"The fountain of youth?" I repeat. No such thing. Just a myth . . . but then certain Egyptian myths had turned out to be very real.
"I know, it sounds crazy," Daniel says. "But in our lives what doesn't?" he shrugs.
"So he thinks you took this fountain of youth from him?"
"He suspects, but he really doesn't know what it is I took. He never got close enough to find out what it was."
"But you were able to get it?" I ask. "You were here with the military?"
Daniel nods reluctantly, "They came to my school, cornered me after I left class. They said they had something they needed me to do. You see I never published my theories on the origin of the pyramids until I graduated, but there were a few people I had told. Apparently it had gotten back to them."
"Are you saying what you took was. . ." I begin, before leaning forward and mouthed the next word to him, "alien?"
Daniel nods again, "I knew my theories were correct before we ever met, Jack," he tells me. "I just couldn't tell any of you, just like I can't tell any of my old colleagues now."
I lean back in the chair, more than a little stunned. Daniel had found evidence of aliens before he'd even known about the Stargate?
What was it he'd found? Was there some other secret mountain on Earth that I had no knowledge of? Some other secret organization harboring some piece of alien technology?
"It was destroyed, Jack," Daniel says, as though he had known what I was thinking. "They didn't understand it, and they thought it was dangerous so they destroyed it. I tried to stop them . . . but they didn't listen to me. What did I know, anyway, huh? Well, now I know what it was . . ."
What? I'm dying to ask him what it was, what could have caused us this much trouble but I know he won't tell me. He's afraid that Garcia is listening in.
I can't say I'm sure he isn't.
Garcia soon storms back in the room. He looks even angrier than usual. Maybe he was listening in. Maybe he's pissed we didn't give anything away.
He marches over to us and grabs Daniel wrist, I've jumped up in an instant but strong arms from behind me keep me from lunging forward.
Garcia claps one bracelet of a pair of cuffs on Daniel's right wrist, then he takes the other one and puts it on my left.
This isn't good. This so isn't good.
Garcia turns and leaves without a word, and the guards give me and Daniel a push so that we have no choice but to follow him.
We finally reach a doorway, and are quickly ushered through it. Garcia is already there. And there's a man there I don't recognize, but Daniel does.
"Mike!"
"Hey, Daniel," the guy says quietly.
He's a short guy with gray hair that makes him look old. Not like *my* hair, which makes me look distinguished.
"What's going on, Ed?" Daniel asks. "Why is Mike here?"
Garcia smiled widely giving me another view of his nightmarish teeth. They could use this guy to scare kids into brushing their teeth every morning and night.
"Mike's been helping me with a little translation . . ."
"Well, you never were smart enough to figure them out on your own," Daniel interrupts.
I suppress a smirk. I liked Daniel when he was diplomatic and polite. But he's just so much more entertaining this way.
I don't know why Carter and Teal'c keep getting on my back, saying I've corrupted him.
Garcia's eyes narrow again. Even though it actually looks comical, I'm guessing he's not trying to be funny. I suppose it's supposed to be intimidating.
"Mike tells me that there was indeed a fountain of youth in the temple of the sun. Where is it now, Daniel? What did you do with it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Daniel says smoothly. "There is no such thing as a fountain of youth, of *that* I assure you."
I get the feeling Daniel is telling the truth. Either he's become a really good liar, or they found something else buried there.
"The words do not lie, Daniel," Mike says. "I have gone over the translation. . ."
"You did it wrong," Daniel says assuredly. "You missed something somewhere. The fountain of youth is a myth, besides," he adds slyly, "I think it's a little late for you two, anyway, don't you?"
The expressions on their faces were priceless. I could understand their reactions, they had known Daniel years ago, back when Daniel was a stuttering genius who knew too many words in too many languages to accurately express himself.
They were shocked by how much he had changed, not just his words. I had to admit, I was a little surprised myself. Usually I was the antagonist and Daniel was the one trying to smooth things over.
"I am growing quickly tired of these games, Dr. Jackson," Garcia hisses. "You don't want to get on my bad side."
"This is your good side?" The words come out of Daniel without his even thinking about it. I was impressed. I'd just opened my mouth to say the exact same thing. He beat me to it.
Figures. He was a linguist, after all. He mastered the art of sarcasm in record time. I was a little worried though because it seemed he was getting better at being me than me.
"Dr. Connors," Garcia says to Mike. "Why don't we let these two talk about their options for a moment? Whilst we go get our *equipment*"
Mike nods shortly and the two left, leaving us alone in the office.
The moment the door closed behind them Daniel turns to me, slightly panicked. "We've got to get out of here, *right now*."
"What's wrong?"
"Remember what I said about not worrying about torture?"
"Yea,"
"Worry about it."
Uh, oh.
"Mike is trained at performing torture," Daniel tells me. "Ed is squeamish but Mike would kill his own mother."
The little guy?
Daniel rushed towards a window, pulling me with him via the handcuffs.
"We'll have to go out the window," Daniel tells me.
I nod and help him get it open, we're on the first floor, which is the first thing that's gone right for us all day.
Daniel goes out first, taking my arm with him. I quickly crawl out after him. We come out at the parking lot. Daniel starts off towards the nearest car. It's a BMW. And its plates are personalized. They say Dr Ed. Big ugly guy's car?
"We'll have to hotwire it," Daniel says.
Hotwire it? Who the hell does he think I am? MacGyver?
I don't know *anything* about hotwiring cars. "Daniel," I say patiently. "I don't know how to hotwire a car,"
"Okay," is all he says. He doesn't stop his approach to the shiny silver BMW.
"Did you hear me? We've got to make a run for it,"
As soon as I speak, voices begin to shout behind us. Daniel ran to the passenger side door, he slid the left side of his jacket off of his shoulder but the right side got caught at our cuffs. He wraps the jacket around his hand and breaks the glass on the window.
"We'd never make it on foot," Daniel tells me. While I agree, I really don't see that we have any other choice.
After he opens the door he crawls in and drops down into the driver's seat. I have little choice but to follow him.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" I hiss at him.
He doesn't look up from where he's bent down. He's pulling at the wires under the steering wheel. And it actually looks like he *might* know what he's doing.
Don't tell me he knows how to hotwire cars . . .
The sound of an engine starting up told me enough. Daniel backs up, jerking my arm every time he moved the wheel.
I can hear the shouts getting closer, and the distinct sound of warning shots fired in the air.
Daniel sped out of the police department parking lot and starts heading down the road.
"Daniel,"
"Yes, Jack?"
"Where in the hell did you learn to hotwire cars?"
"Long story."
Right. Seems there's a lot of those lately. "Okay, well can you at least tell me what it was you took from Garcia?"
"It was a sarcophagus, Jack."
A sarcophagus! "An empty one?" I ask.
"Yes, it seemed it belonged to Ra before he was rebelled against and had to flee to Earth. The translation got confused, Jack. It wasn't 'fountain of youth', it was the 'source of youth'. The sarcophagus. Major Kenly, the leader of the mission I was a part of, thought that it was some kind of weapon. At the time I didn't have the evidence to prove it wasn't."
"Why would he think a sarcophagus was a weapon?" I ask. All the questions raised by this new information and *that's* what I want to know.
"Well, one of his men was injured when they tried to move it. It was probably some fail safe mechanism to keep it from being stolen," he's talking to me calmly and explaining things to me clearly.
Despite the fact that we're going eighty down a narrow street in a stolen vehicle, Daniel really will talk about Egyptian stuff no matter where he is or how dire the situation.
"The guy was alright, he just got a slight shock." Daniel pauses for a moment. "Yea, okay. It was a little more than a slight shock. But he lived, and I'm sure his hair grew back. I mean, we had a piece of alien technology in our possession, and he destroyed it just because he didn't understand it! Do you realize all we could have done if it hadn't been destroyed? We might have a cure for cancer by now . . ."
"Daniel," I say sympathetically. Sometimes you have to remind Daniel not to dwell on the past. Especially at times like this when the future was so uncertain.
"Right, doesn't matter now, does it?" he says softly.
"No, right now, I think we should worry about being fugitives."
"Fugitives?" he repeats. "No, we're running for our lives, Jack. We haven't done anything wrong, Garcia was going to kill us."
"I know that, you know that, but when it comes down to it, who do you think these people will believe? Us or the good Doctor Garcia?"
Daniel sighs and starts to slow down to make us look less conspicuous. Not easy to do in a brand new BMW.
"They'll believe him," Daniel agrees. "So what do we do, Jack? Where should we go?"
I lift my free hand and run it through my hair.
I have no idea.
to be continued . . .
I know this isn't a good place to stop, but this part was getting to long and I was getting too tired.
I am also having a slight conflict about what to do next in this story. I'm not sure about how much detail I should go into about Daniel's covert mission ten years ago. Do you want to know the whole story? Or should I just give the bare facts and focus on what's going on in the present?
by Layton Colt
"I don't think I should say anymore than I already have while we're here, Jack," Daniel tells me. "He could be listening."
"Daniel, I can't help you if I don't know what's going on. I'm flying blind here, I need you to tell me what happened."
"I will, Jack. But not here, it isn't safe," Daniel's voice is sure, he isn't going to budge on this.
I sigh and lean back in the chair, "What can you tell me about this Garcia character, then?"
"Well, he'd follow through with his threat about keeping us locked up here," he tells me. I suspected as much. "But I don't think we have to worry about torture. Ed is squeamish, he faints at the first sight of blood."
I don't think I want to know how Daniel knows that.
"Who is he?" I ask. "How does he have so much power?"
"Ed is a millionaire. He grew up in Boston, but he was born in Mexico. When he returned here, he made quite a few powerful friends by bribing them with money. As for why he hates me so much . . . well, apparently he spent his whole career searching for the fountain of youth. He . . . he kind of blames me for never finding it."
"The fountain of youth?" I repeat. No such thing. Just a myth . . . but then certain Egyptian myths had turned out to be very real.
"I know, it sounds crazy," Daniel says. "But in our lives what doesn't?" he shrugs.
"So he thinks you took this fountain of youth from him?"
"He suspects, but he really doesn't know what it is I took. He never got close enough to find out what it was."
"But you were able to get it?" I ask. "You were here with the military?"
Daniel nods reluctantly, "They came to my school, cornered me after I left class. They said they had something they needed me to do. You see I never published my theories on the origin of the pyramids until I graduated, but there were a few people I had told. Apparently it had gotten back to them."
"Are you saying what you took was. . ." I begin, before leaning forward and mouthed the next word to him, "alien?"
Daniel nods again, "I knew my theories were correct before we ever met, Jack," he tells me. "I just couldn't tell any of you, just like I can't tell any of my old colleagues now."
I lean back in the chair, more than a little stunned. Daniel had found evidence of aliens before he'd even known about the Stargate?
What was it he'd found? Was there some other secret mountain on Earth that I had no knowledge of? Some other secret organization harboring some piece of alien technology?
"It was destroyed, Jack," Daniel says, as though he had known what I was thinking. "They didn't understand it, and they thought it was dangerous so they destroyed it. I tried to stop them . . . but they didn't listen to me. What did I know, anyway, huh? Well, now I know what it was . . ."
What? I'm dying to ask him what it was, what could have caused us this much trouble but I know he won't tell me. He's afraid that Garcia is listening in.
I can't say I'm sure he isn't.
Garcia soon storms back in the room. He looks even angrier than usual. Maybe he was listening in. Maybe he's pissed we didn't give anything away.
He marches over to us and grabs Daniel wrist, I've jumped up in an instant but strong arms from behind me keep me from lunging forward.
Garcia claps one bracelet of a pair of cuffs on Daniel's right wrist, then he takes the other one and puts it on my left.
This isn't good. This so isn't good.
Garcia turns and leaves without a word, and the guards give me and Daniel a push so that we have no choice but to follow him.
We finally reach a doorway, and are quickly ushered through it. Garcia is already there. And there's a man there I don't recognize, but Daniel does.
"Mike!"
"Hey, Daniel," the guy says quietly.
He's a short guy with gray hair that makes him look old. Not like *my* hair, which makes me look distinguished.
"What's going on, Ed?" Daniel asks. "Why is Mike here?"
Garcia smiled widely giving me another view of his nightmarish teeth. They could use this guy to scare kids into brushing their teeth every morning and night.
"Mike's been helping me with a little translation . . ."
"Well, you never were smart enough to figure them out on your own," Daniel interrupts.
I suppress a smirk. I liked Daniel when he was diplomatic and polite. But he's just so much more entertaining this way.
I don't know why Carter and Teal'c keep getting on my back, saying I've corrupted him.
Garcia's eyes narrow again. Even though it actually looks comical, I'm guessing he's not trying to be funny. I suppose it's supposed to be intimidating.
"Mike tells me that there was indeed a fountain of youth in the temple of the sun. Where is it now, Daniel? What did you do with it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Daniel says smoothly. "There is no such thing as a fountain of youth, of *that* I assure you."
I get the feeling Daniel is telling the truth. Either he's become a really good liar, or they found something else buried there.
"The words do not lie, Daniel," Mike says. "I have gone over the translation. . ."
"You did it wrong," Daniel says assuredly. "You missed something somewhere. The fountain of youth is a myth, besides," he adds slyly, "I think it's a little late for you two, anyway, don't you?"
The expressions on their faces were priceless. I could understand their reactions, they had known Daniel years ago, back when Daniel was a stuttering genius who knew too many words in too many languages to accurately express himself.
They were shocked by how much he had changed, not just his words. I had to admit, I was a little surprised myself. Usually I was the antagonist and Daniel was the one trying to smooth things over.
"I am growing quickly tired of these games, Dr. Jackson," Garcia hisses. "You don't want to get on my bad side."
"This is your good side?" The words come out of Daniel without his even thinking about it. I was impressed. I'd just opened my mouth to say the exact same thing. He beat me to it.
Figures. He was a linguist, after all. He mastered the art of sarcasm in record time. I was a little worried though because it seemed he was getting better at being me than me.
"Dr. Connors," Garcia says to Mike. "Why don't we let these two talk about their options for a moment? Whilst we go get our *equipment*"
Mike nods shortly and the two left, leaving us alone in the office.
The moment the door closed behind them Daniel turns to me, slightly panicked. "We've got to get out of here, *right now*."
"What's wrong?"
"Remember what I said about not worrying about torture?"
"Yea,"
"Worry about it."
Uh, oh.
"Mike is trained at performing torture," Daniel tells me. "Ed is squeamish but Mike would kill his own mother."
The little guy?
Daniel rushed towards a window, pulling me with him via the handcuffs.
"We'll have to go out the window," Daniel tells me.
I nod and help him get it open, we're on the first floor, which is the first thing that's gone right for us all day.
Daniel goes out first, taking my arm with him. I quickly crawl out after him. We come out at the parking lot. Daniel starts off towards the nearest car. It's a BMW. And its plates are personalized. They say Dr Ed. Big ugly guy's car?
"We'll have to hotwire it," Daniel says.
Hotwire it? Who the hell does he think I am? MacGyver?
I don't know *anything* about hotwiring cars. "Daniel," I say patiently. "I don't know how to hotwire a car,"
"Okay," is all he says. He doesn't stop his approach to the shiny silver BMW.
"Did you hear me? We've got to make a run for it,"
As soon as I speak, voices begin to shout behind us. Daniel ran to the passenger side door, he slid the left side of his jacket off of his shoulder but the right side got caught at our cuffs. He wraps the jacket around his hand and breaks the glass on the window.
"We'd never make it on foot," Daniel tells me. While I agree, I really don't see that we have any other choice.
After he opens the door he crawls in and drops down into the driver's seat. I have little choice but to follow him.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" I hiss at him.
He doesn't look up from where he's bent down. He's pulling at the wires under the steering wheel. And it actually looks like he *might* know what he's doing.
Don't tell me he knows how to hotwire cars . . .
The sound of an engine starting up told me enough. Daniel backs up, jerking my arm every time he moved the wheel.
I can hear the shouts getting closer, and the distinct sound of warning shots fired in the air.
Daniel sped out of the police department parking lot and starts heading down the road.
"Daniel,"
"Yes, Jack?"
"Where in the hell did you learn to hotwire cars?"
"Long story."
Right. Seems there's a lot of those lately. "Okay, well can you at least tell me what it was you took from Garcia?"
"It was a sarcophagus, Jack."
A sarcophagus! "An empty one?" I ask.
"Yes, it seemed it belonged to Ra before he was rebelled against and had to flee to Earth. The translation got confused, Jack. It wasn't 'fountain of youth', it was the 'source of youth'. The sarcophagus. Major Kenly, the leader of the mission I was a part of, thought that it was some kind of weapon. At the time I didn't have the evidence to prove it wasn't."
"Why would he think a sarcophagus was a weapon?" I ask. All the questions raised by this new information and *that's* what I want to know.
"Well, one of his men was injured when they tried to move it. It was probably some fail safe mechanism to keep it from being stolen," he's talking to me calmly and explaining things to me clearly.
Despite the fact that we're going eighty down a narrow street in a stolen vehicle, Daniel really will talk about Egyptian stuff no matter where he is or how dire the situation.
"The guy was alright, he just got a slight shock." Daniel pauses for a moment. "Yea, okay. It was a little more than a slight shock. But he lived, and I'm sure his hair grew back. I mean, we had a piece of alien technology in our possession, and he destroyed it just because he didn't understand it! Do you realize all we could have done if it hadn't been destroyed? We might have a cure for cancer by now . . ."
"Daniel," I say sympathetically. Sometimes you have to remind Daniel not to dwell on the past. Especially at times like this when the future was so uncertain.
"Right, doesn't matter now, does it?" he says softly.
"No, right now, I think we should worry about being fugitives."
"Fugitives?" he repeats. "No, we're running for our lives, Jack. We haven't done anything wrong, Garcia was going to kill us."
"I know that, you know that, but when it comes down to it, who do you think these people will believe? Us or the good Doctor Garcia?"
Daniel sighs and starts to slow down to make us look less conspicuous. Not easy to do in a brand new BMW.
"They'll believe him," Daniel agrees. "So what do we do, Jack? Where should we go?"
I lift my free hand and run it through my hair.
I have no idea.
to be continued . . .
I know this isn't a good place to stop, but this part was getting to long and I was getting too tired.
I am also having a slight conflict about what to do next in this story. I'm not sure about how much detail I should go into about Daniel's covert mission ten years ago. Do you want to know the whole story? Or should I just give the bare facts and focus on what's going on in the present?