Chapter 6
…Touching Base with the Old Crew…
"Damn, man, it's been a LONG time," the voice on the other end of the phone was nearly music to Daniel's ears.
Daniel smiled, "You missed me, brother?" his English accent markedly pronounced in his pleasure at hearing the voice on the other end.
"What have you been up to, man? It was as though you had dropped off the face of the earth," the voice on the other end of the line sounded very glad to hear from him.
"Yeah, I've been out of touch with the real world for a while," Daniel responded with a frown. 'How do I get around this?' he thought to himself. "Actually," he improvised, "I stayed on Holy Ground almost for the whole time I was away. I'm sorry." Well, technically he was on Holy Ground; the base had been blessed by the cleric at its dedication.
"No, man," the other Immortal said, "Don't worry about it. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do to not play the Game. Anyway, what's got a bee in your bonnet that you finally called me?"
"What can you tell me about alien abductions?" Daniel finally asked.
"I've heard that people who claim to have been abducted suffer from terrible flashbacks. Why're You askin' Me about this, Daniel?"
"Come on, Clay, don't play dumb," Daniel said with a smirk.
"Actually, it's Patrick Kiley at the moment," Clay corrected.
Daniel froze as a chill went down his back, "The Senator? Patrick Kiley?"
Jack looked at him, wide eyed from where he sat in a corner of Daniel's office.
Clay laughed, "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"You have no idea," Daniel said with a frown. "I remember when you were on the Human Investigation Team for the Humanadyne Scientific Group."
"Aw hell, Daniel," Clay responded, "That was in the 80's, man, it's been almost twenty years."
"So, you don't have any insight, or contacts?"
"I may be able to get you some info," he said after a long pause as he unlocked the safe under his desk and grabbed a file out of it. "Get in touch with either Mike Turcotte or Lisa Duncan," Clay told him, "they were on a project together a few years back. They may have some information about several abductees here in the states."
"Turcotte and Duncan…" Daniel echoed as he wrote the names down on a tablet.
"So," Daniel said as he changed the subject, "any skirt chasing lately?"
"Daniel…" Clay protested.
"I'm just saying…" the archaeologist teased, "A nice girl like Libby… Another dancer…"
"For the love of Job, Daniel, would ya lay off…" Clay sounded aggravated, "Yer as bad as Aggie."
Daniel laughed, but he sobered when he saw Teal'c enter his office. "Listen, Clay, it was nice touching base with you."
"Yeah," Clay agreed as he sighed and rolled his eyes. A little light ribbing from old friends was tolerated. "It was good hearin' from ya. How'd you get the number anyway?"
"I went to where any respectable Immortal goes to get information… Bernie, of course," Daniel replied.
"Of course, if you know who to go to…" Clay nodded, "Bernie's the man."
"Well, I have to get back to work," Daniel said.
"Get in touch with the old gang," Clay said, "we should get together soon, just to relive the old days. Maybe spar a bit, see how in shape we really are now a days."
Daniel smiled, "That'll be wonderful. Though, I may take on a student within the next few years."
"Bring him along," Clay said with a smile. "I'm sure a little hazing from the old crowd won't be too painful."
"Hah!" Daniel responded as he shook his head. "Go with God, de St. Omer."
"Go with God, Rossal," they then ended their phone call.
By the time Daniel had hung up the phone, Teal'c was at Daniel's computer using a search engine.
"You know how to use that thing, Teal'c?" Daniel asked in surprise.
"I learned while you were away, Daniel Jackson. Do you not use computers in your research?"
Daniel frowned, "Maybe that was back when I was just Jackson. But I'd rather stay as far away from technological doodads as I possibly can. About the only thing I'm willing to do on them is type out documents and use the e-mail, unless I have to do something else like search for a contact on the Watcher's Database. Other than that, it's a glorified paperweight."
Teal'c looked up at Daniel and frowned, "What are we looking for?"
Daniel shrugged, "Look up abductions that match Jack's story." Daniel looked at the computer screen from behind Teal'c's shoulder.
There were a lot of people that popped up on the search engine. "Can you filter it to see if any match what Jack said… 'four green lights'?"
Teal'c refined the search to include the requested information.
Daniel looked at the screen from over Teal'c shoulder, "That's interesting… the most recent of these reports was taken back nineteen years."
"Indeed."
"Just like Clay said," Daniel said more to himself than to Teal'c. "Eight are here in the States. We should talk to these people in person."
"What would talking with them accomplish?"
"I guess we'll cross that bridge when its burnin'," he said as he asked Teal'c to print the information.