When Stupid is Your Best Option

Posted on Fri Feb 22nd, 2019 @ 11:44pm by Civillian Shae & Major Jacob Asher & Captain Caleb Johnson & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Dr. Jessica Andrews
Edited on on Sat Feb 23rd, 2019 @ 12:03am

Mission: A Brand New Day
Location: Conference Room B
Timeline: Current

Jake left Shae at her quarters and went and got cleaned up, then met up with her again, and Jessica, as well as Caleb and Jeremiah in Conference Room B. They had a lot to discuss. Except no one was there when he arrived. He shrugged and sat down at the head of the conference table. That way he could pretend he was in charge while Jessica ran roughshod over him.

Jake was curious how Caleb would fit in with this little group. Frankly, he was just as curious about Corvus. Jake had only met Caleb once, and then Nathan had sent him off to New Dawn Officer Orientation, which is why he wasn't at the briefing the day before.

Jeremy entered and stopped as he saw the mostly empty room and the Major sitting at the table. He awkwardly adjusted the tacvest he wore, part of the SGC uniform with the one hand, the other holding an extra large bottle of Pepsi chilled with a slight slush. For some reason, it - and the rest of the uniform - seemed ill fitting, as if the uniform knew Jeremy was a fraud. "Major," he said, by way of greeting his commanding officer. It seemed odd to be inside a base Stateside and wearing a sidearm. Especially since he discovered a great truth about himself. That he was a bigoted monster who seemed to naturally hate aliens. Or...he considered Dr. Andrews and just that thought alone made him sit quickly at the far side of the table, his face feeling slightly warmed.

Jessica was busy at work reviewing some of Dr. Daniel Jackson's notes on the Stargate project. The archives had them for all this time. She began listening to more of his dictation tapes over headphones while reviewing notes.

Caleb strolled in, having donned his desert MCCUU's without a cover. Full beard stateside seemed strange and somewhat foreign to him, yet it was like a comfortable blanket at this point. MARSOC wasn't holding him to normal regs, because you know someone had to be special. A battleworn and customized Glock 19 with extended mag was holstered on a custom index holster on a safariland QLS drop leg holster, spare mags and other standard items on his 'duty belt'. He liked to have the essentials when random aliens might just pop up. Unopened cold lemonade rockstar recovery in his right hand as he took a seat next to Jake. "So, I guess the PhD's didn't get the memo on to be early is to be on time." right hand shook the rockstar up before his left hand popped the top and he took a large gulp.

"At least she's here," Jake said. "Doctor Andrews, is Shae coming? Is she feeling sick again...wait, you didn't give her anything else she shouldn't eat, did you? Because I really don't want a repeat of the barfing were-fox routine again if we can avoid it. She shouldn't have to go through that and we have work to do."

"I'm fine, I just needed to wash the smell of the infirmary off me," Shae said as she was escorted into the conference room, her pale hair still damp from her shower. Once again, she wore a green jumpsuit and standard issue boots, just until she could acquire some regular clothing to wear while on Earth. "And I am not one of those 'were' creatures from your books, although I do agree that I would like to avoid any food related incidents and this one was unpleasant enough to last a lifetime," she continued as she sat down. "And why do I smell lemons? Like really strong, sweet lemons."

"That infirmary was clean enough to operate in," Corvus muttered to his soda bottle. He knew, he cleaned it himself yesterday.

Jake chuckled. "Well, unless the trees where we're going are soaked with lemon juice, that could be a problem. But one problem at a time. Doctor, I believe you and Shae had some ideas for us on how to approach Shang Ti. I'm really hoping there's a way to do this that doesn't involve getting captured, surrendering all of our weapons, and then throwing ourselves on his mercy because first of all, that only works in Science Fiction TV shows, and secondly, he's just about bat shit bananas, isn't he? Senile? That could go really bad, really fast."

"Lord Yu-huang Shang Ti is, quite surprisingly, a fair ruler. Yes, he is still technically ruling over slaves, but he is not completely unreasonable," Shae said. "At least, before his mind started to go he was fair, now he has become quite paranoid. It would most certainly be a gamble to have the governor petition for an audience on our behalf and trust that Lord Yu would release us afterwards, but if we try to use force, I doubt that will make him amenable to our cause."

"Okay," Jake said. "Doctor Andrews, what if I give Caleb here Hassan and Mantelli, I'm sure by now you've met them, Caleb, and maybe Corvus here, while you and I go petition the governor for an audience with Shang Ti? I already promised Shae if she led us to where we needed to go, she could hightail it back through the gate once we were at our destination. We petition this governor for an audience with the almighty Shang Ti. If we don't rendezvous with Caleb and the others at a prearranged location at a prearranged time, he and the rest of the team figure out how to rescue our sorry asses. Anybody got a better plan? One that doesn't involve us killing our way into the chamber of the senile, paranoid old snake head that we're hoping to convince we're on his side?"

"Sir," Jeremy asked at once, glancing at the other end of the table. Well, one particular end really, "is it really wise to send in the..." he stopped and looked at his bottle for a moment. "...you? You're the CO, sir," yet his glance kept going elsewhere. Would it really matter if she had wings? "If they killed Doc...you...then..." he shrugged, deciding to be quiet then.

"Sergeant," Jake said with a smirk. "Your concern is touching, really. But I'm not a shrinking violet. Keep in mind that I've been creeping into places I shouldn't be in order to rain down Hell on the bad guys for a pretty long time, that Doctor Andrews has been sneaking into Goa'uld territory and killing Goa'uld longer than anyone in this room, and that Caleb is a Marine. He can improvise better than anyone in this room. If the Doc and I get in trouble, I trust Caleb to make good use of you, Hassan, and Mantelli to get us out. I know you haven't been in Special Tactics long, that you spent most of your time in CSAR and CASEVAC, but you have spent a little time doing sneaky stuff, so you know that sometimes a mission requires you to do something truly hairbrained and then trust that your team will be there when it counts. I trust Caleb, I trust Hassan and Mantelli, and I trust you, Sergeant. You can be a real goof at times, but I saw how you took control of that situation in the Infirmary. You've got what it takes."

"Affirm, sir," Jeremy said, trying not to be caught looking at Andrews. If you do anything that gets her hurt, though... he shook the thought out of his head. "Full trust in you, Major," he said, trying to make a joke of it then took a long draught on the Pepsi to hide that he didn't feel at all like what he said.

"Good," Jake said. "Doctor? Caleb? Shae? Thoughts? Question? Comments? Rude remarks? That last one isn't for you, Corvus."

"And for the record. I fight smart. It's how I've managed to stay alive up until now. I have many friends out there, and I will introduce you to all my allies and contacts. You will be able to get intelligence, weapons, and supplies no matter where you go." Jessica noted. "We're still going to be centralized here at the SGC, but we're also going to make them hear the word 'tau'ri' more often." She smiled. "I mess with my foe's head before I kill them."

"Okay then," Jake said. "I'm taking that as a yes vote for my plan. Anyone else? Corvus, if you have an idea or a question, feel free to speak, but we have a lot of work to do. So while I appreciate your sense of humor since I'm a wiseass myself, right now isn't a good time for it. Now's the time to show me that competence from yesterday."

Caleb stayed relatively quiet, as he usually did and just let the details get hashed out. Sipping on his rockstar recovery, perking a brow in Shae's direction when she made her lemon comment; He stayed quiet still and just observed everyone and everything. "All I hear is, Caleb, pack the 50, bring a M31A1 and be prepared to blow shit up. Sounds like a good time." he smiled and gave a quick thumbs up in Jake's direction.

Corvus turned to look at the Major "what the holy grail did I do now?" on his lips. Instead he just threw his hands up and leaned back in the chair, waiting to get to work. Maybe they were still going to kick him off the team, maybe they were still gonna banish him to some other planet but he was going to get to see at least ONE alien world before any of it happened. He'd be darned to heck before he didn't get to go to another planet.

"Relax," Jake said. "You're doing great, kid. Okay, if the Doc and Shae think our little plan will work, we'll go for it. Last chance for anyone to object on the grounds that this has a rating of 9 stars out of 10 on the pucker factor scale."

Shae had only been half listening to the proceeding as she was far more interested in Caleb's drink than the plan. it had started out simple enough, just leaning against the nice boardroom table sniffing at the air, the claws marks from yesterday's debacle still present on the edge as she kept leaning in until the entirety of her upper body was on the table. But she wasn't close enough! She had just brought her knee up onto the table with the intent to crawl over to get a better whiff of Caleb's drink when she heard her name. Suddenly realizing what she had been doing, Shae returned to her chair with a blush, all the while trying to recall what had been said so she could answer.

"I foresee no problems with getting in, it the getting out part that I know is problematic, but I have no further suggestions to offer," Shae said sheepishly.

Jake smiled. "That's okay, Shae. I made you a promise that you could return here after you got us where we are supposed to go, and I keep my promises to my friends and my teammates, even the new ones I don't know that well. I consider you to be both. Don't worry about us. We can handle ourselves. Just do what you promised and we'll handle the rest."

"I know, I just don't like the idea that you and Jess could get stuck in a situation that you can't get out of," Shae admitted. "And please don't leave the healer person there; I know he tried to kill me and that's bad, but I don't think he deserves to be abandoned on the other side of the Chappa'ai."

Hearing her advocate for him deepened the guilt he felt, especially as, when she started to crawl across the table he moved away and went to grab his sidearm. Only realizing what he was doing when he also realized she was going for an energy drink full of caffeine and he recalled caffeine being on the 'don't risk' list. He made sure he tightly capped his Pepsi. "Shae, that drink is also on the bad list for you, it contains a high amount of caffeine and B6, which I'm not sure if that's real B6 or synthetic B6, the latter is bad for you."

"Shae," Jake said. "Why don't you go back to your seat, okay? No one has to worry about being abandoned. We don't leave people behind. Period. Even if we don't like them. And if for some extreme reason we have to pull back with out them, we always, and I mean always, go back for them as soon as we can. And Sergeant Corvus, you and I are going to have a conversation about why Shae here thinks I'm going to abandon you somewhere."

Shae cut a glance to Corvus, growling at the man; he had tricked her?! Well she knew how to play tricks... "Bakamono, next time you need some fluids for more tests, I'm not going to leave them in a cup," she said with glare.

Jake laughed. "Hear that, Corvus! You might be feeling pissed off now, but when Shae gets done with you, you're going to be feeling pissed on! Okay, that's a wrap. Meet in the gate room in an hour, geared up and ready to go. Shae, your weapons should be in your room. You can wear what you came here in, or you can get some of our gear. In fact, I'll go with you to help you select the right gear without weighing yourself down or loading you up with too much unfamiliar stuff. Later, I'll teach you how to use our firearms, but for now you should stick to what you're familiar with. We've got some really good knives if you want one or two of them. I'll show you when we're done here. Alright, dismissed."