Going Skiing...Hopefully

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2019 @ 5:47pm by Staff Sergeant Rhiannon O'Connor & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Ravi Azad PhD & Staff Sergeant Creighton Arcadia
Edited on on Sun Mar 3rd, 2019 @ 9:26pm

Mission: Aftermath
Location: Cheyenne Mountain
Timeline: Aftermath day 2

"There you are," Arcadia said as he came up to Jeremy in the rec room. He found the tall PJ crammed into a chair by the 'window' - a large wall poster overlooking the mountains surrounding Colorado Springs behind trimming to make it look as if it were a window out of the mountain. A system of lights were rigged to simulate various daylights. Jeremy had his tablet on the table in front of him and was staring intently at it while holding his head in his hands. Arcadia felt sympathy for the man. He knew how much reading an study he had to do just to be Security Force for the Gateroom, how much more must there be when one was on an actual team?

Though, really, he did wish to find out.

"Looking for me?" Jeremy asked, looking up as Arcadia dropped his sweater on the table.

"Yes, we need to get going if we want to get any time in on the slopes. I'm already behind schedule looking for you."

Jeremy frowned. "I'm sorry, did I forget something?"

"Yes!" Arcadia said, dropping into the chair across from him. "You're on leave! You were told to go do something fun. That does not mean holing up inside this mountain reading technical manuals and policies and...I don't know, treatises on Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings, whatever the hell it is that the eggheads came up with for guys like us to be bored to tears with. You're coming with me, a ski trip for the day. We'll head back tomorrow morning and you can cause your brain to leak out your ears then."

"I'm afraid-"

"You have no choice in this, Sergeant," Arcadia said, leaning onto the table. "I'm told that you're going and so, you're going. Those are my orders."

"Orders?" Jeremy said, neither the Master Sergeant or the Major sent him new orders.

"Yes, from Mama. We all know how bad it goes for us if we fail to follow Mama's orders."

"Oh," Jeremy said, then the prospect of restrictions from seconds, much less thirds, hit him with full force. "When do we leave?" He stood with the tablet in his hand. "Oh, no, wait," he said, sitting back down just as Arcadia stood up. "I don't have any snow gear."

"Man!" Arcadia said, rolling his eyes. "We're in one of the premiere outdoor destinations in the world there's like, four stores within a stone's throw from here that can equip you. Let's go! We still need to get that new egghead, Robby."

"Robby?" Jeremy asked as he stood again, moving quickly. When was the last time he had a chance to just play in the snow, much less go skiing? Or snowboarding? "You mean Dr. Ravi Azad?" Jeremy asked, having already gone over the SGC head staff.

"Yes!" Arcadia said, wanting to push the younger man from 'plodding' to 'running'. They still had to go back to Jeremy's quarters, he said, to pick up a few things, like his wallet and ID.

[A few minutes later]

"Any idea where we might find Doctor Azad?" Arcadia asked as he and Jeremy left the enlisted crew quarters area. "I assume he's gotta have an office around here somewhere. Or, maybe I can just go to security and ping his phone?"

"Ping his phone, wait...you can track us through our phones?"

Creighton frowned as he hesitated. "Uhm...no? Not at all, why would we be able to do that? Just to keep track of people who are privy to what is probably the greatest secret project in the world?"

"You didn't tell me you could do that. Did you tell him?"

"No," Creighton said, trying to sound exasperated, "because we can't. As far as you're being told." He turned a corner. "I think the geek offices are down this way. I'm not even sure how we're going to convince him to go with us."

"Does he have to?"

"Mama said I had to take him," Arcadia said, putting an end to that conversation. They searched until they finally came to a door that had his name hastily written on paper indicating the short amount of time he'd been here. Arcadia knocked as he opened the door, recognizing Ravi from the control center. "Azad?" he asked, just to politely confirm. "I'm afraid you need to come with us." Creighton wondered if he would be remembered, he wasn't in uniform - already ready to hit the slopes when Mama caught him. He hadn't put on his jacket yet, so was wearing the ski-pants, boots, watch cap and a long sleeve baselayer shirt that could easily serve double duty under his uniform. Jeremy, on the other hand, was in uniform, he'd need to take some time to change from the SGC uniform to his regular AF uniform before they could leave the complex, but that shouldn't take long. "And we're in a hurry, Doctor."

Papers and books and notebooks and pens were strewed across the desk behind which sat Ravi Azad. He blinked and looked up at the two blurry men. Wait. Blurry? He quickly removed his reading glasses and they resolved into recognizable forms. "Of course," he replied, setting the glasses on his desk and standing. "Can I ask what this is about?" he asked as he rounded the desk and started towards the door.

"You may," Arcadia merely answered, smacking Jeremy on the arm as he started to elaborate. It was more fun this way. Eggheads, always thinking they're better than anyone else.

Another blink. "All right then," he replied resignedly. "Lead the way, then."

"Sheesh, knock it off," Jeremy said. "It wasn't funny when you did this crap to me the other day and it's not funny now. We're going skiing. Apparently we've all been given some liberty and Creighton has been given orders that he's take a few of us on his ski trip."

"Yes, but it's a two hour drive and I've already wasted an hour this morning making new arrangements. Plus, I have to stop by a store so this big lug can get something to wear on the slopes and I'm betting you'll need a change of clothes as well. So let's hurry up!"

"Skiing!" replied Ravi thoughtfully. "I have never been skiing. What does one wear to ski?"

"Clothes!" Arcadia said, shooing the two along. "Let's go!"

"We're going to be stopping at a place and I can help you get stuff you need," Jeremy said. Then, he looked almost ashamed because, well, this wasn't something he was planning and he knew Azad wasn't planning this. Well, he didn't know Azad was planning this because, well, he didn't know Azad at all. As in, he was being incredibly rude by not knowing this person. "I'm sorry, I'm Staff Sergeant Jeremy Corvus, SG-one. You're one of the eggheads helping to keep things going?"

"Yes, I suppose I am," replied Ravi with a weak grin. "Ravi Azad. Good to meet you you."

"Good, now that I've remembered my manners," he moved closer to Ravi and lowered his voice to a whisper. "We're kind of springing this on you and, I'll bet you weren't planning for this. You going to be okay, moneywise? If not, it's okay, I'll cover you."

"I used to work for NASA," Ravi pointed out. "I'll be fine. But, thank you."

[Still a few minutes, and a much more inpatient Arcadia, later]

"Oh, hey, O'Connor!" Jeremy said, jogging up to her where they found her in the corridor. "Amazing isn't it? Getting leave? We're going skiing, you got any plans?"

Ree startled when Jeremy ran up to her, but recovered quickly. "Uh...no. No plans today anyway. I could go skiing. But...who is we? If this is just a bunch of SpecOps guys with testosterone poisoning hoping to go to some low rent ski lodge and get the cute PJ girl trashed, screw me when I'm so drunk I don't know what is going on, and then leave me to find my own way home in the morning, you can forget it."

That hadn't actually happened to Ree, but unfortunately friends and Air Force colleagues of Ree's had been taken advantage of before, their only part in the process being foolish enough to trust their fellow airmen. Nothing quite as drastic as what she'd just described to Crow, but bad stuff nonetheless. It happened everywhere, not just in the military, but Ree was aiming high in the Air Force, so that was her immediate area of concern.

"What?" Jeremy asked, recoiling as if her words were a slap to the face. "No. Not at..." he actually took a step back, still repulsed by what she had said. "Who would do something like that? That's...disgusting!"

Arcadia came up to them as well. "What's going on here?" he asked, looking between his fellow sergeants.

"I just asked if she had plans and thought if she didn't maybe she could join us-"

"Seriously?" Arcadia asked, seeing even more wasted time, but then took a deep breath. "Well, I guess it's no more hassle with four than with three. Do you need to go get gear as well? We're already going to a store so it's not a problem."

"No, Sergeant," Jeremy said, "That's not the problem. She accused us of just wanting to get her drunk and..." Jeremy swallowed the very thought of it leaving a very sour taste in his mouth.

"Oh, shit," Arcadia said, more like a low whisper. "Corvus, go see to Ravi would you? I think he's getting lost just standing in the hallway."

"I see him down there, he's-"

"Sergeant!" Arcadia said, his voice authoritative and getting Jeremy's instant attention. "Go see to Ravi."

"Yes, Sergeant," Jeremy said, frowning unsure what was going on.

Arcadia waited until he judged the other man was out of earshot, took a half step closer to O'Connor and said in a very low voice, hoping it wouldn't carry at all. "Has that happened to you? Do you need to make a report?"

Ree smiled. "No, but thanks for the offer of support. I really appreciate it. I'm extremely careful about who I go places with and where I go with who. And luckily I'm not a big booze drinker, I tend to drink hard cider from a bottle because it's harder to casually slip GHB down the neck of a bottle, and I am extremely vigilant about both watching the bottle and I never accept a bottle I'm not one hundred percent sure was sealed before it was opened where I could see it being opened. Hell, I do the same with soft drinks and even water. To be honest, it's exhausting, stressful, depressing, and really lonely. So it would be a really nice change of pace if you guys didn't turn out to be assholes."

Arcadia shook his head and smiled. "This group is with Corvus and an egghead. They won't even know how to spell GHB, much less how to use it, and if they did...do you really think either one would know what to do after they did slip it into a drink? I think this is probably the safest you could ever be with a group of guys. Me? I just want to ski. You in or out, cause time's wasting and we still need to get everyone geared up."

"I'm in, Arc, I'm in," Ree said. "I've got my own stuff. Meet you top side?"

"Alright, fifteen minutes! Transport leaves in fifteen minutes. And that's fifteen real minutes, not a military 'we're leaving in fifteen minutes and still standing around three hours later'. Got that Corvus? You got five minutes to get changed to go outside and we'll meet O'Connor in fifteen at the transport. Car, I meant car!"

"Five?" Jeremy said, affronted. "Why so long?" But, he stopped by O'Connor, "Nobody takes advantage of my teammates. You'll see, some asshat, SpecOps or no, gives it a try and they'll be eating knuckle sandwich with tooth sprinkles."

Ree laughed. "Thanks, Crow," she said. "I really do appreciate it. See ya in a bit!" Ree headed off to get her ski gear so she wouldn't be late. Arc could be kind of a dick about who was in charge of what. They were all E-5 Staff Sergeants, but Arc was older and had been one just a bit longer than the her and Crow, which technically meant he outranked them...sort of. Still, this was looking like it was going to be a lot of fun.

[Still Minutes Later]

When she was finally ready, she went up and out of the mountain and found Arc and Jeremy waiting. "Hey, guys! Where's the cute egghead?" Ree said, referring to Doctor Ravi Azad.

"In the car," Arcadia said, leaning against the driver door. "Jeremy called shotgun, but I'm going to go ahead and say that's not valid since not everyone was present for it."

"Ooh!" Ree said. "Then I call shotgun!" And without missing a beat, Ree tossed her stuff in the car and jumped in the front passenger seat. "Okay, I'm ready. We can leave now!" Ree laughed at her only silliness. "Just kidding. I can wait for you guys. Crow's nice, the Doc is hot, and Arc, you're...driving."

"Nope, shut it, Sergeant," Arcadia said with a smile. "Not only does rank hath its privileges, but you tried to play unfair by calling it before Ravi even came out of the lockerrooms! That's your punishment, you got beat out, deal with it." He closed his door, waiting for Jeremy to get in and close his. "Seatbelts everyone," he called out, looking over his shoulder.

"You know you don't actually have the rank, right, Arc?" Ree said, climbing in the back. "So, ergo, thusly, you have no privileges."

"I was referring to you getting shotgun, O'Connor," Arcadia said, "as I think you made E-5 several weeks, or was it months, before Jeremy did. If I remember your files correctly." He didn't mention that he knew he made it some years before either one of them.

Uh huh, Ree thought. So why aren't you a Tech Sergeant yet, you blowhard? But she said nothing, she was here to have fun, and that's what she was going to do

"Y'know, O'Connor," Jeremy said from the back of their SUV, "Corvus is a genus name of the family corvidae, of which crows encompass less than a third of the total genus. It includes mockingbirds, ravens, hooded ravens among others." No, he wasn't pouting. Not at all. "Right, Doctor?"

"I'm afraid I dont' know," replied Ravi sheepishly. "Ornithology was never my strong suit. I mean, I can tell a parrot from an eagle, but beyond that..." he shrugged.

"It's called backing up a brother," Jeremy said rolling his eyes. Some people had a LOT to learn about being a bro.

"Oh, right, sorry," said Ravi. "Yes, you are absolutely correct. Although, the thought occurs to me that we all have these little computers in our pockets and could just check in a matter of seconds."

"Yeah," Ree said. "You're Crow to me."