Leave It To Williams

Posted on Wed Apr 3rd, 2019 @ 4:55am by 1st Lieutenant Hunter Williams & Civillian Selyna Braeden

Mission: Interlude 1
Location: Selyna Braeden's Office, Cheyenne Mountain

Hunter rapped quickly on the door only to have it swing open a little bit. For him, considering his military past, that was enough of an 'invitation' so he walked into the office. "Hello," he said, as he glanced a the screen of his tablet. "Doctor..." nope, wasn't going to try the first name at all. Where did people get these names from anyway? The irony of his own name completely lost on him. "I'm sorry, ma'am, is it BRAY-den or BREE-den?"

Selyna looked up at the individual who had entered her office and blinked a couple of times. She had not been expecting anyone, so he had caught her off guard. "It's... BRAY-den." she answered, sounding slightly confused. "I'm sorry. I don't believe I know you, sir."

"Bray-den, okay, check," Hunter said then stepped forward extending his hand. "Sorry, I'm Senior-" He stopped and gave a little self-deprecating smile. "Sorry, former life. I'm Lieutenant Williams. I've been brought on as SG1's second. You're one of the really, really smart people on the team. Pardon me, I haven't got all the details right yet, are you the engineer or the astrophysicist?"

Selyna took the offered hand in a firm grip and shook it then released it. "Nice to meet you, Lieutenant." she said, smiling at the man. "I'm the astrophysicist. Technically, I'm a quantum physicist, but who's keeping score." She chuckled softly. "So what can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

"Right to business, okay," Hunter said. "I've got two things to take care of here." He motioned to the chair opposite the desk. "Do you mind?" It was said friendly, but also in a slightly reproachful way, as if a gentle reminder she should have offered by now.

His response made her pause and look properly embarrassed. "I'm so sorry. Please have a seat. I really wasn't trying to be rude or abrupt. You just caught me off guard, and I thought, as military, you would prefer the straight to business approach. I shouldn't assume; I know better. I'm really sorry."

"No worries, I'm trying not to be too 'GI Joe' here, cause you're not military. Looks like we're both making presumptions," he said as he sat in the chair. "So, here's the first thing, and it's a bit unpleasant, I'm sorry about that. You have orders to answer some questions from OSI, that's the Office of Special Investigations. Just think of them as Federal cops for the Air Force. Shouldn't take too long and shouldn't be too bad. Honesty is the best policy, after all." He slid a sheet of paper over the desk to her.

Selyna smiled at his recognition that mistakes had been made on both sides. Taking the sheet of paper, she addressed his statement about OSI. "Like IA for police but bigger?" she guessed, equating it to something she was familiar with. She looked down at the paper while he responded.

"Uhm," he said, drawing the word out so it didn't seem like a flat out negation of what she thought. "No. You're close but, think of it more like how the FBI investigates the police when they do wrong, but also has jurisdiction over other crimes? In this case, the investigation would be like a federal offense which the local police don't have jurisdiction. If it were something more, well, like I understand this Corvus guy and his shenanigans, that'd be a matter for the local police, or in this case, the Security Forces."

Selyna thought about that, then nodded. "I got it now. Thank you. I apologize in advance if any of my questions seem... elementary to you. While my father was military, he was Marine Corps, not Air Force, and I kind of get the impression that there are a good many differences between the services. Or is that inaccurate?" She didn't want to assume anything and give offense.

"Differences between us and the window-licking, crayon munchers? Nah, not so much. I mean, our stupidity generally ends with jumping out of perfectly good airplanes into areas where people want to kill us, a lot. Marines are..." he shrugged, smiling. "Nah, sorry, can't do it. Marines are great at what they do, and thank God for that, right? But hey, ask anything you want. At least you can conceptualize anything relevant to ask. All I know about quantum physics, or astrophysics is this: look, there are stars up in the sky. Otherwise, I'm as lost as a Southern Baptist at Ramadan."

Selyna actually laughed. "You know, the Marines say similar things about... no, wait, mostly about the Navy. Hm..." She chuckled, remembering some of the things her dad used to say. "And thanks, but when I think of a question, I'll ask. And I wouldn't feel too bad about not understanding what I do. It's very... abstract most of the time. Lots of math and charts and very little physical construct to pin it all on. Until this place."

"Ha! Navy! Yep, let me guess, things like "Uber for Marines"? 'Never Again Volunteer Yourself'? Probably also heard about the 'chair force'?" Hunter said, chuckling a bit. "Yep, ever hear that muscles are required, intelligence not essential'? Or 'meals are really inhaled, never eaten'? " Williams looked around the office. "Math? Yep, you lost me right there. Wasn't a very good field medic cause of the math. Thankfully I could shoot and I could tell people what to do, so I got to keep my PJ spot. But, tell me a bit more about you, growing up with a Marine for a father, I'm going to just go ahead and presume when I make you mad, there's a good chance I'll get shot?"

He sounded like her father with those jabs, and she laughed. The comment about getting shot also earned him a laugh, but she shook her head. "That's you military types. As you can see, I have non-uniform, unless this lab coat counts." she said with a grin. "As to dad, he was fun. I know a lot of military brats talk about how their dad was 'The General' at home, but mine wasn't. I think he did that once when I was little, and mom told him very sternly to keep that rank shit outside. After that, he was cool at home. Granted, he expected great things from his kid. Fortunately for me, I had similar goals, so I didn't really mind the pushing as much." She shrugged. "Question. People keep using that term PJ. Please clarify?"

"Ah, yes, how to explain to a Marine brat without grunting?" He winked to show he was joking, "or to someone who could explain terms that would make the brain come out of my ears? It's basically the Air Force version of the SEALs. Highly trained pararescue. We go in behind enemy lines to extricate those trapped, wounded or just need additional support. Rather than go across on foot, though, we jump out of those perfectly good airplanes to get where we need to go. We're also sent on assignment, not just for others. But that's us in a nutshell, why our motto is 'so others may live'. Didn't any of the Staffs here explain this to you?"

She chuckled at the joke at her own expense -- that was one of her mother's lessons -- and listened, nodding as the explanation cleared it up for her. "No, but in fairness, I didn't ask them. Most of them were talking to others, and it would have been very rude of me to just saunter up and inject myself into their conversation." She answered his question. "I have to confess, though, as much as you don't care to even try to look at what I do, I will leave that bit of crazy to you. I'm perfectly happy to remain in the airplane, thank you very much." she added with a chuckle.

"Ah, c'mon, it ain't that bad!" He said, leaning back in the chair, "Tell you what, let's make a deal. I'll try to learn a little bit about what you do, enough to be an effective leader and you go on a tandem jump, no wait, two. If I'm going to have mush for brains for trying to understand higg-bosons and M-Theory, then I think you need to go twice. And I'll sweeten the deal with ice cream after."

She thought about it, chuckling at the last bit. "What am I, ten? But okay, why not." At least he wasn't asking her to jump solo. That she would have refused straight away! "Two tandem jumps with ice cream after each, and you've got a deal. But don't worry; I won't throw you into the deep end. And I can usually explain some of the simpler concepts in Normal People Speak." she said with a grin. This team was getting more interesting by the day.

"Okay, two jumps, soft serve ice cream in cone type to be negotiated later, chocolate shells optional AND it can't be within two hours of meal time. I'm not going to get blamed for spoiling your lunch," he said. "General Wolf looks to be the tough disciplinarian type with too permissive lieutenants." He stood, signalling that he felt their first meeting was coming to an end. "And not too much on the homework for me, I'm still trying to plow through some extremely boring comparisons of Central American and Mesopotamic religious concepts. Yet for some reason they keep coming back to sub-Saharan religious rites." He made an explosion noise while moving fingers away from his head. "Totally gone, if it weren't for name strips I'd forget my own name after reading half a chapter."

Selyna frowned. "I know. I knew people when I was in university who were taking those classes and loving them. They'd start talking to me, and I'd glaze over." She laughed softly. "And I agree to the rest." A frown slid over her features though. "When you first sat down, you said you had a couple of things. You only named one, the OSI debrief. Was there something else you needed to tell me too?" She could see the body language signal that he was about to close the meeting, but she wanted to be certain that nothing important got forgotten because they had chased a two-headed rabbit down a three-headed trail... poor rabbit.

"Oh, yeah, that," he said, sticking his hands in his pockets then pulling them out quickly, forgetting the 'no hands in the pockets rule' of the military. Such a stupid rule. "I just wanted to get to know a little more about you. I think that got accomplished. For now. I'm sure we'll have more time to learn more about each other. Oh, and if I refer to you as Lynda or Diana it's just that...well, Lynda Carter is the top of my 'cheat list'. Michelle encouraged that, only because she got a good laugh out of the idea of me actually trying to woo Lynda Carter." He started to leave before he stopped and raised his hand turning around. "Okay, that was wrong, completely. I'm not saying I'm trying to woo you or expect anything else, please don't go to HR over that unfortunate turn of phrase. I merely meant you resemble Lynda Carter a bit and I'm bad with names. Hooboy am I embarrassed now."

Selyna chuckled softly but shook her head. "Don't worry; I got what you were aiming for." she assured. "And frankly, I'm flattered. Lynda Carter was very pretty." She studied him for a moment. "I hope we do get the chance to talk again. And just so you know, I'm not that easy to offend." she smirked a little. "Unless you do it on purpose." She didn't think he was that type; that was why she dared the joke. He seemed more the stand-up guy sort, and that was nice to see.

"Okay, memo to self, per Dr. Braeden, make sure to shower and change socks every morning so as not to be 'offensive', check." He made it to the door before he turned again. "One more thing, so I guess this is a third thing but I could really use the help here. Dr. Ravi Azad is my next stop. Is that a guy or a woman? I told you I was bad with names."

Selyna chuckled at his "internal memo". "Well, I'm not sure it would offend anything but my sense of smell, but sure. Why not." she teased. The question she responded to with less levity. "Ravi is male. No worries. If I hadn't met him, I might have wondered at the gender of the name too. I think it might be... you know, I'm not even going to guess at its nationality. My luck I'd be" she paused for effect here, adding a smile as she finished with "offensive."

"Be sure to brush your teeth and change your socks," he called back as he went down the hall. Then popped in, "And no wild partying in the rec room until you've finished your homework!"

She laughed and threw a wad of paper at him. "Oh, go play with the other boys!" she shot back playfully.

"Battery on a superior officer," he clucked, "that's going to negatively affect your performance review. I'm leaving now, but not because you told me to but because I don't get to play around all day staring at the stars. I actually have to work."

Selyna watched him leave, resisting the urge to do something completely juvenile and stick her tongue out at him. That might just be too much. Instead she just laughed. She suspected they could keep this up for some time, but they both had work to do, whether he thought so or not, and so it was best to let him get to his and she get back to hers. But, she had to admit at least to herself, that was a fun bit of banter. She really did hope she got to do it again.