NB: Well, so much for updating every day or two. And I had such plans to work ahead during Spring Break... Ah, so it goes. But... I'm back now (!) and will try to write ahead in spite of a plethora of semester projects.
The next morning as Emmett was making his way to a conference room for his interview with Senator Kinsey, he saw a familiar figure in the corridor coming towards him. "Is that who I think it is?" he asked his companions, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice.
"That's Colonel O'Neill," Rondell confirmed.
At a glance from Emmett, his crew quickly turned on their equipment. As O'Neill approached, Emmett said, "Colonel O'Neill, hi!"
Before he could continue, O'Neill reeled off, "I like vanilla over chocolate, my favorite color is peridot, I think Tibet should be free, and if I could have dinner with anyone in the world, it'd be Mary Steenbergen." He never looked at the camera and never stopped walking, Wickenhouse and James struggling to keep up.
As the colonel slipped past them into an elevator, the only thing that came to Emmett's mind was, "Mary Steenbergen?"
Oh God. Had he said that out loud? O'Neill smirked. "I think she's nice." Oh God. He had said it out loud.
The elevator doors started to close and Emmett, remembering suddenly that the colonel's name wasn't on his interview list, impulsively pushed them open again. "No no, look look look. If I could just take a minute—"
"Look," said the colonel. "I don't really have time at the moment. I have a… briefing… to go do."
"I understand," Emmett assured him. "But I really do need to talk to you, so when would be a good time?"
O'Neill gave him a patently insincere smile. "Oh, anytime's good, just send me a memo." The elevator doors slid closed and Emmett was left looking at a slate-gray wall, feeling like he'd been had.
Without much enthusiasm he continued towards his meeting. He had already figured out that Kinsey probably had brought a speech prepared, so when the old codger started talking it was easy to tune him out and go over the encounter with O'Neill in his mind.
O'Neill was an easy man to relate to, Emmett thought, more so than many of the experts of the SGC. In some ways, Major Carter's discussion of quantum physics or Dr. Jackson's highly technical discourse would be as alien to the average viewer as Teal'c was. But O'Neill seemed like the sort of affable, sarcastic guy everyone knew. Smart, certainly, more street-smart than book-smart, but still, very intelligent. Emmett found that truly funny people usually were.
And yet, the man was, as Major Carter put it, the man who held SG-1 together. He was a man who made bad jokes and drank beer while watching hockey, but also made life and death decisions on a regular basis. Emmett had already decided to focus the documentary on SG-1, the most important, longest-established team with a penchant for the most dramatic missions. And SG-1 centered around Colonel Jack O'Neill. Emmett suspected that O'Neill had the power to make or break the quality of the documentary. At the moment, that wasn't very encouraging.
Seeing that Kinsey was winding down, Emmett forced his attention back to the man he was "interviewing."
Kinsey always tried to come across as righteous, but tended to look pompous, as Emmett well knew from watching the nightly news; Kinsey was currently VP on the presidential ticket with Henry Hayes.
Kinsey looked directly at the camera the entire time he spoke. "Like the people who are now serving here at the SGC, the youth of tomorrow will one day have to defend the free spirit of mankind. And not just on our fair planet, but out there, through the stargate, in the vastness of the galaxy, where untold evil with powers we've never seen before are still waiting to prey upon us."
Right. Emmett had heard that sort of fear-mongering many times before. Forcing a smile to his face, he tried to sound sincere as he thanked Kinsey for the interview.
"These people deserve it," said the senator, obviously playing a whole different game with the camera there than he did without, judging by SG-1's mission reports.
In the faint hope of getting something usable, Emmett lowered his voice and suggested, "Ah, look Senator, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, me saying this, but, it sounded a little… prepared. Just a little rehearsed, and I don't think you're gonna like the results. What if we kinda do things off the cuff and I just throw things at you, see how you respond?"
For a moment Kinsey seemed to nod before saying abruptly, "No."
"No?" Emmett asked, thinking a little desperately that he couldn't just cut the man's entire section out, but he hadn't given the camera anything good.
"No. Now did you want anything else from me?"
"No Sir, thank you for your time." A waste of time, more like.
Still, an hour later Emmett was forced to that admit that all of his interviews, even Kinsey's smarmy righteousness and Dr. Jackson's blatant refusal to cooperate, had gone better than his interview with Teal'c. Or rather, his not-interview, since it didn't actually take place.
The group had arrived at Teal'c's quarters and knocked on the closed door. After a moment it had opened, revealing Teal'c, who looked even more imposing than the day before. It shouldn't have been possible, as he didn't have his weapon this time—in sight at least—but he was just so physically BIG and…looming.
He had looked at Emmett with distaste and said, "No."
Emmett wasn't about to use the man's name without permission. "Sir? You've agreed to be interviewed at this time."
He tried to sound reasonable but Teal'c gave him a look like Emmett was something he'd scraped off his shoe. "You have tried with your questions to dishonor a great warrior. I will not speak with such a hasshak. Return when you have made penance to her."
And he shut the door.
Emmett was feeling really frustrated. He still didn't know why he was being treated like an enemy. He had a little bit of time before his meeting with Dr. Frasier, so he decided to get some work done on the memorial segment for the fallen soldiers. Since the project was so classified, even their families didn't know the truth about how they had died. Tributes were always difficult to do without crossing the line into sentimentality, and Emmett was determined that this one succeed in provoking emotion and respect.
As he trudged back towards his rooms, he saw Dr. Jackson walking down the corridor talking animatedly to an airman. Maybe he should try again with Jackson? Nah, there wouldn't be too much point to it until he cleared up the misunderstanding with Major Carter, and now that Jackson had seen them his face had already gone blank. Emmett nodded to James to keep rolling though; the camera was on because as they walked James was filming what the SGC complex itself looked like. It had been James' idea, and while Emmett wasn't sure they would need the footage, he was pleased the young cameraman was taking initiative.
Jackson's pager went off, and after he looked at it, he stopped dead in his tracks and said to his companion, "Oh, excuse me, I've… got to go," and darted away through the corridor.
Thrilled that he was actually catching some live action, Emmett hurried to follow, motioning to his crew as he went. They must have made a sight, tearing through the SGC in a bizarre parade, with Emmett breathlessly calling, "Dr. Jackson? What is it?" and Rondell ineffectively saying,
"You know can't film any ongoing activities, Mr. Bregman!" while running after them.
The chase led into Jackson's office, where he snatched a piece of paper out of the fax machine and began rapidly scanning it. Since he was completely ignoring them, Emmett asked, "Dr. Jackson? What is it?"
The resulting torrent of words was next to impossible to decipher: "ItwasthemaskfragmentIcollected."
"Sorry, could you slow down?"
Taking a breath, Jackson said more clearly, "The mask fragment I collected from P3X-298, it was carbonated in the pre-dynastic era of Egypt here on earth."
Ah, OK. Emmett still didn't understand, but at least the man was talking to him, so he asked, "Yeah? So, uh, what's the significance of this?" He made sure he wasn't in the way of the camera.
Jackson blinked like the answer was completely obvious. "It's fascinating."
The adrenaline left Emmett in a rush. Feeling like he was still missing something, he said, "Wait, wait, back up. That's… it? It's fascinating? Why…why were we running?"
Jackson looked innocently at the camera crew as if he'd just noticed their presence and a small smile curved his lips. "Oh, I just wanted to see if you'd chase me."
As he nodded for the guys to turn their equipment off, Emmett realized that he really needed to sort out his problem with Major Carter right away. Jackson wasn't just being unhelpful anymore; he had taken his obstruction to the next level. And Emmett had barely met the rest of SG-1; if he didn't fix things fast, God only knew what the rest of the team would have in store for him.
He could scarcely believe the day wasn't even half-over yet; he already felt exhausted. The interview with Dr. Frasier had to be better than his day so far. It could hardly get worse.