THE BEAUTY

By Enola Jones



John smiled over his shoulder at his Team. Ronon and Teyla had taken part in what Rodney had snarkily called a "Pegasus Triathlon On Steriods", and were sound asleep in the back of the Jumper. Teyla's head was touching Ronon's leg, and his hand rested lightly on her copper hair.

A flash drew John's attention. "You gathering blackmail material?"

"Of course," Rodney chuckled, repositioning the camera.

John chuckled and returned his attention to the front. It had rained steadily over the last couple of hours – that the feast had corresponded to – and now the clouds were breaking. It was turning out to be a beautiful evening and he was somewhat sorry that they had to go into orbit and go through this world's space gate.

"Rodney," he said suddenly, "what was that that you told me awhile back about light refraction on worlds with blue skies?"

"Every world whose atmosphere favours the blue end of the spectrum, when conditions are just right, will generate a rainbow identical to ones on Earth. Why?"

"C'mere."

Rodney had long ago learned that when John had that particular note in his voice, nothing was wrong, but he wanted to show Rodney something that had impressed him. So he made his way into the cockpit – and froze. His jaw lowered as his eyes went huge as he saw what John had seen.

Arcing smoothly into the clouds was a huge rainbow. It dwarfed the Jumper. And it was all the blues and greens of the spectrum, with just a tiny ribbon of yellow and orange at the top and a tiny sliver of purple at the bottom. There was no red at all to be seen.

He mumbled, "Must be because the atmosphere shifts to the greenish end of the spectrum." But his voice was full of awed wonder and he sank blindly into the co-pilot's seat, just staring. A hand came up and touched the glass of the windshield, as if he could touch the beautiful ribbon of light.

"Isn't it—" John began softly.

"Yeah," Rodney breathed. "Yeah, it is. It absolutely is."

John grinned at him. There was no need to finish the sentence. They could both hear the unspoken "beautiful" lurking between their thoughts.

John flew the Jumper round the awesome sight for another ten minutes, before slowly pivoting her up and out into orbit, heading for the space gate and Atlantis.

"Hey," Rodney said when he could no longer see the rainbow. "Thanks."

"No problem, buddy. Hey, you wanna fly her home?"

Rodney smiled. "No, I think I'd rather go take more blackmail pictures."

"You do," came a low rumble from the back, "and I'll blast the camera in."

Rodney and John looked at each other and burst out laughing.

THE END




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