SGA - 14 - Death Game by Jo Graham

asked.
    “Sky streaks?” John said. “What do you mean?”
    “We sometimes see streaks in the sky, thin clouds being etched across the heavens as though an architect drew a line on stone. Sometimes we see a silver point at the leading end,” Jitrine replied.
    “Contrails,” John said with a nod. “They’re made when the ships pass through certain kinds of weather.”
    “I have seen those,” Jitrine said. “But I have never seen anything like the men you describe.”
    Teyla frowned. “Perhaps you have been fortunate,” she said.
    One of the guards banged open the door. “Enough time,” he proclaimed, and looked past Jitrine to them. “Tolas will see you in the third hour.”
    “Thank you,” Teyla said to Jitrine as she was hurried out. Then she looked at John doubtfully. “They have never known a culling?”
    John shook his head. “It could be pretty thinly populated, if this village is any indication. Maybe they haven’t been culled in a long time.” He examined the breakfast tray. Something smelled very good. It smelled like… “Scrambled eggs!” He looked at Teyla and grinned in triumph.
    She shook her head, smiling. “Now I know you are feeling better. We should eat before we speak with Tolas.”
    Dawn came over the desert. The chill of the night gave way to morning warmth. Rodney stretched and yawned and took another drink of the long cold coffee in the thermos Lorne had brought. It was the last of the coffee. Sad. He wondered if there were any of the sandwiches left.
    Lorne looked around, then let the P90 rest on the sling around his neck. “The animals seem nocturnal,” he said with far too cheerful a smile for someone who had also been up all night. “No more howling. How’s it going, doc?”
    “It’s going,” Rodney said grimly. “I’ve never tried to repattern a main gate control crystal before, in case you’re wondering. It’s very finicky work. Screw up and I’ll damage the crystal.”
    “That’s why I brought four of them,” Lorne said.
    “Yes, well, I’m glad to know you have such faith in me,” Rodney said, putting his head back into the depths of the DHD. “I’ll get it.”
    “Then we dial the gate, get a jumper and the backup team, and go hunt for Colonel Sheppard’s team,” Lorne said. “All in a day’s work.”
    Rodney shone his flashlight up inside the DHD, looking for the right circuit. “Somehow I don’t think it will be that easy.”
    ***
    Sunrise. It was breathtaking, really. The sun rose out of azure waters under a flawless sky sprinkled here and there with rose clouds. A light breeze blew out of the east, stirring the hair on Radek’s forehead.
    Ronon sat in the bow of the little fishing boat eating an energy bar, his eyes on the calm sea.
    “We could try to get the sail up,” Radek said. “We want to go southwest and the wind is out of the east. It should just push us west, don’t you think?”
    “Probably.” Ronon stuffed the last bite in his mouth and stood up. He grinned, and Radek thought there was a flash of ironic humor there. “How hard can it be, right?”
    Radek shrugged and looked at the tangle of rope on the mast. “I have never even much liked sea movies. You?”
    “I watched Master and Commander with Sheppard. That’s it for me. I was army, not navy, on Sateda.” Ronon climbed over the benches and started untying things.
    Radek looked at him sideways. He thought that perhaps they needed to untie the ropes that kept the sail furled and then find the ropes that raised it. “Yes? That is so?” Perhaps he had heard Sheppard mention something of the kind.
    “Yeah.” Ronon didn’t look at him. “22Foot, the Immortals.” He bent his head over the knots. “Four hundred years without being disbanded, with always a man coming back to begin again. That’s over.”
    Radek untied the last one on his end of the mast. “You live,” he said.
    “That’s over,” Ronon said shortly and stood up, trying to shake out the sail. The