Blood Ties

Chapter twenty-nine

Out of the approaching wall of orange-tinted smoke burst two Marines, coated in ash and diving into the jumper. "Button it up!" Lome commanded, throwing himself into the pilot's seat. Someone slapped at the hatch controls, and Edwards pounded out a smoldering ember caught in Koslov's sleeve. As Jumper Two lifted off, Rodney could see claws of flame devouring the last few plants that had surrounded their landing zone. The Marines grinned at each other, riding an adrenaline rush even through their wheezing.

Next priority: locator beacons. Rodney returned to the copilot's seat and initialized the sensors while Lorne banked the craft toward the southeast and Jumper One's position. They skimmed over a mountain range whose entire side seemed to be ablaze, long fiery trails snaking all the way down to the coast. The magnitude of it all was astounding. "How the hell does something like this happen?" Rodney had to ask.

"According to that Army captain, State Emergency Services says the northern fires were caused by lightning strikes," Lome answered, his focus straight ahead. "The way these other small ones started and spread, though… it didn't look natural to him, and I tend to agree. These new outbreaks started miles upwind of the first fires."

If the Lilith were aware the SGC force was there, this might have been the ideal opportunity for them. Flush out the jumper teams, and generate the maximum amount of confusion in the area to divert attention away from their activities. Rodney just wished he knew what their activities might be.

A beep from the sensor screen drew his attention. "Got a signal. It's Sheppard."

"Overlay it on the HUD." When the dot appeared, Lorne narrowed his eyes. "Crap."

Rodney shifted his gaze from the HUD to the scene beyond the windshield and found it hard to believe what he saw. Flames were leaping from treetop to treetop, even crossing rivers and highways with no sign of slowing down. At the rate it was spreading, there wasn't a creature on the planet that could have outpaced it on foot.

"Damn," muttered Lome. "Here goes nothing." He lowered the jumper over the road where the locator signal beeped steadily.

Despite being insulated from the heat, Rodney cringed away from the seething curtains of fire that lined the blistering asphalt. The jumper was buffeted by violent updrafts that strained the inertial dampeners. "We have the shield enabled, right?" he asked.

"Do I look that stupid?" The Major guided Jumper Two over the edge of the road and into a ravine, where the distorted wreckage of a Land Cruiser lay-

A fireball erupted, engulfing Rodney's entire field of vision. On instinct, he threw up a hand to shield his face.

From somewhere behind him, he heard Lee murmur, "Oh, no.

"Gas tank must have exploded." Looking shell-shocked, Lome didn't voice the obvious conclusion. Rodney's brain supplied the details anyway. Even if Sheppard hadn't been within the immediate range of that blast, the air temperature in the whole area had risen far beyond a survivable level.

As Rodney watched, perversely unable to tear his gaze away, the small dot that represented his friend and team leader winked out.

"All right," Lome said quietly. "Find me Jackson and Ronon."

Rodney reset the search parameters, struggling against a crushing sense of anguish. What good was all the brilliance in the universe if it couldn't keep good people from dying?

His face now schooled into an impassive mask, Lome spoke into his radio. "Teyla, have you heard anything from your team?"

"Not since we closed the hatch." Teyla's voice held the same frustration and remorse that Rodney felt. "I believe it has become too loud outside for our calls to be heard."

Two signals appeared, less than a hundred meters apart, and Rodney wasted no time in transferring them to the HUD. "Come left nom." Ronon and Jackson could still be saved, if the jumper could just get over this ridge and-

At almost the same moment, both signals flickered and vanished.