Song: "Cleopatra's Theme" with Cleopatra

Season: 2

Jumper 4 was Major Lorne's favorite, and he was the one who had named it Cleopatra. Sheppard had hated it. "I believe I'm gonna make it a general rule that no one names things around here except me," he'd said, and Rodney had actually believed he'd meant it. But Lorne didn't care. He had just kept on calling his precious jumper by its new name, until most of the marines used it too.

Jumper 4 – or Cleopatra – had always had this weird sound emitting from its engines. Rodney and Zelenka had looked it over and over again, until finally deciding that it was nothing to worry about. It was just the way this particular jumper sounded. "Like I told you," Lorne had said. "It's just my girl's personality. She stands out in a crowd." Rodney had snorted, wondering if the major had temporarily forgotten that he was talking about a dead thing.

But right now Rodney wasn't wondering about weird-sounding engines, even weirder military guys and their weird habit of naming things. All he was thinking about now was survival, and that the hope of precisely that seemed faint at the moment.

He kept his head low where he lay on the ground, not daring to look up. He could hear Ronon groan nearby, so at least the big Satedan was still alive. And somewhere further away he thought he could hear Teyla's voice. But other than that all he heard was the sound of gunfire.

The off-world mission had gone terribly, terribly wrong. Rodney still wasn't sure what had happened exactly, but the locals apparently had guns and knew how to use them. Why they had fired on the Atlantis team, that was another question.

But fired they had. The first bullet had hit Sheppard in the leg, making the colonel yell out in surprise and pain. All had happened very quickly after that. Teyla had shouted at them to take cover, then she had been able to drag Sheppard with her behind some large rocks. Rodney had been yanked away by Ronon, who literally had thrown him into some bushes, where Rodney suddenly had found himself calling frantically into his radio for Atlantis to send backup. But the radio signal had soon been broken, and he didn't know whether they'd heard him or not.

Ronon had taken a bullet too. Rodney didn't know where. He couldn't even look up. The bullets whizzed around him, nailing him to the ground. But he could hear. Hear the locals moving in closer. He'd already emptied his gun. There was no escape.

Then he heard something else. Something beyond the gunfire and Ronon's groaning. A distant sound at first, and he thought for a second or two that he was only imagining it. But then the sound grew louder, and it was familiar to his ears.

Yes?

Yes!

There was no doubt it. What he heard was the distinct sound of Jumper 4's engines. This was Cleopatra's theme.

He managed to flip over on his back and look up at the sky. And there she was, soaring above. Rescue had come.