Season 3
20 November 1999

Jack plopped down among the fragrant grasses—the smell made him think sweet grass—on the hillside bathed in sunlight in the midst of his three teammates. He looked out across the valley below with its picturesque collection of thatched roof homes surrounded by fields in summer growth.

Quite a pretty sight and he had to admit that today he was all too ready to look for beautiful things. November 20th was all about beautiful sights, sounds, and smells and today had been that. Really, what was more beautiful than traveling through a giant alien transportation system to a friendly alien world?

In the valley below there were some of the tunic wearing men and skirt clad women moving about, but a fair number of them were spread out on the hillside with him and his team. Some had come with blankets and with baskets of food and the young village children ran about with free abandon between the clutches of people.

"So," Jack looked up into the blue sky with its white wisps of clouds and the sun high on the horizon, "when's this... thing going to start?"

"I'm not sure," Daniel spoke up, "and the village krivs—that is, the priest—didn't say there was an exact time for the phenomenon the natives describe. What he said was that their god Diviriks sends what they call 'messenger clouds' which I am assuming are certain cloud formations as they practice aeromancy which is sky, or cloud, divination. The krivs said that when Diviriks is especially pleased with them the god 'sets the clouds on fire with his blessing.'"

"And we aren't a little bit worried about the 'sets on fire' part?" Jack looked to his left at Daniel and Teal'c.

"Well," Daniel pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "it sounds, from the krivs's description, like it is in the sky and they celebrate seeing it when it comes. And look around, do these people look like they are worried about whatever sight we may see today in the sky?"

"Yeah well, we've run into people who get in the festive mood every time they're about to rip out hearts and lop off heads too," Jack pointed out as he waved a hand at the picnicking natives.

Daniel made a face at that.

"And what about the detail of their 'god' sending messengers? We aren't a little concerned about that either? Especially as you can't tell us anything about this Dive-rinks guy. And neither can Teal'c."

Daniel huffed. "Do you have to be so pessimistic about everything?"

"It's my job," Jack said lazily as he stretched out his legs and leaned back and propped himself up on his elbows as he looked straight up into the sky. "Whoa!"

He shot bolt upright again as he stared in amazement at the beautiful sight overhead. The white wisps of clouds had turned into a brilliant canvas of colours and become a huge rainbow that hung like a sheet of ribbons in the sky.

"Afit aat'petch't," Teal'c said, the tone of his voice hushed and reverent.

"That means, uh... 'fire rainbow,'" Daniel translated, his voice as quiet and amazed.

Well, Jack thought, it was a rainbow and it certainly had set the sky on fire with colour! "Carter? What the heck kinda rainbow is it?"

"It uh, isn't a rainbow Sir."

Jack took his eyes off the rainbow and looked to his right to give her an incredulous look. "Not a rainbow? It's got red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and the purples—it certainly looks like one to me!"

"I mean, while yes we are seeing the full visible spectrum of light, it isn't coming from light being refracted while entering a droplet of water," Carter explained.

"You know that we're seeing Sam?" Daniel asked eagerly.

"Actually, I do. It's an atmospheric phenomenon known as a circumhorizontal arc. Circumhorizontal arcs appear when the sun is higher than fifty-eight degrees above the horizon and its light passes through diaphanous, high-altitude cirrus clouds made up of hexagonal plate crystals. Now—"

"Akh, Carter," Jack interrupted as he reached over and pulled on her sleeve. "Enough with the science lesson! Please, just... lie back and enjoy."

"Yes Sir," she gave a smile as she lay back among the fragrant grass to look up at the sky.

Jack followed suit and relaxed back into the grass. He tucked his hands beneath his head and gazed up at the rainbow that was spread all across the clouds, his eyes on the array of colours as his mind dwelled on the light of Carter's smile.

It was a very Beautiful Day.

-FINISHED