Chapter Three

The Girl Who Had Fallen From the Sky

"Dr. Weir! You had better come and take a look at this!"

"What is it Radik?

"There, do you see it. A ship flying towards us at increasingly rapid speed."

"Is it Wraith?"

"No…I don't believe so. It doesn't have the same flight signatures. It just came out of no where. I believe it just came out of hyper space."

"Maybe we should try and contact them?"

"We've already tried that, there was no response."

"Wait…why weren't we able to detect it on our long range sensors?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to figure that out…Maybe it has some sort of advanced cloaking device…I'm not sure." replied Radik

"I think its time we raised the cloaking shield."

"We should have visual in about 60 seconds."

"Can we see it from the balcony?"

"Umm...yes we should be able to."

Dr. Weir and her team rushed toward the balcony to see what was headed their way. They were slightly confused and yet ready for action. They could only hope that this was a visitor that they could handle and hoped it wasn't a decoy for something bigger.

"Hey guys...what are you doing? Waiting for snow?"

"Oh hey there Sheppard, we notice that there is a ship headed for us and we have been unable to contact it. We are hoping to have visual of the craft now." stated Radik

"Oh…that's all…Well call me if you need me!"

"Hey! Look! There it is on your 2 o'clock!" Radik said excitedly.

"Oh my God…I think it's coming in for a crash landing!" Dr. Weir exclaimed. "Someone get Carson, I think we may need him. Sheppard, you and Ronon go and check it out. I don't want any surprises."

Everyone left in a hurry. Sheppard and Ronon quickly suited up armed and ready, then quickly headed for the landing pad. Dr. Weir headed towards the infirmary to brief Becket on the situation and joined him with the others. When they arrived on the landing pad, what they saw was truly horrific. If anyone was in there, it would be a true miracle that they would have survived. The ship was fairly large, large enough for a small crew of eight to ten. The front windows had broken in, allowing for someone to peer inside. Sheppard, with Ronon at his back, slowly to a look inside. He did not notice anything at first, just the smell of engine and decay. They took a walk around and found that the door hatch had been forced open upon the crash. Slowly and carefully, the two walked inside. Dr. Weir and the others waited anxiously aside with the medical team ready for anything. Shielding her eyes from the mid morning sun, Dr. Weir called out to the team.

"Sheppard! Ronon! Anything??!"

"Hey Elizabeth…give us a moment will yeah? It's called stealth mode…we need total silence…." Sheppard explained patiently and a bit sarcastically ending with a slight smirk upon his face.

"Come on…let's get this over with" Ronon clearly stated and proceeded to continue into the ship."

The ship was clearly damaged beyond repair. Strings of cable hung from the ceiling and pipes had burst. Beams of support had fallen, causing the search to be slightly difficult. Ronon pointed to the side while nudging Sheppard. A pile of clothes had spilt out of a closet and other personal belongings littered the floor.

"These belong to a woman" Ronon whispered. "I wonder if she is alone."

Sheppard only nodded in reply and lead the way further through the ship. The gas leaking from pipes was becoming nauseating and they new that they would have to wrap this up soon. They passed a small galley with a table sitting in a cozy corner. A blanket was strewn across the floor and the window slides were closed shut. A room off to the side contained a small bed and side table, again everything tossed from the landing. Finally they came across what looked like doors to the cockpit. They were damaged and were open about an inch or so. Through the small crack they saw light streaming though and decided to take a look. Sheppard was the first to see her. On the floor, as if someone had tossed a rag doll, was a woman. Wearing all white with a belt for a weapon and boots that had seen better days, she lay there. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled up but had fallen across her fare skinned face. The blood that stained her clothing was a contrast to her crisp white outfit. From what he could see, she was bleeding badly from her brow and was unconscious.

"Quick! Help me open these!"

Ronon quickly placed his weapon back in its holster and went to help Sheppard with the doors.

"What did you see?"

"A woman…she's lying unconscious. We need to hurry!"

The two of them struggled with the doors for a few minutes, but finally got them to open.

Pushing the button on his ear piece, Sheppard made quick work in getting the others in for help.

"Elizabeth! Send the medical crew in! There's a woman badly hurt and barely breathing!"

"They're on their way Sheppard!"

They crew quickly got to work in finding a way to get her out of there, but there just wasn't anyway that they could think of without moving her too much. She was in such a twisted position that anything could be broken. Becket quickly felt around for broken bones and only prayed that her neck hadn't been broken as well. A stretcher was out of the question as there was no way they could get through the mess in the ship and no way that they could fit it through the front windows.

"Forget this! I'll carry her in! Get your stuff lets go! She may not have much time!"

And with that, Sheppard carefully lifted her up into his arms and carried her out of the ship followed by the medical team. Walking soon turned into trotting and then running and she had lost a lot of blood and Becket was worried she would bleed to death.

"Hurry! Into the infirmary…here…lay her here on this table!"

Sheppard carefully put her upon the table as Becket made quick work to check her vitals and to stop the bleeding.

"Sheppard, you're gonna have to move aside, I can't work with you here hovering!"

"Yeah…right…okay…"

Sheppard stood aside and watched. He was soon joined by Dr. Weir, Ronon and a few select others, all confused and concerned from the girl who had fallen from the sky.

Hours had gone by when finally Becket was able to give some good news.

"She's stable now. She had lost a lot of blood and I had feared that there would be internal bleeding as well. However overall I was amazed at her condition."

"What do you mean exactly?" asked Dr. Weir.

"Well, she seems to be healing rather rapidly. So, any injuries she may have suffered are clearly healed. I am not sure exactly how this is possible. So I ran her blood work and found something interesting that I thought you should know."

Sheppard and Teyla had walked in just as Dr. Becket had explained this, causing the other two to stop their conversation for but a moment.

"How is she?" asked Sheppard as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Well she seems to be okay, however Dr. Becket here had something interesting that he would like to tell me. And I am interested in hearing it. Continue please Doctor."

"Well as I was saying, I found in her blood work, something rather interesting."

There was a short pause that allowed the silence of the infirmary almost deafening.

"It seems that she has the ancient gene…"

Again a short and awkward silence followed as everyone in the room glanced towards the sleeping girl.

"What is so interesting about it is that the gene is very strong in her. Like she is actually an ancient."

"But wait doc, that doesn't make sense. How is that possible?" Sheppard asked.

"I am not sure yet."

"Is it possible she was apart of the long lost ancients that had come back to Atlantis recently?" asked Teyla.

"No actually, I don't think so. I have tried to calculate her actual age and found that she is in her late 20's. I would say about 28 or 29. The others were clearly several thousands of years old, this we know.

"So were did she come from?" Weir asked quietly.

"Well, I am afraid we'll have to wait on that until she awakens. Until then, all I can do for her is to make sure that she is comfortable."

"Let me know the minute she is awake. I want to know who she is…" stated Weir.

"Sure thing Elizabeth"

They all took one last look and walked away onto their separate ways. Sheppard however, took one last glance behind and notice how her eyes twitch uncontrollably under her eyelids, as if she was having an intense dream. He wondered what this Jane Doe could possible be dreaming about that had her eyes dancing frantically. He lingered a little while longer, still puzzled by this girl's story, then turned he followed the rest. Meanwhile Dr. Becket closed the curtain around the sleeping girl and soon sat down at his work table, he too still puzzled by this Jane Doe.