Chapter 1

1985

The dawn broke the cool night air in the mid November morning. A dusting of snow covered the ground as the creatures of the woods started to stir. A hunter made his way in the thick woods towards his tree stand as he intended to take a big buck for the season. As he walked he listened to the sound the birds chirping and a babbling creek nearby. Then an odd sound caught his ear. It was coo, much like a dove. He decided to investigate and made his way off the trail and to the source of the sound. He couldn't believe his eyes as he blinked, standing in his bright orange jacket and pants. Sitting on a large bolder, resting near the creek was a small child no more than a year old. She was wearing a white gown and little white slippers and had a head of brown hair that seemed to swirl at the top. She simple sat on the rock as if it was a throne looking about at the area.

The hunter approached the child and soon she crawled into his arms. He stood baffled by his discovery. He looked about for the mother but no sign of anyone was to be found. No tracks could be seen in the fresh white snow. He looked at the baby and asked, "How did you get way out here?"

She shivered in his arms. He then placed the rifle against the rock, removed the jacket and wrapped it around the child to keep her warm. Upon lifting his rifle he then turned and went back towards home to call the authorities.

18 years later

Baby Jane Doe spent her life in a series of foster homes as no one ever came forth to claim her or adopt the child. A judge gave her a name as she had no record of birth. The name Jane Rochester was given to her after the nearby city from where she was found and thus taken to for evaluation.

At eighteen she was released from foster care and she enrolled in the US Air Force as an enlisted. In the last year she accomplished basic training and a paramedic program and just recently got her first specialist assignment as military police. She found herself in her new assignment as a guard at the military base in Colorado Springs.

Jane sat with other security forces in the commissary of Star Gate Command. She sported green battle dress with the an armband with SF boldly displayed for Security Forces. Another SF guard sat beside her. She was young with red hair and green eyes and wanted nothing more than to get assigned to an SG team and go off world.

The red head sighed as SG-1 walked into the commissary for something to eat after returning from a mission. "They they are! SG-1!" She gazed upon the team much like a fan of a rock band.

Jane shrugged as she ate her food, "And?"

"Don't you ever want to go off world and do something other than guard doors, Jane?" she asked.

She shook her head, "No…I like my job, Maggie."

Margaret "Maggie" Malone rolled her green eyes, "Our job is so boring. Don't you ever want to go through the Gate?"

"Not really." she shook her head.

Maggie shook her head in disbelief. "You have got to be the only person in this whole base who doesn't want a chance to go off world. You have such a boring life."

She explained, "I prefer boring. No drama, no crazy, no…weird shit."

Another security guard took a seat at the table. He was tall and thin and had dark hair. He greeted his fellow guards. "Ladies." he began to eat his lunch.

Janet replied, "Hey Tom."

Maggie asked, "If they offered you a chance to go off world, would you go Tom?"

He nodded with his mouth full. "I sure would," he managed to speak.

"Jane says she wouldn't." she informed.

He asked her, "You scared to go off world?"

"Not scared." she shook her head. "It's just whenever they go off world they always find something weird that comes back here and we end up locking down the whole base and dealing with it."

He grinned, "Boy, what I would give to get a chance to go off world with them." He motioned towards SG-1.

Maggie smirked at her friend amused, "See!"

"Whatever…" she rolled her eyes.

After lunch Jane was assigned to a storage room. Her job was to inventory and catalog all the alien artifacts before they were to be moved to another location. Maggie was assigned to the task as well and the pair worked on taking inventory.

Maggie asked, "You going home for Thanksgiving?"

She shook her head, "I don't have any family."

"No family at all?" she wondered.

"Nope," she shook her head and then explained, "I'm an orphan. A hunter found me sitting on a rock in the woods. I have no idea why I was left there. I was about a year old. They put me into the foster system, some judge named me…I don't know who my parents were. A few families said they would adopt me but never did. You going home for Thanksgiving?"

"I got leave." she nodded. "You can always come for Thanksgiving. My parents would welcome you."

"I'm fine on base." she declined the offer. She came to a box and found a large stone tablet sitting on top of a box. It was loosely wrapped in the cloth. She lifted the article. "I guess this didn't get put away." Her eyes settled on the Ancient writings and before her the language seemed to translate automatically in her mind. She asked, "Did this just turn to English?"

Maggie glanced at the glyphs on the stones, "No…it's in that weird Ancient crap that Dr. Jackson is always talking about."

"Really? I see English." she told her. She began to read, "The outpost is well regulated and equipped…it has a dialing address…"

"Whoa!" Maggie gasped, "You can actually read that?"

"I see English." she nodded.

"Seriously?" she gaped. "Hey…let's go tell Dr. Jackson that you see it in English."

She paused and puckered for a moment in thought. She thought back to her childhood and how the other kids would pick on her whenever she did something strange. She figured she better not. "Let's not!" she placed the stone tablet back on the box.

"Why not?" Maggie gasped shocked.

"Because I can't explain it and well…I don't want to get in trouble." she excused.

"I don't think many people can read that language." Maggie rebutted. "How can you just read it like that?"

"I have no idea." she confessed.

Maggie teased, "Maybe you're an alien baby who was abandoned on Earth? Like E.T.! Maybe mom and dad took off without ya?" She began to laugh.

"That's not funny." she scolded.

"E.T. phone home…" she continued to tease her friend.

"Stop it!" she huffed annoyed.

"Elliot…" she mimicked the character.

The door then opened and in walked Daniel Jackson. His eyes settled on the two women and then he scanned for his missing artifact. "Airman…Ah…there it is!" he reached over and picked up the tablet.

Maggie decided to test Jane's ability. She asked, "What does that old stone tablet say, Dr. Jackson?"

"It's talks of an outpost and has a dialing address…of which I need." he informed. He then gave a nod, "Airman…" as he walked out the door.

Maggie looked wide-eyed at Jane. "Holy shit, you really can read Ancient."

She shrugged, "I saw it in English."

"You should tell Dr. Jackson." she urged.

She shook her head, "No…we do our job and nothing more. She went about doing inventory."

Maggie stood befuddled, "How did she do that?"

A Week Later

With Maggie gone home on leave Jane tried to concentrate on work over the holiday. She had just got done with an overnight shift and found many contractors were off for Thanksgiving. She assumed such would be the case with Daniel Jackson and she figured it would be a good time to enter his lab and see if her mind would automatically translate the Ancient text once more.

She found the lab was empty upon using the master key she had to enter. She went to the table and turned on a solitary lamp upon closing the door behind her. She found a fractured stone tablet that seemed to be missing the other half. Once again her mind automatically translated the text into English. She was amazed by how the text seemed to morph from a unreadable scratch into English before her very eyes.

Unbeknownst to Jane, Daniel had no intention of taking the holiday off. Sam had gone to visit her brother Mark along with her father, Jacob. Jack took Teal'c to the cabin for the holiday as the Jaffa found he enjoyed Thanksgiving the most of all Earth's holidays mostly due to the food. Daniel was solitary sole and would simply rather work in peace.

He walked into his lab upon discovering the door was unlocked. There he found a guard standing at the table looking upon an artifact. He became suspicious. "Find anything interesting?" he asked as he assumed he found a spy.

Jane glanced up and blinked. She was caught in his lab. Oh no! She gently placed the stone tablet back down. "I thought I heard a noise and entered to investigate."

He approached. "By reading a stone tablet?" He had spoken in Russian to see if he could get a reply.

She had no idea what he said and cocked her head, "What was that?"

He tried Chinese as he spoke trying to figure out who she was spying for.

"Um…"she looked confused. "I was just curious."

"Hmm…" he rebutted, "curiosity killed the cat."

"Etium…" she agreed. She wasn't aware but she spoke in Ancient.

He cocked an eyebrow, "You speak Ancient?"

"Ah…what?" she has no idea why he suggested that.

"Etium." he stated.

"Yes," she nodded knowing it meant yes.

"That's Ancient." he told her. "How do you know Ancient?"

"I have no idea." she had to admit. "To be honest I thought you were off today and I just got done working a 12 hour shift. I was doing inventory with Maggie last week ago when I came across one of the stone tablets sitting on top of the box. When I picked it up the glyphs all turned to English and I could read it. Then you came to the room to get the tablet and Maggie asked what it said and you said that it said what I just read in English. I wanted to see if I could do it again." She begged, "Please don't tell General Hammond that I was in here. I won't do it again."

"You can read this?" he placed the tablet before her.

"It's half a dialing address and it says there is a library." she nodded.

"Repository." he corrected.

She insisted, "It says library."

"Close enough." he gave her to the benefit of the doubt. "So, who are you and where are you from?"

"Um…" she stood rather stumped. "I don't know where I am from. The Judge named me 'Jane Rochester' after they found me."

He became intrigued, "Found you?"

"I was found sitting on a bolder in the middle of the woods by a hunter." she informed. "I was a baby. No one knows how I got there or who my parents are. I grew up in foster homes."

He slowly nodded as he pondered the information. "I see."

"I know the rest of the dialing address." she offered. "I can see it in my head. Do you want me to write it down?"

He slid a paper and pen to her, "By all means."

She took the pen and wrote out the entire dialing address. "That's it!"

He sucked in a deep breath as he retrieved the paper with the address. He wasn't sure who or what she was but he knew there was something very different about her.

She begged, "Please don't tell Hammond you caught me in here. I'll be court-martialed for sure."

"I can't make you that promise but you might be of some help." he offered.

She winced, "I'm in trouble…aren't I?"

"We'll see." he replied.