"Do you see those stars right there?" the mustachioed, man asked as he continued to kneel next to the brightly clothed, young girl who had only just the week prior had celebrated her fifth birthday. "The ones that look like a man, kneeling?" he continued, adjusting the wide framed spectacles that rested on the root of his nose.
"Yeah! I do!" the little girl, who was barely three feet tall exclaimed, her eye was pressed up against the eyepiece of the telescope she had been only recently been gifted. Her little hands were clasped together in excitement and held close to her chest as she stood next to the man who had given her favorite gift to her. She lifted her head, her little brown hued orbs matching up with the bespectacled one of the man as he pushed a few stray strands of her chocolate colored locks behind her ear, careful to not dislodge the red bow that had adorned them. He could not help but produce a chuckle as he saw the stars twinkle in her eyes as excitement danced across her expressive features.
"That one right there is called Hercules, the mighty demigod," he informed her as he watched her turn her gaze upwards, marveling at the sky that danced and twinkled above. He chuckled again as he turned his loving gaze towards the stars as well. "Do you see him?"
"Wow!" she exclaimed, amazement lacing her voice. "Herkales! I see him, Daddy, I see him!" She left her mouth agape as her twinkling eyes soaked in the summer night's sky above in an utter state of awe of the stories that were being told to her that, until today, she was unaware existed above her.
"Yes, Hercules" he said as another chuckle escaped him. His gaze fell from the night sky only for a moment to mentally capture her amazement before he began to retell the story of the Greek demigod as he knew it. "Now Hercules was the son of a mortal woman and an ancient Greek god, Zeus the immortal king of the Olympians. Because of this, Hercules was a half mortal man who was very, very strong."
"Stronger than you, daddy?" the tiny girl asked with bemusement, as her full attention was pulled back from the stars and on to her father. Until this moment, she didn't know of anyone stronger than her father, so finding out this fact was shocking to the young girl.
"Yes, yes, Sweetheart," he answered her, continuing to smile as he could not help but allow the corners of his lips to curl, for he reveled in his daughter's amazement. "He was much stronger than I could ever be, because he was half immortal, and I am just a mere mortal. Now when Hercules died, his father, the king of the gods, placed the part of Hercules that was immortal into the sky, right there, next to the dragon I told you about."
"Oh! Oh! Uh!" she exclaimed, as her excitement wiggled out of her. She knew this one, he had only just introduced the dragon constellation to her the other night. Her mind spun as her expression of excitement turned into one of puzzlement "Dray . . . Dray . . . Draco!"
"Yes!" he said returning her excitement. "You remembered. Good job!" He placed a hand upon his daughter's back, giving her back a small rub to congratulate her. "You are so smart, Janie."
Jane beamed back at her father as she could feel his pride flowing towards her with his words. "When I grow up, daddy, I want to be as smart as you!" she exclaimed excitedly as she told him her wish for her future. She admired her father immensely, and wanted nothing more in that moment than to be everything he represented to her.
"Janie, my dear," he started, gazing down upon her excited little self, "I hope you are smarter than I ever will be."
At that moment, the back door to their home opened up and a slender figure stood just in the door way and called out to them in a rather regal sounding tone. A slight English accent laced her words that traveled out to the night watching duo. "It's time to come inside. It's nearly Jane's bed time!"
The mustachioed father looked down upon his daughter as he rose to his feet, a bright and proud smile painted across his lips. "Come on, Janie," he said in an encouraging tone. "Let's go inside. We can look at the stars again tomorrow night before you go to bed.
"Okay," she said in a semi-disappointed tone as she would rather learn more about the spectacle that lived above her in the night sky, rather than dream about them. "Can we have ice cream?" she then asked as the idea snuck its way into her head to not only prolong her bed time, but to spend more time with her beloved father.
Her father chuckled again at his daughter. "Let's go ask your mother, okay?" he replied to her, as he knew he could never say "no" to his daughter.
"Okay," Jane continued as she looked up once more to the stars that she was only just introduced to. "Good night stars! I'll see you tomorrow!" With that, she glanced at her father and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, giggling all the while into the Foster family home in a silent race with her father. This night will forever stay in her memory for it was the night she was introduced to the stars, and the night that she fell in love with them.
As the years went on, so did Jane's fascination with the stars. By the time she was nine years old, she could name all the constellations, when and where they would appear in the night sky, and all the stories behind how they came to be. She also had all the planets within the solar system memorized, how far they were away from the sun, and other interesting facts, such as the length of their orbit, or if and how many moons they had orbiting them. It was very clear to both her parents and all around her that this is what she had a passion for in life. She was to follow in her father's footsteps, researching what lay beyond the atmosphere of the planet. By the time she was a teenager, she had already begun to take the steps in turning her passion for the stars and spacial anomalies into a career choice. Her parents did nothing but encouraged her blossoming love of the stars and helped her plan the future path she was going to take to achieve her dreams.
During her later years of high school that her father, who sparked her love of the universe and all it's mysteries, succumbed to brain cancer, a secret he hid from his wife and only daughter. His reasoning for doing so was because it was inoperable, and he did not want his to suffer with him. He wanted their last memories with him to be happy and carefree ones, and not ones of a frail, sickly man slowly turning into a shell of his former self.
His death triggered something deep within Jane, a conviction that she was going to continue her father's work. She eventually went on to study at Culver University which was near her home town of Ravenswood, West Virginia. While there she studied under Doctor Erik Selvig, her father's closest friend and fellow colleague who had introduced her parents when they all attended Oxford together. He had taken over the Culver University's physics department after the death of Jane's father and under his tutelage, she became a brilliant student and she eventually earned her doctorate.
Culver, impressed with her studies and work offered her a chance to continue her father's work by offering her funding for a postdoctoral research. Using these new funds Jane soon found herself in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico which had become a hot spot of unexplained astrophysical activity. Taking her mentor, Dr. Erik Selvig, and a student intern, Darcy Lewis, with her she started to continue where her father left off in an attempt to understand what were the mysteries that were beyond the Earth. It was there in New Mexico that Jane would discover something other than answers to her life long questions. There, her life would change forever.
"Hurry up! I don't want to miss it!" Jane shouted as she climbed into the pinzgauer all terrain vehicle that she had purchased at a military surplus auction.
"Jane, we're not storm chasers, we're physicists," Erik grumbled as he climbed into the back of the vehicle. "Now I know I promised your father I would watch out for you, but I'm not sure this, whatever this is, is going to concern us. We deal with the stars, not storms"
"Erik, are you kidding?" she asked in disbelief as she held up a device of her own making that read the levels astrophysical particles. "The readings are off the chart! This could be the break through I have been waiting for, we have to do this. We have to get out there and document this!" She then leaned out the passenger window of the vehicle as she buckled herself in. "Darcy! Come on!"
"Okay, okay! Keep your panties on," Darcy muttered as she slowly made her way over to Jane's research vehicle, meandering as she did. "I had to make sure that the TiVo was going to record Once Upon a Time. I swear if I miss an episode, I'm going to be so upset."
Jane then shot Darcy a narrowed glance like daggers, shaking her head at her student intern as she could not comprehend the young woman's fixation on pop culture, for Jane buried herself too far into her work to even notice the changing world around her.
"What?" Darcy continued taking notice of Jane's never ending disapproval. "That show is kick ass. It's got magic, and fairy tales, and evil . . . "
"Darcy!" Jane interrupted as her patience grew short. "Just drive!"
"Fine, jeez, no need to get all excited," Darcy muttered in reply as she fastened her seat belt and turned on the ignition. With a jerk of the military grade vehicle she then sped off in the direction that Jane's readings were pointing, off to the middle of the remote desert where an unusual storm cloud began to form.
Jane then pulled out a camcorder and flicked the "On" button, powering the video capturing device and whispered to herself as she held it up, pointing it to the heavens above. "This one's for you dad . . . This one is for you."
