The colossal ship called the Ark popped out of hyperspace in the system that contained the planet called Relique. To everyone's surprise, it was a huge system with fifteen planets and well over a hundred moons. It only had a very young star, which meant it was going to be around for billions of years to come. With the specific coordinates, adjusted for the time they had travelled, they knew that it was the eighth planet that they were looking for.

Thanks to the extensive map that Hunter had provided, and Sama's access to her father's memories, they knew where on the planet they needed to visit. They kept the ship well out of orbit, so that the people on the planet wouldn't see the ship. Hunter's children climbed aboard Monna with Sama at the controls and they flew down towards the planet's surface under stealth.

Sama knew the best place to land, which was the clearing that her father had used as the ritual site to teleport back to where he had been kidnapped from, and she brought the large cargo shuttle down into the space. A dozen people stood there waiting for them and Sama dropped the stealth from the shuttle. Niaga walked over to the hatch and quickly opened it, then stepped aside to let Sama leave first.

“Thank you.” Sama said to him with a smile and stepped onto the ramp. She walked down to the waiting people and her half-brothers and sisters followed closely behind her. She walked right up to the man that looked so much like her father that it hurt her heart a little. She noticed the much longer ears, the different hairstyle, and the odd clothing; but, she pushed all that aside as she took the man into her arms and hugged him. The man looked startled to have a woman hug him like that without even knowing her name.

“It's all right, Malik.” Sama said with a chuckle and let him go. “My name is Sama and I'm Hunter's daughter.”

Malik looked surprised for another few seconds, then he glared at the gorgeous woman two feet away from him. “Apparently, I was misinformed about the importance of this visit.”

Allirynn's mother let out a womanly laugh. “You can't blame me for wanting to surprise you.”

Allirynn shook his head. “Mother.”

“Even Allirynn would be upset if you tricked him like this!” Imiryl said with a laugh.

Allirynn's mother's eyes twinkled with delight and she stepped forward and held a hand out for Sama to shake. “It's very nice to meet you. My name is...”

Sama held a hand up to stop her. “Hunter always believed that there was an inherent power in a name.” She took the offered hand and gasped as some of the previous goddess' energy transferred to her. “It's... better if you... keep your name hidden.”

Allirynn's mother laughed at her reaction. “I think I like you just as much as Laura and God does.”

Sama sucked in a sharp breath and Allirynn's mother laughed again.

Malik gave the two women an odd look for a moment, then he smiled and looked at the people behind Sama. “As the leader of the people here, I welcome you all... brothers and sisters... to the family.”

“I thought there would be more than this.” Tish said as she took in the small welcoming party. “It's been how many centuries since dad left here?”

“It's only been about six hundred years.” Allirynn's mother said. “I doubt that much time passed for him, not with the way the summoning ritual works.”

“How do you know?” Sama asked.

“Well, the...” Allirynn's mother closed her eyes for several moments and then opened them. “...I suppose you could call it a pocket dimension... is where the divine entities live. It can conform to whatever you want it to be if you're powerful enough.”

“But... time...”

“...can be easily manipulated and accessed from there, since it can be observed from outside.” Allirynn's mother said and looked at Tish. “I believe you can explain it better.”

“Me? But...” Tish stopped talking and then nodded. “If you look at time like a linear progression, then observing it from the outside puts it in a different perspective than those experiencing that time.”

“Huh?” Markus gave her a confused look.

“Think of it this way.” Tish said. “We've seen hundreds of ships launch and enter hyperspace, haven't we?”

“Yeah.” Markus said.

“Well, for us they seem to accelerate to fantastic speeds and then disappear from sight, right?”

“Yeah.” Markus responded, not knowing where she was going with it.

“Well, for the people on the ship, nothing really happens except a pretty light show.” Tish said. “They travel through hyperspace and then exit out in a new place without having to travel through all that normal space in between.”

“So... what you're saying is... hyperspace is another dimension?” Markus asked.

“You got it!” Tish said and hugged her multi-armed half-brother. “We slip out of normal space into hyperspace, travel, then slip back out.” She said. “Now, imagine always being in hyperspace and you could see the entire universe from inside.”

“Good god.” Niaga said. “You could... you could...”

“If you had the ability, you could pluck people from one place and plop them into another whenever you wanted. With no time constraints and no travel times...”

“But... wouldn't there be a danger of... meeting yourself?” Markus asked.

“No.” Sama said with a smile. “I think that's why the summoning ritual is written the way it is.”

“Exactly.” Allirynn's mother said. “You can only go to a point where you don't exist or where you previously existed.”

“Which was why Dad said he wouldn't come back here once he left.” Malik said and looked at Sama. “He knew we had to make it on our own.”

Everyone stared at each other for several minutes, then Malik clapped his hands once.

“Come! You must be tired after your long journey.” Malik said. “We have a feast prepared and we can introduce you to the rest of the family.”

“How many of them are there?” Niaga asked, because he was sure his mother would want to know.

“Only a city full.” Malik said with a smile and his new brothers and sisters stared at him, even Sama. He put an arm around the woman beside him that looked a lot like Allirynn's mother. “It's been a long six hundred years.”

After the initial introductions with everyone there, they were brought to the nearby city. They had a nice meal and met more extended family than they ever thought was possible, then they called the ship and they had a long discussion about letting people visit. Of course, nearly everyone on board was excited about meeting a society that could perform magic and guided tours were quickly arranged for everyone to get a taste of the simple life.

To no one's surprise, Allirynn's mother completely forbade any technology on her planet. Personal items were fine; but, no transport vehicles, shuttles, portable living spaces, or anything else was allowed to be used in sight of the locals. The charm of the place quickly faded for most of the people on the ship with that restriction, so after only a six month stay, it was time for them to leave.

“Are you sure that my great-grandson isn't to your liking?” Allirynn's mother asked Sama again as she watched the loading of thousands of wooden spell engravings and bags of holding as they were loaded onto Monna.

“He's handsome, I'll give him that.” Sama said with a grin and Allirynn's mother laughed.

“Yes, two very different cultures that clash more than they can integrate.” Allirynn's mother said. “I'm surprised so many of the elves and their families want to go with you, though.”

“That's also why you forbade the use of technology in front of people.” Sama said and she nodded.

“The allure of such wonders would corrupt them all.”

“Not to mention start and end wars with a simple laser pistol.” Sama said with a chuckle. “I can only imagine how easy it would have been for Dad if he had his father's laser pistol back then.”

“He would have become infamous instead of famous, I think.”

Sama nodded and turned to look at the latest passenger to request to come with them. Princess Silvana had her guard squad with her and they were loading various foodstuffs into the next shuttle, despite being told that it wasn't necessary. The seeds, plants, and animals would be a welcome addition to the hydroponic bays, however.

“I'm really sorry that Hunter isn't here to see this.” Allirynn's mother said.

“He is, too.” Sama said and turned to the former goddess and gave her a hug. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“It's... nothing, child. Nothing at all.” Allirynn's mother said and hugged her back. “I'll allow you to leave a satellite in orbit if you want to give communication devices to select individuals.”

Sama chuckled. “Like you and your son, just so you can stay in contact with the ones coming with us?”

“Perhaps.” Allirynn's mother said with a smirk.

“I'll give one to the Queen of the Elves, too.” Sama said as she handed over a small crate of wrist communicators. “She is going to want to keep tabs on her new ambassador on the Ark.”

“Hurry up!” Silvana exclaimed. “We're leaving for good in an hour! I want this contraption filled up completely before then!”

“Yes, your highness.” The female elf guards responded in a monotone voice.

“Did you see that muscular four armed man?” One of them whispered loudly as they loaded another crate of supplies. “His name is Markus and he's very, very strong!”

“He also uses four sacred weapons! Four of them!” Another one said. “He's amazing!”

“I think Niaga is the handsomest.” The female that Hunter had once knocked out with a Lightning bolt said a few moments later. “His long pink hair makes him stand out so much from the others!”

“Is handsomest even a word?” One of the others asked and they all laughed under their breath and continued to work.

***

An alarm sounded in the local space monitoring system and woke up the snoring man in his chair. He kicked his foot out to hit the cut-off switch and dented the panel, then he sighed and went back to sleep.

*

“Sir, this isn't possible.” A Russian man said in his native language. “SETI or one of the other American monitoring systems should have picked this up long before us.”

“Then why aren't they raising the alarm?” The Russian president asked. “How big did you say the thing is?”

“The estimate is that the rough egg shape is a hundred miles long.”

“Good lord.” The Russian president whispered. “They must be an advanced race to construct something that massive and have it move through space.”

“More advanced and super wealthy.” The man said in response. “I can't even imagine us generating enough money to get the materials for such a thing, let alone equip it for space travel and then take it anywhere.”

The Russian president looked at the red phone on his desk and thought about calling his counterpart in America. “What do you suggest we do?”

“At the moment, there's nothing we can do.”

“What do you mean?” The Russian president asked.

“Our most powerful telescopes show that the ship has parked in Jupiter's orbit for some reason.”

“We can't tell what's going on?”

“No, sir.” The man said. “All we can realistically do is prepare for the worst if they decide to come here to Earth.”

The Russian president gave his adviser a skeptical look, then sighed. “Very well. Prepare for orbital bombardment and ready the ICBMs for interception of anything that might come towards our country.”

“Sir, I suggest also approving the... nuclear option.”

“Do we have anything that can even reach deep space?” The Russian president asked and the man didn't respond. “I didn't think so.” He said and reached for the telephone. “Until such time that they try to invade, I believe the nuclear option is off the table.”

*

“You can't be serious.” The American president said to the Russian voice on the phone. “What do you mean our detection systems seem to be lacking?!?” He asked, loudly. “I'll have you know that our systems are state of the art and...”

“Mr. President!” An out of breath aide barged into the oval office and ran over to the desk. “Sir! There's... an unknown flying object... sitting in Jupiter's orbit!”

“I have to call you back.” The American president said and hung up the phone. “Explain.”

“Sir.” The aide managed to say. “It was picked up... and ignored... by some idiot in Alaska... ten hours ago.” He said between gasps of breath. “Something that significant... is always shunted to... the head office of SETI in New Mexico.”

“Then why am I only hearing about it now?” The American president asked, perturbed.

“No staff.” The aide said and finally caught his breath, then handed the report to the president. “It wasn't until their secretary came to work two hours ago that she received the notice and sent out the alarm of an extra-solar object entering the solar system.”

“That's very embarrassing for me.” The American president said with a scowl as he skimmed over the report. “The Russian president just called me to tell me all about it.”

“Sir. I don't know what to say.”

“Apologizing won't make any difference, since it wasn't your fault.” The American president said with a sigh. “Get the joint chiefs in here and the rest of my staff. We need to come up with a plan to deal with this thing.”

“Right away, sir.” The aide said and left the office.

The American president looked at the red phone on his desk, sighed as he picked it up, then dialed the only number that the phone was connected to.

*

The whole world was in an uproar as the news spread about some kind of space ship nearing the Earth. People prayed, people cried, people prepared for the worst. Riots broke out randomly over simple things like food and water bottles, even though the news broadcasts kept calling for calm and cool heads during this crisis.

Of course, everyone assumed it was a crisis, because for two days, a very large oval object could be seen from the planetary surface. It had grown in size and now the one hundred mile long object just sat there in orbit. The news said that all attempts to communicate with the object had either failed or been ignored, and appropriate responses had been prepared by certain countries all around the world.

On the evening of the third day, the emergency broadcast system engaged and every television, cell phone, laptop, and computer on the entire planet turned on and displayed the same signal. Everyone was shocked when a humanoid alien with black feathers for hair appeared on their screens with an elf... a mythical elf with the blonde hair and large pointed ears and everything... stood beside him.

“People of Earth.” The feathered humanoid said. “You people are messy.” It said and scowled at everyone, with the sound of chuckles and a few laughs that came from their screens. “Your orbital space was full of very dangerous debris that was interfering with our attempts to contact you. It has taken us three full days and around the clock operations to clear out the interference. Now we can speak without interruption and...”

“All right, that's enough to get their attention, Aaron.” A four armed man said and shoved the feathered alien out of the way.

“Markus! I thought we agreed that I would speak for us!” Aaron squawked and tweeted at him, which made a few of them laugh more.

“You just did.” Markus said with a smile and looked out at everyone and waved all four of his hands. “Hi, everyone!”

Sylvana stood there and smiled as she kept silent at the exchange.

“Oh, geez.” Tish said with a sigh and waved him out of the way. “You can let Sheph handle it now.”

“Thank you, Tish.” Sheph said and nearly everyone on the planet gasped as a human woman that looked to be about sixty years old, stepped into the camera's view. “Greetings, everyone. It's nice to finally see you all.” She said and smiled warmly. “I hope you don't mind that we invited ourselves to supper.”

*

“...invited ourselves to supper.” The unknown woman on the television said.

Jessica completely ignored her, though. She only had eyes for the elf woman beside her. “Princess Sylvana.” She whispered and quickly walked to her room and grabbed her things. If she's here, then... She stopped the thought before it fully formed and went back out to the front door.

“Jessica!” Her mother exclaimed from the living room. “Where are you going?”

“To get their attention.” Jessica smiled and ran out into the night with her magic staff raised high.