[I want to see the spaceship,] says Ariel.

[I'm in a meeting, treasure, and Daddy's keeping some petitioners occupied. Alleya or Caleb can teleport you up, if you want to go up right now.]

[Okay.]

[You could even ask them yourself by brainphone.]

[Oh. I suppose I can. Are you alone?]

[Yes.]

Alleluia pops into place beside her. "Are you ready to go now?"

"Are you Jovah?" says Ariel, looking around curiously.

"I am," agrees the voice. "Originally known as Jehovah."

"Why'd your name get shorter?" she wonders.

"Language changes over time. While the shortening was popular beforehand, its use in the Magnificat for superior scansion solidified its popularity over the original."

"I want to see the plants," says Ariel.

It is not currently in a state of harvest or planting or other activity, except for distant plots of tomatoes barely visible from the vantage point. Plants grow under bright lights and stir in recirculating air.

Ariel stands still and watches them, counting all the kinds of plants she can see and identifying the ones she can recognize.

Alleluia and Jovah will both let her look as long as she cares to.

"Turn around, take your first left, and then take your first right," says Jovah.

She follows these directions carefully.

And here is a laboratory of sorts, with robotic arms tending dishes of goop, and mixing it with powders, and pouring the whole mess into machines that print out little conveyer belts full of pills.

"Nine hundred and thirty-two."

"Where were you before you were here?"

"I was built in an orbiting shipyard above a planet called Eleison, and carried the Samarian settles from there to here."

"What was Eleison like?"

"It was a densely populated world that suffered from almost continual war among various factions. These are the primary reasons the faction known as the Harmonic Christers elected to leave and relinquish their technology."

Ariel nods thoughtfully.

"Eleison had much more advanced technology than is currently present on the ground in Samaria. It is likely that non-Samarian human civilizations have developed beyond that technological point in the intervening centuries, although your ancestors assigned significant probability to their rendering themselves extinct through war. As of the time of the archangel Gabriel Aaron, there were still other human societies in the galaxy, but I have no more recent information."

"Has Mommy looked for more people in the universe?" she asks, mostly to Alleya because she supposes that if Jovah knew he would've mentioned it under 'more recent information'.

Ariel nods. That seems very Mommy-like.

"Let me know when you want me to take you home," adds Alleluia.

"I want to look around more," she says. "Are there other things to see?"

"There is the bridge; the settlers' living quarters, sickbay, and cafeteria; engineering and maintenance rooms; the satellite control room; empty cargo bays; and the ship media room," says Jovah.

"I want to see the media room," she decides.

Jovah issues directions thereto. This involves traveling to another deck via elevator.

Off she goes. She is good at following directions.

The media room mostly has computers in it, although there are a few shelves with a few lonely-looking paper books, the titles all in the old oracular language no longer in common use on Samaria.

Ariel heads straight for the books.

They are old and fragile, but not dusty; something about the way air circulates in the ship prevents dust buildup.

She examines them very very carefully, even though she can't read the writing.

Alleluia sits sideways in a chair - none of the chairs in the ship are intended for angel use - and waits.

"This is the oracle language, isn't it?"

"Yes. It's the same language the settlers spoke, it's just changed a lot in the last few hundred years," says Alleluia.

"I want to learn it," she says.

"The long way, or with magic?" asks Alleluia.

"I'm not sure."

"If you would like to do it the long way I can help you, but of course your parents are the ones with the magic."

She considers for a moment, then says, "The long way."

Alleluia looks at the books available, then shakes her head at them and starts poking around on the computers until she finds an e-book of reasonable starting grade. The alphabet, at least, is roughly the same, even if the precise ways the letters are shaped has degraded over centuries of handwriting and no typing. She begins to go over the simpler words with Ariel.

Ariel is attentive! Attentive and quiet.

Alleluia is a pretty good teacher. She walks Ariel through the book, and then loads up another one and invites Ariel to sound out words.

"Okay," says Ariel. "Thank you for showing me things."

"You're welcome," says Alleluia, and she closes the file on the computer and teleports them back to Ariel's room.

There is a wee winged figure peering into Ariel's closet.

"That's my stuff!" exclaims Ariel.

Peninnah jumps. "Where'd you came from?" she squeaks. "I close the door." (She has a little problem with inept grammar.)

"Where'd you come from?" scowls Ariel.

"But, you were not," says Pen reasonably.

"I don't want you in my room when I'm not here!" she repeats. "I don't want you in my room right now either! Shoo!"

"You are here!" complains Peninnah. "You are here and I are here."

"You don't make any sense and this is my room and you should go away," says Ariel unhappily.

Peninnah considers this, then wraps her wings around herself and sits on the floor and starts sniffling.

Ariel goes into her water room and shuts the door.

Isabella appears a minute later. "Pen, treasure, what are you doing in Ariel's room?"

"Looking," says Peninnah. "And I close the door! And she come from some place! And she mad!"

Isabella sighs, and rustling consistent with her picking up Peninnah and taking her out of the room can be heard.

Ariel remains in her water room.

[Would you like a lock for your door?] Isabella asks her, a couple of minutes later.

[Y-yes,] she says, sniffle-ly.

Ariel appears after half a minute, rubbing her eyes and trailing the tips of her wings on the ground.

Isabella conjures up a lock, and a key, which she gives to Ariel.

"Thank you," she says, and she hugs her mommy.

"You're welcome, treasure. Did she damage anything?"

"I didn't look yet."

"If she did, I will fix it."

Ariel hugs her some more.

Hugs. "I don't think she's focused too much on your having appeared suddenly, and I don't think she's mature enough to keep the secret, so she still doesn't know about - things."

Hug; nod.

Isabella pets her hair. "Did you have fun on your trip?"

"Do you want me to wish it for you, or do you like studying it?"

"I like studying it."

"Then Alleya's the best choice for helping you, since she learned it the long way around herself."

She nods again.

"I'm sorry Pen upset you."

"She didn't mean to," says Ariel. "But she did."

"Yes. Eventually she'll understand to stay out; until then you have a lock."

"Can I still have the lock after then?"

"Yes, but hopefully you won't need it."

Ariel nods.

"Is there anything else you need, treasure?"

She shakes her head.

"All right." And out Isabella goes to continue discussing appropriate behavior with Peninnah.