User blog comment:JWSchmidt/I'm not you/@comment-1896-20100621045951

I'd like to try to stay within the confines of "hard science fiction" and insist that the aliens are NOT "a source of magical power". However, the aliens have technology that allowed them to travel across interstellar distances to Earth.

For this story, we can assume that it is not possible for space travelers to move fast. In fact, interstellar travel is so slow and requires so much energy that it is essentially impossible for biological organisms to travel between the stars.

Thus, the aliens who reach Earth are some type of artificial life form that, rather than being composed of microscopic biological cells is built from nanoscopic components.

Imagine that the alien visitors to Earth arrived hundreds of millions of years ago. It might only be recently that they had any interest in the native life forms of Earth. And, as you suggest, the alien who contacts Sara might be unusual. All of that is yet to be decided.