Helianx proposition/page 29
Galactic exobiologists have recently theorized that the principle of using DNA as the fundamental coding for organic life might well hold true throughout all seven superuniverses. Much to the surprise of the scientists, every sentient species so far studied, however morphologically different, has revealed some remarkably similar basic arrangements of nucleotides in their biological makeup. Their observations also suggest that mutations--which drive evolution on more normally seeded planets--emerge spontaneously when the relevant gene pool reaches a certain size and the physical environment encourages it in some way. However, they had to admit that evolution must have occurred very differently for the Helianx. What then had allowed these creatures to develop to such a degree of complexity given the limited size of their gene pool?
What had been so puzzling for these scientists was to find a race of intelligent beings whose evolutionary path appeared to be so different from the norm. There was even some talk of the possibility that the Helianx, widely known to be fabulists and storytellers, had not arisen as the only species on Womb Planet as they maintained; and further, that originally there had been many more of them in the early history of their world. True or not, this had been the only way these academically trained geneticists could explain the odd improbability that the Helianx represented.
What these critics had not fully appreciated was the precise nature of the relationship between the Helianx and their internal processes. In the many millions of years of aquatic evolution, drifting idly in the warm waters of Womb Planet, the creatures had turned naturally to the slower rhythms of meditation and relaxed self-inspection. Since there had been no predators and little external to themselves to distract them, they were encouraged to spend an increasing amount of time in a light-trance state. It was this inner stillness that had originally allowed them to stumble upon the dimensional portals to the out-of-the-body realms that they were later to travel so extensively.
Of more immediate importance to the introspective Helianx was the astonishing discovery of what they came to think of as their body-devas. At first, these devas had manifested as autonomous, quasi-intelligent, organizing principles which seemed to cohabit with the Helianx somewhere within their enormous bodies. Their function appeared to be to handle the immense amount of electrochemical and biological information that it took to keep the creatures alive and healthy. As contact and communication with their devas deepened, the space gypsies slowly came to understand the possibilities that this intimate relationship opened up. With trust building up over time, it was this collaborative alliance that had led to the unprecedented ability of the Helianx to manipulate their own DNA.
When disaster had struck Womb Planet this profound intimacy became lost in the intense struggle to survive and their devas, disconnected temporarily from the consciousness of their amiable hosts, had attempted on their own to second-guess what the Helianx might need to secure their continuing survival.
