The Helianx Proposition/page 13
In those early days of the Multiverse most species intelligent enough
to consider their own natures had a natural awareness of a universal Creator.
Its mysterious Presence seemed to surround them.
There was no need for priests or religious instruction on most worlds
since mature beings almost always developed a direct inner link with the Being
they thought of as the First Source and Center of all that existed.
Life for these species became a series of initiations,
each challenge they met would yield a deeper intuition of this mysterious Presence
that seemed to be so powerful and, at the same time, so subtle and gentle.
And yet, because all sentient life possesses innate curiosity, unanswered questions
were bound to arise as they examined the philosophical and moral issues
that are so important to intelligent beings. This questioning invariably led to the central quandary
facing ali thoughtful beings: Given the experiential reality of a loving and benign Creator,
why do such painful, destructive events occur?
For the Helianx, of course, this conundrum had a particular depth of meaning, because it touched the very core of their collective trauma. The solipsistic meditations on the meaning of life that had preoccupied them in their long evolutionary history on Womb Planet, when everything seemed to revolve around them and nothing intervened to threaten their secure existence, had crumbled in the face of a disaster which they could only think of as horrifyingly arbitrary. Not only was their belief in a stable and friendly Multiverse severely tested, but the shock of having to drag their enormous, clumsy bodies over the emerging land masses had introduced them to pain and suffering on a level they would never have previously thought possible. The small legs they had managed to develop were barely able to scrabble under the huge weight of the creatures as gravity bore down on them. Wholly unused to this new pressure, their legs crushed and bloody beneath them, many had simply given up the bitter struggle and had allowed themselves to disintegrate back into their myriad constituent tiny organisms. By the time the surviving Helianx managed to gather the last of their life energies and had teleported themselves up to the Great Ship, they had become a rather different species. Although their reputation would always be colored by those easy-going early years on Womb Planet, something inside them had hardened. Fear and doubt of a sort that they had never experienced before had now entered their lives.
When they had recovered somewhat from their ordeal and had set out on their journey in the Great Ship, the Helianx found that a new urgency now fueled their questioning of all the races they met. Afterwards, they would gather and anxiously await the new songs that their stupendous computers spat out after yet another belief system had been assimilated, examined, compared, and extrapolated for any clues as to what their collective destiny might be.
When some answers finally did emerge the Helianx were already skeptical enough not to be surprised to learn of even more perilous times to come.
