The Helianx Proposition/page 28
Womb Planet, in its past glory, had been one of the largest inhabited planets in the second superuniverse. It had been formed originally from space debris which aggregated around the heavy elements thrown out from the twin suns, as they settled into equilibrium with one another. Originally the two stars had been a single, enormous, solar furnace spun off from a nebular mother wheel, and so large that it had split into two as it cooled and condensed. It was during this cosmic mitosis that explosive forces threw off sheets of semi-gaseous matter which slowly condensed into what was to become Womb planet.
Due to its odd figure-of-eight orbit around the two neighboring stars, Womb Planet gathered more material than usual, including a large moon. Both bodies grew progressively more massive over time through the accretion of so much of the detritus spewed out by the stellar paroxysm. This had resulted in the unusual arrangement of a binary star system with only one inhabitable planet. Tiny planetoids, and the few captured asteroids not scooped up by Womb Planet's gravitational hunger, circled each of the stars, whilst the planet, alone with its single, lifeless moon, swung through its eccentric orbit around the two maternal stars.
In those early cycles ot Multiverse development, when solar systems and their planetary families were being formed, comets were far more plentiful than they are today. As Womb Planet had grown in size and gravitational heft it had attracted comets of every size towards its surface, the melting ice gradually deepening the ocean that ultimately covered the entire world.
Due to its immense size, Womb Planet exerted a gravitational pull estimated to have been at least three times more powerful than one of a more average mass. But, since sentient life had originated in the oceans, as it does on most planets, this mattered little to the nascent life-forms which were to evolve into the creatures that became the Helianx.
Over the millions ot years, as the creatures' physiology adapted to the extremes of their aquatic world, their bodies grew in size and gradually developed the ability to withstand the crushing pressure of the ocean in the deepest of the underwater canyons. When disaster had finally struck and they were forced to clamber over the emerging land masses in search of the remaining deep water, the Helianx were relieved to find that their bodies had been somewhat prepared for the unaccustomed weight of gravity. In spite of this, and as the conditions worsened, most of those who expired had found movement so difficult that it had slowed their progress. Dehydrated, they had shriveled and died in the harsh light of their twin suns.
Unlike the majority ot inhabited planets, in which the patterns laid into their DNA had been designed to coax a species at the appropriate time out of the water and onto the land, the Helianx had never experienced any such instinctual drive to leave their friendly oceans. It had seemed to the survivors an unfortunate irony that, in their case, it had been the seas that had deserted them.
