The Helianx Proposition/page 40
All fears and doubts had to be put aside when the Helianx assembled to meld with the Hub for the most important gathering of their lives.
The Elders noted that Noe seemed to be the least concerned
with the dangers sHe was bound to have to face on the planet of choice.
Whether this was a sign of Noe's naivete, a product of hir long sojourns
in the harsh conditions of the desert simulacrum, or simply a confirmation of the rightness
of the computers' unpredictable selection, the Elders were not able to discern.
Although they sincerely hoped that it was the latter.
It took longer than usual for the assembled Helianx to harmonize their psychic integrity with the Web. The excitement that many of them felt as they started to come together had to be released into the Web before they could access the Hub. The intensity of these emotions required a constant psychic balancing act, as each tried to do their part in bringing the Web into equilibrium. This was not something their otherwise invaluable computers could help them with, but demanded all the psycho-spiritual resources that the Helianx had been able to garner in their philosophical reveries.
The necessity of perfectly harmonizing the Web prior to probing deeper had always been the most difficult part of working with the Hub. It seemed to the Helianx that this was the way the Hub protected its secrets from possible abuse. Apparently only those who were capable of an advanced state of relaxed concentration, and a meditative quietness of mind and heart, were open to being upstepped into the mysterious wonders of the Hub. Paradoxically, it was only when the collective Spirit of the Helianx had moved into the Hub's powerful vortex, that the intensity of emotional focus built up sufficiently to allow them fluid transport through the dimensions. It was this radical shift of consciousness, from the meditative equilibrium of the Web to the directed passion of the Hub, that had proved so consistently difficult for the Helianx to master. From the time that the first small group had stumbled on the Hub, it had taken many generations for all 210 to gain a reasonable facility at making this transition. Predictably enough, this had been made all the more challenging since what they were about to do--to send one of their number sliding down through the space/time continuum--had never previously been attempted.
In order to achieve a lens of sufficient clarity to create a localized wormhole, each individual Helianx had to navigate this difficult passage before starting the songs that had been recommended to activate the appropriate warp in space. The computers had assured them that it was this precise sequence of tonal frequencies, together with the passion with which the songs were delivered, that was guaranteed to trigger the inner coherence of the Hub. From that point on the Hub would essentially take over and focus the lens in such a way that it would allow Noe to move easily from the security of the Great Ship, and the companionship of hir kind, to an unpredictable destiny, alone and isolated, on a distant planet.
