The Helianx Proposition/page 45
It had not been easy for the Helianx to accept their computers' assessment
of what was to become of the Multiverse. To many of the Elders it had seemed counterintuitive
for Whoever--or Whatever--had created them in the first place,
to then deposit them for a second time no less, into an almost impossible situation.
Surely their long lives and all the knowledge they had accumulated had to count for something.
To think that it would all be destroyed along with their beloved descendants,
who, because of their race's practice of serial reincarnation,
would also be them, was too horrifying by far to even consider.
It had only been the patient reassurances of their omniscient computers that had persuaded them that they would all find a way through this impending disaster with enough effort and time, and it had been this confidence that had encouraged the Helianx, after much dithering, to adopt their desperate plan.
Noe understood the planet that would be hir home, for who knew how long, had been chosen primarily because it was in a solar system close to the rim of a galactic spiral within the seventh superuniverse. This choice would hopefully ensure that sHe had enough time to adapt successfully to hir new life in whatever physical form sHe would finally find hirself, allowing hir ultimately to release hir loved ones from suspended animation.
For Noe, however, these thoughts were fading fast as sHe struggled to maintain hir equilibrium in the light of the many new sensations currently assailing hir. For all its superficial similarities to the desert simulacrum sHe had known so well on the Great Ship, the planet on which sHe found hirself was very different. Breezes that never blew over the desert wastes in the ship now caressed hir sensitive skin; the distant mountains implied a scale far beyond anything possible in the hold of the Great Ship; the taste of the air was quite unlike anything Noe had previously experienced, thick and pungent with chlorophyl; the rhythms of night and day, which had never been duplicated in the simulations, introduced an unanticipated pulse into hir new life. There was so much for which the computers had been unable to prepare hir.
The sun warmed NM's somnolent body. SHe could feel the Earth under hir, alive and welcoming. Trees tickled hir flanks. As the days followed nights, sHe noticed the creatures that initially attacked hir, were now thankfully no longer interested in lunging at hir flesh. SHe could only assume that hir alien biology was unpalatable to the local fauna, as sHe could not help but notice, with a shudder that rippled down hir entire body, that the beasts continued to voraciously devour one another. Strange flying creatures dived and circled around Noe's enormous head, but after some awkward attempts to alight on hir silky skin, they also lost interest and flapped away toward the mountains.
Noe rested. The physical and metaphysical shock of transiting a wormhole intact gradually diminished while sHe dreamed of hir life on the Great Ship and the tender closeness of hir companions; of the warmth and brilliance of the Web; of the endless panorama of interstellar space; and of their songs of discovery and the scintillating depths of their accumulated knowledge.
