The Helianx Proposition/page 50

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Commentary


As the millions of years passed Noe's presence on the planet was gradually taken for granted. SHe had no reason to interfere with what sHe understood as the normal progress of evolution, since sHe was more than aware that hir mission depended on how well sHe prepared hirself for the times ahead.

Nee's original decision to employ hir parthenogenetic ability to reproduce had served hir well over hir first 40 million years on Earth. As sHe had been advised back on the ship, sHe was careful to restrict the number of eggs that sHe nurtured in hir body at anyone time, to three. These three female offspring carried the full Helianx genetic endowment, but as they aged, they also needed to absorb all that Noe had learned in the course of hir long life. The closeness of the small clan's telepathic bonding assured each of them that when Noe was preparing to leave hir body for the final time, hir immediate offspring would be ready in their turn to procreate. Then, following the age-old principles of serial reincarnation, Noe's spirit would settle comfortably over the strongest and most developed of hir progeny, until sHe was ready to start the whole process over again.

Parthenogenesis had been a strategy in their reproductive arsenal that the Helianx had used immediately after they had left their devastated world, as a way of building up their numbers as rapidly as possible. Once they had stabilized their small population and had decided to set off on their interstellar adventures, they reverted to more normal sexual reproduction in order to broaden the base of their individual genotypes.

Since all Helianx were hermaphrodites, having simultaneously both male and female internal reproductive organs, they were capable of self-fertilization under extreme circumstances. This was the technique that had served Noe well in the early years of hir exile. Their preference, however, as with most other intelligent species, was a paired mating. Each individual Helianx then consciously chose the male or the female role, deciding between them which genetic combination would be most favorable. Because the Helianx had traditionally decided to keep their numbers to a stable 210--although none of them could have accounted for quite why this number had been originally chosen--their reproductive imperative, of necessity, was far less pressing than for most species. The telepathic closeness the Helianx experienced through the Web satisfied much of the need for intimacy that other races achieved through family bonding. Their practice of serial reincarnation ensured individual temporal continuity and their sensitive skins had always favored them with the extreme sensual pleasure of physical contact. Over time, these factors were accepted by the Helianx as a happy substitute for the frantic couplings they had observed in more sexually driven species.

Back on the planet Noe was starting to feel a profound change in the air. The brief visits of other space-faring races, rare at the best of times, had appeared to cease, but not before the last of them had passed on to Noe some very disturbing information.

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