The Helianx Proposition/page 51

From Nordan Symposia
Jump to navigationJump to search

Lighterstill.jpg

Helianx51.jpg




Commentary


As Noe decreased her size to a manageable proportion, sHe found hirself forced to become more aware of the other creatures on the planet. If the seas had been filled with hungry snapping maws of every shape and size, Noe's brief forays onto the land had amazed hir, when sHe found vastly increased populations of dinosaurs filling, and then rapidly destroying, every available ecological niche to which they could adapt.

The planet had apparently exploded with life while Noe's attention had been consumed with hir tiny clan's survival and hir own demanding biological processes. By this time, hir vastly diminished size presented a more tempting target for the largest of the predatory dinosaurs and this had sent hir scurrying back to the relative safety of the oceans and the reassurance of hir kin.

Noe was to wonder later at the fortuitous timing of the asteroid that so profoundly changed the development of life on Earth. Although the warning sHe had received from the extraterrestrial visitors had been based on observation, their calculations had not been accurate enough to predict exactly where on the planet the rock would strike. It seemed something of a happy coincidence to Noe, therefore, when sHe found hirself deep in the ocean and on the other side of the planet, the day the asteroid smashed into the coastline of one of the northern continents.

The juddering impact of the asteroid made the Earth ring like a gigantic gong. The sound waves rippled through the oceans, reverberating for days after the event, as the delicious, deep harmonics intertwined and resonated in the buoyancy chambers of Noe's body. Tidal waves swept overhead; the skies darkened; hurricane-force winds roared around hir head when sHe briefly surfaced. Soon the air was filled with dust particles and had Noe thought to spend any more time on the surface, sHe would have had to search the sky for the dim glow of a deep red sun, now almost entirely cloaked by an atmosphere thick with smoke and grime.

The scent of the ocean tumed to death as the decaying carcasses of large land animals, suffocated by the dirt-filled air and swept into rivers flooded by torrential rains, were ripped to pieces by sharks driven to a frenzy by their unexpected windfall. Tectonic plates heaved and ground against each other, with magma pouring up through newly-opened crevasses and spewing sulfurous gases into the surrounding ocean. Microorganisms like foraminifera, and almost all the vegetal matter dependent on photosynthesis, shriveled and died. The small creatures that fed on this dense underwater vegetation quickly followed.

In the deeper waters of the open ocean, life was far less seriously disturbed by the massive shock of the impact. Noe was relieved, but not surprised, to find the cosmic rays that had faithfully infused hir with energy for so long were not absorbed or deflected by the haze, but continued to pour down from the galactic center. Noe was safe for the moment. Time passed.

Previous Page Next Page