The Helianx Proposition/page 53
Over the millions of years following the impact of the asteroid
Noe circled the planet many times, singing hir songs and observing the continents
as they spread out in their continuing slow procession across the globe.
After a brief respite, the bitter cold that had been a direct result of the fallout from the collision
had led to a long period of glaciation, as the great southern continent iced over.
Noe, as all Helianx, had developed the ability to control hir bodily temperature within certain limits. It had allowed the Helianx to place themselves in states of suspended animation while crossing those interminable interstellar distances. However, with the continents moving steadily apart, and magma pouring up from the oceanic trenches heating the surrounding water, Noe surprisingly chose to spend more of hir time in the warmer equatorial regions. From that vantage point, sHe was able to take short exploratory trips to both the northern and southern land masses to scrutinize the reemergence of widely differing life forms for the signs that sHe had been waiting for so patiently.
Ice ages came and went; glaciers crept across the land gouging great valleys in their path before retreating back to the polar continents. There were long periods when the planetary climate stabilized and the life force exploded with new forms, many of which would disappear with the next radical climate change. Coming from a world where evolution had been a much simpler affair, Noe was continually spellbound by the profusion and variety of biological life. This had also been confusing, since the computers had never defined exactly which evolutionary tree would ultimately yield the species of interest to the Helianx. On two or three occasions Noe had even convinced hirself that a particular species was the one to watch, only to find some global calamity soon drove them to extinction.
Life in the oceans, however, had taken an interesting tum. Some of the large land mammals had chosen--and in some cases were forced by limited access to food--to return to the seas. This had proved to be not only a good survival strategy, since the oceans had always been a far richer source of sustenance than the land, but it had allowed them, over time, to develop some unusual traits. Noe watched with interest as mutations in this order of life, now known as Cetacea, occurred at a remarkable rate. The buoyancy of the water permitted almost limitless growth, as their bodies became streamlined and their limbs adapted to life in the waters. Fur, now more of an impediment to swift movement, dropped away to be replaced by layers of blubber. Their original tails divided into a pair of flukes, their hind legs disappeared and their forelegs turned into flippers.
Within another few million years, there were over 80 different species of whales and dolphins inhabiting almost all the seas and oceans of the planet. Some even grew to a size comparable to the proportions to which Noe had by now shrunk hirself. But, more importantly, some were growing large and complex brains and that could only be of interest to the Helianx.
