The Helianx Proposition/page 8

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Commentary


Any species of sentient life will have a wide disparity of reactions to a sudden change of biosphere, however carefully their new home is modeled on their previously stable environment. It had been no different for the Helianx, despite the obsessive attention they had given to the design of what was to become their floating world for the unforeseeable future.

It was natural for the Helianx to hope that Womb Planet would withstand the intense energies that built up when they threw themselves up to join the glider, but as they clustered to the viewing portals they could see their planet disintegrating beneath them. Deeply disturbed by the Sight, their group mind oscillating wildly between horror and relief, the Helianx slowly came to realize what they had most feared: that there was no turning back. Their placid, easygoing lives were never going to be the same again. It was then that the wisdom of their Elders in counseling the many thoughtful details and enormous size of the ship had dawned on those who theorized that they should be able to return in time to Womb Planet, if indeed it did survive their exodus, and then aquaform the barren world to suit their needs.

However, much of their trepidation faded in the joy of the success of meeting their impossible challenge, as well as the immediate relief of nil-gravity space. Memories of their race's recent exile from the supportive luxury of water to the living hell of having to scrabble over dry land, dissipated quickly in the pleasures of a gravity-free life.

Throughout its long period of evolution the lack of any sort of predation on Womb Planet had created in the Helianx a species that had never been subject to the extremes of fear. Their planet was also way off the normal superuniverse trade routes which had ensured that they were seldom visited. No aggressive species had ever discovered the whereabouts of Womb Planet. The enormous size of the Helianx and the apparent inhospitality of a waterworld constantly swept by intense storms was enough to discourage the few races who might have stumbled inadvertently on the planet.

It should be remembered that in those early days of Multiverse development, when the planets in the first and second superuniverses had been seeded with life, there was far less travel between the worlds amongst the more advanced intelligent species. Most inhabited planets were linked by embedded broadcast circuitry that transmitted realtime holograms at the speed of thought, and which allowed the beings in those sectors of space to stay in contact with one another. The enormous cost of energy and resources demanded by space travel in the physical superuniverse made the enterprise much less attractive when the exploration of other worlds was pointless. The use of localized wormhole technology and hyperspace drives to transit the vast intergalactic distances did not come until a much later era in Multiverse evolution.

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