The Helianx Proposition/page 5

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Commentary

The finer nature of physical matter in the second superuniverse allowed the Helianx a certain degree of latitude when they first found their seas disappearing. Since they drew their sustenance directly from cosmic rays, they were able to stay alive while spreading their massive bodies over the rapidly growing land masses and slithering from sea to sea. Their immense bulk made this an exhausting affair. Many of the ensuing deaths resulted from the inability of the weaker Helianx to summon the energy to move their vast bodies into the receding waters, before they were consumed by the heat.

It was fortunate for them that their oldest computers were located in the deepest parts of their ocean--the least affected by the rising temperatures. After some frantic, last-minute tinkering they had been able to download long-forgotten instructions on the techniques that their ancestors had perfected to produce rapid mutations. This sonic technology had allowed them to equip some of the hardier of the surviving Elders with biological extensions, small legs with which they were able to haul their enormous bodies out over the sand bars that were now separating their ocean into a multitude of smaller seas.

It was the younger and more mentally agile amongst the species who found they were able to create small legs for themselves by applying the same focus, but using conscious intention rather than sound waves, to grow and nurture their limbs. The nanobots that patrolled the veins of all Helianx could well have achieved the same results, but time was pressing in for them and the 'bots' laborious technique of building organisms molecule by molecule would have taken far too long.

By this time the Helianx had theorized that the cause of the disaster was the explosion of a nearby star. This had sent waves of heat expanding out through space, which stripped the uninhabited planets of water and any signs of early life, before finally dissipating. The Helianx were well aware that such cosmic events had been known to occur, they had heard the gossip going around the universe broadcast circuits. But, as far as they could establish, such devastating cosmic convulsions were relatively rare and when they did happen they took place in unpervaded space. In spite of the chatter on the broadcast circuits, no sentient beings, or indeed, inhabited planets, were known to have been overly influenced by such a potential disaster. It had not been much comfort for the Helianx to realize they might have been the first race to be driven from their planet of origin.

Luckily Womb Planet was not amongst those worlds closest to the nova, and it was even more fortunate for the Helianx that one of the twin stars around which their planet orbited, had blocked the worst impact of the explosion. Although much of the surface of the sea had evaporated in the original blast due to the extreme depth of the ocean, many of the Helianx were able to survive long enough to form a plan.

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