Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance by Charles E. Waugh Page A

replied. “We should be back aboard in the next ten minutes. I’ll go forward again and report their condition to the doc so he can be ready in the shuttle bay.”
     
    With that, Sted turned back to the cockpit to make his report, hoping the doctor would be able to patch up the two marines. He didn’t want to lose anyone under his command. He thought of little David Barns being carried away in the ambulance, never to be seen again.
     
     

Chapter 21 – The Esss Conclave – One Billion Years Ago
     
    A conclave of master chroniclers displaced an entire nursery on one of the few remaining worlds not yet overrun by offspring. The masters submerged themselves in the birth waters and settled at the bottom of the crèche. Soon, the thrumming began. It was a low-pitched rumble emanating from the torso of each master. All had to be in sync for any true resolution to their dire situation to unfold into their combined consciousness.
     
    Soon, a soft descant could be heard but not felt above the insistent thrumming in the crystal clear birth waters. This was the signal. Every master’s tail began sweeping slowly back and forth, spilling an effervescent pink cloud into the now sacred waters. Each master’s unique essence was being made available to every other master.
     
    As the waters swirled from the tail motions, the clouds dispersed and merged with each other into a complex solution that could be ingested through the gill-like openings just below each master’s head. As the solution passed over and around their brainstems, appropriate molecules were selected and incorporated into the ever-increasing complexity of each of their individual brains, bringing them into a single, synchronized, higher consciousness.
     
    At this point, the deep thrumming altered its pitch, scaling up several registers. Communication through sound waves in the waters was now possible at a bandwidth and speed not possible in any other state. It was like a symphony being created on the fly with each master contributing, receiving, discarding, or refining suggestions from the others. At first, the symphony sounded discordant, not unlike a master composer experimenting with different musical phrases while trying to find just the right combination of notes to express a desired feeling.
     
    The discordance did not last long. Discarded ideas fell away. Accepted ideas were embellished into sound shapes of pure beauty. The surviving ideas were combined into a symphonic whole that left each of the masters elated but also exhausted. A path forward had been found. 
     
    Choosing the right planetary body from the right star system was of primary importance. The star system had to be on the periphery of their galaxy and in the right quadrant for them to catapult themselves in the direction of the next galaxy. The star itself needed to be a double star with one brown dwarf and one red giant star in its final stages of life. The cooler surface temperatures of the stars would allow deeper penetration into the gravity wells of the two stars without worrying about ablation of the outer layers of their planetesimal inter-galactic ship.
     
    Reinforcing the structure of the planetesimal to withstand the gravitational forces involved with multiple passes through deep gravity wells required the Esss to breed a new class of engineer to handle the higher-level mathematics, but the Esss were driven by their biological need. What was required would be provided.
     
    Several unsuccessful attempts were made over the millennia involved in this massive undertaking. The containment of the crèche birth waters during the multiple gravitational accelerations was particularly difficult. Each failure, however, added to their knowledge. Each attempt got them closer to their goal. They would not be denied.
     
    By the time their galaxy made one complete rotation, they were ready. Six planetesimal ships were prepared. Each ship was over 300 kilometers in diameter, with the crèche