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Description
0.000018-0.000021M|50-55KG|N->P++E-->N|550,000-570,000K|180,000,000,000G|0.0015-0.0032ESY|TRINEUTRON-SUSPENSION

This next species is a quite unusual entry, yet most important to the history of things, so, as best as I am able, I will explain about the Blessed, who are no more.

The Blessed were energetic nuclear beings, native to the surface layer of a lesser neutron star. Though such a place would doubtlessly be among the universe’s most hostile environments to any other form of life, there existed a goldilocks zone at a certain surface depth, where a balance between radioactivity and strong-force interactions allowed raw neutrons to form together into highly complex nuclear molecules. And from those subatomic building blocks, a form of life was forged which operates at several magnitudes of smaller size and higher speed than other life in the universe. Although a individual from the Blessed could surpass a human in mass, complexity, and intelligence, the largest of their cells would be dwarfed by a helium atom, and generations of their families could live long and fulfilling lives, empires and ecosystems could rise and fall, all within mere hours by a human measure.

The steep density gradient of the trineutron sea required its native creatures to be nearly two-dimensional in their proportions. Many of them swam like fish through the viscous semi-fluid, though the Blessed, lacking as they were in any symmetry, propelled themselves using muscular cilia. Their energy came primarily from their electron fountain organ, which pumped its internal cavity down to lower pressure, allowing radiation from the planet to split loosely-bound neutrons into protons and electrons. The protons would stay in the cavity, while the electrons, being lighter, would be forced upward, and rain back down around the creature, generating an electrical current as they were flowed back through its nerves toward the fountain. Their sustenance for growth and healing came omnivorously; some hunted the larvae of the solar whales that floated the star’s higher layers, while others anchored farms of accumulator polyps to the shores of magnetic volcanoes. They were asymmetric and hermaphroditic, and there is more to say about their biology, so much that it must wait for another time.

There is certainly more to be said about their culture and heritage and society, as even a short length of time for us contained great wealths of history for their dense and energetic lives, and they were known to have thousands of our years of history. Their knowledge of science, and their advancements and cultural wisdom were perhaps unmatched in the wider universe, but sadly, I can speak no more of such things, because the Blessed are no more.

Perhaps there was once a time when they knew nothing of other worlds, for the stars would appear utterly dim past the radioactive auroras of their perpetual day. But surely, as all societies do, they must have divined the nature of the universe, or found a way to see beyond their hellish atmosphere, to see up out of the immense depths of their glittering gravity well, and gaze upon cold infinity.

It follows that they would want to explore that infinity, would want, as all species eventually do, to leave their glittering paradise. But of course they could not, for their neutronium bodies would evaporate most violently if separated from their world, and 180 billion Gs is an impasse for any spaceflight, even that of the smallest probe. So their initial attempts were doubtlessly slow indeed; perhaps they used tractor beams to refine and assemble asteroids in orbit, perhaps they somehow constructed a mass driver around their world’s frothing equator. Perhaps they gathered enough mass from a neighboring neutron star to build a ship that could support their life. Perhaps they mastered the secrets of gravity. I do not know. It has not been recorded. But what is known is that eventually they succeeded, and succeeded too in spreading, and colonizing many neutron stars in their home galaxy.

And we also know that somewhere along the line, they became proud.

And that pride sowed a seed of an idea, an idea for a will which could not die, a unity that could not be broken, a peace which could not end, and a soul which could not bow.

We know what happened on that day. We know what a third of them did.

The Blessed are no more.

But the Grey Star is.

Description
0.000018-0.000021M|50-55KG|N->P++E-->N|550,000-570,000K|180,000,000,000G|0.0015-0.0032ESY|TRINEUTRON-SUSPENSION

This next species is a quite unusual entry, yet most important to the history of things, so, as best as I am able, I will explain about the Blessed, who are no more.

The Blessed were energetic nuclear beings, native to the surface layer of a lesser neutron star. Though such a place would doubtlessly be among the universe’s most hostile environments to any other form of life, there existed a goldilocks zone at a certain surface depth, where a balance between radioactivity and strong-force interactions allowed raw neutrons to form together into highly complex nuclear molecules. And from those subatomic building blocks, a form of life was forged which operates at several magnitudes of smaller size and higher speed than other life in the universe. Although a individual from the Blessed could surpass a human in mass, complexity, and intelligence, the largest of their cells would be dwarfed by a helium atom, and generations of their families could live long and fulfilling lives, empires and ecosystems could rise and fall, all within mere hours by a human measure.

The steep density gradient of the trineutron sea required its native creatures to be nearly two-dimensional in their proportions. Many of them swam like fish through the viscous semi-fluid, though the Blessed, lacking as they were in any symmetry, propelled themselves using muscular cilia. Their energy came primarily from their electron fountain organ, which pumped its internal cavity down to lower pressure, allowing radiation from the planet to split loosely-bound neutrons into protons and electrons. The protons would stay in the cavity, while the electrons, being lighter, would be forced upward, and rain back down around the creature, generating an electrical current as they were flowed back through its nerves toward the fountain. Their sustenance for growth and healing came omnivorously; some hunted the larvae of the solar whales that floated the star’s higher layers, while others anchored farms of accumulator polyps to the shores of magnetic volcanoes. They were asymmetric and hermaphroditic, and there is more to say about their biology, so much that it must wait for another time.

There is certainly more to be said about their culture and heritage and society, as even a short length of time for us contained great wealths of history for their dense and energetic lives, and they were known to have thousands of our years of history. Their knowledge of science, and their advancements and cultural wisdom were perhaps unmatched in the wider universe, but sadly, I can speak no more of such things, because the Blessed are no more.

Perhaps there was once a time when they knew nothing of other worlds, for the stars would appear utterly dim past the radioactive auroras of their perpetual day. But surely, as all societies do, they must have divined the nature of the universe, or found a way to see beyond their hellish atmosphere, to see up out of the immense depths of their glittering gravity well, and gaze upon cold infinity.

It follows that they would want to explore that infinity, would want, as all species eventually do, to leave their glittering paradise. But of course they could not, for their neutronium bodies would evaporate most violently if separated from their world, and 180 billion Gs is an impasse for any spaceflight, even that of the smallest probe. So their initial attempts were doubtlessly slow indeed; perhaps they used tractor beams to refine and assemble asteroids in orbit, perhaps they somehow constructed a mass driver around their world’s frothing equator. Perhaps they gathered enough mass from a neighboring neutron star to build a ship that could support their life. Perhaps they mastered the secrets of gravity. I do not know. It has not been recorded. But what is known is that eventually they succeeded, and succeeded too in spreading, and colonizing many neutron stars in their home galaxy.

And we also know that somewhere along the line, they became proud.

And that pride sowed a seed of an idea, an idea for a will which could not die, a unity that could not be broken, a peace which could not end, and a soul which could not bow.

We know what happened on that day. We know what a third of them did.

The Blessed are no more.

But the Grey Star is.