The Alien mind regarded its home. The fifth planet in the Solar system. The biggest of the eight planets and the most enigmatic. To fully comprehend the vastness, the violence and the complicated braided layers of the gas giant, a multi-dimensional intellect is required. Consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium gases with a small dense core of heavier elements where the pressure is extraordinarily strong and the temperature exceptionally hot. A distant observer might have the impression of a beautiful gentle orb of swirling pastels, a vermilion watercolour of textural layers. Calm and friendly. It is a false impression.

The gas giant is draped in latitudes of vaporous clouds, ravaged by powerful winds and huge storms that hyperventilate for centuries. Winds tear around the planet at four hundred kilometres per hour and electrical discharges a thousand times more powerful than lightning strikes on Earth. The big red unblinking eye drifting lazily across the surface is an ancient mega storm capable of swallowing a hundred Earths.

The alien mind knew it was being watched. Human eyes had gazed in awe at Jupiter for centuries but only the most deranged or imaginative observers might have dreamed of what lived there in the glorious turbulent maelstrom.

Just as Jupiter itself is alien to the rocky planet Earth, so too is the entity living there. A being of vast age and intelligence. Not a physical being but a creature made of exotic gases and etheric energy vapours spread throughout the cloud layers. A being consisting of pure liquescent thought and multi-spatial senses encircling and intertwined within the weather patterns of the gas giant. It did not have a name. It did not need a name. It did not have a memory in the way humans store their past experiences in biological brains. It was aware of itself and its place in the universe and it was not alone.

There were other similar minds existing in gas giants across the universe. They had been there for billions of years, possibly even from the beginning as an infant universe grew into the nothingness of empty space, or whatever there was before. They were small seeds then, a diaspora of cosmic consciousness spreading out into the new frontier. They felt comfortable residing in the gas giants that were prolific throughout the universe and made their homes there. These gaseous beings were all aware of each other and capable of communicating their experiences over the millions of light years. They were connected across the vast ever-expanding distances like a gigantic hive mind, populating and connecting the universe. They had observed and recorded the blossoming universe from the beginning of time.

These gaseous beings recorded and stored their experiences. They absorbed everything going on around them. Every astronomical creation and death event in every star system was faithfully chronicled, analysed and shared. From the violent early beginnings of the universe, the multitudes of planets, moons, asteroids, suns and rocks worth a mention in every system created. From the quiet distant spokes of the outer galaxies to the riotous hub of the big wheel.

These gaseous beings had no vivid memories of their own creation. Perhaps part of the original big bang, perhaps created by an even more intelligent being to act as custodians and observers. Perhaps they had once been a physical species grown tired with the monotony of their life and death cycle and had slowly evolved into their present state of pure intelligent energy. They had no interest in their own distant past, it had been such a long time it didn’t matter. They would watch, record and study the expanding universe and the origins of the life that developed.

The gas giant beings adopted the systems they lived in and monitored their local environment, but they would never interfere in the normal workings of the cosmos. If a massive asteroid was on course to annihilate a potentially prosperous planet, then so be it. If a young civilization managed to destroy itself through genocidal wars or poison itself with its own pollution, then so be it. The universe would always endure and continue to expand without them. Every aspiring intelligent species needed to learn the most reliable method of avoiding omnicide was not to create the weapons or conditions that could destroy them in the first place.

The gas giant dwellers had the power to intervene and change the course of any civilization hell-bent on its own destruction but only wielded that power when appropriate and only after exhaustive consultation with their peers. Multiple simulations would be initiated, and examinations of previous comparative experiences would be undertaken before any decisions were made. Nothing was ever done in haste and time was of little concern to such creatures.

The being that existed in the swirling cloud layers of Jupiter had been relatively dormant for thousands of years. It was a quiet neighbourhood in the outer reaches of the Milky Way, nothing exciting ever happened. The tiny Sol system had been inactive for a long time save for the odd major asteroid impact or a comet passing through but now something was happening on the third planet and its only moon that warranted further attention. The gaseous mind directed a tiny percentage of its multi-faceted gaze towards Earth and began to watch.