She saw now that these notions had been right in essence, but too crude. The birds absorbed Solar heat energy. They fed on interactions with photons in the plasma. Incorporating energy from photino-photon interactions within their structures, the birds grew, and spiraled out from the hotter, denser heart of the Sun, taking the heat energy with them.
The ancient theorists had envisaged a particle-based physical process to extract core heat, and so suppress the fusion processes there. The truth was, the birds fed on the Sun’s heat.
And, by feeding—like unwise parasites—they would eventually kill their host.
Unwise—unless, of course, that had been the intention all along
-Ring, Ch. 7