Chapter 13: Take me to your leader!

Noah was floating around the ‘dining room’ with the American astronaut Jason Miles and the other men aboard. Though calling it a dining room wasn’t exactly fair, considering it was mostly the same as other compartments, barring the rehydration station for all their tubed, dried food. Jason offered Noah a drink of water, served in a silver bag with a small nozzle to suck the water out from.

“Just so you know, every camera on this station has been live streaming directly to the United Nations, I should have mentioned it before, but… We just needed to make sure you weren’t hostile. Though now that we know you can survive in space, it’s not like our countermeasures would work anymore.” Jason smiled awkwardly.

Noah figured their plan was to rapidly deoxygenate the ISS in the case he was hostile, sacrificing themselves whilst also getting rid of Noah. Though the plan was scrapped once they saw Noah flying casually through space.

Noah smiled before waving his hand in jest. “That’s fine, honestly I was worried that you’d shoot me, you Americans are well known for your love of guns.” That got a snort out of the Russian cosmonaut who introduced himself as Vladymir.

Dr lane and Dr Fen floated up through the entrance way, both with smirks on their face. “You boys look like you’re having fun. Both humans and alien.” Dr lane commented as she tied up her free-flowing hair into a ponytail. “I’ve communicated with the UN and the British government; Dr Fen has also talked to the Chinese authorities. They’re certainly nervous about all this, but they’ve asked us to be guinea pigs for Noah’s skin care products, and to return to Earth as soon as possible.”

“When I became a cosmonaut, I never thought I’d be testing alien makeup. I think my niece and nephew will enjoy this story!” Vladymir said before laughing heartily.

“Well we’ve already come this far, and besides, Noah himself has no bacteria or viruses… at all, which is weird and I have an infinite amount of questions, but all in all this should be safe enough.” Dr Lane continued, turning towards Noah.

Noah smiled and nodded. “Of course, the gel I’ve brought should be perfectly safe, I’ve tried it on myself, and I do believe my skin is looking rather radiant no?”

Pulling a jar of the gel out and floating it over to Dr Lane, she grabbed it, anchored herself to a handle with her foot and undid the jar. She briefly looked over at the rest of the crew before scooping some out and was about to apply it before Noah spoke up.

“Turn around and apply it, wait a minute and then face us, I think the result will be rather shocking.” Noah said with a smile on his face. Dr Lane was in her mid 40s so he had no doubt the result would be noticeable.

Following his instructions, Dr Lane applied the gel on her face. “Oh it tingles, is that normal?”

“Yes, don’t worry, that means it’s working.” Noah confirmed.

After a minute, Dr Lane turned around, there was an audible gasp and a synchronised “holy shit!” from the rest of the crew.

“What? What happened? Someone give me a mirror!” Dr lane began to panic as the crew stared in shock. Vladymir passed over a mirror he got from a nearby compartment. Dr Lane’s face lit up in surprise as she saw herself… but she looked like someone in her early 30s. Her skin was pink and all blemishes from age, sunburn etc had disappeared without a trace. Her head turned quickly towards Noah, she looked between him and the jar of gel before saying, “can I keep this?” Noah just gave a nod. Dr Lane grabbed on a handle and propelled herself away from the dining room, presumably returning to her quarters.

Dr Fen broke out of her stupor before flying after the now youthful British astronaut. “Hey wait up I want some too!”

“He’s dangerous, that stuff could cause a riot.” Jason commented as he rubbed his nose.

“But it’s certainly impressive stuff. Anyway, I think the UN will want to commence formal discussions with you and figure out a way to announce you to the world. It’s impossible to keep your existence secret, hell, there’s probably a few people who can see your ship with a home telescope if they’re tracking the ISS.”

Noah nodded before adding, “well why don’t I take you guys down on my ship? We can fly there directly, and I’m sure your governments will want to talk face to face with you right?”

Jason accepted the proposal, but he had to stay on the ISS to ensure everything was maintained. Vladymir volunteered to come along, saying it would give him a world record for first human aboard an alien ship, adding to his other record on most ping pong balls balanced on a watermelon. The Guineas world record will really certify anything these days huh.

When Vladymir went to grab the two doctors he came across a scene of two highly educated, mature women, fighting over a jar of alien gel. Though it looked more comedic than violent given they were bumping all over the place in micro gravity. Once they saw Vladymir at the door chuckling to himself they regained their composure, Dr Fen quickly grabbing the gel, opening it and rubbing some on her face. “Gorls, want to fight over a jar or would you like to come aboard Noah’ ship and take a trip to the UN headquarters in New York?”

That got the girls attention and they quickly said yes. As the three returned to the dining room, Noah brought out a second jar and handed it to Dr Fen, which meant that Noah was well aware of their squabble earlier. The two doctors started at Vladymir with daggers in their eyes, obviously mad he exposed their squabble over the gel.

It takes a considerable amount of time to prepare for a space walk, with many checks to ensure there are no safety issues. Noah was tempted to just grab a few of the shield watches and some of the air disks but figured it was best to keep some things hidden for now. Once they were ready, Noah tethered the three astronauts to himself by wrapping a knot around his waist. They were too far from Noah’s ship to jump across safely without a tether, so this was the only way for now.

Once the exit compartment was depressurised, Vladimir opened the hatch before giving Noah a thumbs up. Noah nodded in affirmation, pooling his energy and shooting out another golden tentacle. After he latched onto his ship, he pulled everyone along, the hatch opened up and soon they had entered the ship, much to the awe of the three people being towed through space.

Once the hanger door was closed, Noah signalled that it was ok for them to take off their helmets. They hesitated for a second, before realising they could hear things, meaning there was an atmosphere. Dr lane was the first to take off her helmet, and immediately took a deep breathe. After a few seconds, the others followed suit, when everything seemed ok.

“Welcome aboard everyone, just brace yourselves, I’ll activate the artificial gravity. Since you’ve all been in space I’ll keep it to about half Earth’s gravity so you don’t collapse.” Noah communicated with Gaia telepathically and then the group fell to the ground. Not having enough time to process what was going on, they all fell over, their body unable to react to the sudden change in gravity.

“Well, that’s certainly more impressive than super makeup in my opinion.” Vladymir said in admiration.

“You guys can make yourself at home, there are seats over to the side of the hanger here. I’d give you a tour but I’d like to get things moving for business purposes. So I’ll be heading directly to New York. That’s where the UN headquarters is right?” Noah looked at the three people in front of him.

Suddenly, Dr Fen spoke up. “One issue that no one has mentioned yet … Flying right down to New York, you know you’ll be seen right? Well, I suppose you’ll be seen no matter what. Dr Lane did you get any instructions?”

“Yes, it seems like there’s no problem. After all the news has already been leaked.” Dr Lane said as she put her hand to her headset which was obviously connected to someone on the ground.

“Oh, one last thing. I’d like you to meet my two companions. Pip! Gaia! Come meet our guests!” Noah called out through the ship. A high pitched squee! could be heard, getting louder as the source came closer to the hanger. Soon, Pip, the small fluffy 3 eyed alien from Pluto was jumping through the door and barrelled directly into Noah’s arms. The astronauts looked on in shock as they started at Pip. Gaia stealthily materialised behind the group, remaining silent.

“Oh, don’t worry she’s a local. we picked her up from Pluto on my way here. She’s very nice.” Noah said casually.

“And my friends told me having a pet Musk Deer was weird. But now I feel like the normal one. This guy has a fur ball from pluto!” Vladymir commented with bemusement.

“No, the deer is still weird.”

“Definitely. And you called it count Deerula. Even your niece thinks that’s cringe.”

The two doctors weren’t going to let Vladymir off easy after he had embarrassed them earlier.