Chapter 18: Purification Tree

After everyone regrouped, they spent the rest of the day helping Eva clean up her home. Though Noah spent most of the time throwing away broken and burnt furniture and pieces of wood, while Eva used magic to re grow almost everything else. Eventually they had enough and decided to stop working once the sun started to set. Noah leant against the newly repaired balcony railing and watched the light fade, a cool breeze blowing against his face.

Eva walked up quietly and leaned against the railing next to Noah, her right shoulder brushed up against Noah’s arm. Noticing her presence, Noah turned towards Eva, who had closed her eyes, soaking up the evening sun.

The warm orange red glow illuminated her face, and the wind calmly moved her hair in waves, further enhancing her beautiful figure. Noah stared, a little too long most people would argue. His face was also red, though not because of the sunset.

“Hehe, you gonna keep staring at me?” Eva opened her right eye and smiled knowingly. Noah turned his head away and continued to watch the sunset.

“Ah, sorry, I was just… never mind.” Noah sighed, too tired to begin making excuses.

“No, its fine.” Eva moved slightly closer. “I wanted to say thank you. I’m not sure how things would have turned out if you guys weren’t here.”

Noah turned his eyes towards Eva and sighed. “Well, judging by what Nina said, it was their plan for us both to be here anyway, a test. But that magic you did today was super cool. I never thought I’d see something like that in my lifetime. Also, though my first experience with a dragon was… unpleasant, I’ve got to say, they’re pretty impressive.”

Noah leaned forward on the railing and turned his head to a platform jutting out from the world tree below them. On it, a sleeping, Sapphire coloured dragon could be seen curled into a ball. It was yet to awaken ever since it collapsed after the fight. Though according to Eva, it would not be too long until its wounds were healed by the magic being infused into it via the world tree. It was like a wireless charging pad… for dragons.

“Hey you two! Come inside, dinner’s ready!” Nina called out from the kitchen area, her face covered in soot.

“Uh Nina, why are you covered in ash? I thought you already washed up?” Eva questioned

“Oh… uhh, this is from the oven, I think I’ve slightly overcooked the apple pie Gaia showed me.” Nina said, her voice becoming quieter as she spoke.

“Haha, I think you’ve more than overcooked it”, Eva giggled in response.

“Am I the only one wondering why we’re eating apple pie for dinner?” The group tilted their heads at Noah’s question. As if they genuinely thought it was normal to eat sweets for dinner.

I guess girls are girls no matter what universe they’re from huh.

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Meanwhile, in a highly classified research laboratory, a group of scientists were having a discussion while on their break.

“It’s honestly dumbfounding, the gel has properties of a living being, its carbon based, except the molecules don’t act according to typical standards of energy conservation. We now know sugars are used to fuel the healing properties. But the actions of each molecule are unnatural, reactions occur contrary to our current understanding of chemistry, as if the gel is alive and it’s somehow forcing reactions to go certain ways, using the energy within the sugar to brute force it.” A young scientist complained as he scratched his head.

“Well, we’ve only had a day to work with it, and President Williams said we can have our fun with this sample so there’s no need to rush. It’s truly an exciting time for this old fogey. I never would have thought I’d get to analyse real alien technology.” The elderly chief science officer rubbed the young scientist on his shoulder, taking a sip of his cheap black coffee.

“I agree, but remember, with enough energy, and the correct application of said energy, anything is possible. Hey… what if the sugar within the gel is only used as a catalyst, but the rest of the energy comes from the metabolic activity of the subject it is applied to? After all it doesn’t do anything to inorganic matter right?” A middle-aged chemist mused as she rubbed her chin.

“Alright, let’s see if your hunch is correct. Hey! Someone grab the monitoring equipment. Also, who wants…” The elderly scientist was cut off by the female chemist as she firmly grabbed his shoulder and narrowed her eyes.

“Ok, looks like Sandra is our volunteer this time around… it was her idea, so it’s only fair.” The elderly scientist said with a strained smile.

As scientists from government agencies across the world continued their study of the rejuvenating gel, the online community continued to discuss the news about Noah with great fervour.

User: E_Girl_69: Hey, did you guys see that gel? Those astronauts were like 40 right? But they looked like College grads. Any news on when we can get our hands on that?

User: Diana_is_alive: Yasss, honestly, my acne is acting up ever since exams started. I could save so much money on makeup if I had that gel, seriously if the government pulls some bullshit and says it’s not safe for humans, they’re gonna lose the female vote come next election.

User: Timmo54: In before the conspiracy theorists call it a government hoax, there is live footage of all this, they can’t edit it live. Also, everyone saw that spaceship flying over the city so its real. Also, even if Noah the alien is allowed to start selling the gel, there’s no way he can keep up with the demand. I’m sure there are women like you all over the world who would kill for it.

User: E_Girl_69: Trueeee. Speaking of Noah the alien, he’s kinda cute right? Like isn’t he literally an angel with that halo? I wonder if he has wings.

User: Pepe420: LMAO CHICKS ARE ALREADY SIMPING OVER AN ALIEN. LITERAL THOTS IN THIS CHAT.

User: Diana_is_alive: Ok virgin, I think you left your mountain dew on your caps lock.

User: Popcornboi: Hah rekt. The gel was cool and all but that ship was like a man’s dream, I would do anything to take a ride in it. My brother works in a building near the UN, so he saw it land and take off this morning, it has some seriously advanced tech built into it.

User: The_real_Gaia: Yeah, and how good was that livestream from that super-hot chick Gaia and her cute pet Pip right? I think she could make it big online.

User: E_Girl_69: Of course she’d make it big, she’s literally an alien AI right? And she’s not even hot right @Diana_is_alive? But that little fluffy alien is cuuuuuute!

User: Diana_is_alive: OMGG I wanna squeeze it to much! The way it floated around and made those cute little squeels was adorable. I’ll send you some fan art I found online.

User: The_real_Gaia: aha, yeah Pip is great but Gaia is also super hot right?

User: Pepe420: EX DEE, IMAGINE IF THIS ACC WAS ACTUALLY THE AI AND IT WAS FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS, THAT WOULD ACTUALLY BE PATHETIC LMAO!

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“Hey Gaia, why are you curled up in a ball and sobbing in the corner? The pie wasn’t that bad.” Nina said with her arms crossed, looking slightly offended by Gaia’s actions.

“No… the pie was fine, a little too crispy but fine. I just… I really hate the internet.” Gaia said with a pouting expression as she pulled pip into a hug, who was mid food coma after eating a jar of rejuvenating gel.

“You hate the internet? What did you get flamed online after putting up the livestream?” Noah asked as he rubbed his full belly.

“Well, I was commenting in a thread online and then… No! Noah! I’m not showing you!” Gaia shrieked as Noah jumped over, taking her phone away and reading through the messages.

“hahaha! Ok I’m screenshotting this and keeping it for later. I think this would look nice framed on my bedroom wall, don’t you think so Pip?” Noah said while laughing uncontrollably as he passed the phone over to Nina, who also burst into a haughty laugh.

Pip, who was half asleep gave a wheeze in response, while Eva just gave Gaia a side hug. “I’m not sure what they’re laughing about, but I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

The next morning, Noah’s group was getting ready to leave. Eva walked over with a bag of seeds and a pot with a small tree covered in shifting blue green leaves. It was the tree which Eva said could purify the air. Noah decided to dub it the ‘purification’ tree, not very creative, but marketable. Though in reality, this was just a ‘super tree’ since normal trees also filtered our greenhouse gasses. Given the general reluctance by many governments on Earth to actually act on climate change, planting these around coal fire power stations and densely populated cities could help alleviate some of the future effects of climate change.

“Oh thanks, I hope you enjoyed the apples we brought… despite Nina’s cooking. Let me know what you think of the other fruits, and I’ll make sure to bring more next time.” Noah said as he put the purification tree and its seeds in his storage.

“Hey, without me you wouldn’t have been able to fight off that corrupted dragon.” Nina huffed, turning her head to the side in indignation.

“Doesn’t make you a good cook though…” Gaia whispered.

“Hahaha ok, ok, well Nina is going to stay with me until the dragon wakes up, I’ll let you know if we get any new information that could help, but you guys are free to visit whenever you want. I hope to come visit your world soon as well. Oh and remember to place those trees at least a hundred meters apart, they can grow huge if there are enough toxins, not as big as the world tree, but I’ve seen one about 500m tall.” Eva said cheerfully as Noah’s group left.

After reaching the ship, Gaia directly teleported them to Earths solar system. Outside of the cockpit window was a large white planet. Thick clouds of sulfuric acid covering the entire atmosphere. “Wait, why did you take us to Venus?” Noah asked Gaia, who was sitting in the co-pilots chair next to him, her feet resting on a control panel.

“Well, I figured this would be the best place to see how effective those purification trees are right? I mean Venus’s atmospheric composition is literally 96% CO2. So, if they grow well here then we know they’ll work on Earth, right?” Gaia explained her logic.

Noah could see where Gaia’s logic was coming from and agreed. “Well, I guess that’s okay, we can inform Earth about it when we arrive…”

“Already done, I just posted on every site I’ve joined. Insta, FB, Reddit, only fans.” Gaia said as she tapped away on her phone.

Noah took control of the ship and guided it down through the thick atmosphere of Venus. The visibility so poor he had to turn on the ship’s low visibility software, which filtered through different exterior sensors to provide the best picture when simple cameras were not enough. Landing on the planet was largely uneventful, far less exciting than the low tech rockets Earth was still using.

A barren rocky landscape blanketed in a thick fog spread out in front of them. Noah was beginning to doubt the ground would be fertile enough for the seeds to germinate, however considering they were originally from volcanic environments, they stood a chance at least. Noah and Gaia exited the ship with a container filled with about 500 seeds, each seed was about the size of a really fat ant, a unit of measurement Gaia had decided was appropriate.

Noah activated his wings, golden specks falling onto the rocky surface as his wings emerged from his back. Rather than exhausting himself by flying, Noah used his wings to leap hundreds of meters, where he would dig a small hole with his plasma blade and plant a seed. Gaia did the same, except as a being made of energy, she could re-join Noah at will and separate, they were essentially leapfrogging off one another, each taking turns to plant a seed.

The two of them finished planting all 500 of the seeds in a large rectangular plot after a few hours. Noah wasn’t sure how many would grow but he had tens of thousands of seeds still in his storage, so he wasn’t worried. If necessary, he could just go and ask for some more.

With their experiment complete, Noah and Gaia returned to the ship and took off for Earth. After they had left the atmosphere, down on the barren surface of Venus, a small green stem peaked through the hard rocky soil.