339. Creating life, 6

(Rose)

The landscape was slowly evolving too, because of us.

We had realised over time that above our layer of atmosphere, there were strong cold winds, almost permanent. About two hundred metres high above the highest point in the city. Ana can fly past that natural and invisible barrier, but it will be a struggle for Bleue later.

She is unable to gain any altitude when she flies, for now. Ana however still can with ease, and helped us raise kites all over the city.

Strings rise to the sky, and hold various kites up there in these inert flows.

Their growing network helps us see the flows of atmosphere and temperature changes. The funny part is when we look at how the kites change altitude over time, against one another, you can see the same shapes of waves rolling around as if they were buoys over sea.

They are like buoys, their buoyancy gives us data, for the fluid we can't see.

~

Recently, Bleue and I agreed on a reversal of our usual roles. She's now and for a while the one tending to our pragmatic necessities, while I'm the one working on a dream.

That dream is no less ambitious. It's to have a flying boat. And oddly enough, I'm making noteworthy progress toward that goal.

I had to open my mind to make progress, more than usual. It made my brain hurt like it rarely does. A spark literally hurt my brain one day.

Keep the wood alive, another way. That was the miraculous thought.

Use microbes. Sap. Blood.

Not to let go to waste that intelligence and sudden insight, I asked Bleue to cover for me while I pursued this project now mine.

And here I thought Bleue would be the alchemist of us two, but the surprising idea was mine. And the following work as well.

In the laboratory we've built, I'm mixing different kinds of moulds we've had time to collect, with different solutions of the sap with anti-gravitational property. We have a good harvest from our flying trees above the fountain.

And then, I give the mix a drop of my blood to make it evolve faster, whilst it still carries that ridiculous aspect.

What I want is another life form that can keep the surreal properties of the flying trees going. One we could infuse into planks for a longer time. Usually, as the sap dries, the property fades. I mix it with different oils and solvents to try extending its time.

All these experiments of alchemy had become a new obsession of mine.

Most had poor results, except for two.

A combination worked.

There was one oil, and one micro-organism in which the tree sap could retain its properties almost indefinitely.

And the microbes evolved as I played with them, to become able eventually to produce the same effect by themselves.

Actually, and I could see it with my eyes on proper focus, I created a new species of microbes. It was born in this a-gravitational environment of my vials containing sap. And when the effect of the sap weaken, gravity began to be a growing stress over these little beasts. This specific species managed to evolve in a different way from all the previous ones. Instead of evolving to adapt to gravity, which was fairly common and probably easier; this one adapted to produce its own anti-gravity.

In the rightfully stressful environment, this one made the peculiar choice that will make all the difference. Thank you!

And it worked.

It became self-sustainable, so long I fed it.

So in a way I achieved the transfer of this natural power to a different species. One that will be easier to infuse into building materials like planks in large amounts, and to feed for long times if I'm careful as well.

There's still a lifework to be done, but this success in alchemy got us a significant step closer to that dream.

Bleue looked at me whilst I was playing with vials able to stay and stand still in mid-air where I put them, floating still without weight, or twirling around like spinning tops. Of course I was having some childish fun as well.

B - From a distance, it looks like witchcraft...

R - It's not witchcraft, it's biochemistry.

I replied politely. Before juggling with weightless vials a little longer. It's really fun and their liquid contents twirling inside make them spin faster and faster at times.

Well, it's true that nowadays, witchcraft and biochemistry have similar powers and fields of applications.

But I'd rather do my best to quantify the nature and amounts of things, rather than pray to trinkets and poetry.

And I was able to quantify the strength of my new-born sludge of bacteria.

They can work just as well to counter weight that exceeds their own, so to keep gravity at zero around themselves and a little of their environment.

It doesn't seem logical or intuitive to me. I would have expected the bacteria to just work for their direct body and maybe direct ground, but not the extended environment. Basically I'm not surprised to see the sludge behave as if it had no weight, but I didn't expect it to also lift the vial that carries it and counter its additional weight.

The trees do that also, but it's a miracle for me that this strain copied the property to this extent. I didn't expect it.

Well, reality doesn't often care about what seems logical to me. And these bacteria surely have their own logic to care for. Regardless of the reason, they do keep everything solid bound to them also floating, to the best of their ability and number.

I quantified that strength by volume of sludge at known concentrations, because they're hard to weight alone.

It will take further research, and grow higher yield of that new species, but I believe we should be able to make some building materials that able to neutralise their own weight against Earth's pull, at least for days. Ideally weeks even.

Which means in the future, when this technology is perfected, we could realistically have a flying ship. Not an airplane, but a flying ship, able to stand still from simple buoyancy.

All thanks to the powers of evolution in our day and age, and biochemistry.

Because in this world, these two forces have clearly become as powerful as gods.

~

I tasked Bleue to create an optimised, semi-industrial process, of food making for the new sludge of bacteria.

We have more than enough crops for all of us.

What we need is to refine some of it to keep our microscopic friends happy. If they're not, they might become stressed to find other sources of food. We don't want that.

So far I think they enjoy starch and sugar. Let's focus on that.

Bleue therefore began processing potatoes and fruits to create juices, jams and liquors.

The idea is to try a varied range of products to optimise our yield and our microscopic friends happiness.

We even began using the factory big tanks. What didn't work for the bacteria was used as fertiliser over other fields.

My winged friends oversaw the heating and boiling of the mixtures. Bleue with a giant spoon, mixing the broth slowly. Ana watching carefully that it didn't boil too much. All we miss is a long pointy hat for Bleue to wear and the picture would have been perfect for father.

In the end, after weeks of trials, Bleue succeeded. She created a disgusting soup of acidic fruits. It tasted like vinegar to us, barely edible anymore, but the anti-gravitational bacterium loved that one clearly.

I saw the flasks I fed with this jump higher than ever, before stabilising at null weight.

They will grow, and live well. They will burn chemical and otherworldly energy to create a force that counteracts Earth's gravitational pull, more than one-fold. We have everything we needed.

This knowledge allows so many things to happen, I'm a little sad all I can imagine is merely a flying ship.

~

In the lab, I spent days multiplying our population of bacteria, using every bottle we could find or make.

After a while over that excited rush, I realised this step should wait for after the construction has begun.

I therefore stopped this production abruptly as I realised my mistake. I was too happy with the result.

I went to refocus on the missing tool. An engine for our circular blade so we could work wood into planks and other shapes easily. We need to be able to craft a boat first, obviously. But the hardest part is already secured.

I returned to the city and its industrious outskirts for the research of such a tool.

Bleue all the meanwhile kept our home working well.

She was now sewing clothes using her own shed feathers. We will all look like birds soon enough.

I prefer the feel of linen and regular cloth on me, but I still use the seagull jacket she made when it's cold.

Bleue has our late mother's talent with a thread and a needle. I'm always impressed.

Looking at how we're dressed now, we're growing and evolving this way too I guess.

~