“Sáahve was the first existence in the world. From the center of the planet, it extended to the skies, and spread its roots at the bottom of the oceans. Its branches gave way to the leaves that created the atmosphere after feeding off of the Sun. When Sáavhe drinks water, the tide goes down and facilitates fishing. When one of its leaves falls, it nurtures the earth and from it, fruits and vegetables are born. When it sleeps during winter, water condenses from its bark in rivers that return to the sea. Thanks to Sáavhve, the rest of the living creatures in the world were able to flourish until our days, and even now, as we speak, the enormous tree keeps my planet alive.”
Dr. Kraussen approached a microscope. He placed a small sample the color of his skin under the crystal and took notes with notebook and pencil that floated behind him.
“But Sáahve isn’t a god”, he continued, as he focused the lens of the gear. “It’s a living being on which millions of organisms depend in symbiosis. Without them, and more specifically, without their deaths, the water and the soil would run out of nutrients for it to draw upon. If life hadn’t started in my planet beyond Sáahve, it’d had consumed everything and died millions of years ago.”
He finished his notes and changed the sample. The new one was of a green slightly shinier.
“However, even if it had the nutrients necessaries and the optimal conditions to survive hundreds of millions of years more, there’s an enemy that will kill Sáahve no matter what.”
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“Who?” Alan asked. He was sitting with the back of the chair upfront, with both arms over it and resting his chin in them.
“Time.” Kraussen changed the sample again. “Sáahve is a living being, and as such, nothing can be done about its life expectancy. It has been born and it has grown, and eventually, it has to die. According to my calculations, it will do so in the next century or two.”
“That…sounds alarming”, Jaime said.
“It is”, the doctor answered. “All my life I’ve seen the consequences of the decadence created by Sáavhe’s old age. When it dies, the oxygen will disappear in a matter of a millennium approximately, then all life in the planet will suffer a quick and painful extinction. Since it’s not possible to prolong Sáavhe’s life, the only option is to replace it. Cloning it it’s not hard with my world’s technology, but by the time it’ll take it to reach adulthood it’d be too late. Accelerating its growth is possible only to a certain point since afterwards it becomes too big to work with, and the time saved in the acceleration still wouldn’t be enough. Thus, an alternative is necessary.”
With his telekinesis, he turned the page in his notebook and kept moving the pencil. From behind, Jaime noticed the writing of another world.
“That’s why you’re making a new plant?”, he asked.
“Precisely. Sáavhe doesn’t create seeds, nor reproduces in any way. But Earth’s flora has many propagation methods and many diverse adaptations to survive even in the most hostile environments. If I can make a plant of easy reproduction, rapid growth and resistant to any environmental condition that’s spread globally, by the time Sáavhe dies it could do so without worries.”
Alan watched him from his chair, as a strange feeling was born in his chest. As he tried to understand the weight over the shoulders of that scientist that wasn’t taller than him.