The next day Pauline again prepared to meet Jocelyne, but this time she decided it was best to take Darius, Harris and Grace with her. After all, they had already seen the city and there was no need to explore it further.

When the four went down to the hotel lobby they found Jocelyne and her staff already waiting for them. Pauline noticed that the girl had slight bags under her eyes, a sign that she hadn't slept much. "Have you rested enough?" she asked her.

Jocelyne shrugged: "With the new elections approaching, I don't have much time to rest. Don't worry, I wouldn't do this job if I weren't ready for sleepless nights" she replied with a smile.

"Do you expect to be re-elected?"

"The polls show that currently most of the popular support is on my side"

Jocelyne was not a person particularly attracted to power, because she knew that power as well as privileges also brought a lot of trouble. However, she wanted to make sure that the people remained united until the emergency situation that had been going on for three years was resolved. Once the war between humans and dinosaurs was finally over, she would then be happy to abandon her position and give way to someone else; but until that happened, she wanted to stay in office to make sure everything was okay. Fortunately, the people were on her side of her: thanks to all the well-being that the Great Republic of Beleriard had experienced during her tenure, the people loved her, which meant that she could still enjoy the majority of votes.

Of course, that didn't mean she could rest on her laurels and not think about re-election. Many parties had formed during those three years and their advertising campaigns were designed to impress the masses. If she wanted to keep popular support high, Jocelyne still had to participate in rallies, interviews, television shows and so on. Which, coupled with the fact that she too had to deal with matters of state and a foreign queen, left her very little time to rest.

Despite this, she managed to hide her tiredness quite well, thanks to a great willpower… and a good dose of morning coffee. "So, your majesty, what does your program foresee for today?" she asked her as they got into the car.

Pauline didn't get any hair on her tongue: "I thought carefully tonight. I have evaluated multiple possible scenarios, and I have realized that lord Sobek's proposal is indeed the best of all. By doing that, we can really put a stop to the war and solve many of our problems. However, before accepting, I have to make sure that lord Sobek can really keep his promises"

Jocelyne toyed with a lock of her hair. "I understand what you want. You want me to tell you how we produce so much food, even if we don't practice agriculture or livestock"

"We want to create a world based on trust, right?" answered the queen. "Let me see your secret, show me that solving the famine is possible, and you will dispel all doubts from my soul"

Jocelyne smiled: "Of course, I agree. I'll show you immediately". She turned to the driver: "Take us to the food production center, please"

The man behind the wheel didn't have it repeated twice and started the engine. Very quickly the vehicle began to speed through the streets, which fortunately had little traffic due to the hour, obviously followed by the usual escort. After half an hour the car reached the outskirts and drove out of the city, until it reached a large structure located among the trees near the highway, from which trucks carrying tons of food continually came out.

"This is where we produce everything we eat" Jocelyne said, gesturing to the queen and her companions to get out of the car.

Pauline, Darius, Harris and Grace looked at each other in confusion. The building was quite large, but could it really provide for the needs of an entire nation?

The group entered through the sliding door and were greeted by a slightly tall man in a white coat. "Madam president!" he exclaimed as soon as he saw them. "Forgive my inappropriate clothing, we did not expect a visit today"

Jocelyne shook his hand, then introduced him to Pauline: "Your majesty, this is Will Rodman, the manager of this place"

"Nice to meet you" Pauline greeted him, and so did the others. As Darius stepped forward, however, Will became even more excited: "Mr. Tanz! I've heard of you. I'm a big fan of you, it's an honor for me to have you here. Your research on space and ion engines is incomparable"

"Thank you, but I can't take credit for the work of my scientists" Darius replied with a smile. "You, rather... you are quite young to already be an executive"

"In fact, I shouldn't have been, but my previous boss, Steven Jacobs, was kicked out for being involved in illegal experiments" Will replied. "So I took the place"

The man seemed to want to say something else, but Jocelyne interrupted him: "Mr. Rodman, these people wish they could see our means of production. Can you show them to our guests?"

"Uh… sure! No problem, follow me!" Will said, heading for an elevator.

The group followed him and entered the cabin. Will pressed the button for the second floor and the elevator slowly began to rise. When the doors finally opened, the group found themselves in front of a glass window... and beyond that window, there was something that made Pauline, Harris, Darius and Grace open their mouths!

There were trees, piles of meat, fish ponds, and around them were robotic arms that gathered fruit or meat and inserted tubes into them. But the singular thing was that the instant the fruit was detached from a branch, a second fruit grew back at instant speed! And the same was true of meat, fish, whatever food was produced behind that window! "What... what is this?" Harris murmured without a word.

"This, my gentlemen, is a masterpiece of genetic engineering" Will said with a smile. "An extraordinary creation that lord Sobek made using the powers of the Mother Cell!"

Nobody understood those words. No one actually seemed to be able to understand anything of what was happening. Jocelyne almost laughed at the shocked faces of the people of Niger.

"Will, what are you doing? Today the building should not be open to visitors!" growled an annoyed voice. The faces of those present turned and saw a large velociraptor walking towards them in great strides.

"Oh, right, better introduce you" Will said. "Blue, these people are from the Prettania Kingdom. This woman, in particular, is the queen. Your Majesty, this is Blue, one of the most intelligent dinosaurs, to the point that he is called a 'scientist' by them"

"It is the title given to me by the pack leader" Blue said, pointing to the moon on her forehead with pride. "Forgive my rude methods, I wasn't expecting visitors"

"No problem. Rather, explain to me how these work… like this" Pauline didn't know how to define those kinds of infinite mangers.

"Actually, we are still trying to understand it. Not even Lord Sobek knows for sure how he created them, so he asked me and the humans to study them to learn their secrets" Blue replied. "From what we have understood so far, all of these are plants, even those that produce meat and fishes, but they can synthesize different types of proteins, minerals and vitamins to make different foods. They also possess hyper-accelerated growth, like that of bamboo, but do not deteriorate thanks to a particular cell regeneration process similar to that of jellyfish or lobsters. These combined factors allow these plants to continuously produce tons and tons of food without ever deteriorating, all at the price of a few sunlight and a little water and fertile soil"

Darius looked like he just got hit on the head; as the most expert of all of scientific things, he too was the one who understood Blue's words best, and was amazed by the characteristics of those plants. Pauline, on the other hand, could see the extraordinary use that could be made of such tools: with them, the production of food would be practically infinite, with minimal effort and cost on the part of the people who would only have to deal with the collection and transportation. Grace also saw its potential. Harris, on the other hand, was more interested in the first part of Blue's speech: "How is possible that lord Sobek doesn't know the secret of these plants? If he was the one who created them..."

"The Mother Cell allows you to create and alter life forms, but understanding how it works on a scientific basis is another challenge" Blue explained. "This is why the pack leader asked us to study them: he wants us to understand the secrets of these plants so that we can one day clone or artificially replace them"

"Why does he want you to do this?" Grace asked confused. "He can't produce others?"

"Oh, no, he can create as many as he wants. However, the pack leader wishes humans and dinosaurs not completely dependent on him. He wants us to understand how these plants work so that when he's gone, we can still create new ones if needed" Blue replied.

Pauline felt her body quiver as she remembered Sobek's words: 'I'll make sure you can independently produce the food you need'. He hadn't lied then… he was really willing to give up such an advantage in order to achieve his ideal of coexistence with him. Pauline could understand Sobek's thought: even if he could produce those species of plants indefinitely, anyway he would die one day. The simplest solution would have been to create as many mangers as possible and leave them to posterity; however, that would have left the question of whether they were enough. But if someone discovered their secret and managed to replicate it... then Sobek could have died in peace knowing that famine would become a subject of history.

It was surprising, but soon after Will surprised her even more: "Besides, you have no idea of all the things we could achieve if we revealed the secrets of these plants. Potentially, their regenerative capacity could be applied to other living tissues. We could treat cancer, tumors, extremely rare genetic diseases, and even... Parkinson's disease or even Alzheimer's. Here in front of us there is the key to cure all diseases"

Pauline widened her eyes: cure Alzheimer's? It seemed like a utopia. But if indeed the regenerative properties of those strange plants could have been applied to humans as well, then would it really have been possible? Would humanity finally have the universal panacea, the cure for all diseases?

And then, it was Darius the one who spoke: "Resolving famine and curing disease are just some of the things we could do if we found out how to replicate this regeneration process. Think about it: the problem of food in space would no longer be a problem, finally allowing us to establish colonies in orbit, on the Moon or even on the nearest planets. It would be enough for us to have only one of these plants and any problems related to nutrition would be solved, and perhaps even that of oxygen since they are plants anyway. Furthermore, if we were able to replicate their speed of growth even only partially, we could start a terraforming process of an entire planet in just a few months…". Darius grabbed Will by the sleeve and Blue by one of his feathers: "Doctor Rodman, Doctor Blue, if the negotiations between our two nations go well, you will have my word that I will fully support your research! I will put the best scientists on the planet to work and summon the best geneticists in the world! Here in front of us is the key not only to solving the problem of food and disease, but also to definitively start the space age! We will finally no longer be tied to this world and will be able to expand to other planets! Indeed, if we discovered the secret of these plants, we could one day start interstellar missions and explore new solar systems!"

"We would be honored, Mr. Tanz" Will replied, embarrassed by all those tributes. Blue in turn seemed rather uncomfortable.

Pauline knew that Darius, as a scientist, could understand the potential of something before others. And seeing his excitement in him, he became convinced that this research could indeed bring extraordinary results.

Jocelyne put a hand on her shoulder: "The search is still ongoing, but we can still count on lord Sobek. If you accept our proposal, he will create plants like these for you that will provide your nation and all those who wish to join the Eden Union with all the food they need" she said. "So, are you satisfied?"

Pauline had no doubt when she opened her mouth: "Yes"

*******

That same day, Pauline returned to Sobek, who had not moved from where he had found him last time. The huge dinosaur stared at her with her fiery eyes. "Have you made your decision?" he simply asked.

The Queen of Prettania nodded: "I accept your proposal, lord Sobek. I intend to help create this new world with you"

Sobek smiled, or at least he seemed to, because his big teeth made it impossible to tell if he was smiling or grinning: "So, the Eden Union is officially born today. The time of the NMWA is over"

And while the dinosaur pronounced those words, Pauline felt as if a cold wind had hit her, as if that simple sentence were a real sentence that sanctioned the fate of the world, closing an era and opening a new one.