Jason slowly regained consciousness, his eyes fluttering open to the harsh white light of a small sterile room. Several scientists in white lab coats were standing nearby, quietly updating digital charts.
What happened? Did I blackout?
The pungent smell of antiseptic hit his nose. He squinted and looked around; it was a small medical infirmary. He must have been brought here after collapsing.
Fragments of a vivid dream lingered in his mind, a vision of a cluster of stars, and a sensation of himself transforming into a blazing sun. He couldn't tell if it had been a hallucination or something else entirely.
His body was hooked up to various monitoring instruments, heart rate sensors, brainwave scanners and an IV drip was taped to his arm. He glanced at the bag; it was a standard glucose-saline solution.
Two soldiers from the security, guarding at the door. Their expressions were serious, but their posture was relaxed, indicating that the Noah was not in a state of emergency.
Seeing this, Jason finally breathed a sigh of relief. Aside from a slight lingering dizziness, he felt physically excellent, better than he had in months, actually.
No... that wasn't quite it. The entire world seemed to have shifted slightly in his perception. Everything felt sharper, clearer, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly how.
"Sir, you're awake!" A young nurse exclaimed, noticing Jason sitting up. "The doctor said you collapsed from exhaustion. You need to pay more attention to your rest schedule. I'll go get the senior medical officer."
Before she could finish her sentence, she hurried out of the room.
Jason didn't care about doctors. He swung his legs out of bed and ripped the IV tape off his arm himself. Rest? Who has time for rest? He felt perfectly fine.
"Mateo, how long was I out?" he asked the Special Forces soldier stationed at the door.
"Reporting, Sir. Ten hours and thirty-six minutes since you were found," the soldier replied, snapping to attention. "Commander Austin found you unconscious last night and had you transported here immediately."
"We maintained strict operational silence. Only a select few know about the incident."
Jason nodded, relieved. His biggest fear was that his collapse might have triggered a panic. He was currently the backbone of the Noah. If he went down, the resulting power vacuum could lead to chaos. No one else had the authority to hold the disparate factions together.
Fortunately, it had happened during the night cycle. He trusted Austin to handle the cover-up.
Ten hours of sleep. That was probably the longest he had rested in six months. No wonder he felt so energetic.
"Alright. Good work," Jason said, standing up and stretching. "You two can return to your posts. There's no need for a guard detail here anymore. And... tell the doctor I'm fine."
"Yes, Sir!" The two soldiers saluted in unison.
Jason thought of something then he threw on his jacket, tidied his appearance, and hurried out. The nurse's advice about "more rest" went in one ear and out the other.
He found Austin in the security office.
"Austin, I've been thinking," Jason said, barging into the room without knocking. "If humanity is going to survive and prosper, we have a massive problem. Population."
The words came from the gut. While he was unconscious, the vision of the star cluster had haunted him. Fifty thousand stars. It was too few. Too dim.
Fifty thousand people. What could they actually accomplish on a galactic scale? The Old World had a population of seven billion.
After the brutal attrition of the Agricultural Transformation and the launch of the Noah, they were left with a severe labor shortage. The survivors were highly skilled, yes, but fifty thousand people was barely enough to maintain a small city, let alone an interstellar civilization.
"Captain! You're awake!" Austin stood up in surprise. Even though he was now the Head of Security for a civilian government, he still habitually called Jason by his military rank.
"I am. But forget that. Why were you looking for me last night?" Jason asked.
Austin paused, his expression shifting uneasily. "Last night... I felt something. A sun rising in my chest. Burning hot. I don't know if it was a hallucination or what... I asked around, and others felt it too."
"My first thought was you, Captain. That's why I came to your quarters and found you unconscious. Now the ship is buzzing with rumors. They're talking about the 'Son of God' again. Calvin's following is growing."
Austin looked uncomfortable. He was a man of science and logic, a pragmatist. Facing a mysterious supernatural phenomenon left him feeling uncomfortable.
"Don't ask me. I'm not sure what happened either." Jason was silent for a moment, then he recounted the vision he had seen while unconscious, the stars, the darkness, and the sudden ignition.
The two men looked at each other, struggling to process the impossible.
"Perhaps..." Austin said slowly, "The Enhanced Human physiology has untapped potential. We know the human brain utilizes only a fraction of its capacity. Maybe the genetic modification unlocked something we don't understand yet."
"Did you feel anything else?" Jason asked.
"I just feel... vigorous. Full of energy. Nothing negative."
"If it's not hurting anyone, we'll shelf it for now. I'll have Dr. Roman and his team look into it later." Jason shook his head.
Since he couldn't solve the mystery right now, he compartmentalized it. He had bigger issues.
"Austin, listen to me. I've been running the numbers. The population bottleneck is our biggest existential threat. What's the exact headcount right now?"
"51,223 souls," Austin replied instantly. He had the numbers memorized.
"Fifty-one thousand. It's too low. What's the demographic breakdown?"
"26,298 males, 24,925 females. The average age is 28.6 years. There are almost no children, and very few elderly over the age of sixty. The vast majority are of prime childbearing age."
Jason nodded. The gender ratio was stable, and the age distribution was technically a "workforce sweet spot." Most of the older individuals were senior scientists or essential experts. But while a workforce of young adults was great for immediate labor, it was a ticking time bomb for the species.
"So, theoretically, if everyone started procreating, we could increase the infant population by a maximum of twenty thousand within a year?"
"That... is the theoretical maximum," Austin wiped sweat from his forehead. "But practically? Impossible. We've run the census. There are only about a thousand established couples on board. Most people aren't looking to get pregnant in the middle of a deep space with no guaranteeof tomorrow. We currently have only sixteen confirmed pregnancies."
"Besides, Captain, our current infrastructure couldn't support a baby boom."
Sixteen.
It was a pathetic number. If they only produced sixteen new humans a year, the species was doomed.
Their current population pyramid was shaped like a diamond, bulging in the middle, empty at the top and bottom. Right now, the workforce was strong, and they didn't have to spend resources caring for the elderly or children. But fast forward thirty years?
When this generation aged out, there would be no one to replace them. The population would crash. Civilization would wither and die in the void.
Jason had to think decades ahead.
But humans weren't livestock. You couldn't just force them to breed. The government couldn't mandate love.
Human reproduction was a massive energy investment. It required courtship, stability, marriage, ten months of gestation, and then eighteen years of resource-intensive child-rearing.
In a high-stress survival environment, people naturally stopped having kids.
It was a sociological paradox known well on Earth: The more educated and developed a society, the lower the birth rate. The higher the stress, the lower the desire for children.
These were the three massive hurdles Jason faced:
* High average education level (lowers birth rate).
* High stress/workload (lowers birth rate).
* Economic instability (lowers birth rate).
Everyone on the Noah fit all three criteria perfectly.
Jason rubbed his temples. He couldn't think of a silver bullet. They didn't have "family planning" restrictions, yet the birth rate was approaching zero.
"We need to encourage relationships," Jason mused. "We need to promote marriage. Eventually, we'll need policy incentives for childbirth."
"Yes, Sir," Austin replied. But his tone was hollow. As a soldier, he had no idea how to engineer romance.
"How is the Lunar Society platform doing?" Jason asked.
"Well, we've essentially turned the internal forums into a dating app," Austin said with a wry smile. "The engagement is high. But since the incident yesterday, the feeds are clogged with talk of the 'Sun,' the 'Son of God,' and that cult of personality stuff again..."
"I'll have Roman research it thoroughly ," Jason waved it off.
He still wondered about the "Enhanced Human" factor. If the enhancement serum or whatever agent had changed him, could be replicated for everyone, perhaps it would make them stronger, smarter... better equipped to survive.
As for the hero worship? It was a double-edged sword. Right now, he needed their loyalty. He couldn't afford to tarnish his own image. He would deal with the sociological fallout later.
"Captain, I just realized something," Austin said, raising his voice. "The biggest barrier might be simpler than we think. Our living conditions are garbage. We're all living in modular metal crates. Groups of people are sharing communal latrines. Who wants to raise a baby in a tin can?"
"I think privacy and housing quality are the major choke points."
"You're right," Jason sighed, looking around the metal room. "If we want them to build families, we have to give them a home."
"Get the engineering leads ready. I want to launch a new project."