Chapter 75: The Mystery of the Universe

“There is still so much left to do…”

As Jason reviewed the ongoing projects one by one, it became clear that the crew’s living conditions were steadily approaching the standards of the Old World. The ceiling panels radiated artificial sunlight, lush greenery lined the walkways, and oxygen was actively being produced by living plants. Even the most fastidious critic would have to admit that their quality of life was improving drastically.

Because it was the middle of the standard work shift, the streets were relatively empty. The few pedestrians passing by were walking with purpose, some lost in thought, others chatting with a smile. The expressions varied, but the overall mood aboard the ship was overwhelmingly positive.

Eventually, Jason and Dr. Roman arrived at a large patch of grass. This was one of the crown jewels of the environmental terraforming project.

Seeing the lawn, Jason suddenly knelt down and gently brushed his fingers across the blades of grass. They were thick, short, and a vibrant, fresh green. It was incredibly ordinary, yet remarkably resilient.

He missed this. Even though it was just standard soil and common grass, he didn’t even know its scientific name, the simple combination of dirt and greenery filled Jason with a profound sense of nostalgia.

The old lunar bases never had lawns like this. The Noah originally didn’t have anything like this, either. But now… humanity had finally recreated it. They had real soil, real grass, and even a few unrecognized wildflowers blooming in the corners.

Sitting quietly on the grass, feeling the warmth of the artificial sun, enjoying the gentle breeze of the ventilation system, and watching a few tiny ants crawl over his boots… The lazy, peaceful atmosphere gave Jason the fleeting illusion that he was back on Earth.

It was a deep, aching homesickness.

In the Old World, there was a poetic tradition among travelers: when leaving home for a long journey, one would take a small jar of dirt from their homeland. Whenever homesickness struck, looking at that soil was like looking at home itself. But the remnants of humanity aboard the Noah didn’t even have the luxury of taking a handful of dirt when their planet was destroyed.

It was only after losing their home world that they truly realized how beautiful it had been. Perhaps that was just human nature, only appreciating what you had once it was gone forever.

After a long moment, Jason finally shook off the melancholy. He slowly stood up and let out a soft sigh. Humanity couldn’t return to Earth. They could only move forward. There was no going back.

Dr. Roman, who seemed to empathize with Jason’s quiet moment, finally spoke up. “This lawn is the foundation of the natural park we’re building. The designated area isn’t massive, only about 1.2 square kilometers. We spent a massive amount of effort synthesizing soil that mimics Earth’s composition. It currently houses a micro-ecosystem, complete with insects, small herbivores, and a few small carnivores to maintain the balance.”

Hearing the numbers, Jason frowned deeply. 1.2 square kilometers? That wasn’t what he had envisioned at all. According to the original blueprints, the central park was supposed to feature lakes, sprawling meadows, forests, and rock formations. How could 1.2 square kilometers possibly be enough?

“Only 1.2 square kilometers? Why is it so small?”

“Because… our current technology isn’t advanced enough to sustain a massive, closed-loop ecological cycle,” Dr. Roman explained, shaking her head. “I plan to stabilize this micro-ecosystem first before we attempt anything larger.”

“What’s the bottleneck?” Jason asked, genuinely curious.

“To put it simply, we lack both the technology and the resources. If the park is too large, the daily water required for irrigation would be astronomical. We’ve only managed to extract a few cubic kilometers of useable water from Mars, roughly the volume of a large terrestrial lake like Lake Superior. It’s a finite resource, and we cannot afford to waste it.”

Dr. Roman gestured to the grass. “Furthermore, the biological transpiration of the plants releases water vapor into the air. In a closed environment like the Noah, those water molecules won’t form clouds and rain down like they did on Earth. Instead, they will just accumulate in the ship’s atmosphere. The humidity would skyrocket until the entire vessel felt like a suffocating swamp. I don’t think you’d want that.”

Jason nodded slowly. He hadn’t considered the atmospheric physics of an indoor forest.

“To combat the humidity, we have to rely on industrial dehumidifiers to strip the moisture from the air and recycle it back into the water grid,” Dr. Roman added. “If we scale up the park, we have to build exponentially more dehumidifiers, which would drain massive amounts of electricity from the grid. It’s just not practical right now.”

Jason rubbed his chin, fully understanding her point. A small park was easier to control. Humanity simply didn’t have the technical finance to build and maintain massive, self-regulating biomes yet. He had been overly optimistic. Artificial ecosystems were incredibly fragile; they were like walking a tightrope where one slight imbalance could collapse the entire food chain.

Creating an environment that could automatically regulate itself like Earth did was the ultimate dream for these biologists. But for now…

“Alright, let it be,” Jason nodded, accepting the reality. “For where we are right now, 1.2 square kilometers is already a miracle.”

“We’ve also been extracting and compressing massive amounts of atmosphere from Mars to store in the reserve tanks. That way, our plants won’t run out of carbon dioxide anytime soon,” Dr. Roman noted.

“Oh, right,” she added, suddenly remembering something. “There’s an astrophysics symposium this afternoon. I was hoping you could attend and listen in.”

“Oh? What’s the main topic?” Jason asked. If it was important, he would certainly make time for it. His afternoon schedule was relatively clear.

“It’s a theoretical discussion regarding the nature of life, civilization, and intelligence in the universe. A lot of our top biologists, physicists, and cosmologists will be there. The subject matter is… well, I really think you need to hear it for yourself.”

Given Dr. Roman’s serious tone, Jason immediately agreed. Humanity’s understanding of the cosmos was still pitifully small. If the science teams had stumbled onto a new theory, it was his duty as the Federation’s leader to be informed.

…

Since the dawn of intelligence, humanity had looked up at the stars and pondered the mysteries of life and the universe.

Ancient civilizations all had their own distinct models of the cosmos. The ancient Norse believed the world was a flat realm resting in the branches of a cosmic tree. The ancient Egyptians, living along the narrow strip of the Nile, imagined the universe as an elongated box, with the Earth floating on water and the stars suspended from a heavenly ceiling by divine magic. The Babylonians envisioned a solid dome covering the world, with the celestial bodies possessing minds of their own. Meanwhile, ancient Hindu texts described a world carried on the backs of giant elephants.

These mythological views were simply bold guesses based on what primitive people could see with their naked eyes.

It wasn’t until the 4th century BCE that the Greek philosopher Aristotle proposed the slightly more structured “Geocentric Model.” Then, in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by introducing the “Heliocentric Model,” correctly theorizing that the planets orbited the sun.

Humanity’s exploration of the universe had always been a process of continuous correction and refinement. Modern science eventually proved that the sun was just an unremarkable star in the Milky Way, and the Milky Way was just an ordinary galaxy in a vast, sprawling universe.

But what else lay out there in the dark? Perhaps even modern science was operating on flawed assumptions.

For all its history, tiny humanity had never once found proof of extraterrestrial life. Not even a trace. The only anomaly was the alien ship they retrofitted into the Noah. But where were the aliens who built it? No one knew.

Then, barely a year after Earth was destroyed, humanity ventured into deep space and immediately discovered extraterrestrial life on Mars.

Granted, the Martian pathogen was incredibly primitive, even less complex than standard prokaryotic cells. But what did its existence actually signify? What conclusions could be drawn from it?

“This is the primary focus of today’s symposium. We want to pool our collective knowledge to discuss the implications of life, intelligence, and civilization across the universe.”

At the front of the auditorium, a female scientist took the podium to open the meeting. The event had been organized by Professor Thomson, the lead astronomer, Dr. Roman from biology, and another senior astrophysicist named Hazel, who was acting as the moderator.

Jason sat quietly in the audience, attending as an ordinary listener.

He looked around the room. The expressions on the faces of the senior scientists were incredibly grim. Jason could feel a heavy, uncomfortable tension in the air.

It quickly became apparent that discovering the Martian pathogen was not a cause for celebration. It was terrible news.

Jason frowned. Hadn’t we already cured the virus? The medical teams are almost done sequencing its genome. Why are they acting like this is a death sentence?

He leaned forward, suddenly very invested in what the speakers had to say.

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