Age of Cosmic Exploration

Human Calendar 26th year, January...

It had been five years since humanity arrived at the New Solar System. Today was another annual meeting for the human government, and following this meeting, there would be a grand military exercise to showcase the transformation humanity had achieved in the past five years.

Now, the maximum lifespan of human beings had reached 200 years, and it could break through to the limit of 500 years in the next 10 to 20 years. Humanity had been out of Old Earth for 26 years, and that was enough for a new generation to grow up and mature. In these five years, humanity had truly enjoyed the benefit brought on the great technological increase.

Back on Old Earth, when a country achieved a renaissance, all of its people would be able to enjoy the benefits, like modern England or the US. They were the world leaders and their citizens were the happiest on Earth [1].

The group of people on the Hope were in a horrendous state when they left Old Earth. There were only several hundred thousand of them and they had entered the unknown cosmos with fear and anxiety. They came across many threats, and if not for humanity’s will to survive, there wouldn’t be a human race today.

The hardship experienced in these 26 years couldn’t even be put into words, even though the Hope had the archiving habit. In fact, after the human government was officially formed, the archives became an official institution and all the human history, including the 5,000 years on old Earth and everything that happened after they went into space, were recorded into the central mainframe, physical books, and the semi-permanent electromagnetic database. The moment these things became institutionalized, no one, not even Yao Yuan, would have the right to edit them.

However, while editing them was impossible, reading them was entirely possible. In fact, any member of the human race could request to access them whenever they wanted. The several hundred thousand seniors would be in tears reading about the most recent 26 years. The memories of the sacrifice would appear in their minds and they would hope their next generation would appreciate those who had fallen for their ability to live.

But now things were different...

In the year 21, humanity arrived at the New Solar System. The population then was around 400,000 including newborns. The accurate number was closer to 380,000.

At the time, humanity only had one spaceship, the Hope, the mothership that held all human hope. Other than the Hope, there was no other spaceship, and this meant that the Hope was incredibly cramped and crowded, and the market was actually greatly monitored. The price for meat and luxury items was high. Even though nobody was starving, they survived only on staples like grains, celebratory meals were rare.

That combined with the lack of job opportunities meant that most 20-year-olds could only survive on government stipends. Yao Yuan knew this situation couldn’t be allowed to continue for long. He understood that the Hope actually had outlived its use, it could no longer support the increasing population number. Furthermore, as the population increased, the quality of public amenities and environment decreased. This was a vicious cycle, one that would lead to public protests and quite possibly even anarchy...

But now things were different...

Ever since humanity arrived in the New Solar System in the year 21, following the renaissance, the job market slowly opened up. Initially, there were still limitations to the job scope, but as the vacancies increased and the size of the shops increased. In the latest public census, it found that until the year 26, the number of university graduates over 22 years old was in reality only 320,000 people, and half of those were females. This meant that the workforce was choosing their career instead of the other way round. Even as the benefits and social services grew, the number of available workers hadn’t. In fact, by year 26, there was a great lack of human power.

However, a solution was coming. In the general census in year 21, the population number was 380,000, and that shot up to 660,000 in year 26, the number almost doubled. In these past five years, most married women gave birth twice, a great number gave birth to three children, and in fact, the number of women who gave birth to a child every year, weirdly enough, was not small.

Very soon, related reports arrived at Yao Yuan’s table, scientific research pertinent to this phenomenon.

This was a serious issue. In fact, there was research done on it back on old Earth, it was called "the love bridge". It was the blueprint for many famous movies, especially those war flicks. The leads who had met each other for the first time fell in love in times of war and proceeded to get married and have children after war was over. This was more than a fictional convention; in fact, this happened many times in real life as well, where fear translated into love. However, according to the study, after the fear wore off due to the mundane life, problems would pop up. Even those in movies would sometimes end up separating either by the end of the movie or at the beginning of the sequel.

The scientific explanation said that this was because humanity had the natural instinct to procreate for longevity. If the person felt that he was in danger, for the sake of extension of the human line, the body would assume the role of incubator. This was the same for both males and females. However, as the initial danger wore off, the everyday life would settle in, and unless the couple had formed a strong relationship, they would usually go their separate ways.

This was perfectly replicated for these people in space. Ironically, this was better on the Hope because due to the limitation of the environment, salary, safety, and other clauses, most human beings wouldn’t think it would be a good idea to procreate. However, once the City of Light Moon started to get built, the accommodation, medicine, food, and supplies were provided openly. With the advancement in science, those things that were considered expensive back on Earth could now be enjoyed by the general public.

Under such circumstances, the urge that had been held in for a long time exploded. This combined with the government’s initiative to support a big family led to a giant baby boom. In just five years, the human population practically doubled, and almost half of the population was newborns and babies under five year old!

However, no one was really worried about this. This was one of benefits brought on by technological advancement. As more AI robots were created, they were a ubiquitous sight around society. They had spilled out of the military and joined society. They were there in the City of Light Moon and in the construction and mining sites. In fact, humanity had stopped doing manual labor because those jobs had all been taken over by the robots.

Therefore, every human now could enjoy a life that would be limited to old Earth’s elites and rich. There would be private hovercrafts waiting when they went out and the hovercrafts were driven by robots. Every week, they had to spend two to three days to update the robots and the rest of the time could be spent on recreation or study. Accommodation was not an issue. With the expansion of the City of Light Moon, the actual housing area could accommodate more than a million people and the city was still expanding.

Under such circumstances, every family had a smile on their faces. In the gardens around the City of Light Moon, there were sounds of children smiling and laughing, toddlers learning how to walk, and parents as well as grandparents looking on with love. Was this not paradise? Life was not so easy even back on Earth.

This was the benefit of technology that was way more advanced than what Old Earth used to have.

In the 26th year government meeting, Yao Yuan read the document in his hands for a long time. It detailed the progress humanity had made in the New Solar System in the past five years. So far, humanity had built 13 industrial sites, including the three general industrial bases around the City of Light Moon, two energy industrial sites on New Jupiter and New Saturn, as well as the eight mineral industrial sites in the meteorite clusters nearest to Homeward Planet.

The maximum productivity of metal was 300 million tons. With the use of AI robots and nanobots, by now, humanity had 110 motherships the size of the Hope, 350 guardian spaceships, 1,300 plus battleships, and 36,000 plus combat spaceships used by the Defense Unit.

At this point, the first defense line had been completed. It had six permanent armed fortresses, one main fortress, three Genesis Cannon towers, one Requiem Cannon tower, and various innumerable weapons. It was stationed with 3,000 Defense Unit soldiers and their families who wished to migrate with them. Combined with the maintenance workers, the first defense line had about 26,000 people.

By now, the second defense line had started work. Due to its better condition than first defense line, the predicted size of this defense line would be three times the size of first defense line. It was predicted to be completed by year 31.

By now, humanity had 228 Black Star Troopers, 22 Black Star Trooper units, and each unit had their own the Hope-sized mothership, five guardian spaceships, and 20 battleships. Of course, their main battle force was still the troopers themselves. They had 1,500 Space Combat Jets that could combine to form a cannon, 1,500 Third Generation Space Armors, and various equipment to improve their power. The New Solar System was separated into 22 areas, each protected by one Black Star Trooper unit.

By now, humanity’s technology had grown exponentially. They now had plasma reactor technology, energy shield technology, epigranular propulsion weapon technology, super long distance energy refraction technology, and the currently researching large scale epigranular storm weapon technology and many more. In other words, humanity could no longer call themselves a peak level 2 space civilization, they had officially become a level 3 space civilization. In the next 10 years, humanity would approach more level 3 space civilization technologies!

By now, the first step of terraforming Homeward Planet had started. Through the wave laser effect, around 20 percent of the planet’s internal dry ice layer had been melted. In the next three years, the ozone layer around the planet would slowly form to reach the density of the ozone layer of old Earth. Similarly, in the next three years, Homeward Planet’s temperature would continue to rise and that would melt more dry ice and solid ice. Before year 31, cultivation of plants on Homeward Planet and the construction of plenty of oxygen conversion machines would begin.

By now, every human being had taken a shot of the cell-strengthening potion. It was a safe potion that would strengthen the human body from the DNA level. In about 5 to 10 years, the physical condition of the human body would improve by about three to four times. The muscle, bones, organs, spirit, as well as memory would be improved. Since this was a DNA level improvement, there was no worry of regression, and the improvements would only be more pronounced as the generations continued.

These were the many accomplishments humanity had achieved in the past five years. The accomplishments would need around 5,000 thousand years to complete if they were still on old Earth. In the meeting that was broadcasted and had almost 100 percent viewing rate, after Yao Yuan listed off the accomplishments, the applause was so thunderous that the place shook. Many elders in the crowd started to shed tears, tears of joy and excitement.

"I announce that the first five-year stage of humanity’s New Solar System Project has successfully been completed. We’ve achieved a brilliant result, but what’s more brilliant than that is... our future!

"Let us cheer, my friends. This is our home, a paradise that we’ve traded using our sweat and blood, our New Solar System!

"Our home!"

[1] That is factually untrue, unsure whether the author is mocking these 2 countries or he’s really that clueless.