The First Superhuman: Rebuilding Civilization from the Moon

It wasn’t just him; everyone was on edge.

The scientific team’s anxiety stemmed from their burning curiosity to explore the unknown. When the seawater specimen studies failed to yield results, they realized that the Gaia entity’s biological complexity might far exceed their expectations.

Jason, however, felt a completely different kind of anxiety. An overwhelming, suffocating sense of dread was urging him to get the fleet away from this planet as soon as possible!

This feeling was growing stronger by the day, whispering of an impending, extinction-level crisis. Unable to pinpoint the actual source of the threat, he could only heighten his internal vigilance. Perhaps this Gaia entity was far more dangerous than the Federation’s initial threat models suggested. Perhaps the planet held undiscovered, lethal secrets. Or perhaps... they weren’t dealing with a biological Gaia at all, but a highly advanced artificial intelligence?

Drones and satellites were tirelessly scanning the planet’s surface, particularly the remote regions still blanketed in the radioactive smog of the nuclear strikes.

Suddenly, Jason had a flash of inspiration and picked up his secure communication line. He needed to ask Calvin if he was sensing any similar premonitions.

Since his release from confinement, Calvin had taken charge of the Federation’s entertainment sector. He was thriving in his old profession, producing movies, games, and television series for the civilian populace. But when asked about the current situation, Calvin admitted he was feeling the exact same sense of impending doom!

"I don’t know what the crisis is! But it’s devastating. Captain, we have to run! Run!" Calvin’s voice trembled with terror over the line. "My instincts are screaming at me too, which means the fleet isn’t safe. Whatever this crisis is, it’s going to reach the deep space observation platform, and we’re 900,000 kilometers away!"

He urged that humanity needed to abandon this strange planet as quickly as possible, ideally within a single year. Once they jumped to faster-than-light travel, the danger would pass. But what exactly was the threat? Calvin had no idea; he only possessed an instinctual timeline.

Jason hung up the receiver, his face etched with frustration as he rubbed his temples. He was deeply conflicted. Should they just flee without any concrete evidence?

The universe wasn’t short on habitable worlds, but a Gaia entity was here, alongside a massive wealth of unexplored scientific data. It would be a monumental shame to just turn tail and run.

"A Singularity like Gaia is astronomically rare... galactically rare!"

Jason shook his head and carefully analyzed the tactical situation. First, the Federation needed to confirm whether this Gaia entity actually existed in a cohesive state and if it could be domesticated.

They didn’t want to kill it outright. A nuclear bombardment on the ocean might not wipe out all the physical algae, but it could permanently shatter the collective consciousness.

According to the Senior Scientists’ hypothesis, Gaia was formed by an orderly, interconnected network of biological matter but not every isolated clump of algae was ’Gaia’. It functioned like human brain cells: if you scrambled and relocated every cell in a person’s brain, even if the individual cells survived the trauma, the person’s consciousness would cease to exist.

The orbital bombardments had already struck numerous oceanic regions. Gaia might already be severely damaged, but the Federation had no way to measure the extent of it. Though, compared to a human, the entity was certainly much harder to kill.

Second, after intense strategic debates, over seventy percent of the Federation’s high command had concluded that if this creature could truly be tamed, the industrial and technological benefits would be limitless. Given the astronomical rewards, it was worth taking a calculated risk.

"If a genuine threat materializes, we can always abandon the planet and run! There are plenty of unclaimed star systems out there," the command team had reasoned. "Faster-than-light travel is our absolute safeguard. Once we jump, nothing will be able to track us."

That was the consensus. But how did one tame a Gaia entity?

No one had a single clue.

Without any brilliant strategies, they could only unravel the organism’s biological nature step-by-step through standard research. Understanding its basic traits and characteristics was the logical first step.

It’s just too slow, Jason thought.

He kept his crippling anxiety hidden from the public. Speaking out of turn without evidence would only incite civilian panic. He only shared his concerns with his inner circle.

Marcus, Austin, and a few key officers trusted Jason implicitly. They all agreed that given the potential danger, they needed to accelerate their operations. They couldn’t afford a slow, methodical research phase when the timeline for results was completely unknown.

If every delayed day increased the risk of annihilation, traditional scientific methods were a severe liability.

The only other viable angle for a breakthrough was the planet’s native inhabitants. Whether Gaia existed or not, the native civilization must have left behind extensive records on the local biosphere!

A global nuclear war rarely kills absolutely everyone; there are bound to be survivors hiding out in some remote mountain range or bunker, Jason frowned in thought.

Just then, a knock broke the silence of his quarters.

"Come in!" he called out, shaking off his thoughts.

Austin strode into the room, hurriedly placing a stack of documents onto Jason’s desk. "Look at this. Right before our unmanned submersible lost contact, it picked up some highly anomalous electromagnetic waves. It’s a shame we didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. We assumed it was just background noise from ordinary marine life and didn’t run a localized sweep."

"This frequency band has gone nearly silent now, as if the source is intentionally hiding. Our coastal sensors can’t pick it up anymore. The only way to find it again is to send another batch of submersibles into the deep sea..."

Jason examined the printouts closely. The pages were covered in dense, oscillating waveforms that bore a striking resemblance to a human EEG scan. However, there were only a dozen pages of data; the sample size was frustratingly small.

Jason shook his head. "Hold off on the submersibles. If we send them down, they’ll lose their signal connections in the deep water and likely be destroyed or captured again. We’d just be spoon-feeding our technology to the enemy. Let’s focus on analyzing the electromagnetic telemetry we already have."

"By the way, has the entity responded to any of our broadcasted signals?" Jason asked.

Austin looked troubled and shook his head. "Nothing yet. Total radio silence. What’s more, it hasn’t shown any reaction to our atmospheric dropships either."

"But considering the loss of the submersible, we know for a fact this unknown entity is still alive and active. We just don’t know if it’s currently regenerating, charging up a counter-attack, or actively reverse-engineering our drone tech!"

"The first scenario is manageable, but the latter two are a nightmare, especially since it’s nearly impossible for us to monitor activity on the deep ocean floor," Austin said, his impatience bleeding through.

The seawater specimen research had hit a dead end. If the Federation wanted to accelerate the timeline, their only hope lay in planetary exploration.

The previous dropships had been fully automated, carrying zero organic personnel. They were merely decoys used to test the enemy’s anti-air capabilities. Even if they had been shot down, the loss would have been negligible. As a result, all unmanned craft had touched down safely.

After establishing a secure beachhead, it was finally time for the Federation’s human forces to make their move.

"If we want to expedite this investigation, we need boots on the ground immediately," Austin urged. "Whether it’s raiding databases or capturing native survivors, human operators are infinitely faster and more adaptable than remote drones! Plus, our recon units found a cluster of sealed underground bunkers in the ruins. There could be survivors locked inside."

"Bunkers!"

Hearing this latest development, Jason abruptly stood up and paced across the captain’s quarters. He walked back to his desk and began scrutinizing the tactical map Austin had brought him.

Finally, he looked up and asked, "What’s the status on deciphering the native language?"

"Almost done!" Austin replied immediately. "The initial machine-translation matrix is complete. It’s rough, but it’s usable for basic field ops."

Over the past few days, the surface drones had collected a wealth of data from the ruins, books, physical photographs, and intact electronic hard drives. Because the global nuclear exchange had only occurred a decade or so ago, it was much easier to salvage usable materials compared to the ancient, millions-of-years-old ruins of the Nyx civilization. Furthermore, with the rapid advancement of Federation technology and weak AI development, machine translation software had become highly reliable.

"If the translation algorithms are ready..." Jason stared at the lush green planet on the main monitor, his mind made up. "Then authorize the landing mission."

"Yes, sir! I guarantee the mission’s success!" Austin replied, delivering a crisp, solemn salute.

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