Chapter 27. Evolution.

After settling in, Jack and his crew joined with Evan and his staff to perform the most important role of NASA, preventing the Earth from being blasted into the Apocalyspe by a rogue asteroid.

However, they also had to deal with the possibility of an alien attack, which would have been considered the hunt for UFOs before Jack and his crew's discovery of a real alien presence. However, it didn't seem to be on the new compacted NASA's menu. Jack realized that the aliens were not really involved in causing a pandemic.

Jack and Evan ended up being the command staff. The young females seemed more comfortable with that arrangement, which one could consider a weird gender dysfunction. Why would women be satisfied with menial tasks? They had the smarts to run an institution. Was it because of their youthful lack of seriousness? There were many tough questions, buy no easy answers,

When Jack and Evan could get some privacy late at night, it gave them time to work out the problems that they faced.

"I don't know what you've experienced," Jack said to Evan. "But I've had to placate the females in my crew in order to maintain peace."

"Yeah, same here."

"How can we maintain NASA operations under this dystopian situation?" Jack asked.

"The government is still functioning at a reduced level. VP Mary Wells took over the presidency when George Hanson died. The congress is in the process of reforming itself post pandemic. The financial systems were being run by women so they're still functioning. There's a lot of local government dysfunction, but it's slowly being remodeled for a much lower economic burden. We don't have to be concerned about wars between countries. There aren't enough men to fight, and women are not interested in war."

Jack smiled. "That sounds good, but I don't see how the human species can survive under these conditions."

"There have been mass killings of men in ancient wars, but that never stopped the growth of the human population. What's needed is a stable situation without wars, damaging storms or cosmic level destruction. That's where we come in. Our job is to prevent any of these extinction causing events."

"I'm with you. I just hope we can keep the women under control."

Evan smiled. "I think we can do that without too much fuss."

Jack wasn't convinced, but he was not in a position to argue the issue.
But he was confused. "If we were vaccinated for this pandemic virus, why wasn't it used to prevent it in the general population?"

"That's the result of antivaccination crackpots out there convincing the world that vaccines cause people to suffer mental disorders. We were vaccinated because NASA told us we had to be if we wished to remain employed."

"Evidently, some of your male employees decided not to be vaccinated."

Evan smiled. "Nope. It was because a lot of males decided that they didn't want to compete with female geniuses. They left NASA and missed the vaccinations."

Jack shook his head. He realized how stupid all of this was. However, there was nothing he could do about it now.

The women seemed to be satisfied with their somewhat boring jobs of scanning the heavens for threats. This provided Jack and Evan the opportunity to work out a schedule that would be acceptable without being confining.

What the women liked was the fact that they could spend time outdoors, at least when the weather was suitable.
NASA's Houston headquarters, Johnson Space Center, the command center for most NASA Space operations, functioned as Mission Control Center. It also served at the main research center for space missions.

In its present pandemic situation, Johnson Center is the only functional NASA facility. Many male employees had decided to quit rather than be vaccinated, leaving a small number of women to continue its most important function of saving the planet Earth.

Part of the reason that NASA could survive with very little employees was the use of robot assistance. In fact, most of the world now depended on robotic workers. This was inevitable because of the loss of human life.

Robotic sentiency was a possible danger to human control, but it wasn't the only threat.

During a staff meeting, an issue was brought up that would require everyone's help to alleviate.

"We're working long hours," Alice Fowler, a blond with a nice smile, complained. "We know some gals that you could hire to help us."
Evan looked at Jack before replying. "What sort of training do they have?"

"Two of them are programmers, three are electronic engineers and five are physicists. They're out of work because the company they worked for went out of business."

"What company?"

"Azteka."

Evan hesitated before replying. "That's the robotic systems outfit that created our robots. Did they have any male employees?"

"They all died or quit."

Evan looked at Jack, who nodded his approval, before he turned back to her. "Yeah, we can use them."

Alice smiled. "I'll tell them they can report here."

Evan nodded.

Later, when he and Jack were able to meet without any of the women interfering, they discussed their situation.

"Just what we don't need, more smart-ass women," Evan said.

"Who's paying for all of this?" Jack asked.

"We have plenty of money. That's not the problem. Keeping them from going off the rails is the problem."

"Do all of your employees live here?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, we have plenty of space, but it might seem a bit more crowded with the new employees."

"If your employees live in dorms, how come there are cars in the parking lot?"

"There are still places to go around here, restaurants, stores, bars,"

"It's been a long time since I went out anywhere," Jack said. "I don't have any money."

"Sure you do!" Evan exclaimed. "All of your salary earnings are in the bank we use."

Jack's eyebrows shot up before he settled down. "Wonderful. Maybe I could buy a Maserati."

Evan chuckled. "Yeah! You could drive down the highways here as fast as you wished."

"I'd probably wreck it."

They laughed.

The next day ten females showed up for work. Evan allowed Jessica and Alice to interview them and run them through a complete health examination before assigning them to dorm rooms. What bothered Jack was the fact that the dorm he was in was filled with women. However, he still had his cat to keep him safe from female domination. He liked the fact that his room was much larger than the small unit on the ship. He had his own bathroom because he was a leader. The women had to use a common bathroom.

And as fate would have it, a new crisis arose that necessitated changing everything, and it involved Jack and his crew.