Young Master's Regression Manual-Chapter 124: Helios Orbital Habitat [2]

The Helios Orbital Habitat was an initiative spearheaded by the Global Spacetrek Foundation.

It existed as both a symbol and a privilege, allowing select individuals to bear witness to the current state of humanity’s expansion into space.

The Global Spacetrek Foundation itself was a joint collective, funded and maintained by every major world power. Germany, the United States, China, the European Federation, Japan, and several other industrial superstates.

Each contributed technology, manpower, and resources, bound by a shared interest in orbital development and deep-space exploration.

More than that, Helios was not merely a station, but a showcase. A controlled environment where advancements in zero-gravity infrastructure, long-term habitation, and interplanetary logistics were tested in plain view.

And for those invited aboard, it was proof that the world had already moved beyond the planet below.

"I believe a reservation was made for Julius Sebastian Schneider and Isolde Caroline Heinrich?"

"Ah, yes." The attendant inclined his head. "Please follow me, Mister Schneider. Miss Heinrich."

Julius nodded. Isolde linked her arm through his.

They were guided past a series of glass partitions into a restricted terminal, far removed from the main concourse. The air was insulated from the noise of civilian traffic.

Ahead, a sleek boarding bay opened up, and a warp pod awaited them.

"Your transfer will be brief," the attendant said. "The Helios Habitat is already aligned."

The hatch slid open with a hiss.

Julius stepped inside first, offering a hand. Isolde followed, sitting beside him as the pod’s interior sealed shut. Straps tightened around their figures automatically.

"Are you scared?" Julius asked.

"Well... yes," Isolde admitted. "I’ve never been to space before."

She paused, then smiled.

"Even so, it’s been my dream since I was a child."

Julius glanced at her. "Then this is a good first time. You’re not just seeing space. You’re doing it as an accommodated guest."

He paused for a moment.

"Are you glad you met me?"

Isolde blinked, clearly caught off guard by the intimate question.

The pod shuddered lightly as systems aligned.

"...Yes," she admitted after a brief pause. "I am..."

She looked forward, then back at him. As the warp field rippled into place, drowning out every other sound, Isolde murmured something Julius could not hear.

——But not because of this.

Outside, the world fell away.

And in the next moment, space itself bent.

The sensation was brief but overwhelming. Light stretched, folded, and vanished, replaced by a deep, endless black scattered with stars.

The pod stabilized. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Isolde was the first to move. Her eyes widened as she looked out through the viewport, the vastness beyond finally coming into focus.

"Wow..."

"...."

Even Julius found his breath stolen away.

Unlike Isolde, this had never been his dream. Still, he could admit that once, as a child, he had harbored a similar wish. The kind boys shared without thinking too deeply about the future.

——Boys, let’s make a promise! Let’s all become astronauts and travel the galaxies together!

A memory he had no recollection of living through. And more than that, he could not see the faces of those who had made that childish promise with him.

"Have you been here before, Mister—" Isolde corrected herself. "Er... Julius?"

"No," he replied. "Never. Not even someone like me gets an invitation this easily."

He glanced away from the viewport.

"I don’t even know how my brother managed to arrange this."

"So I take it it’s your first time as well?"

"Yeah."

Julius kept his eyes on the stars, the faint glow reflecting in his gaze.

"Feels strange," he added after a moment. "Seeing something like this in person makes you realize how small everything down there really is."

Isolde nodded, her attention still fixed on the vastness outside.

"It’s humbling," she said. "And a little frightening."

"Maybe that’s what makes it worth seeing."

Outside the viewport, the cosmos stretched endlessly.

Space itself seemed to ripple like a fabric stabilizing after being pulled too far. Distortions sparkled along invisible seams as the remnants of the warp were still dissipating.

Stars burned against the darkness, countless points of light scattered with no pattern a human mind could grasp.

Nebulae moved like vast clouds of color suspended in eternity. Blues bled into violets, gold into crimson, coalescing slowly as if the universe itself were breathing.

Farther out, thin arcs of light bent around invisible masses, as if gravity was curving space in ways that felt wrong to look at for too long.

There was no sense of motion. Only the overwhelming certainty that this endless expanse had existed long before humanity ever looked up, and would continue long after.

It was beautiful.

And terrifying.

For a moment, Julius understood why children dreamed of becoming astronauts.

Why anyone, faced with something this vast and unknown, would want to leave the ground behind and disappear into the stars.

The next moment, the hatch slid open.

What greeted them was a vast dome.

Transparent panels arched high above, curving into a transparent hemisphere that framed the stars beyond. Light poured in from every angle, refracted through layered shielding until it felt almost like daylight.

Beneath their feet stretched a carefully sculpted landscape of real soil, flowing water, and rolling patches of green that should not have existed this far from Earth .

As they walked further, trees grew in measured clusters. Grass swayed as if touched by a gentle breeze, an artificial one, of course. The pathways of white metal contrasted with the terrain, guiding visitors deeper into the habitat.

Glass enclosures loomed above the outer ring of the dome.

"Is that..."

"A dodo?"

Within the enclosures moved animals long thought lost to history.

Creatures resurrected through genetic reconstruction and preservation programs. They walked around slowly inside their habitats under artificial skies that mimicked the worlds they once belonged to.

Isolde stopped just inside the threshold and before she could step any further, a guide approached them.

"Welcome to the Helios Orbital Habitat," he said. "If you’ll follow me, I’ll begin the tour."

Julius inclined his head. Isolde remained silent, her attention still fixed on the creatures beyond the glass.

"This section is known as the Astral Conservatory," the guide continued as they started walking. "More commonly referred to as the space zoo."

They passed beneath towering panels of reinforced glass. Inside, a small group of dodos waddled across a sandy clearing.

"These specimens were reconstructed using preserved genetic material recovered from archival samples," the guide explained. "Their ecosystem has been recreated down to microbial composition. Diet, behavior, even migratory instincts are monitored and adjusted."

Isolde pressed her palm against the glass.

"They’re really alive..."

"Yes," the guide replied. "And they exist here so history doesn’t repeat itself."

They moved on, the path curving along the dome as more extinct creatures came into view.

"To your left," he said, gesturing toward a sprawling enclosure, "you’ll see a reconstructed Pleistocene grassland."

Massive shapes moved through tall, pale grass. Woolly mammoths lumbered forward with slow steps. Nearby, smaller creatures grazed in clusters, as if instinctively keeping their distance.

"These species were not revived for spectacle," the guide continued. "They are part of long-term behavioral studies. The goal is not merely preservation, but understanding."

They moved past aquatic habitats next. Vast tanks curved outward, filled with glowing blue depths. Strange silhouettes glided through the water.

"Steller’s sea cows," the guide said. "Declared extinct in the eighteenth century. Reconstructed and stabilized here before any attempt at reintroduction was even considered."

Julius glanced at the data hovering beside the glass. There were dates, genetic lineage charts, and redacted sections marked with clearance symbols.

"And these?" Isolde asked, pointing toward a darker enclosure farther ahead.

"Late-stage recoveries," he said. "Species lost closer to our time. Some due to climate collapse. Others due to industrial expansion."

Inside, a great feline prowled through dense foliage under the artificial sun above.

"They look... angry..."

"They remember," the guide replied. "Not consciously. But instinct carries trauma longer than memory."

The walkway leveled out near the far end of the dome, where the glass gave way to a panoramic view of space beyond the habitat’s edge. Stars burned behind the living world sealed within.

"This concludes the Astral Conservatory," the guide said. "What you see here is not a triumph."

He turned to face them.

"It is a reminder of what was lost. And of what cannot be lost again."