"What?" The girls asked, anxious.

He came back and said "There is an African American man sleeping in a fancy desk chair up there or a small one seater couch."

"You could just say there is a black man sleeping " Angela decided to jibe at him

"Yes, but some people still don't like it. So, just in case…" Paul defended himself

"The problem with that statement" They heard a deep voice with heavy accent say, they froze on the spot, their hearts threatening to come out of their chests

The voice continued "is that it is based on faulty assumptions…" they looked up the stairs and saw a small giant emerge, he was tall like 2.10 meters (7 feet), bald and wearing what looked like a black swimmers cap, the cap didn't cover his ears like normal swimmers cap. "Although I am of African descent," The man continued while coming down the stairs, and with it their fears continued to grow, he wasn't just tall, he looked like he could bench press a small car, they started to back away slowly. The man stopped "I can assure you, I am not American".

Paul gulped then apologized "sorry man, I didn't mean anything by it. It's just force of habit", even though Paul was tall, this man towered over him.

"I understand, I am not upset, just clarifying" he paused for a second then said "I come in peace"

He stood there looking at them a couple seconds like he was expecting them to respond, but they didn't know to what to respond to, then looking a little disappointed he said under his breath "wasted opportunity." 

"You guys better come on up" he told them

"Why? And where are we?" Asked Alicia

"From your reaction I can assume you lost my daring rescue of your space craft" he told them

"You were the one who rescued us? How?" Asked Paul surprised by this, he remember entering that phenomenon, so he was getting curious how they managed to get them out of it.

"Before that, thank you for saving our lives." Angela said, it's good policy to thank whoever saved you.

But instead of looking happy he simply looked sad, "You guys better come up here and see for yourselves"

Angela started following him but the others held her in place, "who are you?" Asked Paul still wary of the stranger

"My name is Alexandre, Alex for short" He answered

"Well, alexander, that doesn't answer my question" Paul shot back, he didn't like the non-answer. It's like he was avoiding it.

Angela interjected "He didn't say his name is Alexander, he said Alexandre, the Portuguese variation of the name"

The man looked amused "yes, that's right, and about who I am, as I said, it's easier if I show you"

Angela came back and whispered "If he wanted to hurt us he could do that while we were napping", she thought that it would help them move along, she wanted answers and the giant looked like wanted to give it to them.

Paul looked on Alicia for any clue on what to do, but from the look on her face she agreed with Angela, so he relented, but stepped forward to go first. If anything went wrong at least he could put himself in front of them.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"Ok, lead the way" he said to the big man.

The man went back up the stairs and they followed, when he turned his back they could see that what the cap he had on his head was somehow attached to his suit.

When they arrived up the stairs they were in a wide hall, there were 8 chairs that looked attached to the floor in there arranged in front of a glass screen, the screen was dark silver like the walls. The chairs almost looked like bigger and more comfortable versions of the ones they had on the shuttle, and a little like the ones on first class on airplanes.

"Ok, first I will open a window" said Alex, and with that it was like a panel started to lift from behind the screen and they saw stars. He didn't seem to have touched anything, it simply opened like it was waiting for a cue

"What is this?" Asked Alicia

"Space" said Alex simply, like it explains everything

"I know it's space but why are you showing us a recording of space"

"That is not a recording , that is a transparent screen I just lifted the panel for you to see out, we are in space, in my space shuttle Horus"

Everyone stayed there looking at him for a while

"How can that be we have gravity, and it doesn't feel like we are accelerating" asked Paul

"We are not acceleration, what's keep you grounded is the artificial gravity system" answered Alex

"What do you mean, artificial gravity, how does that work if not based on acceleration or centrifugal force, I've never heard of such system" asked Alicia

"You wouldn't have." Alex answered simply, then he asked "What do you remember about the event that you went through?"

"I don't know how to explain it, the closest thing I can come up with is that it looked like what we think a wormhole would look like" said Alicia trying to recall everything about the strange phenomenon

"Well, you are right, you went through a wormhole, and came out thousands of light years away from earth" Alex said, he was trying to take it slowly, they were about to get one shock after another.

"What do you mean we are light years away from earth" asked Paul, Everyone was stunned looking at him expecting an answer

"You better sit down and watch this." Alex said, and the screen changed "This is a recording of what happened. This was recorded from my end of the wormhole by my ship" he continued

The back panel closed and then the same glass window they were looking at lit up and started showing a video of a space craft that looked a little like the Jupiter 2 from the latest Lost in space series reboot. The spacecraft was above a massive torus shaped structure in space, and there were some asteroids scattered around it.

The spacecraft looked tiny compared to the structure, if the spacecraft was the same one they were staying in the structure was massive.

After a few seconds they could see something happen in the middle of the structure. It looked like the phenomenon that they saw before. It immediately conjured bad memories of how scared they were when they realized they wouldn't be able to get away from it.

Then Alex had to fast forward since it stayed like that for a while.

Then they watched the whole recording of their rescue in silence. It was hard to believe that all of that happened while they were unconscious. It was very possible that they could have never woken up. But even though they could see their ship there, it was still hard to believe it to be true.

There were too many ridiculous things to believe. The strange ship that they had never seen, and even if the ship is a secret, there was no way they would have not know of a structure that big in the solar system. There was also the way the ship slowed down their shuttle without contact, it simply wasn't possible, not even magnetic fields would have worked like that.

So, when the video finished, they were understandably upset by the special effects.

It was Dr. Alicia Marcus who broke the silence "Are you trying to tell us that all of that happened?"

"Yes, it did" he answered simply

"First of all, that looks too much like a bad science fiction," said Angela "you could have just made this whole thing up with special effect to try and convince us."

"I did not" Alex answered, then after considering something in his head he added "The best way to prove it to you would be to show you that we are indeed in space"

"Well, that seeing that screen won't do it, since you have shown that it shows videos, we won't believe it goes transparent to shows us space." interjected Paul "But, good try though" he added trying to act calm "So better come up with a better way to prove it or just admit to whatever prank you are trying to pull, we just won't fall for it"

 "I was thinking of us doing a space walk outside, I think seeing it through your very eyes will convince you" answered Alex, getting up and walking back toward the stair they just came from

The three of them looked at each other then got up to follow him down the stairs.