"Where are you going?" asked Alicia when she saw him going toward their shuttle
"We need to get your helmets from you your shuttle and then close the shuttle so that we can depressurize the hangar" he answered her calmly, the way he was acting calm was a little unnerving.
When he reached their shuttle, he got up on top of the flying brick as Angela called it, it immediately started to lift until he reached the door for their shuttle.
Paul got close and tried to put his hand bellow the flying brick, his hand was repelled by some unseen force "What is this?" he asked
Alex came out holding the helmets, looked down at what he was asking and answered while putting down the helmets on the cart and turning to close the shuttle's door "A cart, used to carry heavy objects"
"Ok, but, how does it work?" he asked again, getting down on his knees so that he could look under it "how does it float, and what is this strange force that is keeping it up" he noticed that there was a small breeze like the air was being pushed down, but it couldn't explain the way it was floating
"The best way to explain it is that it is emitting a field that is repelling the ground, when you tried to put your hand under it was also being repelled" Alex answered, like a teacher giving a lecture
"There is no type of force that can do that" accused Alicia, even though she was seeing it with her eyes, she was still trying to come up with possible reasons why it was happening, it had to be a trick of some kind
"Well, after I prove to you that you are in space, you are more likely to believe me" Alex answered simply, not the least bit offended by the Alice's implied accusation. after he closed the door of the shuttle, the flying cart simply lowered itself, after it was on the ground he simply asked "By the way, what are your names? it would be less rude for me to call you by your names"
"We are not giving you our names just like that" said Paul defensively before any of the girls could think of giving this stranger their names
"Ok, as you wish, we better go back" he said, still acting calm, he then proceeded to walk back toward the corridor that lead to the bridge.
They picked up their helmets and followed him, they didn't have a choice at the moment so the best option would be to play along for now.
when they reached the corridor the door that separated the corridor from the hangar closed itself, and Alex entered the toilets, and they stood outside unsure whether or not they should follow him there, so they decided to wait.
After a few minute he comes out wearing a futuristic looking spacesuit, it looks like a form of skin tight astronaut suit, even though some parts look like interconnected hard shells designed to fit the shape of the suit. the helmet is what makes it look more like a spacesuit
He looks at them and simply says "You can put on your helmets.", It sounded like the voice was being projected outside the suit by some hidden speakers. They do as he says, helping each other when necessary.
When they finished, he lead them to toward the hangar but the door to the hangar remained closed, then from behind them a section of the wall closed separating them from the rest of the corridor, they were inside a small closed off section of the corridor.
"Can you guys use your communication devices?" Alex asked "I need to calibrate for it"
"The suits already have radios that send signal to each other" answered Paul. Alex made hand movements indicating that he wanted them to keep talking
"How is it that he is going to calibrate? he can't simply tune in, this is a digital signal being sent, it has to be decoded " asked Angela
"Ok, that's good" said Alex, his voice coming from inside their suits "And after finding the frequency and mode of modulation the shuttle's computer decoded the signal and configured my suit to be able to do it on its own, I'll start depressurizing this area slowly we can acclimate with low pressure"
"So, you are still insisting on going through with this?" asked Angela "Ok, we'll play along and believe that somehow someone has developed wormhole technology and didn't share with the rest of the world, and uses an advanced spaceship to give tours to other worlds outside our solar system to rich tourists." she joked "Now, I just have a very important question"
"And what is that?" Alex asked
"Why did you have your spacesuit in the toilet? wouldn't it be better to have it upstairs with you"
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"I have several, in each room in the shuttle, and there is a mechanism in each of the room that helps with putting the suit on or taking it off, the toilet was just the closer one"
They could see their suits bulging a little because of the lower pressure"
"Why would you do that?" asked Alicia,
Instead of answering the question Alex chose to open the door that lead to the hangar, the hangar doors were open and they could see space
"How is this possible?" asked Angela aloud "Is that space?"
"Yes, it is" answered Alex "Let's go" he said while walking toward the hangar doors
"If that is space how do we have gravity?" asked Alicia
"Artificial gravity system, using repulsor forces. we are being pushed toward the ground" he answered while going toward the walls in the hangar.
When he reached a section of the wall, he pressed his hands on it, and a drawer opened from the walls, he took out a few ropes and took it near the hangar door. Everyone else was simply looking out of the doors, while he was attaching the ropes to some holes in the floor Angela was walking forward toward the door
After he attached the ropes to the floor he connected one of the to the back of his suit, when he turned around he saw her near the door "STOP" he yelled at her while running toward her, he reached her before she stepped off the hangar
"If you keep going you will be outside the artificial gravity of the ship without a tether, it would require a lot of maneuvering to catch you without killing you, especially at the speeds we are moving" he told her, which made her eyes widen in fear when she processed what he said
"We are moving?" asked Paul
"Yes, right now we are moving at a constant speed off 100 km per second and the ship reports that there is nothing in our path that would force us to change it in any way for the next few hours and we are very far from big gravity sources, which is why it's ok to do this." he answered
Alex continued while looking at each of them "Before you go outside I will attach you to a harness which is attached to these ropes, this will keep you tethered to the ship" he continued "and I am sorry, I should have attached the harness before opening the hangar doors, I am just used to doing things this way since it is faster"
Everyone just nodded and backed away from the doors, and followed him to the wall near the drawer where he took out the ropes, he opened another drawer and took out what looked like body harnesses, he gave each one of them one, then took another one and showed them how to put them on, it was very simple, like wearing a one piece bathing suit made of straps.
Once they all had it on he brought them back to the front of the hangar, everyone was quiet not quite knowing what to say to explain what they were seeing, he took them to where the ropes were attached to the floor then attached each one to the back of their harness, at the end of each rope there was a metal clasp that could be opened and closed to the small hoop at the back of their harness
"This is a shock absorbent rope and harness, it will keep us tethered to the ship" Alex explained "I'll lower the artificial gravity to a very low setting, it will make the transition easier" he said, and then they felt themselves get lighter
"Wow" exclaimed Angela "this is surreal" then Alex jumped outside the ship, they all followed suit and found themselves outside the ship, they could see the main star to the side of the ship, the only way to see it would be after coming outside
"Ok, I am sold, we are in a super-secret spaceship in another star system" said Angela
"How can you be sure that we are in another star system?" asked Paul
"Because our solar system doesn't have two starts" answered Angela while pointing above them, they followed where she was pointing and they could see a smaller star reddish star in that direction but it was still too close, they didn't have that in the solar system
"Ok, I am convinced that unless I am hallucinating all of this, we are in a star system lightyears away from Sol" Paul accepted the situation he was in
"Ok, we'll just stay here for a few minutes then we go back to the ship" Alex said
"Can't we stay longer?" asked Angela
"You live in a space station" said Alicia
"I don't get the many opportunity do space walks on other star system, too much work" she answered
"You can come back later" assured Alex
"Promise?" she asked, excited by the fact to do space walks whenever she wants, being a data analyst
"Yes" answered Alex
"yes, we need to discuss how you have a spaceship, more advanced than anything we've ever seen and access to wormhole technology" said Dr. Alicia Marcus
"I think that is obvious" said Angela
"Obvious how?" asked Paul
"He is an alien" she answered, everyone looked at her
"He is human, speaks English and said he is of African descent" said Alice
"We say aliens could look like anything, why not mini giants, as for speaking English they probably visited earth sometime in the past" countered Angela
"And being of African descent?" asked Paul, wanting to hear how far she is willing to carry this
"Africa could mean a planet that is coincidentally called Africa, so he is of African descent" she replied
"Want to weight in o this?" Paul asked Alex
"I thought you guys didn't want my opinion, since you could have just asked me instead of speculating" answered Alex amused by what Angel was saying. It was especially funny because of how close to the truth it came
"It's more fun to speculate then see how far off we were, and if I am going to try and guess, I want to entertain the fun possibilities first, before these guys crush it using logic." She said, it was fun to relax a little after all that stress, especially since she had a feeling that there was some type of bad news ahead, Alex was being too calm, like he was trying his hardest to keep them calm.
"So, what is the truth?" asked Alicia
To this he simply stated "We better go back inside" the mood drastically changed, everyone picked up that there were bad news coming
He tugged at the rope and pushed himself toward the ship, they followed suit. When everyone was inside the hangar doors closed themselves and gravity was returned in two stages, with the first they managed to touch down without falling hard the next returned gravity to normal, they were still in awe about everything that they'd experienced since they woke up.