Precious Metals (On Hold)

Chapter Two

 Sjon stared blankly at the new faces. The woman's brown eyes reflected hospitality, while the man's wrinkles and folds indicated a long lifespan.

"Where am I?" he asked them, confused. "What language was that?"

The woman smiled at him. "You're on a planet called Delphi Oon, and we were speaking Kameng."

"Wait, what?" Sjon was bewildered, even more than before. "Delphi... I've never heard of that country before, um, what continent are we on?"

The woman looked a little confused, but still bemused at the same time. "Continent? I told you, this is the planet Delphi Oon, in the galaxy Libran. You're not on Earth anymore."

"Wait, I'm not on Earth? Then how do I get back?" Sjon frantically asked.

He struggled to stand up, his muscles not working for a few seconds. His heart pounded, racing.

The woman sighed. "Come upstairs with us. I'll explain everything."

Sjon looked down at his legs. He tried moving them, not eliciting a response. He frowned, his lips forming a tight seal. After a couple more tries, he finally got a twitch.

"Take your time," suggested the woman, patting his legs. "Muscle nerves take longer to activate than skin ones."

Sure enough, after a few seconds of flexing, the muscles in his leg began to move, albeit slowly. It felt like he was moving his leg under a heavy blanket, and each flex was excruciating.

Sjon slowly followed her and the old man up the stairs, struggling to move his legs at all. At the top, the woman opened a large metal trap door, leading into a small walk-in closet with two doors. Sjon wasn't sure how he felt about these people. They claimed he wasn't on Earth. He needed to get out, or find some sort of communication device. They were obviously crazy.

When she opened the doors, Sjon was greeted with a household with many inexplicable devices. There seemed to be a random huge hole in the ceiling and some circular pads on the floor. The floor was made out of a charcoal-colored wood that didn't seem like anything Sjon had seen on Earth. What looked to be the kitchen was filled with two strange oven-sized boxes with glass panels, sort of like giant microwaves. The whole space was open, and Sjon spotted the hints of a loft above the living room, even though there seemed to be no way up.

The woman and the old man sat down on the couch, which moved, re-shaping itself when they sat. Sjon hesitantly sat on a chair across from them, and squirmed as the couch moved under him, forming to his body.

The old man whispered something to the ginger woman. She looked at Sjon and smiled.

"First of all, we haven't introduced ourselves yet," sShe started., "My name is Pilar, and this is Cyrus. Cyrus is a scientist from Delphi Oon., and I'm originally from on Mars."

"Mars?" Sjon interrupted., "So we're near Earth? Can I get home easily?"

Pilar's face fell, and she seemed to be expressing pity. "We're nowhere near Earth. In fact, we're about six gigaparsecs away from where Earth was."

"Gigparsecs?" Sjon asked.

"Six gigaparsecs are equal to around 19.6 billion light years," She replied.

Sjon was astounded. "Wait," he said, remembering something she'd said earlier., "Y-you said where Earth was, what do you mean by that?"

She looked at him in the eyes. "Sjon, this is going to sound crazy, but it's true." She took a breath. "You died in the year 2350 CE. 200 years later, the... Earth- was uninhabitable. People moved all around the solar system, and they used wormholes to travel to distant galaxies. Since then, it's been around 2 billion years. You were resuscitated by Cyrus, and now you're here."