"All that aside," Dan said as he tried to move on from the mess that was just brought up, "Let's focus on the next thing that needs our attention, what to do about the natives we have on board. We are closing in on the Dynasty and that's as good a place as any to drop them, should we go with that? After we know how the situation is there, of course, we can't drop them there just like that."

  "Only a few are from the Dynasty," Jackie said thoughtfully, "I can see those wanting to return to their homes, but I doubt the others would have much interest in staying on the other side of the world, it's going to be hard to get them to stay there."

  "I doubt the ones from the Empire would want to go back there," Robert said as he shook his head, "The one who kidnapped them and sent them to that hell-hole of an island was a high-ranking noble in their country. I won't be surprised if they have lost all their respect and any sense of belonging to the nation. Plus, there's the possibility of them being silenced if it were ever known that they were back on land, I'm sure that the Archduke would do his best to keep his dealings and wrongdoings hidden."

  "We will do our part," Dan interjected as he brought up what he had considered for this problem, "Once we are sure that the Dynasty is a good place for them, we will bring this up and have them make their own choices, that should be the best course of action. We will see how things go from there."

  With that dealt with, the meeting went on as the group talked some more about a few small things that needed their attention; like the fact that the Universal Translation skill was about to disappear, and that those who weren't yet as proficient with the languages they wanted to acquire needed to push themselves hard to acquire them before it was gone.

  Not long after, the meeting ended and everyone went to deal with what they had to deal with. Dan himself went to the bridge. He knew that it wouldn't be long before the others came to him with the new information they were able to gather, especially Jackie who went to deal with the natives from the Dynasty and get as much as he could from them.

  Dan greeted everyone on the bridge before connecting to Voyager as he asked:

  "Hey, big girl, how are you feeling?"

  Okay? she said, Dan felt her confusion at his question.

  "I mean about the possibility that the Blue Avenger might be a living ship, just like you?" he clarified.

  I want to talk to her, Voyager said, and Dan could feel the amount of longing she sent over with those few words.

  "It's alright, I'm sure that we will meet her again someday, you will have your chance then."

  He then spent his time comforting Voyager and talking to her, which was something he was trying his best to do frequently. She was already showing improvement over how she was the first time she spoke to him, and he felt that the more they interacted, the better she would get.

  Time passed quickly, and soon, it was evening. Just as Dan almost forgot about it, he saw someone entering the bridge, and he stood up.

  "Hey, Jackie," Dan waved his bosun over, "How did it go? Did you manage to get anything of use to us?"

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  After the meeting ended, Dan knew that Jackie didn't waste any time and went straight away searching for Arkus, wanting to find out all they could from the few natives they had from the Dynasty. From how he was holding what seemed to be a couple of rolled-up maps, he guessed that the man must have been successful with his endeavour.

  "It went well." Jackie nodded as he sat down. "I've managed to use the few maps we have of the Dynasty's shoreline to pinpoint a few targets we can hit, if it all goes well."

  "Are they trustworthy?" Dan asked as he accepted the few rolled-up maps from him.

  "As I said at the meeting," Jackie answered nonchalantly, "I made sure to do it in a manner that would give us the best and most accurate results. I first separated the few from the dynasty we have and questioned them individually about what we needed from them. Also, you don't need to worry, I made sure to have our guests be comfortable, I didn't mistreat them."

  Dan then went through the maps, Freddie and Keith joining in as they heard what the two were talking about. The maps were extremely simple, and they only showed the geographical shape of the shoreline and a few cities here and there. Fortunately, as Jackie had said, he managed to locate a few villages and towns that were more than perfect for their initial drop at land.

  All those villages and towns had a few points in common. First, they weren't close to any big city and were known for being quite peaceful. Second, the road from the nearest big town was kinda treacherous and it took a lot of effort to reach them. And third, they weren't so secluded that a few new faces would be so out of the ordinary that they would raise a lot of eyebrows.

  "This is good," Freddie said, moving his eyes from the map and looking at the screen linked to his skill, "And it seems that they are a bit accurate."

  World Map was a skill that gave Freddie a blank map that he needed to fill up, either by going through the blank locations, or by having access to maps that were accurate enough. With the villages appearing on the screen, it meant that where they had marked them was close enough to their real locations.

  "So, which one do you think we should hit?" Dan asked after they had looked over the maps for a bit.

  "All of them are good," Freddie said, "We still have time to consider, so let's go over it slowly."

  "We can even scout all of them," Jackie joined in, "Take a look at them from afar before choosing which one to drop at. Voyager's long-range cameras are more than enough for that."

  "That's also good," Dan agreed, "We will bring this up with both Marcus and Old Raily later on, I'm sure that they could see things we can't about this."

  With that decided, Dan and the others talked for a bit more before Jackie went to rest for a bit and spent time with his daughter. Dan himself decided to go around Voyager, just walking around and taking a look at the ship. He felt that he hadn't been doing much of that ever since they got to this world, he spent most of his time either at the bridge or the Skyline. Only rarely did he find himself in one of the meeting rooms or maybe one of the few specialised rooms they had.

  As Dan walked through the hallways and regarded the empty rooms, shops and restaurants, he couldn't help but sigh at how different Voyager felt with just the few of them on it, it almost felt like an abandoned haunted ship. No matter how bright and clean everything was, seeing a place that used to be full of activity and laughter being this empty just didn't sit right with him.

  Just as he was still moping and feeling dejected about that, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. A group of people were walking hesitantly as they looked at the empty venues and shops.

  Dan realised that all of them were from the natives. Seeing them there wasn't really that surprising, after all, they weren't keeping them locked in one single section of the decks, they were free to move around with only a few places locked off from them. Dan would have been worried about that if not for Voyager keeping an eye on them all of the time. She knew where everyone was and what they were doing, she was a perfect surveillance system.

  Watching the fascinated expressions on the group looking all around, Dan couldn't help but smile as a familiar feeling started bubbling in his chest. He almost went and started leading the group all around as he explained and introduced the different shops and places they passed by. He held himself back though, he didn't want to come too strong at the group, scaring them away.

  In the end, he changed his path as he left with a smile on his face. He quite liked having people walking around and experiencing Voyager in all her glory, what captain wouldn't?

  ***

  Just like that, three more days passed and Voyager made it to the Dynasty's waters. With that, the final preparations before going down to land were underway.