Dan tightened his grip on the railings, the Voyager's growing consciousness was one of the main reasons why he chose the Class Bonded Captain, so deep down he knew that something like this was to be expected. But being faced with this situation, his heart couldn't help but beat faster in excitement. It was like hearing about something and finally experiencing it yourself.

  "Dan? Is something wrong?" It was Robert's concerned voice that finally brought him back to the situation at hand.

  "Yeah, yeah," Dan answered with a bit of a tremble in his voice, "It's just... The Voyager made her choice!"

  "The Voyager? The ship made a skill choice?" Robert looked at him as if he had a screw loose.

  "I'm being serious." Dan calmed down as he explained, his hand going through his hair, "Unlike when I got 3 skills to choose from for my level 1 skill selection, I only got 1 for the Voyager's, even though the window said The choice shall be made by you. At first, I thought it meant me, but it wasn't. It meant both of us. I would choose my skills while the Voyager chooses her own."

  "That's... Wow." Robert was lost for words, looking around at the huge ship they were atop.

  "Exactly, wow." Dan's excitement was over the roof, "This is unbelievable!"

  "So," Robert finally said after both of them calmed down, "What skill did our lady choose?"

  "It was called Enshrouding Fog. Let me see what it does." Dan brought up the description of the skill.

  Enshrouding Fog: conjures a thick fog that covers every part of the ship, hiding it from sight and lowering the chance of being discovered.

  "Seems to summon a fog that covers the ship, hiding it from sight. Sounds like it could be of some help, especially in our situation."

  Robert hummed in agreement. Dan didn't continue with the conversations about that but instead called up his profile again. He felt that something there still needed his attention. And as expected there were some changes from last time.

  Profile:

  Name: Dan Reeds

  Class: Bonded Captain

  Level: 1

  Titles.

  Skills:

  -Personal Skills: Universal Translation.

  -Bonded Ship's Skills: Enshrouding Fog.

  "There's an extra skill there?" Dan murmured.

  Universal Translation: a skill made specifically for visitors from outside of Talia to help with their settlement. Able to translate all languages on Talia to the user's native tongue, while also helping with the fast learning of the languages the user comes into contact with. Keep in mind that the skill will disappear a month later, make sure to work hard to acquire the languages you desire before then.

  Seems that we got a freebie. Dan chuckled to himself, appreciating how much easier that skill was going to make their lives.

  Dan still had another skill choice to go with, but he decided to hold on to it for now. He wanted to make his choice after getting more info about the system and the skills.

  "Captain, I've got something." Keith suddenly ran from inside, an excited expression on her face.

  "What is it? Are the screens working again?"

  "No, not that," Keith shook her head, "The screens are still black, but I got something through my skill, I have a map that shows me a live feed of one nautical mile around us."

  "What did you find?" Robert interjected,

  "Debris." The short-haired young woman looked beyond the bow, "Straight ahead, some debris seems to be drifting our way. The map marked it as wreckage. So how is it? Do we follow it to the source, with my skills it won't be hard."

  Heading towards it... Dan frowned as he looked at Robert, just to see that the man had the same deep frown on his face.

  "I don't think we can make that decision on our own," Dan eventually said, "Let's call the others and see their opinions."

  What he meant by the others were the core members of the cruise ship. Dan knew them and trusted them to keep him in check or point out problematic bits he might not have noticed or paid attention to.

  Dan had Keith keep quiet about it for the moment as he awaited the return of the people he sent away. It didn't take long before they started coming back. They walked up to him one by one, giving their updates on the tasks he gave and awaiting new orders. He then had them wait by the side til everyone got back.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  With everyone there, Dan called Fleta, Jackie and the three deckhands to join them, he then led them to a more private location. Making sure no one was close he started,

  "Everyone." He clapped lightly to get their attention, "The way I see it, there are two groups of people in this ship right now, us and passengers. Some of you might see it some other way, but I think that is the way it should be. We have a duty to keep them safe. So we should do our best to study our choices and make sure we put their safety and survival first."

  Seeing the nods from all over, he continued,

  "Keith here just found some debris drifting our way." Dan watched as the attention he just got was thrown towards the lively young lady. She waved lightly with an anxious smile as their eyes drilled into her. "And this is why I said that skills and classes are important. Keith's have been of use ever since we got here, and who knows which of your skills can help us next." With that bit out of the way he continued. "Anyway, what I meant to ask you is, what should we do? Follow that debris or forget it?"

  "What if the thing that turned whatever this debris was, into... Well debris, was that monster from before?" Jackie was the first who spoke, probably bringing up the thing in everyone's mind at that point, "Wouldn't we be walking straight to our doom then? It's too much of a risk."

  "I understand that," Dan said as he looked at everyone, "It was the first thing I thought of too. It's a risk, but we have to take risks in our situation. Plus there's always the chance that there could be survivors there, saving them and getting more information about where we are would be like hitting two birds with one stone. Besides, we don't have the luxury of only choosing safe options, I doubt we have any of those at this point."

  "I get what you're saying," With a sigh, it was Robert who broke the silence that descended after he was done speaking. "Unfortunately, it's the truth. We are in an unknown place with a limited amount of fuel and we have no idea where land is. The fuel is at most going to last us a month. We have to make contact with someone eventually. Going there means saving people while also getting someone to ask about the situation we are in."

  "But getting more information doesn't mean that this needs to be the way," Dex added, "We could have other chances. We could try again with something else. A passing ship or the like!"

  "Yes, we can ignore this for now," Dan nodded, "But we don't know where a chance like this could present itself. Who knows if this is a known sea route? If there are even ships as we know them in this world? Who knows what's out there? This might be one of the few chances we get. We are on limited time after all."

  Dan watched as Jackie and Dex, the most vocal about being against going after the debris, glanced at each other before Jackie just said,

  "I still think that this isn't the smartest thing, but if you all are with this, then I don't want to be against you."

  "Thank you," Dan nodded to the men, "And believe me, we won't take any unnecessary risks. Gathering information is our main concern right now."

  With their destination decided, Dan led his crew back to the bridge. Once there, his thoughts started swirling. He knew that they had to use all the advantages they had, they needed to lower the chances of being caught by any means possible.

  I wonder how to activate a skill?

  Dan was just about to open his profile to try and activate Enshrouding Fog when he felt as if he could flip a switch mentally. Just by thinking about it, he could activate the skill. Wasting no time, he willed Enshrouding Fog to activate, and as soon as he did, thick fog started rising from the sea and covering the cruise ship.

  "Everyone don't worry," Dan calmed the people down before they had the time to react. "It's a skill I got, it's going to keep us hidden and less likely to be discovered."

  The fog wasn't just on the ship, it covered a substantial area over the sea, with the cruise ship at the centre. Dan also noticed how even though he could see the fog surrounding the ship, once he wanted to, he could see beyond it easily, as if it wasn't there at all.

  With the directions from Keith, Dan piloted the ship. He kept the speed low and had everyone keep watch all around just in case. They did have Keith and her unusual skills, but the idea of relying on it entirely was still a bit unsettling.

  "We will start seeing the debris soon," Keith said after they had been moving for a short while.

  Nodding, Dan kept his eyes ahead. It was hard to see from their viewpoint, but he could make out some wooden debris in the surrounding waters. Some planks were drifting around broken and scorched all over. The sight made him a bit worried, but he pushed on, they had already made their decision.

  After around an hour or so of following Keith's directions, and noticing that the debris was getting more and more concentrated, Keith suddenly exclaimed:

  "There's someone in the water!"

  "What?" Her words made everyone turn and look at her as their heartbeat went over the roof.

  "Right ahead, someone seems to be floating on a piece of wood or something. At the speed we are moving, we will reach them in a little less than 7 minutes."

  "Okay." Dan took control over things as he turned to Marcus. The short well-built chief security officer had already finished what Dan had asked of him, and was on the bridge awaiting any new orders or happenings. "Marcus, take some of the armed individuals with you and try to fish the person through the pilot's door. Of course, be careful while doing so and be prepared for anything. Keep your walkie-talkies at the ready and be prepared for any updates."

  The Chief Security Officer had an AKM, a handgun on his side, and was wearing a bulletproof vest with a full face cover ballistic helmet strung on his belt. He only nodded before turning around and calling out to two of the guards he chose,

  "George, and Old Raily, let's move out. Check your weapons and your ammo."

  Watching til the little group disappeared, Dan made a mental note to ask Marcus about the people he chose, the fact that Old Raily was there was quite the surprise. He then turned to Keith who acknowledged and started giving more precise directions.

  "Marcus," Dan talked through the Walkie-Talkies as he got the ship where he needed it to be. "We are on target, open the door to bring them in. Take a tender if they are still far. Over."

  "Roger that," was heard over the radio before the sound cut off.

  Everyone waited with bated breath for what felt like ages but must have been just a couple of minutes. Finally, with a crackling sound that sounded like thunder in the silent room, the Walkie-Talkie came back to life:

  "Marcus's here," The Chief Security Officer's voice sounded. "We got the target. She seems to be a young lady in her late teens, there's no clear wounds on her, but she's unconscious for now."

  Once he heard the news, Dan let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. His eyes then moved unconsciously to a certain individual, just to realize that the bespectacled blonde woman had her eyes on him too. When their eyes met, she nodded, as if understanding what he wanted without him even saying anything.

  "Take her to the Medical Center. Fleta and I will meet you there," Saying that, Dan turned to the bespectacled woman, Fleta, the ship's Medical Officer, just to see that the blonde serious-looking woman was already out of the door.

  "Robert, handle things here while I go see how our guest is doing." Leaving those words behind, he followed after Fleta.

  As he headed to the Medical Center, he murmured with a light smile:

  "Welcome, young miss, to the Voyager."

  A BONUS CHAPTER will be out in an hour at most, I still need to finish with some of the editing before that~

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