The skill's description didn't say that it worked on anyone who was in its radius, they also needed to be a member of his crew. And Dan was happy to see that the skill considered the family of his crewmen as crew of the Voyager too. That might have had something to do with what he thought of them. Maybe the skill considered his perception?

  Dan was sure that he wouldn't be able to hide the amazement from his face for much longer, so he said goodbye to the now much calmer group before heading away.

  After he was far enough from them that they weren't within the radius of his skill, he turned around just to see that they seemed calm and collected, as if still within its radius, something he was sure they weren't. He was happy to see that the skill didn't need them to remain within its radius to have an effect. As long as he had them within its range while it was active, they would remain calm even if they left it afterwards.

  Wanting to make sure, and not to waste the active skill, he did a round around the bridge, having everyone be within its range, trying to understand how it worked.

  It seemed that the skill took effect gradually, needing around half a minute to totally calm someone. Keeping an eye on time too, he was happy to see that after the 20 minutes were done, people didn't just return to how they were. Instead, the effect seemed to persist if nothing stressful was introduced.

  Happy at this unexpected function of the skill, Dan walked away from the bridge. He found himself alone for the first time in what seemed like ages, but was barely a few hours. He couldn't believe that they were in this new world for less than a day and yet all this had happened.

  The events of that day were straight out of a movie; they got transported into a different world, met a monster that could destroy their ship in a heartbeat, rescued a young woman from the sea, had a standoff with pirates and rescued a bunch of people from said pirates. Say what you would like about all of this, but it sure was eventful.

  Dan smiled wearily as he held the railing. As Robert said, they could only take things as they came, but they seemed to be coming way too enthusiastically for him. Shaking his head at the thought, he murmured softly.

  "At least you're with me in this, right big girl?" There was no reply that he could see, but he felt some of the aura or halo that seemed to be all over the ship stir for a bit. Patting the railings one last time, he turned around just in time for the Walkie-Talkie he had on him to crackle to life.

  "Captain, this is Raily, over," the old man's voice sounded.

  "I'm here. Is everything good on your side? Over," Dan answered without delay. The old man was one of those who were keeping an eye on their current passengers. He felt that he wouldn't contact him for nothing.

  "All is good," the old man seemed to sense the undercurrent of the question in Dan's voice, so he started with the matter at hand before continuing, "There's an old man here who wants to talk to you, he said that you two had a conversation before, and he has something to discuss with you, over."

  Dan's mind churned as the face of the kind old man he had met before came to mind. He was one of the Western Continent's citizens they helped. Their talk went well, and he could see that the man seemed to have warmed up to him. He had no idea why he would want to speak with him now though.

  "Any idea about what he wants?" He started moving there as he asked.

  "He didn't say," Old Raily answered before adding, "Though I noticed that he went into a side room with one of the women from the Western continent before approaching me at the end."

  "Okay..." He wondered what the old man might want. "I will be there, over."

  Unlike the noble from the Empire before, he had felt that the old man didn't seem unreasonable, so he decided to go and see what he had to say.

  Dan first had Robert take control of the bridge before making his way to the corridor cluster in deck 4 where they kept their current passengers. Noting as he got closer how he felt less winded than he did when he came there before, even if by a tiny bit. A part of him wondered if he could really feel a difference or if it was just a psychological effect from getting his new skill.

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  With all those thoughts swirling around in his mind, he finally made it to deck four's inner cabins. Noticing Old Raily waiting for him, who waved him over once their eyes met.

  "So has anything happened since we last talked?" he asked as he shook the man's hand.

  "Not really, just as I said," Old Raily shrugged, "He mentioned that he had something to talk to you about and that it was extremely important for him and his people. He also wouldn't take no for an answer. Glad that you came. He was respectful and didn't try to throw his weight around, but it was still annoying."

  "Thanks for dealing with this," Dan patted the old man as the latter led him towards the door.

  Just as they were about to cross, Old Raily stopped suddenly as he said,

  "Be careful. I don't know why but they feel off to me, it might be nothing but I trust my intuition."

  Dan froze as he found himself lost for words, but he collected himself fast and nodded in understanding. Only then did the Old man let him through.

  After passing to the other side, Dan saw the old islander standing there, he turned his face to them as the door opened, a relieved expression surfacing once he saw Dan.

  Dan noticed that the old man was speaking to the gentle-faced woman who had been sticking close to him the whole time while they talked before. The woman gave him a light nod once she saw him before turning around and taking a few steps back. A part of him re-evaluated her as he stepped up towards them.

  "Hi Corgan," Dan greeted. He had gotten the old man's name while they talked. He was quite embarrassed when it took him till they were about to go their separate ways to realise that he hadn't asked the man about his name yet. "Why did you need me? Hope it wasn't just to continue our conversation from before?"

  The man chuckled lightly at his words before saying, "I wish it were for something like that friend. Unfortunately, I had to call you for something way more urgent."

  "What happened?" He asked. The last time they had talked wasn't that long ago, he wondered what had happened to get him to call for a meeting this soon.

  "You see, I'm the oldest in our group," the man started. Dan realised that he meant the Western Continent's people by their group, "And with how we had talked, they had me be their representative for this matter. Once we parted ways before, we gathered together and tried to understand what was going to happen to us, and we realised that as things are, even with us out of the hands of those slavers, our future still didn't seem that bright."

  Dan frowned a bit as he heard the man's words. He felt that another mess was finding its way to him.

  "As I said when we talked," the man continued, "Our relationship with the Empire isn't the best. And even though it's not as bad as with the Alliance, there's still a chance that we are going to end up as slaves for some noble or the other."

  "And so you mean?" he questioned as an inkling of what the man was hinting at made itself clear to him.

  He would lie if he said that he had considered that. He thought that they had saved them from being slaves by taking them from the pirates. Now that it was brought to his attention, he didn't like the idea that by handing them to the Empire they would just be sending them to different masters.

  "We hoped that you wouldn't drop us into the land of the Empire, we wouldn't survive such a place and we would end up as slaves and servants." Corgan finally said what was on his mind.

  "Where would we drop you then?" Dan asked, "We can't take you to the Western Continent. The waters are dangerous and the trip is going to take us ages. I'm sorry but we aren't ready to take such a long and dangerous trip even if we could."

  "We don't need you to take us to the Western Continent," the old man waved his hand, "we just need you to drop us off on one of the islands close by if possible. Or maybe even in a part of the Empire that isn't close to any cities, somewhere where we can be safe for some time while we study our options."

  Dan didn't answer right away, again feeling that this wasn't something that he could choose on his own. He would have to bring this up with the others later and see how things would turn out. Personally, he didn't want the people he saved to end up as slaves after all the trouble they went through to save them.

  "Captain Dan," the old man called him using his title, "Look at us, we have women and children with us, we would take any help we can get. Anything is better than ending up as slaves. We just ask not to be dropped with the first group."

  Dan fell into silence after the old man was done talking, before sighing and saying as he patted him on the shoulder,

  "I will see what I can do. I won't promise you anything though."

  Dan noticed the gentle-faced woman who always stuck close to the old man taking half a step towards him at that, and Old Raily's weapon shaking as if he was about to aim it. Fortunately, nothing came of it.

  Dan had a few words with the old man before leaving. Once they were out of the door, he noticed that Old Raily had a frown on his face and he asked.

  "Still had that feeling?"

  "Hmmh," Old Raily just shook his head as he grumbled.

  "Yeah, even I felt something off back there," he sighed as he massaged his head.

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