"Wh-Where is the village," someone asked while they were getting ready to jump and make their way to the shore. The moonlight was bright enough for them to see that there was nothing nearby.

  "It's a 20-minute walk that way," Marcus said loud enough for everyone to hear while pointing towards where the village was.

  "How dare you drop us here!" The whatever-his-name-was noble shouted as he tried to get into Marcus's personal space, just to rethink his choices once the latter raised his rifle and trained it at him. Marcus wasn't going to take his chances with whatever weird abilities these people had.

  "Take one step closer and I will make sure that you will never take another in your life."

  The nuisance dealt with. Marcus again raised his voice as he addressed everyone on the tender.

  "As I said, the village is nearby, you will get there soon and without any trouble. Get moving."

  People were hesitating at his words and didn't want to jump into the water at first, but that soon changed as a middle-aged man cursed before plunging into the water. Marcus had Rose push the tender more than usually recommended, making it go closer to the shore than was safe. So the water wasn't too deep, it barely went above the man's midsection. The water was calm too, so he didn't think anything bad would happen to them.

  With someone being a role model, people followed after him one after the other.

  Marcus saw the boy who had been annoying him all this while move to jump so he put his hand on his shoulder and stopped him. The boy turned back giving the man a questioning look. Marcus just grumbled before taking something from his belt and putting it in his hand.

  "What is this?" the boy questioned as he inspected the cylindrical object.

  "It's called a flashlight," Marcus answered, "It's used for light. Press that button to activate it."

  A part of Marcus felt that this was too much of a waste, but they had enough of those small flashlights on the ship and he could give this one up without much trouble.

  "Oh, wow." The boy was awestruck as he turned the flashlight on. "Thanks a lot, I'll treasure it!"

  "Just make sure not to lose it," Marcus grumbled.

  "I'm quite sad that I can't stay with you here," the boy said with his energetic demeanour dimming quite a bit, "There's so much that I would love to study on your ship."

  "It's better that you didn't," Marcus murmured before patting him and pushing him forward.

  The boy smiled widely at that and made his way off the ship. Only as he was jumping did Marcus realise that he had never got his name.

  "That is for the better," he said. He didn't want to get attached to someone he most likely would never see again. Not giving a name to the face would only make him forget him faster.

  "Rose, turn us back," He said to their pilot as the last person jumped off the tender and made it to the shore safely. He then turned to the two guards with them, "Don't drop your guard. Who knows what could be awaiting us."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Receiving a nod from everyone, he took his place again next to Rose as the tender started making its way back to the Voyager.

  Thud!

  A few minutes, and around 300 meters or so from the Voyager, a heavy sound was heard from the back of the tender, whatever made it making the boat shake as a result.

  Marcus turned to where the noise came from, aiming his gun lightly as he walked there slowly. At the same time, he had Sam stay with Rose, his sister, while George followed after him. He could have sent them to take a look at what it was, but he needed to see for himself whatever awaited them there.

  The tender was still moving as they walked to the back, getting closer and closer to the Voyager. Finally, Marcus stood at the stern, George keeping his back, as he looked around for whatever might have made that noise. He could see nothing, though. At least it seemed that nothing had jumped into the boat.

  "Shine a light there," Marcus said to George without averting his eyes from the water. He didn't want whatever made that noise to catch him unprepared. Waiting as the ex-soldier took his place next to him, Marcus prepared himself as the man turned the flashlight on and directed it at the water behind their boat, keeping his rifle ready all the time.

  "What the-!" Marcus heard George whisper.

  His finger moved to the trigger, almost pulling it, but he held himself at the end, he didn't remain alive till then by being trigger-happy. It was close though, seeing the mess of glowing green eyes just a few meters away made even his heart skip a beat. Beyond the glowing eyes was a body that reminded Marcus of something, mermaids, it was the first word that came to mind. It just wasn't the pretty kind of mermaids.

  The monsters had tails of fish, the midsection of a human and the heads of fish, with long sharp teeth. They had human arms that ended in long and taloned fingers. They gave a bloodthirsty feeling as they chased the boat, as if they couldn't wait to get their teeth into them.

  "Rose, push it harder!" Marcus shouted back at their pilot, he didn't want to spend more than they needed there. "And you, keep the light steady, I don't want us to fall into darkness again."

  Rose might not have seen what they were seeing, but she followed the orders nonetheless, pushing the tender much more than was usually acceptable.

  Marcus kept his eyes on the monsters all the way back. At first, he feared that they would take their chances at attacking them, but that never happened. The closer they got to the Voyager, the further away the monsters fell back, till finally, he could see them stop in their place and just float there in the water. That happened when they were around 90 to 100 meters away from the ship.

  "Don't relax yet," he told the guards. He didn't want an accident to happen when they were at the finish line.

  Fortunately, nothing like that happened and they made it to the ship safely. Rose directed the tender to the lift where the two guards worked on hooking it while Marcus kept watch. Soon the boat was hooked and lifted to the cruise ship.

  Captain Dan and Chief Officer Robert were waiting for them when they jumped onto the deck.

  "What's wrong? Did something happen?" Dan questioned worriedly, most likely noticing something off about their expressions.

  "We were chased by something," Marcus answered as he walked to the back of the tender. Grabbing a flashlight from one of the guards on his way.

  "Something? What kind of something?" Robert echoed as he followed after him.

  "Some sort of eldritch mermaids," Marcus said as he shined his light at the back of the tender, "with fish heads and tails, human torsos and human arms with clawed hands."

  "What the..." Marcus could hear Dan murmur from behind him as his flashlight finally found what he had been searching for.

  There at the back of the tender was a big dent, Marcus's mind leisurely considered just how much power would be needed to do that much damage. But it wasn't what surprised him, or for that, what had probably surprised Dan and the gang. No, that was the claw marks that had cut through the tender's body like tofu.

  "You said that those things are out there?" Robert asked from behind him after he too saw the damage.

  "Yes," Marcus nodded, before a thought came to his mind and he added, "Well, they seemed to be hesitant about getting close to the Voyager though. The closer we got to the ship, the further they fell back, till they stopped following us altogether."

  "That's one good thing about this, I guess," Captain Dan said, he then turned to him and the people who went with him and continued, "Marcus, make sure to tell Old Raily about this before taking a rest, it was a long day."

  Marcus nodded at that before saying his goodbye to everyone. He then headed to find Old Raily and see what to do about the shifts. It was a long day, but it was going to be just as long of a night.