"What can you see?" Dan asked even as he brought the Voyager to a halt.

  "They are stationary," Keith said as she looked blankly into the air, "I don't know if they are orange because they are not that dangerous to us, or because they haven't noticed us yet."

  "If they don't have a skill like yours, I doubt they have noticed us," Robert said seriously as he looked at the screen, an expression Dan couldn't quite read on his face, "It's quite dark and the Voyager is enshrouded in fog. Even if they could somehow notice us, they would think it's just a weird instance of ocean fog."

  "Good, that gives us the chance to turn back easily," Freddie said. Dan noticed how Robert looked at him as if he wanted to say something but he held himself back.

  Dan could guess what his old friend wanted to say and he was glad he could hold himself back. He didn't want to get into that at the moment, they had more important things to take care of.

  Dan met Robert's gaze, who only sighed before giving him a weary smile and saying,

  "I think we should at least try and get a better look at them. See if we can get any clues about whether they are of the navy or pirates."

  "Yes," Keith nodded, "From the book, we have knowledge about some pirate crews that are active around here. We should be able to recognise if they are pirates. And if they are of the navy we can write off this area."

  "Okay," Dan thought for a second before answering, "I will see what to do about it."

  He was about to take his walkie-talkie and call Marcus or Old Raily when he got a thought. The Voyager had the ship's cameras under her control, and they did have some pretty good night vision cameras. He didn't know if this could work or not, but he felt that he should at least try it.

  Letting the people in the bridge know that he was going outside for a bit, he started his experiment.

  Voyager, can you hear me? Trying to be even more stealthy about it, Dan tried to call for the Voyager internally.

  At first, there was no reaction, so he tried again and again, calling for her while trying to remember how he felt when they were connected. He knew that there was a connection between them even when he wasn't surrounded by her auras, that cocoon just made it easier for them to communicate.

  Finally, there was a reaction as he felt the auras seep from the floor and ceiling, before gathering on him. What he felt next was the confused Voyager sending her puzzlement, as if asking why he was calling so soon.

  "Sorry, big girl," Dan murmured as he smiled. He then sent what he wanted her to do.

  What Dan aimed for was to see if the Voyager could send him what she saw through the cameras, especially the infrared cameras. He wanted to get more information about the ship, anything that would indicate whether it was part of the navy or pirates. The infrared cameras on the Voyager were more than enough for that at their distance.

  It took a bit of back and forth between Dan and the Voyager before she finally understood what he wanted from her. Fortunately, once she did, there wasn't much more trouble. She quickly linked Dan with a stream of what one of the infrared cameras was seeing, having it focus on the unknown vessel.

  Knowing that he most likely didn't have much time in this weird state, Dan focused all his attention on getting as many details as he could from the ship. He went for clearer features, things that might be distinguishable marks for a ship.

  Not wanting to go through the same pain he had gone through before, Dan asked the Voyager to cut the connection as soon as he felt the pain start to rear its head.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Th-thank you, big girl," Dan said quietly as he tried to bring his breath under control. "You can cut the connection, go rest and sorry for calling you so soon."

  Sending back her happiness for the appreciation, the Voyager cut the connection between them and the aura returned to what it was, seeping again into the walls, floor and ceiling.

  Dan first brought his breathing and bearing under control before making way to the bridge. The others gave him some looks but no comments. Robert and Keith might have had some inkling of what he had been doing, especially Robert who knew about it already, but Freddie had no idea and his gaze was full of confusion.

  "I've used a skill of mine to take a look at them," Dan kept it short and to the point. They had already wasted quite a bit of time on this, their task of choosing a location for the drop still waiting.

  "The biggest distinguishing feature this ship has is how her bow has a figurehead. It looks like a hooded figure holding a lantern on a thick stick."

  While Dan was speaking Keith went and flipped through the book. He guessed she was trying to find a pirate ship with the same description as the one he gave.

  "I didn't notice any raised flags," he continued, "I don't know what colours it had too, it was hard to see. That leaves the last point, the ship's sails seemed ripped here and there. There seemed to be signs of fire on the deck too."

  "I found it!" Keith sounded after he finished his description of the ship, "The ship is the Farer, it's owned by a small pirate crew. They had been spotted around these parts recently, so it tracks."

  "They most likely use the Swarmers' territory as their own hideout," Robert thought out loud, "Keeping as close to it as possible without becoming a target. They most likely thought that no one would come searching for them there. Basically, they had the same idea as us, except that they can't actually go deep into their territory."

  "That's what I think too," Dan nodded, before letting out a sigh of relief, "Fortunately, it isn't the Empire."

  "Okay, now that we know, let's leave this place. Keith, Freddie, mark their location first, and start working on the drop point," Robert said. Dan felt glad that his chief officer didn't try to push for an attack against them or whatever.

  This little episode dealt with, Dan steered the Voyager away. All the while, he felt afraid that he would notice a ship following after them. Fortunately, nothing like that happened and they were able to retreat undetected.

  A few minutes after they left the Farer behind, they were joined by Marcus on the bridge. Dan first explained what had happened with the pirates before anything else.

  "You dealt with it well," the short man said, "It's good that we have their location too. It might be of help."

  "That aside." He looked at Keith and Freddie, "How is it going with the drop location?"

  "Almost done with it." It was Freddie who answered, "We've already locked into a few possible locations, you can take a look if you want."

  Marcus moved closer and stared at the map. He just stood there silently as Keith and Freddie explained their choices and why they made them. Marcus studied their options for a bit before he pointed to one of them and said,

  "We will go to this beach."

  Freddie looked at Keith before looking at Marcus again and asking,

  "Why that one? If I may ask."

  "The others are all almost as good as this one, you chose well," Marcus started explaining his reasoning, "But you ignored one thing. Honestly, it's on me. I forgot to mention it to Captain Dan, that's why I came here."

  Dan found himself frowning at the man's words, he tried to guess what the security officer might have forgot to mention but he couldn't come up with anything.

  "It's a fallback plan, a contingency plan, whatever you want to call it," he explained, "As I said, the other locations are good, but if things go south, a retreat without the tender would be hard. And even if we manage to run away from the drop location we would be stuck on land. There's no other location for you to come and pick us. This one though, there are 2 places that a tender would have no trouble getting to, and they are close enough for us to reach in an acceptable amount of time."

  "I didn't consider that," Dan heard Keith murmur. And he had to admit, he didn't either.

  "That's alright," Marcus said flatly, "It's my job to think of it, not yours, you did well."

  He then turned to Dan,

  "If we don't return after 45 minutes of leaving the Voyager at most, you should have someone go to the 2nd location to pick us up. If we don't appear at the 2nd location after 3 hours of leaving the Voyager, you should leave and operate based on the fact that we've been caught."