Releasing a breath he didn't know he had been holding, Dan could finally feel his body relax for real, and with that almost all the power that had kept him going. He would have lain right there and then if not for the fact that they still had so much to do.

  Forcing himself to move, he made way to Marcus and Old Raily. He knew that they had to see how to deal with the situation fast so as to not give anything the chance to surprise them, God knows they didn't have the power to deal with much else.

  "Marcus, Old Raily," he greeted the two men who were already talking to each other. "What's our current plan?"

  "We were just considering that," Marcus said, "It seems that going deeper into the Swarmers' territory and staying there for the night at least is our best bet."

  "That would give everyone the time to rest," Old Raily added, "And give us time to make sure that whatever that was, it has left."

  Dan felt relieved when he realised that they all seemed to be on the same page, he didn't want to have to argue over something like this after going through all of that.

  "I think so too," he said as he massaged his head, "I will talk to Keith and see about moving deeper into the Swarmers' territory."

  "Maybe we shouldn't go that deep," a voice came from behind. Dan turned just to find his good friend Robert standing there. The man looked just as bad as he himself felt. "Who knows what might be at the deepest part of this place, I don't really want to risk it."

  "That's reasonable." Dan took his time thinking it over before answering. "We will see about that."

  "I will see about sending everyone to rest," Old Raily said as he looked back at the stern. "Most of them are still in shock over what just happened tonight. They need time to recover."

  "I will appoint some of the guards to keep watch just in case," Marcus said. He then sighed as his shoulders slumped a bit. It was so out of character that Dan had to stop himself from gawking. "We will have to look into the matter of the guards soon. I know they volunteered, but they are under a lot of pressure too. And most of them were never prepared for something like this. They need rest and help just as much as the others."

  Dan frowned at those words. He had brought that up with Marcus and Old Raily before, but it seemed that they really needed to deal with it as soon as possible.

  "I think so too," he agreed, "Let's look into that tomorrow. I don't want to force anyone to do something they don't want to, only out of obligation. Hopefully, we will have some people who have classes that would benefit from them joining the guards."

  "Hopefully..." Robert murmured as they all looked at the few guards they had. Even then, they were still going from person to person, seeing if they needed help of some kind. It was commendable, but Dan feared that they were pushing themselves too much.

  "Let's leave that for tomorrow," Old Raily finally broke the silence that settled on them, "For now let's deal with the things at hand first."

  "Okay, I will head to the bridge and see how things are." Dan nodded. "Poor Keith seemed to be going through quite the emotional rollercoaster there at the end."

  "I'll come with you," Robert said as he stood next to him.

  Dan just nodded and after saying goodbye to the other two, they made their way to the bridge in silence. Dan would be lying to say that he wasn't affected mentally too, though his didn't come from fear over himself as much as it was for his crew. When those jets of water and spikes started raining on the back of the Voyager he could almost feel his heart stop. The idea that they might have lost some of the guys at that point was like a freezing grip that clutched his heart. He would have never forgiven himself if that had happened.

  "Are you alright?" Robert's question brought him back to the present after they had walked for a while.

  "I could be asking you the same question." Dan first joked with his chief officer before saying, "Not really sure, it's not always that you get chased by a ghostly floating light controlling undead creatures."

  "I get what you mean." Robert nodded as he massaged his head. "Those things were too creepy with their rotting flesh and showing bones."

  Dan raised an eyebrow at his friend's words, he almost said something but decided not to push for now.

  "What do you think we should do next?" Dan was the one who broke the silence this time, bringing into focus something he knew they wouldn't be able to ignore for much longer. "We can't keep on going like this. Just drifting with no plan. This forbidden zone will buy us a few days, but we can't just hide here forever, we need to consider our future. Have a more concrete course of action."

  Stolen story; please report.

  "I think you know what I would say," Robert said, "We need to be more proactive, we can't just stay as the passive party. You have that title too, you saw the comment in it and you know how low levelled we are in contrast to people in this world. The average level is 45. Without the Voyager and our weapons, we are so done for."

  Dan didn't know what to say to that. He would be lying if he said that he didn't expect those words from Robert, they had already gone through this before, and he had given his friend a promise that they would look into it after they had returned from their information-gathering trip. But a mix of not really knowing what to say and not getting the right time to bring it up meant that it was pushed aside.

  Seeing his captain still silent Robert continued,

  "Have you looked at your notifications yet? We got so many levels from that! Go, take a look."

  Only then did Dan realise that there really was a notification from the system in the back of his mind. He never had the time to care about them when he was amidst the fight, the system might not have been as forceful with it as it might have been in the first place. Dan could see how getting distracted by a system notification could be dangerous in a fight.

  Calling the system, Dan ignored the prompt and just looked at the number of levels he got and how many collective skill choices he had. Seeing 4 there, he almost didn't believe his eyes. That would put him at level 7 and give him another Voyager skill.

  "I'm not saying that we should go for something as dangerous as what we just did," Robert's voice fell back into a weaker, gentler speaking tone. Dan could feel the tiredness in it, "I was afraid out there too. My wife was with the supporters, just behind the front-liners. If any of those hit her I don't even know what I would have done. But that doesn't mean that we should just hide and wish for the best, we can take things slow and go for weaker targets, make slow but gradual growth. There is a right way to do this, we just need to find it."

  Dan ignored the skills choices for now, leaving them for later. Even if he wasn't speaking to Robert, he wasn't in the right state of mind to make such an important decision.

  "I understand," he finally admitted, his shoulders slumping, "There's a reason why I brought this up with you, after all. I know that I had been too passive, trying to just survive by hiding and not showing up as anyone's target. You saw how useless that is though, we just got attacked by this world's equivalent of an ocean folklore. The only way to really be safe in this world is to have the power to protect ourselves from whatever might come our way."

  "It's alright." Robert patted him reassuringly. "We will find a way to do this right."

  "We will see how to go about this safely," Dan said after thinking about it slowly, "I will bring it up with Marcus and Old Raily tomorrow."

  The rest of the walk to the bridge was silent, both men were lost in their thoughts and didn't feel like saying much more. In such an atmosphere, they made it to the bridge.

  "Keith, Freddie, William," Dan called, he was glad that the last person was there, he wanted to contact him but didn't know where he was. "How are things? Is everything alright?"

  "Captain," Keith let out a breath of relief. "We have been in the Swarmers' territory for a while now. They don't show any sign of getting close to us. Everything is good so far."

  "Good, keep our speed slow and push us deeper into their territory," Dan explained their coming course of action, "Don't push us too deep though, we don't know what might be at the centre of this place, might even be something worse than that light."

  "Okay, on it," she answered.

  Dan moved to the screen that she linked her skill to, wanting to see what they were dealing with, he had to stop himself from exclaiming at the sight. The whole screen, other than the Voyager's protected circle, was orange. There was no other colour.

  He forcefully dragged his gaze away from it as he turned his attention to the old engineer who was sitting there holding a necklace and with a deep frown on his face.

  "Hey old friend, is everything alright?" He noticed how something seemed to be off about the old gentleman.

  "Oh, hm?" Old William looked at him in confusion for a bit before he seemed to register what Dan just said, "Sorry, I was just lost in thought for a bit."

  "It's alright," Dan patted him, "This situation has us all in quite the frame of mind."

  "I couldn't do anything..." The old engineer finally said, with a vulnerability to his voice, "Everyone was helping the best they could and I can't even get this Class of mine to work..."

  "We are still new to this," Sensing their friend's weird state of mind, Robert interjected, "Our Classes might be easier to use because they aren't that demanding, but yours demands more from you. Don't worry, you will get it eventually."

  "I know," William sighed, "It's just this situation as you said. So what is it? Is there anything I could help you with?"

  "I was going to ask you to take a look at where we got shot," Dan said after studying his friend's face, "But if you don't feel well I can leave that to Rose and the other three. I'm sure they could handle it on their own"

  "That's nonsense," William said as he stood up, "Let them rest, I'm gonna go and take a look, I will radio it in if it's urgent, if it's not, I'm just going to leave it till tomorrow. Go and rest you two, it must have been hard on you."

  Dan wanted to ask his friend if he was sure, but he decided against it after some thought. His friend needed something to do, it was best if he didn't take that from him.

  "Great," Dan patted him, "Make sure to tell me as soon as possible if the damage is bad."

  Dan doubted it would be, he was connected to the Voyager and didn't feel anything off from her, she seemed to be doing well. She even gave him the feeling of being drowsy after a heavy meal.

  "Don't worry, I will."

  God I almost forgot!! If you've read chapter 47 before today, the 21st if September, than some minor changes were made to make things more believable! The undead creature's aura had a decay and rot effect in the propellers when they were destroyed by them, but the Voyager's dark aura took care of it easily! Such a good girl~~ that's all, most likely just a paragraph or two