"What?" Dan said unconsciously before his mind finally caught up to what he had heard. And he realised that Keith must have found out about the Voyager's budding consciousness somehow.

  "I know it sounds crazy," Keith said as she clutched her hair, "But believe me, it's the truth. I can prove it!"

  "No, no," Dan waved his hand as he tried to calm down his first officer, "I believe you."

  "You do?" She looked at him in surprise, as if she couldn't believe that it was this easy to make him believe her.

  "Yes, now just calm down, there's no need to be this worked up over it," He calmed her down.

  He offered her a cup of water he had filled for himself, watching as she downed it in one go. Once he saw that she had calmed down enough to listen to him, he moved to asking something that had been on his mind for a while now,

  "What did you mean by you could prove it, though?" He was curious about how his first officer could prove the matter to him.

  "Actually," Keith looked sheepishly at him, "I wasn't sure how believable my proof could be, I was kinda just wishing that it would work."

  Dan chuckled lightly as he saw her like that, it wasn't something he saw every day for sure.

  "Anyway." Probably comforted by his reaction, Keith continued with her explanation. "Yesterday, after Freddie left, and close to the end of my shift, I got a system notification. It told me that the Voyager wanted to contact me! Can you believe it? I almost thought I was hallucinating. The system and all its shit was something, but this seemed too much even for that!"

  "The Voyager tried to contact you...?" Dan murmured in shock.

  To say that he was surprised would be an understatement. Even he didn't get any kind of contact from the Voyager yet, the most that happened was her choosing her own skill. He didn't think this was how someone would find out about the Voyager being conscious.

  It was then that an idea flashed through his mind. The skill, Linked, the one that the Voyager chose the day before. It was a skill that didn't have any effect when he tried to activate it, nor did it work when he tried to target someone with it. He kinda just forgot about it after that. Only now after Keith mentioned getting contacted by the Voyager did he remember it again.

  "Yes!" Keith must have heard his murmuring because she continued excitedly, trying to keep her voice low as best as she could, "I would have woken you up, but I didn't want to leave the bridge empty, and with you having a shift early morning I didn't want to disturb your rest too."

  Dan just nodded to her as he got more invested in the current conversation. He was glad that she didn't blow this out of proportion. He didn't have any reason to keep the fact that the Voyager wasn't the same old ship a secret from the others, but he doubted that her running in the middle of the night shouting to anyone who could listen about how the ship was alive would have done them any good.

  "As I said, I was just sitting there close to the end of my shift when the system suddenly gave me a ping." From the way she said that first part, Dan felt as if there was something more to that that she just glossed over, but he didn't push. "It was about how the Voyager wanted to contact me, and another one asking if I would accept.

  "I agonised over it for a while before finally choosing yes. Once I did, another window appeared. And this one said. Hmm, wait a second, let me see..." She looked into space blankly for a bit before continuing,

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

  "As a recently awakened and strengthened consciousness, the Voyager is still learning how to control and interact with her own body. She has come to realise that she might be putting her crew in some trouble with her unconscious actions though. So she's trying to help with this skill, wishing that it might be of use to all of you."

  "Is that all?" Dan questioned once she was done speaking.

  "Yes," Keith nodded, "There is a next screen explaining what she meant to accomplish with this contact, but what's important is all in this first message. It explains a lot, don't you get it?"

  "I don't really..." Dan started before he went through what the message said again.

  The part he thought Keith referred to was the part about her not being able to control her body well and how that put them in a bit of trouble. Once he focused on that bit it felt as if pieces of a puzzle started falling into place.

  "It's the cameras and screens!" he exclaimed, before bringing his voice down after seeing a few heads turn to them, "Dex couldn't find anything wrong with them. All the systems should be fine and all checks come back positive, but there's no feed and most screens are just black. That's it, it's the Voyager, she has them under her control."

  "Exactly!" Keith said, just as, if not even more, excited than him, "If what the system said is true, and I see no reason why it can't be. Then the Voyager is using most of the cameras, scanners and readers at this moment. And from what I've just said, what do you think is the use of such tools? Especially to someone in her situation?"

  It only took Dan a few seconds to come up with what Keith was alluding to.

  "She's trying to perceive the world," he murmured in shock as he unconsciously looked at one of the cameras in the restaurant, "She has been watching us ever since we got here."

  "That's what I've been trying to get across!" At that moment Keith's excitement reached a whole new level, "The Voyager is aware, and she's growing. She's only going to get better and better from here on."

  "First calm down, here take a sip of this and try to calm down," Dan was just as excited as her for this news, but her excitement was drawing attention and he still didn't know how to break the news to everyone about the Voyager.

  Keith picked the cup without thinking and just took a big sip, just to spit most of it up and start choking on the rest.

  "Why-argh," Keith questioned amidst coughs as Dan tried to help her, "Why did you give me that? You know I can't handle coffee."

  "I'm sorry," was all Dan could say, he somehow forgot that amidst all that was happening. And who would blame him, it wasn't at the forefront of his mind at the time.

  "Are you alright now?" he asked after handing her some paper tissue. Privately he thought that at least that little episode put an end to that over the top excitement.

  "I'm alright," Keith sighed, "Anyway, that's what I found out. We are in a ship that's quickly gaining sapience and is watching our every move, and who also at least seems to be good to us; From feeling sorry for putting us in trouble and all that."

  "What did the Voyager offer you though?" he questioned. That was what started this whole conversation.

  "Oh, yeah," Keith exclaimed in surprise, as if that just came back to her, "It was about letting me link my skills to some of the screens in the bridge. I mean I already have them active all the time in my system, but having a way for everyone else to see them and for you all to know if anything is coming our way while I'm not there would be great."

  "That would come in handy," Dan nodded," So did you try it? How did it appear?"

  "I actually didn't get to try it. As I said, I got the system’s ping close to the end of my shift, and before I could try this, Freddie came back. I didn't know how to explain any of this to him or if it would be a good idea to do so, so I just left. After calming down a bit I decided that talking to you before doing anything else would be best."

  "I'm honestly not sure if telling people about the Voyager is a good or bad idea," Dan sighed, "We can just link your skill and lie, saying it was just something you got from your class. It's not as if we have to talk about the Voyager or we wouldn't link you to the ship. But again, I'm sure that it will come out eventually, so is it smart to hide it?"

  "I don't know," Keith also just shook her head.

  "I think I will first tell a few about it, and see what they think," Dan scratched his chin, "Old Raily, Marcus, and William, those seem like a good idea. Robert already knows after all."

  "That does sound like a good idea," Keith first nodded before what he said registered and she turned her head towards him in shock, "What did you say? Robert knows? Wait, you knew??"

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