"It's really weird though." Dan watched as Robert shook his head in amazement. "I just woke up, started thinking about what I had to do today, then I suddenly realised that I was thinking in a language I've never used or learned before, it was so disorienting."

  "I get what you mean." Dan nodded. "I still haven't reached the point you're talking about, but from time to time a thought passes through my mind that isn't in English. Only after you brought it up did I realise what was happening, Universal Translation is taking effect, we are learning the Imperial language, slowly but surely."

  Universal Translation was a skill they had got for free from the system after that freak accident that sent them to Talia. The skill read, Universal Translation: a skill made specifically for visitors from outside of Talia to help with their settlement. Able to translate all languages on Talia to the user's native tongue, while also helping with the fast learning of the languages the user comes into contact with. Keep in mind that the skill will disappear a month from the date of its acquisition, make sure to work hard to learn the languages you desire before then.

  They had only been enjoying the first part of what was mentioned in that skill description, only after 18 days in their new world did they see the part about learning the languages they were coming into contact with bearing fruit, it was truly fascinating.

  "Let's make sure to make as much use of it before it's gone," Robert said as he seemed to be deep in thought, "We have books in the three most known languages on the Voyager, we should read more and more, I doubt we would get another chance like this one."

  "I agree, it's too good to let it slip from us."

  The two then talked for a bit more before Robert seemed to fall into a deep thought and then finally said,

  "What do you think we should do when we get to the Dynasty?"

  Dan froze for a second. Honestly, that had been on his mind and he had even spoken about it with a few of the others before, but he felt that Robert didn't just mean what they had already covered with his question. Thinking for a bit, he said,

  "For our survival, we will continue with what we have been doing for a while now. What do you mean though? I doubt it's just the general question that you have in mind."

  "Well, true." Robert smiled widely, then added as he sighed, "I meant what are we going to do differently. You know it too, right? We can't just continue running around in this vast ocean and world, do you... Do you think that we should contact the Dynasty?"

  Now that was a question Dan didn't have a ready answer for. Contacting one of the powers had always been a step that they needed to take. Which one to go after and when wasn't something they had considered in depth, but they were approaching a moment where they needed to do just that.

  "Honestly, I'm in favour of that," Dan eventually admitted, "The Dynasty might be a good choice, first due to the olive branch extended by Corgan, and second, and the more important reason, they don't have a strong navy or presence in the water. The Empire might be just as willing to get into some kind of relationship with us too, but their naval strength is too scary for our current selves. I doubt any other power is as strong as them in the water, except the Dwellers of course. Contacting the dynasty should prove to be a much safer option."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Good that you are considering it." Robert sighed in relief. "How are we going to do that though? What approach are we going to take?"

  "I don't know," Dan didn't even hesitate to say as he shrugged, "We have enough time to find out though, days before reaching the Dynasty's waters and even more after, no need to stress ourselves about it for now. We should also do some research on how the Dynasty is and how they treat their people. If they don't even treat their people well, why would they be any different with us?"

  They then talked some more about different things, from possible ways they could try to contact the Dynasty to how to go about doing some light research about the place. For the first, they had no way to deal with it, but for the second they looked into the possibility of sending some of their members with unusual Classes geared more towards infiltration and being stealthy.

  As he was about to bring up who they could add to the possible list, Dan suddenly felt his connection with the Voyager strengthen as she sent him some curiosity, wonder and not a small bit of confusion. Dan felt that it was towards something ahead of them, something had caught her attention.

  Knowing that whatever it was that she had felt, it was most likely important; one way or another, Dan had Robert wait for a moment as the Voyager's auras cocooned him and with that, she connected him to one of the cameras at the bow. Dan found his confusion mirroring the Voyager's as he saw what she showed him.

  What seemed to be a mountain with a single peak rising to the sky stood right ahead of them. The mountain was weird, as nothing seemed to be growing on it, and even though Dan was calling it a mountain, it was quite small. Dan's confusion grew as he noticed that the mountain seemed to be drifting in the ocean.

  "Something's ahead of us," he told Robert who had been eyeing him for a while, "The Voyager seems to be confused about it, be alert everyone, we might have a situation ahead of us."

  Focusing again on the bow's long-range camera, Dan started scanning the single peak and the area around it more closely. Fortunately, that brought back something. All around the single peak, there seemed to be small dots drifting atop the water. There were a lot of them and they were entering and leaving the single peak constantly.

  Dan updated the people about what he was seeing. He didn't know how big the single peak was, but if he were to give an educated guess, he would say that it was at least 70 or 80 meters tall and 30 to 40 meters wide.

  Dan was just about to speak to Robert when a change occurred. It was minor at first, just one or two of those dots turning their way, leaving trails of water as they cut straight towards them, but as those two moved, more and more of the ones drifting around the peak seemed to have got a command of some kind as most of them followed the first two. To Dan's astonishment, they were extremely fast, he wouldn't feel weird to say that they were moving faster than 55 knots, which was around 100 kilometres an hour.

  "Keith, update everyone." Dan wasn't going to take any chances with the weird happenings at the heart of the ocean. "They are coming at us."

  With them getting closer to the single peak, even though the Voyager was changing her course as she moved, and the dots being so fast that they made Dan question his eyesight, they were soon close enough that Dan could make out what they were.

  What Dan saw made his mind draw a blank again, they were bugs, more precisely, water striders. Those dots turned out to be huge three-meter-long water striders, unlike the normal ones Dan was used to on Earth, those weren't standing on their feet as they skied over the water, instead, their abdomens sat on the water like boat hulls while they used their feet to propel themselves forward in some way.

  Dan soon noticed that there weren't only the three-meter variants. Some of them were more than that, while others were barely a meter or so long.

  "They are huge water striders," Dan updated them in mild disbelief, "They are breathtakingly fast and it won't take long before they reach us."

  "Harvesters!" Dan didn't even have the time to focus on the camera again before he heard someone exclaim from behind him. Turning around, he was met by the surprised expression of Arnold, the Nautical Archivist.

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