Dan was still trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing when he suddenly noticed that the mass of fog disappeared from his sight. It was there, then in the next second, it blinked into thin air.

  Different from last time though, and from how Voyager was acting confused and a bit panicky, Dan knew that the mass of fog was gone even from her sight.

  "There's something out there," he updated the few on the bridge, "Voyager was able to lock on to it at first, but it's gone now."

  "What is it?" Marcus asked, his voice in that extremely neutral tone he always used when the situation turned serious.

  "A mass of fog," Dan didn't waste time before answering, "Between 30 to 40 meters long. It gave me a sense of familiarity when I had a look at it, as if I was looking at Enshrouding Fog somehow."

  Dan left Marcus to deal with directing the bridge while he focused on the other task at hand, trying to find the mass of fog again. He didn't know if it was a ship or something that had an ability that gave a similar feeling. Either way, it was an unknown variable and unknowns were dangerous in this new world.

  While Dan was trying to find the mass of fog again, he felt a surge of surprise from Voyager as she focused both her and his sight on a spot to the opposite side of where it had first appeared. It was too fast, it barely took a couple of minutes as it teleported from one side of Voyager to the other. Also, from the way it blinked like that, Dan had a sudden foreboding feeling.

  "It appeared again, on the opposite side!" Dan shouted to everyone.

  Before the people could even react, the mass of fog got cloaked again, disappearing from Voyager's senses. Knowing what might be coming, Voyager didn't just focus on the place it disappeared from, and instead started scanning all around them for the mass of fog.

  As expected, and even faster than the last time, the mass of fog appeared once again. The place it appeared at this time was right ahead of Voyager, less than 100 meters away from the bow. As the sense of weirdness filled Dan once again, it blinked away.

  "It's doing it intentionally," Dan said after updating them on where the mass of fog had appeared again, right at the stern. "It could have approached without us even noticing it, but it's made sure that we, well Voyager actually, have an eye on it before disappearing again."

  "What does that mean for us though?" Robert asked with a frown, "Why would it be doing this at all? It doesn't make any sense?"

  "We can only hope that it doesn't have any hostility towards us," Dan said as the mass of fog returned to the location it had appeared at first, "Just the passive invisibility it has is the strongest we have faced so far. When it disappears from our sight might be the only time it truly activates its skills. I doubt we would have been able to do much against it if it wanted to hurt us."

  "Arguing about that has no use for us at all," Marcus said, bringing the conversation back to what really mattered. "We need to prepare for the worst either way."

  "I will make sure that Voyager is ready for whatever," Dan said, "You only need to prepare as best as you can."

  Dan connected to Voyager just to get hit by some disorientation as he felt a third will connect to them.

  In the shock and confusion that followed, Dan suddenly felt an alien consciousness send thoughts their way.

  Follow, the other side said.

  It was more of an idea, devoid of any sound or anything that would give a sense of who or what the other side was. A part of Dan's mind noted that it sent it in the Imperial language.

  This connection was different from the one he had with Voyager in that it wasn't as linked to him as Voyager's consciousness was. It was as if there was a filter between it and them, only having the ability to send its thoughts without having access to theirs.

  Dan was brought to the present as he felt the third consciousness split off, disconnecting. He gathered himself before updating the crew:

  "It asked me to follow it. It linked to the connection I have with Voyager and only sent one word, follow."

  Whatever activities were happening on the bridge they all came to a halt as everyone turned to Dan. They showed slightly different expressions, but at their core, they were mainly one and the same, shock.

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  "It jumped right ahead of us," Dan kept them updated as his mind moved as fast as it could, trying to come up with what they should do next. "It's just there, as if waiting for a reaction from us."

  "What are we going to do?" Old Raily broke the silence, "We can't just stay frozen like this, we need to do something."

  "But what?" Robert asked, "We have no idea what we are dealing with right now, you can't expect us to decide with such little information."

  "At its core," Marcus cut in, "We only have two options, go on with it or not. Each of those two has its advantages and disadvantages. And let's be fast, I don't know how patient the other side is, but I don't want to risk pushing it too much and finding out the hard way."

  "The thought it sent my way was using the Imperial language," Dan added something he thought might be of use as he saw the bridge fall into silence. "That could maybe cut off the possibility that it is a monster, right? We can't be sure in this world, but let's go with that for now. So why would someone be in this part of the ocean? One that shouldn't be used by anyone and should be as much of a forbidden zone as the ones we had camped at before?"

  Again, before anyone on the bridge even had the chance to reply to his concerns, Dan felt the third consciousness link to them, sending something their way again.

  It's dangerous here, the route is a dead end, follow me. Again, there were no emotions or anything else linked to those words, just a pure exchange of information.

  Wait, who are you? Why are you helping us? Dan asked hurriedly, before the other side could cut the connection again.

  Your partner's soul is pure. The other side sent back, ignoring the first part of his question. I doubt such a soul would have a bloodthirsty Captain. I would have sent you all to the bottom of the ocean if I thought that you deserved it.

  With that, the consciousness disconnected again and Dan found his focus again on the real world.

  "It connected to me again," he told them, silencing the ongoing discussion. "Said that the place here is dangerous, that the route leads to a dead end and that we need to follow it. After that, I asked who it was and why it was helping us, and it said that Voyager's soul is pure, and that it would have sent us to the bottom of the ocean if it thought that we deserved it."

  "Yeah, not scary at all," Dan heard Jackie whisper. It seemed that the bosun was finally returning to his usual self, separating himself from the state that his skill put him in.

  "There is a big chance that the route we are taking would truly lead us to our doom. The safe ones are supposed to be rare, and I doubt we have found one just like that," Keith slowly said, "It might really be helping by leading us through a safe path out of here."

  "That's one possibility," Robert said, the frown never leaving his face, "But are we really going to gamble on that? It might as well be leading us to our doom."

  "It wouldn't have needed to show itself at all if it wanted to do us harm," Keith responded to the chief officer, "And I don't need to remind you what we were arguing about before it appeared, it was whether we continue on our way or turn back. Even if we choose to turn back, we would have to cross this path eventually, and it would be here all the same. So, unless we turn back and head to the waters of the Empire, I think going with it is our best bet yet."

  The bridge exploded into heavy discussions, people speaking over each other as they all wanted to say something or another. Dan looked at Marcus just to see the man sitting there silently with a deep frown on his face, he knew that he wouldn't be finding an answer for what to do from him.

  "Voyager, what do you think we need to do?" Dan turned to his closest partner, "Do you trust it?"

  I do. Unlike what Dan expected, there was no hesitation as Voyager replied, she seemed to truly trust the other party. She feels nice, trustworthy.

  "What?" Dan exclaimed in confusion, he could feel the bridge fall silent as everyone looked at him, but he gave it no mind, just pushed Voyager more, "Why is that? Do you know why you feel such a thing?"

  I just feel it, Voyager said with her limited vocabulary, I feel I can trust her?

  "Voyager says the other party feels trustworthy," Dan updated everyone once he knew that he couldn't get more from her, "She didn't give a reason, but she called her a she and that she's trustworthy."

  "That's it everyone," Marcus finally spoke, "Those are our choices, turn back and be stuck in a limbo, unsure of what to do next, or accept the olive branch from this weird entity and see where it would lead us. What do you think?"

  "I'm with Voyager," Dan was the first who spoke, "I trust her, and I know that the other party does not affect her, mentally that is. We should remember how special Voyager is, that she can sense and react to things even our skills can't; she was the reason we made it this far at all. Without her we wouldn't have even made it here, I think we should trust her."

  Saying what he needed to, Dan watched as the bridge once again fell into a mess of arguments and discussion. He didn't say anything else, he said what he felt needed to be said and left the rest for them.

  A couple of minutes later, the bridge calmed down as a choice was reached and Dan took a deep breath as he activated the speakers and said to the entity right ahead of them.

  "We will follow, lead the way."

  Without a word, the other party started moving.