"We should have expected it," Robert said as he walked next to Dan, "The Blue Avenger must be a living ship, just like Voyager."

  "It must be just that." Dan nodded. "That would also explain why Voyager reacted that way, why she felt such a closeness with the other ship and found her trustworthy. It also explains what the Blue Avenger said about Voyager being pure. That might have been the reason she didn't choose to attack, or even just ignore us and instead chose to help."

  "It would have been great if we had managed to establish some kind of relationship with her." Robert sighed as he shook his head. "She seems to be quite strong, from what Nulara had said."

  "The way things went was still good too," Dan comforted him, "She seemed to have taken a liking to Voyager, hopefully that means that if we meet in the future, we can expect her to help us."

  "We can only hope," Robert said.

  At that moment, the two of them were walking to the meeting room where Marcus, Old Raily and the usual gang were waiting for them. The only one missing was William who had a weird expression on his face when Dan asked him to join. He had refused, saying that he was busy.

  It was time to work on the next part of their journey, the preparations for landing on the Dynasty.

  The two entered the meeting room, greeted everyone there and then sat down and started their meeting.

  "As you might all know," Dan led the meeting, "We don't have a lot of time before we reach the Dynasty. We need to start making our preparations while we have the time, doing all that needs to be done and working on what needs to be worked on. So, any of you want to start this?"

  "The first, and the most important, matter that calls for our attention is of course where and how are we going to land," Marcus took hold of the conversation without any delay, "We don't know much about the Dynasty or its geographical features, we barely have a few maps that we have no way to determine the accuracy of, so we need to be just as cautious as when we were when we hit land on the Empire at first."

  "Well," Old Raily said, "We are a bit more suited to deal with this exact problem than we were just a few days ago."

  "The natives?" Jackie asked.

  "Yes." Dan understood what the old veteran meant, he had thought about that too after all. "Some of those we rescued are from the Dynasty. I'm sure we can find a thing or two from them, we might not be as clueless as we thought we were."

  "Okay, I will take Nulara and Arkus and go have a word with them after we are done here," Jackie said thoughtfully, he then added as he saw Marcus about to speak, "And you don't have to tell me, I will do it in a manner that would leave us with the most accurate and trustworthy amount of knowledge."

  "Okay, that bit is dealt with." Dan nodded at Jackie in appreciation before moving to the next part of the meeting. "We had talked before about reaching out to the Dynasty somehow, should we talk about how, or even if, we should go with that?"

  "Just as it was said last time," Robert spoke first, looking at everyone in the room, "We can't go on just like we are now, drifting aimlessly from one place to another. We would have to link ourselves with some power eventually, introducing ourselves to the wider stage of this new world we are in. That power might as well be the Dynasty. From how Corgan and all the others treated us, it can be seen that they are also ready for such a relationship with us, many of their actions could be seen as them extending an olive branch towards us."

  "We would need to study our choices," Old Raily said, "Who knows how these people truly are? It's too risky to put our trust in them just from the way they acted while needing us to like them, they certainly would have to be on their best behaviour then."

  "Totally," Robert agreed readily, "We still need to see how this power treats its citizens and the people under it, we can't link ourselves with a dictatorship. That would have to be left for the group dropping to land, they are going to be our eyes there after all."

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "That reminds me of something." Dan cut in as he noticed Marcus looking at him at Robert's words. He understood what the security officer wanted to bring up, after all, they had discussed the matter a bit before. "Who do you think we should send in the next mission? Who are going to be our eyes, as you put it?"

  "Oh, God..." Dan heard Old Raily whisper from next to him. He turned in confusion just to see the old man with a heavy expression of resignation.

  Dan had many questions as he shared a look with the others at the table, it was the first time he saw the old man like that, and he didn't know what it all meant.

  "I was thinking about sending people who would be more suited toward disguise and infiltration rather than our strongest combatants this time," Marcus brought up what he and Dan had talked about before. He seemed unbothered by Old Raily's reaction. "Many of our strongest might be known by the world's powers right now. That includes me, Leonard, and George. Any and all of those who hit land before might have been compromised, it might be wiser to send people who aren't that known. What do you think? And do you have a recommendation for whom we could send?"

  "I see no problem with that, or no reason why it wouldn't work," Robert said, seeming to be in deep thoughts, "I'm sure that some of ours have skills that would work best for such a mission. We still need to send some guards with them though, just in case things go south."

  "So," Dan focused the conversation on the most important part, "Who are we sending?"

  "I know about a volunteer," Old Raily said as he massaged his head, "Mary wants to go."

  "Mary?" Dan said in shock, repeating the woman's name stupidly, "Mary, Mary??"

  Dan saw a weary smile on Old Raily's face, he now understood why the old veteran had that reaction when they brought up the matter of who needed to go down.

  "Not just her," Old Raily continued, "Brittany and Agatha want in too."

  The room fell into deep silence as the man's words registered in their mind, the people there looking at each other with uncertain glances. Dan finally got why William didn't want to join this meeting, the poor man must have known already.

  Mary was William's wife, she had been a theatrical actress back on earth, and that had manifested in her Class here. She was a Matriarch of the Stage, which honestly sounded like what they might need. From what Dan heard, she could shapeshift, taking the shape of people she had seen. She would have been the perfect person to send on this mission if not for the fact that she was old, probably one of the oldest on the entire ship.

  At least Mary had her Class and skills to use, but the other two? Dan had no idea why they would want to join in such a dangerous mission. Brittany was Luke's mother and her Class was Master Illusionist. The Class might be useful on land if he were being honest with himself, but the woman was a simple housewife back on Earth, he didn't know what made her decide to join in such a dangerous mission.

  And that left Agatha, or as many on Voyager knew her, Mrs Raily. Neither her Class nor her background had anything to do with the coming mission. She was supposed to be a therapist for the people on Voyager, and her Class, Healer of the Broken, did just that, giving her the skills that helped her fix them and help them with their inner problems. He didn't know why she would want to put herself in danger.

  "Do William and Luke know about this?," Dan asked.

  "William most likely does." Old Raily shrugged. "Not that it matters much, there's zero chance that he would be able to change Mary's mind if she truly wants to go. As for Luke, I'm not sure."

  "Now, let's calm down and consider this for a moment," Robert interjected, "Is this really as bad a preposition as we think it is?"

  Dan was about to say of course, but he stopped himself as he considered it rationally, taking their Classes and skills into account and how things might go and the danger they might find themselves under.

  "That's why I'm this conflicted," Old Raily said, "From what Agatha told me, they've considered things deeply and they think that with their skills, they should be able to bring us all the information we need from land, without much risk. It might just work."

  "If," Dan said after seeing that no one else did, "And I mean if we decide to go with this, we still need to choose someone to go down with them, we can't send them on their own."

  "That's a given," Robert agreed readily, "We will send a couple of guards with them."

  "Okay," Dan said weakly, almost not believing what he was saying, "We will call them and see where their certainty is coming from before deciding on what to do."

  He massaged his head as the absurdity of what he had just said hit him, they were really considering sending three old ladies as their spies and information gatherers.