When Dan heard Raymond's Class description, especially the part about the effect of his dishes being stronger, he thought that just meant that his dishes would affect them with how tasty they were, he couldn't have been more wrong.

  "What is this..." He heard a murmur from next to him.

  Once he took a bite from his dish, a medium-rare premium steak, he felt as if he had been rejuvenated. All the tiredness that was creeping on him due to the previous night's events and how tiring that day was, just got blown away as he lost control of himself and ate more and more of his portion.

  Part of him even felt that the effect was secondary, the taste took the true spotlight. It was the tastiest thing Dan had ever eaten, and that said a lot taking into account where he had eaten on Earth.

  Once he was done with his food, Dan finally had the state of mind to look up, locking gazes with Raymond. The man was just standing there with his arms crossed and a huge smile on his face.

  "Hope our first proper dinner in this world was up to your standards," he said once everyone was done eating, Dan could hear the smugness seeping from his every word. It wasn't off-putting in any way or form though, it felt more like pride and light teasing.

  "Okay, okay, calm down for a bit," after getting some claps and cheers, he calmed the crowd down before saying, "Now, why don't we get a word from our captain here? I'm sure he's way better with that than me."

  His words were met by even more cheers as Dan found himself left with no other way but to stand up and take the chef on his offer, thanking him and signalling the people to calm down, Dan thought for a bit and said,

  "One thing I've had in mind since all this started." He knew that Nulara and the young man were still there so he didn't go deeper into the specifics of things. "Was how the only way for us to survive any of this is through working together. We need to be more than just a group of people brought together by chance, we need to be a family that trusts each other with most things. My main purpose and goal ever since I realised our current situation was your safety. I know I messed up, I know I made some horrible decisions, and I regret them a lot, I regret how much danger I've put you through..."

  The Skyline fell silent as he spoke. Dan honestly didn't know what he was going to say when he took his place next to Raymond, but words he held in his heart just came out without his control, and people listened without interrupting him.

  "I can only say that I'm sorry, and I will do better. This isn't just about me, it's all of us, our brothers, sisters and families. They are here with us and believe me when I say I care for every one of them as much as you do. I will do my best from now on to get you the best possible chance at survival, I can only promise you that. We will strive for the best with all we can. No more being passive about it, we will fight for a place for us in this world! It will acknowledge us!"

  Seeing the serious expressions of the people below him and their unwavering eyes, Dan nodded at them before turning to their two guests,

  "Sorry you two," he said as he lowered his head a bit, "But can you please step out for a second? I have something to discuss with my crew for a moment..."

  He did feel bad about asking them to leave, especially after all they had gone through to warn them about the tracking mark and all that. But he put his trust in the natives of this world once, and look where that put them. Even though he was almost 90% sure that the two wouldn't bring him or his crew harm, he didn't want to risk it.

  Surprisingly, the pair didn't seem to mind, they just stood up as if it was the most normal thing in the world and made to leave. He nodded his head in appreciation, organised his thoughts before saying,

  "I've had something I wanted to tell you ever since we got here. But due to all the natives being here, Robert, Keith, Marcus, William, Old Raily, and I decided to only bring it up with you when they left the Voyager."

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  Dan saw people give the people he mentioned glances as he talked. The older guys just took it in with light nods while Keith smiled nervously.

  "Now that we are free of that security risk, it's time for you to know." Dan continued in a tense joking tone to his words, "Some of you might have already guessed this from what happened last night, so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the Voyager, the ship under our feet, is alive!"

  Dan watched the faces of the people in front of him as they went through a mix of emotions. Confusion, amusement as if they thought he was joking and finally shock as they looked around when they noticed that he was serious.

  "The Voyager is alive...?" Ruby, Raymond's wife, murmured in confusion.

  "Are you serious!" a voice shouted, making Dan almost jump, if not for the tone of the voice being excited and not angry or afraid, his heart would have stopped right then and there. "This is so fascinating! William! You knew! You are going to pay for not telling me this earlier!"

  As he guessed from the second part of that sentence, when Dan looked to the source of the voice, he saw Mary, the Matriarch of the Stage looking around in amazement. Her face was full of a fascination and excitement that was hard to believe from someone her age.

  "I knew it," Freddie said with an unbelieving tone while William tried to calm Mary, "Your reaction last night told me all I needed to know, but part of me still found it hard to believe."

  "Don't worry, everyone." Seeing how they seemed to be accepting it relatively well, Dan decided to hit while the iron was hot. "She only wants the best for us and would do nothing to hurt us. Honestly, she might even need our protection, her consciousness is still developing and she's closer to a young child..."

  Dan then went on to explain his Class and what happened when he tried to find the mark, plus the episode with the Ghostly Lantern. All those showcased how she only wanted their best, even if she didn't understand much.

  With the people coming to terms with the Voyager's consciousness and her being alive, Dan released a breath he didn't know he had been holding, this went better than he thought it would, the people were more accepting of the Voyager than he had thought they would be.

  That part of his announcement a success, Dan decided to move on to the next. He might have been pushing it, but he feared that if he didn't do it at that moment, he would never force himself to do it again, and keep on finding excuse after excuse to push it back further and further. So taking a deep breath he said,

  "Everyone, unfortunately, that wasn't all I had to say. Another matter needs your attention, it needs your votes on it! I'm sure that all of you have noticed how important levels are in this new world. And also noticed how low levelled we are when put against the natives. The average level in this world is 45, and that must be taking into account all the normal civilians out there. Who knows how high-level the fighting forces of this world are? That's why I'm bringing this up with you here.

  "We need levels, skills and more chances to grow, and the only way to do that is through risk. We can try to hide and run, but a freak accident like yesterday's could destroy us. Everyone, I think we should go on the offensive, try and get some levels and skills!"

  This time, the expressions they showed were closer to what he had expected, shock, alarm and hints of fear here and there. Not wanting to let things go south, Dan continued,

  "There's no reason to be afraid, we will take all precautions to make this as safe as it could be for us. We will start with weaker and easier targets and move up as we grow. The next few days will be spent in preparations. From choosing the right target to planning our approaches, all that shall be taken into consideration before we even leave this safe zone we are currently in."

  "I'm with you in this," Robert said as he stood, "We aren't on Earth, everyone, we can't be passive, we should do all we can to protect ourselves and our loved ones. And believe me, we will try to make this as safe as possible."

  "Yes." Marcus also stood and moved to stand beside Dan. "I wish for our safety as much as any of you, but we should be honest with ourselves, our current path will only lead us to ruin, we need to move."

  After those two was old Raily, William and some of the other guards. With them joining, Dan didn't feel as unsure as he was about himself.

  "Okay, let's vote on this," he said after all the others spoke. "Raise your hands if you think we should do this."

  With some hesitation at first, Dan watched hands being raised here and there, slow at first but soon people began joining with determined faces.

  It was unanimous.