After Dan calmed the Voyager more and dragged her focus from the small blunder she seemed to be focused on, he paid her farewell as she cut the connection between them, making his way to the bridge.

  He then found himself apologising to poor Freddie who looked a bit pale when they met again. Fortunately, the man didn't just start shouting bloody murder once he noticed the change and instead, he contacted Dan first. Who knows how bad things would have been otherwise?

  And Dan wouldn't really blame them for that. After all, they only had to look at the screen linked to Keith's skill to realise how done for they would be if they lost the protective circle around the Voyager. They would find themselves amidst what looked like a swarm of monstrous fish that won't stop till one of them disappeared. Dan had some deep trust in the Voyager sturdiness, but even he wouldn't bet on their chances at that moment.

  "It got my heart moving that's for sure," Freddie said as he shook his head and sat down, sipping on some water that Dan got for him.

  "I should have realised it sooner," Dan said again as he patted his second mate lightly.

  "It's alright, don't worry about it," Freddie shook his head before finally saying seriously, "You realise it too right? This might be of help to us."

  "I do." Dan nodded in agreement. "The fact that the area could increase is already a huge plus, but even shrinking it could help. It would let us set the range the monsters are at, even hunting them from the deck possibly."

  Before finding out about this new ability of the Voyager, their hunting plans had them get on tenders and stay on the edge of the protective circle, hunting some manageable ocean monsters. It would work, but it was still risky.

  "I thought of that too," Freddie appeared deep in thought, "Honestly, part of me even wants to try hunting some Swarmers using it, but I don't really want to see what might happen when those things get provoked, I have no interest in that, thank you."

  "Same, let's use this with some normal creatures, not the ones we are at the heart of, please," Dan joked with him.

  "Morning you two." A voice suddenly sneaked up on them from behind. The two looked back at the same time just to see Jackie heading towards them, "How are you doing?"

  "Morning Jackie," the two greeted the bosun. "What about you, how are you doing?"

  "I'm good." Jackie sat down as he sipped from his cup. Dan knew him to be quite the avid coffee drinker. "I'm just stopping around to see if the people here have filled their surveys already. After giving them to everyone last night at dinner, I'm supposed to take them back today. Speaking of which, have you completed yours?"

  "Oh, yeah," Dan searched through his pockets before handing the man his paper. He already told everyone his Class so there was no reason to hide anything. He did wonder who would keep their Class a secret and for what reason. That was their own business though, he chose not to focus on it.

  "Thank you," Jackie took the papers and read them over, "Our Bonded Captain and our Pathless Navigator. Quite the Classes you have there."

  Dan just rolled his eyes at his friend, they barely knew a thing or two about Classes, how could he even judge whether they were good or not?

  He was curious about Freddie's Class, that was the first time he had heard of it, it just didn't come up. He could guess that Keith probably knew about his class and he knew hers, they were together most of the time after all.

  "What about you then?" Freddie asked Jackie, "What Class did you end up with?"

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "Well, my Pathless Navigator," Jackie said in a condescending tone, "You're looking at an Oceanic Druid."

  Dan found himself looking at his bosun blankly, before turning to Freddie who was also just staring ahead, he almost felt that his old friend was messing with them. So far the Classes seemed to be manifested after a thorough scan of the holder, he didn't know how someone from their time and world would get a class called Oceanic Druid.

  "Don't give me that look you two." Jackie raised his eyebrow at them. "It just happens that my respect and reverence are way higher than what others might feel towards the ocean. The system just took that into account."

  "Well, as long as you're happy with it," Dan said as he patted him, "Did you get the Class of any of the others? How many are you missing?"

  "Just a few here and there," Jackie answered after thinking for a bit, "Also, surprisingly, not many hid their Classes, so far only Sam, Martin and... Robert chose to keep it a secret."

  Two of those weren't much of a surprise. Sam, who was part of the guards and said that he couldn't remain one as his Class needed time to grow. And Martin, Ricky's twin brother who was a math professor of some kind. Those two might have just cared for their privacy and didn't want to share, but Dan thought he knew his good friend Robert well enough to guess that he wouldn't really care for such a thing.

  "Robert?" Seems that the matter wasn't only surprising to Dan, as Freddie also asked in confusion. "He didn't share his either?"

  "Yup." Jackie just shrugged. "He said that he had his reasons. He's probably going to talk to you about it later."

  "It's alright." Dan shook his head. "It's his choice, I won't push him for it."

  And he did mean that, it was a bit out of character, but he wasn't going to push if his friend didn't want to speak about it.

  "That aside," Dan steered the conversation to something more important, "Should I expect all the surveys to be done and gathered by lunch?"

  "Yeah, I think so." Jackie didn't even think it over. "Even now we are only missing a few, should be all done by lunch."

  "Okay, thanks a lot for your hard work." He patted his bosun.

  The day then passed peacefully. Around midday, and after lunch, Jackie came to Dan with all the filled-out surveys. As he was going through them, preparing to input them into the computer, he saw Robert coming in.

  "You're filing them?" his old friend asked as he sat next to him.

  "Gotta be done," Dan answered with a smile.

  "I get you."

  He then looked over the pages next to Dan. The pair stayed silent like that for a while, Dan just went through the papers, copying them to the computer, while Robert read next to him. Eventually, Robert put the final paper he had been reading aside and said,

  "You've noticed how I didn't share my Class didn't you?"

  "I noticed," Dan said, stopping what he was doing.

  He wasn't going to bring the matter up, but from how Robert did so first, he guessed his chief officer had something to say about it.

  "It's something I decided on along with Marcus," Robert said as his finger tapped the table, "So far only he knows my Class, and we are going to keep it that way. Think of it as a contingency. Hopefully, we will never get to use it, but if it's ever needed, we would be glad that we have it."

  Dan found himself frowning, he had no idea what such a Class could be, a Class that was kept a secret from everyone because it was a contingency for a possible scenario... his mind turned blank when he tried to guess what it might be.

  "It's alright," he finally said, releasing a breath, "I had no reason to ask you about your Class, and now that you've told me why you kept it so, I have even less of a reason to ask."

  Dan trusted his men and friends. He knew that they would put the safety of the Voyager and everyone on it first.

  "Thanks for your trust," Robert said as he released a deep breath of his own, it seemed that he too wasn't as carefree about the matter as he appeared to be.

  "You don't have to mention it," Dan chuckled, "Not going to lie though, I really want to know what it is."

  "Let's just hope the need for it never arises," Robert said, his voice serious and expression heavy, "I really hope I would never have to go through that scenario."