The talk with everyone about what Nulara had brought up was done after lunch. It was given the importance it deserved, and after some discussions, it was decided that they should just send some of their strongest for a first run, to see if the place really existed before going for it.

  After that was done, Dan also brought up the fact that their two guests might be suffering a bit of alienation from the others on the Voyager, and that they shouldn't let such a thing continue.

  It was then that Robert brought up something that they hadn't considered,

  "Why don't we ask them what they think would sell," He said as he scratched his chin, "Nulara was a noble who's quite familiar with black markets, and the young man is a blacksmith. I'm sure that they would have some knowledge about what would sell and what wouldn't."

  Just those sentences made them really consider how they were treating the two natives on the Voyager. It wasn't lost on them that such an obvious option was ignored simply because of their subconscious distrust towards the two.

  Robert's offer was accepted and they moved on from the matter, not without keeping in mind trying to get the others to open up to the pair of natives of course.

  That brought things to what was happening with them at the moment. After lunch and the short meeting, Jackie called the others to the Hanging Playgrounds, saying that he had something to show them. A bit interested, they followed him there.

  "Well, ladies and- well just stinky old men, actually," Jackie said with a wide grin, Dan could only smile at that. "I called you here for a demonstration!"

  "And we already know that, get on with it!" Robert said in mock annoyance.

  "As I was saying." Jackie didn't care one bit about what Robert said. "I called you here for a demonstration of one of my skills. I have been seeing people running around showing off their skills so I thought, why not me too?"

  As he spoke, he started removing his clothes.

  "What are you doing man," William said in jest, "As you said, all of us are old men, none of us cares for what you're showing off, though I doubt any of the ladies would have found any of this... pleasing to the eye."

  "Well, just watch." Jackie rolled his eyes at the old man.

  When he was only left with his swimming shorts and a necklace with some kind of bone at the end, he jumped into the pool behind him.

  "So we are just supposed to wait?" Dan said after a while had passed with nothing else happening, just Jackie at the bottom of the pool looking at them.

  "I think so?" Old Raily didn't seem that sure either.

  They just looked at the guy in the pool in confusion at first, but that started changing the longer the time passed. Once it reached the 5-minute mark, Dan saw William start frowning as he looked at Jackie who was still waving at them from the pool from time to time.

  "Do you think that's his skill?" Marcus finally said, "It lets him stay longer underwater without air, holding his breath longer?"

  "I doubt it's that simple." Dan shook his head, he knew his man well. "Jackie likes messing around, but he would never bring us here and make such a big show of it if it was just that, I think it is something else."

  While they were still discussing things, Dan saw Jackie rise to the surface elegantly.

  "I saw that you started discussing things so seriously," he said with his usual smile, "So I decided to come and see what you're talking so seriously about."

  "What's your skill?" Marcus asked, "Does it give you underwater breathing or something?"

  "Not just that." Jackie smiled. He then turned around and started swimming in the big pool.

  Dan thought that there was something with his eyes as his bosun started moving as if a fish in water. He barely did any strokes, just moving his feet, but he was extremely fast and nimble, it was fascinating.

  "So your skill makes you fish-like?" Dan asked.

  "Wrong again," Jackie said, he seemed to be enjoying that.

  "What is it then?" Dan said as he watched the man climb out of the pool.

  "My skill does none of that." Jackie shrugged before pulling the necklace he had been wearing and throwing it to Dan. "It's all in this."

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  "This?" Dan asked in confusion as he looked deeply into the necklace.

  It was quite simple, just a string that had a bone hanging from it. The bone was around a pinky long and had a small hole where the string passed through it, it was smooth and cool to the touch. Dan noticed how it was dry and showed no sign of having been in the water at all.

  "That was made by my skill," Jackie said as he dried his hair with a towel that was nearby, "It lets me use the remains of ocean creatures to get some of their powers imbued into their bones, scales or skin."

  "So this one here lets you move like a fish underwater?" Marcus said as he asked Dan for the necklace.

  "Yup," Jackie said, "It also lets me breathe underwater."

  "How long does it last?" Marcus seemed pretty interested in the thing.

  "If used continuously," Jackie turned serious as he said, "It would shatter after 2 hours, with irreversible damage after the 1-hour mark. If you use it for short periods of time, let's say 10 to 15 minutes before getting out of the water, it would take 20 minutes before you could use it again without worrying about it anymore."

  "It's extremely useful." Dan heard Old Raily murmur from next to him, and he had to agree, it was useful.

  "This is all you can make?" William asked as the necklace was passed to him. The old man studied it even more deeply than Marcus had been.

  "I can make many things," Jackie answered, "It all depends on what materials I have. Here, this for an example."

  Saying that, he reached for his clothes and brought up 3 scales, each of them on a string.

  "I made this by using the scales of that almost translucent fish you brought back." As he explained, he held one of them and focused for a moment.

  For the second time in just a few minutes, Dan wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Jackie's form started shifting right in front of his eyes before it almost disappeared. He had to focus and look harder to see his outline, and that was with him knowing that the man was there, if he didn't, it would have been even harder.

  "At first I wanted to use this to mess with you," his voice sounded as his body came back into view, "But I didn't want to take my chances on how trigger-happy those two with you could be."

  "Is making them hard?" Dan noticed that Marcus was really interested after seeing the second charm or whatever it was called.

  "Not really as long as I have materials." Jackie shrugged. "Because of my skill's tier, and maybe even the creatures themselves, one body only makes around one or two charms, maybe 3 at most. I had a handful of scales when I was making these, and only 3 succeeded."

  "There's not many of us anyway," Marcus said, "It might be hard to outfit our whole crew, but we can have enough for our guards or people who would head to the shore in the next mission."

  "That could be managed," Jackie thought for a second before answering, "As long as I have the materials I can make quite a few of them. And remember, as I said, each creature gives a different effect. The swimming and water breathing might be the easiest to get, but for others? We would need more special creatures."

  "Noted." Marcus just nodded.

  After that little interlude, the day went by peacefully. Dan was approached by Rose who said that she had finished her experiment and that it was a success. She said that the bow and stern of the tender should be stronger than they were before. When Dan asked her about how much stronger they were, she said that it was about 50% stronger, looking pretty displeased by that, even though Dan found it quite the number. She also returned the mana core to him, saying that she didn't get to use it.

  Dan didn't know what he could use it for, but he guessed he could see if William would be interested in them.

  Like the night before, as soon as night fell, they began their journey towards Rosereef. That night, it was decided that Dan wouldn't have a night shift, even though he wanted one, but it was decided that everyone would get rest days. Due to that, he remained on the bridge longer than usual, and he was glad that he did, because half an hour or so before midnight, something happened.

  "Orange dots are closing in on us," Keith, who was also on the bridge because she didn't have a shift, said before it even showed on the screen, "It's a fast-moving swarm."

  "Are they coming at us?" Dan asked seriously as he stood up, "And how many are there?"

  "There are a lot, they are filling my feed, but it appears that they are just moving through the ocean, they don't seem to be focused on our location." Keith looked into the air.

  Dan wondered if he should sound the alarms, he would have done so without hesitation if not for the Voyager showing no reaction at all, he thought that she would have done so if something was wrong.

  "Let's wait and see." Dan signalled for Sam and Rose, who were the ones on that shift, to hold on. At the same time, he remembered something, "And Sam, try and bring your Swarmers as close as possible to the circle, let's not start a fight with them."

  The young man just nodded before closing his eyes for a few seconds.

  While that was happening Dan and the gang awaited what would come of this. All the time, Dan kept his eyes on the Voyager, but again nothing seemed to be off from her side, she seemed pretty relaxed all things considered.

  "What the-" Dan said as it all changed in a second.

  The Voyager's warm aura suddenly rose from everywhere as it cocooned him, linking him to the Voyager in a split second. He was about to shout for the others to sound the alarm when something made itself quite clear, the feeling the Voyager sent through the connection wasn't panic, or fear, but excitement and wonder. It felt like the first time he felt that much excitement and wonder from her, as if she wanted to show him something that she found truly interesting.

  As soon as he realised that, he felt his mind being connected to one of the cameras on the stern. There was nothing there though, just darkness. Dan didn't have to think long to realise why, it wasn't an infrared camera, it was a normal one. Just as he was about to question the Voyager about whether she got things wrong, something caught his eye.

  At the edge of his vision, as he focused, he could see a rainbow of colours heading their way. He almost thought that something was off with their connection as it didn't make any sense at all, but that was what the cameras were showing.

  "Oh my God..." He could hear Keith murmuring from next to him.

  The rainbow of colours was getting closer and closer. Once they were around 300 meters or so away, he realised what it was, it was a swarm of glowing fish! Each of them was glowing in a different colour, red, yellow, green, purple, pink, blue and many more.

  They were all lighting the pitch black darkness of the ocean night, making one of the most magical sights Dan had ever seen.

  at least it should be, but it doesn't seem to be working, will be fighting with it after the chapter is up IT WORKED!!, it has everyone on the Voyager, all 34 of them, even some we haven't really met yet XD