Dan thought the wait for Hank to return was bad, how naive he was.

  Only after finding himself stuck on the bridge while waiting for everyone to be back, did he know the true meaning of sitting on needles.

  At that point, they were around 15 to 20 nautical miles away from land. Facing where the tenders were supposed to come from. The Voyager was covered in fog and in a blackout state with all lights off, just in case.

  They knew that being in such an obvious location might put them in danger, but they could handle the risk. From how Dan saw it, it was either being in such an obvious location that the tenders might get tracked and lead to them, or dock far away, somewhere that would have the tenders twist and turn.

  The second might be the safest, but it would put the tenders at the most risk, it would make the chance of something going wrong for them higher. Dan would never accept that.

  He knew that realistically, they wouldn't return that fast, they still needed to sell the gold, buy the materials and send it to the tenders to be loaded. It would take them hours before they returned to the Voyager, but that was the rational part of him talking, the irrational part, which was extremely worried about his people, didn't seem to understand that.

  He knew that he had to keep a strong facade for the people on the Voyager too, he couldn't be seen pacing around in distress, he was the backbone of his crew, he had an image to keep.

  There was someone he couldn't keep his truest thoughts and feelings from though, the Voyager. His bonded ship was connected to him and knew what he thought or felt most of the time, he couldn't keep it from her.

  Even without the auras cocooning him, he could feel a bit of worry and care from her. She must have sensed what he was going through and was getting affected too.

  Dan tried his best to bring it all under control, he might not have been able to do it before, but for the pure being that was connected to him spiritually, he would do his best. It took him a few tries and even having to go on a short walk, but he managed it eventually. He was still worried, but it was manageable at that point.

  A bit more than three hours after the tenders left for the black market, Dan suddenly felt the gentle warm aura all over the Voyager start to stir. The next second, all the nearby aura was mobilised as it gathered on him.

  "Something might be happening," he said for the sake of everyone on the bridge, "Be vigilant."

  At the same time, he got some anticipation and a light hint of happiness, as he focused on the vision seen from the camera pointing straight ahead, Dan felt a gentle warmth in his heart. It seems that even though he tried to control and hide it, the Voyager was still aware of his feelings and understood their source.

  "Yes, big girl," he murmured, "I see them."

  "We have an eye on them," he said loudly for the sake of everyone on the bridge.

  Dan could feel the tension in the air ease up as smiles started appearing here and there. He too was smiling, waiting without any idea about what was happening on the others' side was too much.

  He then continued keeping an eye on them as they got closer and closer, all the time his heart getting calmer and calmer. It suddenly skipped a beat though, having noticed something now that they were closer, there was only one tender. Another thing that caught his eyes was that the tender's lights started blinking.

  Dan frowned, something was extremely wrong, before leaving for the black market, they never talked about the tenders splitting off, once again the worst of the scenarios started filling his mind. He had to forcefully drag himself away from them. As he looked deeper at the blinking light, he noticed something, they weren't shining randomly, there was a rhythm to them.

  It didn't take him long to realise what it was exactly, Morse code.

  Dan focused as he tried to get what that signal was saying. He was extremely glad for that fleeting interest he had in the code when he was younger, if not for it, he would have never realised what it might have been. Even if he had, he wouldn't have known what it was saying.

  "Hand me a paper and a pen," He suddenly said, Keith handing him what he needed without asking any further questions.

  "Short, long, long, short..." he murmured as he wrote what he was seeing. Finally, as he was sure that he had written everything, he looked down at it.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  PURSUED

  That was what the code translated to, Dan could feel his heart turn cold, he froze for a second as he looked at the word on the paper, but that soon disappeared.

  "They are being pursued," he relayed, "Everyone get into position, we are heading in."

  As soon as he was done speaking, he activated Calming Aura. He needed the people on the bridge as calm as they could be for the next part.

  They had taken into consideration the possibility that the tenders would be tailed while returning from the black market, and they had some countermeasures for it.

  The first step was how they needed to start moving towards the tenders as soon as possible, the sooner they got to them and had them on the Voyager the safer they would be. That might put the Voyager itself in some danger, but the big girl was able to handle much more than a tiny tender, they could take the risk.

  Dan watched as the bridge turned to a hive of activity. Thankfully, due to Calming Aura, they weren't just panicking or running around like headless chickens, everyone moved with purpose. He himself pushed the Voyager forward, they didn't go for their maximum speed straight away, but he knew that they could reach it pretty fast if they wanted, especially with the Voyager herself willing it, it was something they came to understand over the past few days.

  Dan knew that if they didn't start being attacked by cannons, or some other skills that would have a similar devastating effect on them, the tenders were quite safe. They had most of the ship's fighting power with them, not even mentioning the Swarmers that he was quite sure would turn most ships in the ocean into drifting debris.

  They had decided to hold off on sending the Swarmers against their enemies for as long as possible. Of course, they wouldn't care about that if the need arose for it, but keeping them as a trump card for as long as possible would be the best choice.

  So with a bit of urgency, but not as bad as could be, they closed in on the tenders. Not long after, Dan heard the sentence he had been awaiting from Keith,

  "They are within the range of my skill."

  "Good," he answered, "Keep an eye on whatever might be behind them."

  As he spoke, Dan brought up his walkie-talkie and contacted the people on the tender.

  "Dan here, do you hear me? Over."

  "Not ... clear, but ... hear you. Over," Robert's sound came through. As Dan expected, it was a bit messy, but understandable.

  "I can hear you too. Where are the other two tenders? Over." he asked the most important question, they needed to make sure that the others were safe.

  "Safe." Robert must have also known how stressed they were about them so he went to the point. "We sp-t up, adva-ed to contact yo-. Over."

  Dan's heart calmed down at the assurance. His biggest fear was that the other two boats were lost.

  "Please give us updates on the pursuers. Over," he went straight to the point.

  "Sam sai- that they w-re two -ips," Robert's messy voice sounded again, the signal was getting better, but still a bit messy, "We think th- are pirates. Arnold recogn-ed -em. Over."

  Dan's heart fell as he realised where the problem came from, two ships made things a bit more complicated.

  Having more than one main target was one of the weaknesses that Sam's Swarmers had. The more Swarmers there were, the stronger they would be, but splitting the swarm, sending each half to a target would lower their strength considerably.

  "Are you sure there are only 2 ships? Over," he asked after a few seconds of silence, quite a drastic measure was starting to formulate in his mind.

  "Affirmative," Marcus was who replied instead this time, "Sam had his Swarmers take a look around and they only managed to find those two ships. Over."

  The signal was finally strong enough, as Dan heard the chief security officer clearly this time.

  "What are your thoughts on the matter? Over," Dan asked for the man's opinion, even though he already had a plan.

  "The pirates are quite well known it seems," Marcus answered after thinking for a while, his voice turning more serious the more he spoke, "From what Arnold saw, the leading ship is the Dark Lady, the flagship of Captain Howl's pirate crew, a 5 ships fleet. A bloodthirsty bunch who terrorised the water of the Alliance but had been spotted in these parts recently. We only noticed his flagship and another though, the state of his fleet is unknown. I doubt dealing with them is going to be easy, but losing them won't be trivial either. We are in a hard position, it might turn into a fight. Over."

  Dan took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and prepared himself for what he might be forced to do, then opened them as he exhaled and said,

  "Ask Sam if he thinks his Swarmers could take the Dark Lady or the other ship. Over."

  Dan waited for what felt like ages but must not have been more than a couple of minutes before the line came online again.

  "He said he was confident in taking the other ship," Marcus said, an edge to his voice, as if he had caught on to what Dan was asking for, "He could take the Dark Lady too, but not as fast. What do you have in mind? Over."

  Dan opened his mouth and closed it. He felt that he might be taking things too far, but at the same time, he felt that it had to be done, he would love to always find the peaceful way out, but sometimes it just wasn't an option. He would try for a softer approach, try to dissuade them from going after them, if that worked, it would be great, if not...

  "I will contact them first," Dan said slowly, going through things in his mind first, "Try and have them retreat, if that won't work... I will have the Voyager take down the other ship. Over.”