John found himself in another cockpit, albeit this time it was on a ship. He was wearing his outfit from Highschool of the Dead again of all things.

He was sitting in what he assumed was the pilots chair, a massive metal chair that almost resembled a recliner. Thick leather like padding covered the top surfaces of the chair, and it almost felt like gel was underneath the parts he was touching, conforming to his body. In front of him were several translucent screens, showing the status of what John presumed was the ships systems. There were both hand and foot controls attached to the chair, in easy reach even if he was laid back relaxing.

In front of him, past the screens, were four large slanted windows in a semi circle around him, allowing him to look outside. Currently they appeared to be black for some reason. 

The cockpit was a fairly small, two level room, the pilots chair which he was seated, had stairs leading up behind it to the second level, which was in kind of a ‘C’ shape, and a door at the back leading elsewhere. He could make out other chairs and computer terminals around the room as well. The room was made with primarily an unknown grey metal, dim blue lighting reflecting off its surface.

“Whoa, where am I this time. Is this a ship?” John said to himself. 

His background information started and it did not make a lot of sense. He was a retired navy pilot, fresh out of a divorce and loved playing some sort of space ship game? Was this his spaceship from the game? It looked like the space ship from the game from his new memories, kind of. Was he now in a game? He wasn’t a navy man but this didn’t look like the bridge of a navy ship, but something out of some sci fi show.

“Okay so I have a space ship. How do I…oh.” Information poured into him about how to fly the ship. He put his hands on the two control yokes. When he did that, something activated in his chair and several straps came out of nowhere and enveloped him, securing him in his seat.

He hit a few buttons by his hands and the ship powered up. He could feel a dull thrum coming from behind him somewhere deep within the bowels of the ship. The shades, or whatever was on the windows, flickered and reveal a surreal view to John. Several asteroids were floating nearby, slowly spinning away, bathed is the pale light of a far off star. Countless stars and nebula could be seen throughout the windows, their light unimpeded by something like the atmosphere or light pollution from a city.

John watched the scene, mesmerized by the simple beauty of it all. He then pushed the control yokes and changed the ships angle, and then accelerated forward into the void. 

“This is really fun.” He said, turning the ship around and doing some maneuvers. He could feel some G-forces, but not enough to really disturb even his weakened body. 

Not so weak anymore actually! I am feeling great now.

He brought his ship back to the asteroids and matched its speed with theirs, wondered what to do next. This ship had no information in its navigational computer. In fact it had almost no information at all. He didn’t know where the closest planet was, or any star base or space station. Just this lonely group of asteroids.

He started flipping through the status panel of the ship. This was apparently a prototype vessel called a light combat carrier, designated the Phoenix Hawk. It had…a lot of weapons, all with sci-fi sounding names. He had no idea what they were either, his pilot skills apparently not translating to gunnery skills. 

Mark VIII Phased Array Emitters? Mark X Point Defence Plasma Battery? Mark IX MAG Cannon? oh Mark VIII Anti-Matter Torpedo’s, I know what those are!  Not sure if those marks are good or bad. Higher the number is better right?

It also had bays for twelve fighters, four of which were large enough for corvette class ships. Currently it had none though.

The vessel had displays for shields, armour, hull integrity, reactor power levels and more, much more. He assumed these were all good numbers whatever they meant. Some stuff he understood, other stuff not so much. 

It was like he was given some very specialized information for piloting and nothing else.

“Well might as well try things out. Umm guns…well that asteroid looks like a good target to me.”

He switched back to the MAG and selected it. Several targeting recitals popped up on his screen. He used his left hand control stick to aim and once it was centered over the mass, he released a shot. Nothing happened. He clicked the trigger a few more times, then saw on the screen a message flashing <MAG Charging>.

“Charging? Well that is bad, what happens if there was a pirate?”

Out of nowhere, sounds came from over the speakers embedded into the headrest of his chair.

P1 – [Oi, what did we find here?]

P2 – [Looks like some rich kids fancy toy.]

P3 – [Yeah, looks like it will fetch a pretty penny.]

P2 – [Any idea what type it is? My scanner hasn’t a clue.]

P3 – [Not in the slightest, but it looks advanced. Seems to have a ton of weapons, and those are either hangers or bay doors for something large. If that ain’t a high end military prototype, then I’ll eat Jasmines undies.]

P2 – [Thought she made you eat your own the last time you made a pass at her?]

P3 – [Now, now, why did ya need ta bring up a past traumatic experiences like that? Sides’ with the amount of dough this thing will bring in to the right buyer, she will be all over my fat cock]

P2 – [Psssh! All five centimetres of fury.]

P3 – [How’d ya know his nickname?]

Three voices came through the speakers behind him, talking about a bunch nonsense.

“How big is a centimetre anyways? I keep getting these rewards but its always in that confusing metric system. Wait that’s not the important part of this conversation is it. Where is the radio.”

John thumbed through a few menus and brought up the communications system. He already figured these guys were bad news, but it couldn’t hurt to ask for directions…right? He also thumbed the menu to bring his reactor from Cruise to Battle Output. This new skill was coming in quite handy. His weapons all started to charge. 

J – [Morning, you wouldn’t happen to know where the nearest station is would you?]

P1 – [Ahh he speaks. You picked a bad spot to play around Captain. Never know what unsavoury types ya might find off the warp lanes. What brings you out here in that fancy toy anyways?]

J – [None of your business. Well if there will be nothing else, I will take my leave.]

John had no where to go, but he wasn’t going to stay here and get caught by pirates. He would cruise around the system and see if he could find something or someone else on the comms to help him out. He managed to use his radar to find their location. He really should buy more skills when he gets the chance.

P1 – [No I don’t think you will be. Lower your shields and power down your reactor. If ya play nice, we will let you live as a slave.]

J – [Naw, I am good thanks. I don’t negotiate with pirates.]

John aimed his Phased Ray Emitters towards the nearest Pirate. It was hovering towards the two o’clock position maybe thirty degrees above his ship. Clicking the trigger, this time it went off. Two beams of energy punched into the ship, causing its power to flicker and start listing.

He then slammed the throttle forward with his right hand, launching the Phoenix Hawk forward at shocking speeds. If he wasn’t already strapped in, he would have been thrown backwards by the amount of G forces this ship instantly created. 

P1 – [After him!]

John led them on a merry chase, rather he used the massive amount of power at this ships disposal to quickly get out of the other two ships range. He left it at full power for nearly thirty minutes, before returning the ship to ‘Cruise’. From what he could tell, Cruise was like the eco mode in a car, while ‘Battle Output’ was like running near the redline and burned up a fair amount of fuel. Angling his ship towards the inner solar system, he set it on ‘Auto-Pilot’. Apparently the ship would react to any large bodies in front of it and avoid them.

His new memories told him he could turn on the light drive and move several times faster than light. Or turn on the hyper drive and move several thousands of times faster, but needed to be far away from any significant source of gravity. Without navigational data, he had nowhere to go that fast, so he decided he was going to explore this ship for the time being.

He got up from his seat, the straps disappearing once the auto-pilot was set, and stretched. He could feel the tension in his muscles, the G-forces created still wrecked havoc on him. 

I really wish Nanaella was here. I could coax her into another back rub.

The back of the cockpit had four more seats, two forward facing on the left and right sides, surrounded by more translucent computer screens. The back wall had two more seats on either side facing backwards, with several monitors at each as well.

He stepped out into the hall. It was a long corridor with several doors on either side. He poked his head into the first one by the cockpit. A large bathroom with multiple toilets and showers. The next four were all two person bedrooms, sparsely furnished with just simple beds and dressers. The same metal used in the cockpit was prevalent throughout. 

The next room was a larger bedroom, and was well appointed, with a four post king sized bed, carpeting, several dressers, an armoire, and a ensuite bathroom that had a walk-in shower and a large jacuzzi tub.

“Oh god that will be good later.”

He moved to the next deck down, the stairs next to “The Captains Quarters”. A office, a room that looks like it was for presentations, a large kitchen, a dining area that was also a lounge with some really cool sectional couches you could lay on. He also found a couple rooms that looked like a barracks, filled with about fifty bunk beds each.

So the upper deck must be the officers quarters and down here would be the crew. Sadly, I don’t have any crew or officers so far as I can tell.

The next room was the med bay, a bright red plus sign on it tipping him off. Inside were a couple pods standing vertically that reminded him of something he saw in a movie once with people frozen inside. He touched it and a panel lit up reading <Auto-Doc – Awaiting Patient>.

“Huh? Does this world have advanced automatic healthcare?” Curious, he stepped inside the pod. The door slowly closed and the capsule pressurized. He was starting to get nervous when he noticed a handle in front of him that was painted red, with a placard stating ‘Pull Incase of Emergency’. 

Lights flashed, giving the DEN stage a run for its money for potential of inducing an epileptic seizure.  After a couple minutes of this, a screen popped up in front of him.

<Diagnostic Complete>

<Results>

<Trauma to Right Shoulder -Muscle weakness, Ligament Laxity>

<Cartilage degraded – Hips (Both), Knees (Both)>

<Degenerative Disk Disease – Lumbar Region L2-L4>

<Nervous System degraded – Early stage ALS>

<Nervous System degraded – Early stage Alzheimer’s>

<Musculature degraded – Reduced flexibility> 

<Multiple Neural Implants Detected – No Errors Detected>

<Auto-Doc unable to treat all symptoms>

<Auto-Doc is able to treat the following>

<Trauma to Right Shoulder -Muscle weakness, Ligament Laxity>

<Cartilage degraded – Hips (Both), Knees (Both)>

<Musculature degraded – Reduced flexibility> 

<Please see a S-Grade Auto-Doc for follow up treatments>

<Proceed with treatment? Y/N>

John looked through that list. He didn’t realize he was that bad. He was about to say yes, but paused for a moment.

I am going to get used to having a new body, then go back to another world with a broken one.  I am going to do it anyways, but damn that is going to suck. I wonder what I need to do to bring this thing back with me?

“Yes”

The pod flipped backwards, moving John on his back. Many many straps came out pulling him tight to the bed. Several mechanical arms appeared with syringes full of some weird fluids, knives and other tools.

“Hey umm wait a moment.” 

Did that say implants? What implants?

<Please be patient, this will only sting a little bit.>

A syringe went into his arm and John passed out.

At a nearby station…

In the operations center of Parrax Colony, a man was monitoring a radar screen, and cross referencing the data he was receiving with other sensors in the area. Once he collaborate enough data between the various sensors, he spoke up.

“Ma’am, incoming ship detected from outside our normal shipping lanes. It is not quite on an intercept course with the station, but will come nearby. Bearing two, two, zero plus five degrees. It is moving rather quickly at sub-light speeds and will be here in ten hours if it maintains its course.

A woman came up behind the man, looking over his data. “That is still pretty far out. Why bring this to my attention.”

“Normally I wouldn’t, but we detected what appeared to be weapons fire coming from nearby its location, then a massive flare of power, assuming from a Sub-Light drive burning hot. It ran for thirty minutes then cooled but the ship is maintaining course and velocity in our direction. It could be pirates attempting to drift into range of our shipping lanes undetected.”

She narrowed her eyes “Any indication on what type of craft it is Petty Officer?”

“No Ma’am, other than its power output is massive for it’s apparent size. The scanner doesn’t recognize its signature and it is still too far out for visual. Gravity readings are difficult at sub-light speeds but I would hypothesis it would be somewhere between a cruiser and a large transport in size due to the power output alone, if not larger.”

“No indication if the vessel is a pirate or from the Javarians?”

“It’s ID is not coming up in any registry. And that would be the wrong direction for any Jav ships.”

She frowned. She wasn’t used to being in charge of the command center, this job was just thrust on her while the capital ships in her unit were under repairs from the last Javarian raid. She would rather be out there in her fighter, or joining her squadron on leave, but instead command keeps shuffling her around from unit to unit to learn how things work. 

The life of a noble was never easy. Not for her anyways.

“Keep an eye on it. Let me know if anything changes.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Lady Eligan, here is your tea.” A woman showed up beside her, with a thermos of tea in hand.

“Thank you Sailor, and it is Lieutenant please. I am in uniform, not a dress.” Well, it is not all bad. The tea was nice. She would definitely rather be flying though.

With that thought, she flicked her wrist communicator. Someone owed her a few favors. Maybe she could go flying today.

Her vibrant red eyes watching the radar screen, a smile on her lips.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep