The constant humming of the electronics in the Cockpit was what woke him up. He stretched himself in the pilot seat and stared into space. The spacecraft was slowly manoeuvring through an asteroid belt on autopilot.
He could see a Gas giant in the far distance and the light emitted by the double suns in the center of the solar system made the whole asteroid belt look like a big shadow play. He really loved the realism in this game. Sadly the illusion would break as soon as he moved his head too much.
The old system he was gaming on could only sustain this level of detail as long as he and his ship didn't move too fast.
Still, he wanted to enjoy the view as long as possible, because as soon as they would leave the asteroid belt, the autopilot would speed up and the game would lower the graphics to save resources. He slowly let his body sink back in the pilot seat and looked up at the same time.
The vast blackness of open space starred back at him, only broken by the odd asteroid. Distant Stars and Galaxies were only a speck of light right now. It was a very peaceful moment for the man.
Soon enough he could hear the roar of the main engines starting up as they were about to leave the asteroid belt. He closed his eyes for a moment and wished the illusion could hold forever.
A light shaking of the cockpit told him the engines were now running on full power. He opened one eye again to glance at the instruments and screens in front of him. Nothing needed his attention, so he closed his eye again and took a deep breath before getting out of the chair. He crossed the cockpit with closed eyes. As he had a few thousand hours in the game and he knew every ship design by heart. Only when the cockpit door shut behind him, he opened his eyes again.
What the man failed to notice was, that the view outside his pilot cabin did not change one bit, even more, the view was better than everything a computer could make. He had transmigrated into his favourite sci-fi game.
The ship's interior was steel clad and barebones, on the one hand, this helped his old machine render everything in real-time, on the other hand, he didn't care much about aesthetics. This also meant he could focus almost all of his budget on raw power and efficiency when building this ship.
His Vessel was a so-called Allistar Liner, a relatively old design from the early days of void travel. The long-forgotten Allistar Corporation from old Earth had used these ships to travel between the early colonies and earth. They were no longer produced, but you could still buy modified versions of the Allistar Liner at most starports in civilized space.
The man liked the Allistar Liner because it was a jack of all trades type vessel. It had a relatively high cargo and fuel capacity and reasonable armour due to its old age. Furthermore, you could install almost any hull modification or upgrade due to the sturdy build of the ship. While it was neither the fastest nor the nimblest ship you could fly, it was still leagues ahead of most civilian vessels. This was one of the reasons most smugglers preferred this type of ship.
On his way through the vessel, the man could hear his crew work and talk. For some reason, the ship seemed to be much livelier than normal.
While there was room for up to 24 crew and 4 officers including him on the ship, there were currently only 8 other people on board. He had just bought this ship and modified everything to his liking. It had only taken him about half an hour in real-life, but in-game terms it meant they hadn't left the starport for over two years.
Most of his old crew had boarded other ships, but some of them had stayed. They were now on their way to the Home Planet of House Vallian, one of the noble Families, controlling this part of the galaxy. The man had good connections to the nobles as well as some important merchants and manufacturers. He would use all of this to fill up the ranks on his ship, as well as buy some things he was still missing right now.
It took the man a few minutes to arrive at his destination, one of the big cargo holds. Inside there were a few inconspicuous boxes. After looking around a few times, the man opened one of them.
There was a strange metallic tube inside. It was the size of a small teenager or a child maybe. The man pressed a switch on the side of the tube and a dim screen with medical graphs and symbols lit up. It took him a few minutes to check everything on the screens, then he carefully closed the tube and the box before leaving to return to the cockpit.
...
The moment he closed the cargo holds door behind him a female figure stepped out of the darkness behind some of the other cargo. The woman was a little smaller than the man and had roughly the same hair colour. She wore the same type of overall, that marked her as one of the vessel's crew, but in addition to that, she had the Insignia of an officer. Still, the most distinct difference to the man was the dog ears and the tail of the woman.
Maya pinched the bridge of her nose, while she listened to her father's steps slowly getting quieter behind the door. Then she opened the box again and checked the screens on the tube herself.
Her father was a great captain and pilot, but he had nowhere near the knowledge needed to make sure the human inside the tube would survive the journey that lay ahead of them. She was no doctor herself, but at least a trained combat medic. With a sigh, she closed the box and typed something into her wrist computer. A few seconds later a label, that read "medical supplies" appeared on the box.
Sometimes she wished he would ask her before making decisions like taking illegal goods or passengers on board. Then again, this was only her third year as his security officer or maybe he was still trying to shelter her from the harsh reality that was life in this universe.
She used the ship's security panel, to track every member of the crew for a few minutes, before leaving the storage unit as well, to get back to her duties.
A few hours later, the two deckhands, that had stayed with the captain through the upgrade process of the ship appeared and took a crate with medical supplies to the med bay, where it belonged.
...
At the same time, the man returned to the cockpit, fully expecting to see a massively downgraded universe in front of him. He opened the door, looked up and found, that the quality of the view had not changed at all.
Puzzled he gestured to bring up the game's settings, but nothing happened. He gestured again only to achieve the same result.
Slowly he walked over to the pilot seat and sat down. It was not unheard that people experienced bugs with overlays in games, but normally that would only occur in VRMMORPGS and the like.
Luckily as this was a single-player game, there was an abundance of ways to control the game.
"AI open up the control panel"
"processing command..."
"please specify the panel you wish to see"
The man waved his hand to signal the AI to abort the command, then he leaned back in his seat to think about his situation.
The AI had answered, that in itself was impossible in the game as there were no voice lines for the various game menus, furthermore, in the context of the game, there was only one control panel you could open with a voice command.
He pondered his situation for a few minutes before coming to only two possible conclusions, either he had encountered the biggest bug in singleplayer history or he had somehow transmigrated into his favourite game.
The easiest way to prove his theories, was to do something, that would be impossible in the game. He took a deep breath, then he opened his communicator and called the security officer.
It rang a few times, then a female voice answered.
"Yes, captain? What do you need me to do?"
The man took another deep breath before he spoke.
"Ah, nothing. I just wanted to ask how you were doing."
There was a moment of silence on the other end, then the female spoke again.
"I'm in the Med Bay currently, sorting through some medical equipment"
The way she said medical equipment sounded like he interrupted her doing something important.
"Ah sorry to bother you, in that case, go on with your work."
There was another short pause.
"Dad? You want to tell me something?"
"I, what? No, sorry wrong number, bye."
He ended the call and would have thrown the communicator away, had it not been installed into the cockpit wall. His heart was racing and his palms were sweaty. Not only was this not a game anymore, but he also seemed to have a daughter.
...
At the same time on the Med Bay, a certain security officer was looking at her communicator with a concerned expression. Her father was a good man most of the time, but sometimes she couldn't help but wonder how anyone could take him seriously after acting like that.
With a slight shake of her head, she focused on her work again.