TRAITOR - Book 1 Warlord and Multiverse Series

Chapter 6

Pirates

The alarm in Jason's ear began to blare loudly. He dragged himself out of bed but was quickly fully awake.

"Alert pirate warning, imminent attack in seventeen minutes, report to weapons console on the bridge. This is not a simulation or an exercise." Jason looked at his watch. It was 3 AM.

Jason stood in the battle dresser, as it put him in his combat armor and helmet. Someone must have communicated where they were heading, must have accessed the navigation plan, and communicated the details to some unknown enemy. Jason stopped himself. He didn't have time to think these issues through now. He knew he needed to get to the bridge quickly.

He stretched quickly before he called out to Ship, "Transport to bridge."

He found himself dressed in boots, armor, and helmet a few feet from his combat workstation. Stan placed a large mug of coffee in front of him.

"You will need to fight them Jason. I don't know what to do. This isn't a drill, we do have pirates attacking the ship. We came out of hyperspace, not quite where I had predicted, and began reorienting ourselves, the ships manifested themselves on our sensors. They began moving towards us and assumed a battle formation. Ship identified them as of Mob origin.

The battleship had several battle command positions. Jason preferred the bridge where he had a battle command workstation and could readily talk to Stan. It was used when the ship was undertaking small engagements. When an admiral or general commanded the ship and a ground force, they used the large planning and conference room next to the bridge, called command central; where a whole team of admirals and generals would command a fleet and planetary offensives or defenses, particularly when the battleship was acting as a flagship. There were multiple small nearby rooms suitable for smaller groups to work in support of the main group. There was a reserve area in weapons control. The bridge was buried deep in the ship and was well protected by armor. The bridge had thirty consoles for a much larger bridge crew but only he and Stan were present at their workstations. Stan kept the lights slightly dimmed to reduce glare and make it easier to see controls, instruments, and holograms.

Jason thanked Stan for the coffee before strapping himself into his place.

"There are seven ships out there and Ship is behaving abnormally, she's slow thinking and is reacting sluggishly. She's struggling to perform as usual," summarized Stan sounding panicked and distressed. "Jason, I don't have training for this, I piloted cargo ships before this assignment."

"Don't worry Stan, I've never commanded a battle on a ship either. There's no one other than you and me and we just have to do our best and take Ship's function into consideration. Jason briefly looked around the luxuriously equipped bridge. He saw the ship control holograms were working. Stan was running the ship manually and those controls were operating normally as far as he could see. That was reassuring. Sensors provided information in 3D, allowing Jason and Stan to see what was happening in space right around the ship. A second hologram provided him with weapons information and his weapons controls. He could change his view, enlarge it or shrink it, or even change perspective as needed on any hologram. He could readily focus on particular points as he wished.

He rapidly zeroed in on 7 circles the sensors had identified as likely pirates. He asked the Ship AI for percentage likelihood of them being hostile. Ship projected 99 percent over each circle identified. Jason knew that Ship could identify most ships in the galaxy.

"Jason those ships are of Mob origin."

Ship sounded unusual with her voice slow and slurred.

He looked at his console and called up his checklist. Jason used a detailed checklist of commands to prepare ships or even fleets for combat as a result of having done many simulations. He learned to go through his routine checklist regardless of the circumstances. It came up next to his weapons systems as the hologram split and enlarged sideways.