Captain Parrott: Space Buccaneer

Part 7: Treason and Treacher

Captain Emilia Parrott was standing in front of the holo rig in the captain's cabin watching the stars as her ship cut its way across the vast, empty void of space. It had been a long week. She'd been drilling the crew as hard as she could on non-lethal boarding tactics and the fab was still working at capacity to churn out shock sticks and stun rounds. The crew hadn't been keen on what she was asking them to do but in the end they had come around to her side. Most of them anyway.

"Captain, Pierre and three crew members have begun breaching the bridge," Polly chirped. Parrott sighed. So it began.

Her plan was simple. They would approach the fleet in a friendly posture, then hit it with an EM pulse and go straight for the Atlas. Once on board, the weapons the fleet possessed would be little use against their armored survival suits. They could secure the bridge with minimal casualties and take control of the ship. Parrott suspected that she could convince most of the fleet to join them in heading to P3-2822,  but even if she couldn't the Atlas contained the gene bank, and with it, the power to restart the human race.

"You've lost your mind," Pierre had said. "You can't attack your own people."

"If it's for their own good you're god damn right I can," she'd replied.

"And who are you to determine what's best for them? We didn't found a dictatorship when we escaped earth. You made your case, now you have to let them think for themselves."

"I would, except they're a bunch of ignorant fools that don't understand how the galaxy works. They've spent too much time cooped up in their little commune with the Temic and don't realize the danger they're walking into."

"So teach them. Show them. Turn those you can to your side and leave the rest to their fate. What was the saying? 'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.'"

"Except you can. If you're strong enough you can tie up that horse and force a funnel down its ignorant throat. And I recently threw a Vak across a room on a high g world."

"You're making the same mistake that you did with Gorb. Using force without even attempting diplomacy."

"Except this time if diplomacy fails the body count goes up. We can only do this cleanly if it's a surprise. The more time they have to see us coming the more blood we'll have to spill."

They'd been going back and forth like that the whole time they'd been pursuing the fleet. After a while Pierre was just doing it to keep up appearances while he plotted and gathered allies in secret. Unfortunately for him, the all seeing ship's AI could read lips.

Parrott chambered a magazine of concussive rounds into her mag pistol and tested the blades of the two cutlasses she had tucked in her belt. She was wearing her regular regalia, but for good measure it had been reinforced it with hidden armor plating. The power armor had been conveniently sabotaged so no one would be stupid enough to attempt to fire thermal rounds on the ship. The cabin itself was a disaster zone. All the furniture had been smashed and pushed to the side to make room for what was to come. The entire exercise felt like a waste but if she wanted her full crew back she couldn't just kill Pierre. She needed to humiliate him.

"They've breached the bridge and discovered your absence. They're heading for the captain's cabin now."

With a wave of her hand Parrott dismissed the star field and pulled up the security feed for the cabin door. Sure enough, here came Pierre with Ruddo and two other crewmen in tow. Vinnie and Sharron by the look of it. They were all wearing armored survival suits and carried mag rifles. Ruddo was also carrying a cutting laser. As they approached the door Parrott took careful aim at it from across the room.