Free Warpath by Randolph Lalonde

from.
    “Bad memories from
that bridge,” Minh-Chu said, nodding. “I think Oz will
understand.”
    “What do you mean?”
Jake asked. “I don’t remember getting to the bridge, I’ve
thought about it, trying to get there, but I just remember the
hallway in the middle of the ship.”
    The colour drained from
Minh-Chu’s face, he looked as though he was seeing a foe he could
not defeat or escape.
    “What happened there?
Did I die there for a while or-“
    “You murdered someone
there, Jake,” Minh-Chu said quietly. “You menaced a junior member
of the bridge staff in front of his mates when you couldn’t find
the captain and killed him to make a point.”
    Jake immediately
gestured for the light in the room to be reduced and tried to call up
the records of combat aboard the Barricade’s bridge, but discovered
he was locked out of that file. “What? I don’t have access?”
Jake exclaimed. “Bring it up, Minh, I need to see what happened.”
    Minh-Chu wordlessly
accessed the file. “I’m coming to terms with this, Jake.
Recruitment is down across the Order of Eden, especially on this side
of the Iron Head Nebula. You did this to show that you’ll give no
quarter to your enemy, to scare people off.”
    “Play it,” Jake
said, “I need to know why I feel like the bridge of that ship is
the worst place I’ve ever been, and that I’ve done something I’ll
regret for the rest of my life.”
    Minh-Chu stared at him
a moment, then nodded. The playback began. Jake had a young officer
in hand, and burned him with the heated end of his Violator Handgun
as a form of torture, to get his attention. “We’re going to play
a game – it’s called Chinese Whispers, only it’ll be a short
one.” His recorded self said to his young captive. The boy was
terrified, shaking, crying. The devil was at his back and there was
no promise of mercy.
    Jake could feel his
heart racing, he didn’t remember any of what he was seeing, but
somehow knew it was true. “Don’t do it,” he whispered to the
recorded image of himself. The recorded Jake threatened his captives,
told them what would happen if the Captain or the codes for the ship
wasn’t revealed to him, then ordered the young officer to begin
counting.
    A tear rolled down
Jake’s cheek as the countdown continued, and he flinched so hard
when the gun went off that he almost fell out of his seat. “No!”
Jake shouted, “that’s not me!”
    He fell from his seat,
trying to remember that moment and failing in the midst of a
remorseful panic. “I can’t remember, that can’t be me!” he
cried. Minh-Chu was on the floor with him, picking him up in his
arms. Over his shoulder Jake caught a glimpse of his recorded self
taking a young woman up by her pony tail and said; “stop playback.”
The computer froze the image there.
    “You killed the one,
the others survived and are in custody,” Minh-Chu said.
    “How did I do that?”
Jake said, letting Minh-Chu hold him. “Why did I do that? I don’t
remember anything before that that could-“ his meeting with an
agent of the British Alliance returned to him. He was ordered to use
fear, intimidation, but he was not ordered to murder. That was the
way of the barbarian, the quick route that led your enemies to a
feeling of being justified in standing against you. That could not
have been his way, but he knew that it was for a while.
    “That’s not me,”
Jake said. “You’ve got to know that’s not me now.”
    “I know, old friend,”
Minh-Chu said. “I’m glad to have you back, you don’t know how
much.”

Chapter 7
Long Range
Communications
    Governor Tate did not
know how Wheeler found an Echo Corp communications device, or how he
knew Clark Patterson, known as the Beast to most of his forces, had
one. He did not know how Wheeler got his hands on the Beast’s
schedule, or how he could predict where the primary Order of Eden
fleet would be next, but he had done that too.
    If it weren’t for
Wheeler, the