Loose Ends: Cal & Howie

Chapter 10: Report

"Is your friend always like that?" Howard huffed. He seemed like a raging bull, pacing back and forth in his little hallway. "Yep... sorry. He's been through a lot, don't blame him. He still won't open up to me." Maxion added, but Howard continued to grumble, "Well, it's not my problem. I don't need a walking storm cloud around here." He kicked at an imaginary annoyance on the floor. Maxion tilted his head, studying Howard. "You know, he's got his reasons. Maybe if you tried talking to him, you'd understand." Howard scoffed, "Talk to him? That's not my job. I'm here against my will; if I could leave tomorrow, I would— I'd leave the next chance I got! I don't want to play therapist for your moody friend." Maxion chuckled, "Fair enough, but you might find it helps your relationship." Howard grunted in response, clearly not convinced.

"Why's he so hardheaded?" Howard asked; it was a serious question. Maxion started Howard on the path back to the prison ward. "He's always been that way. I've known Russell for a long time. We used to link, you know!"

Howard blinked in surprise; he found it difficult to believe that someone so open and friendly could have dated such a horrible creature. Russell was an animal. At least the orange one treated him with something close to respect— not genuinely nice, like how he would be to the other colonists, more like a shadow of friendliness. He could tell that people only tolerated him and his comrades, but it was still annoying to be continuously ignored and shunned. He was sure that if he were upstairs, people would give him nasty looks like he was a ginormous hairy spider. "How come Cam gets to go up the upper levels? Shouldn't he be on a leash, like the rest of us?" 

That one caught Maxion off guard, and he staggered a little. "Well... we need him. He's a medic. We don't have medics." 

"But he's a faker!" 

"Oh, believe me, Russell gets off on threatening to lock him up. Though he knows more about medicine than anyone else... so... that grants him special privileges. " 

"Like freedom?" Howard finished. He picked up his leg as if climbing a mountain with a trailblazing stance, displaying his shifting inhibitor for Maxion. "So if I become a medic, computer programmer, or something else useful, you'll let me go upstairs?" Maxion was once again taken aback. Checkmate. That was what Howard was thinking as he quickly saw Maxion's smiles of sympathy fade into a frown and a look of explicit calculation; he was thinking actively so. "Well... he's a little different. He stopped working for Kieran and feels bad about what he did." 

"And you're saying I don't?" Howard pressed again. "Well..? Do you feel wrong about anything? Even after we captured Kieran, you still worked on the moon base. Continuing his mission. So, maybe you being locked up for a while is good? Correction is the primary reason for this. And Tommy and everyone else says this is supposed to help you and your friends." 

"You try being locked up in a little four-by-four box, being locked in the same shape for hours, and then having to sleep in a bed, then tell me how correctional it is," Howard yelled at Maxion with little to no remorse, he'd clearly lost his temper. "I want to speak to someone above Russell!" He demanded the tone of his voice, indicating no room for negotiation.