By David C. Daoust
Raymond wasn’t happy. The anger carried him full sail through the Starport. Word of his son’s arrest had reached him. Word of the ‘leaked footage’ that had been played for all of Grady to see, had reached him as well. His first thoughts were of his wife’s take on the situation. A wife that choked to death on vile black mucus, out in the vast wastes that surrounded them all, what felt like yesterday. He’d been with her since he was a teenager. He knew her so well, that he was often able to guess her reaction to anything; He had this mental image of her that was just part of his brain at this point. He could hear her voice, feel her attitude, but he could not make sense of her words- Not this time. The thought that he was alone in this cut him deeper than ever before.
The anger somewhat abated as he entered the room to find his two sons sitting, somewhat sourly, in the back of the room. He had imagined them trapped behind bars, and bound at the wrists; an image that enraged him. The Haul family hadn’t left behind the oppressive City-Stations, just to have to answer to a new set of strange men with badges.
Raymond found his sons sitting on a rather plush couch though, and considering that they both looked guilty and scared, yet otherwise normal, his ire for the local lawman faded. Raymond was a gruff, stoic individual, so this change in attitude really just made the grim angry look, shift to a different yet indistinguishable grim angry look.
“You must be their father,” the rather tall, balding man said, as he rose from a desk full of papers in front of him, “I’m Sheriff Dunn.” The man introduced himself as he stuck his hand out to shake.
Raymond was so sick of shaking people’s hands, it seemed like that’s all he was doing for all those days of wheeling and dealing in that makeshift congress… He shook the man’s hand.
“Raymond Haul,” he introduced himself, then said simply, in a gruff intimidating tone, “I’ve come to get my sons.”
The sheriff stopped and took a deep breath as he cast his gaze back at the two boys.
Raymond was not sure what gave the sheriff pause, and was tempted to just collect his sons and go. If it wasn’t for all the bullshit politicking he’d been doing for the past couple days, he probably would have done just that.
“Listen, under the circumstances, I can overlook the assault,” Sheriff Dunn began from behind a bruised and blackened eye, “the whole moon is in chaos and, honestly, it’s not the first time a teen’s taken a swing at me… But listen, the rest of these charges are a lot more serious.”
Raymond silently listened to the man.
“Now, I know you all are working to break free from the Confederation, yet, I mean, we’re not there yet and without some form of ‘legal process’, we’ll have pure anarchy…” he stopped a moment to consider his words. “Fact is, I’m still filing reports for the courts…” the Sheriff confessed, clearly unsure how this news would be taken by Raymond, who was widely considered to be the ‘leader’ of the First Wave at this point, at least by the population of Grady, “as far as I am concerned, I still have a job to do.”
Raymond silently listened to the man.
“The leaked footage might have outraged people, but it didn’t really tell us anything we did not already guess; nothing that the community had not already chosen to forgive. But there is still some of the local citizens that want someone to answer for the property damage… They see this footage as a solid lead.”
One of Raymond’s eyebrows went up slightly.
“And more than that, the Red Faction has pushed for an investigation of the entire moon. Now I got to say, since they can’t really put the whole moon on trial, they’ll go after your son… and anyone else that can be linked to his actions leading up to the um… event… depicted in the footage.”
Raymond’s eyes narrowed.
“Now, I am sorry, but I have to hold Ratchet until the court can make some form of initial ruling,” The sheriff put his foot down.
The tension was thick, and Raymond was okay with it.
“Meaning… setting a court date and deciding bail,” Sheriff Dunn tacked on as though this detail may cut the tension.
“We don’t answer to no courts,” Raymond growled.
Raymond gestured for his sons to get up and join him, but as the pair crossed the room, they suddenly stopped in the middle. His eldest son, Charles, reached out and tapped the invisible barrier, which caused a shimmering ripple effect to run all the way to the surrounding walls.
Finding that his sons were, in fact, ‘locked up’ made Raymond’s blood boil and that grim angry look, deepen. Deepened to the point that the look before, seemed almost pleasant.
“I’m just doing my job,” the sheriff explained, hands out, as Raymond’s gaze bore into him. “I didn’t want to toss them in with a murderer… so I kept them here, with me” he explained, and then gestured to the field, “and I didn’t want another black eye.”
Raymond’s brow creased so deep, the shadow enveloped, and accentuated, the rage in his eyes. He balled his fist and studied the unmarred side of the man’s face.
The sheriff’s blood drained to leave a pallor complexion and he pulled a small device from his pocket. Clicking it, the field dropped with a little flash and a delayed ‘zip’ seconds later.
Raymond was a thug and he knew it. He’d used it as an asset all his life, and he’d used it against far worse than the likes of this beanpole sheriff. Not to mention, his status was now elevated thanks to his work with the UM.
“This isn’t right, Mr. Haul,” The sheriff called after him as Raymond led his sons out of the room. “You’re just creating more problems…”
Raymond was not surprised when the Sheriff had folded his position. He was surprised, however, when they got clear down the hall and his youngest son, Ratchet, stopped him in his tracks.
“We can’t do this,” Ratchet said shaking his head as he pulled on his father’s arm.
Raymond turned on his heel to listen to his son.
“We can’t… Not after what happened to Sadie,” Ratchet explained, “this won’t look right, and Sheriff Dunn is right, it only creates more problems.” he paused as he bounced his gaze between his father and brother, “Someone somewhere will react… and it might not land on our head, it might go completely unnoticed by us, but somewhere, someone is going to get hurt… someone might die before their life even starts. We don’t know…”
With that Raymond finally heard his wife’s words, and the attitude reflected in his mind, since he’d started his charge to retrieve his sons, suddenly made sense. His grim disposition softened as he saw that sharp minded, stubborn girl, he’d met in the Narrows so long ago, reflected in the boys face. And he realized why he couldn’t hear her words, he was just a thug… she was the one that came up with the smart conns.
“I’m staying,” Ratchet stated stubbornly, “if only to keep the peace with Grady. I’m staying to play this out.”
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