Ezra Mason: Nothing to tell. He’s an engineer. Works the heavy processors in the hermium refinery. Bad cook. Worse jokes. You know. A dad.
INTERVIEWER: Do you miss him?
Ezra Mason: What kind of question is that?
INTERVIEWER: It’s been over a month since he was killed in the Kerenza assault. You still talk about him in the present tense.
INTERVIEWER: Do you think that’s interesting, Ezra?
Ezra Mason: [Inaudible profanity.]
INTERVIEWER: All right, then. Let’s talk about something that makes you happy.
Ezra Mason: …You mean like lingerie models?
INTERVIEWER: Tell me about your girlfriend.
Ezra Mason: Wowwww.
Ezra Mason: You’re really bad at this, chum.
Ezra Mason: Like, if Bad was a sport, you could Bad for your planet.
INTERVIEWER: Your girlfriend doesn’t make you happy?
Ezra Mason: She dumped me the day our colony exploded.
Ezra Mason: Rim-shot?
INTERVIEWER: Do you still care about her?
Ezra Mason: Next question.
INTERVIEWER: It’s just I notice you put her down as your emergency contact on the Alexander intake form. It seems strange to name a girl you broke up with as your effective next of kin.
Ezra Mason: I never told you I broke up with her. She broke up with me.
INTERVIEWER: Why?
Ezra Mason: That’s so not your business it almost punches clean past the event horizon of Not Your Business and becomes Your Business again.
INTERVIEWER: You two had a fight?
Ezra Mason: All couples have fights.
INTERVIEWER: Is that how you got those scars on your arm?
Ezra Mason: …What? Chum, I’ve had these since I was eight. What the **** is wrong with you?
Ezra Mason: You don’t do this for a living, right? Please tell me the real Alexander psych crew all got X-ed out by those BeiTech ***holes and you’re the guy who used to clean the scrubbers or something.
INTERVIEWER: I work in the infirmary.
Ezra Mason: …Jesus, I was kidding. You’re serious?
Ezra Mason: You’re not even a qualified shrink? Well that’s just ****ing chill.
INTERVIEWER: I’m postgrad med from the UTA Academy. Psych major. We do six months of fieldwork in our final year. I pulled duty on the Alexander. But it doesn’t take a graduate from Neo-Oxford to see you have some serious anger issues, Mr. Mason. So we can talk about it if you like, or we can sit here and stare at the walls until our allotted hour is over.
INTERVIEWER: It’s up to you.
[Skip 51:27 minutes of complete silence.]
Ezra Mason: She asked for something I couldn’t give her.
INTERVIEWER: …I beg your pardon?
Ezra Mason: My girlfriend. Kady. She asked for something I couldn’t give her.
INTERVIEWER: What did she ask you for?
Ezra Mason: Doesn’t really matter now, does it? Whole verse gone to hell and all. Point is, for someone like Kady, the asking part is hard enough. She doesn’t do the vulnerable thing real good. She doesn’t like needing anyone. So when I said no and couldn’t give a reason, it kinda…broke the back of it, you know?
INTERVIEWER: Why wouldn’t you give her a reason when you said no?
Ezra Mason: If I didn’t tell her, you honestly think I’m gonna tell you?
INTERVIEWER: Which brings me back to your mother.
Ezra Mason: Oh, and how you figure that, Mr. Postgrad?
INTERVIEWER: Typically, trust issues in teenagers stem from childhood abuse by authority figures. Teachers and parents, mostly. The fact that you’ve undergone psych eval before lends weight to the theory.
INTERVIEWER: Now, you obviously loved your father, hence your inability to process his death and your open hostility toward anyone who makes reference to it. The next logical line of inquiry is your mother.
INTERVIEWER: So. Tell me about your mother.
Ezra Mason: You’re taping this, right?
INTERVIEWER: Audio only. Camera is faulty.
Ezra Mason: Okay, well for the benefit of the sight-impaired, I am now raising my…oh, dear…yes, it’s my middle finger at Mr. Postgrad here.
INTERVIEWER: Mr. Mason…
Ezra Mason: Now I’m wiggling it.
INTERVIEWER: Terminating interview at 13:58 on 03/19/75.
Ezra Mason: Look at it wiggl—
—audio ends—
Mason, Ezra—
Psych Profile/Conscript Suitability Assessment
Incept: 03/21/75
—Page 2—
shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder: aggression, avoidance, night terrors and survivor guilt.
TEAMWORK: Mr. Mason is a team player, capable of stepping up to leadership roles if required. High school sports: making life easier for military recruiters since 1914.
ATTITUDE: The death of Mr. Mason’s father during the Kerenza assault has left him with a deep sense of resentment and anger. However, his aggression is progressing and is almost entirely focused on BeiTech Industries. And BeiTech will be the ones shooting at him.
CONCLUSION:
☒ Conscript—Priority 1
☐ Conscript—Priority 2
☐ Conscript—Priority 3
☐ Do Not Conscript
COMMENTS: Mr. Mason’s PTSD and anxiety levels would normally make him a washout for combat duty. However, with Alexander’s current shortfall of suitable Cyclone pilots, and considering Mason’s test results (Spatial Awareness: 94th percentile; Pattern Prediction: 99.7th percentile), it’s our recommendation to conscript.
The kid’s hostility toward BeiTech can be harnessed in a conflict situation. Throwing him into task-oriented activities in a social environment (combat training) may even prove therapeutic. And if not, a few months from now, he’s not our problem.
Get him in a cockpit ASAP.
To: Kady Grant/KGRANTHYPATIAONBOARD
From: Ezra Mason/EMASONALEXANDERONBOARD
Date: 07/03/75
Timestamp: 23:45
Subject: DO NOT SEND THIS
Kades
i am not sending this to you I am just writing it down and then i will delete it because of reasons. My friend jimmy says it is best to get these things off your chest and since u are not here to say this to i’m pretending because you know, think of my chest. it has things on it
so i am somewhat…liquefied but never fear i do notspend my days drinking alone in my bunk, the hooch is to hard to get lol. IT IS A CELEBRATION as i am now officially cleared for flight status, me flying a cyclone holy *********** wtf has the universe come to.