At being called out again, the Old Geezer looks sharply at the Vanguard, and then abruptly stands up straight. Without his constant slouch, he can look eye-to-eye with any man on the crew.
"Why am I here, you ask? I don't have a good answer for you. I don't have any official mission, and I don't have any great specialty to contribute to the colony. I just wanted to see the galaxy before I'm too old to get around anymore, so I called in some old favors, and here I am.
"But don't pull any of that 'useless to the mission' crap on me, not when you're letting a mentally unstable person still hang around. It's that sort of back-asswards thinking in the Guard that I tried to reverse, back when I was in your shoes.
"Take a look at what happened when Ronin started drawing accusations. Eventually, I came down on his side, but that was just because he wasn't taking up our air, and those secret votes did made you look bad, Vanguard. But CCRunner tried to support Ronin, and voted the batteries to him as well. I think he's a rebel.
"Oh, and as to the items, I really think you should take the gun, Vanguard. I don't like the idea of anyone being immune from our oxygen troubles, though I won't vote to throw the tanks out the airlock, 'cause then they wouldn't help anyone."
