"That's... awful," said Zouichi. In fact, it was so awful that he resolved to confront Albert about it when he saw him next, advice or no. He knew that people were not to be held responsible for their crimes before they arrived on the ship, and technically not helping during an emergency wasn't against the law (unless Good Samaritan laws were applicable).

But he personally needed to know whether this was true, or whether Howard was merely giving him his side of the story (he was not so new to human interaction that he discounted the possibility that Howard could be skirting the truth).