Gris returns to the officers' club to pick up Heller's kit, and the narration informs us that "it was a trap!"
The place is mostly empty save for a janitor and one guy at the desk. When Gris tells the latter why he's here, the man perks up while the janitor vanishes. Gris laments that he must not have been thinking clearly to recognize the stalling tactic when the desk jockey takes his time retrieving paperwork for Gris to fill out. Gris eventually hears breathing behind him and sees three men fresh from a pool looming over him, while the janitor keeps rounding up more Fleet personnel.
There's a tepid little action scene as Gris fights a "valiant strategic withdrawal," which involves him scampering away from a crowd of burly spacemen, flinging cash registers and potted plants and whatever else he can get his hands on. He's eventually cornered and subjected to a circle of officers putting the boot in. One demands to know where Heller is but knocks Gris out before he has a chance to answer.
Gris comes to thanks to a splash of cold water. Once again someone yells "Where is Heller?" but decides to slug the Apparatus agent in the stomach before he can answer. After an indeterminate amount of beatings a voice calls for order, and a more senior officer takes charge. He puts Gris in a chair (with enough force to knock him out again) and once again makes inquiries concerning the location and status of one Jettero Heller. The Fleet knows he's missing and that a bunch of black lorries - suddenly Hubbard is English - were spotted leaving the stadium parking lot shortly after Heller was supposed to have left it.
The Apparatus agent is both amazed that his interrogators are so eager to tell him what they know, and relieved that they know nothing of Spiteos (though Heller has somehow heard about its rock formations and has a rough idea of where it is...). He tries to pass himself off as a simple messenger, and when that fails he claims that Heller was needed by the Grand Council for a top-secret mission. Gris suggests that his Fleet captors take a look at the orders in his case, and they're disgusted when they find them to be legit. So they release him so he can get on with getting Heller's stuff. Aaaaand that's that. Gris gets his ass kicked repeatedly, but eventually gets on with what he was doing.
So... what was the point of his chapter? Why did this need to happen before Gris got Heller's gear? For that matter, why does the act of getting Heller's gear deserve to happen "on-screen" instead of between chapters?
To answer the fist two questions, I posit that Hubbard likes to have Gris get beat up. Gris embodies a bunch of things Hubbard despises nearly as much as psychology (hold that thought), so naturally the author ensures that bad things happen to him. I'd complain, were Gris were in the least way sympathetic - these beatings he's receiving? Think of them as pre-preemptive karma for the stuff he'll do later. Also, the fact that the Fleet is rallying around Heller just reinforces how popular and beloved the book's hero is, in case reader's weren't swooning over him yet. Love Jettero Heller, dammit! He's perfect and awesome and you will worship his greatness!
As for the second question, I think the next chapter will answer it for me. You see, going to get Heller's stuff gives Gris a chance to visit his room...
Back to Chapter Five
No comments:
Post a Comment