Well, the slovenly, apathetic louts who work for the Apparatus are nevertheless able to do a decent job on Tug One, so as promised Heller lets them have their "tup party." For the next two hours the hangar is a scene of merriment complete with sweetbuns and funny hats and streamers and this mysterious brew called "tup." Everyone sings praises to the glorious Jettero Heller and his magnificent spaceship, except for Gris, who is miserable, because that is his chief function in this story.
Then with a "hup, yo, hup, hup, yo!" in marches Commander Snelz and his squad of guardsmen in full riot gear, to relieve the hangar security detail. There's a lot of Sargespeak - "Scuh-wahd, halt!" and that sort of thing - and though Gris again boggles at how the magic of Jettero Heller is able to make working soldiers out of Apparatus dregs, he's nevertheless glad to see them. At least until he notices one extra member of Snelz' troupe. This "Gy-yardsman Ip" is apparently posted inside Tug One, and eagerly hurries aboard.
And then... Snelz and his soldiers go crazy with exuberant glee, tossing their rifles into the air, cheering, hive-fiving each other, doing a merry little dance and everything. So, can you guess what's happened yet?
Gris hurries aboard to follow "Ip," and sure enough finds none other than the Countess Krak taking off the helmet that helped disguise her as a soldier. I've no idea why this deception is necessary, or why the second-most feared person in the entire Apparatus can't go where she damn well pleases. Maybe she's supposed to be a damsel locked away in Spiteos despite being fully capable of killing her way out of there with her electrowhip and crazy kung-fu skills. Maybe the Apparatus is simply incapable of having someone fly from point A to point B without spying it up somehow. They probably use body doubles and feints to get groceries, then disappear the entire checkout staff.
Since this chapter was so short and stupid I wanted to do a twofer with Chapter Eight, but it looks like Hubbard is going to spend twelves pages on his tour of Tug One, so it'll have to wait.
Back to Chapter Six
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