Crup was shaking his head sadly.
I arrived by Heller and looked up at this mess. "What is it?" I said.
"Oh, don't you see?" said Heller. "It's Tug One!It was the Flagship of the Tug Section!" He was vibrating like a kid that has just gotten his most heartfelt birthday present. He must have read my face correctly. "Soltan, it's all engines! It's nothing but engines! Like any tug, it has the engines of the biggest battleship in space. It's the fastest thing in this universe!" Oh, here we go, I thought. Speed. I've got your fracture now, race champion Heller. It's speed.
He still thought I didn't understand. "You know those motor locomotives on the highways, the kind that pulls half a dozen trailers after them? Well, if you detached the motor locomotive and ran it with no trailers, it would be the fastest vehicle they've got. Well, it's the same way with a tug! It's just battleship engines with a skin around them. Fast! Open the spacelock, Commander! Let him see!"
"I think there's a watchman in this sector that you know, Jet," said Crup. He took out a little board and pressed some buttons, giving our sector location. And then he got a ladder and clambered way up to open the door.
Dust! Dust and darkness. But Heller was up that tall ladder and into her in a flash, dragging me along. First he went down. I dimly perceived a large stateroom and lots of knobs and rails: they were all black-crusted, horrible looking. There were several cabins. We climbed upward on the crisscross ladders that work when the vessel is vertical or horizontal. Dust! We got to a flight deck that was crammed with controls, all coated with filth.
Heller had finally gotten out a light; there was apparently no current in the ship. He opened a door and we entered a small engine room crammed with ordinary drives. "These are her auxiliaries. You use them for atmosphere maneuvering and speeds less than light." He was checking boxes and panels rapidly. "They seem to be set up all right." We dropped down and he opened a door into a second engine compartment and as he flashed his light around, I found myself looking at the most monstrous engines I have ever seen. Actually, I had never connected with anything like them. They certainly were battleship-sized drives but other than that, I couldn't classify them.
Heller seemed happier and happier. He swarmed down a catwalk and opened a door at the back of the main engine room. I was looking at very strange, huge metal drums.
"These are her tractor beam generators!" he said. "They are some of the most powerful ever built! These are what she fastens onto things with and pulls." We went out a side door. He shined his light again into the large cabin. Aside from everything being black-stained I couldn't see much. What a dirty ship!
We went back outside. An old, old spacer was just creakily getting off a triwheeler. The watchman Crup had called. He saw Jet drop off the tall entrance ladder and peered carefully. Then he said, "Oh, my Gods!" He and Heller flew together and pounded each other. "Atty!" Jet was saying.
Finally, the old man – he must have been a hundred and seventy if he was a day – drew back. He wiped a tear from his eye with the back of his hand. "Oh, Jet, lad. It's good to know you're still alive!" Jet introduced me and the old fellow said, "I was Jet's engine repair chief when he made the record run at the Academy." Crup said, "Jet's thinking of taking out Tug One."Old Atty went rigid. "Jettero Heller, you know as well as I do why she's a-lying here to rot."
"I know I used her sister ship with success. And she did just fine!" said Heller defensively.
"Ah, yes. The speed," said old Atty sadly. "Jet, you know why Tug Oneis lying here?"
"She couldn't have been here more than three years," said Heller.
"Two," said Crup.
"I was aboard her three and a half years ago. Right after Admiral Wince fixed her up as his flagship."
"Oh, yes," said Crup. "He fixed her up all right." He glanced at a sheet he was holding, "He spent two million credits on a special refit. I recall he said that every other flotilla admiral had a fancy flagship and he didn't see why he shouldn't. Of course, he never used her much. He wouldn't listen any more than you're listening now." My hair was beginning to rise a bit on the back of my neck. Heller had a stubborn look on his face. What was he letting us in for? "What's the matter with this ship?" I blurted out.
Crup said, "She's dangerous!" Atty turned to me. "She doesn't have the usual warp drives. She is equipped with Will-be Was main drives." I thought it was some maker's name.
"Timedrives," said Crup. "The type designed for intergalactic travel where distances are truly enormous and they have to work directly with time. When you run these engines inside a galaxy without a heavy load behind them, they pick up more energy than can be wasted. They work all right in a battleship with all its auxiliaries to burn the excess energy but not in a tug. And Jet knows it." I'm no expert on drives. Somebody would have to explain this to me someday. The only thing I got out of it was that this (bleeped) tug had engines that were dangerous!
But it was Atty that caved me in. "When old Admiral Wince was told Tug One'ssister ship had blown up with all hands lost while running flat-out with no tow, he instantly ordered this ship straight to Emergency Fleet Reserve and she's been here ever since."
"That settles it," I said. "No Tug One!"
"Good," said Heller. "Make out the papers."
Chapter 4
I frantically tried to think of some way to stop this madman. But my wits just didn't seem to work! His direct counter to my decision had robbed me of my usual smooth ability to exert my will. The contradiction had been done so coolly and his cancellation of my authority seemed so final that I felt just like he had pulled a gun and shot me.
I could muster no real arguments. So I simply drew in my breath and prepared to shout "NO!" He must have heard the breath intake. Before the word I was forming could come out, he said, "Soltan, you know and I know that we must not put secrets of the Apparatus before unauthorized personnel." It was a stripped, naked, totally unclothed threat. We were on Fleet territory. He was amongst friends. With a shock I realized he knew one tightly guarded Apparatus secret – the existence of Spiteos. He undoubtedly knew nothing else but that was enough! Something inside me seemed to break. I really hadlost control. But just for now, Heller, I said to myself, just for now; when we're back in Apparatus territory, and certainly when I get you off this planet, watch out; you're going to pay for this!
I closed my mouth.
Seemingly oblivious of this byplay, Commander Crup and Atty were muttering together in a kind of huddle.
Commander Crup looked at Heller sadly. "Jet, I'm too fond of you to let you have this ship." My hopes soared!
"Jet, my boy," continued the old commander, tapping the Grand Council order, "you know and we know that you'll not be pulling any heavy loads: you'll be running any ship you get as just a mission ship. You certainly won't be going to some other galaxy. You'll be working in this one. And Tug Onewill develop more energy than you can use or waste and boom!,there you'll go just like Tug Twodid. So don't waste any time in pleading. We know you." Heller smiled a disarming smile, "And what would you say if I told you I had invented a way to bleed off the excess energy?" My hopes fell.