BOOK TWO - CHAPTER FOUR
Arrakis presents an exquisite challenge to anyone with an interest in or understanding of ecology. I don't necessarily mean the difficulties one encounters while trying to turn the desert planet into a green world, but rather the delicate balance one must attempt to find between the spheres of influence that collide there. The desire to see the land grow fertile, the way the Fremen are a part of the desert, the role of the giant worms in the formation of the Spice and their intolerance of water, the power the Spice allows the Fremen to wield over the Guild, the Empire and the Houses Major and Minor ... all these factors oppose, enforce and balance each other in different ways. Remove or alter one, and the entire structure might collapse.
-Pardot Kynes, First Planetologist of Arrakis-
Murbella was at the desk in her study, attempting to analyse the implications of what she had learnt the past few days.
Now the attack comes from three sides, she realised. The Tyrant's dreams might still control the unfolding of history, continuing to lead us along his accursed Golden Path, Donelid and her allies plot to overthrow me, and the Prometheans might very well destroy us all.
A loud thud against the other side of the door that opened to the hallway forced Murbella to abandon her ponderings. She rose, walked over to the door and opened it to see what had happened. On the floor lay a young, brown-haired girl, looking no older than sixteen, dressed in the robe of a first stage Bene Gesserit acolyte - dead. Beyond her in the hallway, leaning against the wall, was Bellonda, panting heavily.
"This one put up quite a fight," she said.
"What happened here?", Mother Superior demanded.
"Assassin."
"An Honoured Matre?"
"Yes. She was too zealous. She wanted to see you dead above all else, and this made her careless," Bellonda said in a casual manner. "Her hate for you was counterproductive. By the way she moved, I could see she was an Honoured Matre attempting to mask what had been conditioned into her all throughout her life with poorly learned Bene Gesserit mannerisms."
Her hate for me was counterproductive, Murbella mentally repeated. How interesting that you, of all people, would say such a thing, Bellonda.
"Was it really necessary to kill her?", Murbella asked. "We could have interrogated her."
"It was either kill or be killed, Mother Superior."
The formal title again. She still doesn't trust me! "Odrade chose me as her successor, Bellonda. And Taraza was in full agreement with that decision."
"I am loyal to the Sisterhood's cause!"
"This would mean that you are loyal to me," Murbella said, almost angrily.
Bellonda started to say something, but decided to remain silent at the last moment. Murbella noticed this, and felt compelled to slightly modify her assessment of Bellonda's character and motives because of it.
"It is good to see that in this case your priorities are in order. The same cannot be said in reference to the way in which you handled this ... situation," the Mother Superior said, indicating the lifeless form on the floor between them. The deformed expression onthe Honoured Matre's face caused by the death spasms were already relaxing, but it was still apparent a rather nasty toxin had been used to kill her.
"Yes. Tragic." Not a shred of remorse could be sensed in Bellonda's voice.
"Regardless of what you might think, Honoured Matres do have a code of honour. She was unarmed, and you killed her with a poisoned blade."
"It seems Mother Superior is forgetting that ethical conduct is based on mutual respect, or at least the respect of the fact the other is a human being similar to oneself. An open declaration of war dissolves such respect: when encountered with unprovoked life-threatening hostility, common rules of conduct cease to apply. In war, the preservation of the Sisterhood and its members take precedence over being nice to one another."
Having said this, Bellonda turned and walked away, leaving a mildly baffled Murbella behind. After a short distance, she turned and said: "Don't you think it's time we left?"
**********
The Bene Gesserit sisters moved as swiftly and silently as possible. Murbella led a small group to safety - fifty Reverend Mothers and acolytes, as well as a handful of loyal Honoured Matres.
Many thousands of valuable Bene Gesserit remain at Central, and all over the planet - The training they've been given should be enough to save them, Murbella hoped.
They ran through a dark tunnel - an escape route leading away from Central, built in secret according to Odrade's specifications around the time the plan to integrate the Honoured Matres into the ranks of the Bene Gesserit had been set in motion.
She knew, even back then, Murbella thought. The alliance with the whores never had a chance. Once more she surprised herself by renouncing her former sisters so forcefully. I grow less Honoured Matre and more Bene Gesserit every day.
As you should, the voice of Odrade-within said.
What was the point of this puppet-show, if you already knew the two groups would eventually turn against each other again?
I didn't know, Odrade answered. Both Taraza and I thought there was a definite possibility that things would eventually go awry, but we hoped the alliance would last just as much as you. It is sad that this apparently was not meant to be, but at least we got a decade of relative peace to refortify our position.
And the tunnel was a safety measure.
Exactly.
And a nice tunnel it is, Murbella thought mockingly.
Are you aware of where it leads?
Odrade's persona retreated, and Murbella knew she would not be able to ask what the answer was supposed to be. Odrade had told her this tunnel would lead to "safety, and lesser dangers", but in the frantic atmosphere of her escape from Central, Murbella hadn't bothered to ask what this meant.
We're already quite far away from Central, Murbella calculated, recalling the approximate number of steps that had brought her to this point, and we're moving south. Of course! This tunnel will lead us into the desert! She was right - the desert has its own set of rules, and anyone who dares to stray from the paths it dictates, will not survive for very long.
She remembered the lectures she had received about Rakis, and the filmbook images of that planet of when it was still called Arrakis, a long time ago. Many pictures and movie fragments of Paul Atreides and his son she had seen, fewer of the Fremen and their blue-in-blue eyes, and only a handful of the giant sandworms - once, the planet had housed specimens of over 400 metres! How pathetic the small worms of Chapter House - ten metres for the largest ones that have so far been observed - are compared to those magnificent creatures!
What had most impressed Murbella about those lectures were the reports of a phenomenon that was taking place on Chapter House as well - as yet on a much smaller scale -: the unforgiving aridity of the planet. In order to survive, stillsuits had to be worn in the open air at all times.
Adapting to such an environment must have been an enormous task for the first Zensunni Wanderers to reach the planet, Murbella thought. It seems our small group will be forced to do it as well. Perhaps it's in my blood, my genes. Or would that be too much to hope for?
I am an Atreides, Murbella realised, letting this important but oft-forgotten fact sink in again. I carry the Mark Of Siona - prescient searchers cannot see me. I am an Atreides.
I warned you about the dangers of your plan!
Murbella looked back, wondering who had spoken - it certainly wasn't Odrade. In the almost-darkness she saw her Bene Gesserit sisters following her, and not one of them made a sound - they even managed to control their breathing, despite the exertion.
I told you it was too dangerous, and you wouldn't listen.
It took a moment before Murbella realised the voice she heard came from inside her - apparently one of the personas in her Other Memory was trying to offer her advice. The voice sounded rather young, unlike most of the other personas in her Other Memory - mostprominent Reverend Mothers were quite old when they shared.
I did what I thought was right at the time.
Another voice ... Murbella thought. This one sounds much older. They're not talking to me, but to each other. Simulflow allowed Murbella to eavesdrop on this conversation while she continued to lead her group through the dark corridors, Odrade telling her the complex sequence of twists and turns the only correct path to safety contained.
You forced my brother along the first part of the Golden path too quickly. He wasn't ready!
He was as ready as he was ever going to be!
In that case he shouldn't have accepted his burden at all. What you did to him, and what he did to himself because of that: it has only led to disaster.
Humanity was saved!, the older voice said, almost angrily.
It was saved, so it could die a few thousand years later. Don't you understand what is happening right now?
Ghanima, calm down.
No, grandmother! I hold you responsible. You don't know the fear I had to endure. I was afraid of him, I dreaded the coming of the worm. The worm doomed the entire universe, and is still doing so.
Alia ordered his kidnapping, not me.
But you didn't hesitate to take advantage of it when it happened!
It was in the best interest of the Sisterhood that his potential was tested. We had to know whether or not he was a Kwisatz Haderach like his father.
Aaah, the Kwisatz Haderach-scheme! Bad things always happen when small but arrogant humans toy with forces they only barely understand.
The older voice remained silent.
Don't you have any witty comebacks, or condescending lectures?
It wasn't me.
What?
It wasn't me. The Jessica Atreides that did all those things was a very different woman than I. When I separated while I was giving birth to Paul, my Duke was still alive, and I hadn't transformed the Water Of Life yet - my Other Memories hadn't been awakened at that point.
My brother - before his transformation, and during his more lucid moments after it - and I always had difficulty identifying the persona of you we carried with us with the real you.
Yes. Acquiring Other Memory changed me.
And grandfather wasn't there anymore to make you understand how much you had changed.
A short silence followed, and Murbella felt the sadness. Jessica spoke again. Paul changed as well, after ingesting the Spice Poison. He could have stopped the Jihad if he had wanted to.
That would have required?
Yes. But what price is one death when it buys you the lives of billions?
There is another side to the Jihad. Your defense of the Golden Path earlier suggests you would understand this, and would even approve of it.
Purging the species ... That might have been part of the intent of the operation, but the Fremen army was too blunt an instrument to perform such a delicate task.
He did try to repair the damage he had done later in life.
You mean the Preacher? That was a desperate man's effort to undo what could not be undone.
The confusion Murbella had felt when the conversation started had been replaced with a feeling of triumph. Elation swept through her for a few brief moments as she first realised what treasures from the past she might have found here, despite the dangers that the present still held.
Ghanima and Jessica Atreides, Murbella thought. It took an awful battle to enable me to acquire their knowledge - true to the younger's name -, and it came when least expected. The Sisterhood has been trying to find a way to tap into this knowledge for centuries, and now it seems I have it.