9
Dune — Into the WormEmperor Paul-Maud'Dib sat meditating in his austere sietch-like quarters inside the great Citadel of Maud'Dib on the desert planet Arrakis, better known as Dune.
Princess Irulan drew near, her clicking heels as distinct as any finger or voice print. He watched as the tall, emerald-eyed beauty came into view. A tiara and a sprinkling of diamonds decorated her curled blonde hair, and her cheeks had just the right hint of rouge to enhance her natural glow. She wore a shimmering offworld dress, as blue as the waters of Paul's homeworld of Caladan. It was all meant to entice him.
"You summoned me, my husband?" she asked.
Paul sighed. "Please stop calling me that, Irulan. It upsets Chani every time she hears it. One of these days she will spill your water. She is my Sihaya, the only woman I will ever love. And the future mother of my children. My wife in all but name."
"Is there no part of you for me to claim?" Irulan clenched and unclenched her jaw. "I married you so you could ascend my father's throne with a minimum of violence. I gave you legitimacy."
"I took legitimacy when my Fremen warriors defeated his Sardaukar terror troops outside on the Plain of Arrakeen. And I continue to acquire more legitimacy with each rebellious world the Fremen conquer in my name."
"It wouldn't hurt you to try a little more diplomacy with the Great Houses of the Landsraad. Your Jihad has already killed billions across hundreds of worlds. You have almost as many enemies as subjects."
"And I will create many more. Gene pools stagnate over time as societies settle into a comfortable pattern of living. They become weak against invaders, unable to respond to crises. That is the current state of the human race. Extinction is stalking us down the corridors of time. An enemy that even I can't identify awaits our descendants. And the only way humans know to reinvigorate the gene pool is through fanatical bloody warfare. Rest assured, the fittest will survive my Jihad. Most may hate me now, but in the distant future, when my bones have long turned to dust, they may rewrite their history books."
"So, what name shall I use? Emperor, Paul Atreides, Maud'Dib, Usul, Lisan-al-Gaib, Mahdi, Kwisatz Haderach, Voice from the Outer World—"
Paul laughed. "I'm a many-faced hypocrite, am I not?" He smirked. "Why don't you call me what your Bene Gesserit superior, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, calls me?"
"Chani would slit my throat if I called you that. And stop reading my communications with the Sisterhood or I'll encrypt them."
"No encrypted communications between you and those witches, Irulan. Otherwise, I'll cut off all your offworld contacts. Besides, any good Bene Gesserit knows how to conceal messages within messages. My mother taught me that skill before I was eight. I'm far too busy to intercept most of your communications, so you can rest assured their hidden meanings will remain private as long as prescience assures me the Sisterhood does not interfere with my plans."
"Very well. What can I do for you, Maud'Dib?"
"As you know, we intentionally left a great deal out of Dune, the biography of my youth that you wrote to inspire the Fremen who now conquer in my name."
Irulan nodded. "They revere it like the Orange Catholic Bible, but those who know you best dismiss it as fiction."
"All biographies are fiction. It's merely a question of degrees. However, prescience tells me the Fremen are beyond questioning that I am the Lisan al-Gaib — their long-awaited Messiah. I wish now to resurrect my older brother, James. I swore an oath the day he died that the story of his sacrifice would one day be told. The time has come to weave his tale back into the narrative of my family."
"And are you the Lisan al-Gaib?" Irulan asked with a hint of disapproval.
"Why don't you ask your father, the former Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, now imprisoned on Salusa Secundus?"
"I merely wonder if you actually believe the legend. After all, Bene Gesserit missionaries planted those stories on many ancient worlds in the event a sister ever found herself in extremis." It was Irulan's turn to smirk. "You have to admit, you're not exactly who they had in mind."
"Your Sisterhood didn't invent those legends. The Lisan al-Gaib has his roots in the genes of all humans. He appeals to any oppressed people."
"I have only limited documentation from House Atreides archives about your older brother. He was the ducal heir before being blinded in an accident. As far as I've been able to determine, he died along with your father, Duke Leto, during the Harkonnen's sneak attack here in Arrakeen."
"The true details of James's death were suppressed by me. And his blinding was no accident. He did it himself to ensure that I, not he, would become the ducal heir. He foresaw the plot hatched by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Emperor Shaddam to wipe out House Atreides. He knew it years before we set foot on this planet to take over production of the spice drug melange."
Irulan gasped. "You mean he was prescient, like you?"
"His prescience was different, probably because we had different mothers. But I'm getting ahead of myself. House Atreides records about his birth and life will be made available to you. He was born two years before me to Lady Dalia, my father's first concubine. She was a Bene Gesserit, like you and my mother, Lady Jessica. The Sisterhood tried to convince my father to accept my mother as his first concubine in order to advance their secret breeding program among the great houses. As we all now know, they were trying to produce the Kwisatz Haderach — me! — a superbeing they foolishly thought they could control. However, my father considered my mother too young and insisted on Lady Dalia. They were bound in a ceremony on Caladan."
"What happened to her?"
"She died shortly after giving birth to James. I suspect she was poisoned by the Sisterhood, so they could continue their breeding program. In his grief, my father swore an oath that my older brother would remain his heir. He took my mother as his next concubine, and she gave James and me forbidden Bene Gesserit training, unknowingly preparing both of us for the powers and pitfalls of the prescience in our genes. Since the Sisterhood didn't consider Lady Dalia's bloodline to be of great importance, they ignored James as a potential Kwisatz Haderach. That was one of their many mistakes as they blundered their way through recent history.
"Years later, when he was twelve and I was ten, he snuck a bottle of spice liquor while my parents were away and drank the whole thing. He became seriously ill from the overdose of melange and almost died. Dr. Wellington Yueh managed to pull him through. After James recovered, he began to have visions of the future. He foresaw the plot to destroy House Atreides. But he also saw something even more terrifying: if James were to remain ducal heir, he would be forced to accept the mantle of the Lisan al-Gaib, and humanity would be wiped out in the distant future. He was at a nexus in time. He told me that he could see only one way forward for the human race, and that was for me to take his place."
"What made you more suitable?" Irulan asked.
"He said that his prescience was growing increasingly perfect and demanding, forcing him to evaluate more and more possibilities as time passed, trying to decide which one was best. Even early on, our instructors — Thufir, Gurney, and Duncan — had noticed a slowing in his reaction times. He said it would eventually overwhelm him, requiring an eternity to make his life's final decision.
"My prescience, on the other hand, has many gaps, like a man wandering among a desert full of dunes, trying to see the correct way forward. At times, it's like I'm on the crest of a tall dune and can see far ahead, and I steer the universe where we need to go. At other times, my prescience is like standing in a trough between dunes. It is in those times when I have to rely on all of my Atreides, Fremen, Bene Gesserit, and Mentat skills to make it to the next crest. James assured me that by continuing to hone those skills, I would be the strongest possible leader.
"He tried to convince my father that his visions were real and that he should recognize me as the ducal heir, but my father thought they were merely an aftereffect of the melange overdose. James persisted until my father forbade him to ever speak of it again. My brother grew desperate. The window of opportunity to alter the trajectory of human history and avert disaster was closing. With no other option, he intentionally burned both of his eyes with acid, blinding his body. I can still remember his screams of agony echoing throughout Castle Caladan. My father was horrified and wanted James to accept Tleilaxu eyes, but he refused. He accepted unseeing glass eyes instead. Eventually, my father relented and named me his heir. Incredibly, James was able to see his surroundings using prescience just as well as he had with his eyes, a secret he initially hid from my father.
"In the years that followed, my father saw events unfold exactly as James had predicted, including Shaddam's eventual order for House Atreides to take over spice mining on Dune. My father came to believe in my brother's prescience. He took James sailing for a week along the shores near Castle Caladan, and they spoke of many things, man-to-man. My father accepted that he would soon die and that House Atreides would be all but destroyed. He allowed these things to happen to open a path for me to seize the Imperium."
"Was he with your father on the night of the Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen?" Irulan asked.
"No. My mother, James, and I were taken and flown into the desert by the Harkonnens, where we were to be left for dead, to be consumed by a sandworm — by Shai-Hulud — so that there would be no evidence of our death. No gutted remains to bring the wrath of the Bene Gesserit down on Baron Harkonnen."
"He feared Reverend Mother Mohiam," Irulan said.
Paul smiled. "That witch is a force of nature. Many of the details of our escape are as you wrote them, except that James was with us. He was unusually quiet the whole time. I assumed he simply felt overwhelmed by the tragic events that befell our house, including the loss of our father. I never suspected what James intended to do. Plans within plans.
"It was during the escape that I felt the first stirrings of my own prescience, spurred on by the omnipresent spice on this planet. I began to see some of the many possible paths ahead of us. In some visions, I saw myself lying dead in a pool of blood, a crysknife rammed into my throat. In others, I saw my mother's body being lowered into a deathstill, so her moisture could be claimed by a band of desert Fremen. Surprisingly, in all the visions involving James, I always saw him walking across the desert with a thumper in his hand, prepared to summon a worm. His face was a mixture of fear and exhilaration. I assumed he meant to ride the great beast as Fremen do.
"As we tried to make the crossing safely to Cave of Ridges on foot, it was James who showed us how to walk without rhythm across the desert to avoid attracting a worm. He learned how to do it from his own prescient visions. It takes Fremen children many days of practice to learn how to do it safely. We had to do it right on that first night. If it hadn't been for James, we never would have made it across.
"Once there, we encountered Stilgar and members of his Fremen tribe. James and I were both strong and healthy, and he offered us sanctuary, but he intended to kill my mother for her water because he saw no obvious advantage to keeping her alive." Paul grinned. "That is until she overpowered him using Voice and our Weirding Way of battle. It was then he declared her to be worth ten times her weight of water."
Irulan arched an eyebrow. "Only ten? That's an insult."
"Unfortunately, James had other plans. He revealed he was blind, knowing that Stilgar would insist he be left behind. My mother and I tried to convince Stilgar, but he said blind Fremen are expected to walk into the desert to die — for the good of the tribe. When we persisted, Stilgar threatened to take the water from James's body.
"My brother told Stilgar, 'Though I am blind, you do not have the strength to take it.' Stilgar thought James was calling him out and unsheathed his crysknife. James smiled, shook his head, and asked, 'Do you plan to fight Shai-Hulud for what is rightfully his?' It was then that Stilgar understood. James pointed at my mother and me and said, 'I do this for the good of my tribe. Let their water mingle with your water. And may you together kill until no Harkonnen breathes Arrakeen air! Spill their water on the open sand in the midday sun.' Stilgar promised these things would be done.
"I begged James to reconsider, but he said his death had been a part of his vision from the very beginning, a necessary step to ensure I would be accepted as the Lisan al-Gaib. I wept openly."
"That must have troubled the Fremen," Irulan said. "They don't give moisture to their dead. It's a waste of the body's water."
Paul nodded. "James requested a thumper from Stilgar, and we said our sad farewells. He walked across several dunes outside Cave of Ridges, planted the thumper deep in the sand, and activated it. It pounded away until we could hear the unmistakable hissing of an approaching sandworm, one of the largest I've ever seen, even to this day. It had a large hawk-shaped scar on its head, probably from fighting another worm for territory.
"Just when I thought it would devour James and half the desert in front of us, it came to a halt. It hesitated, lifting up its massive head and moving it slowly from side to side. If it had had a nose, I would have sworn it was sniffing his scent. James walked toward it, but it backed away. He took another step; again, it drew back. When he retreated, it followed him, but at a distance. Laughing, James turned to Stilgar and yelled, 'What in the Seven Hells does it take to get eaten on this godforsaken planet?'
"Stilgar and his Fremen stared in silent awe. One of them cried out, 'The Lisan al-Gaib!'
"James turned in alarm, and roared, 'Hold your tongue or I'll cut it out and feed it back to you!' He pointed at me and my mother. 'There! There is the Lisan al-Gaib and his mother, a Sayyadina for your tribe, just as the legend demands. I am nothing more than a voice crying out in the wilderness who led them to you. May Shai-Hulud shit me out of his ass undigested if my words prove false!'
"James knelt in front of the beast and recited a prayer from the Orange Catholic Bible. It was then he noticed his stillsuit's boot was leaking a little water. Can you imagine? That worm could sense a small trickle of open water in the middle of a vast desert and was afraid. James adjusted his suit and smiled at me one last time. He then walked into the mouth of the worm and disappeared from history.
"On the night of our battle against Shaddam, a frenzied worm with that same scar was the first to charge through the opening we blew through the Shield Wall using the family atomics. We fed the Baron to that worm. To this day, whenever I summon one to go into the desert for a hajj, it is always that same worm that comes, crossing the territory of other worms unmolested."
Paul ended his tale.
Irulan wiped a tear from her eye and her voice trembled. "I'm sorry for your loss, Paul. I wish I had known him."
Paul went silent for a time, reassessing his opinion of her. "You and I are the only ones who have ever given moisture to him. My mother mourned him, of course, but he wasn't her son. When you write about this, please note those facts. I want people who read it to know you are more than my biographer. Although Chani is forever my Sihaya, you are my wife. And I am your husband. You may refer to me as such if it pleases you." Paul gave her a mischievous smile. "Unless Reverend Mother Mohiam can suggest something more fitting."