AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So the Honored Matres have acted!
"Tell me about your search for the ghola," Taraza ordered.
"We were not the first searchers over that ground, Mother Superior. There was much additional burning of trees and rocks and underbrush."
"But it was a no-ship?"
"The marks of a no-ship."
Taraza nodded to herself. A silent message from Old Reliability ?
"How closely did you examine the area?"
"I flew over it but on a routine trip from one place to another. "
Taraza motioned Burzmali to a chair near the foot of her cot. "Sit down and relax. I want you to do some guessing for me."
Burzmali lowered himself carefully onto the chair. "Guessing?"
"You were his favorite student. I want you to imagine that you are Miles Teg. You know you must get the ghola out of the Keep. You do not place your full trust in anyone around you, not even in Lucilla. What will you do?"
"An unexpected thing, of course."
"Of course."
Burzmali rubbed his narrow chin. Presently, he said: "I trust Patrin. I trust him fully."
"All right, you and Patrin. What do you do?"
"Patrin is a native of Gammu."
"I have been wondering about that myself," she said.
Burzmali looked at the floor in front of him. "Patrin and I will make an emergency plan long before it is needed. I always prepare secondary ways of dealing with problems."
"Very good. Now--the plan. What do you do?"
"Why did Patrin kill himself?" Burzmali asked.
"You're sure that's what he did."
"You saw the reports. Schwangyu and several others were sure of it. I accept it. Patrin was loyal enough to do that for his Bashar."
"For you! You are Miles Teg now. What plan have you and Patrin concocted?"
"I would not deliberately send Patrin to certain death."
"Unless?"
"Patrin did that on his own. He might if the plan originated with him and not with... me. He might do it to protect me, to make sure no one discovered the plan."
"How could Patrin summon a no-ship without our learning of it?"
"Patrin was a Gammu native. His family goes back to the Giedi Prime days."
Taraza closed her eyes and turned her head away from Burzmali. So Burzmali followed the same suggestive tracks that she had been probing in her mind. We knew Patrin's origins. What was the significance of that Gammu association? Her mind refused to speculate. This was what came of allowing herself to become too tired! She looked once more at Burzmali.
"Did Patrin find a way to make secret contact with family and old friends?"
"We've explored every contact we could find."
"Depend on it; you haven't traced them all."
Burzmali shrugged. "Of course not. I have not acted on that assumption."
Taraza took a deep breath. "Go back to Gammu. Take with you as much help as our Security can spare. Tell Bellonda those are my orders. You must insinuate agents into every walk of life. Find out who Patrin knew. What of his surviving family? Friends? Winkle them out."
"That will cause a stir no matter how careful we are. Others will know."
"That cannot be helped. And Burzmali!"
He was on his feet. "Yes, Mother Superior?"
"The other searchers: You must stay ahead of them."
"May I use a Guild navigator?"
"No!"
"Then how--"
"Burzmali, what if Miles and Lucilla and our ghola are still on Gammu?"
"I've already told you that I do not accept the idea of their leaving in a no-ship!"
For a long silent period, Taraza studied the man standing at the foot of her cot. Trained by Miles Teg. The old Bashar's favorite student. What was Burzmali's trained instinct suggesting.
In a low voice, she prompted: "Yes?"
"Gammu was Giedi Prime, a Harkonnen place."
"What does that suggest to you?"
"They were rich, Mother Superior. Very rich."
"So?"
"Rich enough to accomplish the secret installation of a no-room... even of a large no-globe."
"There are no records! Ix has never even vaguely suggested such a thing. They have not probed on Gammu for... "
"Bribes, third-party purchases, many transshipments," Burzmali said. "The Famine Times were very disruptive and before that there were all those millennia of the Tyrant."
"When the Harkonnens kept their heads down or lost them. Still, I will admit the possibility."
"Records could have been lost," Burzmali said.
"Not by us or the other governments that survived. What prompts this line of speculation?"
"Patrin."
"Ahhhhh."
He spoke quickly: "If such a thing were discovered, a Gammu native might know about it."
"How many of them would know? Do you think they could have kept such a secret for... Yes! I see what you mean. If it were a secret of Patrin's family... "
"I have not dared question any of them about it."
"Of course not! But where would you look ... without alerting... "
"That place on the mountain where the no-ship marks were left."
"It would require you to go there in person!"
"Very hard to conceal from spies," he agreed. "Unless I went with a very small force and seemingly on another purpose."
"What other purpose?"
"To place a funeral marker in memory of my old Bashar."
"Suggesting that we know he is dead? Yes!"
"You've already asked the Tleilaxu to replace our ghola."
"That was a simple precaution and does not bear on ... Burzmali, this is extremely dangerous. I doubt we can mislead the kinds of people who will observe you on Gammu."
"The mourning of myself and the people I take with me will be dramatic and believable."
"The believable does not necessarily convince a wary observer."
"Do you not trust my loyalty and the loyalty of the people I will take with me?"
Taraza pursed her lips in thought. She reminded herself that fixed loyalty was a thing they had learned to improve upon from the Atreides pattern. How to produce people who command the utmost devotion. Burzmali and Teg both were fine examples.
"It might work," Taraza agreed. She stared speculatively at Burzmali. Teg's favorite student could be right!
"Then I'll go," Burzmali said. He turned to leave.
"One moment," Taraza said.
Burzmali turned. "You will saturate yourselves with shere, all of you. And if you're captured by Face Dancers--these new ones!--you must bum your own heads or shatter them completely. Take the necessary precautions."
The suddenly sobered expression on Burzmali's face reassured Taraza. He had been proud of himself for a moment there. Better to dampen his pride. No need for him to be reckless.
We have long known that the objects of our palpable sense experiences can be influenced by choice--both conscious choice and unconscious. This is a demonstrated fact that does not require that we believe some force within us reaches out and touches the universe. I address a pragmatic relationship between belief and what we identify as "real." All of our judgments carry a heavy burden of ancestral beliefs to which we of the Bene Gesserit tend to be more susceptible than most. It is not enough that we are aware of this and guard against it. Alternative interpretations must always receive our attention.
