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"It would require the entire output of a G-3 sun to shield any halfway livable planet." Dry and very cool the way she looked down at him.
"Nothing is out of the question in the Scattering."
"But not within our present capabilities. Do you have something less ambitious?"
"Review the genetic markers in the cells of your people. Look for common patterns in Atreides inheritance. There may be talents you have not even guessed."
"Your inventive imagination bounces around."
"G-3 suns to genetics. There may be common factors."
Why these mad suggestions? No-planets and people for whom prescient shields are transparent? What is he doing?
She did not flatter herself that he spoke only for her benefit. There were always the comeyes.
He remained silent, one arm thrown negligently across the boy's shoulders. Both of them watching her! A challenge?
Be a Mentat if you can!
No-planets? As the mass of an object increased, energy to nullify gravitation passed thresholds matched to prime numbers. No-shields met even greater energy barriers. Another magnitude of exponential increase. Was Idaho suggesting that someone in the Scattering might have found a way around the problem? She asked him.
"Ixians have not penetrated Holzmann's unification concept," he said. "They merely use it--a theory that works even when you don't understand it."
Why does he direct my attention to the technocracy of Ix?
Ixians had their fingers in too many pies for the Bene Gesserit to trust them.
"Aren't you curious why the Tyrant never suppressed Ix?" he asked. And when she continued to stare at him: "He only bridled them. He was fascinated by the idea of human and machine inextricably bound to each other, each testing the limits of the other."
"Cyborgs?"
"Among other things."
Didn't Idaho know the residue of revulsion left by the Butlerian Jihad even among the Bene Gesserit? Alarming! The convergence of what each--human and machine--could do. Considering machine limitations, that was a succinct description of Ixian shortsightedness. Was Idaho saying the Tyrant subscribed to the idea of Machine Intelligence? Foolishness! She turned away from him.
"You're leaving too quickly, Bell. You should be more interested in Sheeana's immunity to sexual bonding. The young men I send for polishing are not imprinted and neither is she. Yet no Honored Matre is more of an adept."
Bellonda saw now the value Odrade placed in this ghola. Priceless! And I might have killed him. This nearness of that error filled her with dismay.
When she reached the doorway, he stopped her once more. "The Futars I saw on Gammu--why were we told they hunt and kill Honored Matres? Murbella knows nothing of this."
Bellonda left without looking back. Everything she had learned about Idaho today increased his danger ... but they had to live with it ... for now.
Idaho took a deep breath and looked at the puzzled Teg. "Thank you for being here and I do appreciate the fact that you remained silent in the face of great provocation."
"She wouldn't really have killed you ... would she?"
"If you had not gained me those first few seconds, she might have."
"Why?" "She has the mistaken idea that I might be a Kwisatz Haderach."
"Like Muad'Dib?"
"And his son."
"Well, she won't hurt you now."
Idaho looked at the door where Bellonda had gone. Reprieve. That was all he had achieved. Perhaps he no longer was just a cog in the machinations of others. They had achieved a new relationship, one that could keep him alive if carefully exploited. Emotional attachments had never figured in it, not even with Murbella ... nor with Odrade. Deep down, Murbella resented sexual bondage as much as he did. Odrade might hint at ancient ties of Atreides loyalty but emotions in a Reverend Mother could not be trusted.
Atreides! He looked at Teg, seeing family appearance already beginning to shape the immature face.
And what have I really achieved with Bell? They no longer were likely to provide him with false data. He could place a certain reliance in what a Reverend Mother told him, coloring this by awareness that any human might make mistakes.
I'm not the only one in a special school. The Sisters are in my school now!
"May I go find Murbella?" Teg asked. "She promised to teach me how to fight with my feet. I don't think the Bashar ever learned that."
"Who never learned it?"
Head down, abashed. "I never learned it."
"Murbella's on the practice floor. Run along. But let me tell her about Bellonda."
Schooling in a Bene Gesserit environment never stopped, Idaho thought as he watched the boy leave. But Murbella was right when she said they were learning things available only from the Sisters.
This thought stirred misgivings. He saw an image in memory: Scytale standing behind the field barrier in a corridor. What was their fellow prisoner learning? Idaho shuddered. Thinking of the Tleilaxu always called up memories of Face Dancers. And that recalled Face Dancer ability to "reprint" the memories of anyone they killed. This in its turn filled him with fears of his visions. Face Dancers?
And I am a Tleilaxu experiment.
This was not something he dared explore with a Reverend Mother or even within the sight or hearing of one.
He went out in the corridors then and into Murbella's quarters, where he settled himself in a chair and examined the residue of a lesson she had studied. Voice. There was the clairtone she used to echo her vocal experiments. The breathing harness to force pranabindu responses lay across a chair, carelessly discarded in a tangle. She had bad habits from Honored Matre days.
Murbella found him there when she returned. She wore skin-tight white leotards blotched with perspiration and was in a hurry to remove this clothing and make herself comfortable. He stopped her on her way to the shower, using one of the tricks he had learned.
"I've discovered some things about the Sisterhood that we didn't know before."
"Tell me!" It was his Murbella demanding this, perspiration glistening on her oval face, green eyes admiring. My Duncan saw through them again!
"A game where one of the pieces cannot be moved," he reminded her. Let the comeye watchdogs play with that one! "They not only expect me to help them create a new religion around Sheeana, our willing participation in their dream, I'm supposed to be their gadfly, their conscience, making them question their own excuses for extraordinary behavior."
"Has Odrade been here?"
"Bellonda."
"Duncan! That one is dangerous. You should never see her alone."
"The boy was with me."
"He never said!"
"He obeys orders."
"All right! What happened?"
He gave her a brief account, even to describing Bellonda's facial expressions and other reactions. (And wouldn't the comeye watchers have great sport with that!)
Murbella was enraged. "If she harms you I will never again cooperate with any of them!"
Right on cue, my darling. Consequences! You Bene Gesserit witches should re-examine your behavior with great care.
"I'm still stinking from the practice floor," she said. "That boy. He is a quick one. I've never seen a child that bright."
He stood. "Here, I'll scrub you."
In the shower, he helped her out of the sweaty leotards, his hands cool on her skin. He could see how much she enjoyed his touch.
"So gentle and yet so strong," she whispered.
Gods below! The way she looked at him, as though she could devour him.
For once, Murbella's thoughts of Idaho were free of self-accusation. I remember no moment when I awakened and said: "I love him!" No, it had wormed its way into this deeper and deeper addiction until, accomplished fact, it must be accepted in every living moment. Like breathing ... or heartbeats. A flaw? The Sisterhood is wrong!
"Wash my back," she said and laughed when the shower drenched his clothing. She helped him undress and there in th
e shower it happened once more: this uncontrollable compulsion, this male-female mingling that drove away everything except sensation. Only afterward could she remember and say to herself: He knows every technique I do. But it was more than technique. He wants to please me! Dear Gods of Dur! How was I ever this fortunate?
She clung to his neck while he carried her out of the shower and dropped her still wet onto her bed. She pulled him down beside her and they lay there quietly, letting their energies rebuild.
Presently, she whispered: "So the Missionaria will use Sheeana."
"Very dangerous."
"Puts the Sisterhood in an exposed position. I thought they always tried to avoid that."
"From my point of view, it's ludicrous."
