Commander of Dune

Chapter 8

Resistance is futile.
~ The Borg Collective.

Regular rhythms attracted sand worms.  All Fremen knew this and so the team slipped, dragged, crawled and walked up to the crest of the sand dune.  

Finally, they got to the top... Kynes stepped forward from the rest of the entourage and found nothing.  His disappointment was almost tangible.  Thedesert had been efficient in reclaiming any remains, which might have been. 

"It was there!" The boy protested the truth of his story.

"It was!" His sister backed him up.

"You bring us out here on some pretense!" N'Gia the Naib was annoyed.

"It's true!" The children looked around wildly for a trace of belief from anyone.   They got it from Kynes. "I believe them." He said calmly.  He targeted the boy, Mo'hal "Can you draw what you saw?"

Mo'Hal nodded.  Kynes continued "The carcass may not be here, but it is only a matter of time before the evidence becomes commonplace."

"What evidence!" N'Gia demanded.

"The dead bodies of sand worms killed by the increased warming of the planet." He replied.

"Global Warming!" The girl announced.

"Global Warming." Keynes echoed and on that note they all turned and went back the way they had come.

Unknown to them, they had been observed.  Valcyn placed his binoculars down and continued on his own business.  If they had come to see the carcass of Shai-Hulud there was none to be seen and he had no intention of interacting with anyone.

~*~*~*~*~

Reverend Mothers Shakira who had arrived to test Dax, Farrah the Kwisatz Mother and Mo’Hadin the Ambassador to the Court of Atreides met in chambers.

“The Bio sample you sent is confirmed” Shakira reported.

Farrah’s eyes bored through her sister.

“He is the genetic reincarnation of Paul Atreides?” Mo’Hadin felt the need to say it out loud. “The rumour was true?”

“What of Amasso?” Farrah demanded.

“He is not.” Shakira stated. “Where is Dax. I must test him.”

“At the trial of Amasso.” Farrah replied.

“Summon him.” Shakira ordered.

~*~*~*~*~

It was another sweltering night.  A shadowy figure of a man dressed in black made its way towards the nerve centre of the electric power grid.  

His intention was simple – to see if it could be done.  The Mojave Power Station as a massive metropolis of a system, it provided power to a third of Arakkis.   This was a practice run, later he’d tackle the Command and Control Room.

As he approached, two things happened: first he spotted. Mar’Cel the courier sent by Mick’N to inform Arista of the news of Worms on Salusa Secundus came round the corner.  The shadowy figure ducked for cover.

There are times when shortcuts are longer than they seem. It was the fate of Mar’Cel that he took the shortcut to the Place via the Power Station.  

Mick’N had said that the message was urgent and such a command from a Naib was to be executed in the most efficient manner possible, hence the shortcut.