Frank Herbert - High-Opp

“Dan, I…”

“Just a moment,” said Emperor Movius. “We are now the Emperor, the first Emperor of the entire world.”

“Yes, sir,” said O’Brien.

“The proper form of address is Your Majesty ,” said Emperor Movius.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” said O’Brien. “Now, if you’ll…”

“Just a moment,” said Emperor Movius. “An Emperor may grant his intimates special privileges. In our private audiences, you may call us Dan.”

“Yes, Dan; I know. Now…”

“You knew?” Movius grinned. “Well be quiet a minute, then, and listen.”

O’Brien assumed an air of suffering silence. He knew he was being paid for the years he had manipulated Movius’ life. He also knew that the role of Emperor struck Movius mostly as a joke. “Proceed,” said O’Brien.

“When you run out of other things to call me you may refer to our august person as Ultimate High-Opp,” said Movius. “Now to business. We are this day giving you, our chief counselor, an additional duty. Duke Navvy will assist you in this duty which carries an Earldom for yourself. We want you to take over a Department of Education. We have a long list of suggested compulsory subjects.”

“Excellent,” said Earl O’Brien. “And now…”

“We have not finished,” said Emperor Movius. “We also want you to bend your efforts to a plan of oppression for our peoples.”

“A what?”

“We want to be gently oppressive,” said Emperor Movius. “When it has become too much for our peoples to bear, they will come to us demanding their equivalent of the Magna Carta. Protesting the divine rights of Emperors, we will grant their demands.”

“So the cycle starts again,” said O’Brien.

“Act,” said Emperor Movius. “Lastly, we wish you to start research on space flight. There should be no lack of volunteers. A suitable refuge should be found for ourselves or descendants, anticipating the moment when the cycle rounds its next curve.”

“Are you quite finished?” asked O’Brien.

“Yes.” Emperor Movius gave a lordly wave of his hand. “Say, I’m getting pretty good at the high and mighty attitude.” He waved the hand once more. “Notice the wrist.”

“I have an important message,” said O’Brien.

“Eh? Oh, yes, of course. Proceed.”

O’Brien cleared his throat. “I have a report from one of our cell chiefs in Istanbul. A group of sixty-one former government employees has started a revolutionary group there. They call themselves the ‘Unity’ party. They…”

“Unity Party,” said Emperor Movius. “That has a nice sound, hasn’t it?”

O’Brien glared at him. “Dan, this is serious! The report is that these are some of the toughest boys from the old government and they may have friends elsewhere.”

“What do you want me to do?” asked O’Brien.

“Roper’s Na… I mean, Great Emperor! Isn’t it obvious?”

Emperor Movius shook his head. “No.”

“I want authorization for a control squad to check back on these people and eliminate them before they grow stronger.”

Emperor Movius jumped from his throne. “You’ll get nothing of the kind!” He pointed a finger down at O’Brien. “We are holding you personally responsible for the safety of these people. You’ll see that their movement thrives and prospers.”

“What?” O’Brien quivered with indignant fury, mounted the first step to the throne. “They mean to kill you!”

Emperor Movius resumed his seat on his throne. “Of course they do. That’s Janus Peterson’s worry.” He shook his head. “Poor Nate. In spite of all of your charts and figures, the very simple meaning of everything you did has escaped you.”

O’Brien folded his arms across his chest. “Really?”

Movius’ face grew serious. “Nate, you of all people should see it.” He leaned forward, “15 years ago… whenever it was you saw this crisis coming, you decided to take a hand in it. Your motive was preserving your own special knowledge, the cultural data you had accumulated for the use of future generations.”

“Yes, but…”

“Let me finish.” Movius leaned back, watching O’Brien carefully. “You took a hand - you looked for the catalyst. Brownley was one who failed. You picked me up back there somewhere, guided, cajoled and tricked me into the crucial position in the revolution. It was revolution—and this is the important point—against the government of which you were a part. You might say you planned to overthrow yourself.”

O’Brien took a step toward the throne, waved an angry hand. “You’re the one who misses the point. I was trying to preserve something in spite of a revolution that was inevitably coming. Inevitably is the important word. There was no chance the government wouldn’t be overthrown, I was trying to save…”

Movius interrupted him. “And what makes you think this will last?” He waved a hand around the throne room, at the gold trappings and ostentation, “How long do you think the people of the world will tolerate me… or if they don’t assassinate me, it will be one of my descendants.” He frowned. “Another revolution is even more inevitable than the last one.”

O’Brien took another step up toward the throne. “The report from Istanbul could be the faint beginnings of the end for everything you represent.”

Movius stood up, looked down on the tiny figure of O’Brien. “Of course it is! That is why you are personally responsible for the safety of those people. We have been fortunate enough to catch the countermovement at the beginning. We can nurture it if we want to preserve whatever is worth saving in our present culture. Do you see my point now?”

O’Brien pulled at his ear. “I think you’re out of your mind,” he said.

Emperor Movius smiled a grim smile. “The significance of what we have done has been known to many governments, seldom practiced in its pure form.”

“Get to the point, will you?” snapped O’Brien.

Emperor Movius ignored the anger of his advisor. He extended his arms regally. “For a civilization to survive a crisis… in order that the good will not go with the bad… it is essential that an element of the government have charge of the revolution.”

Direct Descent

Earth has become a library planet for thousands of years, a bastion of both useful and useless knowledge—esoterica of all types, history, science, politics—gathered by teams of “pack rats” who scour the galaxy for any scrap of information. Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth, and knowledge can be a weapon. As powerful dictators come and go over the course of history, the cadre of dedicated librarians is sworn to obey the lawful government… and use their wits to protect the treasure trove of knowledge they have collected over the millennia.

Destination: Void

The starship Earthling, filled with thousands of hybernating colonists en route to a new world at Tau Ceti, is stranded beyond the solar system when the ship’s three Organic Mental Cores—disembodied human brains that control the vessel’s functions—go insane. An emergency skeleton crew sees only one chance for survival: to create an artificial consciousness in the Earthling’s primary computer, which could guide them to their destination… or could destroy the human race.

Frank Herbert’s classic novel that begins the epic Pandora Sequence (written with Bill Ransom), which also includes The Jesus Incident , The Lazarus Effect , and The Ascension Factor .