Brian Herbert - Navigators of Dune

Uneasy, Josef issued orders for all personnel to repair his remaining ships, salvaging weapons systems, rebuilding Holtzman engines and shields. He had to get ready for his next move … as soon as he figured out what that would be.

THE DENALI SCIENTISTS were stunned to hear about the defeat of all the cymeks and the deaths of Ptolemy and Noffe. In an emergency meeting, Josef summoned his lead researchers so they could inventory the defenses available, should Denali be attacked. The Tlulaxa researchers, who had done such an excellent job growing a biological body for Erasmus, were pleased with the breakthroughs they had achieved over the years, but could offer nothing on a scale that might stand against an Imperial assault of the planet.

Josef assigned Draigo to manage the scientists and inventory the projects under way in the research domes. Except for a handful of patrol machines left behind, the cymek army had been destroyed, and the Directeur’s instructions were to focus only on the projects with the best destructive potential.

The Emperor might well be coming.

Denali’s recent efforts had been devoted to developing and building the Navigator cymeks—a brute-force army designed to combat the primitive Butlerians on Lampadas, not to fight a well-organized Imperial space fleet. Now, the research teams scrambled to find a way to protect this facility. On another occasion, Josef would have been glad to see them so motivated. This time, however, it was desperation, and he didn’t like the feeling.

An eager Erasmus approached Josef, offering to help. “May I review the battle images transmitted by the cymeks?”

Josef gave him a curious, skeptical look. “Why would that be relevant? We lost all the cymeks on Lampadas, and have only a few cymeks left here, not enough to stand against the Imperial Armed Forces.”

The robot regarded him with his new biological eyes. “I wish to observe the massacre because I saw the Butlerians execute Headmaster Albans, my friend and former ward. I would find it inspirational to watch them die.”

“I understand completely.” Josef granted Erasmus full access to the laboratories and support buildings, hoping he might suggest some innovative strategy that even Draigo Roget had not considered. Seeing the gleam in Erasmus’s eyes, he knew the robot understood that if Denali fell, he himself would surely be destroyed. Josef pressed, “We have to find some other weapon we can use to defeat Roderick.”

Erasmus said, “There may be something we can use.”

Josef raised his eyebrows. “Did my researchers stumble upon something without telling me about it?”

“When the forty thinking-machine ships were brought here, hundreds of fighting robots were discarded on the surface of Denali. Some of them have already corroded into nonfunctionality, but I’ve seen others, and they might still be repaired. I can reprogram them remotely.” His bright eyes held a strange, intense expression. “If Imperial troops should land and make a ground assault, those combat meks could be our last line of defense.”

The Mentat pointed out, “If Imperial troops penetrate our orbital defenses and begin a ground assault, Directeur, then we have already lost.”

“And if that happens,” Josef said, “we have nothing to lose, and I’ll damn well want the robots, just in case.” He turned to Erasmus. “Do it. Do what you can.”

Anna Corrino glided into the chamber, smiling, her attention centered on her beloved Erasmus. She seemed oblivious to the tension. As Erasmus reviewed the violent images of the cymek massacre in Empok, she came up behind him and kissed the back of his head. “I missed you so much.”

Josef watched her. Despite all of Denali’s defenses, this young woman might be the best asset he had left.

Though she was Mother Superior with responsibility for the entire Sisterhood, Valya was also a Harkonnen military commander on a vital personal mission. So much of her life had been focused on one man, one target, that his loathsome face came to her in nightmares.

Vorian Atreides.

Now, thanks to a direct report from Truthsayer Fielle, as well as additional rumors, Valya knew where the Atreides fox had gone to ground: out in the old remnants of the thinking-machine empire, at Corrin—the very planet where he betrayed and disgraced her ancestor, Abulurd Harkonnen. It was a particular insult.

But the man couldn’t hide from her. Valya had found him. For Vorian Atreides, there was no refuge, anywhere. Tula’s bodyguards had left the job unfinished on Chusuk, because those Sisters had not understood the true import of that enemy. Valya would not make that mistake.

She could have dispatched a team of anonymous killers to hunt him down—there were enough skilled assassins on Wallach IX to take care of the matter easily. With their combined new fighting skills, they could have overwhelmed him, no matter how hard he fought. But this mission was not something Valya Harkonnen wished to delegate. She needed to be there herself, to see Vorian’s fatal wounds with her own eyes, to dip her fingers in his warm blood and watch him die.

And Tula ought to be there as well, to witness the long-awaited satisfaction for her family. It would be her sister’s reward for her remarkable service in killing Orry Atreides … a young man who was of no consequence, except that his murder had hurt Vorian to the core.

Her operatives on Salusa had intercepted a trader from Corrin who came to deliver valuable salvage from the machine world; when pressed for information, the trader tried to convince the Sisters in the Imperial Court to pay him for the information they wanted about Vorian Atreides. The Sisters gave him a small fee and promised much more as they immediately dispatched him to Wallach IX so that he could speak with the Mother Superior.

The grinning trader offered Valya all the details she needed, acknowledging that Vorian Atreides was indeed in the settlement on Corrin, even including a sketch of the intricate tunnel system where the scavengers lived … where her target was in hiding. Even better, she learned that Orry’s brother Willem had now joined Vorian there. Good, that would neatly wrap up all the threads of her vendetta.

As a final loyalty test, Valya ordered Sister Ninke to dispose of the talkative trader, since she could not risk anyone warning Vor that they were coming. The former Orthodox Sister passed the test with skill and discretion.

Now Valya had everything she needed.…

After careful consideration, she designated Sister Deborah as her alternate to run the school, and then handpicked Sisters who would join her on her mission to Corrin. It would not be a massive military operation, but a surgical strike with a single goal in mind. The threat this one man posed was not to be minimized, but she was confident in herself, and in her fellow Sisters.

Then she used the school’s funds to charter a compact spacefolder, which quietly departed from Wallach IX.

After reaching Corrin, the spacefolder remained above the dead machine planet, while three small shuttles dropped down and flew in over the night side. Each craft carried five expert fighters, adepts in the consolidated combat style that she had developed personally; four of them were also Truthsayers.

The Atreides didn’t stand a chance. Three teams, together but separate, each backing up the others, each looking for alternate ways to kill the target and block any escape. Valya led one squad, accompanied by a surprisingly determined Ninke, and an oddly reticent Tula, who had been quite moody of late. Valya insisted that she take heart, saying, “It will all be good again once he is dead.”