Dunes of sand stretched in all directions. Every puff of wind sent great clouds of it drifting through the air, only to land once more. The air was bone-dry, the kind of dry that forces you to keep your mouth shut so it doesn't dry out completely. In the distance, I could see some rocky cliffs, jutting ruggedly out of the desert, worn by sand and wind and time.

I'm fairly certain my hearing was improving- instead of noting, I could almost hear a high-pitched buzz that set my teeth on edge. After the teleporter had once again malfunctioned, it would seem, we had ended up in this trackless, empty desert. Nika was still alive and functioning, though in no small amount of pain, according to the small data-slate she'd provided me. Instead of the ear bead, which was pointless, she projected words onto the data-slate for me to read.

"RADIO SIGNALS EMANATING FROM THE NORTHWEST" it said now. I checked the compass and swung the binoculars towards the northwest. There were some small machines mounted on one of the dunes. It was difficult to make out at this distance, but I'd have bet it was some sort of moisture collection apparatus. I'd served in a desert unit before, and those things are everywhere on desert planets. It looked like it was old, but in good condition, which was a promising bet for making my way out of here.

"I'll head that way, then." I decided. I went back inside and assembled a kit of what I hoped would be enough water to get me there. A compass, of course, as well as food, the lasgun, and other essentials. I also had a small brick of platinum, which Nika had suggested I rip from a spare processing board, which would hopefully allow me to pay for at least some repairs, assuming this planet had the technology to do so. Just to be on the safe side, I planted a small red pennant as high up on Nika's chassis as I could, just in case the sand completely buried her.

With my preparations completed, I was climbing out the hatch to begin the long trek when I saw the strangest thing I will ever see in my life. Now, I don't mean to brag, but for most people, that's not saying all that much. For me— well, I've seen daemon titans taken down by a super-tank from another universe. I've seen a whole planet covered in Orks and lived to tell the tale. I've traveled through the warp and fought a daemon in hand-to-hand combat. So when I say this takes the cake, you better sit up and pay attention.

It was…a worm. The biggest Emperor-damn worm I have ever seen. And I don't mean a worm the size of my forearm or some stupid crap like that. This worm was big enough to swallow a Capitol Imperialis in one gulp. And someone was riding it. The human figure perched on its back was holding some kind of long hook, which he'd used to pry a segment of the worm's massive armor loose. For a moment, I saw his face turn towards mine. With a swift, practiced movement, he twisted the hooks free of the worm's armor. The worm dove back into the sand, and the man executed a wholly unnecessary backflip as he leaped of its back and landed on his feet a few hundred meters away. He walked towards me, with a strange, uneven gait, which would have looked drunken if it wasn't so precise. I drew my lasgun for safety, but kept my finger visibly off the trigger.

It took a while since he wouldn't walk normally, but eventually the other man made it to Nika's chassis. When he was ten meters away, I gestured with the lasgun. "Stay where you are." I told him.

"Why, so you can shoot me?" he asked.

"I want to know where I am." I said back, holding the gun steady. He looked to be wearing some sort of armored body glove, so I kept the sights trained squarely on his face.

"You mean you don't know?" there was laughter in his voice. "You're on Dune, my friend. Outsiders call it Arrakis, and you look a lot like an outsider to me."

"I suppose I am." I admitted. "But I've got money and I need to get my machine fixed. Can you arrange that?"

He laughed. "Money? Keep your cursed money. You really don't know anything, do you?"

I shrugged. "As you say, I'm an outsider."

He seemed to be considering something. "How much water have you got?"

I looked at the knapsack. "Ten liters, maybe. I could probably get more if I burn some of the reactor mass."

He couldn't quite disguise the light in his eyes when he heard that. So water was the currency around here, was it? Very well; I resolved to treat the stuff as if it were made of solid gold.

"Two hundred fifty milliliters to get me to the nearest mechanic." I offered.

I'd probably overpaid by the way he reacted. "Not a problem!"

"And we bring my machine, too." I amended. His face fell, but it seems I'd overpaid by more than I thought.

"Fair." He agreed. "As long as you've got some strong rope."

I rummaged about through Nika's many compartments and found a hundred meters of thin black cabling which she called "nano-fiber cord" and assured me it would hold. Mahud —as he introduced himself— looked dubious, but did not protest. Working together, we attached either side of the cord to tow lines on Nika's undercarriage, painstakingly excavated from the sand. Mahud threaded the cord through both of his long hooks, then gestured to me to follow. We walked perhaps fifty meters away from Nika, so that the cord formed a long isosceles triangle, with ourselves at the point and the cord anchored at either side.

Mahud set a small device in the sand, some kind of spring-driven machine which made a soft thumping noise as it chugged away. We retreated a short distance, and he advised me to get ready. I hardly had time to feel a vague dread for what was coming when the ground rippled beneath our feet. In front of us, a huge, crusted mouth reared out of the sand. With a whoop, Mahud ran towards it, the hooks outstretched in either hand. I followed, and Mahud jammed the hooks into a gap in the monster's armor as it slithered past us. There was a jerk, and I clutched the cord in a death grip as we lurched forward, gathering speed. The cord went taut, and I could feel the massive animal beneath us straining. There was a huge billow of sand, and with a sound like a waterfall crashing into the ground, Nika's chassis began moving, leaving a massive spray of sand behind it. The few wheels she had retained fell off, and she slid forward more easily, though she still was regularly entirely buried in sand as we sped onwards towards the town.

As we continued, Mahud called back to me, "So how did you come to Dune if it wasn't on purpose? That sounds like a difficult feat."

"It was." I agreed. "And I still have no idea how it happened. One minute, we were fighting greenskins on Pugnatus Prime, the next we were stuck out in the middle of the desert."

"Where is Pugnatus Prime?" Mahud asked. "I've never heard of it."

"It's in Segmentum Tempestus." I explained.

"Never heard of that, either." He replied. My ear bead was working again, and Nika commented so that Mahud wouldn't hear, "We seem to have skipped across the barrier between worlds again."

"Yes." I said, to Nika. Then for Mahud's benefit, I continued, "I suppose it must be awfully far away."

He grunted. "Here we are."

I looked around, but there was no evidence of any sort of settlement. Mahud seemed unconcerned, and was busy working at his hooks again. The worm beneath us must have been tiring, for we were moving much slower now. "Get ready to run." Mahud advised me. "Make for that outcropping." I made sure I followed his indication, then nodded. In a swift, practiced motion, Mahud yanked the hooks out. "Go!" he called. The worm beneath us began to sink as it was allowed to dive back beneath the surface.

I hit the sand, hard, and stumbled forward, legs churning. The sand was soft and yielding, and it slowed me pretty quickly as my boots sank into it. My legs started burning in no time, but I gritted my teeth and sprinted the last few yards up to the outcropping. Mahud was waiting there, with his hooks in one hand, the tow line leading to Nika in the other.

"We'll have to leave your machine behind for now." Mahud said. "The mechanic should be able to winch it the rest of the way."

He left the rope staked to the rock, with a small scrap of cloth to show where it was. Mahud led me along the ridge for a few hundred meters, then up a set of stairs cut in a manner that made them look almost a part of the rock. They led up to a small building atop the outcropping which wasn't visible from below. It was very old, wind-blasted and battered until very little paint remained. Carved into one wall were the words IMPERIAL PLANETOLOGY DEPARTMENT.

Mahud led the way inside, through a small atrium he referred to as a sand-trap. I still had yet to see other people, and I was getting suspicious about the whole thing. "So where's this mechanic you're taking me to?" I asked.

Mahud didn't answer immediately, instead leading me into another room, this one filled with parts. Most of them I couldn't name, but it seems that lasguns are the same all across the multiverse. Mahud pulled a thick apron that had been slung over a chair, then turned around. "I'm the mechanic." He explained.

"Of course you are." I folded my arms. I may be a country man originally, but I'd learned plenty about this kind of scam in the Guard. "How about you take me to a real mechanic, or you never see a drop of water."

Mahud shook his head. "Listen, I can't." He held up his hands in a placating gesture. "I mean I can't not won't. I was expelled from my tribe, and any Fremen worth the name will kill you the second you arrive at their sietch. I'm your only chance to get your machine repaired."

"Fremen?" I asked. Then I shook my head. "I'll have to believe you for now. But if I find out you're lying, I'll just pour my water out into the desert."

"That's fine." Mahud said. "I wasn't going to ask for it anyway."

"What?" I asked. "I thought water was the currency around here."

"It is." He agreed. "But what I really want is to leave this planet. Get me off this world, and I'll fix your machine for you. Deal?"

"Deal." I agreed.

He spat on the floor. "Agreed, then." With that he had me help him haul a huge winch out of the piles of old equipment and haul it out to the outcropping. We bolted it firmly to the rock, then started the engine. After pulling Nika up onto the rocks, I was relegated to the job of tool-passer while he worked on her innards.

"So how'd you get kicked out of your tribe anyway?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

Mahud looked sheepish. "It seems I demonstrated a bit too much interest in computers."

"Computers?"

"Computers are perversions of nature." He explained as if it were obvious. "Only the human mind is suitable to make calculations." Mahud chuckled. "At least, that's what we were always taught."

"If a computer is anything like a cogitator or a data-engine, how do you get anything done?" I asked.

Mahud tapped his head. "Outworlders use the Spice for such things. It expands the mind and allows you to do more advanced calculations in your head."

"Hm." I murmured. "Sounds strange."

"So is this." Mahud gestured towards Nika. "I've never seen a tank that needed so many control lines before. It must need a lot of crew to maneuver properly."

"I suppose it does." I replied warily. I wasn't sure how he would react to Nika, and decided that the fewer lies I had to tell, the easier it would be to keep them straight. We ended up working on Nika for the next three days, repairing as much as Mahud's rudimentary equipment would allow us to fix. On the fourth day, Mahud told me, "There's nothing more we can do. I just don't have the parts."

"Do you know where we could get them?" I asked.

He shook his head. "You drag that thing to any of the cities on dune, you'll get arrested faster than you can spit. We need to find somewhere else."

"Where?" I asked.

"Maybe use the same way you got here." Mahud suggested.

I started to dismiss the idea out of hand, but I decided it would be worth a shot. Didn't teleporters need a locator beacon to function?

I headed into the command center, leaving Mahud in the corridor outside. "Nika, besides the stuff the Orks installed, do you have anything out of place in your circuits?"

"One moment, Commander." She replied. "I will run a full diagnostic." A moment later, "there appears to be a minor power drain just outside the secondary fusion reactor. It was too small to notice without the diagnostic, which is why I had not mentioned it earlier."

"Huh. Where could I find it?"

Nika gave directions, and I led Mahud to the repair hatch she indicated. I popped it open, and sure enough, a servo-skull was clamped over one of the wires. The tech-priests must have installed it when I was talking to Inquisitor Gallo.

"We don't want to remove it, though." I mused. "We need to boost the power."

"Increasing voltage." Nika replied in my ear.

Mahud watched in confusion as the servo-skull began to spit sparks and a small plum of steam as Nika fed more and more power into it. I could only hope the locator signal was getting stronger as well. The beacon began making a shrill whistling noise, almost like a teakettle after too long on the stove. And then-

"Spacetime rift detected. Recalibrating navigation system." The speakers boomed.