IV.
Agenda Items

Beginnings are such delicate times.
– THE LADY JESSICA, FROM "WISDOM OF ARRAKIS"

Conversation recorded by the no-ship systems on day 3 from Chapterhouse's Departure. Main deck's commander room. Systems record three in attendance, identified as: Miles Teg, Sheeana Brugh, Duncan Idaho. Notes captured with standard movement descriptors and voice tonalities.

Miles Teg: "It is going to be just us three. First item of the day is, of course, the spice melange."

Sheeana: "Yes, please. Our melange will support the needs for the Reverend Mothers aboard for about three years, if we exclude the spice needed for the sandworm's catalysis."

Duncan Idaho (coming from a distance, entering the room): "Sheeana, what happens to you when the spice runs out?"

Sheeana: "Withdrawal may cause a slow agony until death, or mental crippling. To me and to the others."

Teg: "No way to be weaned off of it?"

Sheeana: "Not for a Reverend Mother. That also means, we cannot create new ones. No Acolyte will go through the spice Agony until we have a source."

Teg: "Let us focus there. Three questions arise. One: how did the Reverend Mothers sent into the Scattering handle this? We know some survived and were turned into Honored Matres. Drug substitution? Two: It took over ten years to create the first spice on Chapterhouse, and we are starting with an infant sandworm and no planet. We need a source sooner. Which means…"

Duncan: "We have a more pressing matter, Teg. How long can the sandworm survive on our ship?"

Sheeana: "Days. We did not have the time to prepare a suitable habitat for the worm in the hold of the ship."

Teg: "So Duncan: can you find a suitable planet? Then: ration all melange until we have a solution. We should explore the drug of the Honored Matres, and then, Scytale."

Duncan: (nods).

Sheeana: "If the Master spilled his secret, an axolotl tank could produce all the melange we need, not to speak of earning us the coin we need for our voyage through the stars. And right on topic: where are we? Duncan erased the on-board computer memory."

Duncan: "It's here in my mind, Sheeana. I will recreate pieces of it so that we can plan our course."

Sheeana: "Really? How far are we?"

Duncan: "From the old Imperium? How do you convey distance in the Scattering?"

Sheeana: "Far enough from the Sisterhood? And from what remains of the Honored Matres? I do not want to be hunted."

Teg: "Yes. We should not discuss our position, not even for the ship's software to record, until we have completed the analysis of the on-board systems. Second agenda item: Chapterhouse."

Duncan: "I doubt they have the time to look for us. Murbella is going to have her hands full with the Matres for a long time."

Sheeana: "How can we be sure? I was their Missionaria's carefully planned prophetess, and you my presumptive Royal Consort."

Duncan (stiffly): "Presumptive is the right word."

Teg: "Duncan is right about Murbella. Axolotl tanks may have turned us into a cheap commodity. They can recreate all of us - if they have gathered cell samples in advance and can overcome some petty prejudices, particularly about cloning Reverend Mothers."

Sheeana (gasping): "They will not dare!"

Duncan: "Your Sisterhood's sense of morality may change quite quickly…"

Sheeana: "It was my Sisterhood…"

Duncan: "...if survival is at stake. We should assume they have cell samples for all of us and Scytale. Ask the Odrade Memory in you."

Sheeana (after a pause): "They have them, yes. But only one time? Or thousands of times? Cloning us once for each sandworm they will get out of Chapterhouse? They will not dare!"

Duncan: "And each Sheaana they create will be a rebel one, like you. Do you think Odrade would have done it?"

Sheeana: "Aah," (another pause) "maybe. If survival required it. The question is, whether Murbella will do it."

Teg: "Third agenda item: we are a spaceship flying no flag and traveling in the void of space. We have a crew of forty-three, including a splintered cell from Secret Israel, Tleilaxu Master Scytale, and four futars. Besides our survival, I would like to invite you all, and I'd like to include the entire crew of this ship too, to think about what you want to do with your life in the Scattering. Under the constraint that in no way we can leave clues as to our position to either the Sisterhood or any Honored Matres group that could still exist."

Sheeana: "Right. And it is about time we call an all-hands meeting. I will send word. In an hour on this very deck."

(Footsteps, Sheeana walking out)

Teg: "So it seems our Sheeana knows what she is running from, but not yet what she is running to. Nice little plan you two have come up with by the way."

Duncan: "I owe you an apology. There was little time to activate the plan and we dared not risk it. You were not given a choice between joining us or remaining on Chapterhouse. I was."

Teg: "I will be ready to discuss this at a more appropriate time. Mentat to Mentat, that is not what I had as the last agenda item."

Duncan: "Yet I hope we can discuss this soon."

Teg: "Yes. Here is my last item: you deleted significant portions of the navigation software. Why?"

Duncan: "To avoid tracking."

Teg: "You are acting on the basis of different data than mine, then. What is it?"

Duncan: "There may be bigger powers at work than we know."

Teg: "You are going to have to be more specific than this."

Duncan (footsteps, about to step out of the room): "I will soon."

Teg: "And, Duncan?"

Duncan (turning his head, one foot already out of the room): "Yes?"

Teg: "What would have Leto Atreides the First said, had he known your oath to his House implied over five thousand years of uninterrupted service, extending even to future Atreides Reverend Mothers?"

Duncan: "Leto is dead."

Teg: "I am Atreides, Duncan."

Duncan (bitter): "Your face reminds me of this very fact every minute. As Odrade kindly reminded me, my water is yours."

Teg: "Hear me now. I am Atreides. And as Atreides, I now release you from your oath."

Duncan (voice betraying confusion): "Pardon!?"

Teg: "You are released from service, Duncan Idaho. Served House Atreides for over five thousand years. Gave his life on behalf of the House countless times. From now on, you are free to choose what man you want to be."

Duncan (body caving in): "But I ... what… you cannot…"

Teg: "Hear me! I, Miles Teg, of Atreides descent, have just released you. The values and reasons, the affections that you poured into that oath, those remain yours forever. But I will have no more Duncan Idaho in a cage of his own making."

Duncan: "I… do not know whether to thank you or…"

Teg: "Focus on this instead, will you? As a Mentat. Why did Leto II the Tyrant keep bringing you back, hundreds of times?"

Duncan (distraught): "The Paul Atreides who lived through him wanted me around to keep him company in his lone journey across the millennia."

Teg: "And that is, of course, the Primary computation. Surely Paul loved you, as well as the Duke Leto and Jessica." (footsteps toward the opposite door) "And after all you were and are an incredible military mind. But now, compute the question: why did Leto keep bringing you back? What part of the Golden Path required, may still require, a Duncan Idaho?"