"Why did the Famine occur?"
"The water discipline was forgotten."
"How was water discipline restored?"
"Through the death of water-fat Fremen."
- THE RIDDLES OF OLD RAKIS
The glowglobes' light was low, such that it seemed to fog the view more than illuminate it. A boy in a green military uniform stood next to a low table pushed against a corner. A flashlight zoomed in and out of the table surface, revealing a glass pane on the other side of which the cross section of an anthill was swarmed by tiny black dots.
"Sheeana is safe, Sayyadina," the Bashar said, turning away from the glass to look up at the woman's wrinkled face.
"That's not what I asked," the First Sayyadina replied, standing straight among several restless chairdogs which legs ambled away in the narrow space between the table and the exit door. "I must know her whereabouts."
The Bashar turned back to examine the anthill, with the tunnels exposed against the glass to the outside observer. He maneuvered the flashlight to follow a single red ant walking down among a swarm of black ones. "I won't disclose them to anyone. She is on the move. Underground. Like this ant. Did you notice its color? This is a spy, from a different swarm, infiltrating the anthill."
"Do not distract us," Garimi chimed in from the other corner of the room, reclining on a couchdog. "As a Bene Gesserit's Reverend Mother, I want your men to escort her here to me, and then we will discuss the matter of leaving this planet on our no-ship before it is too late, and leave your war games to others."
"Acolytes and Reverend Mothers," the Bashar commented. "It's hard to obey you all, nowadays. Which one should I consider your first among peers?"
"He is right, Garimi. We only obey Sheeana," the Sayyadina said.
"It's Reverend Mother to you, Acolyte Idala," Garimi sneered. "And Sheena is reckless in her avoidance of duty. It's us who need to take care of her, not the other way around."
"At any rate, we need the tanks," the Sayyadina replied flatly. "What happened to them?" She paused. The open door allowed a distant noise to creep through. Somebody was coming fast.
"My soldiers moved the tanks out of the no-globe. Except the one that was destroyed, which we burned." The Bashar was now looking past the Reverend Mother and the First Sayyadina and toward the corridor. Both women turned only for their gaze to meet the Security Commissioner's. The old man was panting. He strode in, slamming the door, and kicking a chairdog out of the way. Very out of character, the Sayyadina noticed.
The Bashar continued: "Rabbi Olza and Rebecca offered to keep them safe in another of Secret Israel's no-globes."
"Is that a sensible course of action?"
"They are our partners," Teg replied, "and much to my surprise, the People have been prepared for war for years. They have no-globes built deep into this planet's crust."
"I forbid it!" Security Commissioner Hilom screamed to the top of his lungs. "You are an unsavory business partner, all of you. I saw them with my own eyes! You called them tanks but they are not machinery, they are human flesh!" he spat. "I was warned of the Bene Gesserit ways. You have no such things as scruples. And you expect us to continue protecting you?"
"But our accord..." tried Teg.
"Don't test me. Do you think this is simply a legal matter to be dealt with according to the Shulchan Aruch? You are unclean! All of you! Where did the tank women come from?"
Silence fell in the room. At least, the Bashar had the decency to hold his gaze low, the Commissioner thought, and not to turn back to the hideous anthill he had introduced into his headquarters.
"As I thought," the Commissioner continued. "Our partnership is over, Bene Gesserit."
"Excuse me. Unsavory partner?" the Sayyadina smiled, taking his arm. "Unclean?"
"Unclean and unholy!"
"Curious!" she continued, staring at him straight in the eyes. "Coming from the man who has not respected a Shabbat his whole life, under the pretense of hiding his secret identity..."
"... Nonsense! I secured a special dispensation..."
"... and who knowingly conducted business with gentiles, in a joint partnership..."
"... the Law allows it! How dare you compare that to your diabolical conduct..."
"... and who fabricated evidence that led to exiling his own brother...," and there the Sayyadina stopped him in his tracks, "...a brother whom, once exiled out of Delphyne and out of sight, he proceeded to eliminate by paying assassins to do his sinful work no longer than twenty years ago!"
"Wild allegations!" replied the Commissioner, but his face had gone pale.
"You exiled your brother who was Commissioner at the time, Hilom, and took his place; out of ambition, surely? But not before having also tried to take his woman! Was it out of lust too?"
The Commissioner's chest caved in. "We are done here!" he protested.
"One more word, dear Commissioner," Garimi chimed in quietly, "and your Council of the Rabbi will know about this. Allegations or not, they will care."
"I have evidence," the Sayyadina continued,"which the Goddess graciously provided. Do not test us, Hilom."
"Lies!"
"Say the truth!" the Sayyadina commanded.
"I killed him! I did!" Hilom screamed as the Sayyadina's Voice took over his conscious reflexes. Silence fell in the room. He stumbled back and crashed in a chairdog.
"We accept your resignation from Delphyne's Cabinet. I am sure we will hear Priest Brogallo's lamentations," the Sayyadina concluded.
"A wolf at dawn, you said," Hilom let out, breathless.
"Except unbeknownst to us all, the wolf was you." The Sayyadina walked around the table to stand besides Teg. "And in case you don't think evidence, and your confession, is enough, do not forget that Reverend Mother Rebecca is also a Truthsayer, Hilom! Secret Israel - and you - will accept the tanks and our continued partnership," the Sayyadina smiled. "Besides, Rabbi Olza has begrudgingly accepted to hold her judgment on the spice tanks, on account of being at war. Let us forget that this exchange ever happened, Commissioner."
The Sayyadina sensed the Reverend Mother Garimi was unhappy of her performance here. Was it jealousy? Have I outranked her according to some Chapterhouse protocol? So easily upset could be these exiled Reverend Mothers, eradicated from their world, but without a new one they had elected to call home. I never went through the Trance, but I have trodden on this planet much longer than this Sister. She has no patience! And she is ready to flee! Teg is right. Secret Israel has been prepared to survive a war for decades, and our Bashar is strong.
"Ants have been a source of surprises for me lately," the Bashar said. He motioned toward the Commissioner. "You are dismissed, Hilom." Awakened from his gloom, but with a defeated stare of avoidance, Hilom stormed out of the office.
"Enough with distractions, Miles. Let us go back to the matter at hand," said Garimi.
"The attackers who breached the no-globe were neutralized, naturally."
"Neutralized?" Garimi inquired.
"Sheeana stopped the crowd. My operatives took out the Tailaron force that was planted among the rabble."
"They saw the tanks." It was a statement, not a question.
"The crowd was too focused on Sheeana to notice anything. As for the Tailarons, they are all dead."
"Dead? But alive, you could have interrogated them, Miles," the Sayyadina chimed in.
"I would have, had they surrendered. There was no margin for error there, Sayyadina."
"Precisely!" Garimi roared from her seat. "That is why we should gather the tanks and Sheeana, and escape this planet at once! And to hell with Secret Israel!"
"But there is potential on this planet, Reverend Mother," the Sayyadina replied. And if all is lost, we still have the Goddess' escape option. And us Bene Gesserit do not flee from a threat. But this Sister is blissfully unaware of both these truths.
"Teg?"
"I am happy to report that we now have a trained and modernized Delphyne's security force with the best equipment spice can afford us. Niners' tech - they are the Ixians of the Scattering - and much more. What is more important, we have an ally - this Secret Israel you are so quickly dismissing, Reverend Mother - with no-globes scattered across the entire planet, and we know know our enemies are inexperienced in guerrilla fighting." He turned his back to them once again, picked up the flashlight in his hand, his eyes searching for the elusive red ant.
"The Cordians know no guerrilla, Mentat, but the Tailarons do," the Sayyadina observed.
"Nobody knew much about the Tailarons, but one attack was sufficient to reveal their inner core," the Bashar continued, as in teaching a lesson to distracted students. "An anthill! What a powerful metaphor. Lieutenant Wailea confirmed it. Soldier ants following mental commands imparted by lieutenants, themselves linked to higher rungs in the hierarchy, up to a queen. Do you know how to win against burrowing ants, Garimi?"
He could see the Reverend Mother did not like to be addressed by name by a man.
"You burn their anthill?" she blurted out.
"If you are invading them. But this is our anthill, and we will defend from invasion. My force stands ready. It turns out that chemical signals are key for communication among Tailarons, just like for real ants. And just like ants, they can be infiltrated too. He crossed the room and opened the door, beckoning them to follow him into the hallway.
"How did you get this knowledge from, Bashar? And so quickly?" the Sayyadina asked, while walking to keep up with him.
"There are many other powers, other than Secret Israel, or the Niners." The two women followed him reluctantly down an empty corridor, to a passage, to another corridor.
At last, Teg swung open a door, leading to a vast room packed with people. Terminals were lined up in rows, cables weaving out and attaching to masks covering the faces of women and men in green uniforms. Despite the crowd, an intense silence permeated the space. "This is what spice affords us, Reverend Mother, and First Sayyadina. Bioweapons, intelligence, and the best Mentats on this side of the universe."
"Mentats? Connected to machines?" Garimi sneered.
"As it is the way here. This apparatus, some may call a thinking machine too. Did you notice the silence? That's because the masks replace the need for slow, verbal communication. The Butlerians have long died out, Reverend Mother," he replied, "except in the absolutes of the Bene Gesserit. Out in the Scattering, the Niners continued to push the limits. People and machines, connected, augmenting one another."
"I would still prefer to get Sheeana, Scytale and the tanks and space-fold into another sector," Garimi the traditionalist said aloud.
"And take our sandworm someplace else, betting on impossible odds?" the Bashar replied. "No. Our Duncan discovered something we did not know. Not even you, Sayyadina." He turned toward her.
"How to transplant a worm?"
"There is no need. Duncan Idaho sighted sandtrout far out in Delphyne's desert." The Sayyadina's eyes went wide. "You and your Sisters believed to have failed, Sayyadina, but only ran out of patience. This planet is the other Dune the Bene Gesserit have endlessly tried to recreate. You landed fifteen years ago, and the trout has taken. Duncan thinks we can transplant the worm in the no-ship directly in the desert. The sandtrout did take. Fifteen years working in our favor. Sheeana agrees. This is where we stay."
"But, Duncan?" the Sayyadina inquired. "Where is he now?"
"Most definitely not in the no-ship," Garimi replied.
"That's the other advantage of having an enemy. Our Duncan Idaho has finally decided that he has a Bene Gesserit to protect," Miles Teg replied.