Dune_ House Atreides - Brian Herbert [284]
I will be like them someday, D’murr thought. At one time he would have recoiled in horror; now he accepted it as inevitable. He thought of all the new revelations he would have along the way.
The Guild tribunal spoke to him in their shorthand, higher-order mathematical language, thoughts and words communicated through the fabric of space itself—vastly more efficient than any human conversation. Grodin, the Head Instructor, acted as their mouthpiece.
“You have been monitored,” said Grodin. By long-standing procedure, Guild Instructors set up holorecording devices in every Heighliner navigation chamber and every training tank of the new and unproven Pilots. Periodically in the ships’ circuitous routes between the stars, these recordings were removed from the transports and cargo ships and delivered to Junction.
“All evidence is studied in detail as a routine matter.” D’murr knew that Guild Bank officials and their economic partners in CHOAM had to make certain that important navigation rules and safeguards were being followed. He questioned none of it.
“The Guild is perplexed by targeted and unauthorized transmissions being directed to your navigation chamber.”
His brother’s communication device! D’murr reeled inside his tank, floating free, seeing all the dizzy possibilities, the punishments and retributions he might face. He could be-come one of those pathetic failed Navigators, stunted and inhuman—the physical price paid, but the benefits not reaped. But D’murr knew his ability was strong! Perhaps the Steersmen would forgive. . . .
“We are curious,” Grodin said.
D’murr told them everything, explained everything he knew, gave them every detail. Trying to remember what C’tair had told him, he reported on the conditions inside sealed Ix, the Tleilaxu decision to return to more primitive Heighliner designs. The Heighliner decision disturbed them, but the tribunal was more interested in the functioning of the “Rogo transceiver” itself.
“Never have we had instantaneous foldspace transmission,” Grodin said. For centuries all messages had been carried by Couriers, in physical form, on a physical ship that traveled through foldspace much faster than any known method of transmission could skim across space. “Can we exploit this innovation?”
D’murr realized the military and economic potential of such a device, if it could ever prove feasible. Though he didn’t know all the technical details, his brother had created an unprecedented system, and one most intriguing to the Spacing Guild. They wanted it for themselves.
A senior tribunal member suggested the possibility of using a mentally enhanced Navigator on both ends, rather than a mere human, like C’tair Pilru. Another questioned whether the link was more mental than technological, an enhanced connection because of the former closeness of the twins, the similarity of their brain patterns.
Perhaps, among the vast pool of Pilots, Navigators, and Steersmen, the Guild could find others with similar mental connections . . . though it would likely be rare. Nevertheless, despite the cost and difficulty, this method of communication was perhaps a service that could be tested, and then offered at great expense to the Emperor.
“You may retain your status as Pilot,” Grodin said, releasing him from the inquiry.
For several weeks after returning in triumph from Kaitain, Duke Leto Atreides and Rhombur Vernius had awaited a response from the new Emperor to their request for an Imperial audience. Leto was prepared to board a shuttle and travel to the Imperial Palace the moment a Courier arrived with a confirmed slot in the Emperor’s calendar. He had vowed to make no mention of his bluff message, decided not to pursue the matter of a Corrino-Tleilaxu connection . . . but Shaddam IV had to be curious.
If another week passed without a response, however, Leto would go there even without an appointment.
Attempting to ride the momentum of his increasing stature and popularity, Leto wished to discuss amnesty and reparations for House Vernius. He believed this would be the best chance to