Hunters of Dune - Brian Herbert [39]
The surviving acolytes began slinking toward their respective bungalows. Voicing her mother’s thoughts, Janess shouted at them, over the dead bodies strewn on the brown grass, “Look at all the wasted resources! If we keep this up, the Enemy won’t need to kill any of us.”
Once a plan is conceived, it takes on a life of its own. Merely considering and constructing a scheme puts a certain stamp of inevitability upon it.
—BASHAR MILES TEG,
summary debriefing after the victory on Cerbol
W
hen she was confrontational, Garimi could be as stubborn as the most hardened old Bene Gesserit. Sheeana let the sober-faced Sister stand in the assembly chamber and vent against the proposed historical ghola project, hoping that she would lose steam before she reached her conclusion. Unfortunately, many of the Sisters in the seats behind Garimi muttered and nodded, agreeing with the points she raised.
And so we give birth to even more factions, Sheeana thought with an inner sigh.
In the no-ship’s largest meeting chamber, more than a hundred of the refugee Sisters continued their seemingly endless debate over the wisdom of creating gholas from Scytale’s mysterious cells. There seemed no room for compromise. Because they had departed from Chapterhouse to retain Bene Gesserit purity, Sheeana insisted on preserving open discourse, but the argument had already gone on for more than a month. With so much dissent, she did not want to force a vote. Not yet. At one time, we were all bound together by a common cause. . . .
From the front row, Garimi said, “You suggest this ill-conceived scheme as if we have no other option. Even the most unschooled acolyte knows there are as many options as we choose to make.”
Duncan Idaho’s words glided cleanly into the brief silence, though no one had called upon him. “I did not say we had no choice. I merely suggested that this may be our best choice.” He and Teg sat beside Sheeana. Who knew better the dangers, difficulties, and advantages of gholas than these two? Who understood these historical figures better than Duncan himself?
Continuing, Duncan said, “The Tleilaxu Master offers us the means to strengthen ourselves with key figures from an arsenal of past experts and leaders. We know little about the Enemy we might face, and it would be foolish to turn our backs on any possible advantage.”
“Advantage? These historical figures are a veritable pantheon of shame for the Bene Gesserit,” Garimi said. “Lady Jessica, Paul Muad’Dib—and, worst of all, Leto II, the Tyrant.”
As Garimi’s voice grew shrill, one of her companions, Stuka, added firmly, “Have you forgotten your Bene Gesserit training, Duncan Idaho? Your reasoning is not logical. All of the gholas we’re talking about are relics of the past, straight out of legend. What relevance can they possibly have to our crisis now?”
“What they lack in current relevance, they gain in perspective,” Teg pointed out. “The sheer living history in those cells is enough to make religious scholars and academics dizzy. Surely, among all of those heroes and geniuses we will find useful knowledge for any situation we might encounter. The fact that the Tleilaxu worked so hard to obtain and preserve such cells for all these centuries argues for how special they must be.”
Reverend Mother Calissa expressed a valid concern; she had not given any hint as to the way she intended to vote. “I am worried that the Tleilaxu modified the genetics in some way—just as they tampered with Duncan. Scytale is counting on our awe. What if there is another plan at work here? Why does he really want the gholas brought back?”
Duncan drew his gaze across the seated women. “The Tleilaxu Master is in a vulnerable position, so he must ensure that any gholas we test are perfect. Otherwise he loses what he most wants from us. I don’t trust him, but I do trust his desperation. Scytale will do anything to get what he needs. He is dying and is frantic for a ghola of himself, so we should use that to our advantage.