Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [101]
Yueh found a match fairly quickly, and when he learned the answer, he physically recoiled. “Impossible! They would not dare!” But in his heart, as he remembered the torment Sheeana had used to awaken his memories, he didn’t doubt the witches would do anything. Now he understood why Sheeana refused to reveal the identity of the ghola.
Even so, the choice itself made no sense. The Sisters had numerous other options. Better ones. Why not try again to bring back Gurney Halleck? Or Ghanima, as a companion for poor Leto II? For what purpose could they possibly need—he shuddered—Piter de Vries?
Because Bene Gesserits liked to play with dangerous toys, resurrecting people to serve as chess pieces in their great game. He knew the sort of questions they would pursue, just to satisfy their infernal curiosity. Was the genetic makeup of Piter de Vries corrupt, or was he evil because he had been Twisted by the Tleilaxu? Who better to think like an Enemy than a Harkonnen? Was there any evidence to suggest that a new Piter de Vries would turn out evil, as before, if he were not exposed to the corruptive influence of the Baron?
He could picture Sheeana giving him a condescending frown. “We need another Mentat. You, of all people, Wellington Yueh, should not hold the past crimes of a ghola’s old life against him.”
He still did not believe it. He squeezed his eyes shut, and even the fake diamond tattoo on his forehead seemed to burn. He remembered being forced to watch Wanna endure her endless torture at the hands of the vile Mentat. And the man thrusting a knife deep into his back, grinding the blade. Piter de Vries!
He still felt the sharp steel ripping into his organs, a mortal wound, one of the very last memories of his first life. Piter’s laugh reverberated, along with the screams of Wanna in the agony chamber . . . and Yueh unable to help her.
Piter de Vries?
Yueh reeled, barely able to absorb the information. He could not allow a monster like that to be reborn.
DAYS LATER, YUEH entered the medical center, and walked toward the single pregnant tank. This was just an innocent baby at the moment. Even if it was de Vries, this ghola child had committed none of the crimes of the original.
But he will! He is twisted, evil, malicious. The Sisters would raise him and insist on triggering his memories. Then he would be back!
Yet Yueh was trapped by his own previous logic. If the Piter ghola—in fact, all the gholas—were unable to escape the chains of fate, wouldn’t it be the same for Yueh? Was Yueh therefore destined to betray them all? Would he be doomed to make another terrible mistake—or must he sacrifice everything to prevent one? He had thought about consulting Jessica, but he decided against it. This was his burden, his decision.
Using the Rabbi’s sample, he had run the genetic scan privately and seen the result. He had to act alone. Though he was himself a Suk doctor, trained and conditioned to save lives, sometimes the death of one monster was required to save many innocents.
Piter de Vries!
Indirectly he had caused de Vries’s death the first time around, by giving the poison-gas tooth to Duke Leto, who bit down on it in the Mentat’s presence. Yueh had failed in so many ways, caused so much pain and disappointment. Even Wanna would have hated what he’d done to himself, and to the Atreides.
Now, though—a second life, a second chance. Wellington Yueh could make things right. Each of the resurrected ghola children supposedly had a great purpose. He was convinced that this was his.
The handmade black diamond staining his brow added to the burden as Yueh wrestled with his decision. In his restored memories, he saw with clarity when he had become an actual Suk doctor, when he passed through an entire Inner School regimen of Imperial Conditioning and took the formal oath. “ ‘A Suk shall not take human life.’ ”
And yet, Yueh’s oath had been subverted, thanks to the Harkonnens. Thanks to Piter de Vries. What irony that the breaking of his Suk pledge now allowed him to destroy the very man who had broken that conditioning!