Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [141]
Trapped by the machine fleet, the Ithaca was held captive with its engines damaged and weapons burned out. Duncan could do nothing but wait and mourn his dead friend. Consequences and memories roared around him. He moved methodically, relying on Mentat focus to perform even simple actions.
Sheeana was beside him on the navigation bridge. Though she prided herself in Bene Gesserit purity, holding all emotions at bay, she seemed profoundly troubled as the two of them picked up Teg’s body from where it lay crumpled on the deck. Duncan couldn’t believe how fragile and lightweight the Bashar’s remains were. He seemed to be made of spiderwebs and sinew, dried leaves and hollow bone.
“Miles gave his life for all of us,” Duncan said.
“Two times,” she said.
Her remark made Duncan think of all the lives of his own he had given for the Atreides. In a raspy voice, he said, “This time, the sacrifice was for nothing. Miles used up his entire life span to give us the repairs we needed, and I couldn’t break us free. He shouldn’t have done it.”
Sheeana fixed a hard look on him. “He shouldn’t have tried? We’re humans. We have to try, no matter what the odds are. There are never any guarantees. Every action in life is a gamble. The Bashar fought to the last instant of his existence, because he believed there was a chance. I intend to do the same.”
Duncan looked down at the sunken, mummified face of his friend, remembering all the determination and hard training the old Bashar had given him when he was a young ghola. Sheeana was right. Even though Duncan hadn’t been able to free the Ithaca and let them escape, he and Miles had shown the Enemy that humans were unpredictable and resilient, that they were not to be underestimated. And it wasn’t over yet. Instead of a simple capture, the thinking machines had been forced to sacrifice one of their largest battleships simply to stop them.
“We’ll take him to one of the small airlocks,” he announced. Since their every movement was now dictated by the Enemy ships that dragged them along, it was pointless to remain at the controls. “I have no intention of letting the thinking machines have him.”
The remnants of the Bashar would fly alone into the cosmos. The rest of them might be trapped, to be used in thinking-machine experiments, or for whatever reason the old man and woman had been pursuing them over the decades. But not Miles. This act would be another small victory—and enough small victories could win an entire war.
They arrived at one of the chambers, which Duncan recognized as the same airlock he had used to jettison Murbella’s last possessions, items that had clung to him like cobwebs until he forced himself to let go. They placed the tragically lightweight husk of Teg’s body inside the chamber and sealed it. Duncan looked through the observation port, saying his last goodbyes.
“It isn’t the ceremony I would have imagined for him. Last time, the Bashar had all of Rakis for his funeral pyre. But there’s no time.” Before he could have second thoughts, Duncan pushed the button that evacuated the airlock, opening the outside hatch so that the body tumbled out into the void. “We should summon everyone aboard the ship and prepare our defenses.”
“What defenses?”
He looked at her. “Anything we can think of.”
SHOULDERED FORWARD BY a hundred thinking-machine vessels, the battered no-ship was forced down into Synchrony, where shifting buildings moved aside to form an acceptable place for the captured craft to land. The now-visible Ithaca descended like a trussed wild animal, the trophy of big game hunters.
Baron Harkonnen thought it a glorious sight. From an extruded balcony in one of Omnius’s capricious high towers, he studied the vessel as it descended. The no-ship’s configuration was unfamiliar to him, massive but not as intimidating as he’d imagined it would be. This design was much more organic and alien-looking than huge Guild Heighliners, deadly Sardaukar craft, House Harkonnen military vessels, or his own family frigates. It seemed to be convergent