Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [155]
“Thinking machines have long been my sworn enemies,” the Oracle said in her ethereal voice.
While Murbella looked on with great satisfaction, precisely targeted Obliterators wiped out countless Enemy ships. If only the Honored Matres had simply turned their stolen weapons against the thinking machines when they’d had the chance, long ago! But those women had never stood together against a common foe. Instead, they hoarded their stolen weapons and used the destructive power against each other, against rival planets. What a waste!
The overlapping detonations, each strong enough to scorch a planet, struck the front line of machine ships. A dozen Heighliners raced deeper into the Chapterhouse system to chase Enemy vessels that had already reached planetary orbit.
“We will do what we can at your other front-line planets,” the Oracle said. “Today we hurt the Enemy.”
Almost before she could absorb what was happening around her, Murbella saw that the initial wave of thinking-machine forces had been reduced to nothing more than scattered debris. As far as she could tell, the Enemy battleships never got the chance to launch a single shot against the defenders of humanity.
Some of the Heighliners winked out, folding space to go to the other crippled last-stand defenders. There, they would deliver their Obliterators and speed off to further encounters with the Enemy. All across the front lines, at every flashpoint where Murbella had placed her groups of fighters, the Oracle’s Navigators struck, and vanished again. . . .
Murbella snapped to Administrator Gorus. “Get me a comchannel! How do we talk to your Oracle of Time?”
Gorus was stunned by the events around him. “One does not request an audience with the Oracle. No living person has ever initiated contact with her.”
“She just saved our lives! Let me talk with her.”
With a skeptical expression, the Administrator made a gesture toward another Guildsman. “We can try, but I promise nothing.”
The gray-robed man fiddled with the commline until Murbella shouldered him aside. “Oracle of Time—whoever you are! Let us join forces to eradicate the thinking machines.”
A long silence was Murbella’s only response, not even static, and her heart sank. Gorus gave her a superior look, as if he had known to expect this all along. Murbella saw a second wave of thinking-machine ships race in, now that the initial attack had been thwarted. And these would not tauntingly hold their fire. “More machines are coming—”
“For now, I must move on.” As the Oracle spoke, Heighliners began to disappear like soap bubbles popping. “My main battle is on Synchrony.”
“Wait!” Murbella cried. “We need you!”
“We are needed elsewhere. Kralizec will not be consummated here. At long last, I have found the no-ship that carries Duncan Idaho, and the secret location of Omnius. I must now go there to end this by destroying the evermind. Forever.”
Murbella reeled as the unexpected information hit her. The no-ship found? Duncan was alive!
Within moments the last of the Heighliners vanished into foldspace, leaving the Mother Commander and her ships alone to face the next wave. The thinking machines kept coming.
We have our own goals and ambitions, for good or ill. But our true destiny is decided by forces over which we have no control.
—“The Atreides Manifesto,”
first draft (section deleted by Bene Gesserit committee)
A door in the machines’ grand cathedral flowed open like a waterfall of metal, parting to reveal two figures that stepped forward in tandem.
It had been hours since Baron Vladimir Harkonnen had murdered Alia, yet his wide lips still struggled to contain his satisfaction. His spider-black eyes glinted. Dr. Yueh glared at the Baron, his personal bête noïre.
Paul did not need ghola memories to recognize the Baron’s companion—a lean young man, barely more than a boy, but whipcord strong with muscles tuned from constant training. The eyes were harder, the features sharper, but Paul knew the face that