Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [27]
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
Back in the corridors again, the two passed a sick-looking old Scytale and his clone emerging from their quarters. Because they isolated themselves and lived with odd traditions and behavior, the Tleilaxu were natural suspects, but Teg had found no evidence against them. In fact, he believed the real saboteur would be careful to blend in perfectly and draw no attention at all. It was the only way he could have remained hidden for so long.
Two pregnant women passed by them in the corridor, chatting as they continued on their way. Both were part of Sheeana’s conventional breeding program to maintain the population of the Sisterhood, providing an adequate genetic base should the splinter group ever find a place to settle.
Finally, Teg and Thufir reached the cavernous, humming engine chamber, and entered the large aft compartment through a round doorway. Apparently safe but lost again since their last passage through foldspace, the Ithaca drifted, though Duncan insisted on keeping the Holtzman engines ready at all times.
Thick clearplaz separated the Bashar and Thufir from a trio of power plants that fed the machines. Walkways laced the outside of an explosion-proof plaz chamber that contained the side-by-side engines. The two stared up at the giant mechanisms that could fold space. A true miracle of technology. All of the readings remained within nominal range. Again, no sign of sabotage.
“We’re still missing something,” he mused. “I can feel it.”
Once before, at the end of the Battle of Junction, Teg had failed to see the terrible and deadly “Weapon” that the Honored Matres had held in reserve. That mistake had nearly lost him the entire war. He considered their situation now. What deadly device will I fail to see this time?
Humanity has a great genetic compass that constantly guides us onward. Our task is to keep it always pointed in the right direction.
—REVEREND MOTHER ANGELOU,
famed breeding mistress
Wellington Yueh had a powerful need to be forgiven. The blank spot in his mind was filled with guilt. He was just a ghola and only thirteen, but he knew he had done terrible things. His own history clung to him like tar to his shoe.
In his first life, he had broken his Suk conditioning. He had failed his wife Wanna by allowing the Harkonnens to use her as a pawn and had betrayed Duke Leto, bringing about the Atreides downfall on Arrakis.
After studying records of his prior existence, learning in painful detail what he had done, Yueh tried to find solace in considering the Orange Catholic Bible, along with other ancient religions, sects, philosophies, and interpretations that had developed over the millennia. The oft-repeated doctrine of Original Sin—so unfair!—was a particular thorn in his side. Yueh could have made a coward’s excuse that he couldn’t remember and therefore didn’t deserve blame, but that was not the path to redemption. He had to turn elsewhere.
Jessica was the only one who could forgive him.
The eight ghola children in Sheeana’s project had been raised and trained together. Because of their individual personalities they had formed personal bonds and friendships. Even before they knew the history that should tear them apart, Yueh had tried to be a friend to Jessica.
He had read the journals and instructional writings of the original Lady Jessica, bound concubine to the Duke Leto Atreides. She’d also been a Reverend Mother, an exile, the mother of Muad’Dib, and the grandmother of the Tyrant. That long-dead Jessica had been a strong woman, a role model despite how the Bene Gesserit reviled her for her flaw, her weakness. Love.
Together, the gholas now faced a far greater enemy than the Harkonnens. When Jessica’s memories were finally awakened, would the shared threat be sufficient to keep her from wanting to murder him? He had read her own words, as written down by Princess Irulan, expressing her poignant agony of grief: “Yueh! Yueh! Yueh! A million deaths were not enough