Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [69]
Duncan nodded. “We cannot pass up an opportunity like this. My instincts brought us here for a reason.”
Are we the last ones left alive? What if the Enemy has destroyed the rest of mankind by now, back in the Old Empire . . . back with Murbella? In that case, it is imperative that we establish as many colonies as possible.
—DUNCAN IDAHO,
no-ship logs
Keeping themselves hidden from the planet’s inhabitants, several teams of efficient Bene Gesserits launched a major effort to restock the no-ship with necessary air, water, and chemicals. They sent out mining ships, air scoops, water-purification tankers. That was the Ithaca’s immediate priority.
Stilgar and Liet-Kynes insisted on going down to inspect the growing desert band. Seeing the passion on the faces of the two awakened gholas, neither Teg nor Duncan could deny the request. Everyone was guardedly optimistic about finding a welcoming landscape here, and Sheeana wondered if this might be a place where she could release her seven captive sandworms. Although Duncan could not leave the veiling of the no-ship, because then he would be exposed to the Enemy searchers, he had no cause to prevent the others from finding a home at last. Perhaps this would be it.
Bashar Teg piloted the lighter down to the surface himself, accompanied by Sheeana and an eager Stuka, who had long wanted to establish a new Bene Gesserit center, rather than just drift aimlessly in space. Garimi had let her staunch supporter make the first foray, while she formulated plans with her ultraconservative Sisters aboard the no-ship. Stilgar and Liet were most eager just to set foot on the desert—a real desert with open skies and endless sands.
Teg flew directly toward the ravaged arid zone, where an ecological battle was taking place. If this was indeed one of Odrade’s seed planets, the Bashar knew how voracious sandtrout would seal away a planet’s water, drop by drop. Environmental checks and balances would fight back with shifting weather patterns; animals would migrate to still-untouched regions; stranded plant life would struggle to adapt, and mostly fail. Reproducing sandtrout could act much faster than a world could adapt.
Sheeana and Stuka stared through the lighter’s plaz viewing windows, seeing the spreading desert as a success, a triumph of Odrade’s Scattering. To the exquisitely prudent Bene Gesserit, even the ruin of an entire ecosystem was an “acceptable casualty” if it created a new Dune.
“The change is happening so swiftly,” Liet-Kynes said, his voice tinged with awe.
“Surely, Shai-Hulud is already here,” Stilgar added.
Stuka echoed words that Garimi had said time and again. “This world will be a new Chapterhouse. The hardships will mean nothing to us.”
With the detailed information in their archives, the people aboard the Ithaca had all the expertise they needed to establish a new place to live. Yes, a colony. Teg rather liked the sound of the word, because it represented the hope of a better future.
Teg knew, however, that Duncan could never stop running, unless he chose to face the Enemy directly. The mysterious old man and woman were still after him with their sinister net, or after something on the no-ship, maybe the vessel itself.
The lighter descended with a rough roar through the china-blue sky. In the middle of the abrupt desert band, dunes stretched as far as he could see. Sunlight reflected from the sands into bone-dry air, and thermal currents jostled the ship from side to side. Teg wrestled with the guidance systems.
In the back, Stilgar chuckled. “Just like riding a sandworm.”
Cruising over the middle of the widening desert belt, Liet-Kynes pointed at a rusty-red splash that marked an eruption from beneath the surface. “Spice blow! No mistaking the color or pattern.” He gave a wry smile to his friend Stilgar. “I died on one of those. Damn the Harkonnens for leaving me to die!”
Mounds rippled and stirred the top layer of sand, but they did not emerge into open air. “If those are worms, they are smaller than the ones in our hold,” Stilgar said.
“But still