Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [74]
“Thanks to your partners from Ix,” Khrone pointed out.
“Yes, thanks to Ix.”
Following a lull, the noise of the shipyards became very loud. Welders went to work, and heavy machinery lifted curved components into place. A cargo hauler half a kilometer wide brought in two sets of Holtzman engines. The men continued to watch the magnificent activities for a long time in silence. None of them even looked again at the pathetic dead Navigator in his tank.
Humanity has many profound beliefs. Chief among them is the concept of Home.
—Bene Gesserit Archives,
Analyses of Motivating Factors
The next time Edrik’s Heighliner went to Buzzell on a run, the vessel left the planet carrying something vastly more important than soostones.
Hidden on the sealed laboratory decks was a package of the uniquely powerful substance extracted from the slaughtered seaworm’s strange, dense organ. With extravagant optimism, Waff had named it “ultraspice.” Tests proved that the potency went beyond that of any spice ever recorded. This remarkable substance would change everything for the Navigator faction.
The Tleilaxu Master also understood the importance of his achievement, and meant to use it to his advantage. Without being summoned, he pushed past Guild security forces and made his way to the restricted levels reserved for the Navigator. Officiously ignoring all challenges, Waff opened thick doors until he stood before the plaz-walled tank that held Edrik in his expensive bath of spice gas. Having succeeded in restoring at least one breed of worms, Waff was no longer a sycophant. He could make brash demands of his own.
Waff’s shortened ghola life span didn’t give him much time to meet his critical goals, thus making him increasingly desperate. He was already well past his physical prime, and now his body was in a rapid plunge to degeneration and death. He probably had no more than a year or so left.
Full of rigid defiance, Waff stood before Edrik’s tank and said, “Now that my altered seaworms are capable of creating spice in a form accessible by Guild Navigators, I want you to take me to Rakis.” He no longer had anything to lose, and everything to gamble. He crossed his thin arms over his chest in triumph.
Swimming slowly, Edrik drifted close to the plaz wall. The swirls of orange gas were hypnotic. “The new melange has not been proved in practice.”
“No matter. Its chemistry has been proved.”
Edrik’s voice grew louder through the speakers. “I am troubled. In its original form, melange has complexities that cannot be revealed in any laboratory analysis.”
“You worry unnecessarily,” Waff said. “Seaworm spice is more potent than anything you have ever consumed. Try it yourself, if you do not believe me.”
“You are in no position to make demands.”
“No one else could have accomplished what I did. Buzzell will be your new source of melange. Seaworm hunters will harvest more ultraspice than you can possibly use, and Navigators will no longer be dependent upon the Bene Gesserit witches or the black market. Even if the Sisters decide to harvest the seaworms and try to create another monopoly, you can ignore them. By changing the worms, instead of the planet, we can place them anywhere. I have given you the road to freedom.”
Waff snorted, raised his voice. “Now I demand my payment.”
“We kept you alive after the Honored Matres were overthrown on Tleilax. Is that not sufficient compensation?”
With a conciliatory sigh, the Tleilaxu ghola held his hands out. “What I ask will cost you little and gain you much honor, a blessing from God.”
The Navigator wore a look of displeasure on his distorted face. “What do you desire, little man?”
“I repeat: Take me to Rakis.”
“Absurd. The world is dead.” Edrik’s words were flat.
“Rakis is where my last body perished, so consider it a pilgrimage.” He continued in a rush, saying more than he had intended. “In my laboratory I created