Chapter 22

Moderator: Freakzilla

Post Reply
User avatar
Freakzilla
Archivist
Posts: 3453
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Duluth, Georgia, USA
Contact:

Chapter 22

Post by Freakzilla »

O Seas of Caladan,
O people of Duke Leto--
Citadel of Leto fallen,
Fallen forever . . .

-from "Songs of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Paul and Jessica huddle in the stiltent and clothes from the Fremkit Yueh had left in the thopter, in the place where Duncan Idaho had hid them. Paul feels that his perception has been raised to a higher level, partly by his mentat training, partly something else. He recognized it was Duncan who piloted the thopter that swooped down on them before his mother, and he figured out Yueh's part in all this before her too. Paul is distressed that he doesn't feel anything about the death of his father. He decides he will mourn latter, when there's time. He realizes that his hightened awareness is only at it's begining, it is growing, and he feels a pervasion of his "terrible purpose" and wonders if this is what it is to be the Kwisats Haderach. They worry that Duncan may not get through to Kynes. Jessica suggest that they need to find whatever Atreides men have escaped and gather them. Paul says they will rely only on themselves, their first priority must be to recover the family atomics before the Harkonnens find them. Jessica sees them only as a chance at renegade anonimity. Jessica senses that Paul's mind has advanced beyond hers. She knows her part in training him but is fearfull of him anyway. Jessica thinks of the unborn daughter in her womb, she conceived it out of instinct, not obedience. A daughter wouldn't have saved the Duke anyway. Paul tells her to try the communications receiver from the pack again. As she searches across the bands they hear bits of Atreides Battle Language. The Sardaukar disguised as Atreides have sacked the Guild Bank in Carthage. With the Guild against them, they're stuck on Arrakis. They can hear the obvious tone of victory in the Harkonnen battle language, even though they can't decipher it. Paul shakes the Fremkit hearing the two literjons of water gurgle. Without a stilsuit, a man sitting in the shade requires five literjons a day to maintain body weight. It will be dawn soon, they will wait through the day for Idaho but they can't afford to wait another night. They will have to assume Idaho captured. Paul goes through the manual for the Fremkit and realizes that they must utilize desert power. Paul says that he has computed that the Fremen are who really controls Arrakis and are bribing the Guild not to install weather satellites. She says he's not a mentat yet but he says he's something else, a freak. Paul decides that now is the time to deliver his father's message of trust to Jessica. Jessica sobs and Paul is still mystified that he can't yet grieve and perceives this as a terrible flaw. Paul begins to have a prescient vision of their future. He clings to this new level of awareness. He can see all the paths available to them. The sensation slips away and only took a heartbeat, but he maintains awareness of a path for them to follow. Paul throws a tantrum and blames his mother for all of this. He accuses her of wanting a male Bene Gesserit, not a son. He tells her that her training and the spice have awakened the sleeper within him. He tells her he knows about the daughter she carries, they will find sanctuary with the Fremen, a way prepared by the Missionaria Protectiva. He reveals they carry Harkonnen blood in their veins, Jessica is the Baron's own daughter. Paul says the Bene Gesserit were reaching for him be he's ahead of his time and they don't know it. Jessica realizes he is the Kwisatz Haderach and must get word out. He tells her they won't find out until it's too late. He denies he's the KH, he's something more, a seed. He is filled with his terrible purpose. He had seen two main branchings in time ahead of him. On one he meets the Baron Harkonnen, that way is more disgusting to him than anything he can imagine. On the other path is is more obscured revealing only peaks of a violent warrior religion under the Atreides banner with a few of his father's men, drunk on spice liquor. He realizes that is the path the Bene Gesserit want and doesn't want to go that way. He realizes his terrible purpose is race consciousness. He tells his mother they will find sanctuary with the Fremen and they will call him Muad'dib. Finally, he finds grief for the loss of his father.

This is the end of Book One.
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

~Leto II, God Emperor
Post Reply

Return to “Dune”