Matre Superior Hellica had already gone to the new chambers to oversee the niceties. 'Our facility will be ready as soon as I have properly christened it.' She wore a tight-fitting gold-and-silver leotard that revealed the generous curves of her body, along with a matching cape and a jeweled headdress that looked like a crown mounted on her blonde hair. He didn't particularly want to know what that meant. Each time he saw the Matre Superior, Uxtal struggled not to reveal his loathing, though she must recognize it on his grayish face. For his own survival, he tried to show just the right amount of fear in her presence, but not too much. He did not grovel—at least he didn't think so.
After a particularly loud volley of screams came from the new wing, Hellica swept through a doorway and into the laboratory section where the impregnated axlotl tank lay on its chromed table. She enjoyed looking at the single mound of sweating, odorous flesh. The Matre Superior nudged Uxtal roughly enough to knock him off balance, as if he were her comrade in arms. 'Such an interesting way to treat the human body, don't you think? Only suitable for women who are worthy of nothing else.'
Uxtal had not asked where the donor women came from. It was none of his business, and he didn't want to know. He suspected the whores had captured several of their hated Bene Gesserit rivals out on other planets. Now, that would have been interesting to see! As bloated axlotl tanks, at least these women had gone to their proper place, to be receptacles for offspring. The ideal of a Tleilaxu female…
Hellica scowled upon seeing both laboratory assistants tending the one pregnant tank. 'Is that project more important than mine? We are in need of our drug—do not delay!'
Both assistants froze. Bowing before her, Uxtal said immediately, 'Of course not, Matre Superior. We await your pleasure.'
'My pleasure? What would you know of my pleasure?' She loomed over the little man, regarding him with her predatory gaze. 'I wonder if you have the stomach for this work. All the original Masters are dead as punishment for their past crimes. Do not make me add you to that number.'
Crimes? Uxtal didn't know what the original Tleilaxu had done to the Honored Matres to earn a hatred strong enough to warrant complete extinction. 'I only know genetics, Matre Superior. Not politics.' He quickly bowed and scuttled out of her reach. 'I am perfectly happy to serve you.'
Her pale eyebrows arched. 'Your lot in life is to serve.'
3
When the past returns to us with all its glory and pain, we don't know whether to embrace it or to flee.
The two axlotl tanks in the no-ship's medical center had once been Bene Gesserit females. Volunteers. Now all that remained of the women were gross mounds of flesh, their arms and legs flabby, their minds completely vacated.
They were living wombs, biological factories for the creation of spice.
Teg could not look at them without feeling bleak. The air in the med center smelled of disinfectants, medicinal chemicals, and bitter cinnamon.
The Acolytes' Manual said, 'A defined need leads to a solution.' In the first year of their odyssey, the Tleilaxu Master had revealed how to manufacture melange with axlotl tanks. Knowing what was at stake, two of the refugee women had offered themselves. The Bene Gesserit always did what was necessary, even to this extent.
Years ago on Chapterhouse, Mother Superior Odrade had permitted the creation of axlotl tanks for the Sisterhood's own ghola experiments. Volunteers were found, females who could serve the order in no better way. Fourteen years ago, his own reborn body had emerged from one of them. The Bene Gesserit know how to demand sacrifices of us. Somehow they make us want to do it. Teg had defeated many enemies, using his tactical genius to achieve victory after victory for the Sisterhood; his death on Rakis had been the ultimate sacrifice.
Teg continued to look at the axlotl tanks—at these women. These Sisters had also given their lives, but in a different way. And now, thanks to Scytale and his hidden nullentropy capsule, Sheeana needed more tanks.
When studying the contents of the nullentropy capsule, the Suk doctors had also discovered Face Dancer cells, which immediately cast suspicion upon the Tleilaxu Master. The frantic Scytale insisted that the process was controllable, that they could identify and select only those individuals they wished to resurrect as gholas. With his life beginning to ebb, the little Master had lost all of his bargaining power. In a moment of vulnerability, he explained how to separate Face Dancer cells from the others.
Then, once again, he begged to be allowed to grow a ghola of himself before it was too late.
Now, Sheeana paced the floor beside him in the medical center. Shoulders stiff and neck arched, she looked over at Scytale. The Tleilaxu Master was not yet comfortable with his new freedom. He seemed nervous inside the med-center, as if drowning in guilt because he had revealed so much. He had surrendered everything, and now he no longer had any control.
'Three more tanks would be best,' Scytale said, as if discussing the weather.
'Otherwise, creating the group of desired gholas will take too long, one at a time, each with nine months of gestation.'
'I am confident we will find willing volunteers.' Sheeana's voice was cold.
'When you finally begin this program, my own ghola must be first.' Scytale looked from one pale-skinned axlotl tank to the other like a doctor inspecting test tubes in a lab. 'My need is greatest.'
'No,' Sheeana said. 'We must first verify that what you claim is true, that these cells are indeed samples of who you say they are.'
Scowling, the diminutive man looked at Teg as if to find support from a person who claimed to worship honor and loyalty. 'You know the genetics have been verified. Your own libraries and chromosome sequencers have had months to compare and catalog the cellular material I gave you.'
'Simply sifting through all those cells and choosing the first candidates is quite a task.' Sheeana sounded pragmatic. All of the identified cells had been separated into secure storage drawers in the genetic library, code- locked and placed under guard so that no one could tamper with them. 'Your people were extremely ambitious in the cells they stole, dating all the way back to the Butlerian Jihad.'
'We acquired them. My people may not have had a breeding program such as yours, but we did know to watch the Atreides line. We understood that great events were about to unfold, that your longstanding search for a superhuman Kwisatz Haderach was likely to reach fruition around the time of Muad'Dib.'
'So how did you get all the cells?' Teg asked.
'For millennia, Tleilaxu workers have been handlers of the dead. Though many consider that an unclean and despised profession, we did have unprecedented access. Unless a body is completely destroyed, it is simple enough to acquire a skin scraping or two.'
At fourteen, Teg was still gangly and on his way to becoming a tall man. His voice cracked at embarrassing moments, though the thoughts and memories in his head belonged to an old man. He spoke just loudly enough for Sheeana to hear, 'I would like to meet Paul Muad'Dib and his mother, the Lady Jessica.'
'That is just the beginning of what I offer,' Scytale said, aiming his glare at Sheeana. 'And you did agree to my terms, Reverend Mother.'
'You will have your ghola. But I am not inclined to hurry.'
The elfin man bit his lower lip with tiny, sharp teeth. 'There is a ticking clock. I must have time to create a Scytale ghola and raise it so that I can trigger his memories.'
Sheeana gave a dismissive wave. 'You said yourself that you had at least a decade left, possibly fifteen years. You'll have the best medical care. Our Bene Gesserit doctors will keep watch over your condition. The Rabbi is a retired Suk doctor, if you don't want females tending you. In the meantime, we will test the new cells you offer us.'
'That is why you'll need three more axlotl tanks! The conversion process will take some months, then the implantation of the embryo, then gestation. We will need to perform many tests. The sooner we produce enough gholas to allay your suspicions, the sooner you will see the truth of what I have told you.'
