extensive the human race had ever put together.
The Sisterhood claimed their newly manufactured weapons were to be used against the Outside Enemy. Without question, however, Murbella would first turn that might against the Honored Matres on Tleilax.
'Destroy it,' said Matre Superior Hellica from her observation lounge below the Navigator's deck. 'Destroy it all.'
From spaceport complexes below and satellite stations, monitors pinged them with inquiries and communication bursts. Though Richese was a huge manufacturer of armaments, engaged in full-scale preparations for the coming battles, they'd never had any reason to suspect a threat from the Spacing Guild.
'Guild Heighliner, we were not aware of a scheduled arrival.'
'Please transmit your manifests. Which docking centers will you utilize?'
'Heighliners, we will prepare our outgoing shipments. Is a CHOAM representative aboard?' Edrik did not answer. The Matre Superior issued no ultimatum, delivered no warning. She did not even open the channel so that she could gloat.
Guildsmen followed the detailed preparations for deploying the last few Obliterators the rebel Honored Matres had kept on Tleilax. Floating in his sealed tank, Edrik smiled. This would set back the New Sisterhood's military plans by years, if not decades. All those weapons gone, as well as the industrial capability to manufacture more. In a single strike Matre Superior Hellica would remove a keystone from the arch of human civilization.
I do it for spice, Edrik thought. The Oracle promised us a new source of melange.
Hatches opened in the Heighliner's belly, disgorging Obliterators that dropped toward the planet like molten cannonballs. Reaching the appropriate atmospheric depths, the weapons fissioned and spread ripples of hot annihilation. The people of Richese could not conceive of what was happening as their whole planet began to catch fire.
Cracks raced across the continents, and flamefronts roared through the atmosphere. The electromagnetic bands were full of desperate cries, screams of terror and pain, and then piercing EMP feedback as the Obliterators completed their work. Across the planet, weapons shops, construction yards, cities, mountain ranges, and whole oceans vanished into ionized vapor. The ground itself turned to a blistering, baking ceramic.
Even Edrik was awed by what he saw. He hoped that Hellica understood what she was doing. This was an aggression Mother Commander Murbella could never ignore, and she would know whom to blame. Tleilax was the only rebel Honored Matre enclave left.
In silence, the Heighliner departed, leaving the now-dead Richese behind.
8
Rot at the core always spreads outward.
'There is a time for violence, and for talking. This is not the time for talking.' Murbella had called both Janess and the former Honored Matre Kiria to stand beside her in the highest tower of the Keep. After the annihilation of Richese, her anger grew hot enough to sear even the voices in Other Memory.
'We need to cut the head off the monster.'
So many vital weapons had been destroyed there, a gigantic and fully armed fleet nearly completed, so much potential for the defense of humanity—all ruined by the bitch queen Hellica! Aside from the armament shipments they had already received, Murbella had nothing but cooling slag to show for her years of payments to Richese.
It was an overcast morning on Chapterhouse, with clouds that owed more to dust storms than to rain. A cold front had swept in. Such were the vagaries of climate in the ecosystem's death throes. On the practice field far below, the Valkyries wore heavy-hooded black robes and gloves against the biting wind, though Reverend Mothers could manipulate their metabolism to endure temperature extremes. Their furious mock combat engagements were breathtaking as they abandoned themselves to violence. They had all heard the news of the destruction of Richese.
'Tleilax is our last and only target,' Kiria said. 'We should move without delay. Strike now, and without mercy.'
Janess was more cautious. 'We cannot afford anything but total victory. That is their most powerful remaining stronghold, the one where the whores are most entrenched.'
Murbella's expression turned cagey. 'That is why we will employ a different tactic. I need the two of you to open the way.'
'But we will strike Tleilax?' Kiria was fixated on the idea.
'No, we will conquer it.' The bitter breeze increased in intensity. 'I will kill Matre Superior Hellica myself, and the Valkyries will eradicate the rest of the rebel whores. Once and for all.'
Murbella wanted to bravely reassure them that the New Sisterhood would get other weapons, other ships. But from where? And how would they pay for such a massive expenditure when they were already nearly bankrupt, their credit extended beyond any realistic ability to repay?
The necessary steps were clear to her. Increase spice-harvesting efforts in the Chapterhouse desert band and offer more spice to the ravenous Guild, which should convince them to cooperate with the Sisterhood's much larger plan to defend humanity. If she fed their insatiable hunger for melange, the Guild would be happy to help her mount an effective military operation. A small enough price to pay.
'What is your plan, Mother Commander?' Janess asked.
She turned to her grim-faced daughter and the brash Kiria. 'You two will take a team down to Tleilax in secret. Dress as Honored Matres and move among them, exposing their weaknesses. I give you three weeks to find ways to bring down our enemies from within their own ranks, and then to implement the scheme. Be ready in time for my full-scale assault.'
'You want me to pretend to be one of the whores?' Janess asked.
Kiria sniffed. 'It will be simple for us. No Honored Matre could control herself well enough to walk undetected among us, but the converse is not true.' She flashed a feral grin at Janess. 'I can show you how.'
The other young woman was already grasping the possibilities. 'By moving secretly among them, we can plant explosives in key strongholds, sabotage their defenses, and transmit encoded plans with all the details of how well entrenched they are in Bandalong. We can cause chaos and disruption at a critical moment—'
Kiria cut her off. 'We will open the way for you, Mother Commander.' She flexed her clawlike fingers, anxious to let herself become bloodthirsty again.
'I look forward to it.'
Murbella stared into the distance. After Tleilax was secured, the New Sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, and all other allies of humanity could face the real Enemy. If we are to be destroyed, let it be at the hands of our true foe, rather than from a knife in the back.
'Send for a Guild representative, immediately. I have a proposal to make.'
9
The Scattering spread us far from the reach of any single threat. It also changed us, making our genetic lines diverge so that never again would 'human' mean only one thing.
Teg circled the no-ship's lighter over a forested area near one of the unusual native settlements. Sheeana
