Mentats of Dune

Chapter 28 (With the right tools and proper concentration)

Erasmus observed his subject, conversed with her, and instructed her. Now that he finally had the grudging permission of Gilbertus, he wanted to spend every moment studying the puzzle of Anna Corrino. He was learning much from their interactions, and felt a sense of satisfaction that she seemed to have grown so fond of him.

Unfortunately, the young woman had her routine class exercises, and, being human, she also required sleep. The independent robot had no such biological frailty; he possessed sufficient energy to concentrate, discuss, and analyze all day long, but Erasmus could detect when the young woman’s energy reserves were being depleted.

Through the spy-eyes he saw that Anna looked haggard, her eyes red from lack of sleep, as well as from periodic weeping when the robot prodded her about the disappointments in her life. He liked to provoke the emotional reactions in her, so he could study them in detail. It had been so long since he had complete freedom with all his interesting human subjects, and he wanted to make up for lost time. Still, though his curiosity remained unabated, Erasmus needed to let her rest … to an extent.

How he wished he could interact with her directly, though, in a personal and tactile way. Gilbertus had had ample time to find Erasmus a permanent artificial body, but he’d been unable, or unwilling, to do so. He didn’t understand why his ward would stall. Had he not served Gilbertus extremely well as a paternal presence and mentor? Surely even the Headmaster wanted more than a conversational companion. Erasmus could well imagine how much he’d accomplish in his experiments if he were more than a disembodied voice in Anna Corrino’s ear.

Erasmus mused about how Anna might react if she discovered that her secret new friend was a reviled robot. Would she still consider him such a close confidant if she knew what he was? Considering the young woman’s fragmented mind and sometimes rational, sometimes volatile emotions, maybe she would.…

Late at night, when Anna lay on her bed, Erasmus spoke through the hidden wall speakers. To continue her instruction, he suggested mental exercises similar to the ones he had used to train the young, feral Gilbertus Albans. But Anna found those challenges too simple, and her mind was already sophisticated at solving puzzles. She could rearrange complex shapes, interlock them, and build exquisitely beautiful sculptures. In a holographic tactical room where Mentats performed strategic exercises with imaginary space fleets, Anna easily spotted patterns, too, and few of the other trainees would even play against her anymore.

As Anna drifted off to sleep, so mentally exhausted she was unable to stay awake, Erasmus told her about old military engagements, machine forces versus the Army of the Jihad. Although he focused on battles where the unpredictable humans had lost, he did not editorialize, merely instructed — and corrected — her in certain historical facts. He talked about the great machine victories in the Jihad, some led by Omnius’s forces, others led by General Agamemnon and his cymeks. He enjoyed providing details about the machine conquests of Ix, Walgis, and Chusuk, where entire populations had been slaughtered.

When he realized that Anna had begun to doze, he jarred her awake so he could continue his story. “I’m sorry,” she said. “So sleepy.”

“I know you’re tired. Reshaping your mind and learning so much history is a wearisome process. But it’s important for your development.”

A year ago, he had eavesdropped while one of Gilbertus’s old students, Sister Karee Marques from Rossak, gave the Headmaster a new thought-focusing drug. Sapho, she’d called it, a distillation from the barrier roots on Ecaz, and she thought it might prove useful for Mentat trainees. Erasmus knew where the drug was kept and had ideas about how it might be used.

“There’s something I want you to try,” he said to Anna, knowing she would do whatever he suggested. “Go quietly to the dispensary, and I will help you locate vials of a particular red liquid. Bring me one of them. We will both find it very interesting.” He told her the name of the drug, assured her it would help.

“Let’s consider it our special little experiment,” Erasmus said. “I think it’s exactly what you need.”

ANNA CORRINO GLIDED along the corridors of the Mentat School, flitting through shadows — she found it thrilling, like when she used to sneak off to meet Hirondo Nef. Now she felt as if she were on an espionage operation, a character from one of the stories she’d read with Lady Orenna back in the Imperial Palace.

She missed Orenna. Anna paused, trying to remember. The old woman had visited her here not long ago. Was that right? Yes! And Roderick had been with her, too.

Recalling the assignment from her secret friend, Anna moved along. She didn’t need to use much caution, because at this hour the Mentat students were in their assigned quarters, sleeping. Outside, perimeter guards watched for any signs of attack, and defensive systems protected against large predators. But inside the academy complex, the corridors were as hushed as a held breath.

No one challenged her as she moved toward the medical dispensary near the dissection labs, and Anna crept into the gloomy storeroom, knowing exactly where to look.

Sapho. A mind-enhancing drug, a catalyst that could help make her thoughts clear and normal again. Anna withdrew the vial and held it in the dim light. It was the deep ruby color of thick blood. A shiver of anticipation ran down her spine.

In the back of her mind, questions kept nagging at her … not quite another voice, simply concerns that emerged from her own brain. If this was a new and untested drug, how did the friendly voice know it would help? How did that voice know so many details about her past, about her secrets? Who was he? He seemed to be an expert on any topic she could imagine, though, and Anna trusted him. He was a true friend who understood her secrets.

Not wanting to wait to get back to her quarters, she opened the vial and sipped the sapho. The taste was pungent and bitter, not at all sweet, as it appeared. Deciding that a mere sip could not possibly be enough, she upended the vial and drained it before she could react further to the taste.

She hid the empty vial at the back of a shelf and licked her lips. She rubbed her mouth on her forearm, leaving a red stain. She wondered how long it would take for her to notice the effects of the sapho. Anna hurried away from the dispensary with whispering footsteps, imagining the severe consequences she would face if she were caught.

If she were caught …

That thought triggered a troubling echo in her mind, and she began to think of other times she’d been caught at the Imperial Palace, and other consequences. Horrific consequences. She felt memories well up, one after another, like bubbles rising to the surface of a boiling pot.

With sapho, the bubble-memories were brighter and fresher than they would have been otherwise, vivid in all of their details. She remembered slipping away to meet her young lover. She had loved Hirondo with such intensity, although he was only a palace chef who was deemed inappropriate for her affections. It wasn’t fair! The romance lasted for several weeks before they were discovered and torn from each other’s arms. After she kept trying to see him, Hirondo was banished — perhaps executed, she was never sure — and then she was exiled to the Sisterhood school on Rossak.

The sapho continued to work inside her brain, triggering more memories.

When she was fifteen, she had taken some of Empress Tabrina’s jewelry because she thought it was pretty. The Empress accused one of the female servants of stealing it, and Anna was relieved that she hadn’t been caught. But when the servant was sentenced to disfiguration as punishment, Anna produced the pilfered jewels and admitted her own guilt.

That should have been the end of the matter, but Emperor Salvador was not satisfied. “Sister, you have to understand consequences and know that you’re responsible when other people get in the way of your indiscretions.” He flared his nostrils. “We will carry out the sentence as decreed.”

And so, Anna had been forced to watch in horrified silence as the servant, still wailing her innocence and begging for mercy, had one of her arms severed.

The memories were so vivid, the pain so fresh and clear, that Anna stumbled into a wall. Recovering her balance, she kept pushing forward, trying to make her way back to her quarters.

More memories surfaced like bats swooping out of a cave at dusk, and the more painful they were, the more intense they appeared in her mind. She could see only her past and not the dim corridors of the Mentat School.

“Help,” she whispered aloud, but she was far from her mysterious friend, who never spoke to her except when she was in her own room. Anna fumbled along, her eyes closed, but that didn’t help, because images continued to flow across her thoughts. She finally found a door that seemed to be her chamber. She pushed it open and tumbled inside, hoping she was in the right place.

The sapho continued to rush through her bloodstream.

She remembered one of her beloved pets, a silky dog so small it could curl up in her lap. But it barked too much, and Salvador always hated it. Her dog died mysteriously, and Anna never knew whether or not the Emperor had instructed one of his guards to poison it. Dear Roderick had consoled her and offered to replace the animal, even though that would never heal her heartache. But Salvador overrode his brother, forbidding more dogs in the palace.

Now, in the dim room Anna staggered forward and bumped her shin painfully against a chair. Her chair. She found her bed by accident and sprawled onto it. The universe of her past whirled around her like a cyclone, gathering strength.

“Help me,” she said aloud. “I can’t stop.”

The memories grew louder, more intense. She saw herself as a girl, playing in the extensive palace gardens and arboretum. But now she had more context, more understanding. She had been too young to comprehend the politics of what was happening in the Imperium, the turmoil caused by the release of the Orange Catholic Bible, how the people despised the Commission of Ecumenical Translators who claimed to speak for God. The popular mood was already raw and inflamed from constant Butlerian provocations, and Emperor Jules had struggled to keep his government from tearing itself apart. As a girl, she hadn’t understood why the CET members, led by their spokesman Toure Bomoko, remained in protective exile.

She had been such an innocent child that day when she went out to the waterwheel cottage on the palace grounds, where she expected to play uninterrupted.

Now, thanks to the sapho, the memory came fully alive inside her. A child again, Anna crept up to the open window, surprised to hear voices inside, since the cottage was rarely used. Heavy breathing and strange noises … a scuffle, judging by the sounds. And a woman crying out. Anna had never heard such a sound before, but it seemed like pain or surprise, or perhaps fear.

Then she saw Orenna with a naked man on top of her. Orenna was flailing her arms, trying to beat the man away … or was she clutching him? Anna couldn’t tell.

When the girl yelled for help, the man jerked away, and she recognized him as Toure Bomoko, head of the CET delegation. Now, Orenna did look terrified — her wide eyes turned toward Anna at the window. The girl screamed again, and the guards came running as Bomoko fled.…

The sapho reawakened her memories of the uproar in the palace and the rage on Emperor Jules’s face. Orenna, the so-called Virgin Empress, was in despair, filled with fear, and Anna had been certain it was because she was afraid of that man attacking her.

In a completely unconvincing voice, Lady Orenna was forced to publicly accuse Bomoko of raping her. The disgraced CET members, in protective exile, were rounded up and arrested, but Bomoko had disappeared.

Anna had never seen her father so furious, so disturbed. She never forgot his words. “I’m so proud of you for the treachery you exposed, daughter. You have done a fine thing that will strengthen our Imperium.” As a reward — Jules insisted it was a reward — he allowed her, forced her, to watch as the CET members were dragged into the courtyard. One after another, the men and women were decapitated, a more ancient and barbaric means of execution than had been used in many centuries. Horrified, with tears streaming down her face, Anna had watched each one die.

Thanks to the sapho coursing through her, she now remembered those sounds of death in incredible detail: the sharp thud, the pop of a severed spine, a wet rain of spraying blood. When she had tried to turn away, her father made her look.

Salvador and Roderick were also there. Even though her brothers were much older than Anna, they seemed confused about what was happening. But Toure Bomoko escaped, and had never been found in all the years afterward. He remained a hunted man, and sightings still occurred regularly.

Anna had tried to erase the scars of those memories, but the sapho reopened the wounds. The memories burned like flames in her mind. The drug surged through her bloodstream, unlocking door after door in her thoughts until finally the sapho wore off and the memories faded. She lay sobbing on her bed.

It was then, at last, that she heard the voice of her special new friend, calm and supportive, yet also curious.

“I take it the sapho unlocked your memories? Excellent! You must tell me what happened — tell me everything.”