Navigators of Dune

54

Sometimes the revelations of prescience came to her unbidden, but the universe had so many variables, far beyond even her comprehension. Reality itself was imperfect and unpredictable.

Like other Navigators, her expanded prescience allowed her to see safe pathways through and around countless star systems. In this sense the universe was hers and available to her, as much as she wished to explore, and she wanted to give the universe to her Navigators. But the universe was not exactly a safe place.

Troubled, she gazed out upon the Kolhar field of Navigator tanks with tender feelings, letting her thoughts run through countless possibilities. These were her children, she was their creator. And this maternal sense, this undeniable love for her creations, was stronger than any feeling she held for her great-grandson. She worried about Josef’s welfare, but he had caused his own problems.

Due to the commercial embargo the Emperor had imposed throughout the Imperium, many of her Navigators had been withdrawn from their great spacefaring ships, and remained here in their tanks. Now, with the spice stockpile on Arrakis destroyed, vital melange supplies were curtailed. Even though Josef had increased harvesting to higher levels with all his teams, there still was not enough spice for her or for her Navigators.

Because of the feud with Roderick Corrino, her Navigators were suffering. Josef had withdrawn so many of his commercial ships that only a handful of Navigators were still active, and being cut off from foldspace travel caused them great distress. They reacted as if the universe had been stolen from them. Norma did her best to stabilize the damage, to coax and comfort her Navigators; to balance the situation as much as possible she redistributed some of the limited spice gas, strengthening those who needed it most.

Conversely, without VenHold commerce, the Imperium itself was straining. Unrest brewed among populations that did not receive their regular shipments of vital commodities; countless addicts were longing for melange, just as her Navigators were. Prices had skyrocketed.

Though Norma usually remained aloof from human concerns, she could see the crisis building, and feared that inaction would result in violent repercussions. People did foolish things, and she worried that Josef’s enemies would soon take rash actions as a result.

And those actions could adversely affect her Navigators.

Manford Torondo hated what they represented, and his followers had slain one of her precious children on Baridge. Now, Emperor Roderick held Dobrec hostage as a research specimen on Salusa Secundus. Both of these leaders were desperate, superstitious … and dangerous.

In the fractured map of prescience, she had foreseen the possibility of a Navigator being kidnapped, but the greater disaster of the wrecked spice bank on Arrakis had blinded her at the time. She had not rushed back to Kolhar soon enough to prevent the loss of Dobrec.

Now, her thoughts tangled in knots. She gazed beyond the field of Navigators, extending her mind’s eye far out in space toward Salusa Secundus, which was the heart of a psychic storm she was feeling. She could sense the tension in Dobrec’s mind there, the crisis he faced as the Imperial interrogator pressed him more and more strenuously. Prescience provided her with few clear details, but she learned enough to realize that the captive Navigator would not survive.

Even from Kolhar she could visualize the secret underground laboratory, the prodding, sampling, and tormenting that was being inflicted on Dobrec — all in a clumsy attempt to understand what no mere human could ever comprehend. Yet the Scalpel interrogator understood techniques that no Navigator knew, techniques that no Navigator could resist.

Norma felt hollow inside.

Emperor Roderick Corrino might be a moral man in the human sense, but Norma’s morals were not the same as his, nor Manford Torondo’s … nor Josef’s, for that matter. Yet all of those men, in their righteous cocoons, professed to be taking actions for the proper reasons.

Because of who she was — and what she was — Norma’s obligations were greater than herself, greater than those men and their goals. The captive Navigator created an immense problem for her.

In the far-distant tank, Dobrec drifted, trapped, but Norma could see only visual echoes of his presence. The Emperor would do anything to understand Navigators, to find a way to strike against Venport Holdings. Roderick Corrino did not comprehend the great danger of his decisions, nor did Josef understand what he had provoked. And Manford Torondo, especially, did not know the terrible consequences of his actions, or actions that were to come.

She could not rescue Dobrec because of all the soldiers the Emperor had stationed to guard the laboratory, but she could help him in another way, show him how to take an infinite and necessary journey.…

Through her agitated awareness, Norma sensed the dark storm coming, a menace to her Navigators that was greater than any peril they had ever faced. The danger loomed over all of them on Kolhar, over all of Venport Holdings … over the future itself.

The threat and terror were crippling. She had no answer. Norma felt as if she were drowning inside her isolated tank. She felt … helpless. And the threat was coming here to Kolhar. And soon.

In a frantic attempt to understand, she reached out with the tendrils of her remarkable mind, probing, searching…