Scars and Secrets - Gurney Halleck (Dune)

Part V

"Attention!"

Gurney and the rest of the meeting members rose to their feet upon Lita's entrance into the chamber.

"Gentlemen," she addressed. "All awoke early, despite last night's events." She took her place seated at the table next to Gurney, Paul and Leto's chairs on her other side. She leaned in to whisper to her fiancé.  "To hell with showering in sand - I'm bathing in my own sweat." She furiously flapped the handheld fan she had with her. "This heat is deadly."

The door opened once again and this time Paul stepped through. 

"Your first strategy meeting. Paul Atreides, who catches hunter-seekers in his bare hands, like a hero of old," Gurney announced. The group applauded. 

"Thanks for the humiliation, old man." Paul sat beside his aunt. 

"Gotta keep an eye on you."

"Attention!"

The group rose again as the doors opened a third time and  Leto arrived. 

"Let's get started," he said once he took his seat. "Tufir, operations."

"I secured a copy of the Harkonnens account books.  They were taking ten billion solaris out of here every year. We won't see profits like that for a while, not with the equipment they left us."

"How bad is it?"

Tufir led the way out of the  chamber and out  to where the machines worked. "These are spice silos. We're meant to fill every crate."

"All of them?" cried Paul. 

"Every twenty-five standard days. Harkonnen sabotage slows us down."

"But who's meant to arbitrate?" asked Lita.

"Aunt Lita's right. Isn't there a Judge of the Change to oversee the transition?"

"Who did the Emperor appoint?" asked Gurney.

"Dr. Liet Kynes, Imperial Ecologist. Been here twenty years. Eccentric, from what I'm told."

"An eccentric ecologist? I like them already," said Lita. 

"I want to see these harvesting fields myself," Leto declared.

"I wouldn't recommend it my Lord," Tufair warned. 

"Have this Judge of the Change accompany us. A meeting's long overdue. And we'll get a bit of Imperial protection."

"A hostage," chuckled Gurney. "I love it."

Ornithopters whirled overhead. "He's here, My Lord," announced Tufar.

A tall figure emerged from the first ship. "Duncan!"

"For four weeks I lived with the Fremen. Hidden in the desert, in a community called a sietch," Duncan recalled to them once they were inside the palace and out of the sun. "Stilgar, the leader of that sietch, has come with me to meet you, Sire."

"This sietch, how was it hidden?"

"Underground.  Arrakis is full of caverns."

"How big was this place?" Paul asked in full curiosity.

"I'd say about ten-thousand people, and there are hundreds of sietchs."

"Thousands of Fremen."

"They watched me search for them for days," Duncan explained.  "I never saw them. Finally, they sent a warriror out to kill me, and I gotta tell you, I've never come so close to dying. There's not a finer fighter in the Imperium. They fight like demons."

"Desert Power," breathed Leto.  "Duncan, well done."

"Than you, My Lord."

"Sire," addressed a guard outside the chamber.  "Their leader has a weapon he won't surrender, Sire."

"It's a crysknife, it's sacred to his people," Duncan explained.

"Let him pass."

A man in flowing robes of wrapped fabric, perfect camouflage of the sands. 

"Stop there," Gurney ordered. Stilgar kept approaching. "Hey - hey!"

"Stilgar," Leto addressed.  "Welcome. Sir, I respect the personal dignity of any man that respects mine."

Their guest said nothing. Then, he promptly spat on the table surface before them. Gurney and the other guards lunged forward. 

"Hold," ordered Duncan. "Thank you, Stilgar, for the gift of your body's moisture. We accept it in the spirit in which it was given."

"I'm glad you've come - I believe your people and mine have much to offer one another."

Finally, Stilgar spoke. "No no, you are Outworlders. You come here for the spice and give nothing in return."

"That's true," stepped in Paul.

"I know you've suffered at the hands of House Harkonnen. Name what you want. If it's in my power to grant, I will give it and ask for nothing."

Stilgar scoffed. "Then I ask for this: do not seek our sietches, do not trespass on our lands. The desert was ours long before you came so come, dig your spice, but when you have it, come back to this side of the Shield Wall, and leave the desert to the Fremen."

"You will address the Duke as 'My Lord' or 'Sire'," Gurney ordered.

"Gurney just, just a moment," Leto brushed it aside.  "The Emperor has given me Arrakis as my fief to rule and protect. I cannot promise not to travel into the desert if duty compels me. But your sietches will remain yours forever, and you will not be hunted while I govern here." 

"That's very honorable," Silgard admitted.  "I must go. That's all I have to say to you."

"Wont you stay," requested Paul.  "We would honour you."

"Honour requires that I be elsewhere." Then Stilgar muttered something in his language and was gone. 

Lita pondered aloud. "Brutal Harkonnens, and Fremen who fight like demons - what have we gotten ourselves into?" 

(Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :))