Navigators of Dune

THE NEXT MORNING, he and the Empress traveled to the military base outside the city where Admiral Harte’s soldiers had been stationed. With the departure of the Butlerian fleet, Roderick had pounced on the opportunity, issuing new orders to Harte. He could permanently render the fanatics impotent.

The fleet of Imperial warships would undertake a slow, quiet mission—insurance against the out-of-control Butlerians, insurance against whatever happened at Kolhar. They would lock down Lampadas … maybe even without spilling a single drop of blood.

Standing together on a high walkway, Roderick and Haditha observed the hundred newly landed warships that Directeur Venport had held hostage aboard the carrier. The old vessels were spaceworthy and perfectly appropriate for this new, secret deployment. They possessed enough weaponry that they could be an intimidating force under the correct conditions, aided by the element of surprise. When the surviving Butlerians returned to Lampadas, they would not be in any condition to put up much resistance.

Ordinarily, Harte’s peacekeeping fleet would have been delivered to their destination by a large foldspace carrier—such as the VenHold vessel that had seized them. The ships could fly using standard faster-than-light engines, although that would take them weeks to reach a destination. On this occasion, for security, it was tactically worth taking this amount of time.

The landing field was abuzz with activity as Harte’s battle group made preparations for departure. Roderick paused on the walkway to point out to Haditha one of the vessels being prepared: a long, sleek warship with a wide forward viewing area. “That was my father’s flagship. When I was very young, Emperor Jules took my brother and me aboard to tell us of its glorious history. So many stories about it.”

The Empress smiled at him. “With good fortune, there will be new stories to tell, and they will be added to the Corrino legend.”

“I suspect we’re going to have a big success. I like our plan. It just might work.”

The two had developed the idea together. Since the Imperial Armed Forces could no longer rely on VenHold foldspace carriers, they had decided to dispatch these reliable FTL ships quietly and slowly to Lampadas, where they could keep watch on the Butlerians. If Manford and his followers survived their confrontation at Kolhar and returned to Lampadas, Admiral Harte could keep them bottled up there. Better yet, if Manford’s forces were decimated, then Harte could simply neutralize the last sparks of the fanatical movement.

“It’s a perfect backdoor maneuver,” Roderick said. “Since these ships are not carried aboard a spacefolder, they will arrive unnoticed outside the Lampadas system, and Harte can wait there until the time is right.”

One possibility: If Manford did somehow manage to destroy the VenHold headquarters on Kolhar, the Imperium might have no more Navigators. That added even more urgency to the interrogation of the captive Dobrec. Roderick very much needed his Scalpel investigator to extract answers from their only Navigator specimen. He was anxious for progress, but had heard no recent report from his underground research lab. While he and Haditha observed Admiral Harte’s preparations for the fleet’s departure, Roderick sent a message to the research facility, insisting on answers.

For the next hour, the fleet assembled for the big launch. The old flagship began to move laterally on an immense transport mechanism that delivered it to a takeoff area. Other vessels lifted off to a rendezvous point in Salusan orbit, from which they would quietly depart on the long voyage to Lampadas.

But just as Roderick and Haditha were about to return to the Palace, a messenger arrived with grim news. “Directly from Administrator Athens, Sire!” He handed over a message cylinder. “I believe it is bad news, very bad.…”

Needing privacy, Roderick dismissed the messenger, cracked open the cylinder, and cursed when he read the message inside. He felt as if the floor had dropped out beneath him. “Our Navigator is dead,” he said to Haditha. “The lab administrator insists Dobrec was questioned carefully and gently, all according to my command, but the creature just died anyway, as if … as if of his own volition.” Roderick shook his head in dismay. “He willed himself to stop living, and took his secrets with him.”

She gripped his hand. “I’m sorry. I know you were hoping for a breakthrough.”

As much as he wanted the Butlerians to defeat Josef Venport, he could not afford to lose VenHold’s knowledge and resources.

He sent an immediate response to the facility. “Prepare the specimen for dissection. We must learn everything that we still can.”