Navigators of Dune

It is a sad joke of fate that barbarians can so quickly destroy what civilizations took centuries to build.

—DIRECTEUR JOSEF VENPORT on the evacuation of Kolhar

With dimensional space rippling around her tank, Norma Cenva hurtled back to Kolhar, driven by the adrenaline of prescience. Urgency and desperation echoed like thunderclaps in her mind. With a crack of displaced air, her sealed chamber reappeared on its central dais in the field of Navigator tanks in the middle of the night.

Something terrible was about to happen. Not even Josef’s defenses could prevent the approaching threat. The Butlerians were coming here to destroy, and they would arrive soon.

Bright stars shone through cloud veils in the dark sky. Around her, more than eighty tanks sparkled in reflected monitor lights and suspended security glowglobes. Some tanks were occupied; others were empty.

A powerful sense of alarm pulsed through her. Her children were threatened—all of them! She had to evacuate the ones still undergoing transformation, and get the true Navigators to depart on their own before it was too late. Only she could fold space with her mind; all other Navigators required the use of Holtzman engines. She had to get them aboard spacefolders and take them away.

Norma sent a summons to the Navigators aboard the orbiting VenHold ships, informing them that she was retrieving all of the Navigator tanks, taking them to safety before the impending holocaust.

There was no way she could stop it.

Her announcement caused great anxiety and consternation, but they listened. Thankfully, they paid close attention.

As she began to help her Navigators, Norma realized that Josef was also in danger, and she decided to warn him personally. But evacuating all of Kolhar would never be possible. There was not enough time.

Norma was fond of her great-grandson, whose personality reminded her in some ways of her late husband Aurelius Venport, back when she had been merely human and capable of that sort of love. Aurelius had always cared for Norma, even when her own mother considered her a freak. He had given the young woman everything she needed or wanted as she transformed into this incredible being.

Even today, long after Aurelius’s death, Norma continued to evolve. Josef and his powerful commercial empire had made it possible for her precious Navigators to become what they were today. She needed him. It only made sense, logically and emotionally, that she had to protect Josef as well.

Recognizing the consequences of her own actions, Norma realized that she was herself partly responsible for this catastrophic chain of events. By prematurely withdrawing the VenHold fleet from Salusa Secundus, she had given the Butlerian leader a boost of perceived power while making her great-grandson look weak, cowardly, and vulnerable.

Now, she intended to make up for it by saving him. As soon as Norma knew that the rescue of her Navigators was under way, she went to warn Josef.

* * *

IN THE SILENT hours of the night, Josef lay intertwined with Cioba in their spacious private dwelling. Even as he dozed, his mental wheels did not stop turning.

His wife had just returned from Wallach IX with her disappointing news that the Sisterhood refused his overtures for a rapprochement with the Emperor and an alliance. That angered Josef, after all he had done for them when they were outlaws. He made up his mind to withdraw his daughters from the school, not wanting to risk the Sisters using them as hostages.

The news from Draigo Roget had been much better. The robot Erasmus had revealed the location of forty intact thinking-machine battleships adrift in space. Denali engineers were repairing them now, and Josef had already dispatched a hauler with Holtzman engine upgrades for all of them. They would make his VenHold fleet significantly stronger.…

The crack and thump of displaced air woke him immediately. Josef sprang out of bed and landed in a crouch on the carpeted floor. Cioba also came alert, and they stared at the cumbersome tank that had just appeared in the open area of their bedroom.

Josef wrapped a sheet around himself. “What is it, Grandmother?” He knew Norma followed her own capricious thoughts. Perhaps she had recalled some concept she wanted to discuss with him, heedless of the hour or place.

“I came to warn you.” Norma’s voice sounded distorted, beyond that of an ordinary human, containing a tangential otherness. “Remove your ships from Kolhar,” she said. “There is little time. Leave immediately.”

He was fully awake now, but not pleased. “Kolhar is our fortress world. How can we be in danger?” He thought of his well-armed guardian ships, the layers of heavy shields that embraced the planet.

“The Butlerians are coming, Josef, a huge force of them. They will destroy you.”