Navigators of Dune

“You can’t make me do anything,” Valya said, though this assault took her by surprise, and she wasn’t sure if they could follow through on their threat. “I am my own person. I’m not your puppet. I won’t do your bidding each time your voices emerge from your deep sleep, each time you are displeased with one thing or another.”

The voices grew louder and more unpleasant, a mounting roar in her mind. If they defeated her, Valya was uncertain what would become of her, and of her hopes and dreams. As the voices grew more maddening, she wanted the cacophony to end.

Ways to kill herself flashed across her mind. Death might be a relief.

She stared at a sharp knife on a table, looked at the ornate carved handle, the sharp, gleaming blade that would cut so smoothly through her skin, into her internal organs.

Were the dead Sisters in Other Memory reading her thoughts? Manipulating them? Valya assumed they were. They continued to grow louder and more clamorous in her brain.

She considered reaching for the dagger and plunging it into her heart … or was that a suggestion they planted in her mind? Like she had driven Dorotea to kill herself?

Out of her deepest despair and uncertainty, Valya felt her courage mounting, coming forth like her own army of voices, with a stronger will than this outspoken mental multitude, and she had a greater determination to win. Valya was stronger than they were, and she could overcome them.

She began to laugh, and went through several combat exercises by herself, striking out at the air, spinning around, doing flips and airborne kicks, as if she were attacking physical forms that went with the voices. In her mind she envisioned faces and forms to go with the specific voices she could recall. She even saw a large group of Sisters massed in opposition, making an outcry against her. But that was all they could do—they could only talk. They could not really harm her if she did not allow them to gain control of her body and physical powers, making her injure or kill herself.

She shouted over their clatter of noise. “You can’t make me do what I don’t want to do! At one time, House Harkonnen fell low, losing most of the influence and glory we once had—but so did the Sisterhood! When Emperor Salvador drove us away from Rossak and disbanded our order, we were nothing … just as my Great House was nothing after Vorian Atreides humiliated Abulurd Harkonnen. Now we will both rise from the ashes like the mythical phoenix, the Sisterhood and House Harkonnen side by side!” She allowed herself a hard, satisfied smile as she felt the Other Memory voices begin to recede in defeat. “And I am making it happen,” Valya insisted. “I am not sending the Sisterhood to ruination—I am strengthening it!”

The voices grew quieter and quieter, until she heard nothing.

Pushing the annoying experience aside, Valya went to her bedchambers to retire. She felt strong and confident.

Though she was the Mother Superior, she occupied only Spartan quarters that had previously belonged to Raquella. Like her predecessor, she didn’t need opulence or comforts, although she reminded herself that House Harkonnen was entitled to such things. Thanks to her relentless work behind the scenes, her family would have that wealth and influence again.

She got into her nightclothes. Then, intending to calm her thoughts before going to bed, she sat in a hard chair, to gaze through the open window at the nighttime sky. She heard a much quieter swirl of voices surrounding her, but this time she had the strength to push them back.

“I’m going to sleep in a little while,” she announced in a firm, calm voice. “You won’t bother me in my dreams, or disturb me anymore when I am awake—because if you do, I will destroy the Sisterhood. I will kill every last Reverend Mother, including myself, and when that is accomplished, all of you will vanish. You will have no outlets whatsoever for your displeasure, no human minds to occupy with your presence.” She smiled to herself. “You say I am good at killing, and I don’t deny that. All of you are physically dead, but you aren’t completely dead, are you? With my expertise at killing, I can totally eliminate you.”

The voices diminished, but only a little.

She spoke over them. “From this point forward, you are only to emerge if you have something to say that will help me advance the interests of the Sisterhood. I do have the interests of the Sisterhood at heart, and I alone have the strength to take it to the next level. I know this, and you know it. You also know now that it is dangerous to displease me.”

The voices grew very quiet, with only a few outlying mutterings.

“Like living Sisters,” Valya said, “you are under my command. All of you, whatever you are, whoever you are, and whatever experiences you have had in life, you will do as I say. Every one of you will cooperate with me … or you will die in a way that has never happened to you before. From this moment forward, you only exist at my pleasure.”