Dominic gave a wan smile. "No doubt Paulus would do exactly as you say -- but I cannot, because that would doom my children."
Rhombur looked over at his sister in alarm. Lady Shando nodded and continued; she and her husband had already discussed the various possibilities. "Rhombur, if you and Kailea live in exile on Caladan, then you may be safe, not worth anyone's trouble. I suspect that this bloody revolt has been engineered with Imperial influence and support, and all the pieces have fallen into place."
Rhombur and Kailea stared at each other in disbelief, then at Leto. "Imperial support?"
"Why the Emperor wants Ix, I do not know," Dominic said, "but Elrood's grudge is against me and your mother. If I go with you to House Atreides, the hunters will come for all of us. They'll find some reason to attack Caladan. No, your mother and I have to find a way to draw this fight away from you."
Rhombur stood indignant. His pale skin flushed. "We can hold out here a while longer, Father. I don't want to leave you behind."
"The deal is done, my son. It's already negotiated. Other than the Atreides rescue operation, there is no help coming -- no Imperial Sardaukar to assist us, no Landsraad armies to drive back the Tleilaxu. The suboids are their pawns. We have sent appeals to all the Houses Major and to the Landsraad, but no one will move fast enough. Someone has outmaneuvered us . . . ."
At her husband's side, Lady Shando held her head high, despite her pain and disheveled appearance. She had been the Lady of a Great House, and an Imperial concubine before that, but first of all she had been lowborn. Shando could be happy even without the riches of an Ixian governorship.
"But what happens to the two of you now?" Leto asked, since Rhombur and Kailea didn't have the courage to inquire.
"House Vernius will go . . . renegade." Shando let the word hang in an astonished silence for a heartbeat.
"Vermilion hells!" Rhombur finally said, and his sister also gasped.
Shando stood and kissed her children.
"We'll take what we can salvage, then Dominic and I will separate and go into hiding. Maybe for years. A few of the most loyal will accompany us, others will flee entirely, still others will stay here, for better or worse. We'll make new lives for ourselves, and eventually our fortunes will turn again."
Dominic gave Leto an awkward handshake, not quite the Imperial clasp of fingers, but more the way Old Terrans used to do it, since the Imperium -- from the Emperor to all of the Houses Major -- had let House Vernius down. Once they declared themselves renegade, the family Vernius would no longer be part of the Imperium.
Shando and Kailea were crying softly as they hugged one another, while Dominic clasped his son by the shoulders. Moments later, Earl Vernius and his wife hurried out through the chamber's access tube, taking a contingent of guards with them, while Rhombur and his sister held one another and watched them go on the comeye screen.
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, the three refugees sat in uncomfortable but efficient suspensor chairs, eating energy bars and drinking Ixap juice. And waiting.
Kailea said little, as if she had lost her energy for fighting the circumstances. Her older brother tried to cheer her up, but to no avail. Isolated here, walled off, they had heard no word from outside, didn't know if reinforcements had arrived, or if the city continued to burn . . . .
Kailea had cleaned herself up, made a valiant effort to reconstruct her damaged gown and torn lace, and then wore her altered appearance like a badge. "I should have been attending a ball this week," she said, her voice empty as if all the emotion had been scrubbed from it. "The Solstice of Dur, one of the largest social events on Kaitain. My mother said I could attend one when I was old enough." She looked over at Leto and gave a mirthless laugh. "Since I could have gotten betrothed to an appropriate husband this year, I must be old enough to attend a dance. Don't you think?"
She plucked at her torn lace sleeve. Leto didn't know what to say to her. He tried to think of what Helena would have said to the Vernius daughter. "When we get to Caladan, I'll have my mother throw a grand ball to welcome you there. Would you like that, Kailea?" He knew the Lady Helena resented the two Ixian children because of her religious bias, but surely his mother would soften her heart, considering the situation. If nothing else, she would never be seen committing a social faux pas.
Kailea's eyes flared at his suggestion, and Leto shrank back. "What, with fishermen dancing a bawdy jig and rice farmers performing some fertility rite?" Her words cut deep, and Leto felt his world and his heritage to be inadequate for someone like her.
Kailea softened, though, and rested her fingers on Leto's forearm. "I'm sorry, Leto. Very sorry. It's just that I wanted so badly to go to Kaitain, to see the Imperial Palace, the wonders of the Court."
Rhombur sat sullen. "Elrood never would have allowed it, if only because he's still angry at Mother."
Kailea got up and paced the small, algae-smelling chamber. "Why did she ever have to leave him? She could have stayed in the Palace, lived her life in luxury -- but instead she came here to this . . . cave. A cave that's now overrun with vermin. If Father really cared for her, would he have asked her to sacrifice so much? It makes no sense."
Leto tried to console her. "Don't you believe in love, Kailea? I've seen the way your parents look at each other."
"Of course I believe in love, Leto. But I also believe in common sense, and you have to weigh one against the other."
Kailea turned her back on them and rummaged in the entertainment files for something to amuse herself. Leto decided not to pursue the matter. Instead, he turned to Rhombur with a suggestion. "We should each take the time to learn how to operate the orship. just in case."
"No need. I can run it myself," Rhombur said.
After taking a drink of the tart, preserved juice, Leto puckered his lips. "But what if you're injured -- or worse? What do we do then?"
"He's right, you know," Kailea said, not even lifting her emerald eyes from the entertainment files. Her voice sounded weary and brittle. "Let's show him, Rhombur."
He stared across the table at Leto. "Well, you know how an ornithopter works? Or a shuttle?"
"I learned to pilot a 'thopter by the time I was ten. But the only shuttles I've seen were robo-controlled."
"Brainless machines, performing set functions the same way every time. I hate those things . . . even though we manufacture them." He took a bite of energy bar. "Well, we used to, anyway. Before the Tleilaxu came." He lifted his right hand overhead and rubbed the firejewel ring that designated him as heir of the Ixian House.
At his signal, a large square in the ceiling dropped smoothly and came to rest on the floor. Looking up through the aperture, Leto saw a sleek silver shape stored above. "Come with me." Rhombur stepped onto the panel, and Kailea joined him. "We'll do a systems check."
As Leto stepped aboard, he felt an upward thrust. The three of them surged through the ceiling and beyond, up the side of a silver airship to a platform high on the craft's fuselage.
The orship reminded Leto of a space lighter, a small craft with a narrow body and plaz windows. A combination ornithopter-spacecraft, the orship could operate either on-planet or in low orbit. In violation of the Guild's monopoly on space travel, orships were among the most closely held Ixian secrets, to be employed only as a last resort.
A hatch slid open on the side of the craft, and Leto heard the ship's systems surround him with a hum of machinery and electronics. Rhombur led the way into a compact command center with two high-backed chairs and glimmering finger-panel controls in front of each. He slid into one seat, and Leto into the other. The resilient sensiform material conformed to their bodies. Soft green lights glowed on the finger panels. Kailea stood behind her brother, her hands on the back of his chair.
With his fingers dancing over the glowing control panels, Rhombur said, "I'm setting yours on tutorial. The ship will teach you how to pilot it."
Leto's panel changed color to yellow. Wondering again about the machine-mind taboos of the Butlerian Jiha
d, he scrunched his face in confusion. How much could this craft think for itself? His mother had warned him about accepting too many things, especially Ixian things, at face value. Through the clear plaz windshield he saw only gray rock outside, the rough interior surface of the algae-chamber.
"So it thinks for itself? Like those new training meks you showed me?"
Rhombur paused. "Uh, I know what's on your mind, Leto, but this machine does not emulate human thought processes. The suboids just don't understand. Like our adaptive fighting mek, which scans an adversary to make combat decisions, it doesn't think -- it only reacts, at lightning speed. It reads your movements, anticipates, and responds."
"That sounds like thinking to me." In the finger-panel zone before Leto, lights danced within lights.
Kailea sighed with frustration. "The Butlerian Jihad has been over for thousands of years, and still humankind acts as if we're terrified rodents hiding from shadows. There is an anti-Ixian prejudice throughout the Imperium because we make complex machines. People don't understand what we do, and misunderstanding breeds suspicion."
Leto nodded. "Then help me understand. Let's get started." He looked at the control panel and tried not to be too impatient. After the past few days, they were all feeling the effects of unrelenting stress.
"Place your fingers over the identity plates," Rhombur said. "Don't actually touch the panel. Stay a little above it."
After doing so, Leto's body was surrounded by a pale yellow glow that made his skin tingle.
"It's absorbing the identity components of your body: the shape of your face, tiny scars, fingerprints, hair follicles, retina prints. I've instructed the machine to accept your inputs." When the glow receded, Rhombur said, "You're authorized now. Activate the tutorial by passing your right thumb over the second row of lights."
Leto complied, and a synthetic-reality box appeared in front of his eyes depicting an aerial view that passed over craggy mountains and rocky gorges -- the same scenery he had observed months ago, the day he'd been unceremoniously stranded outside by the Guild shuttle.
Suddenly sparks filled the air in the hiding chamber below. Explosions and static bursts inundated his ears. The synthetic landscape image went hazy, came into focus again, and faded. Leto's head rang from the noise.
"Sit down," Rhombur barked. "Uh -- this isn't a simulation anymore."
"They've found us already!" Kailea tumbled into a low bulkhead seat behind Leto's and was automatically surrounded by a personal safety field. Leto felt the warmth of another PSF cocooning him as Rhombur tried to lock himself into the piloting seat.
On the orship's surveillance screen, Rhombur saw Tleilaxu soldiers and armed suboids filling the hidden chamber's access tube, firing lasgun bursts to break open the hidden doorways. The attackers were already through the second barrier. Captain Zhaz and a few remaining men lay in smoking mounds on the floor.
"Maybe your parents got away," Leto said. "I hope they're safe."
Rhombur thrust his hands into the finger-control field, removing the orship from tutorial mode and preparing for actual takeoff. Leto sat back, trying to relinquish command. The external simulation still filled his eyes, distracting him with visions of pristine Ixian landscapes.
Blue light flashed from outside the craft. An explosion rocked all of them. Leto heard Rhombur grunt in pain and shook his head to scatter the rest of the tutorial hologram. The Ixian Prince slumped forward in his chair; blood trickled down his face.
"What the hells?" Leto said. "Rhombur?"
"This is real, Leto!" Kailea shouted. "Fly this thing out of here."
Leto jammed his fingers against the panel, struggling to switch from tutorial to active status, but Rhombur hadn't finished prepping the ship. Another explosion blasted through the wall of the chamber, strewing algae-covered shards of rock. Ominous figures surged into the main room below.
Rhombur groaned. From beneath them, suboids shouted and pointed up at the ship that held the three refugees. Lasgun fire scorched the stone walls and the orship's plated hull. Leto activated the auto-launch sequence. Despite his earlier concerns, he now fervently hoped the ship's interactive computer mind would function efficiently.
The orship shot straight up through a channel, then a rock cap, a layer of snow, and finally into an open sky full of dazzling clouds. Steering with his fingers, Leto narrowly avoided a brilliant stream of laser bursts, automated defenses the rebels had commandeered. He squinted against the sudden sunlight.
Looping high in the stratosphere and trying to get a bead on any enemy that might strike them from space, Leto noticed a hulking Heighliner in low-planetary orbit. Two streaks of light shot out of the massive craft in separate V-patterns -- a familiar signal to Leto: Atreides ships.
From the comboard Leto "sent an identifier signal in the special battle language his father and teachers had hammered into him. Rescue craft fell in on each side of the orship, acting as escorts. The pilots signaled him to acknowledge his identity. Bursts of purple from the starboard craft pulverized a cloud below, where enemy ships had been concealed.
"Rhombur, are you all right?" Kailea took a moment to assess her brother's injuries.
The young Vernius heir stirred, put a hand to his head, and groaned. A ceiling-mounted electronics box had struck him on the skull, then shattered on the floor. "Uh, vermilion hells! -- didn't get the blasted PSF activated in time." He blinked repeatedly, then swiped dark blood from his eyes.
Using his new skills, Leto followed his escort into the safety of the waiting Heighliner, where he saw two large Atreides battle frigates. As his orship hovered inside the hold, a message came over the comsystem in Galach, but he recognized a familiar Caladanian drawl. "Good thing we got the Heighliner to wait an extra hour. Welcome aboard, Prince Leto. Are you and your companions all right? How many survivors?"
He looked over at Rhombur nursing his battered skull. "Three of us, more or less intact. Just get us away from Ix."
After the orship was parked between Atreides escorts within assigned stalls inside the immense Heighliner hold, Leto looked to each side. Through the portholes of the larger ships he saw uniformed Atreides soldiers in green-and-black livery, familiar hawk crests. He breathed a deep, relieved sigh.
Next he looked with concern at Rhombur, whose sister was wiping blood off his brow with a cloth. Focusing on Leto, the Ixian Prince said, "Well, forget the simulations, friend. It's always best to learn by doing."
Then he passed out and crumpled to one side.
Even the poorest House can be rich in loyalty. Allegiance that must be purchased by bribes or wages is hollow and flawed, and could break at the worst possible moment. Allegiance that comes from the heart, though, is stronger than adamantium and more valuable than purest melange.
-DUKE PAULUS ATREIDES
Far across the galaxy, within the cargo hold of another Heighliner, a single unmarked Ixian space cruiser rested alone and indistinguishable among the crowded ships. The runaway cruiser had hopped from one freight line to another, changing designations each time.
Inside the unmarked ship, Dominic and Shando Vernius sat as passengers amidst the tattered remnants of their armed forces. Many of the family guard had been killed, and many had not made it to the escape ship in time; others had decided to take their chances in the aftermath of the revolution. No one aboard had said anything for a long time.
Lady Shando's personal manservant Omer squirmed, twitching his narrow shoulders; his straight black hair had been cut exactly at the collar line, but now both collar and hair looked a bit ragged. Omer was the only one of her household staff who had chosen to accompany the family into exile. A timid man, he had abhorred the prospect of attempting to make a new life among the Tleilaxu.
Ambassador Pilru's curt reports had made it eminently clear that they could expect no assistance from Landsraad military forces or the Emperor. By declaring themselves renegade they had severed all ties -- and all obligations -- to Imperial Law.
; The seats, storage bins, and lockers aboard the renegade ship were filled with gems and valuable items, anything that could be sold for ready cash. Their flight might last for a long, long time.
Dominic sat next to his wife, holding her small and delicate hand. His hairless brow was creased with concern. "Elrood will send out teams to track us down," he said. "We'll be hunted like animals."
"Oh, why won't he just leave us alone now?" Omer muttered, shaking his straight black hair. "We've already lost everything."
"Not enough for Roody," Shando said, turning to her manservant. She sat straight-backed and regal. "He's never forgiven me for talking him into letting me go. I never lied, but he thinks I tricked him."
She looked out the narrow port edged with gleaming ser-chrome. The Ixian ship was small, with no overt markings of House Vernius: a simple vehicle used for hauling cargo or steerage passengers. Shando squeezed her husband's hand and tried not to think of how far their fortunes had fallen.
Dune - House Atreides Page 31