Navigators of Dune

71

It was a full-blown retreat — Josef could think of no other way to say it, no way to sugarcoat it. He couldn’t label it as a “commercial setback” or “disruption of trade activities.” This was completely different.

The universe had gone mad, yet he refused to admit defeat.

He’d been hammered by fanatical Butlerian suicide runs, maniacs who used atomics, who fired lasguns at shielded ships. And then, just after he had crushed the fanatics, Imperial ships attacked him in the lowest form of treachery. Betrayed by Roderick Corrino — the man Josef had personally placed on the Imperial throne. I should have known not to trust him.

It was a bitter pill to swallow. Josef had devoted his efforts and his fortune to saving civilization, and now they were trying to destroy him from every quarter. To hell with them all! He would find a way to come back on his own terms.

After Admiral Harte’s shameful, backstabbing attack, the remaining VenHold ships had reeled away, heavily damaged. Dozens of Josef’s wrecked vessels had been left around Lampadas, as he had been unable to retrieve the crippled vessels from orbit. Another terrible loss …

When his fleet regrouped around the secure site of Denali, Josef ordered his engineers to make as many repairs as possible. The secret Denali laboratories had been designed for research and development rather than heavy assembly, but they were the only option he had. The main Kolhar industrial facilities were nothing more than radioactive slag.

But his people had always been innovative, breaking rules and achieving the unexpected. They would do so again. He needed his fleet back in shape and ready to fight.

Standing next to a pale Draigo Roget aboard the flagship, Josef kept shaking his head in dismay. This was the low point of his entire life and career. “The Emperor made a bargain with me. I destroyed Manford exactly as he instructed me to do. I wanted to put the Imperium back together.”

“Apparently, Emperor Roderick had plans of his own,” Draigo said.

Josef felt his face burn. “At least now he knows that I hold his sister hostage. He has always made this disagreement personal, and I’ve just made it more personal yet. If he doesn’t come to terms now, maybe I’ll send her back to Salusa, piece by piece … to pay him back for this betrayal.”

But it was an empty threat, and he knew it. Anna was his last asset, the only remaining lever he could use to move Roderick.

He felt a chill as he remembered that Cioba was also being held on Salusa. What would the Emperor do to her if anything happened to Anna? Josef knew that his wife was incredibly resourceful, not just due to her Sisterhood training but also because of her Sorceress blood. He was sure Roderick Corrino would underestimate her, and he hoped Cioba would get herself to safety. He worried about her.

Not long ago, Josef had expected to return here victorious, with the Butlerian problem resolved and VenHold restored to the Emperor’s good graces. As soon as Josef had restored business as usual to the Imperium, without the antitechnology fanatics, he had even considered offering Denali scientific advances to the Imperium at large, in the name of progress and prosperity for all of humankind. He would have delivered Anna Corrino unharmed, a bargaining chip no longer needed, a peace offering. That should have ended the dispute.

But Josef had killed one irrational fanatic only to be betrayed by another. It was time to reassess, and take an entirely different tack.

His remaining ships orbited high above the poisonous atmosphere of Denali. Josef’s throat felt raw from shouting his outrage, and even his Mentat remained silent now, internally making projections, trying to find some alternate way to recapture the lost prominence of Venport Holdings. Josef ransacked his own mind, because he’d always been able to find solutions. But he came up empty now.

Norma Cenva swam in the orange gas inside her tank, showing agitation. “My prescience is flawed — I did not see the attack coming. Now its shock waves clamor in my mind. My Navigators … so many harmed or killed! We must protect spice operations on Arrakis. The Emperor will seek to seize them.”

As Roderick understood the magnitude of the VenHold setback, he would indeed move against the defensive forces on the desert planet. That was what Salvador had tried to do in the first place, and he had died in the attempt.

He nodded grimly. “You are correct, Grandmother. Without spice, and without our Navigators, I could never rebuild Venport Holdings.” He turned to Draigo. “Mentat, tally our remaining assets, and determine how much more we can spare to protect Arrakis. Send what we can to guard the spice — everything that is not absolutely vital to our survival here. I will not let him have the melange. So long as we don’t lose Arrakis, I can make VenHold strong again.”

“Protect my Navigators,” Norma said from her tank. “Protect the spice.”

The Mentat offered his assessment. “I propose we send half of our functional warships to stand firm at Arrakis.”

“Won’t that leave Denali vulnerable?”

“We will still keep fifty ships here, but the secrecy of this installation is its greatest shield.”

He nodded. “Yes, that’s the best move.”

The Directeur had always recognized that business itself was a war. He had fought many commercial battles and vanquished countless opponents. Now, with the faintest of smiles, he remembered capturing the Thonaris Shipyards from his shipping rival Celestial Transport.

Now Josef had sustained one massive defeat after another. Was he to blame? Was it due to his own hubris, his own extreme pride? His financial assets had been stolen by the Emperor, and Norma herself had blocked an easy victory at Salusa Secundus in a failed attempt to save the spice bank on Arrakis. Even so, Josef had agreed to do as the Emperor asked, destroying the Butlerian savages, only to lose even more in the process when the Imperial forces turned against him.

Now that he had time to reflect, Josef saw how he’d been the Emperor’s pawn. Roderick had cleverly pitted Venport Holdings against the Butlerians, letting them tear each other apart, which left House Corrino as the true victor. He needed only to finish off whatever remained after the battle of Lampadas.

Trying to look at the situation objectively — which was not at all easy under the circumstances — Josef could almost admire the man’s adept planning and execution. But this was not over, not yet.

Nevertheless, he still felt unsettling concerns, and his mind kept imagining ways that Roderick could still harm him. Denali was secure, hidden, and protected — but even so.…

“No one knows of this planet’s existence,” Josef said. “But we can’t be too confident. Admiral Harte has access to the wreckage of VenHold ships lost in Lampadas orbit. The Emperor’s experts could comb through them, scour the foldspace records, study the automated logs, our security measures.” He locked gazes with the Mentat. “Somewhere among all those clues, what if he discovers the location of Denali?”

Draigo remained silent as his sophisticated thought processes churned through the available data. “The Emperor does have Mentats of his own.” Finally, he nodded. “That is a valid concern, Directeur. We should prepare for the worst. It is short of a certainty, but the Emperor’s forces may still be coming.”

Uneasy, Josef issued orders for all personnel to repair his remaining ships, salvaging weapons systems, rebuilding Holtzman engines and shields. He had to get ready for his next move … as soon as he figured out what that would be.

THE DENALI SCIENTISTS were stunned to hear about the defeat of all the cymeks and the deaths of Ptolemy and Noffe. In an emergency meeting, Josef summoned his lead researchers so they could inventory the defenses available, should Denali be attacked. The Tlulaxa researchers, who had done such an excellent job growing a biological body for Erasmus, were pleased with the breakthroughs they had achieved over the years, but could offer nothing on a scale that might stand against an Imperial assault of the planet.

Josef assigned Draigo to manage the scientists and inventory the projects under way in the research domes. Except for a handful of patrol machines left behind, the cymek army had been destroyed, and the Directeur’s instructions were to focus only on the projects with the best destructive potential.

The Emperor might well be coming.

Denali’s recent efforts had been devoted to developing and building the Navigator cymeks — a brute-force army designed to combat the primitive Butlerians on Lampadas, not to fight a well-organized Imperial space fleet. Now, the research teams scrambled to find a way to protect this facility. On another occasion, Josef would have been glad to see them so motivated. This time, however, it was desperation, and he didn’t like the feeling.

An eager Erasmus approached Josef, offering to help. “May I review the battle images transmitted by the cymeks?”

Josef gave him a curious, skeptical look. “Why would that be relevant? We lost all the cymeks on Lampadas, and have only a few cymeks left here, not enough to stand against the Imperial Armed Forces.”

The robot regarded him with his new biological eyes. “I wish to observe the massacre because I saw the Butlerians execute Headmaster Albans, my friend and former ward. I would find it inspirational to watch them die.”

“I understand completely.” Josef granted Erasmus full access to the laboratories and support buildings, hoping he might suggest some innovative strategy that even Draigo Roget had not considered. Seeing the gleam in Erasmus’s eyes, he knew the robot understood that if Denali fell, he himself would surely be destroyed. Josef pressed, “We have to find some other weapon we can use to defeat Roderick.”

Erasmus said, “There may be something we can use.”

Josef raised his eyebrows. “Did my researchers stumble upon something without telling me about it?”

“When the forty thinking-machine ships were brought here, hundreds of fighting robots were discarded on the surface of Denali. Some of them have already corroded into nonfunctionality, but I’ve seen others, and they might still be repaired. I can reprogram them remotely.” His bright eyes held a strange, intense expression. “If Imperial troops should land and make a ground assault, those combat meks could be our last line of defense.”

The Mentat pointed out, “If Imperial troops penetrate our orbital defenses and begin a ground assault, Directeur, then we have already lost.”

“And if that happens,” Josef said, “we have nothing to lose, and I’ll damn well want the robots, just in case.” He turned to Erasmus. “Do it. Do what you can.”

Anna Corrino glided into the chamber, smiling, her attention centered on her beloved Erasmus. She seemed oblivious to the tension. As Erasmus reviewed the violent images of the cymek massacre in Empok, she came up behind him and kissed the back of his head. “I missed you so much.”

Josef watched her. Despite all of Denali’s defenses, this young woman might be the best asset he had left.