Navigators of Dune

82

The pointless and unnecessary death of Anna Corrino, as well as the loss of Erasmus, had figuratively cut Josef’s legs out from under him like a cruel parody of Manford Torondo.

With his fleet of Navigator-guided spacefolders, he had the largest commercial enterprise in the history of the Imperium. His operations on Arrakis produced and distributed spice to meet the hungry demands of addicted citizens as well as for Norma’s Navigators. He had envisioned a golden age of advancement and prosperity, the ability for the human race to achieve its dreams.… He had also experienced the pitfalls: the clumsy leadership of Emperor Salvador, the ignorance and superstition espoused by the violent fanatics.

I could have saved them — saved them all. I could have kept humanity out of the dark ages … and yet they insist on marching blindly over the precipice.

All his work was collapsing around him, one huge section at a time, leaving him deeply wounded and isolated. His Denali scientists had come up with no new weapons to save the facility. The vengeful Emperor was tightening his military noose around the planet, willing to sacrifice his own battleships to break through the VenHold defensive cordon, while relentlessly bombing the surface. Josef held on, trying to find some last-ditch defense, hoping for a miracle.

And then Norma simply whisked away all of her Navigator ships, leaving Denali exposed.

The VenHold fleet that had been standing as the defensive barrier against the Imperial ships just … vanished into space! Then, with Denali suddenly unprotected, the Imperial fleet surged in.

Josef stared at the screen, unable to believe what had just happened. Norma had done the same thing to him at Salusa, and now he howled out her name, railing at her. “Why are you trying to destroy me?”

She did not respond.

Standing in the operations center of the main laboratory dome, he collapsed to the deck. After achieving so much, on such a huge scale, he had lost everything. He could not prevent Roderick’s victory now.

The continuing bombardment from orbit targeted the area around the laboratory domes. Several explosions had wrecked the warehouses and habitation shelters around the perimeter; one blast destroyed a cymek walker as it patrolled the poisonous landscape. Without even delivering an ultimatum, Emperor Roderick sent down a flood of ground troops to take over the base.

Josef turned away from the images of the oncoming ships on the screens and faced his Mentat, who asked him, “Now that Roderick knows Anna is dead, he could simply carpet bomb this installation and kill everyone in the domes. Why take the risk of a ground assault?” Draigo pursed his lips and postulated, “It is possible he does not wish the collateral loss of life among the other Denali scientists. He may want to salvage and co-opt our research.”

With a sinking feeling, Josef realized that he knew the answer. “No, it’s because he wants to take me alive — to disgrace me and drag me before the highest court in the Imperium on trumped-up charges. For the time being, no matter what happens, he will let me live.” His face burned with helpless anger. What a fool he had been to trust the Emperor! He muttered to himself, “I used to consider Roderick Corrino a reasonable man, but I’m willing to bet he will choose one of Salvador’s barbarian execution methods.”

His eyes stung, and he had trouble breathing. Considering the alternative, suicide might be a better option, but he wasn’t ready to take that long, dark plunge. It was never an option that Josef Venport would consider. He didn’t want such a disgrace to be his final act, the thing that people would remember about him. After all he had accomplished, all he had dreamed — what would Cioba think?

As the Directeur, he had handled multiple business, political, and military crises, always finding a way to juggle one of them against the others, to pull an unorthodox solution from the rubble of possibilities. But even he could not mitigate so many betrayals, so many disasters, so many inconceivable setbacks hitting him at the same time.

HUNDREDS OF TROOP transports descended through the murky skies to alight around the Denali complex. The nine remaining patrol cymeks scuttled toward the troop carriers to attack them as they landed. With powerful walker arms, they ripped open the hulls, exposing the human crews to the deadly atmosphere. The last cymeks destroyed five transports, immobilizing and crushing them all, but more Imperial ships kept landing in a rocky open area within reach of the facility, and exo-suited soldiers stormed across the terrain toward the domes. These fighters for the Emperor were far more heavily armed than the Butlerian mobs had been.

As Josef watched on the screens in his office stronghold, he saw hangar doors open in two of the warehouse domes, and ranks of refurbished combat meks marched out onto the hostile landscape of Denali. Erasmus had reprogrammed the fighting robots out there. Even though the independent robot was gone now, the combat meks marched out of their own volition.

“Mentat, report,” Josef said.

“Erasmus must have programmed them to respond in the event of a crisis,” Draigo said. “Maybe to protect himself, or possibly more than that. Not all of the meks are operational — many were still in bad condition the last time he gave me an inspection tour.”

“But some are functional enough.” Josef felt a surge of hope as more and more of the combat robots streamed out to face the attackers. “Will they be enough to turn the tide?”

“Doubtful, Directeur,” Draigo said. “But at least we have a chance at defense now.”

The first wave of the exo-suited Imperial soldiers found themselves facing an enemy they had not expected … hundreds of burly, lurching combat robots. “Fighting meks!” a captain called through the comm.

The Imperial soldiers had been trained to expect a fight, though, and their commanders had not underestimated what exotic defenses the Denali weapons scientists might raise against them. The suited Imperial soldiers turned their heavy weapons against the mechanical army from the past.

The fighting meks pushed forward in an uneven surge, targeting both landed ships and fighters. Thanks to the caustic atmosphere, their body metal was tarnished and corroded; some of their segmented limbs hung useless. But they were relentless. The machines skittered forward like a nightmare from the Jihad.

Imperial pulse weapons mowed them down, but the corroded robots kept coming. Once the first ranks reached close combat, the meks began to kill the Imperial soldiers by gashing their protective suits or tearing off their breathing helmets. Even a minor breach of the seal was enough to make them collapse.

The Imperial soldiers fell back to the shelter of the landed carriers, and from there they mounted a defense against the combat meks. The landers themselves had offensive weapons that drove back the machine advance. Many of the corroded robots malfunctioned and were unable to keep moving forward. The Emperor’s fighters picked them off from their defensive positions, holding firm with their concentrated barrage.

Over the course of several hours, the exo-suited soldiers suffered casualties, but they neutralized the majority of the fighting robots. Then they regrouped and charged toward the sealed laboratory domes, and proceeded to break into them.

FROM WITHIN NOFFE’S old administration chamber, Josef could hear the shouts as some of the airlocks were breached. The previously muted alarms came back on, and he felt cornered. Norma had abandoned him without a word of explanation, and he could not begin to grasp why she would do so. Was there another raid on the spice operations at Arrakis? He had already left so many of his defenses there … and he could sorely use them here at Denali.

Surely, Norma knew what Emperor Roderick would do to him once he was captured. She had to know she was leaving him to die. She simply couldn’t be as oblivious and detached as she seemed. No, Norma had done this intentionally — abandoned him. His great-grandmother, his business partner … and after all he had given her, all the concessions he had made so that she could continue to develop her precious Navigators. Many people had turned against him, but this was the one betrayal Josef had never expected.

The universe is ours, she always said. But apparently she was content to have a universe without Josef in it.

Draigo returned to report that the last of the combat meks had fallen and that the occupying forces were now unhindered. The Mentat ran a hand nervously through his black hair. “I cannot project any viable option for our victory, Directeur — or for your escape.”

Josef looked at the images being transmitted from outside. Imperial soldiers had already breached the hangar airlocks and overrun several laboratories. They were seizing Denali scientists and confining them in makeshift holding cells; some researchers were killed outright if they tried to flee or resist.

He was grimly pleased to see Tlulaxa scientists slow the advance of the Imperials. In one of the biological domes, they unleashed three prototype biomechanical borers — insidious lampreys with metallic teeth that lunged forward to attack the soldiers. Oh, if only those could have been manufactured in great numbers and then turned loose on a superstitious mob of fanatics! Josef had not imagined using the borers against Imperial soldiers, but the cornered scientists were desperate and resourceful.

In the end, though, it wasn’t enough.

The biomechanical lampreys lashed and struck, chewing and tunneling. Three Imperials were killed, half eaten before the prototype machine creatures were neutralized. Then the enraged soldiers turned their weapons on the cowering Tlulaxa scientists and massacred them.

More suited troops kept pushing in through the laboratory domes, taking and holding one corridor after another, one chamber after another. They made their way methodically to the administration dome — and Josef had nowhere else to run.

As he and his Mentat stood together in the administration chamber, Draigo said to Josef, “Permit me to act as negotiator, Directeur. I will present myself as your representative and arrange to save our scientists and our important research. I may be able to salvage something out of this.”

“You’re talking about surrender,” Josef said.

“I believe it is the only option. The question you must answer, Directeur, is whether or not you wish to be taken alive.” It was a flat, cool statement, but Draigo’s intent eyes burned into his.

“I am not going to kill myself, Mentat. That would be an admission of complete failure.”

“Such was my guess, sir, yet I regret to inform you that I have no reasonable projection in which Emperor Roderick allows you to live. The timing of your death may be the only part that is in your control.”

Ice ran down Josef’s spine. “Go, Mentat — make your best deal. Save yourself and save something of my legacy … maybe the human race can use it after all, my innovation, my business models. You are an excellent negotiator.” He took a breath. “I thank you for your years of service.”

With a brisk nod, Draigo left the admin chamber. Josef sealed the door behind him, although the lock would never withstand a concerted effort to break through. Silent and alone, he sat at Noffe’s old desk knowing this was the last remnant of his vast planetary commercial empire. He had been squeezed down to this, trapped and cornered.

He heard pounding on the barricaded metal hatch of the office, and the hiss of thermal cutters as they began to burn through the sealed lock.

His stomach clenched, and thunderous possibilities clamored around his head. He couldn’t think of any other way out, but knew these Imperial soldiers would capture him, and he would be disgraced, every last vestige of his legacy destroyed.

And after all that, Roderick would put him to death, undoubtedly with a big celebratory event in the main square of Zimia.

The barricaded office door began to collapse, glowing red, metal dripping down the wall. His mind started to go blank. The end was near, and he had nowhere to run. His entire future and past had focused down to this one moment.

Suddenly, Norma Cenva’s tank appeared in the chamber, crushing the chair that had only recently held Draigo Roget. The armored vault knocked aside the furniture, collapsed a shelf in the small office.

Josef showed no surprise or fear to see her there, did not even rise from his chair. He merely glared at her, his heart as heavy as stone. She had already shattered his last hope — what more did she want of him? To gloat? To explain herself in hopes that he would forgive her?

His voice projected the deep weariness and disappointment he felt. “I did not believe you would ever do it, Grandmother, but you destroyed me.”

His heart ached as he longed to see his beautiful wife once more, but he knew that was not possible. No, he was deluding himself. He had nothing, at least nothing that could save him. Neither his money nor his spice could do it.

Now, for the first time, he finally felt defeated, with no way out. “I thought we shared a common dream,” he said to her. “I gave you everything you needed, I fought to pave a clear future for human civilization, to save the Imperium … and instead of defending me to the last, you betrayed me.” He smiled grimly. “You threw me to the Corrino lions.”

Norma’s swollen head came close to the observation windowport. “I have not destroyed you, Josef, nor have I abandoned you. My prescience showed me possible paths of failure, but I chose the one that would save my Navigators … and you.”

“You’re going to save me? Where will you take me, to Arrakis?” He lurched to his feet as he heard the clamor continuing through the connected laboratory domes. The cutting tools had almost opened the door. “You’d better be quick about it. This complex is overrun. Emperor Roderick will execute me. His soldiers will be here any moment, and his torturers will not be far behind.”

Her voice was maddeningly steady. “There is no place in the universe for you to hide. No, I have a different solution.”

“What are you saying?” He looked at the door, saw it caving in, heard the shouts of soldiers on the other side. “We’re running out of time!”

Her voice came back to him as distant words, painfully slow. “Emperor Roderick made a solemn promise that he would protect all of my Navigators, that they would not be harmed. A new Spacing Guild is to be formed. The universe is ours.”

“Good for you,” Josef said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice. “You got what you wanted. How does that help me?”

“It is a significant loophole. Emperor Roderick gave me his word. It is for the best.” Spice gas vented from her tank, and a small hatch on the side disengaged from its seals. “You must become a Navigator, Josef.”