Navigators of Dune

WHEN VALYA RETURNED to her offices, she received a surprising intelligence report that made her pulse race. Fielle had rushed a coded message directly to her from the Imperial Court, news that she knew the Mother Superior would want right away. Yes, Fielle knows me all too well.

Vorian Atreides had gone there to meet with Emperor Roderick on Salusa, and after the hated man left, the Truthsayer had been able to gather important information. There were strong indications that he had gone to Corrin, and that he thought he could hide there.

He was wrong.

In this vast and infinitely complex universe, danger is always present. For an ordinary person, the challenge is to determine the pitfalls and how to avoid them. Like other humans, I am not perfect, but my prescience elevates me to another level of consciousness.

—NORMA CENVA, recorded comments

Sometimes the revelations of prescience came to her unbidden, but the universe had so many variables, far beyond even her comprehension. Reality itself was imperfect and unpredictable.

Like other Navigators, her expanded prescience allowed her to see safe pathways through and around countless star systems. In this sense the universe was hers and available to her, as much as she wished to explore, and she wanted to give the universe to her Navigators. But the universe was not exactly a safe place.

Troubled, she gazed out upon the Kolhar field of Navigator tanks with tender feelings, letting her thoughts run through countless possibilities. These were her children, she was their creator. And this maternal sense, this undeniable love for her creations, was stronger than any feeling she held for her great-grandson. She worried about Josef’s welfare, but he had caused his own problems.

Due to the commercial embargo the Emperor had imposed throughout the Imperium, many of her Navigators had been withdrawn from their great spacefaring ships, and remained here in their tanks. Now, with the spice stockpile on Arrakis destroyed, vital melange supplies were curtailed. Even though Josef had increased harvesting to higher levels with all his teams, there still was not enough spice for her or for her Navigators.

Because of the feud with Roderick Corrino, her Navigators were suffering. Josef had withdrawn so many of his commercial ships that only a handful of Navigators were still active, and being cut off from foldspace travel caused them great distress. They reacted as if the universe had been stolen from them. Norma did her best to stabilize the damage, to coax and comfort her Navigators; to balance the situation as much as possible she redistributed some of the limited spice gas, strengthening those who needed it most.

Conversely, without VenHold commerce, the Imperium itself was straining. Unrest brewed among populations that did not receive their regular shipments of vital commodities; countless addicts were longing for melange, just as her Navigators were. Prices had skyrocketed.

Though Norma usually remained aloof from human concerns, she could see the crisis building, and feared that inaction would result in violent repercussions. People did foolish things, and she worried that Josef’s enemies would soon take rash actions as a result.

And those actions could adversely affect her Navigators.

Manford Torondo hated what they represented, and his followers had slain one of her precious children on Baridge. Now, Emperor Roderick held Dobrec hostage as a research specimen on Salusa Secundus. Both of these leaders were desperate, superstitious … and dangerous.

In the fractured map of prescience, she had foreseen the possibility of a Navigator being kidnapped, but the greater disaster of the wrecked spice bank on Arrakis had blinded her at the time. She had not rushed back to Kolhar soon enough to prevent the loss of Dobrec.

Now, her thoughts tangled in knots. She gazed beyond the field of Navigators, extending her mind’s eye far out in space toward Salusa Secundus, which was the heart of a psychic storm she was feeling. She could sense the tension in Dobrec’s mind there, the crisis he faced as the Imperial interrogator pressed him more and more strenuously. Prescience provided her with few clear details, but she learned enough to realize that the captive Navigator would not survive.

Even from Kolhar she could visualize the secret underground laboratory, the prodding, sampling, and tormenting that was being inflicted on Dobrec—all in a clumsy attempt to understand what no mere human could ever comprehend. Yet the Scalpel interrogator understood techniques that no Navigator knew, techniques that no Navigator could resist.

Norma felt hollow inside.