C O L L E C T I O N S | |
DUNE CHRONICLES |
Stilgar, Fremen Naib |
The advent of the Field Process shield and the lasgun with their deadly
explosive interaction, deadly to attacker and attacked, placed the current
determinatives on weapons technology. We need not go into the special role of
atomics. The fact that any Family in my Empire could so deploy its atomics as
to destroy the planetary bases of fifty or more other Families causes some
nervousness, true. But all of us possess precautionary plans for devastating
retaliation. Guild and Landsraad contain the keys which hold this force in
check. No, my concern goes to the development of humans as special weapons.
Here is a virtually unlimited field which a few powers are developing. Muad'Dib: Lecture to the War College from the Stilgar Chronicle Dune Messiah
You do not beg the sun for mercy.
There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without
destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government.
Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never
a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You
cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences.
A Fremen dies when he is too long from the desert; this we call "the water
sickness."
It is said of Muad'Dib that once when he saw a weed trying to grow between two
rocks, he moved one of the rocks, he moved one of the rocks. Later, when the
weed was seen to be flourishing, he covered it with the remaining rock. "That
was its fate," he explained.
I saw his blood and a piece of his robe which had been ripped by sharp claws.
His sister reports vividly of the tigers, the sureness of their attack. We
have questioned one of the plotters, and others are dead or in custody.
Everything points to a Corrino plot. A Truthsayer has attested to this
testimony.
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