Chapter 15
SHISHAKLI
Shishakli had been away from their base of operations for several months now as she accompanied Inzal on the journey to nearly every corner of Arrakis as they completed the final step of his plan. Their journey had taken them to places she had only ever heard of in legends, from the ruins of Jacarutu to the ice-covered peaks at the poles. She believed that apart from Inzal, she was perhaps the only Fremen to have traversed nearly all of Arrakis.
Their base of operations, their sietch, had changed quite a bit in this time. Their organization grew rapidly, and though they had bases all over Arrakis, this sketch, the one where it had all begun, was still one of the largest and most important headquarters for their operations.
With a formidable force of nearly twenty thousand Fremen, most of them in their prime, always prepared for battle, this sietch housed their most elite fighters, and could act as the vanguard force in any emergency, though they had only ever been used as such a few times when the Harkonnens would launch simultaneous attacks on their Sietches.
And now, as she sat in Inzal's solar after receiving a heartfelt welcome from their members, she could feel their whole plan coming together. Years and years of effort, pain, sacrifice, and much more had all cumulated into this.
"Was it truly necessary to call a Council of the Naibs?" she asked, skeptical of his decision. Not that she would ever question him in the open, but still, she wished to know his thought process as Inzal tinkered with the massive map that spread all behind him.
"We have enough men, and enough resources to deal with the Atreides on our own, we do not need the rest of the Fremen, and they would never join hands with the Harkonnens," she added, and Inzal shook his head.
"It is not the Harkonnen who would seek their hand, no it is someone else," he answered as he looked her in the eye.
"What I fear is the deep-seated prophecy and the one it entails. I fear they could all be led away by one who would claim himself to be the Lisan-al-Gaib," he answered, and she tried to connect the dots.
"The Duke's son," she ventured, and he acquiesced.
"Indeed, much like myself, he is someone who may well fit that damned prophecy, and cause a rift in the Fremen. If Arrakis is to be free from the shackles of colonization and Imperial control, then they must believe to be through their own blood and sweat and not through a religious conquest headed by proclaimed diety, for if that were to happen, we would have absolute carnage in our hands," he added.
And though she knew that she should warn him that while he had discouraged others from calling him the Mahdi, many still did it in secret, for they believed him to be too humble, believed him to be their promised savior.
"So, you plan to unite the Fremen behind yourself, eliminating any such chance of fractionization," she guessed his intentions and he nodded.
"Indeed, and for that, we need this. I need to gain the support of a majority in this council before the attack on the Atreides commences," he added as he backed off, dusting off his hands.
"I will be leaving for the Grand Conference in an hour, but in the meantime, I want you to do something for me," he said, making her frown.
"Won't I be accompanying you?" she questioned, and he shook his head.
"We do not have enough time. What I am about to ask of you is much more important," he said as he looked her in the eye.
"I want you to issue a full mobilization and have our forces ready to dispatch at a moment's notice. Have some of them move to the encampments near the city, but make sure that they are not seen," he added, surprising her.
"Why? The Atreides have yet to accept our terms," she asked. If the Atreides rejected their terms, then why should they help them?
"The Atreides are a means to an end, if they accept our terms it will be better for us, but even if they do not, we are going to strike, the attack can happen at any day now. I want us to be prepared to move in. All those who have mastered the ODM gear should be stationed near the city where most of the fighting will be," he added, and she nodded.
"It will be done," and with that, she left his solar, leaving him all alone.
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PAUL ATREIDES
The whole castle had been on edge ever since that fateful day. There was now a sense of haste and an impending crisis in everyone as the loyal men and women who had traversed the galaxy left their homes on Kaladan to come to this desert planet to prepare for the eventual attack from their House's most bitter enemies.
The tension was not just limited to soldiers; he could feel it in his parents as well as himself, or, more specifically, in the dreams and visions that had haunted him for years now. They had become more frequent and more erratic, giving him glimpses of things he could not make sense of, of people he had never seen, of scenarios that seemed far-fetched.
And all this came back to one person.
Inzal Kazab. The young Fremen leader was at the center of it all, and ever since that fateful day, his own mother had been in a daze, often lost in thought with her hands caressing a strange object.
"What is that??" he asked as he took a break from his Bene Gesserit training, which had grown harsher and more strict ever since that day, and not just that, Gurney and Duncan had been drilling him as well, preparing him for the disaster they faced.
"What?" she questioned with a daze, gently tugging the black rod back into the sleeves of her robe.
"That," he pointed towards her sleeves and saw her face turn ashen.
"It is not something you need to concern yourself with," she answered with a forced smile, and his eyes narrowed as he took a guess.
"He gave it to you, didn't he?" he guessed, and the way she stiffened it confirmed his suspicion.
"Inzal, that Fremen, he was the one who gave it to you," he confirmed as he put down the water bottle. He was covered in sweat from the spar. He was practicing martial arts of the sisterhood. The order of the Bene Gesserit boasted many powers, amongst which was an art specifically designed for hand-to-hand combat, one which his mother had begun teaching him as she ramped up his training.
"He did," she told him the truth. The rod-like thing slid back into her hands as she presented it to him, and as he held it, he recognized it as something technological, yet he could not understand what it was.
"What is it? From what I can tell, it is something like a generator, but that is all," he asked again, looking up at her as she bit her lips.
"A last resort," she answered cryptically as she took it back from him. That was answer enough, as his anger flared up at her words.
"The way you hold it, you believe that we may need this. That we need the help of those Fremen to face off against those Harkonnen scum," he asked angrily, hurt by her lack of faith in their House.
"It is not only the Harkonen we face," she answered, and he ground his teeth, knowing full well that there was suspicion that Sardukar may join the Harkonnen in their assault. There was a reason the Emperor's army was so feared throughout the realm.
"But still, we have the legionnaires, we have the shields. Do you truly believe that we are going to lose, that all our preparations will be futile?" he asked again, and she looked into his eyes as she shook her head.
"I pray for our victory every day," she answered.
"But sometimes, one must think beyond the hope and prepare for the worst," she answered, and he shook his head, hurt by her lack of belief.
"What even as that?" he asked.
"I do not know," she answered, surprising him.
"Yet you still believe that this could be our salvation, that that thing could save us," he asked.
"Just who was he, this Inzal Kazab," he added as he rubbed his chin.
"He felt so familiar to me, like a brother, his mannerism reminded me much of myself and you, and I felt it during the meeting..." he added, recalling the sensation when Inzal had spoken up as he stood there surrounded by swords.
"...it felt as if he used the Voice?" he asked and saw his mother stiffen at his words as she closed her lips.
"Because he did," she answered as his eyes widened, his suspicion and hunch proven right.
"But how? Only the sisterhood...."
"Paul," her mother cut in as her hand gently touched his face.
"I know you have questions, and I will answer them," she said tiredly. He finally noticed the dark circles around her eyes and the way her body had paled over the last few days.
"Just...just, give me some time," she pleaded weakly, and he gulped down. It was his first time seeing her like this, so conflicted, so tired, and so worried.
"Ok," he answered as she smiled at him.
"You look tired. Perhaps you should have Dr. Yueh have a l...."
"No," she cut in before he could finish, surprising him with some harshness and authority.
"But why? Yueh is the best heal..."
"Yueh is busy doing a task for your father, do not disturb him," she added sharply. A lie, his training told him. This was a lie.
"If you need to see a healer, go and see Karmin. He is capable enough but does not go to Yueh. Do you understand Paul?" she added, and he found himself nodding.
"Yes, I do," he added.
With that, the break came to an end as Duncan came in for the second session, yet he could not get the conversation with her mother out of his head.
And on that night, he would have another dream, as he had been having ever since his arrival on the desert planet, as he found himself surrounded by raging fires. His senses were bombarded with screams of men fighting and dying all around him.
Atreides men. His men as they faced an enemy in the Dark.
And he was helpless, as he stood there trying to make sense of what was going on, before one of the attackers came for him, clad in Harkonnen armor, blade swinging for his neck, and in his daze, he was too slow to react, and with no shield the blade should have cut his arms, yet it did not.
And the sound of a painful grunt made him open his eyes, and he found himself staring into those all too familiar blue orbs, orbs that glinted ominously in the dark, as the Harkonen soldier fell down, his head cut clean off as he was covered in a shower of blood.
"Hello...."
"....Cousin."
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