@gcldcnhour
“Lady Fenring, would you allow me to ask a few questions about the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood?”
Piter de Vries, court Mentat of House Harkonnen, is sitting on a drawing room floor surrounded by small mechanical parts and screws. And Lady Margot Fenring, the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Fenring of House Fenring, starts laughing at him, because he’s going to fix her coffee machine, and he’s not going to get what he wanted. Hasimir, Margot’s husband, looks up briefly and quickly returns to his book. He really was going to get the coffee machine fixed. He is keeping a low profile.
“Piter, everyone in the galaxy has a few questions about the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood,” Margot says. “Instead of engaging with this minefield of a conversation you’re trying to start, I’ll just give you this advice: if you must have dealings with one of us, put your plotting aside and follow the golden rule. Do to others as you would have them do to you. We are peaceful, but we will not stand to be provoked. Hmm. I think you’ll test my advice someday, and I think you’ll be sorry.”
Piter spends a five day layover on Arrakis on his way to the Wallach Group. The Fenrings, preferring to encourage smooth relations with the Harkonnen presence on the planet, welcomed him and his small crew as their personal guests in the historic palace in Arrakeen. And that mysterious advice is all he can get out of Lady Fenring about the Sisterhood in five days, despite three more attempts to make himself useful and two more careful questions. It’s disappointing to get so little information, but on the bright side, it gives him more of his own headspace for himself. That’s a luxury that a Mentat knows the value of all too well. He falls asleep each night amusing himself by coming up with new ways he could turn his guest room into a death trap. He could hide a little drone with a poison needle behind the ornate fish carvings at the head of the bed. Ha ha ha!
----
Piter is sitting on a bench in front of a historic monument on the Wallach homeworld.
He landed this morning in a Harkonnen frigate, which he made a gift of to Duke Wallach, with no strings attached. There was quite a commotion at his unexpected arrival, which he expected. They’ve certainly had a lot on their hands from surprise visits from McNaught ships. Exactly as he predicted, the gift of the frigate made him and his men a whole lot more popular. Exactly as he hoped, the Duke quickly accepted his proposal of a temporary alliance against House McNaught, even going so far as to offer him lodgings and invite him to an upcoming war council. What a tidy bit of diplomacy! He’s immensely pleased with himself.
It’s only been a few hours since he landed, but somehow each of those hours lasted about a week, and just twenty seconds, at the same time. What’s more, he just couldn’t justify sleeping through the flight on the Heighliner ferry, with such an important meeting to be alert for immediately upon arrival. Space flight is a bad environment for the likes of him, combining a need to sit still in a confined area with the existential danger of ramming into a star or a black hole; unpleasant fuel for a mind trained to burrow into every detail of a thing. He’s pleased, but he’s exhausted. Despite the importance of rationing his personal supply of spice, there’s about enough in his system right now to kill a rodent, or perhaps just make it immortal. Certainly enough to make a hard bench in a public space on a strange planet feel both comfortable and safe.
Piter is sitting on a bench in front of a historic monument on the Wallach homeworld. He stepped away from his personal guard for some privacy, and it will be some time before they think to look for him. He’s fast asleep.
