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son of dunes

son of dunes

弗兰克·赫伯特

  • science fiction

    Category
  • 1970-01-01Published
  • 274919

    Completed
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Chapter 1 Chapter One

son of dunes 弗兰克·赫伯特 4949Words 2018-03-14
A crimson carpet was laid on the rocks on the cave floor, and a spot of light appeared on the carpet.It shimmered, but without an obvious light source, it just appeared on the surface of the red fabric woven from spice fibers.The diameter of this probing light spot is about two centimeters, and it changes irregularly—for a while it drags for a long time, and for a while it becomes an oval.When the point of light touched the dark green side of a bed, it leaped upwards and crawled across the bed in a meandering motion. A reddish-brown-haired child lay under the green quilt, with a pudgy baby face and a large mouth, without the traditional Fremen bony, thin-haired figure, but still Not full of water like people from other worlds.When the light spot passed the child's closed eyelids, the child moved, and the light spot disappeared.

Now, the only sound heard in the cave is the regular sound of breathing; , click, click... The spot of light appeared in the stone chamber again—it was slightly larger than before, and its intensity was also increased by a few lumens.This time it seemed that even the light source had appeared: a figure in a cloak stood in an arched doorway at the edge of the chamber, where the light source was.The light spot moved around the stone room again, groping and testing, as if carrying some kind of threat, some kind of anxiety.Avoiding the sleeping child, it paused for a moment on the grille of the air vent in the corner of the ceiling, then began to explore a bump in the green and gold hangings.The stone walls were covered with hangings and seemed to soften a little.

Now, the spots are gone.The man inside the cloak moved, the rustling and rubbing of the fabric gave away his movement, and he stopped at his sentry post on one side of the arched doorway. Anyone familiar with the day-to-day affairs of Teb's Den would immediately recognize him as Stilgar, Naib of Teb's Den, guardian of the twin orphans who would inherit the mantle of their father, Paul Muad'di.Stilgar often patrolled the twins' residence at night. He always went to the resting place of Ghanima first, and then came here—that is, next door—to end his inspection after confirming that Leto was okay.

I'm an old fool, Stilgar thought. He ran his fingers over the cold surface of the spotting spotter, and hung it back on the hoop attached to his belt.The detector was necessary, but Stilgar still found it a nuisance.This thing is a precision instrument belonging to the royal family, capable of detecting the presence of any large living organism.The video just now showed that there were only the pair of sleeping children in the royal stone chamber. Stilgar knew that his thoughts and emotions throbbed like that spot of light.He couldn't calm down the restless heart, some kind of huge force controlled him.It was the force that had propelled him and brought him to this moment.At this moment, he felt the threat was intensifying.What lies here is the magnet that attracts all ambitious people in the universe, the wealth in the world, eternal power, and the most powerful magic weapon: the successor of Muad'di's religion.The twins - Leto and his sister, Ghanima - had a terrible power pooled in their bodies.Although Muad'di is dead, as long as they live, Muad'd'di still lives in their bodies.

They were not just nine-year-olds; they were forces of nature, objects of reverence and fear.They were the children of Paul Atreides, who later became Muad'di, the savior of all Fremen.Muad'di ignited the passions of humanity; the Fremen set out from this planet, and through holy wars, spread their passions far and wide throughout the universe, establishing a theocratic government whose omnipresent authority left on every planet imprinted. But Mucha's children are flesh and blood too, Stilgar thought, and if I stab them twice with a knife, their hearts will stop beating, and their water will be recycled by the tribe.The thought turned his thoughts into a mess.

Kill the children of Muad'di! But years of experience have enabled him to look wisely at himself.Stilgar knew what was the source of such terrible thoughts.The idea comes from the condemned left hand, not the blessed right hand.For him, there is no sense of mystery in the appearance and existence of life.Once, he'd been proud of being a Fremen, had made the desert a friend, and deep down had named his planet Dune, not Arrakis as it was marked on all the star maps of the Empire. How simple it was, he thought, when the fabled prophet and savior of the Fremen was only a dream.After finding our savior, the longing for the Prophet pervades the universe, and every nation conquered by the holy war longs for its own savior.

Stilgar peered into the depths of the dark stone bedroom. If my sword can liberate those conquered peoples, will they regard me as their savior? Leto tossed and turned restlessly in his crib. Stilgar sighed.He had never met the Atreides grandfather from whom Leto had inherited the name.But many say Muad'di's spiritual strength comes from that grandfather.Will this terrifying spiritual power disappear in this generation?Stilgar found himself unable to answer the question. He thought: Taibu Cave is mine.I rule here.I'm Neb from Freeman.If it wasn't for me, Muad'di wouldn't exist either.Now, the twins... and my blood runs in their veins through their mom and my loved one Jani.There I was united with Muad'di, Ghani and all the others.What have we done to our universe?

Stilgar couldn't explain why such thoughts crossed his mind late at night, or why their presence made him feel so guilty.He curled up in his cloak.Reality is fundamentally different from dreams.Once upon a time, the friendly desert stretched from one pole of the planet to the other, but now it has shrunk to half its original size.The fabled proliferation of green heavens terrified him.This is not the same as in the dream.When his planet changes, he knows he has changed too.Compared with him who was the leader of Taibu in the past, he is much more refined now.He understood many things: the experience of running a country, the profound consequences that small decisions can have.Yet this knowledge and delicacy seemed to him like an ornament over an iron core which itself represented a simpler and more decisive consciousness.Now that old iron core was crying out to him, imploring him to return to simpler values.

Early morning sounds from Teb's cave disturbed his thoughts.People started walking around in the cave.He felt a breeze against his cheeks: people breaking the seals and stepping out into the pre-dawn darkness.The gust of wind also shows how careless people are these days, with crowded residents no longer following ancient water-saving rules.Yeah, why would they need to conserve water when there was first recorded rainfall on this planet, when there were white clouds in the sky, when eight Fremen were swallowed by floodwaters in what used to be a dry riverbed?Before the drowning incident, the word "drown" did not exist in the Dune language.But this is no longer the dunes; this is Arrakis...and it is morning, the morning of a big day.

Muadhi's mum, the royal twins' grandmother Jessica, will return to the planet today.Why did she choose to end her life of self-imposed exile at this time?Why had she given up the comforts of Kaladan for the dangerous Arrakis? Stilgar had other concerns: Could she feel her shaking?She is a bee gist witch who has passed the most rigorous training of the sisterhood; in terms of identity, she is also a respectable saint.Such a woman is sensitive and dangerous.Will she make him kill himself with a knife?The guards of Lett-Cairns had received such orders in the past. Should I obey her orders?he thinks.

He couldn't answer the question.He thought again of Lett Keynes, the planetary scientist who had first dreamed of turning this desert-ridden dune planet into a habitable green planet—and that was exactly what was happening now.Let Cairns is Jani's father and without him there would be no Dreams, no Jani, no royal twins.The thought of how this fragile chain had been carried on made Stilgar dismayed. How did we meet here?How did we come together, he asked himself?For what purpose?Is it my duty to end this, to shatter this great union? Stilgar admitted that there was a terrible longing in him.He could make that choice, disregarding family and family to do what Nab sometimes had to do: make extreme choices for the benefit of the entire tribe.From one point of view, such an act of murder is an atrocity, representing the ultimate betrayal.Kill innocent children!However, they are not just children.They ate spices like the other Freemen children, took part in the revels of Teb's Cave, scoured the desert for sandtrout, played all the other games children play...but more importantly, they participated in the Royal Council of State.Although they are only children, they already have enough judgment to participate in political affairs.Physically, they may be children, but empirically, they are wily.They were born with a full bank of genetic memory, and it was this terrifying awareness that made their Aunt Alia, and themselves, so different from any other living being. Countless nights, countless times, Stilgar found his thoughts entangled in the differences between the twins and their aunt.Many times, he was awakened from sleep by this torture, and then went to the twins' bedroom, still continuing the nightmare in his mind.Now his doubts had a clear target.Not being able to make a decision was a decision in itself—he knew it. The twins and their aunt woke up in the womb, knowing all the memories passed down to them by their ancestors.It's the spice, the spice addiction of the mothers -- Lady Jessica and Janie -- that's causing it. Before becoming addicted, Jessica gave birth to a son, Muad'di.Alia was born after her addiction.In retrospect, all this can be seen clearly.Muad'di was created by countless generations of optimal education directed by the Bi-Gistes, but the Sisterhood's plans made no room for the influence of spices.Oh, they knew it was a possibility, but they were afraid of it and called it the Aberration.There is nothing more disturbing than this - the aberrant spirit.They must have their own reasons for making such a judgment.Also, if they think Alia is a freak, then that judgment applies to the twins as well, because Jani is also addicted, her body is full of spices, and, for whatever reason The reason is that her genes and Muad'di's just formed a certain form of complementarity. Stilgar's mind was racing.There is no doubt that the twins will surpass their father.But from which aspect?The boy had said that he had what it took to be his father—and it was proven.When Leto was a baby, he demonstrated memories that only Muad'di could have.Are there other ancestors waiting in that huge memory bank?Would the beliefs and habits of those ancestors pose immeasurable dangers to present-day humans? Aberrations, so says the holy witch of Bee Gist.Yet the sorority is salivating over the twins' genes.They want to get their sperm and eggs, but they don't want the two shells carrying the sperm and eggs to exist in the world.Is this why Mrs. Jessica is back this time?She severed ties with the sorority in favor of her duke, but rumor has it that she is back in the Bee Geist organization. I could end all these dreams, Stilgar thought, easily. Again, however, he was surprised at the idea.Are Muad'di's twins responsible for this reality - the reality that has destroyed the dreams of others?the answer is negative.They are nothing more than lenses through which the rays of light refract a new order in the universe. In agony, his thoughts returned to the main beliefs of the Fremen.He thought: God's will has come, and we should not act rashly; let God guide the direction and move forward in God's direction. What bothered Stilgar most was Muad'di's religion.Why do they take Muad'di as God?Why deify a mortal with flesh and blood?Muad'di's religion created a monster-like ruling entity that interfered in all matters related to human beings.The unity of church and state, breaking the law means original sin.Questioning any decree promulgated by the government must have an air of blasphemy; any rebellion will lead to hell-fire suppression, and the suppressor always takes it for granted that he is a defender, and everything he does is proper. However, those who issue government decrees are mortal after all, and mistakes will inevitably occur. Stilgar shook his head mournfully, unaware that the servants had already entered the vestibule of the royal stone chamber, ready to begin their morning duties. He stroked the Xiaoren knife hanging on his waist with his fingers, recalling the past years it symbolized.On more than one occasion, he sympathized with the rebels, but rebellion was repeatedly suppressed under his orders.Ambivalence often filled his chest, and he really wished he knew how to resolve this contradiction and return to the simple world represented by this knife.But the universe is impossible to retreat, it is a huge engine that pushes this gray and endless void.Even if his knife kills the twins, it will bounce back from the void, weaving more complexity in the scroll of human history, creating more chaos, tempting humans to try other forms of order and chaos. sequence. Stilgar sighed, and then realized the movement around him.Yes, these servants represented an order around the Muad'di twins.They come in from time to time to take care of all necessary business.Best to learn from them, Stilgar told himself, to solve problems in the best way at the best time. I am a servant too, he told himself, and my master is a merciful God.He quotes: "We put cheek-high collars around their necks, so their heads are held high; we also erect barriers in front of and behind them to hide them, so they Can't see it either." This is a passage from Freeman's ancient religious teachings. Stilgar nodded secretly. Foreknowledge and looking into the future - as Muad'di did with his formidable insight - is counterproductive to human development.It opens up new spaces for decision-making.Yes, it greatly liberated humanity, but it could also have been a whim of God.Exactly how, this is another complex issue that ordinary people cannot understand. Stilgar took his hand away from the knife.The memory of the Howling Blade made his fingers tingle slightly.But the blade that once gleamed in the sandworm's jaws now rests quietly in its sheath.Stilgar knew he would not draw his knife and kill the two children now.He has made his decision.Better to follow a traditional virtue he still cherishes today: loyalty.Comprehensible complexity is better than incomprehensible complexity; reality is better than future dreams.The bitter taste in Stilgar's mouth told him how empty and disgusting some dreams were. No!No more dreams needed!
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