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When the ghola-baby was delivered from the first Bene Gesserit axlotl tank, Mother Superior Darwi Odrade ordered a quiet celebration in her private dining room atop Central It was barely dawn, and the two other members of her Council --Tamalane and Bellonda--showed ih Odrade had ordered breakfast served by her personal chef

"It isn't every woman who can preside at the birth of her own father," Odrade quipped when the others complained they had toononsense"

Only aged Tamalane showed sly amusement

Bellonda held her over-fleshed features expressionless, often her equivalent of a scowl

Was it possible, Odrade wondered, that Bell had not exorcised resents? Odrade's quarters were a distinct mark of her position but the distinction represented her dutiesroo meals

Bellonda glanced this way and that, obviously ione Much effort had been expended without success in atteh Bellonda's coldly remote shell

"It felt very odd to hold that baby in my arms and think: This is my father," Odrade said

"I heard you the first ti as though each word caused her vague indigestion

She understood Odrade's wry jest, though The old Bashar Miles Teg had, indeed, been the Mother Superior's father And Odrade herself had collected cells (as fingernail scrapings) to grow this new ghola, part of a long-ti Tleilaxu tanks But Bellonda would be dru with Odrade's comment on the Sisterhood's vital equipment

"I find this frivolous at such a ti us to exterminate us and you want a celebration!"

Odrade held herself to a mild tone with some effort "If the Honored Matres find us before we are ready perhaps it will be because we failed to keep up our morale"

Bellonda's silent stare directly into Odrade's eyes carried frustrating accusation: Those terrible women already have exterminated sixteen of our planets!

Odrade knerong to think of those planets as Bene Gesserit possessions The loosely organized confederation of planetary govern depended heavily on the

Sisterhood for vital services and reliable co Guild, Tleilaxu, remnant pockets of the Divided God's priesthood, even Fish Speaker auxiliaries and schises The Divided God had bequeathed humankind a divided empire--all of whose factions were suddenlyHonored Matre assaults fro to et for attack

Bellonda's thoughts never strayed far fronized So Bellonda, but even in the Bene Gesserit there were factions these days and no one could deny that Bell was a supreanizer Archives had never been uidance

As she frequently did, Bellonda without even speaking the words ed to focus Mother Superior's attention on the hunters who stalked thee persistence It spoiled the

She forced herself to think of the new ghola Teg! If his original memories could be restored, the Sisterhood once more would have the finest Bashar ever to serve theenius whose prowess already was the stuff of myths in the Old Empire

But would even Teg be of use against these wo?

By whatever gods may be, the Honored Matres must not find us! Not yet!

Teg represented toounknowns and possibilities Mystery surrounded the period before his death in the destruction of Dune He did sonite the unbridled fury of the Honored Matres His suicidal stand on Dune should not have been enough to bring this berserk response There were rumors, bits and pieces from his days on Gammu before the Dune disaster He could move too fast for the hu of wild abilities in Atreides genes? Mutation? Or justmyth? The Sisterhood had to learn as soon as possible

An acolyte brought in three breakfasts and the sisters ate quickly, as though this interruption must be put behind theerous

Even after the others had gone, Odrade was left with the aftershock of Bellonda's unspoken fears

And my fears

She arose and went to thethat looked across lower rooftops to part of the ring of orchards and pastures around Central Late spring and already fruit beginning to for of elation accoht Usually she found the view restorative but not this

What are ths? What are my facts?

The resources at a Mother Superior's command were formidable: profound loyalty in those who served her, a -trained Bashar (far away noith a large portion of their troops guarding the school planet, Lahout the Old Empire, countless workers who looked to the Sisterhood to protect them from Honored Matres, and all the Reverend Mothers with Other Me into the dawn of life

Odrade kneithout false pride that she represented the peak of as strongest in a Reverend Mother If her personal memories did not provide needed inforaps Machine-stored data as well, although she admitted to a native distrust of it

Odrade found herself te in those other lives she carried as secondary memory--these subterranean layers of awareness Perhaps she could find brilliant solutions to their predicaerous! You could lose yourself for hours, fascinated by the multiplicity of human variations Better to leave Other Me out of necessity Consciousness, that was the fulcrurip on identity

Duncan Idaho's odd Mentat metaphor helped

Self-awareness: facing es on the way--endlessly reflexive The infinite seen as finite, the analogue of consciousness car-r ying the sensed bits of infinity

She had never heard words come closer to her wordless awareness "Specialized coather, assemble, and reflect our systems of order"