After the proper period of training, Piter was delivered to the Baron Harkonnen. By the time he entered the Baron's employ, he was, to the Baron's thinking, the "perfect" Mentat — unfeeling, unscrupulous, addicted to melange, incapable of affection for his fellow creatures; his only possible emotion was a morbid delight in erotic depravity and in inflicting pain or death. He was a creature to whom killing was as natural as swallowing and done with as little thought. If in the accepted view, Thufir Hawat was indeed the mint-perfect Mentat, Piter de Vries was the other side of the coin.
The Harkonnen papers point out that when Piter joined the Baron on Giedi Prime in 10168 he was a small, slender man with dark, effeminate features. Eventually, by the time of his full maturity, Piter had not reached the average height expected for males in his society. Some have conjectured that Piter's slight build and meager height may account to some extent for his inordinate desire for power. Orders and sales receipts found in his papers indicate that he favored wearing the cothurn (a high, thick-soled boot) which suggests that he was not reconciled to his size.
During his years as Baron Harkonnen's Mentat-Assassin, Piter served his master well. He machinated the destruction of a number of Minor Houses and the weakening of many more. He outlined the oppressive policy the Baron implemented on Arrakis to squeeze out spice profits. He seldom made mistakes. In fact, the only recorded one is his prediction that the Lady Jessica would bear her Duke a daughter, which she would have if she had not disobeyed Bene Gesserit orders.
As time went on, Piter worked profitably in two areas in which he excelled: the creation of methods of torture and the development of poisons. His products ranged from the most subtle, undetectable poisons to those causing lingering death in excruciating pain. One notable compound was a sophisticated residual poison (later used on Thufir Hawat) for which periodic antidotes had to be administered. The control comes, of course, with the threat of withdrawal of the antidote, which brought death within hours, or at the most within a few days.
In return for his efforts, the Baron fed Piter's craving for power by promises of future spoils and fed his addiction with an unlimited supply of melange. In working for the Baron, of course, Piter knew he walked a tightrope. For a man as ruthless as the Baron, ordering an execution when he was displeased was a simple matter. Piter, however, had some advantage: as a mentat he would know when the Baron sent the executioner. Also he knew the Baron would not destroy him as long as he was useful: if he had learned anything in his years on Giedi Prime, it was that the Baron was not wasteful of talent.
When the Baron finally decided that the moment had arrived to eliminate the hated House Atreides, it was Piter's strategy that the Baron took to the emperor. The plan was simplicity itself: isolate and destroy. Gauging the emperor's temper correctly, Piter urged the Baron to negotiate with the emperor: the emperor would order the Duke Leto — an order the Duke would never disobey — to leave Caladan (a planet the House Atreides had held in fief for generations) for Arrakis, a desert planet but the only source in the universe of the essential spice. Soon after the Atreides arrived on Arrakis and before they could consolidate their position, the Baron would spring the ambush with the help of the dreaded Sardaukar, disguised in Harkonnen livery. It was imperative that the royal hand be clean. If the Landsraad should ever learn that the emperor had moved against a Great House, they would undoubtedly unite for retaliation.
The emperor had his own reasons for wanting the Atreides destroyed. He had long observed the presently small but exemplary fighting force Leto had assembled under the direction of Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho and foresaw the day when it could be more than a match for his Sardaukar. Thus, when the Baron came to him with his treacherous scheme, he saw a way to rid himself of this potential threat, reluctant though he was to move against a man he respected and admired.
To insure the success of the venture, Piter added some refinements. The best insurance obviously was to have an agent planted at the hub of the Atreides house. But who? Piter decided to do the impossible, corrupt the incorruptible. One member of the Duke's household was Wellington Yueh, a medical doctor of the Suk School, whose training included a supposedly unbreakable conditioning against disloyalty — a conditioning considered so absolute that emperors could employ Suk doctors without fear. However, Piter's philosophy did not accept the possibility of incorruptibility: to him every man had his price. It was just a question of finding the appropriate coin. The way was found to bend Yueh's Imperial Conditioning: he was told that his beloved wife Wanna (who had been dead for some years), was alive and in the Baron's custody subject to Piter's torture. Thus, the bargain was struck (incidentally deflating the bubble of Suk Conditioning): the Baron promised to "deliver Wanna from her agonies" and permit Yueh "to join her" if Yueh would deliver the Atreides, especially the Duke Leto, to him.
To prevent Yueh's detection, knowing that the Atreides' Mentat Thufir Hawat would suspect that the Harkonnens had planted a traitor is their midst, Piter decided to give them one: a decoy. He had the Baron compose a note to one Pardee, the head of the Harkonnen underground on Arrakis, informing him that they had successfully placed an agent in the Atreides' house and hinting in unmistakable terms that the traitor was Jessica. When the note was intercepted as planned, they would have awakened suspicion into the heart of the Atreides' defenses.
Piter also devised some minor diversions such as uprisings in selected garrison towns and suggested that the Baron offer a reward of a million solaris for a crysknife. Piter felt that with his blue-within-blue eyes and a crysknife he would have no trouble, should the occasion call for it and the opportunity arise, penetrating any sietch on Arrakis. However, this idea was one of his few hopes that came to naught.
After the Atreides were taken, the Baron escorted Piter to the cell where Jessica lay bound and gagged to collect the "spoils of Arrakis" the Baron had promised him: the Lady Jessica herself. Once there the Baron brought out his surprise; Piter had a choice: Jessica or the Duchy of Arrakis to rule in the Baron's name.
In the only reference to Piter in her journal The Years on Arrakis Jessica speaks of her fear as she lay on the floor looking up at Piter looming over her and of her bewilderment that he could not hear the lie in the Baron's voice. She also realized that there could be no doubt of Piter's choice when she heard the truth in the Baron's words: "I know what Piter really wants. Piter wants power." His decision to take the duchy was immediate.
Selections from The History of House Harkonnen reveal the Baron's actual scheme. He intended Piter to rule only until he had fulfilled his purpose; he would then be eliminated. Knowing Piter would make Arrakis suffer, the Baron planned to leave him in power only until Arrakis hated him so much that they would welcome his nephew Feyd-Rautha as a savior.
The Baron, however, never got a chance to test his plot. In a few short hours Piter de Vries was dead, puffed out of existence by a whiff of poison gas from a pill shaped into a false tooth and placed in Duke Leto's mouth by Dr. Yueh. The interview in the Baron's command post had begun with Yueh. When the Suk doctor was brought to the Baron to receive the reward for his treachery, the Baron fulfilled his promise to allow Yueh "to join" his beloved Wanna: in death. At the Baron's signal, Piter killed the doctor. (Details of the slaying as told to Iakin Zefud, the Baron's guard captain, by a witness, Umman Kudu, are recorded in Zefud's Log. Included in the records is Kudu's observation that, although he had seen many killings in his time, he had seldom seen one performed with such obvious relish as Piter's slaying of Dr. Yueh.).
Within moments of Yueh's death, the Baron had Duke Leto brought into the room in hopes of getting him to reveal the whereabouts of Jessica and Paul. When a prolonged interrogation of Leto failed, the Baron decided to try the threat of torture. It was then that Leto bit on the capsule tooth and opened his mouth to expel the poison gas. Although the Baron escaped, Piter succumbed. Perhaps the best thing that one can say for Piter de Vries is that he shared his moment of death with the great
Duke Leto Atreides.
D.K.
Further references: MENTAT entries; MENTATS, TWISTED; Marya von Wikkheiser, The History of House Harkonnen, tr. Arazrii toll. SAH 76 (Paseo: Institute of Galacto-Fremen Culture); Iakin Zefud, Duty Officer's Log for 7/1/10191, RRC 35-M113; Lady Jessica, The Years on Arrakis, tr. Zhaivz Aultan (Caladan: Apex).
DEW PRECIPITATORS
(or Dew Collectors)
Along with windtraps, the most important tools for collecting atmospheric moisture on Arrakis. They were introduced to Arrakis by Pardot Kynes. Imperial Planetologist, for use in planting experiments in the open desert.
Invention of the precipitator is credited to Pajit Narayam (7520-7613); it was first used on Zecrati in 7587. It has been used on many dry, low-precipitation planets like New Bhutan, Deviil, and Salusa Secundus to support local agriculture. Dimensions of the units varied from planet to planet depending on solar distance and atmospheric composition and density. The typical precipitator of Arrakis was half of a circular ellipsoid (inner radius 1.59 cm, outer radius 1.75 cm, long axis 4 cm, short axis 3.17 cm). The bowl or "saucer" sat in the ground around the stem of the plant with its concave surface facing upward.
The precipitator had a dual function. During the day it reflected sunlight from its unfocused surface and thus helped keep its plant cool. When the sun went down, the conductivity of the material cooled the precipitator more quickly than the air. Atmospheric moisture condensed on the surfaces, dribbled to the small opening at the center for the stalk of the plant, and dripped directly onto the root.
DICTATEL
A thought-transcribing device first constructed in 10938 by Pon Fenrhy and Glais Omer, Ixian scientists of differing specializations. Fenrhy had done the landmark research on brain waves and their physical manifestations which led to the invention of the interpersonal transmitter in 10925; Omer was the inventor and developer of the lasprinter, a machine he first demonstrated in 10921 which transcribed data onto light-sensitized sheets of plastivellum using a beam of coherent light. Their combined talents and two years of intensive research resulted in the dictatel, By 10938, the God Emperor's journal-keeping had been a matter of widespread knowledge for several centuries, no doubt prompting the Ixians to invest so much of their time and energies in developing a workable dictatel. A machine which could transcribe an author's thoughts without the intermediary of writing or speech, onto material capable of enduring for several thousand years, could have appealed to no one so much as Leto. The dictatel was a gift certain to please him and served as one of Ix's many counters against the influences of the Bene Gesserit and the Tleilaxu. It also helped to protect Ix's research into the "forbidden" areas of science and technology. By accepting the dictatel, the God Emperor would once again be demonstrating his willingness to ignore their scientists' transgressions.
The dictatel designed for Leto had the additional advantage of remote control. The printing and binding machinery, safely hidden in the Citadel catacombs could be activated at will by the God Emperor, regardless of his location. The range has not yet been determined, but must have been at least fifteen hundred kilometers. He therefore could avoid the clumsiness of having to carry some other form of writing implement with him when away from the Citadel and the inconvenience of transcribing his writings on his return, as he had done with his pre-10938 Journals.
While Fenrhy worked toward determining the best form of wave for their purposes, Omer modified his invention to the specifications he had been given: the printer would have to be activated by mental command, be powered by a far longer-lasting energy source than that generally used in lasprinters, and be as free as possible from service and upkeep. The second and third requirements were the easiest to meet, and a model incorporating both was ready for inspection within six months. Omer had streamlined the functions of his earlier machine, reducing the number of moving parts; he had also replaced the electromagnetic power pack with one using a long half-life radioactive once used in family atomics.
(Although Ixian records assert that Leto II had not been informed of the dictatel project by this point, the fact that any form of radioactive fuel was being used gives the lie to that statement. The God Emperor had expressly forbidden the use of any type of atomics and it was a rule he had never been known to relax.)
Fenrhy's work was both complex and time-consuming. While he already knew that beta waves functioned best as transmittal waves, he had been told the new machine would have to receive accurate transmissions at a distance of fifteen hundred km, over three times the distance covered in his earlier models. Finally, late in 10935, he discovered that beta-2 waves, properly coded and amplified, were capable of carrying even greater distances than that assigned him. He took his results to Omer, explained what he needed in the printer in the way of a receiver, and the pair had a functioning model of the dictatel built and ready the following year.
When they took their machine before the Inquisitors and asked permission to take it to Arrakis in order to demonstrate it to the God Emperor, they were sorely disappointed. A further requirement, one which neither of them had been told, was that the dictatel's work be virtually indestructible. Since no known material — and certainly not the plastivellum on which Omer's device printed — was sufficiently durable for the God Emperor's needs, the dictatel could not be delivered until one had been discovered.
Omer and Fenrhy, furious that this information had not been given to them earlier, retired from the project. Not until 10940, when Jams Rondel's discovery of ridulian crystal paper provided the machine with a suitable printing medium, did either of them have anything to do with the dictatel. That association was limited; they merely taught the device's functions to the men who were conveying it to Arrakis. Neither of the dictatel's inventors (undoubtedly as punishment for what the Inquisitors viewed as childish behavior) was present at the demonstration given the God Emperor of its use.
That the dictatel worked as well as or better than they had originally hoped could not have been much consolation.
Further references: JOURNALS OF LETO II; RIDULIAN CRYSTALS; Alan Bartke, Survey of Ixian Technology, 10900-13500 (Finally: Mosaic).
DISTRANS
From "dispersoid transponder," the name applied to a communication device developed by the Fremen relying on embedding a coded message in the neural system of almost any creature.
Before the Butlerian Jihad, research on mammalian nervous systems, combined with techniques of miniaturization and circuitry, led in two directions: toward thinking machines and toward understanding neural physiology. Knowledge in the second of these directions was uncovered by the Zensunni while they were on Poritrin, and by the time they had reached Dune, the distrans system had been perfected.
The distrans had two parts: a wave translator (a tiny crystal weighing less than 5 mg implanted in the brain of the creature carrying the message) and an encoder-decoder tube (about 9 cm long and 7 mm in outside diameter). The inside of the e-d tube was lined and crossed by polarized shigawire, which drew its minuscule energy requirement from the electromagnetic field shadowing the user's hands. First a series of clicks serving as a password were spoken into the tube while holding it to the carrier's ear. Then the message was spoken; the e-d tube digitized the signal and fed it to the wave translator, which changed the signal to normal electrochemical stimuli and locked them into the host's nervous system. The wave translator remained active, one part causing the message to be broadcast at set intervals, the other stimulating the host's vocal center. The message was thus covered by and filtered through the carrier's natural sounds, making it impossible to distinguish a message from normal cries.
Once the messenger had reached its destination, the wave translator was deactivated by a repetition of the password, which also triggered a final broadcast of the message. The e-d rube received the information, translated it into wave motion, and "spoke" with the voice of the sender.
Any nervous system of some complexity could accommodate the distrans, but beas
ts suited to rapid passage across the terrain — usually birds or flying mammals — were favored. Birds and the native bats, the cielago, had several advantages other than flight: placing the wave translator in the carrier's brain was the most difficult step in constructing the device, and the region of these animals' brains controlling their vocalizations was both easy to locate and relatively difficult to damage. Moreover, the Fremen bred animals with superior homing abilities.
Distrans communication showed technical sophistication and simplicity of execution. Production had its drawbacks: both encoder-decoder and wave translator were extremely small and sophisticated, and beast breeding and training facilities required precious resources. But the ease of use of the distrans outweighed these disadvantages. No special knowledge (other than the password) or training was required of the user. And the system was secure: the odds were so great against an enemy even capturing a cielago or bird, let alone recognizing its purpose, that the password seldom had to be changed. Since the wave translator could be cleared and reused, the same carriers could be flown over and over again.
But despite these conveniences, some circumstances limited the distrans insurmountably. A bird could not gain entry to a building without its passage being noted, a bat had only a limited range, and neither could be instructed to search out a recipient of unknown location.
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