"Aren't the women sent to the courts regular sisters?" I asked.
"Well, they are," she said, "in a manner of speaking. You know."
"No, I don't," I said.
"Well, put it this way," she said, "they serve as concubines and sometimes even wives. They come here to Gamont to learn the best ways of pleasing themselves and their royal lovers."
Maxine (that was her name) wanted to give me some brandy, but I'd never drink anything in that place. I went back to the carriage and straight to the hotel. Bertha was gone again, but I thought, she's on her own this time. I packed my things. And Bertha came back with Pol, and I said "I'm leaving." But she said, "We have so many beads left." "Do as you please," I said, "but tomorrow I'm going."
Tryitday Phyllisdii Matilda's Day, neSheustim 29: When I checked out this morning, I just sat in the lobby. I didn't know where to go — I don't care about Eden or The Ol' Plantation or Harem World, but I don't want to go back to Wallach either. I'm not young, I know, but I'm not stupid, and I'm not sneaky, either. There are things I can do, and do well, and that ought to be enough for anybody. I won't use other people because I wouldn't want them to use me, and I won’t be a part of anything that does. I know what my duty is — I need to tell the Emperor just what's going on here — then it's his problem and I wash my hands of the matter. Pol and Ahmed are here — they flipped a coin (they said it's a local custom) and Ahmed is my guide today. So this diary goes in an envelope for the Imperial Mail. I'll have Ahmed take it there, then I'm going to take my bags and go ask for a job at one of the other places I saw. With my experience I know there’ll be something for me to do at "Suds and Bubbles."
J.R.M.
GHOLA
One of the extraordinary and unique capabilities of the Bene Tleilax was the production of human duplicates, known as gholas. The early gholas, such as the Spacing Guild's gift to Paul Atreides, Hayt, the first ghola of Duncan Idaho, were produced by tissue regeneration requiring the immediate cryo-transport of complete cadavers to the axolotl tanks of Tleilax. Gholas so produced retained their gene patterns and specific skills but lacked conscious memories of their pasts. They were frequently conditioned to respond with specific actions or behaviors to a particular word. Often, the stimulus "triggers" were produced by a being generated in the same axolotl tank.
This autonomic conditioning occasioned one of the major, unexpected breakthroughs in ghola development. Having conditioned Hayt to assassinate Paul Atreides (and perhaps gain gholas of Paul and Chani) at the sound command of his tank-mate, Bijaz, the Bene Tleilax created a psychic conflict between Hayt's/Duncan's compulsive loyalty to the Atreides and his assassin conditioning. The agony produced by this clash of drives, combined with Hayt's training as a Zensunni mentat and philosopher, restored Idaho's memories to Hayt: in a sense, he rebecame Duncan. This psychic reawakening through primal confrontation produced results so valued by Leto II that although the technique was not consistently successful, it was always attempted, and was used to activate a series of Duncan-Idaho gholas throughout the reign of Leto II.
Prior to this breakthrough, gholas who needed to know their past for particular situations had to be instructed by traditional methods, which at best succeeded only partially because complete knowledge of the ghola's past life could never be gathered. Hence, the ghola's memory was bound to be defective in many areas. The use of melange with its memory-stimulating properties could fill these gaps somewhat. There is evidence, for example, that Piter de Vries, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's twisted Mentat-Assassin, a Tleilaxu product, was a melange-stimulated ghola who became addicted in training. Of course, de Vries' addiction may simply have expressed the Tleilaxu quirk of delivering gholas with some unexpected quality of characteristic that the buyers did not specify, e.g., Hayt's metal eyes.1
By the fifth century of Leto II's reign, the method of making gholas had radically changed. Instead of regenerating original flesh, the Tleilaxu cloned their later products, greatly improving the productivity of the axolotl tanks (as they were still known despite their extreme modifications).2 Cloning was the superior method because cadavers often resisted regeneration for many reasons. The rate of memory reawakening, however, was never above twenty percent. The trauma of the stimulus, such as the assassination of a Face Dancer in the guise of Paul Atreides by the Duncan Idaho ghola, more frequently shattered psyches than restored memories. This excuse was offered by the Bene Tleilax for their delay in producing yet another Idaho ghola at the end of Leto II's reign. However, some speculate that the delay was part of a plot, orchestrated by the Bene Tleilax, Ixians, and Bene Gesserit, to destroy the God Emperor and that this last Idaho ghola was the most subtle example of conditioning ever produced, conditioned to respond to Hwi Noree's phrase "I want to hurl myself into your arms, to find the love and shelter I know is there. You want it too."3 This argument is lent credibility by evidence of Tleilax cooperation in the Ixian production of Hwi, but the use of the Ixian Globe to hide her actual generation makes a firm conclusion impossible.
Few gholas can have been prepared, as Duncan Idaho was, for a single task; most were even less specific than the Duncans produced for the God Emperor. Never many in number, they served throughout the universe as philosophers, moralists, and administrative functionaries. Infrequently, killer-mentats, killer-Suk-doctors, and military leaders were also generated for specific markets. There is even evidence that an attempt at a Kwisatz Haderach was included in the Tleilaxu dabbling, and they always did boast that they were capable of producing a ghola to fit any specifications.
For better or worse, the Tleilaxu fleshly art was never well received. Gholas were reminders of people who had once lived, and their production violated the spirit, at least, of the Butlerian edicts. Gholas were tolerated only as solutions born of desperation and even the God Emperor Leto II, usually amoral in his analysis, spoke of the "Dirty Tleilaxu," reflecting the distrust and fear directed toward these flesh engineers and their products.
R.S.
NOTES
1Scytale, perhaps the most famous of all Tleilaxu Face Dancers, is supposed to have stated that the odd sense of humor of his people consisted of "always giving our victims a means of escape." In presenting Duncan Idaho-10208 to Paul, the means of escape may have been a linguistic hint, a daring double-entendre: the name by which they introduced the ghola to Paul, "Hayt," immediately suggested to the Atreidean emperor the Galach hait (n., from OG hate) "intense hostility and aversion usu. deriving from fear." But for the Tleilaxu no risk meant no pleasure: coincidentally, there is a Fremen word hayt, and the Tleilaxu were betting that the sight of Duncan Idaho would conjure up associations for Paul Atreides, not for Paul Muad'Dib, who would have realized that Fremen hayt means "wall" — perhaps the wall that sealed Hayt from his Duncan memories, a wall which his killing of his master was intended to breach?
2 Tleilaxu terms have always drawn close inspection because of a mocking habit of giving — almost of flaunting — hints about their processes and purposes. Why, for example, axolotl tanks? Axolotl is the term for the tadpole form of the genus Ambystoma, a species of Terran amphibian now found only on Ecaz. Thus, Dr. A would argue that the tank was so named because of the animal's ability to mature sexually without undergoing metamorphosis if its habitat was dry, but to become a salamander in pools of water, hence, the waters of the tank give us a different "animal." No, would say Th. B, the Tleilaxu use the term because these amphibians are able to regenerate lost bodily parts, and perhaps the secret of that ability is part of the process. On the contrary, would say R.M. C of the Bene Gesserit: ancestral voices tell us that the term comes from an extinct Terran language, Nahuatl, in which atl means "water" and xolotl means "spirit," and therefore it is simply a fancy epithet for the tank's chemical ability to give life from "the spirit of the water."
Happily, no such wrangling surrounds the term ghola: thanks to the Fremen recovery of an ancient Terran Semitic language, we know that the verb ghala, "he seized," has a related f
orm ghul, from which the modern Galach gaui (OG ghoul) and the Tleilaxu ghola both derive, the latter, of course, by borrowing. In Fremen folklore, the ghul is a demon who robs graves and feeds on corpses. Fremen reaction to gholas was strongly colored by the word's etymology, of which they could not help but be aware.
3The trigger had to be either a complex statement such as this, or if short by necessity, a coined term with no meaning in any known language. Obviously, the Tleilaxu could not risk a ghola's encountering the stimulus in a chance conversation.
Further references: Princess Irulan Atreides-Corrino, The Humanity of Muad'Dib, Lib. Conf. Temporary Series 139, and her The Wisdom of Muad'Dib, tr. Mityau Gwulador, Arrakis Studies 52 (Grumman: United Worlds); Duncan Idaho-10208. The Hayt Chronicle, tr. Kershel, Reeve Shautin (Finally: Mosaic); Anon, (Sliska ir Nendruz ka?), The Tleilaxu Godbuk, Rakis Ref. Cat. 3-TL42; Siona Atreides, Commentaries on the Welbeck Fragment (Centralia: Kutath); Quizara Tafwid, The Pillars of Wisdom, tr. Noval Allad (Salusa Secundus: Morgan and Sharak).
GINAZ, HOUSE OF
Also Ginaztera in early historical accounts, successively Lords of Ginaztera, Barons Ixalco, Siridar-Barons Ruizdael, and Siridar-Counts Martijoz; Cousine titles include Barons Palus Palti. One of the Houses Major during the reigns of the second Hajus Corrino emperors, the Ginaz family traces its origins to a company of entertainers working the Richelieu Sector during the time of Fredhrick V. The troupe performed light operas, comedies, skits, burlesque, and other amusement to appreciative audiences on a wide variety of planets, satellites, Imperial forts, and even large ships, earning their passage from system to system by entertaining important politicians or wealthy tradesmen and land owners. Alberto Ginaztera, the founder of the company, is said to have been born on Gioia, in the Beta Tau Beta System, the son of a composer; he was trained as a serious musician and singer, and was particularly adept with stringed instruments. His wife, Maria-Elisa Drago, the daughter of a tavernmaster, suggested to her husband that his talents might be more profitably applied, and developed with him an act in which he tried to sing serious pieces which she constantly interrupted with barroom ditties and comic banter. They were such a hit that soon every major theater and club on the planet was demanding their show.
Within ten years, Alberto, his wife, and their three children had moved to a richer planet; within fifteen years, they had performed in every major city within their sector, within twenty-five years, their troupe had increased to thirty highly paid, well-trained, professional musicians, singers, and actors, and their fame had spread to the Imperial Planet itself, finally culminating in a command performance before Fredhrick V. The Emperor was so taken with the troupe that he ordered Alberto to base his operations on one of the major worlds near Salusa Secundus, and to give at least one performance annually for the Imperial Presence and his private guests. Hence, the Ginaztera Company became the only officially recognized entertainment group sanctioned by the Emperor himself. Ginaztera himself was granted an estate on Gioia, and named Lord Ginaztera in the minor nobility. At hearing the news of Alberto's death in 7844, Fredhrick is said to have wept for days, saying "the hope of laughter has vanished from my world forever." Historians note that Fredhrick aged rapidly over the next few years, and was an embittered recluse by the time he died in 7849.
After her husband's death, Maria-Elisa increased the family's fortunes considerably by smuggling drugs during the troupe's many travels, and reinvesting the money into what soon became an entertainment empire: By the year 7950, the House of Ginaz, as it was now called, had a monopoly on live performances before audiences of 10,000 or more; it also owned chains of gambling casinos, prostitution rings catering to the very rich; and theaters specializing in fights between different kinds of animals, or between animals and humans. There were rumors during this period of particularly vile exhibitions of sadomasochistic violence being staged for specific clientele, but these allegations were never proven.
It is certain that by the year 8400 the House of Ginaz was nominated by the House of Atreides for inclusion in the Landsraad as a House Major, and that the motion carried with three votes to spare over the objections of Houses Corrino and Harkonnen. By this time also, the House of Ginaz had advanced in status to Siridar-Barons of Ruizdael, a planet in the Junagadh system; Faustino Ginaz (ruled 8366-8414), called "one of the most handsome men of his day" by Lady Bagrationi, was the first Ginaz to be accorded this status.
The House of Ginaz generally supported the Landsraad rights against the Imperium, following the lead of such houses as Atreides, Bagrationi, Sikunri, and Alman, and generally voting against the interests of Houses Corrino, Qair, Wikkheiser, and Moritani. It was Moritani that spoke in the interests of Corrino during the debate over inclusion of Ginaz in the Landsraad, and Moritani that conducted a particularly vicious whispering campaign against Ginaz behind the curtains. Faustino Ginaz is said to have sworn eternal revenge against Yukio Moritani and his heirs over the insult to the House of Ginaz, thereby leading to the War of Assassins.
Camillo Ginaz III (died 9876) concluded a secret Treaty of Mutual Support between his house and that of Atreides in the year 9855, guaranteeing aid to Atreides in times of peril, and vice versa. The family declined rapidly in fortunes after its defeat by Moritani in the year 10177; by the time of Leto II's accession, Juan Ginaz VIII was reported selling well-known works of art from his family’s collection to pay his debts. The House of Ginaz ceased to have House Major status not long thereafter.
R.R.
Further references: GREAT HOUSES; Elio Geoffroi, At Center Stage: The First and Last Performances of the House of Ginaz (Gioia: Quique); Landsraad Information Office, Standard History of the Great Houses, tr. Driiga Trap (Salusa Secundus: Morgan and Sharak); annual Almanakh de Galachos.
GLOWGLOBE
An organically phosphorescent light source, buoyed by a suspensor field. Invented in 4266 by F.M. Aubec, one of the earliest explorers of Ecaz.
Glowglobes, though of many different types, follow a fairly standard design. They are generally spherical in shape, and their casing is normally made of molecule plastic treated to almost complete transparency, though this adaptation sacrifices a great deal of the molecule plastic's resilience and makes it particularly vulnerable to sharp blows. A miniaturized Holtzman Generator is installed within the globe; the generator is extremely low-powered, but the repulsor field generated need only support the weight of the globe.
The most important components of a glowglobe are the living parts. Three different types of anaerobic bacteria are used: Veillonella methanomonas ecazi is the base, providing the methane which feeds the other two bacteria and scavenging the bacteria's waste products; Actinomyces lucifer ecazi, the phosphorescent bacteria; and Serpens electri ecazi, which provides the power for the Generator. A. lucifer is also, by happy accident, a very sensitive thermotrop. This property causes the glowglobe to glow brighter on the side nearer to any heat source emitting less infrared than a threshold level at which sporulation is triggered. Thus the globe will usually "respond" to the presence of a person who remains within two meters of the globe for several minutes.
In some glowglobes, usually seen only in the private quarters of Great Houses, Spheroporus electri ecazi (actually two very closely related organisms, subspecified as "a" and "b"), an electricity-producing bacteria similar to Serpens electri, though far more difficult to transport, is used to power the Holtzman Generator. This substitution is valued by those who can afford it, though, because Spheroporus electri is, like A. lucifer, heat-sensitive, but Spheroporus is a very motile bacterium, which rapidly moves towards the location with a temperature closest to the bacterium's optimum. When electrically responsive microswitches are distributed to line the interior of the glowglobe, the thermoresponsive bacteria will cause the repulsor field to shift as they seek the optimum temperature gradient, thus moving the glowglobe to maintain the desired distance (as determined by the mix used of the two closely related organisms) from the nearest heat sour
ce.
The most well-known manufacturer of glowglobes is House Lucifera, of Gollimar. The House produced some thirty-eight billion glowglobes in the standard year prior to the writing of this essay, and the House enjoys a substantial advantage over its competitors in that it is the only House that has been able to coax the various bacteria to grow in culture in commercial quantities.
W.D.I.
Further reference: ECAZ.
GOM JABBAR or "High-Handed Enemy."
The needle, tipped with a drop of metacyanide, which was used by Bene Gesserit proctors in the human awareness test most often administered to students at the B.G. school on Wallach IX. A single jab of the needle was sufficient to send the poison into its victim's system. There was no known antidote.
The awareness test was, on its face, exceedingly simple. The candidate was instructed to place her hand within a small box containing a number of nerve inducers. As soon as this was done, the proctor held a gom jabbar at the candidate's neck and stated that it would be used, immediately, if the candidate were to withdraw her hand from the box. At the same time, the nerve inducers, activated by the presence of the hand, stimulated feelings of pain that began with mild discomfort and could continue, if allowed to build, through the most severe agony. (The most common sensation was that of extreme heat, as though the hand were being slowly roasted).
The crux of the test — far more important than discovering that the candidate could endure pain rather than invite certain death — was that it gave the proctor an opportunity to access the student's reaction to stress. Any increase or decrease in the student's rate of advancement within the Sisterhood depended on the proctor's observations during the test, On rare occasions, when their importance to the Bene Gesserit indicated it, males were tested with the gom jabbar; Paul Atreides, at age fifteen, was one of them. (That experience, on Caladan, left him with an enmity for the Sisterhood which increased as he gained greater knowledge of their methods).
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