Harvester. The harvester was the piece of equipment which changed most dramatically throughout the years of spice mining. The first harvesters were dragline machines brought in by the early Imperial ecologists. The factory was anchored in place with two towers of the harvester established approximately 300 meters from the factory, 100 meters apart. A large dragscoop was attached to a line leading directly to a winch on the factory. To the back of the scoop was attached the haul-back line which was run through a pulley on the first tower, through a pulley on the second tower, then back to a second winch on the factory. Harvesting of the spice was achieved by dragging the scoop to the factory through the sand, filling it as it progressed. The scoop was emptied and "hauled back" by the haul-back line to take another scoop. When one drag location was exhausted, the towers were moved around the factory until a circular area was mined.
This method was very slow and had several negative side effects. The noise of the drag always called a worm, and the towers and drags would be lost when the factory was evacuated. Furthermore, the depth of a drag could not be well controlled, causing many impurities in the ore. The final and most important disadvantage was the frictional heat generated by the drag pulling through the sand, which caused undesirable effects in the spice.
The second-generation harvester was used for the longest period of time. This harvester was usually attached to the front of a factory, which in turn was mounted on a system of arms and tracks, making the harvester-factory mobile. The harvester was an inverted cone and tube leading to the factory. The cone could be adjusted for height above the sand and swung to the right or left forty-five degrees. A giant centrifugal vacuum pump created an almost perfect vacuum in the cone above the sand. The vacuum pulled the sand-spice ore into the harvester and to the factory. The advantage of this second harvester over the drag-line type was speed of mining, transport, and evacuation. Profit margins increased exponentially and the safety of miners improved noticeably. The problem of the heat effect on the spice was eliminated and impurities were reduced, but new problems appeared. The vacuum harvester worked well on spice in its usual sandlike state, but was ineffectual on the occasional spice-pack pockets. In the case of such pockets, miners were forced to use sandcrawlers equipped with harrows to break up the spice-pack. Once again this procedure always called a worm.
The most recently developed harvester to be used was designed for mining deep desert spice after the veins near the Shield Wall had been exhausted. It was an aircraft which rode on an air cushion developed by a large fan underneath. This harvester was circular in shape with two long, retractable, diametrically opposed out riggers with a sand wing attached to each. The craft flew to a previously located spice bed, descended to a height of five meters above the sand, extended the out riggers and lowered the wings, which would "fly" under the sand holding the harvester stable as it worked. Such harvesters could be used on spice-packs also. The fan was accelerated sufficiently to blow the spice, mock-spice, and spice fiber out and up to the vacuum elements around the outside of the craft. The heavier impurifies remained on the surface. When full, the craft would return to a permanent stationary factory.
Factory. The spice factory was a separator of spice and spice byproducts from impurities and a storage transport for those products. The machine was designed with independently powered sections attached to each other by flextubes. The exterior was a compound of metal, plastic, and blue plasteel in a shape designed to reduce windborne sand damage. Its dimensions, were 127 by 41 meters. The shape, color and long, leglike track units gave the machine the appearance of a large, blue, hard-shelled beetle.
The ore first entered a shaker-blow room where the heavier elements were shaken on a conveyor and the lighter spice fiber was blown off and gathered for processing. The ore was carried to the second section, an enormous, powerful centrifuge. The lighter spice and mock-spice were isolated when the heavier sand impurities were spun off and ejected through a spout in the top of the factory, causing a cloud which could be seen for kilometers. The spice and mock-spice mixture was then carried to a third section and placed in a bath of any one of a number of organic solvents. These dissolved the mock-spice, but left the melange in virtually pure form. The solvents were allowed to evaporate and the spice was hyperpacked into transport containers in the tail of the factory. The solvent was distilled and reused and the residue of mock-spice gathered and stored to be used as a powerful, ecologically safe pesticide.
LOGISTICS AND ORGANIZATION OF SPICE MINING. The mining operations were conducted under the guidance of a Sandmaster. During the harvester-factory period, one "dig" would average two days in length and was usually terminated by the arrival of a worm. A dig started from a Spicing Center. Miners and support crew were assigned to a dig, and the factory, harvester and crawlers were transported by a wing to the spice sands. During the Atreides' rule, two digs at a time were assigned within wing-distance of each other so that the reliability of evacuation was significantly increased without waste of equipment time. Thus, two wings were available for evacuation at all times at each dig, unless both needed evacuation simultaneously, which had a probability of 0.025.
Upon arriving at a dig site, seismic probes were placed at the corners of the mine. The harvester-factory was brought to operational status and when the ornithopter spotters were positioned, mining was begun. The wings were held at minimum-evacuation-time locations.
Once a dig was interrupted or completed, the wing transported the equipment and cargo back to the Spice Center for storage and eventual reassignment.
The Sandmaster had complete control over his dig and its products. He was also responsible for loss of life or equipment on a dig. Payment for the dig personnel usually allotted three shares for each miner, one share each for support personnel, one share for the Sandmaster who received a percentage of total production, and one share for the prospector who located the bed.
SPICE PROSPECTING. Prospecting was conducted by sandcrawler and on foot, using only paracompass and sinkcharts. For safety reasons the finds were limited to the area within a drive of the Shield Wall. Spice beds were located by subtle changes in sand texture and color, depressions in sand flats, and telltale odor and color of gases over a bed. When a possible bed was located, a few centimeters of sand were removed and a sample was taken. Early prospectors assayed the sample by taste. This test, however, was often fatal due to high concentrations of mock-spice. Other assay factors consisted of texture, color (the deeper the blue, the better the spice), and odor. Later prospectors used organic solvents to remove the mock-spice before tasting. When the deep desert sites were developed, prospectors began to use hover crafts for quick transport. Also popular were clappets, the small, four-legged furry animals of Sammel, adept at sniffing out spice beds.
R.C.S.
THE STARVATION AND THE SCATTERING
The Starvation was a predictable result of the collapse of an empire which had controlled the inhabited worlds for more than three thousand years. Such a political collapse was bound to have effects far beyond the realm of politics, some of which were felt within the most basic economic aspects of people's lives.
The economy of the Imperium of Leto II was in fact a myriad of economies under one political power. Some of these economies were limited to planets or systems, while others controlled several sectors. These regional networks were all closely related to one another, however, and the glue which bound them together was speedy space travel, made possible by spice. The disruption of the distribution of spice caused the famine.
Before the development of Tleilaxu artificial melange or of Ixian Navigational Machines, the amounts of spice available throughout the universe, other than on Arrakis, were very small. The two largest stores off Arrakis were in the hands of the Bene Gesserit and the Guild. Small amounts were held by a few of the Great Houses, but these were not enough to matter to any but the few members of those families. In terms of the economic health of the Imperium, only the caches of the Sisterho
od, the Guild and the emperor were important.
The reserves of the emperor dwarfed those of the Guild and the Bene Gesserit. From those vast quantities the emperor doled out small amounts in regular audiences, which were awaited with mortal anxiety by the recipients. Even the Guild and the Bene Gesserit attended and hoped for generosity.
With the death of Leto II, these balances were permanently altered. The stores of the emperor were discovered by Duncan Idaho and Siona Atreides, but they were not able to keep them. A raid directed by the Guild, clearly long planned for such a contingency as the emperor's death, succeeded in seizing a sizable portion of Leto's spice, enough to maintain the Guild as a power until the development of artificial spice. The Bene Gesserit were never proven to have been involved in this action, but it is worth remarking that they seem to have been less concerned about their spice stores than previously from this point until the development of the artificial substitute.
The Starvation was not actually caused by a shortage of spice, then. Rather, the famines were due to the sociopolitical state of the inhabited planets after the demise of Leto II. The passing of the emperor, after over three millennia upon the throne, threw his government into a state of chaos from which it never recovered. Since Leto had been the victim of an assassination by plotters who had not planned beyond the death of their enemy, no clear successor to the throne was prepared to step forward. Duncan Idaho was able to retain control of the Fish Speakers on Arrakis and in some of the off-planet garrisons. Siona was able to remain a power on Arrakis by her connections with the resistance movement, her alliance with Duncan Idaho, and her own intelligence and leadership.
But while Duncan and Siona were able to retain control of Arrakis, the situation throughout the galaxy remained fluid. In the beginning, the struggle for power took place between two opponents — the Fish Speakers, led by Duncan and Siona, and those supporting the Guild. In the process of this lengthy war, many regions whose survival depended on an economy tied to the trading networks of the old Imperium were simply ignored by the combatants. Severance of the trade lifeline produced the famines.
The systems of Essen and Tolua seem to have been among the first to succumb. Both were highly industrialized, dependent upon their wealth of minerals and ores to produce goods which could be traded for foodstuffs from other systems. Each of them was also the focus of a relatively small trading network which could be discarded by the Guild at little cost.. After they were so abandoned, the populations of both systems eventually shrunk to less than ten percent of their levels under the Imperium. The stories of cannibalism told by traders who began to visit these systems after the famines were repeated again and again.
This collapse of the old oikumene was not relieved with the first uses of the Ixan Navigation Machines. Rather, the causes for war changed. Once the spice was no longer necessary for navigation, the Guild soon declined to its present minor status. But with the manufacture of Navigation Machines, and especially after the development of the artificial spice, the wars came to be focused on questions of religion.
Since the worship of Leto II as a god had been ingrained into his population for more than thirty centuries, it is hardly surprising that his religion came to form the focal point of the struggles, though transformed to some degree. Leto was no longer seen as a god, but as another messiah such as his father had been. There also occurred some blending of elements from other earlier faiths with the worship of the Atreides and their Fremen.
But in spite of these attempts to adapt to the creeds of others, many remained utterly unwilling to continue recognition of the sanctity of Leto II, Paul Muad'Dib, or any of the rites and theology associated with them. Only the unusually even balance, obvious to all, between the powers of these two groups, those purporting to maintain loyalty to the old, "true" faith, and those insisting on a break with the past "imposed gods," prevented a war which might finally have extinguished humanity. The regions immediately around Rakis were left to the "traditionalists," while those who insisted upon founding even their religious life anew left the company of their fellows. With the aid of the Ixian Machines and the formulas for the artificial spice, they struck out into the galaxy, entering upon The Scattering.
The reactions of the majority to the discoveries on Rakis have raised once again the old accusations made by those of the Scattering. What will become of us who remained behind is yet to be seen.
F.M.
STILGAR BEN FIFRAWI
(10141-10228). Most generally described as Stilgar the Fremen or Stilgar the Naib, but in his youth as a wali in Umbu Sietch, known by his birth-name of Tuan. It was not until 10153, when he became a sandrider and accompanied a group of other youths on a raid against a Harkonnen village that he acquired the name by which he would be best known. (His troop name, used only by his comrades at Umbu Sietch, is thought to have been Sahkan — the Fremen name for a type of desert hawk — but verification of this point is difficult to obtain. The evidence found thus far consists of a reference made by a man from that sietch who accompanied Stilgar on jihad.)
Stilgar left Umbu in 10157 when Pardot Kynes asked that a work force accompany him to one of the newer palmaries to assist in planting poverty grass along the dune faces. The young Fremen demonstrated an ability to lead groups of workers and Kynes delegated as much work to him as he could handle. So impressed was Kynes by this new worker that he took him back to Sietch Tabr with him as an assistant when he returned in 10158.
Stilgar fit easily into the social structure of his new sietch, being challenged only once by a young hothead who saw his closeness to Kynes-the-Umma as a possible threat to his own standing. Following Stilgar's victory on the killing floor, Forad — Naib and leader of the sietch — welcomed him into the tribe, pointing out to any other would-be combatants that the newcomer had proven his right to join them. Stilgar's place at Sietch Tabr was further anchored when Pardot Kynes arranged for Stilgar's blood-brotherhood with the young Liet-Kynes a year later.
For his first seventeen years at Tabr, Stilgar followed the usual pattern for Fremen males: he worked at the plantings, he fought Harkonnens and their allies, and he met the other men of the sietch in practice knife combat, where he could be compared with and evaluated by his peers.
That he was often meeting good friends in practice combat did not seem incongruous to Stilgar, nor to any of the other Fremen. The burda (leadership) of a sietch was passed from one man to the next by challenge and a fight to the death, so it was best to know how friends fought. The practice served the double purpose of educating the likely in how to win and convincing the unlikely not to offer challenge, all while keeping the young men's hand-to-hand skills sharpened.
Stilgar married twice during this same period, in 10160 to Misra and in 10168 to Tharthar, both women of Sietch Tabr. His first son, Alir, was born in 10165; Misra was also delivered of a daughter (stillborn) in 10169, while Tharthar gave birth in 10170 to a surviving daughter, Kala.
In 10175, Stilgar's position changed. Pardot Kynes' death in a cave-in at Plaster Basin left the nineteen-year-old Liet-Kynes to take over leadership of the tribes. This accident was the signal in several sietches — Tabr among them — to reexamine their leaders. The older naibs like Forad were seen as relics from the days before Kynes, better replaced by younger men in whom the Umma's dreams and ideals had been instilled since birth. It came as no surprise to Forad when Stilgar, already having proven himself many times as the best fighter of his group, called him out a few weeks after the death of Pardot Kynes. Nor did Stilgar's victory over the older, slower man startle anyone at Sietch Tabr.
What did surprise the Fremen community was Liet-Kynes' timely and unannounced arrival, riding in on a sandworm and striding onto the killing floor only moments after the watermen carried Forad's body away. Misra paused in bandaging the slash wound Stilgar had received on his right side during the fight, and the sietch held its collective breath, waiting to see if Liet-Kynes now intended to challenge his blood-brother.1
The new naib, still flushed from the exertion of the combat, also waited. While he did nothing to betray his feelings at the time, Stilgar later described the moment as "more fearsome than facing a legion of other men alone... I was terrified that my brother would call me out, and whether more from fear of killing him or of being killed, I cannot say."2
The agony was brief, happily ending when Liet-Kynes hurried across the killing floor and embraced the new leader. After congratulating Stilgar on his victory and assuring himself that the slash was minor, Liet-Kynes asked permission to address the troop. It was immediately granted, and he explained to the assembled company that he had been granted his father's position as Imperial Planetologist and would be continuing the work with the palmaries that Pardot Kynes had begun.
The speech was short but effective: Liet-Kynes had made it clear, in terms the Fremen could accept, that he had taken on his father's role as their leader; that the leadership of the individual sietches would remain inviolate, as it had been under the older Kynes; and that the ecological transformation would not be interrupted by the death of any one man, even its originator.
Sietch Tabr prospered under its new naib. Stilgar led a dozen successful raids against the Harkonnens during his first year of leadership, all with minimum casualties. More farsighted than his predecessor, he also made plans for a gradual expansion of the cave warren, adding larger factory and weaving areas and extra classrooms for the slowly increasing number of children in the sietch (along with the new windtraps and catch-basins the larger population would require).
In 10176, Liet-Kynes returned to Tabr for a visit lasting several months. It was during this time that he married Falra, a Tabr woman with whom he had grown up, under the Fremen ritual with Stilgar officiating. Late the following year, when the couple's daughter Chani was born, Stilgar and Misra stood as godparents to the child, pledging to raise her as their own in the event that her parents were unable to do so.
The Dune Encyclopedia Page 101
