He peered into a telescope, located Skyship in the distance, a ball of bright illumination over AmEarth.
Behind him, he heard a guard announce the entrance of his wife Lorissa, along with Maureen Stuart and her husband Paddy.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minster Yhatt had sent a message to Billy Jeeling, telling him the AmEarth government now recognized his right to remain in control of Skyship. Yhatt also told him they should work together instead of being at each other’s throats, for the good of the people. He apologized for the behavior of General Moore, Jonathan Racker, and Paul Paulo, and for his own part in their aggression, and he expressed regrets on behalf of Maureen Stuart, as well.
She had recommended the act of contrition, and Yhatt had agreed to carry through with it, eating a very large portion of humble pie. He saw her peripherally now, standing beside him.
Withdrawing from the scope, the Prime Minister said to her, “I sent the message to Billy Jeeling today. There is no answer yet.”
“Let’s hope he’s not vindictive,” she said, “though I would not blame him if he were.”
“Nor would I.”
Looking deeply concerned, Maureen said, “All we can do is hope. We’ve gotten rid of our crazy general, so no one from AmEarth is going to attack Skyship. Any information on their strange weapon?”
“Not a thing. It’s very mysterious, and very troubling.”
~~~
On Skyship, Devv Jeeling didn’t know how to respond to Prime Minster Yhatt’s message. In any event, there would be a delay getting back to him, because Billy was still missing.
One of the security teams was searching a chamber on top of Skyship, where an escape capsule had ejected, and then detonated in space. Everyone was hoping Billy was not inside the capsule, but it seemed possible that he’d been there, even likely. His DNA had been found in the complex tunnel system leading to the chamber.
There had been an audiovisual system in the chamber that went on when the searchers reached that area—it had a screen showing the face of an elderly man with his mouth moving, saying something, but there was no volume, and the image flickered off after a few seconds. According to a mindcom report that Devv had just received, a robot technician was trying to reactivate the system.
Devv was inside Billy’s private apartment now, watching while his security officers performed a slow, careful search. They removed articles from the drawers of a small desk and piled them on top... two laptop computers, file folders, books. As the searchers took books off a bookcase, Devv noticed something hidden behind them... two dark blue, leather-bound volumes. He hurried forward, retrieved the thick volumes.
Thumbing through the pages, he saw that they were Billy’s personal journals, written in his own hand. Devv’s pulse quickened. They were as neat and organized, and quite different from Tobek’s. The emphasis of Tobek’s writings had been Skyship, while in Billy’s case, it was the remarkable robots he had designed and built—especially the Lazarus series.
He summoned Lainey, and they stood together for several minutes, talking about Billy, and crying. By the time they wiped their eyes they were certain he was gone forever, and missed him terribly. Then they sat side by side at a table, opened the first of the journals, and turned to page one....
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Herbert has published more than 40 books, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels, with many of his works appearing on the New York Times and international bestseller lists. He won the Science Fiction Book of the Year Award and the New York Times Notable Book Award for his DUNE-series novels, reached the preliminary Nebula Award ballot for his novel THE RACE FOR GOD, and made the final Hugo Award ballot for DREAMER OF DUNE, the moving biography of his famous father Frank Herbert, a work Brian spent five years writing.
Brian and his wife, Jan, live in the Seattle area, and have three daughters. In 1967, the young couple eloped to Reno and were married in a small chapel. Little did they know what a life of adventure they would experience together. In 2017 Brian and Jan took a 3-month overseas trip to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary. It was one of perhaps 20 “trips of a lifetime” they’ve enjoyed. Years ago, Jan told Brian that “this life is not a dress rehearsal,” and she convinced him to travel extensively, so that they could experience other cultures and enjoy their lives to the fullest. Jan Herbert is a remarkable woman, and Brian considers himself fortunate to have met her at such a young age.
Brian and Jan have visited most of the countries in the world, where they’ve seen fascinating cultural, political, religious, historical, and environmental situations first-hand-providing plenty of data for writing. On one of their world cruises, Brian met a US Merchant Marine veteran, and learned that these civilian seamen had been treated unfairly after World War II, not receiving any medical or other benefits, even after serving in dangerous war zones and performing tasks critical to the Allied war effort. Seeking to remedy this massive injustice, Brian wrote THE FORGOTTEN HEROES, a carefully-researched non-fiction work that has received praise from the Merchant Marine community. He also submitted written testimony to the US Congress, in an effort to obtain benefits for heroic merchant seamen and their families.
Brian’s acclaimed novels include the Timeweb trilogy (TIMEWEB, THE WEB & THE STARS, and WEBDANCERS); THE STOLEN GOSPELS; THE LOST APOSTLES; THE RACE FOR GOD; SIDNEY’S COMET; SUDANNA, SUDANNA; and MAN OF TWO WORLDS (written with Frank Herbert).
Brian also wrote the Hellhole Trilogy (HELLHOLE, HELLHOLE AWAKENING, and HELLHOLE INFERNO) and many international-bestselling DUNE-series novels with Kevin J. Anderson.
Brian’s novels are highly original, and deal with environmental issues, as well as politics, religion, women’s rights and the history of human civilization. One of Brian’s recent publications is OCEAN, an epic fantasy novel about environmental issues, written with his wife, Jan. The premise of OCEAN is highly original and revolutionary-the ocean and its dangerous sea creatures declare war against human civilization, in retaliation for pollution and other abuses to those waters. Like many of Brian’s novels, it exposes an important social issue in a thought-provoking way.
Brian’s highly original science fiction novel, THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK OF CHAIRMAN RAHMA, is the imaginative story of a green utopia that becomes a nightmare for people living in it-the ecologically obsessed government enforces its edicts with deadly police state methods in which environmental violators are “recycled.” Publishers Weekly praised the novel as depicting “a fresh and forbidding near-future world.” That was just one of many excellent reviews that Brian’s works have received, going all the way back to his first science fiction novel, SIDNEY’S COMET, which Publishers Weekly described as “unusually inventive and original.”
In Brian’s childhood, he, his younger brother Bruce, and their parents had very little money. Impulsively, Frank Herbert moved the family of four from place to place. He was a newspaperman and science fiction writer in the days before becoming famous for DUNE, while Brian’s mother [Beverly Herbert] worked for large department stores, writing ads. She was the breadwinner much of the time, allowing her husband the time to develop his writing talent, even though he generated very little income. The family moved 23 times before Brian was out of high school.
Brian went to 1st grade in Ciudad Guzman, Mexico, in the state of Jalisco. In 1953, they traveled to Mexico with the fantasy writer Jack Vance and his wife, Norma. Brian spoke Spanish in school, and still has his Spanish-language arithmetic book from that class. The “school bus” was a smoke-belching old station wagon, and Brian - as the new kid / gringo - had to sit in the rear by a broken back window, inhaling exhaust fumes. He was even told to ride on the tailgate on occasion, with his feet dangling over the edge, holding on as best as he could. The Herberts returned to the United States after a few months. But two years later they were back in Mexico, living in the village of Tlalpujahua, in the mountains of Michoacán. There they lived among Tarascan Indians, a tough and hardy group of mo
untain people whose ancestors were among the few who were never conquered by the Aztecs. Today the town is well known for the Christmas ornaments it produces, but in the 1950s it was a sleepy village with cobblestone streets. Brian was home-schooled there by his parents.
In 1960, the Herbert family moved to San Francisco. For the first time in Brian’s life, they stayed in one area for an extended period. He attended Everett Junior High School and Lowell High School in the city. Lowell is the oldest high school west of St. Louis, long known for high academic standards. Living in a tough neighborhood in the Mission district, Brian took streetcars and buses across the city to a nicer part of town, out in the Avenues where Lowell was. Having skipped grades in junior high, he graduated from high school when he was only 16.
Afterward, Brian enrolled at the nearby University of California at Berkeley, attending classes during the political turmoil of the free-speech movement and the anti-war movement. He graduated with a BA degree in Sociology, a degree he was to use later in his writing, having learned in school about the psychology and intricate workings of large-scale social movements. During college, he and Jan had their first child. Brian also worked full time as a waiter and in other jobs, mostly in food service, while carrying a full-time schedule of classes.
Today, in addition to writing more novels, Brian co-manages the business of his late father’s fantastic DUNE legacy, sharing those responsibilities with one of his daughters and a nephew. In that capacity Brian and his fellow officers signed a major film deal with Legendary Pictures, and he will serve as an Executive Producer and Creative Adviser on future motion picture and television projects.
For more about Brian and his work, as well as the latest news about the Dune motion picture project, please see:
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Website: www.brianherbertnovels.com
More books from Brian Herbert are available at: www.ReAnimus.com/store/?author=Brian%20Herbert
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The Assassination of Billy Jeeling Page 29
