The chapter opens with Princess Irulan recalling that her father, the Padishah Emperor, once showed her Duke Leto Atreides’s portrait and seemed to regret the political necessity that made Leto his enemy. The narrative then shifts to Dr. Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist and Judge of the Change, who is shaken by his first encounter with Duke Leto and Paul because Paul seems to match Fremen prophetic expectations.

Kynes meets Leto, Paul, and Gurney Halleck outside the Arrakeen landing field for an inspection of spice mining operations. Kynes resents Atreides questioning and suspects they want access to unused Imperial bases, but Leto treats Kynes as potentially valuable. When Paul quotes the O.C. Bible, nearby Fremen react by calling him "Lisan al-Gaib," strengthening Kynes’s private unease about the prophecy.

Before departure, Kynes checks Leto’s and Paul’s stillsuits and explains how the garments reclaim moisture in the desert. Paul’s stillsuit has been adjusted correctly despite Paul never having worn one before, which again recalls prophecy for Kynes. During the flight over the Shield Wall, Leto questions Kynes about Arrakis, spice, worms, and unused Imperial bases, while Kynes answers cautiously and reveals the deadly rules of desert survival: shields attract worms, sandstorms defeat equipment, and no one should travel alone.

The party finds a spice factory crawler at work and then spots wormsign moving toward it. Leto gives the warning himself, lets the crawler crew keep the warning bonus, and learns that the carryall needed to lift the crawler away is missing. When the crew resists abandoning a nearly full spice load, Leto orders every available aircraft to evacuate the men, discarding shield generators and crowding his own ornithopter to save as many lives as possible.

Leto lifts off with the last workers just before the worm swallows the crawler. Kynes murmurs a Fremen blessing to the Maker, and one worker calls him "Liet," hinting at Kynes’s deeper Fremen identity. Leto notices two men left on the sand and insists on sending help despite Kynes and the workers implying rescue is futile; Paul realizes the men are likely Fremen who know how to move safely over sand and detects lies in the explanations. Kynes, impressed that Leto values men over spice and risks himself for them, reluctantly admits that he likes the Duke.