Dune, #1
Dune
by Frank Herbert
Contents
... (21)
Overview
Baron Harkonnen consolidates the destruction of House Atreides by sealing loyal soldiers in the Shield Wall caves and murdering Yueh after receiving the Duke. Yueh’s final revenge partly succeeds when Leto uses the poison tooth to kill himself, Piter, and the Baron’s guard captain, though the Baron narrowly survives.
The chapter turns the Atreides defeat into a costly Harkonnen victory: Paul and Jessica remain unaccounted for, the Emperor’s Sardaukar witness the Baron’s vulnerability, and the Baron must revise his rule of Arrakis by relying on Rabban and seeking a new Mentat.
Summary
From a command-post lighter over Arrakeen, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen watches his artillery seal Duke Leto Atreides’s surviving soldiers inside Shield Wall caves. The Baron savors the tactical surprise of reviving artillery in an age of shields and frames the trapped Atreides fighters as expendable failures.
Piter de Vries brings in Dr. Wellington Yueh, who expects the Baron to fulfill the promise to free Yueh’s wife Wanna from agony. The Baron reveals that he considers the promise kept by letting Yueh join the already-dead Wanna, then orders Piter to stab Yueh. Yueh dies telling the Baron that the Baron has not truly defeated him, leaving the Baron uneasy.
The captured Duke Leto is brought in drugged and chained. The Baron questions Piter about Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica, and Piter admits the men sent to kill them are dead, with no sign of mother or son. Leto hears enough through the drug haze to realize Paul and Jessica may have escaped, then remembers Yueh’s hidden poison-gas tooth and that he must wait until he is close to the Baron.
Later, Leto is strapped across a table from the Baron as Piter and the Baron try to extract the location of Jessica and Paul. The Baron reveals that an Atreides man disguised as a Fremen has been captured and tortured, but has not yielded useful information. Leto does not know where his family has gone, and he prepares to use the poison tooth before torture can break him.
When the Baron draws back from the table, Leto fears losing his chance and bites down on the tooth. The poison gas kills Leto, Piter, Umman Kudu, and the men in the room, but the Baron survives because his shield slows the gas and Piter’s gasp gives warning. The Baron promotes the efficient guard corporal Iakin Nefud to captain and orders an investigation into how the poison was smuggled into Leto’s mouth.
A Sardaukar colonel bashar then forces his way in, demanding proof that the Duke died cleanly as the Emperor ordered. The Baron cannot hide that Leto killed Harkonnen men and nearly killed the Baron, making the failure visible to the Emperor’s representative. The Baron decides to adjust by putting Rabban over Arrakis without restraint, preparing the planet for Feyd-Rautha’s eventual arrival, and sending for a new Mentat.
Who Appears
- Baron Vladimir HarkonnenCommands the conquest, murders Yueh, survives Leto’s poison attack, and revises plans for Arrakis.
- Duke Leto AtreidesCaptured, drugged, and interrogated; dies using Yueh’s poison tooth against the Baron.
- Piter de VriesBaron’s Mentat; kills Yueh, interrogates Leto, and dies from the poison gas.
- Dr. Wellington YuehBetrayer of House Atreides; accepts death while setting up Leto’s revenge.
- Umman KuduBaron’s guard captain; present for the interrogation and killed by Leto’s poison.
- Iakin NefudEfficient guard corporal who secures the corridor and is promoted after Kudu dies.
- Sardaukar colonel basharImperial officer who demands to inspect Leto’s body and exposes the Baron’s near-failure.