Chapter 8

Waff boards an Ixian no-ship to meet an elder Honored Matre from the Scattering, wary of her rumored superiority to Bene Gesserit. He carries concealed dart weapons and notes Tleilaxu Face Dancers have already infiltrated the crew. The Honored Matre opens with dominance and probing questions about the Duncan ghola and a girl on Rakis, signaling deep intelligence reach.

As Waff feints and tests, he deduces her aim: to defeat no-ship invisibility and confirm alterations in the ghola. She wields Voice-like coercion and boasts of limitless human expansion and “energy,” revealing a logical, predatory mindset. Waff senses her desperation and arrogance, concluding the Honored Matres seek control without Bene Gesserit melange memories.

When she orders two younger Honored Matres to accompany Waff as sexual enforcers and inspectors, Waff strikes. He fires poisoned sleeve-darts, killing the elder Honored Matre and the genuine younger aide; a Tleilaxu-planted Face Dancer silences alarms. The Face Dancers rapidly copy the dead women and an Ixian guard, erase remains, and assume the Honored Matres’ identities.

From the copied memories, Waff learns Honored Matres have refined sexual domination into a weapon and mirror many Bene Gesserit abilities without ancestral spice memories. Their cell is newly established on Gammu, and its link to the Scattering is severed; no coordinates remain in no-ship systems.

Concluding that the Honored Matres hunt no-ships and covet the ghola and Rakis assets, Waff orders the Ixian no-ship to vanish with no survivors, preserves the infiltrations, and plans to return to Bandalong to develop counters and exploit this new intelligence.