DUNE Page #10

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The Atreides, offended, react brutally. The Duke stops them with a motion of his hand.

LETO:

(to Farok)

I am Duke Leto Atreides, imperial governor of Dune. Do you allow me to look at this knife?

FAROK:

I allow you to win the right to see it!

Again the Atreides feel offended.

HAWATT:

Only the Duke can give orders!

FAROK:

The Duke wishes to govern in respect of those he governs! The Kryses are ours. He who looks at them dies or becomes a Fremen.

Furious, the Atreides become excited.

LETO:

One moment (to Farok, gently); you have saved the life of my men, I have a debt towards you. And I always pay my debts. If your customs intend this knife to stay in its sheath, I order that this be so! If I can do something to honor the fremen who died for us, tell me, and I’ll do it.

Farok stares at the Duke, slowly takes away the veil covering his face and spits at Leto’s feet. The Atreides draw their swords.

IDAHO:

Stop! (to Leto). Water is precious for them. Spitting is a mark of respect!

Idaho spits near Farok’s spit and tells him.

IDAHO:

We thank you for the gift of the humidity of your body and accept it with respect, as it was offered.

The Atreides understand and calm down. At a sign from the Duke, Idaho hands the Krys to Farok.

FAROK:

You fight well, Duncan Idaho, do you wish to be purified and put yourself at my service?

IDAHO:

I must first consult the Duke.

FAROK:

You can serve both of us (to all the Atreides) Isah was the name of our dead brother. You are Isah’s friends.

Farok puts a distilling tube to his nose and his mouth, veils his face and walks majestically towards the desert.

LETO:

If all the Fremen are like this one, we have the men we need.

IDAHO:

They are all like that: proud and free. It will be difficult to organize them militarily!

LETO:

We need ten battalions of Fremen. We are depending on you, Duncan.

Duncan puts on a distilling device. Duncan and Leto kiss each other. Duncan runs to catch up with Farok. Both walk in the desert until a dune obscures them from sight.

INTERIOR:
PAUL’S ROOM

A large room. On the walls a painted ocean extends to the horizon, under a cloudy sky. The room is square, but the horizon painted on each wall is curved and gives the impression that the room is circular. A curtain follows the shape of a window, which is that of a cloud. The bed, the covers of which are like scales, looks like a big fish. Lamps the shape of shells hang in the air. Yueh, using a projector, is giving Paul lessons. Paul is sitting on his bed.

The pictures show animals which, without being really supernatural, have characteristics distinguishing them from everyday animals: blue rats, falcons with horned beaks, beetles with butterfly wings.

YUEH:

A fox-kangaroo, a horned falcon, a blue rat, a pig-cactus, a scaled hare, royal beetles, all the animals to be found on Dune are “water thieves”. They fight each other and steal the humidity from the body of the defeated animal. It is the only way to survive. If you lived in the desert, you would have to do as they do. Become a thief or die.

Yueh unplugs the projector and puts it away.

YUEH:

Take this sleeping pill.

PAUL:

I don’t want to sleep. I’m going to go for a walk...

YUEH:

Obey your mother! I’ll only go away when you’ve swallowed this pill.

Ill-temperedly, Paul puts the pill in his mouth and immediately begins sleeping. Yueh covers him over and presses on a fish’s eye. The lights go out. Yueh goes away on tiptoe and closes the door.

Paul sits up attentively. He masks the lights, smiles, spits out the pill and, running to the window, opens it and lets in the night air.

He opens a cupboard shaped like a rock and goes to take out one of his clothes when he hears a noise near the bed. The fish’s mouth opens, Paul doesn’t move. An electronic insect four inches long comes out of the fish’s mouth. The body is carrying a miniature bomb and the head has a detonator-needle. The insect, which has two large ears, is humming.

The ears spot the noise made by the wind moving the curtains. The little machine flies to the window and suddenly stops. A strip of the blue floor cracks. The insect draws closer to it.

Attracted by the light, a little night butterfly runs into the shell lamp. At the noise of the wings, the little machine moves closer to the lamp. Paul’s breathing can be heard. The insect turns round and moves towards his chest. Paul concentrates and stops breathing. The machine turns back to the butterfly, but the heartbeats bring it back to Paul who, again concentrating, stops the beating of his heart. The mechanical insect moves systematically around the room, coming and going everywhere.

Each time, he comes nearer and nearer to Paul and passes an inch or two from his body.

A woman’s footsteps can be heard. The machine stops. The door-handle moves. A red lamp lights up in the machine and shines towards the door. Paul is perspiring. The mechanical insect is buzzing louder and louder. Jessica gently opens the door so as not to wake Paul who she thinks is asleep. The machine rushes towards her. Paul, as fast as a cat, seizes it between his thumb and his index finger and struggles to immobilize it. The insect slowly slides from his fingers. Jessica, with the end of one of her long nails, unscrews the insect’s body and takes out a bomb which she throws against the wall. At the same time, she throws herself to the ground, taking Paul with her. A part of the wall explodes into pieces.

Jessica and Paul get back up and shake themselves. Leto, Yueh, Hawatt and the soldiers run in. Paul points to the little device.

Thufir grunts fiercely and runs off, followed by his soldiers.

INTERIOR:
GOVERNMENT PALACE CORRIDORS.

Like a madman, Thufir Hawatt, followed by his soldiers, run along the corridor knocking down doors using his artificial leg as a battering ram. He knocks down the last door and finds the control panel for the murderous weapon. Nobody is there. Thufir tears away the appliance and, taking some wreckage with him, leaves the room.

INTERIOR:
PAUL’S BEDROOM

Looking tense, Leto, Jessica, Paul and Yueh are waiting. The door opens. Pushing aside the soldiers on guard, Hawatt enters the room. He closes the door and throws himself at the Duke’s feet, his hands clenched on the remains of the remote control machine.

HAWATT:

I swear that I searched inch by inch (he weeps with grief) I’m too old, I give up.

LETO:

(stroking his hair)

You have served three generations of Atreides. Your lessons have saved my son. You can do nothing against treason!

HAWATT:

A traitor?

LETO:

Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, Wellington Yueh or you. Whoever it is, I shall be just as grief stricken. We were a family, and a corrupt system has sown bitterness among us (he brings Paul to the window). In this sky, there is now nothing left but decay! The human being has been wrecked! We cannot continue to honor an empire of sick people, hypocrites, and criminals! We shall fight, even if we have to run away into the desert and become snipers.

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