DUNE Page #17

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YUEH:

The tooth ... Don’t forget... The tooth...

EXTERIOR:
BATTLEFIELD.

The battlefield, silent and motionless, is seen to contain thousands of dead, and wrecked war machines. Beggars run through with spears, blood-stained women, babies bristling with arrows, disemboweled camels, elephants eating each other, carved-up Atreides, bloodless Harkonnens, and a few dead Sardaukar can all be seen. Sometimes a groan is heard, or again, birds of prey fighting for a piece of flesh.

In the middle of the field, three individuals are standing: Idaho, Hawatt, and Halleck, covered with wounds, blood and dust. They are turning, shoulder to shoulder, their swords drawn. They have the exalted eyes of madmen. Silently, passing among the dead, a battalion of Sardaukar is coming towards the three heroes, grouped together in an ever-shrinking circle. Halleck plays a gentle tune with his left hand, on the balisette hanging from his shoulders. The Sardaukar quicken their run towards the three Atreides. The circle closes.

Hawatt struggles, imprisoned by the innumerable ropes which hold him in the air, his legs and arms apart.

Halleck is immobilized under a net, his limbs and neck held under by large forks.

Idaho, invincible and mortally wounded, keeps on fighting and killing enemies. He falls to his knees, having lost almost all his blood. The soldiers take him by the legs and arms, four to each limb, sixteen Sardaukar in all. A group which has difficulty dominating Idaho’s strength. Soon they press his chest against an old cannon. Brandishing a lighted torch, laughing like a madman, Rabban the Beast sets light to a fuse and makes the cannon explode, tearing Idaho into pieces. Hawatt is lying on the ground, fettered by ropes. Beside him, Halleck has his feet, neck and hands in irons.

RABBAN THE BEAST:

(pointing to Hawatt)

Take him to the Baron. He wants to interrogate him.

The Sardaukar take Hawatt away. Rabban comes closer to Halleck, seizes the balisette near him, and stamps on it until it breaks. Dried flowers come out of the instrument, Rabban is curious, and picks up some of them, smelling them.

HALLECK:

(singing gently)

But you never forget the flowers of Caladan.

RABBAN THE BEAST:

(stamping on the flowers until

they are no more than a pile of dust)

You’ll forget the flowers, you’ll forget Caladan! You’ll forget your rotten tart of a mother!

INTERIOR:
HALL OF THE GOVERNMENT PALACE.

Leto, naked, his sex hidden by a little bandage, is laid out on a table, his arms and legs fastened and stretched out. He is sleeping.

Yueh lowers the lever on the protective shield machine. The machine stops vibrating. The lights go out.

EXTERIOR:
GOVERNMENT PALACE

A triumphant parade is approaching the government palace. The Sardaukar move forward in military order. A few Harkonnen survivors are following their military band. A “chariot of triumph” is moving in the middle of them. This lorry is decorated like a golden marriage cake. Pillars in the shape of young adolescents hold up a globe, an exact replica of Dune. A throne is constructed on top of it; here Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is sitting. In front of him, lying on a couch made out of two gold crocodiles, is Feyd Rautha. Beside him are Uman Kudu and the Mentat Peter.

Sixteen lorries disguised as winged horses are pulling the chariot. They have enormous swan-like wings, and are decorated as if for a gala evening with feathers, jewels, and luxurious saddles, and are pined together by silk bridles. In front of the horses, sitting on a large shell carried on their shoulders by Harkonnens, is Rabban the Beast, making obscene masturbatory gestures he; like a buddha, is leading the parade.

The rest of the Harkonnens, in spite of their beards and scars, are dressed up as women, nymphs and fairies and, running beside the chariot, they throw confetti towards it. At the palace doors, the baron nimbly gets down from the chariot, thanks to his anti-gravitation devices and, followed by Kudu, Peter, and Rautha, he walks towards the palace entrance. He gives an order and the Sardaukar bring the table, where Duke Leto is fastened, out into the daylight.

The army breaks out in cheers. The baron acknowledges the applause and enjoys it, jumping each time over fifteen feet in the air like a sphere.

Suddenly, a tomb-like hush comes over the army, caused by Yueh, who is slowly coming out of the palace.

His head lowered, Yueh goes and stands near the prisoner. Shouts are heard.

A SOLDIERS VOICE:

Yueh! Traitor!

All the soldiers join this voice and begin to shout.

ALL THE SOLDIERS:

Yueh! Yueh! Traitor!

Some of them start throwing clods of earth at him. The Sardaukar rapidly take the Duke back inside the palace, followed by the baron, Peter, Uman Kudu, and Rautha. Yueh remains a moment alone, groaning excuses to the army, bathed in the light of the sand. The Sardaukar take him away. The doors close with a bang.

Rabban the Beast starts shouting orders. He takes off one of his boots and begins to hit his Harkonnens with it to calm them down.

EXTERIOR:
DESERT NEAR THE TOWN OF ARRAKEEN.

Halleck, dying of thirst, is lying in the sand. From his wrists and ankles ropes are fastened to four sticks. Each sticks belongs to a large sunshade under which two Harkonnens are looking on.

Halleck is delirious.

HALLECK:

(shouting with hate)

Jessicaaaa!

INTERIOR. ROOM IN THE GOVERNMENT PALACE.

This is a large room which is almost empty. Its walls, floor and roof are made out of large blocks of grey stone. There is a small door and, on the roof, a cut-glass dome. On one side of the rectangular room, on a carpeted rostrum leaning against the wall, Baron Harkonnen is sitting on a throne shaped like a golden calf inlaid with precious blue stones. On the opposite wall, Duke Leto is fastened by straps on to a metal Saint Andrew’s cross. The straps surround his wrists, ankles and waist. He is so drugged that he can hardly raise his head. Peter and Yueh are also present.

In front of him, the baron has a foot-table loaded with food: cheese, wine, a cooked crab with mayonnaise. While hollowing out a leg and eating it, the baron angrily talks to Yueh.

THE BARON:

Where’s Paul? I must have his head!

PETER:

Where’s Jessica?

YUEH:

I promised to hand the Duke over to you; I’ve carried out that promise. Jessica and Paul left under heavy escort before the battle. Only the Duke knows where!

The baron rings a small gold bell. The door opens, giving way to a stretcher where Wanda is lying, covered with a white sheet. Her face, the only visible part of her body, is white and her eyes are closed.

YUEH:

Wanda!

Yueh wants to rush towards her. Peter sticks a dagger in his back.

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