DUNE Page #27

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Farok is holding Rautha on the ground. Slowly his arm draws closer to Rautha’s neck.

FAROK:

(shouting)

Death to the Harkonnens!

RAUTHA:

(in a murmur)

Bring the blade nearer my neck. Nearer, nearer still! My audience is overcome with emotion. Now, listen to the keyword: (shouting) Scum!

At this word, Farok freezes.

RAUTHA:

You are conditioned. You won’t move for two seconds. Now, I give you a little nick with my poisoned dagger...(he wounds him slightly on the shoulder) And ...

Rautha gets away from Farok, who recovers the use of his movements. But an intolerable pain immediately burns at his shoulder, he tries to insult Rautha, in vain... He totters. He comes up to Rautha who waits from him while performing a few dance steps.

The public is going mad with enthusiasm. The new attack is brief. Farok is lost. He is in agony and falls to his knees. Rautha looks him up and down, turns his back to Farok who tries a new attack. The crowd yells. Farok is unable even to lift his sword. Rautha, with winged elegance, plunges his sword in Farok’s heart. A military tune breaks out. The audience, impressed, stands up. Farok runs, struggles against death, then falls. Rautha plunges the dagger in his neck. Farok dies instantaneously.

The audience, deliriously excited, waves white handkerchiefs. An alguacil approaches Farok’s corpse with a knife, and leans over him.

While two mules drag Farok’s body away, Rautha makes a lap of the arena, with an ear from Farok’s body in each hand. The audience throws flowers and hats on the ground.

A golden ladder comes down from Vladimir’s box. While Rautha is climbing it, Vladimir’s slaves cover him with white flower petals. When he arrives at the top, Vladimir kisses Feyd who is crowned with gold laurels.

VLADIMIR:

Hail Rautha!

The whole stadium raises their left arm, hands outstretched towards the sky, and shouts.

THE CROWD:

Hail Rautha!

INTERIOR:
DINING ROOM AT HARKONNEN CASTLE.

A red room, with sausages, hams, smoked fish, roast animals, etc... hanging from the roof. The large room is covered with baroque-styled plates. A gastronomical orgy is taking place: bottles of drink, cakes, incense, and magnificently built men doing a belly dance.

Pleased with his victory, Feyd Rautha is drinking. Beside him the baron, aroused, is caressing him. Hawatt is silently watching the scene. Near them are Count Fenring and his wife. The Sardaukar and Harkonnens are keeping guard. The back of each seat is a portrait of the baron in relief. The baron is skillfully serving two plates of soup. The tureen is shaped like an iron dwarf.

Two plates are set down before Count and Lady Fenring. A Sardaukar immediately takes out a poison-taster and places it beside the plates. Before Fenring has been able to use it, the offended baron breaks out.

VLADIMIR:

A poison-taster? This is an insult which it is hard for us to forgive. Especially today when we are celebrating my nephew’s victory!

FENRING:

A victory? I know Hawatt’s style. The slave was conditioned to the word “scum” and Feyd’s sword was dipped in poison. An easy way of making a hero out of him!

The baron and Feyd stand up aggressively. The Harkonnens make as if to go for their swords. The count gestures towards the sky.

FENRING:

If we die “accidently” the Emperor’s Sardaukar will raze this planet to the ground tomorrow morning. There are five battalions who have the order to blow it up if we have a fatal accident.

THE BARON:

(soaking his hands in the soup plates)

It is disgusting! Flies in the soup!

He throws the plates of soup on to his slaves and has a plate full of other foods passed to Fenring and his Lady... He eats off the plate as well.

BARON:

This is better.

THE COUNT:

The emperor mistrusts the Harkonnen house... through our Imperial Messengers on Dune ...

FEYD:

You mean spies...

THE COUNT:

We know that Rabban the Beast is oppressing the people, who hate him to death... This will allow Feyd Rautha to land on Dune and be welcomed as a hero.

VLADIMIR:

That’s true. It’s a very clever plan devised by Hawatt. When my nephew kills Rabban, they will all collaborate with him.

THE COUNT:

How many Fremen are there?

HAWATT:

About two thousand. Rabban has gradually exterminated them.

THE COUNT:

Not so. We know that ten million Fremen are hiding in the desert. If Feyd Rautha becomes a hero, he will have an army big enough to enable the Harkonnens to fight for the throne.

VLADIMIR:

A plot against the emperor? Never ...

THE COUNT:

If our suspicions prove founded... we shall have the support of the major houses and the minor houses to eliminate this planet.

VLADIMIR:

(perspiring in fear)

What can we do to prove our innocence to the emperor?

THE COUNT:

Kill all the Fremen! So that not one remains! We cannot tolerate the existence of an army stronger than our own!

Fenring stand up.

FENRING:

Of course the extermination of the Fremen will be exclusively the work of Rabban the Beast. The emperor declines any historical responsibility for this genocide.

VLADIMIR:

We shall safeguard the Imperial honor! In the hope that our fidelity may be rewarded.

Lady Fenring, without being seen, slides a ring off from her thumb and, ensuring that she is seen only by Rautha, moistens it with a little saliva. Then, under the table, she slides it on to Feyd’s index finger.

THE COUNT:

(leaving. To Lady Fenring)

The emperor knows how to put vassals in their place.

INTERIOR:
BEDROOM IN HARKONNEN CASTLE.

A room in which the large circular bed is surrounded by veils. The door opens gently. In his bed, Count Fenring is sleeping deeply with his mouth open. Lady Fenring opens the door cautiously, she is dressed in a very short negligée! Her lascivious beauty comes as a surprise. Feyd sticks out his head and Lady Fenring lets him in. She closes the door, presses her whole body against Feyd, and kisses him. Feyd pulls apart, worried, showing her the bed, and Fenring sleeping. The lady laughs, takes his arm and brings him to the bed, beside the count. She undresses Feyd and makes him stretch out on top of her.

LADY FENRING:

I drugged his coffee. He’ll sleep till morning.

Feyd laughs, and brutally tears off Lady Fenring’s clothes. She embraces him.

Dawn appears through the open window. Lady Fenring wakes Feyd. She closes the door behind him, breathing a sigh of relief. Count Fenring then stops pretending to sleep and sits up on his bed. Lady Fenring sits beside him and kisses him tenderly. The count touches her stomach.

THE COUNT:

All right?

THE LADY:

Yes.

THE COUNT:

I’m still old-fashioned. I suffer.

THE LADY:

My poor love ... But it was the only way of saving the genetic line of descendants.

THE COUNT:

I understand the Bene Guesserit. The man is a failure... change is needed.

THE LADY:

This wouldn’t have been necessary if Jessica...

THE COUNT:

Don’t complain! The plan for genetic heredity is saved. The Kwisatz Haderach will be born!

THE LADY:

And the Bene Guesserit will dominate the galaxy.

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