DUNE Page #4

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INTERIOR:
HALL OF CALADAN CASTLE. MEMORY

In the half-light, Caladan castle can be seen, silent and tidily furnished. Standing on the spot remembered by Jessica is the Duke, who sees the Reverend Mother coming towards him bringing a woman covered with veils.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

A Bene Guesserit concubine slave. A gift from the Emperor.

The Reverend Mother stands aside discreetly, leaving the veiled woman who is none other than Jessica. Leto draws his sword and approaches the woman.

Gradually, with his sword, Leto prudently lays Jessica bare, taking off veil after veil. First her legs, then her hips, breasts, shoulders, her hair, and finally her face.

They both stare at each other with instantaneous passion. Although he had intended to behead her, the Duke raises his sword; she offers her neck. The Duke brings down his sword with force, stopping only a tenth of an inch from Jessica’s neck. She is impassive, giving herself up to her fate.

The Duke caresses her face with the blade of his sword, then the ends of her breasts, and finally her sex.

INTERIOR:
BENE GUESSERIT TEMPLE. MEMORY

A temple, with an architectural style both Egyptian and futurist. Hundreds of young women are carrying out physico-mental exercises, under the direction of groups of older women. They all have the same religious uniform. A group of the older women are leading a very young Jessica towards the old Reverend Mother.

The temple is filled with esoteric symbols and scientific drawings of genetic origin. The whole atmosphere is a mixture of science and mysticism.

Having arrived in front of the Reverend Mother, Jessica acknowledges her presence with a series of ritual gestures.

Two nuns stick a needle into the upper part of the Reverend Mother’s skull and, with a holy syringe, inject a dose of blue liquid. The Reverend Mother eyes turn white and she begins to speak in an inhuman voice.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

I know where genetic paths come from and where they lead. You will receive the genes of Duke Leto and give birth to a daughter, who will receive the genes of a Harkonnen and give birth to first Bene Guesserit man, the Savior, the Kwisatz Haderach, for whom we have waited four hundred years. Do not break the chain. Give me a daughter.

The older women surround Jessica murmuring a hypnotic chant in an inhuman tone of voice.

INTERIOR:
THE DUKE’S BEDROOM. MEMORY

Leto’s bedroom is like a monastic cell; it has white walls, a wooden bed without either a mattress nor sheets or blankets, and the stump of a tree-trunk for a pillow.

The only ornament on the walls is the six-horned bull’s head and the portrait of the Duke’s father, dressed as a bullfighter.

The Duke is caressing Jessica very platonically, although she is lying naked in his bed. She leans towards him and begins to caress him passionately. The Duke stops her, sadly. He shows her the bull’s head.

DUKE LETO:

This bull killed my father. I jumped into the arena. The animal attacked me. His head has two blood-stained horns; one has the blood of my father, the other the blood of my sex.

Jessica, moved by this confession, embraces him. The Duke is further saddened.

DUKE LETO:

You will never give me a son to continue my House. I am the last of the Atreides.

Jessica, filled with love, passion, and pity, jumps from the bed and opens the windows. A strong wind enters the room; the sky can be seen dotted with stars.

JESSICA:

You will have a son.

Jessica takes Leto’s dagger. She lies down near him and takes hold of his right hand.

She makes a cut in his finger. The blood flows. The wind, like a hurricane, shakes the curtains. Jessica helps the Duke penetrate her with his blood-stained fingers.

INTERIOR:
JESSICA’S VAGINA. MEMORY

Red interior of Jessica’s vagina. The walls of the vagina are throbbing. A drop of blood is moving towards the ovary. The sound of wind and Jessica’s voice chanting a mantra. The drop of blood lodges in the ovary and divides it in two.

The moment of fertilization resembles a cosmic explosion.

INTERIOR:
JESSICA’S DRAWING ROOM. MEMORY

Jessica, pregnant, is sitting near Leto and looking out on to the landscape in bloom.

Leto is talking to her with love and tactfulness.

LETO:

The Major Houses expect me to make an alliance in the shape of a marriage. It is useful to let them continue to foster these hopes. You can only be my mistress.

JESSICA:

(smiling)

We exist only to serve.

LETO:

I will let them foster these hopes, but never shall I take a wife.

The memories fade. Jessica is sitting in the same position, looking, sadly now, out over the landscape, where the crowd can be seen boarding the Guild’s ship. Near her, instead of the Duke, sits the Reverend Mother.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

We ordered you to give birth to a girl and you produced a boy. Through pride. For wanting to be the mother of Kwisatz Haderach, you have thrown the lines of genetic descent into disorder.

JESSICA:

I did it for the Duke. It was important for him.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

You behaved like an animal.

JESSICA:

I shall never regret it.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

Oh but you will regret it. The drug has shown you and your son running away like criminals tracked down by thousands of hunters.

JESSICA:

I knew it. Dune is a trap. I shall pay for my mistake.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

Your son will pay for it with you.

JESSICA:

I shall protect him.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

If you are over-protective, he will never be strong enough to fulfil his destiny. Call him. If he is not the Kwisatz Haderach, it will be a catastrophe.

Jessica goes out.

Jessica opens the door, and lets young Paul into the room. Jessica kneels down in front of the Reverend Mother and touches the ground with her forehead. Paul watches his mother and imitates her.

JESSICA:

(to Paul)

You are going to do everything the Reverend Mother asks.

Paul sits down. Jessica leaves the room looking very worried. The Reverend Mother presses a button and the curtain closes. Half-light.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

Come closer.

Paul comes closer. The Reverend Mother smiles. From the folds of her clothing, she takes out a green metal cube with sides about 6 inches long, and turns it around. One of the sides shows a hollow where no light enters.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

Put your right hand here.

Slowly, Paul puts his hand inside the cube, which begins making an electronic noise.

The old woman, like a beast of prey, puts her right hand on Paul’s neck while holding up the cube with her left hand. Her right hand is holding a strange arm with a needle at its end. Paul tries to move his head to see what it is.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

(in her inhuman voice)

Stop.

Hearing the inhuman tone of the voice, Paul is forced to obey. He remains motionless.

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

You have a Gom Jabbar near your neck. If you take your hand away, you will die in 2 seconds.

Paul tries to calm his feeling of terror.

PAUL:

What’s inside?

THE REVEREND MOTHER:

Suffering.

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