DUNE Page #6

---

With a greedy look on his face, licking his lips, the baron serves out pieces of the planet.

THE BARON:

A piece of desert? A hurricane? A spice-field? A mountain chain? A giant sand-worm?

Peter nods to Uman Kudu. Crack of the whip. A curtain draws back. A group of Guild officials surrounds a wooden case like the cases they used for packing various objects at Caladan castle. They open the case, which they spread out on the floor in the shape of a cross.

There lies Dr. Wellington Yueh, asleep.

The Guild members stick a small tube into Yueh’s mouth. They pour liquid down it. Yueh wakes up. The Guild men, forming a compact group, come together in a corner of the room. Peter nods again to Uman Kudu. Crack of the whip. On a rolling platform, servants bring a slave, standing fastened against a pillar, an adolescent looking like saint Sebastian.

Yueh sits down in a Yoga meditation position. Motionless, he waits for what comes next.

Peter takes a cross-bow gun loaded with arrows and gives it to Yueh. Uman Kudu grabs hold of Yueh’s arms to stop him shooting off in a false direction.

PETER:

Dr. Yueh, shoot this slave!

Yueh smiles gently and points to the diamond inlaid in his forehead.

YUEH:

The Suk School. Imperial conditioning. Mutilated aggressivity. I cannot kill.

PETER:

Any conditioning can be eradicated. All that’s needed is a means of pressure.

Nod. Crack of the whip. A wall rises, revealing a torture room. The prisoner of a complicated and sadistic machine, Wanda is revealed naked. She is fourteen years old.

YUEH:

(beside himself)

Wanda!

(to the Guild’s men)

Hypocrites! Traitors!

(to the Harkonnens)

Murderers!

PETER:

Dr. Yueh’s love for his wife will be our means of pressure.

Vladimir and Feyd applaud Peter like for a play at the theatre.

Yueh, having suddenly calmed down, sits back again in a position of mediation. He remains impassive, but tears are running down his checks.

In the torture room, Peter reveals a strangely shaped machine, joined by a tube to an energy source. He moves the machine on to one of Wanda’s hands. A ray light crackles. Wanda screams with pain and faints. Her hand whitens, becomes covered with an icy film, hardens, and changes into crystal.

Peter takes hold of a small hammer. Yueh cries out. Peter brakes the glass hand. Wanda’s stump can be seen. Yueh groans in despair. Again, Uman Kudu gives him the cross-bow gun. Yueh tries to shoot the slave. But he is overcome with epileptic shaking. With his mouth foaming, he falls down on the ground. He is helped up. He cannot kill.

Peter freezes one of Wanda’s ears. It changes into crystal and he breaks it. He then aims for Wanda’s breast with the intention of transforming it into crystal.

Yueh takes the crossbow and riddles the slave with arrows; he dies like Saint Sebastian.

THE BARON:

You are to kill Duke Leto Atreides.

Yueh nods his assent. Vladimir motions to Peter to stop the torture.

THE BARON:

You are also to kill his son and his mistress.

PETER:

Not Jessica! You promised me!

THE BARON:

I sometimes forget that a Mentat murderer has a human body.

The Guild officials send Yueh to sleep. They shut him in the case and carry him away. Before going to sleep, Yueh, in despair, saw the torture room wall close, separating him from Wanda.

The baron, satisfied, finishes off his sorbet, yawns, and looks lustfully at Feyd. He pulls on a cord. The floor opens revealing a canal full of water. There are walls, giving out on to two tunnels. The water brings along a gondola, composed of two horses with the bodies of gold sea serpents. The back of the seats are made to look like two mammoth animals.

The baron turns out the lights. In the darkness of the bedroom, a false sky dotted with stars can be seen. Only the boat is lit up. The baron goes aboard and sends Peter away.

THE BARON:

Your salary.

Uman Kudu gives Peter a clock-face of 24 full syringes. The baron and Feyd, sitting in the boat, go out through the tunnel while Peter avidly injects himself with a dose of spice.

The baron leans his nephew’s head on his shoulder.

BARON:

(murmuring sensually)

They have all betrayed Leto. We shall betray them all. The Harkonnens can be emperors, too.

The gondola disappears in the darkness of the tunnel.

INTERIOR:
PAUL’S GYMNASIUM

A gymnasium. Weights, ladders, ropes, trapeziums, etc.. On the walls, anatomical engravings and very advanced geometrical studies can be seen.

On a table, two by two, are all kinds of arms: pickaxes, and masses of arms, sticks, hooks, saws, etc..

On a platform, dressed as Masters at Arms, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, Thufir Hawatt and Wellington Yueh are all sitting in great ceremony, together with a mysterious individual wearing a large hat and full clothes. Impossible to see who he is. His hand is rhythmically waving a fan.

Paul, dressed for combat, with his shield, sword-belt and sword, bows in front of his masters. He raises his head and makes as if to speak, but the stranger’s presence stops him. He seems very sad.

HAWATT:

Speak. He’s a friend.

PAUL:

We are leaving for Caladan today. I’d prefer not to have a lesson.

Idaho gives a violent roar and, with a punch, knocks him down.

IDAHO:

Don’t mix feelings and fighting. Happy or sad, the Harkonnen won’t spare your life. If you can’t defend yourself you might as well die straight away.

Hawatt moves towards the stranger, takes the fan away from him, as well as his hat. A faceless ball of steel appears: It’s a robot!

THUFIR:

This robot will judge your courage, your speed, and resistance. You cannot defeat him. If you try, you’ll die. The longer the fight lasts, the more he’ll confirm his superiority over you and the better he’ll attack.

Thufir Hawatt opens a window in the robot’s head. He reveals a microphone micro-cell.

THUFIR:

What’s your name?

PAUL:

Paul.

THUFIR:

He has recorded your voice. From now on, you alone can stop the fight.

Thufir pushes a button. The machine gets up, draws its sword, and slowly comes face to face with Paul. It records each of his movements, the sound of his breathing, the beat of his heart. Paul attacks the robot and tries to throw him to the ground. The machine, clumsy as first, becomes more agile and stronger as it records Paul. The robot falls down and gets back up, each time more powerful. The fight becomes faster and more sustained. The robot records each blow, movement, or noise made by Paul. The combat is now taking place at a giddy rate. Paul doesn’t want to surrender. He feels himself overcome by a suicidal euphoria. The robot becomes monstrously aggressive.

THUFIR:

That’s enough!

DUNCAN:

Stop him!

Paul continues fighting. The machine’s capacities are increasing. Paul falls down. As he dodges it, a blow of the robot’s sword cuts the table in two and splits open the floor.

Thufir breaks a pane of glass and takes out a laser rifle. Idaho and Halleck throw themselves on to Paul and make him roll across the floor. Thufir shoots. The robot explodes, throwing its smoking parts out on to the ground.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes