DUNE Page #7

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While everyone gets up and makes sure that nobody is hurt, Leto, followed by Jessica and a group of soldiers, enters the gymnasium with a sword in his hand.

Paul, on his knees, his head lowered, sad and depressed, is incapable of weeping.

The Duke draws near him and kneels beside him understandingly. Hawatt, Idaho, Halleck and Yueh move away discreetly. Jessica sits in a corner, hidden in the shade, and listens.

Leto puts his arm around Paul’s neck, drawing him closer. Paul leans on his father.

PAUL:

I have something to tell you, but I can’t...

LETO:

I know. Dune is a deadly trap.

PAUL:

Then why are we going?

The Duke stands up, goes towards a wall and switches on a screen. A long list of figures appear on it.

LETO:

How much does that come to?

Paul gives a quick look and answers unhesitatingly:

PAUL:

Nine million four hundred and seventy five thousand six hundred and eighty nine.

Leto changes the image on the screen, which fills up with a maze of figures in disorder.

LETO:

How many figures are there here?

PAUL:

(after a glance)

One thousand three hundred.

LETO:

How many nines?

PAUL:

Two hundred and fifteen.

LETO:

And fives?

PAUL:

A hundred and sixty four.

Leto switches off the screen and comes back towards Paul.

LETO:

Paul, your brain has the power of a computer. Use that capacity...

He picks up the pieces of the Robot and begins to put them away like tin soldiers.

LETO:

(setting down a large piece)

The Emperor! (surrounding it with pointed pieces) His Sardaukar: the Galaxy’s most powerful army! (He puts three pieces together) The Major Houses. There are not many of them, but they’re rich. (setting down a piece with nuts on it). The Guild! Masters of Industry and Transportation, working for the highest bidders: The Emperor and the Major Houses (opposite, he puts a lot of little separate pieces) The Minor Houses. There are a lot of them, poor and disunited. (pointing to the other group) The only way the Minor Houses have of fighting against this block is to be united, which is not happening because the other side, infiltrating spies and agitators, is inciting internal hate, wars, and the overthrow of governments (He takes a red piece) Duke Leto Atreides ... (he puts it in the middle of those pieces representing the Minor Houses) Being very popular, he can bring about this unity (he brings together the other pieces round the red piece. The block thus created outnumbers the opposing block).

PAUL:

You would break the economic block and the Minor Houses would become the greatest power.

LETO:

The Spice can only grow on Dune (he takes a metal board and puts the red piece on it). They are sending me there so that I fail and production comes to a halt. Then the Emperor and the Major Houses who, through years of smuggling, have accumulated the Spice can sell it at exorbitant prices! And I will lose all my reputation with the Minor Houses (putting all the Minor Houses’ pieces beside the Emperor’s). Our friends will support the Emperor for money (He hits the metal board representing Dune). Even on Dune they will try to sabotage our installations, block our progress, and destroy us.

PAUL:

We’re lost!

LETO:

There is one hope (he pours a pile of screws out on the board, around the red piece). The Fremen’s a warlike race spread out in the desert, who’ve endured, without water, hurricanes, sandstorms, the burning sun, and various persecutions. With their help, we can form an army more powerful than the Imperium’s (he takes the Major Houses’ pieces suddenly off the board). The solution lies in the very heart of the trap. That’s why we are going to Dune. It’s time to leave.

Leto leaves. Jessica comes out of the shadow.

PAUL:

We have one chance in a thousand of surviving!

JESSICA:

(in the inhuman voice)

Attack me!

Paul, forced to attack her despite himself, draws his sword. Still using the Voice, Jessica utters a cry which paralyses his arm. She cries out again and Paul falls down, and again, and now he can finally move. He gets back up.

JESSICA:

Use the Voice. Paralyze me.

PAUL:

I don’t dare to.

JESSICA:

Go on!

Paul cries out fearfully using the Voice. Nothing happens.

JESSICA:

I’m not your mother! I’m an object! An illusion! Free me! Shout!

Paul shouts. Jessica falls on the ground, paralyzed. Paul, alarmed, tries to make her move again. She remains motionless and stiff. Paul cries out twice in vain. The third time he succeeds. Jessica happily gets up, massaging her body and head in the places where the fall had bruised her.

JESSICA:

You’ve already almost mastered the Voice! We’ll survive.

Rain begins to fall on the transparent dome covering the room.

EXTERIOR:
GUILD SPACESHIP - CALADAN

It’s raining. The last of the cargo is being loaded. Weeping families say their goodbyes to the soldiers. A siren can be heard. Before going aboard, the soldiers drink the falling water, their arms open under the rain.

EXTERIOR:
DOORS OF CALADAN CASTLE

It’s raining. Leto, Jessica, Paul, Halleck, Hawatt, Idaho, and Yueh are waiting for the last soldiers to close the castle’s great doors. Leto turns an iron key in the lock. He takes it out and, overcoming his sadness, presses it with both his hands against his heart. He then places the key in a little bag, which he hangs on Jessica’s neck.

EXTERIOR:
CALADAN LANDSCAPE

The big space-ship belonging to the Guild takes off. It becomes a point which soon disappears in the immensity of sidereal space.

EXTERIOR:
STREETS OF ARRAKEEN - DUNE

The little town of Arrakeen is built in the middle of the desert. Nearby, Harkonnen banners are flying on the government palace. The atmosphere is one of heat, dryness, and whirls of wind raising sand-cloud. Half-starved donkeys graze on the rare clumps of grass growing on the dunes. Vultures are eating on a dead camel, lying with its legs in the air.

The Harkonnen army, dressed and made up in a ridiculous manner, is persecuting beggars, massacring them in the streets. Throwing down doors and windows, they murder children, old men, women and disabled people.

Drunk with blood and anger, Rabban the Beast is among them, transported in a chariot drawn by slaves with shells on their backs like horses, and reins in their mouths. Rabban whips them continually to make them run.

Rabban looks up at the sky. He sees the large Guild ship bringing all the Atreides, looking like a distant sphere. He spits towards the sky, not caring that his saliva falls back on his face.

RABBAN:

SONS OF B*TCHES! You’ll get to know Rabban the Beast.

EXTERIOR:
GOVERNMENT PALACE

Opposite the government palace, there is a fountain and a palm grove of twenty trees, surrounded by gates and barbed wire. A crowd of beggars crowd around the fountain as if in a trance and watch the water running with expressions of thirst, adoration, and greed. Others near the palm trees are watching a soldier who is watering the trees with a large bowl mounted on rollers. A gust of wind blows away a few drops of water which fall on the ground, outside the barbed wire. The beggars fight and the victor licks at the little muddy patch of damp sand.

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