Free Road to Dune by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Page A

the old harvesters, restoring them to greater efficiency. Jesse still needed a lot more equipment, but at least the machines he had should function better after this.
    And word had spread about his offer to pay for passage off-planet to any freedmen, provided House Linkam won the challenge. Many of the sandminers were giddy at the prospect, even the convict laborers who saw this as a sign of hope. Some skeptical men—secret Hoskanner sympathizers?—grumbled that it was a trick, that the devious nobleman would tell any lie to win his bet, but the majority believed him. They wanted to believe … .
    Though he had hoped for solitude, he heard soft footsteps, a gentle movement like wind through a stand of trees … but there were no trees on Duneworld. He turned to find Dorothy looking at him with an expression of concern on her oval face. He had told no one he would be out at the main spaceport, but she always seemed to know where to find him.
    “It’s late, Jesse. Why don’t you come to bed?” Her voice carried a quiet invitation, as it always did, but she would let him decide whether or not they would make love. Often, troubled by the uncertain pressures of this dangerous new venture, he would spend an hour simply holding her before drifting off to sleep.
    “My work is not yet finished for the day.” He stared through the slats of the blast door. The bright moon seemed to beckon him.
    She moved silently, touched his arm. “The day’s work will never be done, Jesse. Nor tomorrow’s. Don’t think of it as an individual task to complete. Each day here is a continuing struggle, a marathon race that we must win.”
    “But if we succeed, Dor, it won’t stop even then.”
    The possibility of winning seemed like a twisted hallucination brought on by the consumption of too much melange. The Hoskanners had been eighteen years establishing their facilities and operations, with no time limit or contest to drive them. Jesse’s choices were death, bankruptcy … or victory. He was in over his head, much like that hapless sandminer Tuek and Gurney had seen sucked into a sand whirlpool.
    Dorothy slipped her arm around his waist. She had always been more than just his lover; she was a sounding board, a trusted advisor whose words and objectivity he could always rely upon. “Would you rather stay here and talk?”
    Jesse could not put words to his thoughts; articulating them would only make his troubles more raw. Instead he changed the subject. “There’s so much we need to know about this world. I’m going to mount an expedition to the forward research base in the deep desert, where the Imperial planetary ecologist has been working for years. Maybe I can learn something I need to know.”
    “How far away is it?”
    His face remained shadowed in the observation tower. “Almost sixteen hundred kilometers south, close to the equator. It’s a research station and test oasis. That’s where most of the deep-desert crews work.”
    “So far away. It’ll be dangerous.”
    Jesse sighed. “Since accepting the Emperor’s challenge, everything I do carries an element of danger. All I can do is forge toward our goal.”
    “Spoken like a true nobleman,” Dorothy said with a wistful smile.
    “And … I’m taking Barri with me. I want him to see the operations. He needs to learn our family business, and it’s never too early to start. We’ll be gone for at least a week.”
    Now she stiffened and drew away. “Not the first time you go out there, Jesse! He’s only eight.”
    “One day he’ll rule House Linkam. I’m not going to pamper him. You do that too much already.”
    “Most noble sons his age aren’t half as advanced as Barri is.”
    “You know how I feel about most of those noble sons.” He snorted. “Because of the position we’re in, Barri has to be ready at all times, for any situation. My father was poisoned, my brother died in a foolish bullfight, and I’ve roused the ire of the Hoskanners. What are the