Ahira's Hangar

You did a great job! Especially given that, while Hawat and the Fremen are both speaking English, they are clearly speaking in different languages!

This chapter really shows how very different the Fremen are...everything - and I mean everything - comes down to one very basic commodity - water. The crucible of Arrakis has changed them into something as ruthless as the planet itself...

Yes, it is very tragic that Hawat, despite his obsession with truth, has made one huge mistake - thinking that the very innocent Lady Jessica is the Atreides traitor.

I also have the feeling that, depsite the evidence of the Sardauker fighting alongside the Harkonnen, that Hawat still has not fully realized the extent to which the Emperor collaborated with the Harkonnen. He is still thinking about the costs of the ships, the fighters, etc. and the impact of that cost on Harkonnen finances. Maybe I am dead wrong, but I do not think it ever really and truly sinks in that this was a Harkonnen/Corrino partnership action. And that was the real underestimate on the part of the Atreides - they never thought or planned beyond their obsession with the Harkonnen to see what their actions and the build-up of their military was doing to other Houses - in this case, threatening Imperial power (or at least becoming a threat in Shaddam's mind) and bringing the Imperial House into partnership with the Harkonnen against the Atreides.

In short, the Atreides obsession with the Harkonnen made them blind to even greater threats - and perhaps, even brought into being even greater threats.

Truly Shakespearean hubris in action...

Great chapter, and good posts. I've always loved that moment of realisation, when the Atreides men realise what the Fremen are talking about.

And the use of the bat...how it turns out that the voice of the cilago isn't just a metaphor, but an actual fact. The adaptability and resourcefulness, and yes, the...not brutality..but pragmatism, of the Fremen are always a wonderful part of the story for me.

--A