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.Now she could speak the truth.That was always much easier andoften the most powerful argument."Our survival in the face of the storm that is brewing among the ScatteredOnes," she said."Tleilaxu survival, too.The farthest thing from our desiresis an end to those who preserve the Great Belief."Waff cringed.She spoke it openly! Then he understood.What matter if othersheard? They could not see through to the secrets beneath her words."Our breeding mothers are ready for you," Odrade said.She stared hard into hiseyes and made the handsign of a Zensunni priest.Waff felt a tight band release itself from his breast.The unexpected, theunthinkable, the unbelievable thing was true! The Bene Gesserit were notpowindah! All the universe would yet follow the Bene Tleilax into the TrueFaith! God would not permit otherwise.Especially not here on the planet ofthe Prophet!Bureaucracy destroys initiative.There is little that bureaucrats hate morethan innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the oldroutines.Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept.Who enjoys appearing inept?-A Guide to Trial and Error in Government, Bene Gesserit Archives The reports, the summations and scattered tidbits lay in rows across the longtable where Taraza sat.Except for the night watch and essential services,Chapter House Core slumbered around her.Only the familiar sounds ofmaintenance activities penetrated her private chambers.Two glowglobes hoveredover her table, bathing the dark wood surface and rows of ridulian paper inyellow light.The window beyond her table was a dark mirror reflecting theroom.Archives!The holoprojector flickered with its continuing production above the tabletop --more bits and pieces that she had summoned.Taraza rather distrusted Archivists, which she knew was an ambivalent attitudebecause she recognized the underlying necessity for data.But Chapter HouseRecords could only be viewed as a jungle of abbreviations, special notations,coded insertions, and footnotes.Such material often required a Mentat fortranslation or, what was worse, in times of extreme fatigue demanded that shedelve into Other Memories.All Archivists were Mentats, of course, but this didnot reassure Taraza.You could never consult Archival Records in astraightforward manner.Much of the interpretation that emerged from thatsource had to be accepted on the word of the ones who brought it or (hateful!)you had to rely on the mechanical search by the holosystem.This, in its turn,required a dependency on those who maintained the system.It gave functionariesmore power than Taraza cared to delegate.Dependencies!Taraza hated dependency.This was a rueful admission, reminding her that fewdeveloping situations were ever precisely what you imagined they would be.Eventhe best of Mentat projections accumulated errors.given enough time.Still, every move the Sisterhood made required the consultation of Archives andseemingly endless analyses.Even ordinary commerce demanded it.She found thisa frequent irritation.Should they form this group? Sign that agreement?There always came the moment during a conference when she was forced tointroduce a note of decision:"Analysis by Archivist Hesterion accepted."Or, as was often the case: "Archivists' report rejected; not pertinent."Taraza leaned forward to study the holoprojection: "Possible breeding plan forSubject Waff."She scanned the numbers, gene plans from the cell sample forwarded by Odrade.Fingernail scrapings seldom produced enough material for a secure analysis butOdrade had done quite well under the cover of setting the man's broken bones.Taraza shook her head at the data.Offspring would surely be like all theprevious ones the Bene Gesserit had attempted with Tleilaxu: The females wouldbe immune to memory probing; males, of course, would be an impenetrable andrepellent chaos.Taraza sat back and sighed.When it came to breeding records, the monumentalcross-referencing assumed staggering proportions.Officially, it was the"College of Ancestral Pertinence," CAP to the Archivists [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]