III - DEEP DIVE

The Emperor Padisha asked three questions of Planetary Governor of Giedi Prime. To verify the authenticity of the Baron’s words, a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit order was present as an Imperial Truthsayer.

—Imperial report of the Harkonnen trial, M5 10192 AG

“Hello, I’m Vefharti, your jockey. Please remove all your clothes and personal possessions and put them in the little box on your left,” he directly explained. “Then you need to put on the deepsuit,” the man indicated to a little room. The jockey was only wearing a translucent blue-tinted suit, which floated around his colourless skin.

“Do I really need to get naked with the suit? And what about the key and the data I need to pick?” Nestor questioned with scepticism.

“Yes, it’s for your and our security. The pressure of the deep waters here will compress the air around you – clothing will absorb the air inside of your suit and strangle you to death. That is why we use the deep-water suit here; the air inside is for your body only. No clothes or third party—and for the key and your data, I have a special storage on my abyssike,” explained the jockey.

Nestor undressed and put on his deepsuit. The room was a small square full of boxes, and on the ground, there was little rectangle of water where an abyssike was floating. The long and thin vehicle was an engine transport with two seats and a storage box on the back.

“All good, sir?” asked the jockey while starting the engine of the abyssike.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Little bubbles of water were entering the engine with a crackling sound.

“Yes,” replied Nestor, jumping on the back seat.

Vefharti pushed the middle controller down, and the abyssike submerged slowly in the long rectangular deep-water airlock.

A few dozen metres down, they got out of the downing zone, and moved slowly forward toward an array of numerous tubes surrounded by the calm sea. They were mostly big and blue, but in the right corner, Nestor observed four little purple tubes.

I wonder where the purple tubes lead. Maybe it’s the Thulu private space.

As they approached the VJ blue tube, the sparkling bubbles respired behind the engine turned into big lines of pressure, like undulating small waves in a burst of movement across the sea. The jockey set the throttle to maximum, and the abyssike leapt into the blue tube in a flash with tremendous speed.

Inside the gloomy and endless tube, the two deepsuit was shining like white pearls wandering in the ocean. Nestor held on tightly to the safety bars built around the back seat, even though his suit was connected with a harness on the submerged bike.

They now had a few hundred kilometres to ride before reaching their destination.

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Meanwhile, above the water, a medium vessel started its landing on a free pad, to the left of one taken by a little Guild controller vessel.

“Remember, get the stolen data at all costs,” grimly commanded Raad Marika, a tall woman with a red uniform belonging to the Harkonnen army.

The shuttle lowered its back door to let out the twenty armed men. They walked with a steady step toward the landing pad.

Virgo awoke with a jolt due to the noisy march of the Harkonnens. He looked through the right window and felt instantly terrorised, seeing Harkonnens arriving in his direction.

“They have found us, by the holy Navigators!” He felt his breath becoming heavier. “I’m dead, and this fool Nestor has not returned. They’re gonna kill me, or worse! They are Har-ko-nnen.” He couldn’t help his anxiety; the fragments of that name echoed with horror in his head. He was trapped like a rat.