"Dune 03 - Whipping Mek (Short Story)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

injured, yet remained aboard the battered ship, refusing to accept help for

himself until all of his personnel were tended to? Both of those scenarios would

have fit Xavier’s personality.

For hours, Vergyl refused to slow down, unable to fully grasp what these

jihadi fighters had been through. Sweating and exhausted, he worked himself

into a trancelike stupor, following orders, helping one after another of the

wounded, burned, and despairing refugees.

He heard muttered conversations that told of the onslaught that had wiped

out the small colony. When the thinking machines had attempted to absorb the

settlement into the Synchronized Worlds, the Army of the Jihad had sent its

defenders there.

DUNE: WHIPPING MEK

3

Peridot Colony had been but a skirmish, however, like so many others in

the dozen years since Serena Butler had originally rallied all humans to fight in

her cause, after the thinking machines murdered her young son, Manion. Xavier’s

son.

The ebb and flow of the Jihad had caused a great deal of damage to both

sides, but neither fighting force had gained a clear upper hand. And though the

thinking machines continued to build fresh combat robots, lost human lives

could never be replaced. Serena gave passionate speeches to recruit new soldiers

for her holy war. So many fighters had died that the Jihad no longer publicly

revealed the cost. The struggle was everything.

Following the Honru Massacre seven years earlier, Vergyl had insisted on

joining the Army of the Jihad himself. He considered it his duty as a human