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

being, even without his connection to Xavier and the martyred child, Manion. At

their estate on Salusa Secundus, his parents had tried to make the young man

wait, since he was barely seventeen, but Vergyl would hear none of it.

Returning to Salusa after a difficult skirmish, Xavier had surprised their

parents by offering a waiver that would allow underage Vergyl to begin training

in the army. The young man had leaped at the opportunity, not guessing that

Xavier had his own plans. Overprotective, Segundo Harkonnen had seen to it

that Vergyl received a safe, quiet assignment, stationed here on Giedi Prime

where he could help with the rebuilding work—and where he would stay far

from any pitched battles against the robotic enemy.

Now Vergyl had been in Giedi City for years, rising minimally in rank to

second decero in the Construction Brigade . . . never seeing any action.

Meanwhile, Xavier Harkonnen’s battleships went to planet after planet,

protecting free humanity and destroying the mechanized legions of the computer

evermind Omnius. . . .

Vergyl stopped counting all the bodies he’d moved. Perspiring in his dark

green uniform, the young construction officer and a civilian man carried a

DUNE: WHIPPING MEK

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makeshift stretcher, hauling a wounded mother who had been rescued from her

devastated prefab home on Peridot Colony. Women and children from Giedi

City hurried among the workers and wounded, offering water and food.

Finally, in the warm afternoon, a ragged cheer penetrated Vergyl’s dazed

focus, as he set the stretcher down in the midst of a triage unit. Looking up, he

drew in a quick breath. At the warship’s main entrance ramp, a proud military