"Frank Herbert - Dune 4 - God Emporer of Dune" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

memories leave no doubt of this.
-The Stolen Journals
THE WOMAN working at the small wall desk was too big for the narrow chair on
which she perched. Outside, it was midmorning, but in this windowless room deep
beneath the city of Onn there was but a single glowglobe high in a corner. It
had been tuned to warm yellow but the light failed to dispel the gray utility of
the small room. Walls and ceiling were covered by identical rectangular panels
of dull gray metal.
There was only one other piece of furniture, a narrow cot with a thin pallet
covered by a featureless gray blanket. It was obvious that neither piece of
furniture had been designed for the occupant.
She wore a one-piece pajama suit of dark blue which stretched tightly across her
wide shoulders as she hunched over the desk. The glowglobe illuminated closely
cropped blonde hair and the right side of her face, emphasizing the square block
of jaw. The jaw moved with silent words as her thick fingers carefully depressed
the keys of a thin keyboard on the desk. She handled the machine with a
deference which had
originated as awe and moved reluctantly into fearsome excitement. Long
familiarity with the machine had eliminated neither emotion.
As she wrote, words appeared on a screen concealed within the wall rectangle
exposed by the downward folding of the desk.
"Siona continues actions which predict violent attack on Your Holy Person," she
wrote. "Siona remains unswerving in her avowed purpose. She told me today that
she will give copies of the stolen books to groups whose loyalty to You cannot
be trusted. The named recipients are the Bene Gesserit, the Guild and the
Ixians. She says the books contain Your enciphered words and, by this gift, she
seeks help in translating Your Holy Words.
"Lord, I do not know what great revelations may be concealed on those pages but
if they contain anything of threat to Your Holy Person, I beg You to relieve me
from my vow of obedience to Siona. I do not understand why You made me take this
vow, but I fear it.
"I remain Your worshipful servant, Nayla."
The chair creaked as Nayla sat back and thought about her words. The room fell
into the almost soundless withdrawal of thick insulation. There was only Nayla's
faint breathing and a distant throbbing of machinery felt more in the floor than
in the air.
Nayla stared at her message on the screen. Destined only for the eyes of the God
Emperor, it required more than holy truthfulness. It demanded a deep candor
which she found draining. Presently, she nodded and pressed the key which would
encode the words and prepare them for transmission. Bowing her head, she prayed
silently before concealing the desk within the wall. These actions, she knew,
transmitted the message. God himself had implanted a physical device within her
head, swearing her to secrecy and warning her that there might come a time when
he would speak to her through the thing within her skull. He had never done
this. She suspected that Ixians had fashioned the device. It had possessed some
of their look. But God Himself had done this thing and she could ignore the
suspicion that there might be a computer in it, that it might be prohibited by
the Great Convention.
"Make no device in the likeness of the mind!"
Nayla shuddered. She stood then and moved her chair to its regular position