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Man of Two Worlds

Frank Herbert
Brian Herbert

May 1986



This book is dedicated with gratitude to Hal Cook and Jeanne Ringgenberg





If every Dreen dies, the universe collapses, for all life and all matter are sustained by Dreen idmaging.

-- The Touchfinger Tabloids, Dreenschool curriculum


Ryll felt no pain on awakening, and he did not remember the collision. His mind groped for reality. What was the odd surface under him?

I am on a Far Voyager deck, he thought.

The surface where he lay felt slippery with viscous liquid. Something approximating gravity held him down. His Dreen senses suggested he was caught in an erratic spin but it was more than that, perhaps the gravitation of a planet as well, and he could not understand why he returned to consciousness this way -- his eyes swiveled inward to darkness.

I am a Dreen.

It was a clear thought and suggested things not in immediate memory. His brain ached as badly as from a bazeel hangover. Urgency tugged at him but he did not want to face it. Better to consider what it meant to be Dreen.

Was it good to be Dreen?

I can idmage.

Despite this Dreen creative power, he now saw little that was graceful or pleasing in his native flesh, an observation that struck him as peculiar.

But Dreen mind powers could create new matter (even stars with planets) and new life forms. He could shapeshift his body into that of any other creature, changing functions and appearance entirely.

Why then, Ryll asked himself, did Dreens look so similar -- lumpy ovoid bodies with four concealed legs and two arms with six-fingered hands extruded only when needed?

Even Habiba, Supreme Tax Collector of Dreenor and the oldest Dreen, could not explain this peculiarity. She said the reasons for Dreen shape and powers were lost in prehistory. Dreens, Habiba explained, were similar to other life forms in this limited knowledge about themselves.

An intrusive buzzing and clanking sound interrupted these reflections.

Odd sounds. Patricia at work?

What a strange name for a semisentient spaceship: Patricia. That had been his first reaction. It was not a name a Dreen spoke easily even after creating the requisite vocal system in his malleable body.

Patricia?