Dune: Whipping Mek: A Tale of the Butlerian Jihad by Frank Herbert

Author:Frank Herbert [Frank Herbert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hardcore Sci-Fi, Fantastic fiction, Science Fiction, Epic fiction, Dune (Imaginary place), Dune (Imaginary place) - Fiction, Space Opera
Published: 2011-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

Awkwardly, Vergyl set his hastily grabbed staff on the deck. His face flushed hot with embarassment. “That makes sense.”

“Chirox is just a surrogate enemy, a target to fight. He represents all thinking machines in my mind.”

“Like a whipping boy.”

“A whipping mek.” The mercenary smiled. “We can set it to various fighting levels for training purposes.” He stepped closer to the ominous-looking combat robot. “Stand down.”

The robot lowered its weapons-studded limbs, then retracted them into its core, even the impaired arm, and stood waiting for further commands. With a sneer, the man slammed the hilt of his pulse sword against the mek’s chest, knocking the mek backward a step. The optic-sensor eyes flickered orange. The rest of the machine’s face, with its crudely shaped mouth and nose, did not move.

Confidently, the man tapped the metallic torso. “This limited robot—I dislike the term thinking machine—is totally under our control. It has served the mercenaries of Ginaz for nearly three generations now.” He deactivated his pulse sword, which was designed to scramble the sophisticated gelcircuitry of a thinking machine. “I am Zon Noret, one of the fighters assigned to this ship.”

Intrigued, Vergyl ventured closer. “Where did you find this machine?”

“A century ago, a Ginaz salvage scout found a damaged thinking machine ship, from which he retrieved this broken combat robot. Since then, we’ve wiped its memories and reinstalled combat programming. It allows us to test ourselves against machine capabilities.”

Noret patted the robot on one of its ribbed metal shoulders. “Many robots in the Synchronized Worlds have been destroyed because of what we learned from this unit. Chirox is an invaluable teacher. On the archipelago of Ginaz, students pit their skills against him. He has proved to be such an advantage and a repository of information to utilize against our enemy that we mercenaries no longer refer to him as a thinking machine, but as an ally.”

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