A Distant Dune

This is an unfinished tribute continuation of one of my favorite stories, Dune. It reveals certain spoilers for those who haven't read the last two books in the story, so if youd either keep your point of view how Chapterhouse ended, or you want to wait to find out what happens in Hunters and Sandworms of Dune, then read no further.
This is about 7 pages of material that I will continue reworking as I see fit.

Here is, thus far, very raw, A Distant Dune.


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Chapter 1

Hundreds of millions of years had passed. Solar systems collided and divided imploded and ejected massive surges of stentorious power out into the new universe.

The new universe that had changed so long ago when the final Kwizatz-Haderach came to fruition, had become a garden of life and death. Movement and reaction blossomed throughout what was now the omniverse, and Duncan Idaho, since developing his being into the EverSoul, had turned the omniverse into a functioning extension of humanity and thinking machines. The combined force of balance had merged into one spectacular ultimate species, both a hybrid of cold calculation and warm feeling, as close to pure energy as possible for sentient life. The synthesis, combined with all the other manifestations of yin and yang throughout both humanity and the machines, culminated a force that yielded an awe-inspiring creation equally as beautiful as the omniverse itself.

The EverSoul Idaho had lived many times before his final pseudo-eternal reincarnation that now still existed, and despite the battles won and obstacles overcome, there were always more to contend with.

Now a hybrid and ultimate species, what evolved from the combined forces of two evolving species, was now accounted as the inevitability of development. This new species was known simply as O. In every way machines had become human and human had become machine. There were no longer any differential pieces in the ultimate species that were looked upon as alien.

Atreides blood still flowed though a millennia of centuries had passed since the death of Paul and Chani Atreides. Dune had been replenished as the desert planet that produced the spice mélange, but in reflection of it’s own existence, Buzell’s own Seaworms had since also been producing it’s own ultraspice, known now as Ridian. Both planets, have long since ceased to be, but that didn’t stop the flow of the dual-spice.

Both Melange and Ridian had for a long time since the culmination of the Omniverse, been the major foothold as financial and economic production, but after a few millennia of the EverSouls reign, a new intent had been slowly developing among the burgeoning populace spread throughout the many universes. With the implementation of a new path for O, many soon came to realize that wealth no longer meant what it once had, and even control among many planets began to fade. Hierarchies of power could no longer function as it once had been, for there was now a fundamental understanding that with the Omniverse and all species working together, competition was becoming an afterthought. Development was slowing as one final inevitability was etching closer to the ultimate species doorstep.

The Vastness.

In ancient times so long ago, when technology had become advanced enough to see through into the face of the universe, old terran civilizations came to the realization that perhaps one day far far in the future, universes and planets and stars in themselves would create a great distance between one another, emptying the solar systems if they weren’t already going supernova to the point that a vast darkness would overwhelm everything. All light if not already dead or dying, would eventually burn itself out and the species O would one day shed the physical manacles of the grand universe.

And so it was that the O, now almost one mind with the EverSoul seated throughout each extended eye, came to two inevitable conclusions.

Allow the species to die with the expanding universes or physically change the thinning omniverse. In what was referred to as the immediate universe, solar systems were now becoming experiments as O toyed with different and often violently conclusive projects. In one solar system in particular, on a planet that once was called Synchrony and then Synch, where the Bene-Gesserit had continued their operations for so long, now dubbed Gaya in symbolic gesture to the once human cradle of life, Duncan Idaho, the EverSoul, resided, blowing life continually into the center planet.

His form over the years had changed in conjunct to the evolving species, and had even become a flow-flesh form, able to change his appearance just as Face Dances had so long ago. A few centuries ago he had decided to resume the appearances of his old form, Duncan Idaho, Swordmaster to the Atreides. It was who he was at the core. Dissent in all its forms over the many many centuries had diminished not by force, but by sheer evolution in consciousness. The entire species was connected, one single consciousness, though each mind holding individual thought and personality, willingly and inevitably apart of the entirety. Idaho seemed as an anchor of consciousness, no longer the necessity of control for many of the machines, he was more of an observer of himself, with O, only an extension of who he was.

On Gaya, the beautifully green garden planet, Idaho walked between the oak tree’s that stood tall lining the path for him.

An Ob floated down before him though he continued his stride, lost in human thought.

“[Our final projections have come to summation.]” The Ob transmitted. It’s metallic flow metal and spherical body hovered at Idaho’s side as he walked.

“What are the results?” Idaho asked. It wasn’t necessary for him to orally communicate anymore, really with anything or anyone, he was a net of awareness connected to every part of the omniverse, but he liked staying connected as well to his ancient human roots.

“[We have projected that there are four hundred and twenty five solar systems in the immediate universe that will fall out of range for simple life within one more millennia, and seven hundred and fifty six systems that will fall out of range between four to eleven hundred millennia. These are the two extremes in time shared. Vast amounts of systems still keep to a safe span of time before the Vastness truly encroaches upon the entirety. ]” The Ob changed shape as it spoke, reshaping itself into a meta-projection of multiple coordinates throughout the immediate universe. Duncan barely looked at it, needing only to glance his direct sight in order to glean what he needed to. Prescience had developed to such a degree that Duncan rarely needed the transmittal directs to tell him anything, but again, he strived so hard to hold on to his humanity.

He stopped for a moment and walked over to one of the large Oaks. Placing a hand on the rough bark, the tactile sensation grounded his human form and he looked back at the floating Ob.

“And what of our spiral project?”

The Ob transformed into a meta-projection of one solar system in particular. Initially it looked like a normal solar system, but an enhanced animation began to display connections between planets and stars like a connect the dots game with the center star as the beginning point for the connections.

“[There has been success in the O’ryan System. We have implemented Chrone seeds to each planet and Stellar seeds to each star. Thus far immediate success has revealed that the planets control systems throughout O’ryan functioning properly. Terra-flow development has been 95 percent effective. All but one planet adapted to the form changes, with the latter planet already hinged on core collapse, there was no saving it. A no-obliterator enveloped the unstable planet before it’s explosion could effect any of the gravitational netting throughout the rest of the system.]”

“What of the polar and intermediate polar binary’s outside that system?” Duncans voice was a plateau of sound.

The Ob once more shaped into a different meta-projection. This time it showed two separate star systems, each with a white dwarf’s magnetic field creating a polar between the two. One contained an accretion, or disk formation.

“[Exactly as we had predicted the magnetic field of both polars shifted slightly and the intermediates position has not only rotated to a certain scale, but it is now directed it’s own movement toward the O’ryan system.}”

“To what degree?”

“[16.87 AU per 5 millenia, putting the approach time until arriving within the pocket of O’Ryan at another 657 thousand years.]”

“If we can’t speed it up anymore than that then we will have to rely soley on the centering of O’Ryan.”

“[Understood.]”

The Ob hovered off reverting back to it’s original metallic like state leaving Duncan to his thoughts, which were everyone’s thoughts.

~

But they weren’t everyone’s thought’s. Eleven million years earlier there had been a rift in consciousness again. A certain sect of developing intellects had surfaced as the entirety of the species was connecting to the prescience of the EverSoul. This sect, spread throughout a number of planets, had begun to question whether they desired to begin conforming to one physical hive consciousness. Not a hive mind, for each was still of independent thought and action, each individual still their own persona.

Truth and integrity became not only a beacon of humanity, but an inevitability in the evolution of full consciousness for an entire species as a whole. The division of species began to fade and amongst the compressing of life, one final division was formed that was the very balance of nature once again. Man and Woman. Out of every split that has ever existed among intelligence, the one division to remain intact out of the combining creeds, politics and races, was separation of gender. This was the very metaphor for which nature existed, the most symbolic of all totems in the immediate universe and the full omniverse and any verse that may be, has been or ever was.

The emerging sect looked upon this merging colossus of awareness as something that might need to be questioned in it’s ultimate outcome. Duncan could feel the twinge substance in this line of opposition. Having foreseen it as the catalyst for a final conflict before the Vastness was upon them, the EverSoul had made preparations by releasing a stream of prophetic tableau throughout the budding Omniverse, to each of the planets. This would spread a new search for what Duncan saw as the Final Eleven, the Amarynthine, a group of individuals who would be the last bridge before the culmination of consciousness, of all being. It would also initiate a search for the Khayadina-Haderach, the head of the pin, not a messiah, but a stitch in the fabric of reality.

Unlike the Kwizats-Haderach and the Final Kwizats-Haderach, as Duncan had ended up becoming, the Khayadina-Haderach was more a force to bring together the bridge of which the Amarynthine would build into the final days of the Vastness.

Idaho knew through perfect prescience that this sect was not part of the Amarynthine itself, but rather the reason the Amarynthine would be brought forth, to mend the final rift of consciousness before the emptiness came to swallow everything.

Again a war was to take place, and Duncan couldn’t see the outcome, nor whether the emptiness would in fact envelope everything, leaving husks of substance to drift in the absence. Even temperature would be nill. Nothing. A void that only continues to empty itself of the nothing within.

Duncan knew that in comparison to anything else in the history of life itself, nothing is more important than this most crucial cycle of the grand consciousness. Once the emptiness was purified, cleansed thoroughly of all matter. After everything had been destroyed or slowly degraded and disappeared as the final entropy took hold, who knows how long before another spark of awareness collided from the X field, an incomprehensible and immeasurable container for existence itself, creating the Omniverse all over again.

Duncan had realized what this meant, and rather than feed off of an ancient human trait such as ego, he decided to truly test the limits of the consciousness totem and defy natural order itself. He wanted to create a Grand Solar System that could hold itself together in a stable cycle of it’s own, perpetuating life indeterminably.

A long time ago the X field was called many other things. No opinion ever completely formed it’s meaning. Some dubbed it the string or M-Theory, nearly had they understood what it meant when the sum total was labeled, the Theory of Everything. In such an 11-dimensional space-time, prior to the big bang, what would have been conceived as forces that made up existence as what it was prior to the materialization of the universe.

It was known now, that there were truly more than just one universe, hence, the omniverse.

Duncan still couldn’t see around every corner, though the amount of corners available to him were numbering close to infinite, and that is exactly what he wanted.

Chapter 2

Uake had grown up on the furthest edges of the Balign System on a planet known as Redair. Growing up on a planet with two suns and four moons greatly affected the life evolution for the species that resided on the planet. It was only because of the EverSoul that life was able to keep developing on a consistent basis.

Now, traveling on an In-sentient no-lighter, Uake felt that even the EverSoul might still be unable to see into every conscious mind and even more so, every conscious heart. Almost seven hundred and twenty eight years old, Uake could feel time finally inching around him like a stalking predator. In his younger years he had been full of a keen curiosity and was quick to react to circumstances. Such behavior had been bred out of genetic lines for so long, the traits themselves were sought after by the Divided, the sect that Uakes family had been apart of since it’s culmination.

He stared out at the passing white dwarf and imagined himself walking into the burning giant. Uake could feel so perfectly, the sensations his body would undertake in plodding through the massive burning body. In his vision there was a gap of reality, as though the only thing truly separating him imagination from reality, was reality itself, and so far down the evolutionary line, this wasn’t that big of an obstacle to overcome. Much of the species had developed what might have been seen as godly magic in ancient terran times, their abilities to exist in multiple realities, causing true surges of consciousness within their own being, often transmitting themselves wherever they saw fit.

After eons of time within the pith, the O species could almost literally put themselves wherever and often whenever they wanted. It was still a fringe skill that tripped a fancy not many species could come close to. Budding as it were, as the species was finally advancing to its final stages. An emergent consciousness, filled with possibilities.

Yet the possibilities for many, specifically the sect of the Divided, grew so extreme and Unitarian, that many intellects came to the conclusion that possibilities only existed on the basis that there was a separation of material development. “Divided” consciousness as it were. Many of the Divided believed that they weren’t yet ready for Godhood and chose to separate their omniversal connection to the EverMind itself.

Here he was now, drifting silently through the systems, manufactured at this point by Duncan Idaho’s own hand. Uake could only think of his beautiful Savitri. When they had met early on in their lives, Uake was a Tableau among the Divided, gathering intel on EverSoul projects and rationing out Divided populace amongst the revolutionary strategies and tactics. Savitri was much younger that Uake, but her soul projected her age to be that of a thousand years beyond what an average person might be. Her own Ghola being resurrected at least a hundred times, she emitted a striking and almost perfect beauty that shone through eyes and behavior. Uake fell in love with her the moment he met her. Her eyes refracted dichromatic colors, often changing inside the streams of all-blue and green. He remembers touching her fingers as she would hand him systalian crystal sheets. The quant friction between the flesh emitted sparks within him that matched supernovas. In a millisecond he knew they would be together in ways no other person could understand. The smile that crossed her lips in that moment caught the beat of his heart and left him staring into the cosmos out the window just behind her.

“Are you alright?” She asked with a slight knowing.

He was shocked out of his daze and shook his head in a glimmer of repose.

In a amusing fashion he replied, “Yes. I apologize, I was caught without a net for a moment.”

She giggled as she let go of the sheets and walked away, leaving him to ponder on his newly developing feelings.

This woman knows my heart, he thought. It wasn’t so much an obvious statement, as it was a guided acknowledgement of something wonderful happening. Even this far into the future, the species had to cling to it’s most basic roots. Love was the ultimate evolution.

Uake stood looking out through Auzma-Plaz viewing windows staring out into the limitless space. Sister Loria approached him in a courteous gait. Her auburn hair hung to the small of her back, straight and perfect. The robes she wore permitted no form to be seen, and as such, her sisterhoods own intentions for her were hidden from sight. Nobody could see the Dizo Daggers nor her Seta-Wire concealed beneath the clothing.

“Lost in memory?” She asked.

Without averting his gaze Uake replied, “Mmmm, very much so. It’s likely that nobody is able to gaze into the past without gazing into the future.”

Loria’s expression transformed into a smirk and she bowed slightly.

“Is it not a remedy that the unification which the EverSoul seeks to create, that which leaves us to gaze in all directions?” Her question was more of a reminder, as to why they fought for their independence.

Uake turned to her, his distant look now turning to one of determination.

“His intentions are to diminish all forms of independence throughout every system and every universe. There is no reason to separate ourselves from ourselves just so his directive is accomplished.” Uake’s voice became sterile and angry. He continued.

“Why do you remind me of such things?” Uake asked in an exhaustive tone.

Loria seemed to bow ever more deeply.

“I do not remind you of anything that you do not already think upon constantly Return Uake.”

At her reply his eyes searched up and down the hidden figure as if to understand, though he did in fact understand. He then returned to gazing out the windows, losing himself in memories that seemed more real, than his present circumstances.

“Leave me Loria. Please.”

Without saying another word, she bowed deeper than before, almost reaching hip height, and then returned to her full height and walked away down the corridor toward the Main-Station.

I want to feel this anger, and she knows it, he thought.

Commander Return Uake was not a man of single mind, and this was exactly as he wanted.

~

Conduct Rivermane, the living ships on-board equivilant to an ancient Navigator used near the epoch of Kralizec, was shifting in his Ridian Pit. A small portion of what use to be human still protruded through the Ix’lotl tank, resting in a Lymphoneumatic jaw brace. Something of a face was etched into the circuits and crustacean like bark lining where eyes and a mouth might have gone. Some multiple-tube system pulled back over its head where it’s nose could be. The grotesque form below the cuppling bubble within the pit floated in a dirty blue liquid, with something like that of a spice grain floating about. Beyond the blue murk one could distinguish a slight sea horse type frame and fins at the end swimming about in the fluid. Cables and machines running through and into and around into the wall of what at first glace might have seemed as though a cave. Yet upon closer inspection the breathing womb becomes apparent. As if this engorged creature swimming around is built into the inner-lining of a larger creature. The ship. An In-sentient no-lighter, a living ship for which it’s counterpart, the Conducts, acting as prescient navigators and symbiotic brain wave, was capable of both folding space and entering into the null-verse. A universe that long ago Duncan Idaho had navigated the enormous no-ship into out of fear of being trapped in the neural net that Omnius and Erasmus had spread through the universe trying to capture the ship and it’s contents.

Rivermane changed heading, and then announced the news.

{Coordinate heading changed. Orders from High Divider himself, Othueu. Route direction now on rendezvous with eleven In-sentients and their crew near the O’ryan system.}

Uake’s brows furrowed as he gathered his wits attempting to adjust for the new path. Why would the Othueu need the ships near that system? He knew that was a stronger spatial grid for the EverSoul to read. It’s dangerous, Uake thought.

He turned and headed back to his quarters, he had to arrange his things if there was going to be an attack. Bashar Iori would have to be notified of Uake’s thoughts, even though he was sure Iori was getting the message of change in direction at this moment.

Chapter 3

Skirting the edges of the O’ryan system, a lone celestial body was floating through the cosmos. As large as a small planet, it hummed throughout it’s body resonating a low high pitched vibration. Something on the fringe of audible, below the surface of a low resonance thrum. The object was shaped like a four pronged claw with each finger arched in on each other like a dome. Opposite the claw was an extension out from the main hand of the thing. Multiple stations lined out at different sizes protruded from the end of the extension, like buildings throughout a city.