House Corrino - Entry #1

I think I will be eating through House Corrino, especially since the original Dune book by Frank Herbert is next!!!

I find myself not recalling a lot of the details in this book.  It could be that without having read to the glorious end of the story before, I might have not paid attention to all the details.  I find myself paying more attention to the Tleilaxu characters than before.

This passage early on in House Corrino struck me as particularly important:

Unknown to anyone except Ajidica himself, he had already disseminated hundreds of the tank-bred Face Dancers to strategic locations around the galaxy, transporting them in long-range exploration vessels to uncharted reaches.  The shape-shifters had been developed centuries ago, but their possibilitiies had not been adequately explored.  That was about to change. (House Corrino, p. 36)

Remember the copies of Omnius that were sent out by Omnius Prime?  This connection is not coincidental.

The first clear description of an axlotl tank can be found in House Corrino.  So don't read this passage if you would rather not know.

     Coffin-sized containers held fertile women, their higher brain functions destroyed, their reflexes and senses shut down.  Axlotl tanks.  Nothing more than bloated wombs.  Biological factories far more sophisticated than any machine ever built by a human hand.
     Even back on their primary worlds, the Bene Tleilax grew their gholas and Face Dancers inside these "tanks".  No one had ever seen a Tleilaxu woman -- because none existed.  Any mature female was converted into an axlotl tank, and was used to reproduce the chosen race.

(House Corrino, pp. 115-116)



The Tleilaxu apparently put a lot of resources into maintaining such a secret.  The fact that the rest of humanity finds them distasteful helps them keep everyone at a distance.

So back to Ajidica Fen Hidar, the master Tleilaxu researcher working on the development of a synthetic spice called "amal".  Interestingly enough, he discovers that the amal created by the Miral Alechem axlotl tank creates a higher quality synthetic spice than any of the others.  Miral Alechem was a Bene Gesserit spy sent to Ix.  The first time I read her name, I thought it was Hebrew.  עֲלֵיכֶם is pronounced aleichem and means "upon you". This is often said with the word "shalom", which means "peace" so that shalom aleichem would mean peace be upon you. "Miral" sounds Hebrew also, but as yet I have not figured out what it could mean ... next step is to ask my cousin in Israel.

Ajidica calls the perceived higher quality amal "ajidamal", clearly naming it after himself.  Such self-self-aggrandizement will likely not end well.  I know we have more to come from Ajidica well into the future, but I just can't recall the details.

Time to head outside to read more in the warm sunshine of Spring!!!