This is my last entry for Hunters of Dune. Then on to Sandworms of Dune and Kralizec and the end of our collective journey.
There is one last hint about the Outside Enemy before the secrets of the Outside Enemy and the Oracle of Time are revealed. The no-ship had come across a promising looking planet, perhaps one that some of the Ithaca passengers could settle on. The rabbi, Sheeana, ghola Miles Teg, and ghola Thufir Hawat, went down to the planet to inspect. They found that the habitants were "Handlers" who had created Futars to hunt Honored Matres. Thinking that if they share the same enemy, they must be friends, they cautiously accepted the Handlers hospitality. But things just didn't seem right. And here is the hint ... at one point Teg recognized that the trees in the forest "had been laid out in a precise order, carefully staged to present an appearance of "geometrical naturalness"". (Hunters of Dune, p. 448) He then came to a Mentat projection: "although the original planters of this seeping forest had strived to create the appearance of wildness, they had not been able to get past their innate sense of order". (Hunters of Dune, p. 448)
Then come the revelations in the climax of this book.
The old man nodded in satisfaction. "The incursion will proceed with greater vigor now. Once we begin to engage in direct battles, I will not allow you to waste time, energy, or imagination on such stage shows."
The old woman flicker her fingers as if to knock away an insect. "My amusements cost little, and I have never lost sight of our overall goal. Everything we see and do contains an element of illusion, in one form or another. We simply choose which layers to unveil." She shrugged. "But if you continue to nag me about it, I would be happy for us to revert to our original forms whenever you like."
In a blink, all of the realistic images were gone and the two found themselves standing in the midst of the immense kaleidoscopic metropolis.
"We have waited fifteen thousand years for this," the old man said.
"Yes, we have. But that isn't really very long fur us, is it?"
(Hunters of Dune, p. 513)
And then in the very next chapter, the Oracle of Time is searching for the no-ship and its precious cargo.
Trillions of humans over tens of thousands of years had exhibited a latent racial prescient ability. In myths and legends, the same prediction kept cropping up -- the End Times, titanic battles that signaled epic changes in history and society. The Butlerian Jihad had been one such battle. She had been there, too, fighting against the terrific antagonist that threatened to obliterate humanity.
Now, that ancient Enemy was returning, an all-powerful foe that the Oracle of Time had sworn to destroy back when she was a mere human named Norma Cenva.
(Hunters of Dune, p. 515)There you have it. The ancient Enemy ... two characters ... Omnius and Erasmus. The Oracle of Time ... the humble visionary Norma Cenva.