Landing the ornithopter in the dock, everybody began exiting.
Leto stepped out last and walked to Jack first and grabbed his shoulders.
"You handled yourself well out there," Leto said.
"Get yourself checked and get some rest." He said, patting Jack's shoulders before walking past him, "Dr. Kynes," Leto called out.
Leto walked closer to her. He wasn't furious rather he was very annoyed.
"You saw it with your own eyes, what they left us is in shambles. If Paul hadn't warned us, we would have lost the crew and the harvester, they have set us up to fail..." Leto said.
"The carryall was just old, the desert is not kind to equipment," Kynes calmly responded. She seemed to be expecting Leto's fury, but that never came.
Leto was silent for a few moments.
"House Atreides will use its own funds to repair the equipment. No harvesting will happen until all equipment is in usable conditions, we can not risk any more incidents like today" Leto said before walking away, leaving a silent Kynes standing there a little stunned.
...
"Thufir, what is our current stockpile of essential resources?" Leto asked walking into his office, still wearing the stillsuit around his body.
"Sire, we currently have enough supplies for House Atreides to operate for approximately three months. It is difficult to increase ordering from Choam without alerting the emperor to our actions, so the process is slow."
"Three months is insufficient, we need to be prepared, Increase it to four months of essentials by the end of this month. What is the status of stillsuit production?
"Sire, research is moving very smoothly and we will have display-ready stillsuits by the end of the week," Thufir replied.
"How long until we are production-ready?"
"Sire, estimations show that we will be production-ready by the end of the month."
Leto nodded, but a frown was still prominent on his face.
"Thufir... on today's expedition to observe the Harvestor in action, we almost lost the crewmen and the Harvestor due to a faulty carryall," Leto said.
"I need you to halt all harvesting and refining.... I am willing to use our personal wealth on this."
"Thufir, I want every piece of equipment on this planet operating at Atreides standards as soon as possible. No more incidents like today." Leto ordered.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"I understand Sire," Thufir's eyes flickered white for a moment before he spoke, "With our current finances, we have a leeway of nearly 3 months where we can comfortably be non-operational." Thufir said," That is enough time to ensure everything is upto Atreides standards," he said as he turned around and exited the room.
"Good," Leto said.
...
In a room, Jack sat, with his back hunched over, Yeuh standing beside Jack, his fingers pressing into Jack's back.
His fingers moved around as he observed if everything was internally fine, Yeuh's eyes were shut yet prominent dark circles were visible around his eyes.
Jessica was standing not too far away worried about Jack, waiting for Yeuh's check-up to end.
A few silent moments passed before Yeuh moved his hands back and his eyes opened, they were slightly bloodshot, but Yeuh behaved calmly.
Jack straightened his back and stared at Yeuh.
'He doesn't look like he has slept in a while,' Jack thought to himself.
"Spice particles are present in the air of Arrakis. You inhaled enough to trigger a vision. For most people the amount would be insignificant, but you are highly sensitive to spice." Yeuh spoke about his observation.
'Yea right, I faked that vision,' Jack wanted to scoff and say, but he didn't.
"Thank you Dr. Yeuh," Jessica said softly.
Yeuh nodded and left the room while Jessica sat beside him.
Her hand rested on his.
"How do you feel?" she asked calmly.
"I feel fine" Jack simply said as he stood up and began heading for the door.
"Wait," Jessica called out.
Jack paused and turned around.
"Tell me about the vision," Jessica asked quietly.
"As Dr. Yeuh said, it's the spice that caused it," Jack said with a shrug.
"You know it's more than just spice," Jessica said with a bit of seriousness.
'She really doesn't wanna let it go,' Jack thought to himself as he let out a sigh.
"I don't know, it used to happen when I sleep only, but recently it started happening when I am awake," Jack said.
Jessica was silent for a few moments.
"Can I leave now?" Jack asked and Jessica just quietly nodded.
'She's asking because she genuinely wants to know. Whether that's as Paul's mother or as Bene Gesserit, I can't tell. Either way, the less she knows, the better.' Jack thought to himself as he exited the room.
Walking through the dim hallways Jack arrived at his room's door.
Pushing the door open, A feeling flared up within him.
Something felt wrong.
The air behind the door was wrong.
Jack's heartbeat spiked.
Taking a step forward.
His eyes for just a moment saw a hand holding a needle stabbing from behind the door.
Stepping back, he barely avoided the needle.
His hand reached to his waist to turn on the shield but his hand was moving too fast and knocked it out of the belt.
Another attack came at him from the door.
A hand appeared from beside the door and threw the needle towards him aiming at his neck.
He moved his neck but it still managed to graze him.
Jack didn't stop for a moment, he reached out and shut the door with a bang.
Crouching to the ground, Jack grabbed the shield and activated it. The hum sounded as the blue shield activated.
Jack gripped the door, pushed it open and rushed inside.
Turning to see who was behind the door, he saw Yeuh who was staring at Jack wide-eyed.
Anger shot through the roof in Jack's heart.
Jack didn't think.
He moved.
He rushed forward and landed a heavy punch on Yeuh's face, knocking him to the ground.
Jack watched Yeuh drop with heavy breaths.
"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed seeing Yeuh lying down on the ground.
"Wait… something's wrong." Jack suddenly muttered, through his anger he noticed something odd.
He was rapidly losing strength in his body.
His heart panicked.
"What is going on..." Jack muttered for a moment before he felt his legs go weak.
