You feel yourself soon losing altitude in the ‘thopter, so you bring it into a landing near some rocky outcroppings. You are jerked forward and nearly smash your head on the front; luckily you grabbed onto something so you didn’t.
“I’m alive,” you whisper gratefully, then pound the seat. “Stupid, stupid!”
Now you wish you’d stayed inside.
“Only travel by night,” you recite. “Well it’s day and my ‘thopter’s gone and crashed. What else can I do but go out?”
Stay inside the ornithopter, a voice inside your head says.
“And risk a worm coming to eat me? No thank you.”
You unstrap yourself and check your stillsuit quickly.
Good thing they made us wear these things, you think.
You enter a shallow cave-like shelter. Everything is still and silent. You almost expect to feel dampness, since it’s like a cave.
But you’re not spelunking and this is not a real cave, like on your homeworld. You suddenly have an overwhelming sense of foreboding and charge back out into the blinding light of day. The heat is more intense than the day you arrived, but the stillsuit helps a bit. You drink from one of the catchpockets and make a face at the taste. It’s not the kind of water you’d like to be drinking, but it will keep you alive.
You see a shadow across some dunes. You squint your eyes to see what it might be. An animal perhaps? There goes another! Far too tall and upright to be an animal. Your skin goes clammy with fear. Fremen?
You’ve heard of these people. Powerful and strong, the women and children are as fierce as the men. They can even defeat the emperor’s Sardaukar!
You take a deep breath to calm yourself. Your head snaps up as the flap, flap, flap of an ornithopter’s wings can be heard. You can only hope the pilot is friendly...
It lands a few meters away from you. A man with blonde hair steps out and waves for you to come over. You have no choice but to obey, if only to try and save your life.
“I’m surprised your crash didn’t attract a worm!” the man shouts at you. “Get in!”
He pulls you in harshly and sets back to take off. It takes you a moment but you soon recognize him.
“Gavin,” you breathe.
He smiles your way, obviously relieved. “Yes my friend. We discovered you missing and they sent me out to find you. But hopes were not high.” He turns back to the windshield and continues talking. “No doubt you’ll get a good rebuking.” He pauses, then looks back at you. “Never do that again.”
“Believe me, I won’t,” you reply.
“Did you see anything?”
Your gaze focuses on a point in the rock where you can swear you see someone standing, watching your departure.
“Hello?”
You snap back to attention. “Uh...I thought I did. But I must have imagined it.”
Gavin nods. “Probably. Are you going to be okay?”
You nod. “Yes. I hope they won’t kill me.”
“Believe me. Duke Leto would never do that to you.”
So you hope.
