The dictatel was a gift certain to please him and served as one of Ix's many counters against the influences of the Bene Gesserit and the Tleilaxu. It also helped to protect Ix's research into the "forbidden" areas of science and technology. By accepting the dictatel, the God Emperor would once again be demonstrating his willingness to ignore their scientists' transgressions. The dictatel designed for Leto had the additional advantage of remote control. The printing and binding machinery, safely hidden in the Citadel catacombs could be activated at will by the God Emperor, regardless of his location. The range has not yet been determined, but must have been at least fifteen hundred kilometers. He therefore could avoid the clumsiness of having to carry some other form of writing implement with him when away from the Citadel and the inconvenience of transcribing his writings on his return, as he had done with his pre-10938 Journals. While Fenrhy worked toward determining the best form of wave for their purposes, Omer modified his invention to the specifica- D1CTATEL 188 DISTRANS tions he had been given the printer would have to be activated by mental command be powered by a far longer lasting energy source than that generally used in laspnnters and be as free as possible from service and up keep The second and third requirements were the easiest to meet and a model mcor poratmg both was ready for inspection with in six moaths Omer had streamlined the functions of his earlier machine reducing the number of moving parts he had also replaced the electromagnetic power pack with one using a long half life radioactive once used in family atomics (Although Ixian records assert that Leto II had not been informed of the dictatel project by this point the fact that any form of radioactive fuel was being used gives the he to that statement The God Emperor had expressly forbidden the use of any type of atomics and it was a rule he had never been known to relax ) Fenrhy s work was both complex and time consuming While he already knew that beta waves functioned best as transmittal waves he had been told the new machine would have to receive accurate transmissions at a distance of fifteen hundred km over three times the distance covered in his earlier models Finally late in 10935, he discovered that beta 2 waves properly coded and amplified were capable of carrying even greater dis tances than that assigned him He took his results to Omer explained what he needed in the printer IB fee way of a receiver and the pair had a functioning model of the dictatel built and ready the following year When ttoey took their machine before the Inquisitors and asked permission to take it to Arrakis m order to demonstrate it to the God Emperor they were sorely disappointed A further requirement one which neither of them had been told was that the dictatel s