eyond the capabilities of the new technology and so they were reluctantly forced to take their research elsewhere But within a century of their leaving, the riches of Komos-now known by its inhabitants as Ix (denved from an ancient system of reckoning which identified the number we know by the symbol 9 as Ix)-had combined with the benefits of the finest scientific work being done in a technologically devastated universe to make of the planet something unique In effect Ix had become a research and development center for all types of scientific inquiry The most extraordmarv care was exercised to IX1AN NO ROOMS maintain the appearance of a bucolic world devoted to agriculture All scientific centers and the few manufacturing complexes permit ted were concealed below ground Above ground all one saw was the life of the farmer and the rancher By 25 B G the Ixians had begun to venture back into the settled worlds Their trips were solely exploratory, made in order to judge the state of civilization withm the rest of human society and to ascertain if there was any threat to their anonymity The possibility of trade in technological items was discussed but firmly rejected when the depth of feeling regarding the Jihad and computing machines was determined The deliberate isolation of Ix continued until the first century^ of the rule of House Comno Once the Impenum had been estab hshed and the Spacing Guild had remtroduced space travel into common use the situation of Ix changed It became apparent that in time their system would attract the attention of an expansionary society earned through the stars by the Guild Once then machines were discovered, as they would be ultimately, the Ixians had no doubt of their fate Ix would be destroyed In order to avoid annihilation, the Ixians made the first move themselves With a caution equalled only by the first contacts of the Guild with the Impe rial house, the Ixians seat Em ambassador to Emperor Saudir I in 55 Once the shock of the news had been assimilated, the possibilities of the situation became obvious If a controlled source of technology were available to the Imperial house, the Guild, and the Great Houses they could have the advantages of machines without their dangers to the sociopolitical system Any other solution, such as any one of the powers of the Impenum seizing con trol of Ix, would destabilize the Impenum An arrangement was made Ix would remain isolated, the Guild would make certain that no unapproved visitors reached the system of EntJaai A The Ixtans would continue to exploit Richese and Richese would become the manufacturing center for Ix The inter ests of all parties were served by these bal anced concessions, so typical of the Impenum This state of affairs obtained throughout the millennia of the domination of House Comno After the defeat of House Comno by the Atreides and the subsequent ascension of Leto II the position of Ix changed little except that it became increasingly public During the last few centuries of Leto s reign however the policies of the emperor with respect to Ix underwent a subtle but consis tent change Leto ceased to enforce so strict ly the ban against thinking machines and even began to use certain Ixian products himself which would have been anathema in his early reign Ix was also tacitly permitted to begin investigation and experimentation with machines which had the potential to replace Guild navigators The scientists of Ix believed that Leto was unaware of their prog less on these construUions, indeed he was clandestinely assisting Ihem by providing them with certain necessary ores and alloys through private channels which the Ixians believed to be their own discovery Leto s attitude toward Ix was at least as ambiguous as that of other powers whose existence Leto permitted The entire ques tion of maintaining a powerful interstellar civilization without the use of computers or other thinking machines has troubled humani ty since the dajs of the Butlcnan Jihad Whatever the ultimate solution of the problem surely one of the great ironies of history lies in the fact that the planet which conceived the anti machine Jihad also birthed the su preme technology of Ix FM Further references BUTLERIAN JIHAD IMPFRIUM FEUD ALPATTfcRNSOF RC Neltan The identity of the Planets Komos and h m the Light of the Rakis Hoard (Mukan Lothal) IXIAN MO ROOMS An effect produced by devices developed by the Ixians at least as early as 13500 for the concealment of ob jects within an area or of the area itself MODERN NO ROOMS A modern no room variable in size consists of the space com mon to pairs of doubled near concentric spheres of oscillating Holtzman Effect fields (see Diagram 1) Each sphere is composed of two overlapping shells oscillating in har mony ( A and a for example or B and b ) Each shell has two variable properties function (to absorb or emit radi IXIAN NO-ROOMS 352 IXIAN NO-ROOMS ant energy) and frequency (the rate of oscillation).