fac tured Every member of the troop at the earliest possible age, was expected to contribute Fremen children scarcely taller than the plants they policed were taught to check dew collectors and remove dead or dying growths, and began instruction in the workings of Arrakis s ecology at age five Kynes's own son, known by his troop name of Liet was no exception Mitha, the boy's mother died shortly after his birth m 10156, and Kynes allowed the child to be brought up among the odier children of Sietch Tabr Liet along with his peers, divided his time between in sietch education and work at the various plantings Kynes knowing himself to be under more or less constant surveillance by the Harkon nens, stayed away from the palmanes But his was still the guiding hand, and when the reports from his Fremen (in 10160) indicated that the second-stage plantings were now thriving he ordered the process advanced Candellilla, saguaro, and bis naga or barrel cactus, were next in line, followed in 10163 by camel sage onion grass, gobi feather grass, wild alfalfa, burrow bush, sand verbena, evening primrose, incense bush, ARRAKIS, ECOLOGY ARRAKIS ECOLOGY smoke tree, and creosote bush Not all vane-ties took equally well at every site, but by 10167 each of the palmanes had more than tripled its original groundcover area, with increasingly large amounts of water being successfully tied into the root systems Animals were imported next kit fox, kangaroo mouse, desert hare, and sand terrapin to burrow and keep the soil aerated, desert hawk, dwarf owl eagle, and desert owl to keep the bmrowers from overrunning the sites, scorpions, centipedes, trapdoor spider, biting wasp, and wormfly to fill other necessary ecological niches, and the desert bat, to keep the insects under control Finding the proper balances among the new arrivals took only two years--the ecolo-gtst Flymen having learned their lessons well- and the palmanes were readied for their most crucial stage More than 200 selected food plants, including coffee, date palms, melons, cotton, "and various medicmals, were smuggled in from off-planet and dispersed among the palmanes Knowing how vital to their goal the surviv al of these plants was, the Fremen worked harder than ever In some cases, round-the-clock watches were set up over newly planted areas to ensure their safety from raids by the nocturnal rodents Whenever a plant failed, the remains were as carefully examined as an aulopsied emperor Information was routed back to Kynes chiefly through his son, who had become a sandnder at die usual age of twelve Liet's powers of memory and observation were good, and over the next three years he carried increasingly encouraging reports to his father Of the varieties planted, over a hun dred had been successfully cultivated without major change Of those which remained seventy five had been discovered to be adapt able to Arrakis, through grafting, crossbreeding, or alteration of seeds by various external stimuli (The rremen Sahm, beyond doubt Kynes's star pupil, had assembled a group specializing in this type of treatment) Only thirty-odd plants proved absolutely incapable of surviving As the cultivated areas expanded farther, however, a strange phenomenon was noticed Protein incompatibility was poisoning the sand plankton which came in contact with the new hfeforms At the desert edge of each palmary, a barren zone was formed, saturated with poisonous water which none of the Arrakis life would touch This was an unforeseen development, and one which Kynes did not feel competent to handle on other than an on the-spot basis Fabricating a story about an obscure type of plant he wished to investigate at an outlying sietch, the planetologist managed to elude the Harkonnens and arrange transportation to the south (He made the twenty-thumper trip in a palanquin, earned by his Fremen, as though he were a wounded man or Reverend Mother, since he had never become a sandnder } For three days after his arrival at the barren zone, Kynes locked himself into his yah his personal quarters where no other would dare disturb him, and examined sam pies of the poisoned soil On the morning of the fourth day, looking as haggard as a man who had walked in from the Great Flat, he emerged, and delivered electrifying news to the anxious Fremen The poison was a disguised blessing, a gift from Shai-Humd' The addition of fixed nitrogen and sulfur to the chemicals pro duced b) the decomposed sand plankton would convert the barren zone to rich soil in which then1 plantings could thrive The speed with which the palmanes could expand would now be determined solely by the amount of labor the Fremen could afford them, and by the volume of water available The new advance cut down Kynes s pro jected timetable for the transformation con siderably-to a mere three and one-half centuries But the Fremen were a people who had learned patience at the hands of men with whips, they were content to wait, knowing that their labors would buy glory for themselves and a living paradise for their descendants The palmanes continued on the course Kynes had set tenderly cared for by the Fremen and unknown to any outsiders for almost half a century Kynes s death in 10175, in a cave in at Plaster Basin caused no deviation from the plan Nor did the Har konnen-Atreides warfare the demise of Liet ARRAK1S, ECOLOGY 32 ARRAKIS, GEOLOGY Kynes (who had inherited his father's place with the tribes) in 10191, nor even the ascension of Paul Muad'Dib Atreides in 10196.