murdered his father and attacked Vladimir, nearly killing him before the mental Chardm Klees stuck a poisoned needle into Araskin's neck At that moment Vladimir changed That night he strangled his mother At the age of twenty he had become the Baton Harkonnen of folklore CAREER AS BARON Vladimir consolidat ed his position ruling by the most drastic methods The fate of his father taught him that weakness bore its own fruits Although trained in the finer arts the cunning brutality inherited from his grandfather and mother came to the fore and remained the oustanding characteristics of his Barony until his death All Praetorians and planetary military offi cials were subjected to deep psycho chemical interrogation and stress analysis Those who failed were murdered out of hand Anyone with Sarobellan sympathies or connections was publicly beheaded The minor anstrocracy was shaken up and brought m line with the threat of extinction Fear and power power and fear-these became the Baron s most trusted tools Vladimir now aspired to a more favorable relationship with the Imperial monarch to further his financial ambitions A CHOAM directorship was his immediate personal goal from such a position it would be possible to build a Landsraad alliance aimed at the emperor Vladimir apparently found this am binon worthy of his House First he needed to place himself above suspicion in the emperor s eyes by demonstrating his com plete loyalty Then if scheme within scheme was successful-well, who could not envi Sion a Harkonnen on the Golden Lion Throne'' The young Baron began auspiciously by voluntarily donating twenty percent of the estimated annual ziradmum mine profits to the Imperial Sardaukdr Such a practice was not uncommon at the time especially among new Great Houses The Imperium had by then grown luxurious and its bureaucracy costly, often to the detriment of the Sardaukar Military fief donations thus became an ave nue to royal approval This was but one tactic m a larger campaign of simultaneous financial aggrandizement and Imperial wooing Vladimir also played both ends against the middle, forming lucrative partnerships with lesser Houses while he channeled donations under various labels into Imperial accounts He would buy out lesser House investments with the guarantee of a percentage (less depreciation and overhead) while lubricating his consolidations with ad visory fees to the CHOAM directors them selves to secure their acceptance House HARKONNEN VLADIMIR 297 HARKONNFN VLADIMIR Cornno naturally received royalties under the table along with military conscripts raw materials and finished products on negotiated terms a euphemism for kickbacks Indeed much of Vladimir s success can be attributed to an unerring instinct for the timing and placement of bribes When his financial prac tices were questioned by a Landsraad Dele gation of Inquiry he said What benefits Harkonewt benefits the Landsraad What benefits the Landsraad benefits CHOAM And CHOAM benefits all We must all work together Economic fertility sus tains us and 1 wish merely to manure that ground Those who accuse me of camipuve practices simply envy my success My only answer is Why are they so poor? J One can detect the mind of Chardin Klees in this smooth retort and indeed the aged but redoubtable mental was perhaps tbe Baron s most precious instrument during the first thirty years of his rule Alter the trusted Klees died m 10162 fee Baron employed a succession of mentals most twisted and distant and he had them killed when they had outlived their usefulness No one was ever able to replace Chardin Klees In the same year as Klees death the fortunes of House Harkonnen reached the top of the wheel it acquired the melange rights of Arrakis something Vladimir had worked long and hard to achieve After more than three decades of careful maneuvering he was rewarded with the richest planet m the empire He was fifty two years old The spice of Arrakis was an economic bonanza for House Harkonnen which over saw its production for a percentage, pro rated according to yield CHOAM received 20% of production to be apportioned among Laadsraad Directors The Spacing Guild re ceived 15% (they were careful not to appear greedy) The Bene Gessent received 5% still a staggenng amount in fotai annual yield House Harkonncn realized 20 to 30% and the remainder filled the emperor s coffers The melange contract contained incentive for maximum production which meant ap plying the tightest harness and harshest whip to the subject population Vladimir s slave driver was his eldest nephew Count Glossu Rabban (10132 10193) legal son of his youngest demibrother Abulurd who had re nounced the name and rights of Harkonaen for the subdistnct governorship of Rabban Lankiveil Nevertheless Count Glossu pro ceeded to exercise his duties with Harkonnen enthusiasm becoming known or) Arrakis as Beast Rabban So successful was Vladimir s deputy that House Harkonnen realized great wealth on Arrakis but at the cost of the everlasting hatred of the natives most notably the wild Fremen whom the Baron dismissed as desert scum He might have paid them more atten tion had he not then been involved m the onl) heterosexual affair of his.