nment, where the average life expectancy of a worker was five years, the former musician managed to keep himself alive on the sheer strength of his hatred for his captors His labor exceeded any the youth had ever known-slaves, for example, dag in the emerald mines outside the capital city of Harko sixteen hours a day, with Harkonnen Family holidays their only rest-but he was toughened, not broken by it At night white the others lay exhausted, Halleck comforted himself by remembering the songs of Chusuk, songs of love and of the green planet be might never see again, and by composing new songs in his head Next to the work, the most dangerous threat to Halleck came from his fellow slaves Given inadequate food and water, the survivors in the pits were those who learned to fight to defend their portion from the desperate and the greedy Despite his early revulsion at the day-to-day violence, Halleck de termmed to survive, he learned to fight with the single-minded fervor he had once applied to learning to strum the baliset And he never allowed himself to forget who had forced him to his new lessons In 10164, during his ninth year of captivity, Halleck again met die man responsible for the deaths of his family Rabban, now appointed to govern Arrafcis-where he was thought of as a monster-in his uncle's name, was making a tour of the pits when Halleck was pointed out to him by one of the guards The Count was intrigued by the other man's tenacity-of those slaves captured in the Chusuk raid, only Halleck remained alive- and called him over for a personal inspection Defying the guard s whispered instruction to avert his gaze while being scrutinized by the Count, Halleck stared directly into his enemy's face with an expression of con tempt too obvious to be ignored The guard swung back his club preparing to knock this insolent slave to the ground, but Rabban ordered him to hold His curiosity piqued still further, Rabban demanded to know why Halleck was conducting himself so danger ously, didn't he realize, the Count asked, that he could be flayed alive for such disrespect7 Halleck s answer was direct and to the point he spat in his tormentor's face Rabban flew into a rage Seizing an mkvme whip from the nearest guard, he ordered two other men to hold Halleck in place Then with a curse, he cracked the whip smartly along the line of Halleck s jaw Rabban was denied the satisfaction of hearing Halleck scream as the whip hit He had to content himself with watching the beet red tattoo nse on the skin the mkvme had struck before he stormed off without completing the tour Rabban did, however, remember to commute the death penalty for striking a Harkonnen he said he wanted the slave to live to enjoy the caress of the mkvme One song written during the years in the rmnes, (c 10164) expresses the pain of slavery, of which the mkvme bear wab only the visible reminder Lost on Giedi s waste lost in the wind's breath, Wounded by beasts and vines and b