that some old, reasonably stable dunes would give the plantings their best chance-provided the problem of holding down the dust could be resolved While one group of Kyneft-trained Fremen wrestled with the sand-fixing puzzle, others were studying weather patterns, area climates, and the myriad other pieces of the ecological puzzle Particularly curious was the existence of a few plants the Fremen discovered and cultivated A rare native root plant, for example, which grew above the 2500-meter level in the northern temperate zone, was often called "Gift to the Thirsty" because of its high water content a tuber two meters long yielded half a liter of water, many umes over the moisture that could be obtained from an equivalent weight in other vegetation The water the Fremen assumed was not being drawn out of the atmosphere somehow the tubers were responsible for pulling it in Where was it found'' Kynes worked like a madman, correlating data between groups, performing his own research, and doing the social dances re quired to keep the Harkonnens-and the emperor-ignorant of the real purpose of his weak If the strain tired him, he never revealed it to his Fremen, who had come to consider him one of their umma the brotherhood of prophets It made no difference to Kynes what he was called so long as progress was made Two last discoveries, arrived at within a month of one another provided the data needed to begin the real work The first gave confirmation that what they planned to do was indeed powhle the verification by Kynes himself of the existence of a salt pan m the deep bled This proved that there had been open water on Arrakis at one time, what had been, could be again The second discovery concerned the sand worm These mighty creatures began their lives as sand plankton, then matured into the sandtrout form before becoming worm It was the sandtrout phase-in which the water-stealers swam freely through the sand and sealed off all available water in the porous lower strata-which most worried Kynes If these animals could seal water so effectively, what was to prevent them from completely drying out any area his Fremen chose to plant? His fears were proven groundless when captured sandtrout were loosed in one of the Testing Station gardens Try as they might, the sandswimmers could not perform their usual function m an environment choked with plant roots They exhibited two reactions flight and death More groups of Fremen were sent out to establish other tnal zones along the 40 line With them they earned a vanet) of sophisti cated drilling equipment and sandtrout-proof sheaths, as well as the usual material for constructing wmdtraps and temporary hold ing basins If there was water to be found under the sand in their areas they were ARRAKIS ECOLOGY ARRAKIS ECOLOGY prepared to dig for it, if not, the wmdtraps alone would have to suffice They also took seeds for a growth called poverty grass, a mutated version of the plant which had been engineered b) Salim one of Kynes's first Fremen students Tested in the Station facilities, the new grass had shown an encouraging ability to survive on only basic nutrients, airborne moisture, and a mini mum of supplementary watering In each of the dozen planting zones, it was planted along the downwind sides of old dunes, where it stabilised the sand against the pre vailing westerly winds This started a cycle each stabilized area accumulated a higher windward crest after each sandstorm, which would in rural be planted with poverty grass, until s$s, barrier dunes of more than 1,500 meters height were produced The work involved with the plantings was hackbreakmg, but moved quickly In all but four of the test zones-in which the grass refused to take root-the barrier dunes were ready in a matter of months Kynes, in the meantime, had undertaken some new labors After weeks of careful inquiry and widespread bribery he had arranged for an interview with Altenes and Gank of Ix, the two men responsible for governing the Spacing Guild Without ex plaining his reasons, but using the Guild s sensitivities concerning its melange supply, Kynes arranged that the Guild not permit observation satellites to be placed above the deep desert on Arrabs The large amount of spice which the Guild demanded as payment was not permitted to weigh against the need for the planted areas, known as palmanes With tile barriers in place, planting in the eight areas continued Species from alt over the Impenum were brought in and tried, beginning with chenopods, pigweeds, and amaranth Tough, stringy, and difficult for even Arrabs to kill, this trio took only two years to provide bands of growth that were stable and, in the protection of the sifs expanding outward This was the signal for slightly-but only slightly--more fragile plantings to be at templed Scotch broom, low lupine, vine eucalyptus (originally adapted for the north-em reaches of Caladan), dwarf tamarisk, and shore pine were placed at each site The mortality rate of these newcomers was high er than that of their predecessors in spite of the care the Fremen lavished on them but those plants managing to survive were toughened by the trial and promised to pro duce strong seed Even such limited results were only ob tamable at a tremendous expense of time and labor Each plant was carefully tended pruned and cautiously watered each was provided with its own dew collector to keep the additional moisture needed to A.