they had exercised before (subject to Mason's veto), a leavening the group with their idealism Under Mason's leadership, the So ciety remained a closed hierarchy with strict entrance requirements, he thus protected the Society's integrity, discipline and mystique But his ultimate goal remained that of the Ixian exiles an interstellar shipping monopoly, moving swiftly and safely through hyperspace By the time of his death the Guild was well along toward that goal Leadership of the now strong and well organized Guild passed smoothly to Frelo's son Jasta Mason (60 B G-31 A G ), who inherited his father's abilities as well as ambitions Over the next three decades Jasta concerned himself with assembling a substan tial fleet and solving the problem of navigat ing it The Guild had known of the powers of melange since the days of Venport through, it is believed, the clandestine machinations of the Bene Gessent It is also believed probable that during these early decades of Jasta's leadership when the fleet was grow mg and making many secret interstellar voyages, the Guild found the planet Arrakis and the source of the spice so vital to their navigational mastery Thus, by 12 B G , the Guild was secure enough m its abilities and resources to reveal itself from a position of strength The Guild s reconnaissance missions had become more numerous, extending its knowl edge of political developments m the inhabit ed worlds and stretching its reach beyond the borders of known space Mason perceived mat the Comnos were eager to convert their empire into a true Impenum, with a more stable and long lasting basis than the might of the Sardaukar He immediately saw a central role for the Guild in this transformation But the first approach Mason directed though carefully planned was a disaster SPACING GUILD FOUNDATION SPACING GUILD FOUNDATION Mason's first agent, Zarv, was sent to the Imperial Governor of Deneb to discreetly teel out response to the Guild's proposal The agent offered the possibility of the return of interstellar travel and suggested the gover nor contact his superiors so a meeting could be arranged with the agent's principals The governor, in a fit of ravening greed, promptly subjected the agent to the several crude interrogatory techniques available to him in an effort to seize this plum for himself Unable to believe that die agent had never even seea a member of {he Guild, the governor kept pressing his questions The agent, unknown even to himself, had been provided by die Guild With mental conditioning which would result in his death before he could reveal anything of harm to die Guild The agent died This horrible failure sent a shock of fear through the Guild's directors, locking diem in a policy struggle They had learned enough about die Sardaukar to fed understandable qualms about dealing directly with House Comno-what was to prevent invasion of their planet if its location became known to this ruthless military organization'' Nor could the Guild approach die Landsraad for a simi lar reason-what was to prevent the Houses Major from joining to use die Guild against the emperor'7 And what of then* use of melange-how could that secret be safe guarded indefinitely once hyperspace com merce brought the inhabited worlds much closer together? These were hard questions, involving die survival not just of die envisioned Guild monopoly, but of Tupik itself The debate narrowed to two choices retreat back into secrecy, or continue trying to negotiate When put to a vote, the issue deadlocked As chairman, Mason broke the impasse in a speech that one historian, Adelheyd Heyman claiming access to the minutes of die meeting records Zarv died horribly, aad we're fill sorry about that, but we can't let it panic us You say ' Be safe, be careral, ' but Zarv wasn't Norma Cevna wasn t when the spice was killing her brain celt by cd! Venport wasa t when he took the fleet into The Void.