Read Online Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson - Free Book Online

their treason and plot revenge.
    Xerxes, despite his flaws, would never betray them. A thousand years ago, after their victory, the original Titans had agreed to surgical conversion rather than accept their mortality, so that their disembodied brains could live forever and consolidate their rule. It had been a dramatic pact.
    Now, Omnius occasionally rewarded loyal human followers by converting them to neo-cymeks, as well. Across the Synchronized Worlds, thousands of newer brains with machine bodies served as indentured servants to the evermind. Agamemnon could not rely upon anyone who willingly served the evermind, however.
    The cymek general transmitted his words on a tight waveband that tapped directly into the Titans’ thought-processing centers. “We are not expected back on Corrin for weeks. I have seized this opportunity so that we may plan a strike against Omnius.”
    “It’s about time,” Ajax said, his voice a deep grumble.
    “Do you believe the evermind has grown complacent, my love— like the humans of the Old Empire?” Juno asked.
    “I have noted no particular sign of weakness,” Dante interjected, “and I keep careful track of such things.”
    “There are always weaknesses,” Ajax said, twitching one of his heavy armored legs and gouging a hole in the ground, “ if you’re willing to use enough muscle to exploit them.”
    Barbarossa clacked one of his metal forelegs on the hard rock. “Do not be fooled by artificial intelligence. Computers do not think like humans. Even after a thousand years, Omnius will not let his attention wander. He has enough processing power and more watcheyes than we can count.”
    “Does he suspect us? Does Omnius doubt our loyalty?” Xerxes already sounded worried, and the meeting had just begun. “If he thinks we are plotting against him, why won’t he just eliminate us?”
    “Sometimes I think you have a leak in your brain canister,” Agamemnon said. “Omnius has programming restrictions that prevent him from killing us.”
    “You don’t have to be insulting. It’s just that Omnius is so powerful, you’d think he could override whatever Barbarossa loaded into his system.”
    “He hasn’t yet, and never will. I knew what I was doing on that job, believe me,” Barbarossa said. “Remember, Omnius yearns to be efficient. He will take no unnecessary actions, will not waste resources. We are resources to him .”
    Dante said, “If Omnius is so intent on ruling efficiently, then why does he keep human slaves around at all? Even simple robots and minimal-AI machines could perform their tasks with less bother.”
    Agamemnon paced out of the thick shadows into harsh light, and then back again. Around him, the conspirators waited like huge insects made of scrap metal. “For years, I have been suggesting that we exterminate the human captives on the Synchronized Worlds, but Omnius refuses.”
    “Maybe he’s reluctant because humans created thinking machines in the first place,” Xerxes suggested. “Omnius might see humans as a manifestation of God.”
    Agamemnon chided him. “Are you suggesting that the computer evermind is devoutly religious?” The disgraced cymek quickly fell silent.
    Barbarossa said, like a patient teacher, “No, no— Omnius simply doesn’t wish to expend the energy or cause the turmoil that such an extermination would bring about. He sees humans as resources, not to be wasted.”
    “We’ve been trying to convince him otherwise for centuries,” Ajax said.
    Aware that their safe window of time was rapidly dwindling, Agamemnon pushed the discussion forward. “We must find some way to spark a radical change. If we shut the computers down, then we Titans rule once more, along with any neo-cymeks we can recruit.” He swiveled his sensor-turret. “We’ve taken charge before and must do it again.”
    Previously, when the human Titans had consolidated the stagnant Old Empire, combat robots had done the bulk of the fighting for them.