The extravagant “hollow ship” bluff at Poritrin was the brainchild of Primero Atreides, who claimed to understand the way machines thought. But Tio Holtzman was implementing the scheme in the absence of the Primero… which put him in position to take most of the credit.

If the epic ruse worked.

The Savant was nervous, but had gambled that he would be showered with kudos and hails of appreciation. He needed them, after a long hiatus in the stream of awards that had marked his career. With luck, Lord Bludd would bestow medals upon him, and the people would cheer. Tio Holtzman would be declared the savior of Poritrin….

As he dined with Lord Niko Bludd on the balcony of the nobleman’s tower residence overlooking the river city, Holtzman watched the quiet lives all around him. The upper classes of Poritrin had always been surprisingly lax in their attitudes, believing that nothing truly bad could happen to them. They followed the passive tenets of Navachristianity, more for appearances than out of deep conviction. The climate was calm, while food and resources were abundant, and well-domesticated slaves took care of every need. The gentle Isana River seemed an apt metaphor for the languid flow of their lives.

Holtzman feared that would all change as soon as the robot war group arrived. Only moments before, a military courier had rushed up to the Lord with a message cylinder. Bludd read the communication, then stroked his immaculately curled beard. “Well, Tio, we shall see if your scheme is going to work. A massive machine battle fleet is indeed on its way into the Poritrin system.”

Holtzman paled and swallowed hard. Lord Bludd seemed supremely self-assured, certain that his greatest Savant could not possibly let them down. Holtzman hoped the nobleman’s blithe confidence had not been misplaced.

Bludd chuckled at his worried expression. “Don’t trouble yourself, Tio. Even with the incredible expenditures required by this crazy project of yours, we’ll make enough from VenKee’s glowglobe profits to pay for it a dozen times over.”

All of the faux battleships had been completed in space, and the orbits around Poritrin were populated with intimidating-looking vessels, hundreds of ballistas and javelins in a seemingly invincible war fleet, like ferocious guard dogs patrolling a yard. A mere facade.

Dozens of Jihad battleships— real ones— stood on the Starda Spaceport field, ready to be sent into combat. Regimented jihadi soldiers were stationed near the vessels, their numbers augmented by mercenaries from Ginaz. None of that would be enough, however, if the bluff didn’t work.

Holtzman forced himself to take a bite of spiced riverfish, hoping Bludd wouldn’t notice his hesitation. “Time to put on our little show. Let’s give the order for our forces to redistribute their orbits. I advise keeping half of them in the planet’s shadow as an added surprise for the robot fleet.”

In recent months, the Army of the Jihad had inserted bits of misinformation into communications they knew would be intercepted by Omnius, even including some accurate material, because it served Holtzman’s purposes to reveal it to the enemy: anti-machine propaganda for the fighters on Ix… signals leaked to the escaping robot fleet at IV Anbus… and more.

If the information reached its intended audience, the machine armies would be convinced that the great Tio Holtzman was expanding his successful shield system on Poritrin in order to protect fleets of Jihad ships, to create invisibility fields and extraordinarily durable hull armor. This should make the technology a tactical prize for Omnius.

Bait.

“I gave that order as soon as we received a signal from our picket ships,” Bludd said. “I’m confident they were safely out of view long before robot sensors could have detected them.” Then, smiling, he suggested that the two of them step back inside, where they could observe the encounter in comfort within the nobleman’s projection room. Holtzman looked at the displayed maps and grids of the planetary sphere and orbital paths, saw that all the ships had taken their proper positions. He nodded.

Next, glowing shapes approached like bullets from the edge of the screen. Bludd smiled. “Ah, those incoming machine ships are in for a big surprise.” He had more confidence than Holtzman, but the Savant dared not show any reservations.

Bristling with heavy weapons and overwhelming firepower, the robot fleet approached Poritrin and slowed as their scanners surveyed the battlefield ahead of them. Holtzman brushed a hand across his forehead, stroked thick hair away from his eyes. The enemy had at least three times as many ships as the Poritrin fleet. But that did not present an insurmountable obstacle— if the machines believed the misinformation.

“Now we shall see if human cunning is superior to machine technology,” he said.

Standing with Lord Bludd, he listened to the filtered communication transmissions, barked orders, warnings, assessments. On the screens, they watched as the Jihad warships moved into place, spreading their formation out into tactical positions around the planet. By all appearances, they were impenetrable, unbeatable.

The immense machine fleet drove forward implacably in a straight line toward its goal, only to encounter a large group of defenders in Poritrin’s orbit. The decoy League vessels held position. Electronic panels on the exteriors of their hulls glowed red, making it look as if they had powered up weapons systems. Sensor signatures transmitted that a huge complement of armaments was ready to be deployed.

Only a handful of these League vessels had any weapons at all, of course. Most of the ships were hollow scrap-metal constructions, masked by Holtzman shields that defied the electronic probes of the thinking machines.

“All systems activated,” a tactical officer announced over the speaker system.

A cascade of responding voices showered from the orbiting Jihad warships, including the empty ones. “Ready to annihilate invader ships.” “Armaments functional.” “Awaiting orders to open fire.” “Concentrated attack spread.” The voices overlapped, synthesized composites of every pilot in the fleet, recorded, coordinated, and transmitted in a flurry to fool the oncoming robot attackers.

Holtzman stared at the tactical projections. The distant machine ships were tiny diamonds reflecting raw sunlight. He wished he could see what the robots thought they were detecting. Their deceived sensor network should show them that this sham Jihad fleet actually outgunned them by a significant margin. He swallowed again.

In order to win a victory here, the Poritrin fleet didn’t need to destroy the machines. Potentially, this ruse was better in the long run, since it could be used again on other worlds… and hollow warships could be constructed at a fraction of the cost of real ones. Henceforth, “knowing” that Poritrin was defended by an undefeatable Jihad fleet, Omnius would leave the planet alone and look for more vulnerable targets. In theory…

The machines kept coming, though, as if they suspected the truth. Holtzman held his breath, worried that the robots might have a deep scanning system sophisticated enough to see through the trick. What factors had he forgotten to consider?

He had made false assumptions and outright mistakes many times before, as Norma Cenva had so rudely and blithely pointed out to him. At least she was out of his way now, working on her own and wasting someone else’s money. He had plenty of other gifted assistants, all of whom had assured him that everything was taken into account here. No chance for error.

Still, if they had missed something, Poritrin was doomed. And Holtzman, too.

“Time to launch,” the Savant said, his voice thin and high-pitched. “Our second group needs to move now, before the enemy gets close enough to open fire.”

Bludd just smiled. All of the supervisors and captains already had their detailed instructions.

Like an unexpected pack of wild dogs charging out of a forest, half of the decoy vessels in orbit powered up their engines and accelerated, racing around to the sunlit side of Poritrin. It looked like a stampede of Jihad battleships, suddenly doubling the numbers of human defenders arrayed against the thinking machine forces.

“That’ll give them second thoughts!” one of the commanders yelped over an open channel.

Holtzman looked at the tactical diagram and was relieved to see the pieces falling into place. A handful of soldiers cheered over the comlines, but their voices— duplicated, modulated, and amplified— sounded like many more.

“Here comes the third detachment.”

“It’s going to get crowded around here!”

“We’ll make plenty of room, if we just sweep away some of these clankers.”

Now a third group of decoy ships, hidden near Poritrin’s small moon, approached at high acceleration, closing the distance to the Omnius fleet from behind, showing an array of active weapons ports.

“Launch the battleships from the spaceport!” Bludd cried. He was clearly enjoying every moment.

The group of grounded ships— the only truly functional battle vessels stationed at Poritrin— lifted off from Starda Spaceport and roared toward orbit, where they mingled with swarms of decoy craft already there.

The machine invaders came to a dead halt in space, as if to assess these surprising new developments, then regrouped into a defensive cluster.

“Wait for it,” one officer transmitted in a grim voice. “Prepare to open fire. Obliterate the damned machines if they give us an excuse.”

Someone else said, “They’re scanning us again.”

“Show them what we think of that.”

Mixed in among the swarms of decoy vessels, the real battleships opened fire, taking potshots at the robot vessels. The thinking machine fleet had no way of knowing that the thousands of decoy vessels were not similarly armed.

Finally, without a single transmission, without launching any projectiles at all, the robot fleet calculated that they had no chance of victory— and withdrew. The machine ships reversed course and picked up speed as they departed. Just for good effect, the armed Jihad ships gave chase and blasted a couple of machine warships out of space.

Lord Bludd grinned and clapped Holtzman on the back. “Never doubted you for a minute, Tio. With your reputation and intuition, the stupid machines don’t stand a chance!”

“They really are stupid, aren’t they?” Holtzman said, grinning.

AFTER THE ROBOT war fleet had retreated from the Poritrin system, the victory celebration was lavish and grandiose. The mood was ecstatic, tinged with hysterical relief. Sparing no expense, Niko Bludd put on outrageous feasts, parades, performances, and a succession of public events that became monotonous in their sheer pomposity. Savant Holtzman was hailed as a hero of the Jihad, conqueror of machines. When raising their toasts of spiced Poritrin rum, some of the nobles even remembered to mention the name of Vorian Atreides, albeit in passing.

With the puffed-up scientist standing beside him, Lord Bludd delivered loud, drunken speeches, beating his chest in triumph. “Freedom is a basic human right!”

But the Buddislamic slaves had no cause to celebrate.

A few of the captive Zensunni children remained outside in the residence compound on the fringes of the now quiet delta foundries and manufacturing centers. Their mouths hung agape as they stared at the spectacular light shows and listened to the distant thumping music.

The adult slaves shut themselves inside their barracks, comforting each other with their own memories and culture. While the gala celebration continued and flashes of light erupted like chrysanthemums over Poritrin’s great rolling river, Ishmael sat with his slave companions and exchanged stories of their people’s past. By recalling parables and legends, citing the wisdom of the Koran Sutras, they kept alive the memory of how the Zensunnis and Zenshiites had been pursued from world to world, always seeking safe harbors in the cosmic sea where they could be left alone. They had turned their backs on the war of the damned— machine demons versus unbelievers. Neither side was worthy of the support of the faithful, for the Buddislamics were chosen by God, the keepers of the true wisdom of heaven.

Right now, though, tribulations forced them to maintain their faith. “We have to stay strong,” Ishmael assured his companions. “Stronger than any of the outsiders.”

Then, in shadows at the fringe of the story fire, Aliid surprised them all by objecting. “Perhaps, Ishmael, but elsewhere Zensunnis and Zenshiites are free.” He drew a quick breath through clenched teeth. “If Bel Moulay were here, all slaves would rise up under his banner. He would show us how to win our way off this planet.”

“But he is not here,” Ishmael chided, sitting in a meditative position on the hard floor. “That uprising only bought him execution, and all of us have paid the price in the years since.”

“Bel Moulay may be dead, but I am not,” Aliid grumbled.

“I do not have the audacity to rush God, my friend. Someday,” Ishmael promised, “we will find a world that we can inhabit and defend for ourselves. Our lives will be as Buddallah intended.”

Aliid looked skeptical, but the other slaves watched Ishmael with bright eyes and hopeful expressions. Ishmael had been making promises to these people for so many years that he wasn’t sure how much longer he himself could continue to hope.

Nonetheless, he forced strength into his voice. “Finally, it will be a place we can call home.”