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"In science fiction one can say a great many things that are unpalatable, … because it's expressed as science fiction you can slip it past their defenses."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Sietch | ||
| A cave warren designed to protect a tribal community, with a population of thousands, with its own water supply in an endless desert. |
The Fremen lived under various forms of tyranny for much of their history. When relocated to the planet Dune, they adapted to the harsh, almost waterless world by retreating underground in the desert in huge cave warren communities.
Water - or moisture - was drawn from the atmosphere using windtraps, clever devices that used temperature differences to precipitate water from the air itself.
A sietch contained workshops, factories, classrooms, public and private spaces for everyone.
Although sietch were always underground, they typically had gathering spaces large enough to hold all of the adult residents.
| Phosportubes in the faraway upper reaches of the cavern cast a dim light onto the thronged interior, hinting at the great size of this rock-enclosed space... larger, Jessica saw, than even the Gathering Hall of her Bene Gesserit school. She estimated that there were more than five thousand people gathered out there beneath the ledge where she stood with Stilgar.
And more were coming... Men came with rolled carpets, grunting under the weight of them, stirring up dust as the loads were dropped onto the ledge... [Jessica] watched the me unroll the carpets, covering the ledge, looked out at the crowd. There were at least ten thousand people on the rock floor below... "Tonight we must leave this sietch that has sheltered us for so long and go south into the desert," Stilgar said. His voice boomed out across the uplifted faces, reverberating with the force given it by the acoustical horn behind the ridge. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
Herbert himself defines "sietch" this way in his glossary to Dune:
Fremen: "Place of assembly in time of danger." Because the Fremen lived so long in peril, the term came by general usage to designate any cave warren inhabited by one of their tribal communities.
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'You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself...'
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'His contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory.'
'The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock that folded up to underlie the ridge...'
'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
