Cristane

Cristane was a Bene Gesserit sister and commando active during the last years of the Turbulent Era. Though she never rose to the rank of Reverend Mother, she was reckoned one of the finest commandos the Sisterhood produced, and she served Mother Superior Harishka directly as both bodyguard and field agent. Her final mission carried her to Ix, where she uncovered the nature of Project Amal before the Bene Tleilax captured and destroyed her.

Origins and training#

Cristane came from the planet Hagal, where she endured abuse at the hands of her step-father. When the Sisterhood discovered her, they used their training to heal her psychological wounds and shaped her into one of the best commandos the Bene Gesserit had. She became a trusted agent of Mother Superior Harishka.

Her early service included receiving the delegation that came to the Mother School from Giedi Prime, headed by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. The Baron had come seeking retaliation for the degenerative disease inflicted on him by Gaius Helen Mohiam. Cristane and her sisters used their mental disciplines to confuse the Baron, who fled the Sisterhood's homeworld in fear.

Counsel to Harishka#

Cristane was the only sister below the rank of Reverend Mother present at the council Harishka convened to weigh two matters concerning House Atreides: the pregnancy of the Lady Jessica and Duke Leto's request to be given the no-ship that Glossu Rabban had crashed in the atmosphere of the Mother School world. Cristane acknowledged Leto Atreides' noble character, but argued that the no-ship was too dangerous a weapon to hand to any member of the Landsraad, and that the Duke was in any case only a pawn in the Sisterhood's breeding program. The council ruled that the captured ship was to be destroyed.

When a poisoned Guild heighliner crashed at the upper edge of the Mother School world's atmosphere, Harishka sent Cristane to inspect the wreckage in a remote region while she dispatched an urgent message to the Spacing Guild. Using the Voice on a surviving Guild worker, Cristane learned the vessel had been a Dominic-class ship built in the last days of House Vernius on Ix.

The mission to Ix and death#

After the Imperial consort Anirul warned the Sisterhood of Project Amal and its connection to the spice, Harishka sent Cristane to Ix to discover the project's origin. The Bene Gesserit had already lost one agent there, Miral Alechem, to abductions carried out by the Tleilaxu Masters. Because Tleilaxu women were never seen in public and because of her own androgynous appearance, Cristane traveled disguised as a man.

In the city of Vernii she was discovered by the Ixian rebel C'tair Pilru, a loyalist of House Vernius, who took her to his hidden base. The two worked together as saboteurs for weeks, questioning and killing Tleilaxu servants, and formed a genuine friendship. Acting on the Sisterhood's orders, Cristane finally resolved to enter the Tleilaxu laboratory in search of Miral and the secret of Amal. Disguised as a Tleilaxu servant, she used her disciplines to confuse the entrance scanner long enough to slip inside.

There she found that Miral Alechem had been converted into an axlotl tank, and that many other captive women had suffered the same fate. Cristane planted an explosive on Miral's tank, but as she tried to escape she was discovered by Sardaukar guards. A shot struck her spine and paralyzed her. When the guards tore away her clothing they exposed her true figure, and the Tleilaxu Master Hidar Fen Ajidica recognized her disguise. Ajidica ordered her interrogated and then converted into an axlotl tank in Miral's place.

Still conscious within the tank, Cristane commanded her body to analyze the surrounding substance and recognized that it carried a scent like the spice but was not the spice itself, piecing together the secret of the Tleilaxu scheme. Weeks later, Count Hasimir Fenring came to Ix and was shown the new tank made from the Bene Gesserit sister. During the later recapture of the planet, Fenring set a fire that consumed much of the laboratory and the axlotl tanks within it, Cristane among them, ending her life.