Ori Zhoma

In Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Sisterhood of Dune, Doctor Ori Zhoma was a Suk physician who, after being expelled from the forerunner of the Bene Gesserit for profiteering, rose to lead the flagship Suk school on Salusa Secundus. In her final years the Sisterhood recruited her to render Emperor Salvador Corrino sterile, and she was then killed. (Sisterhood of Dune)

Training and expulsion from the Sisterhood#

Zhoma trained for two years among the Sisterhood of Rossak, where Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul recognized great talent in her. She took a keen interest in the potential of various Rossak drugs to heighten strength, speed, endurance, and mental acuity. Unknown until much later, she also saw their commercial value, and began supplying black-market merchants with rare extracts and potent drugs at exorbitant prices. (Sisterhood of Dune)

When she was caught, Zhoma tried to justify herself before Raquella by claiming her activities benefited the Sisterhood, and she had in fact added the profits to the school's coffers. The voices in the Reverend Mother's Other Memory remained skeptical, and Raquella had no choice but to send her away. As a courtesy, and because of the woman's clear potential, she did not make the reasons public, so Zhoma's reputation and career survived intact. She applied to the Suk Medical School, excelled there, and made herself an important figure. (Sisterhood of Dune)

Murder and ascent at the Suk school#

Zhoma trained under Dr. Elo Bando, head of the flagship Suk school on Salusa Secundus. Seeing Bando's corruption and convinced that it would ultimately destroy the school, she resolved to act. She injected him with dozens of lethal chemicals in his office, then used her position to cover up the killing and have his death ruled a suicide. As the most accomplished and important member of the school after Bando's death, she was appointed its leader. (Sisterhood of Dune)

In the years that followed, Zhoma spent little time practicing medicine. She devoted herself instead to securing funding and promoting the cause of the Suk School, becoming in effect a solicitor rather than a physician. Such work was nonetheless necessary to the survival of an institution widely regarded as the finest humanity had to offer. (Sisterhood of Dune)

Recruitment and death#

While visiting Rossak some forty years after her banishment, Zhoma was recruited once more by Raquella. Emperor Salvador Corrino had chosen her as his personal Suk doctor, and the Sisterhood, fearing he would father a disastrous tyrant, charged her with rendering him sterile. Zhoma carried out the task. She was then killed by Prince Roderick Corrino, the Emperor's brother, who passed her remains off as those of the fugitive Toure Bomoko. The single act both ended the riots and killings over the Orange Catholic Bible and disposed of Zhoma herself. (Sisterhood of Dune)