No-ship

The no-ship is a no-chamber that uses a no-field generator to perfectly mask itself from detection by the Guild Navigators, Spacing Guild, and members of the Atreides line who had prescience.

The No-ship of Dune Definition

A no-ship is an interstellar starship that got created in a way that made it invincible to the eyes of prescience. With the no-ship generating a no-field, a force field of invincibility veiled over the ship, making it non-existent to anyone with prescient abilities.

The Ithaca was a no-ship Duncan Idaho, and the Bene Gesserit used to escape the tachyon net set by Omnius, the Thinking Machine ruler. Due to its invincibility, Ithaca successfully evaded the Thinking Machines for 26 years.

Relevance of the No-ship in Dune

The no-ship is a vessel that got into use after the death of Leto II. After the God-emperor dies, many humans leave the empire with a starship that could be invincible to prescience. Though these vessels used computer systems that nearly breached the laws forged after the Butlerian Jihad, they were still used as humans spread out into uncharted space. Thousands of years later, the Honored Matres, a brutal matriarchal order, returns from deep space and tries to take over the Old Empire.

Though the Honored Matres successfully destroys the Tleilaxu, they get defeated by Bene Gesserit. After their defeat, Murbella unites both matriarchal orders into one faction. With the two orders merged, a greater enemy returns from the vastness of deep space, the Thinking Machines.

Realizing that humanity needed more heroes to fight the threat posed by the Thinking Machines, the new sisterhood uses a no-ship called the Ithaca to escape the tachyon net set by Omnius. Aboard the Ithaca, the sisterhood begins creating Gholas of humanity’s champions. Over the next twenty years, Gholas of Paul Atreides, Alia Atreides, Wellington Yueh, Thufir Hawat, Lady Jessica, Leto II, Xavier Harkonnen, Serena Butler, and Gurney Halleck. However, an unknown enemy begins sabotaging the plans of the sisterhood; this leads to the death of Serena Butler, Xavier Harkonnen, and Gurney Halleck.

With the death of some Gholas, the new sisterhood begins investigating the source of their problems. Meanwhile, Norma Cenva, the Oracle of Time, begins a quest to find the Ithaca as it contained the true Kwisatz Haderach, who was to bring peace to all.

After discovering that the saboteurs were the enhanced Face Dancer, the Ithaca kills them. However, before successfully killing all the Face Dancers aboard the ship, the Ithaca’s cloaking system gets damaged, leading to the capture of the no-ship by the Thinking Machines. With the heroes of humanity captured, the Kralizec begins. With the heroes fighting for humanity’s survival, it gets revealed that Duncan Idaho was the true Kwisatz Haderach. The Oracle of Time banishes Omnius to another universe, and all enhanced Face Dancers get killed by a fail-safe triggered by Erasmus.

Abilities and Properties of No-ships

The no-ships are an advanced type of No-chamber with the ability to hide its content from the eyes of prescience. After Leto II;’s death, humans began using the ship to travel into uncharted space.

The no-ship contains a navigation system that uses advanced computer calculations to create limited prescience; this prescience gets used to plot a safe course for travel. Though the nature of the computers used in the no-ship nearly goes against the laws formed during the Butlerian Jihad, they did not break any law. Even with its prescient-blocking features, a no-ship is visible when it is in a standby mode.

Even with its capabilities, some members of the Atreides family can see a no-ship; this ability is evident in the clone of Mile Teg, who could nullify no-field invisibility to see a no-ship.

The first no-ships created were small in size. However, with time, the ships got enhanced to become colossal giants, capable of sustaining life for decades. No-ships became so big that they could fit in many adult sandworms and still have enough room for people. With the increment in size and complexity, no-ships became war, fortress, and guardianships.

History of the No-ship

The original prototype of a no-ship got built by Tenu Chobyn, a Richesean scientist. After creating the prototype for Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Chobyn got killed due to the Baron wanting the technology to only himself. The first version of the craft got used as a fighter due to its small size. Though the no-ship could not block the prescience of the Bene Gesserit, it created a no-field that made it undetectable to conventional detection technology.

Even with its detection evasion capabilities, the no-ship severely lacked in the aspect of prescience detection; this caused it to get shot down after it got sent to attack and destroy the Bene Gesserit’s Mother School.

Though the first no-ship got destroyed by the Bene Gesserit, its technology was re-discovered by Chobyn’s colleagues in his old lab. However, the research got halted due to the Great Spice War.

Glossary Terms Associated with No-ships

Here is a list of words associated with No-ships:

1. No-chamber: A no-chamber is a machine that hides whatever gets inside it from prescient vision.
2. No-field: This is an invisibility field generated by a no-ship.
3. Starship: A starship is a spaceship capable of traveling between different star systems.

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