Duncan Idaho wakes from a disturbing nightmare about weaponless women in black armor turning into fangs and claws, struggling to shake its effects as he dresses in his new black and gold uniform for his first morning of Fish Speaker command. Assigned quarters in the north tower that overlook a distant cliff and mud-hut village, he finds the room outfitted with sybaritic comforts like soft cushions and an ornate blue-tiled bath, though he rejects the comely Fish Speakers who offered to spend the night. Soon, Moneo arrives in chalk-white attire, smoothly bypassing Idaho's initial complaints about the extravagant furnishings and confirming that previous Duncans have met similar fates. When Idaho questions the complete absence of men in Leto's army, Moneo signals a team of young Fish Speakers who efficiently set up a balcony table laden with fresh fruit, hot rolls, and melange-coffee.
Over breakfast, Moneo explains Leto's controversial theory that all-male armies are inherently dangerous to their civilian populations because they preserve prehistoric screening functions that, when denied an external enemy, turn against their own people, exhibit adolescent bullying and latent homosexual sublimation, and eventually resort to murderous rape. Though Idaho initially bristles at these claims as an attack on his male self-image, Moneo forces him to confront the psychological truths behind frozen adolescence in military cultures. The conversation deepens when Moneo reveals that he is himself an Atreides, a direct descendant from the breeding program combining Leto's sister and Harq al-Ada. Pushing for answers, Idaho questions how women can possibly make better soldiers than men, to which Moneo replies that they find it easier to mature physically and emotionally because of pregnancy and childbirth.
The realization of Leto's complex, multi-generational breeding program overwhelms Idaho, particularly when Moneo casually mentions that previous iterations of Duncan Idaho served as studs and that Moneo himself is not an ordinary descendant. Frustrated and angry at being treated like an animal in a stall, Idaho denounces the arrangement, though Moneo defends Leto's rejection of Tleilaxu gene surgery and artificial insemination. When Idaho confronts him about Leto's divinity, Moneo startles him by quoting Leto's description of himself as a holy obscenity. Recognizing a profound mix of fear and admiration in Moneo's attitude toward the God Emperor, Idaho demands to know why Moneo believes in him, concluding that Leto ultimately places his faith in the wild unpredictability of human chance.