Suk School

In Frank Herbert's "Dune" universe, the Suk School produces the universe's most competent, trusted doctors. Those who have received the Suk Imperial Conditioning bear a diamond tattoo on their foreheads, wear their hair in a special silver ring and, at least theoretically, are incapable of inflicting harm.

Cquote2|Everyone knew you couldn't subvert Imperial Conditioning!|Feyd-Rautha, "Dune"

History

Dr. Rajid Suk

During the events of "", Dr. Rajid Suk was "one of the most talented of the new battlefield surgeons" during the Butlerian Jihad. He accompanied Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen on their inspection of the Tlulaxa organ farms, seeking increased production of organs and limbs for the ever-increasing number of Jihadi wounded. Serena considered him a hero, as Rajid had made "extensive, even miraculous, use of products from the organ farms, saving thousands of the veterans injured in combat." Rajid urged the Tlulaxa to share their cloning technology with the League of Nobles to increase the organ supply. Grand Patriarch of the Jihad Iblis Ginjo discouraged the request, suggesting that the League did not want to take away the "livelihood of the Tlulaxa civilization." In truth, Ginjo wanted to protect the secret that he was aiding the Tlulaxa in supplementing their limited organ production with kidnapped slaves from various League planets, and blaming the attacks on the thinking machines. Rajid was later awarded the Manion Cross (by Serena herself) for his unparalleled service to the Jihad.

Dr. Mohandas Suk

The genesis of the school is revealed in "". Doctors Mohandas Suk (B. 148 B.G.), grandnephew of Rajid Suk, and Raquella Berto-Anirul (granddaughter of Vorian Atreides, and Suk's lover) established the Hospital for Incurable Diseases on Parmentier, a former Synchronized World recolonized by the League. The planet was being ravaged by the Demon Scourge, a catastrophic virus genetically engineered and unleashed by the Thinking Machines to destroy humanity. Their work was hampered and their lives threatened by the antitechnology mobs of the Cult of Serena, and they barely escaped the planet. Later, in 107 B.G., Mohandas and Raquella founded the Humanities Medical Commission and went to "more than thirty planets in their efforts to treat plague victims." In 88 B.G., they traveled to Rossak to help fight another outbreak of the Scourge. After that situation was resolved, Mohandas conceived a child with Raquella, but she chose to stay on Rossak to lead the Sorceresses in a new Sisterhood (later known as the Bene Gesserit). He told her of his plans:

We've been though a century of the Jihad, then the Scourge, and now this new epidemic. Humanity must be prepared to face all the tragedies the universe has in store for us. When our race is at stake, important victories are won in hospitals as much as on battlefields. We can take the best of us, the most talented researchers, the most skilled doctors, and form a medical school like none the League has ever seen. We must make sure that our doctors and facilities are such that no threat of machine, war, or plague can ever harm us again. — "Dune: The Battle of Corrin"

Mohandas set out on his mission to establish such an institution, which later came to be known as the Suk School.

Dr. Wellington Yueh

The infallibility of Suk training is proven false in "Dune", in a situation involving Dr. Wellington Yueh. The Harkonnen twisted Mentat Piter De Vries notes:

Hawat will have divined that we have an agent planted on him ... The obvious suspect is Dr. Yueh, who is indeed our agent. But Hawat has investigated and found that our doctor is a Suk School graduate with Imperial Conditioning — supposedly safe enough to minister even to the Emperor. Great store is set on Imperial Conditioning. It's assumed that ultimate conditioning cannot be removed without killing the subject. However, as someone once observed, given the right lever you can move a planet. We found the lever that moved the doctor.

To gain such leverage against Yueh, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen had abducted and tortured Yueh's wife Wanna; the doctor is thus compelled to betray House Atreides in exchange for her release. Even so, Yueh allows Paul and Lady Jessica to escape the attack and gives Duke Leto Atreides the means to kill the Baron (though the Duke fails to do so).

Quotes

The following quotes are presented via epigraphs in various novels of the "Dune" series:

*One of the questions the Butlerian Jihad answered with violence was whether the human body is simply a machine that a man-made machine can duplicate. The results of the war answered the question. — Dr. Rajid Suk, "Post-Trauma Analysis of the Human Species" ("")

*The beginning of healing is to enlist the recuperative powers of the body — whether it is the body individually and physically, or its various social and political forms. — Dr. Rajid Suk, "Battlefield Notebooks" ("")

*Science is the creation of dilemmas in the attempt to solve mysteries. — Dr. Mohandas Suk, Speech to graduating class ("Dune: The Battle of Corrin")

*Not everything is as it appears. — Dr. Mohandas Suk, Medical journals ("Dune: The Battle of Corrin")

*The human body is a machine, a system of organic chemicals, fluid conduits, electrical impulses; a government is likewise a machine of interacting societies, laws, cultures, rewards and punishments, patterns of behavior. Ultimately, the universe itself is a machine, planets around suns, stars gathered into clusters, clusters and other suns forming entire galaxies. Our job is to keep the machinery functioning. — "Suk Inner School, Primary Directive" ("")