Sheeana had been attempting to learn to swim in the pool, in the learning trance that allowed information to flow into her like a sponge. She had of course gone to the library, but learning was not enough. One must also have memory, and she spent a long hour consulting with memory. Memory too was not enough compared to experience though. So she allowed herself to float on her back, calming her rapidly beating heart, making herself breath slower. Fremen instincts told the dark, slender girl that she was sitting on the most valuable thing in the world, and that she shouldn't be wasting it. She had to keep herself from grasping the water in her palms as if it were sand.

Standards change. Values change. There are no fixed points in an ever expanding multiverse. Walk the Golden Path. She thought, not to center herself but the exact opposite.

When she had enough, when her basic nature could not take the extreme value dissonance anymore, she pulled herself out of the pool, stepped back into her plantsuit and sprinted and lept down the several flights of stairs, joyously glad to be free of water's slow pressure and confinement.

She came across Slobo in the lobby on her way out, noticed the plaque (a grim reminder? something bitter and nursed?) and the modified TVs. She cocked her head in curiosity, dark ringlets of hair still dripping. She wasn't nude as she had been when she tried to swim but wetness combining with the plantsuit did distracting things to her figure nonetheless.