Jasta Mason

Jasta Mason (60 BG - 31 AG) was the son of Frelo Mason from Tupile, and one of the great figures in the history of human commerce.

After his father's death in 29 BG he became the head of the Society of Mystic Mariners and inherited his abilities and ambitions.

Over the next three decades Jasta tried to assemble a substantial fleet and manage to navigate it. While the fleet was growing and made secret interstellar voyages, they found Arrakis and the use of spice

By 12 BG the Guild felt secure enough and revealed itself from a position of strength. The reconnaissance missions became more numerous and extended its knowledge of political developments in the inhabited worlds. After a failed attempt to approach Corrino on Deneb, the Guild was narrowed to two choices: retreat back into secrecy, or continue trying to negotiate. Mason broke the impasse with his speech and a unanimous board affirmed his ambitious policy.

This resulted in the Financial Synod which made the Guild's positions known and accepted by the Landsraad and the CHOAM was founded.

Jasta Mason died of natural causes, after a long and distinguished career. He was but he died without a successor of comparable stature and authority.

The organization that Jasta, and his father before him, had partly inherited and partly created worked well through a board of directors.

Speech to the Guild Directors

Mason broke the impasse in a speech that Adelheyd Heyman (claiming access to the minutes of the meeting) records:

"Zarv died horribly, and we're all sorry about that, but we can't let it panic us. You say, "Be safe; be careful," but Zarv wasn't. Norma Cevna wasn't when the spice was killing her brain cell by cell. Venport wasn't when he took the fleet into The Void. If the Ixians had been safe and careful, all of us right now would be sitting around a campfire wearing skins.
This guild can make us great — I tell you, we can be the wings of the Imperium. Right now, this moment, as we argue, a new humanity is being conceived, and we have the chance to shape the child that will be born.
Hesitate now, and the chance will never come again. As the Imperium develops, that child will grow, and if we hide on Tupile for — how long? a century? two centuries? — when we come out of our burrows and look at him, we'll see that he can fly, all right, but his wings won't be Guild ships.
But they can be: we can be those wings —if we remember who and what we are, and be bold!"

―Jasta Mason

Sources

• SPACING GUILD, FOUNDATION OF