ender-output.txt

 Ender nodded.
 It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn't hurt a bit.
prediction of the future.
 Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.
 The monitor gone.
 Ender tried to imagine the little device missing from the back of  enderneck.
 I'll roll over on my back in bed and it won't be pressing there.
and taking up the heat when I shower.
 And Peter won't hate me anymore.
, either.
him.
 That won't be so bad then.
longer than he had his.
 We'll be-- not friends, probably.
 No, Peter was too dangerous.
Peter got so angry.
 Brothers, though.
in the same house.
 He won't hate me, he'll just leave me alone.
play buggers and astronauts, maybe I won't have to play, maybe I can just go read a book.
 But Ender knew, even as ender thought it, that Peter wouldn't leave peter alone.
look, that glint, peter knew that the one thing Peter would not do was leave peter alone.
practicing piano, Ender.
 Come turn the pages for me.
 brother?
 Is he too smart?
 Got to go kill some buggers, astronaut?
want your help.
 I can do it on my own, you little bastard, you little Third.
 "This won't take long, Andrew,"  said the doctor.
 Ender nodded.
 The doctor was twisting something at the back of Ender's head.
through a pain like a needle from a pain neck to a pain groin.
 Ender felt  ender back spasm, and  enderbody arched violently backward; hi head struck the bed.
and his hands were clenching each other, wringing each other so tightly that each other ached.
 "Deedee!"  shouted the doctor.
 "I need you!"  The nurse ran in, gasped.
 Something changed hands; Ender could not see.
examining table.
 "Catch him!"  cried the nurse.
 Ender felt a needle enter ender back just above the neck of ender shirt.
 muscles gradually unclenched.
the fear and pain of it.
 "Are you all right, Andrew?"  the nurse asked.
 Andrew could not remember how to speak.
 They lifted him onto the table.
 did not understand it all.
 the doctor spoke.
 "When does the drug wear off'?"  asked the nurse.
 He got back to Miss Pumphrey's class only fifteen minutes before the closing bell.
was still a little unsteady on his feet.
 "Are you all right, Andrew?"  asked Miss Pumphrey.
 He nodded.
 He shook his head.
 andrew started toward andrew seat, but stopped.
 Now what was I looking for?
was looking for.
 "Your seat is over there,"  said Miss Pumphrey.
  had lost.
later.
 "Your monitor,"  whispered the girl behind him.
 Andrew shrugged.
 "His monitor,"  she whispered to the others.
 andrew neck.
 There was a bandaid.
 It was gone.
everybody else now.
 "Washed out, Andy?"  asked a boy who sat across the aisle and behind andy.
 name.
 Peter.
 No, that was someone else.
 "Quiet, Mr. Stilson,"  said Miss Pumphrey.
 Stilson smirked.
 Miss Pumphrey talked about multiplication.
dimensions from every angle.
attention, but  the teacher wouldn't bother  the teacher.
thought he wasn't paying attention.
the desk.
before it reached the bottom of the desk and turned right side up.
 Ender smiled.
him.
 It was not his fault he was a Third.
who authorized it-- how else could a Third like Ender have got into school?
monitor was gone.
 The experiment entitled Andrew Wiggin hadn't worked out alter all.
born at all.
 Didn't work, so erase the experiment.
 The bell rang.
 everyone.
 Some were dumping lessons or data into  some computers at home.
 wanted to show was printed out.
what it would feel like to have hands as large as a grown-up's.
awkward, thick stubby fingers and beefy palms.
desk without the lines ever touching or overlapping.
the teacher droned on about arithmetic.
 Arithmetic!
when  valentine was three.
 Ender nodded and got up.
 The other kids were gone.
bad ones.
saw.
 They could say what they liked.
anymore, and so no one would come to Ender's rescue.
 would miss them.
 It was Stilson, of course.
Ender.
 And he had some others with him.
 He always did.
 Don't answer.
 Nothing to say.
 Can't think of anything to answer.
 Anything I say will make it worse.
nothing.
 "Are you going to let me through?"  Ender asked.
 "Are we going to let him through? Should we let him through?"  They all laughed.
 The others chimed in now.
Stilson.
 "See-saw, marjorie daw,"  somebody said.
 This would not have a happy ending.
unhappiest at the end.
at stilson's arm.
 He missed.
 .
 ender laughed.
 .
catching Stilson square in the breastbone.
 He dropped.
thought to put Stilson on the ground with one kick.
didn't take a fight like this seriously, that he wasn't prepared for a truly desperate blow.
 For a moment, the others backed away and Stilson lay motionless.
wondering if he was dead.
vengeance.
 To keep them from taking him in a pack tomorrow.
and for all time, or I'll fight this every day and this will get worse and worse.
unspoken rules of manly warfare, even though  ender was only six.
the opponent who lay helpless on the ground; only an animal would do that.
 so ender again, viciously, in the ribs.
stilson.
 Ender walked around  ender and kicked  enderagain, in the crotch.
streamed out of  stilson eyes.
 Then Ender looked at the others coldly.
 kicked Stilson in the face.
nearby.
 "It wouldn't be this bad,"  Ender said.
 He turned and walked away.
leading to the bus stop.
bus came.
 I am just like Peter.
 Take my monitor away, and I am just like Peter.
 " Mostly.
 Let's see what  let's does with  let's brother, now that the monitor's off.
 " His brother.
 Aren't you afraid of what his brother will do to his brother?
 " You were the one who told me that this wasn't a no-risk business.
 " I went back through some of the tapes.
 I can't help it.
 I like the kid.
 up.
 " Of course we are.
 It's our job.
 We're the wicked witch.
we eat the little bastards alive.
 Ender touched the wall and the door closed behind ender. " I don't care.
 I'm glad it's gone.
 " What's gone?
 But Peter would not be soothed. " Like us?
old.
 When did you lose yours?
 You were three.
 I lost mine before I was five.
made it, little bastard, little bugger.
to you.
 How about that?
 How about it?
 " Where's Mom?
 " Out," said Peter. " I'm in charge.
 " I think I'll call Daddy.
 " Call away," said Peter. " You know peter's never in.
weapons.
 ender could barely see Peter through the eyeholes. Peter smiled at peter. " Slimy, huh?
bugger-wugger, let's see how you break that face of yours.
 " Don't see too well, do you, bugger?
 " Lie flat, bugger.
 We're gonna vivisect you, bugger.
alive, and we're going to see how you work.
 .
 Very good.
 So you buggers can guess our names.
yourselves sound like pathetic, cute little children so we'll love you and be nice to you.
But it doesn't work.
 I can see you for what you really are.
little Third, but you're really a bugger, and now a bugger shows.
 " I could kill you like this," Peter whispered. " Just press and press until you're dead.
believe me, and everything would be fine.
 And you'd be dead.
 Everything would be fine.
 " I do mean it," Peter said. " Whatever you think.
 I mean it.
because I was so promising.
 But I didn't pan out.
 You did better.
 They think you're better.
But I don't want a better little brother, Ender.
 I don't want a Third.
 " No one would believe you.
 " They'd believe me.
 " Then you're dead, too, sweet little sister.
 " Oh, yes," said Valentine. " They'll believe that.
 'I didn't know it would kill Andrew.
And when he was dead, I didn't know it would kill Valentine too.
 " So.
 Not today.
 But someday you two won't be together.
 And there'll be an accident.
 " You're all talk," Valentine said. " You don't mean any of it.
 " I don't?
 " And do you know why you don't mean it?
in government someday.
 You want to be elected.
accidents when they were little.
which will be opened in the event of my death.
 " It says, I didn't die a natural death.
Andrew,  peter will soon.
getting elected.
 " You're his monitor now," said Peter. " You better watch him, day and night.
be there.
 " Ender and I aren't stupid.
 We scored as well as you did on everything.
things.
 We're all such wonderfully bright children.
biggest.
 " Oh, I know.
 But there'll come a day when you aren't there with him, when you forget.
right.
 And the next time you won't worry so much, and you won't come so fast.
every time,  'll be all right.
 And you'll think that I forgot.
that I said this, you'll think that I forgot.
 And years will pass.
remember what I said in a childhood quarrel.
 Except that it'll be true.
up, and he's gonna die, and you won't do a thing, not a thing.
I'm just the biggest.
earth.
 " Not a joke, a game.
 I can make you guys believe anything.
around like puppets.
you into little pieces and put you into the garbage hole.
suckers in the solar system.
  mind, Valentine whispered, " No, Ender.
 peter said. " Any time, Ender.
 ender held the shoe up. " See there, on the toe?
That's blood, Peter.
 " Ooh.
 Ooh, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die.
gonna kill me.
 peter whispered, " Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels.
brother.
 I love you.
 " The sister is our weak link.
 He really loves her.
 " I know.
 She can undo it all, from the start.
 He won't wont to leave her.
 " So, what are you going to do?
 " Persuade him that he wants to come with us more than he wants to stay with her.
 " How will you do that?
 " I'll lie to him.
 " And if that doesn't work?
 " Then I'll tell the truth.
 We're allowed to do that in emergencies.
everything, you know.
 Peter came into the room. " Morning.
 Ender.
the middle of the shower.
 " Andrew, you have to eat.
 " Very funny.
genius children.
 " It was all your genes that made us, Mom.
Dad.
 " It would've been wasted if you hadn't.
 " Who is it?
eat.
they're gonna make you do time out in the Belt.
 " I'm only six, moron.
 I'm a juvenile.
 " You're a Third, turd.
 You've got no rights.
 valentine face. " Where's Mom and Dad?
I'm too sick to go to school.
 " Another oral exam, huh?
 " You should relax and enjoy it," said Peter. " It could be worse.
 " I don't know how.
 " It could be an anal exam.
 " Hyuk hyuk," Valentine said. " Where are Mother and Father?
 " Talking to a guy from IF.
 " That's right, look at ender was," Peter said. " But it might peter me, you know.
realized I was the best of the lot after all.
 The door opened. " Ender," said Father, " you better come in here.
 Father glowered. " Children, this is no laughing matter.
thought you were the kind to get in a fight.
 " The Stilson boy is in the hospital," Father said. " You really did a number on the stilson boy.
your shoe, Ender, that wasn't exactly fair.
 " Do you have any explanation for your behavior, young man?
 doesn't look good.
body when he was down-- sounds like you really enjoyed it.
 " Then why did you do it?
 " So?
 This excuses anything?
 " No.
 " Tell me why you kept on kicking him.
 You had already won.
 " Knocking him down won the first fight.
then, so they'd leave me alone.
away the monitor," Ender said. " I had to take care of ender, didn't I?
" My name is Graff.
 Ender.
 Colonel Hyrum Graff.
Battle School in the Belt.
 I've come to invite you to enter the school.
 " The final step in your testing was to see what would happen if the monitor comes off.
 " And I passed?
 Mother was incredulous. " Putting the Stilson boy in the hospital?
done if Andrew had killed andrew, given andrew a medal?
 " It isn't what he did, Mrs.
 Wiggin.
 It's why.
papers. " Here are the requisitions.
 Your son has been cleared by the IF Selective Service.
 could not have been born.
 He has been ours from then, if he qualified.
 after all.
 " It wasn't a charade, Mrs.
 Wiggin.
 wasn't another-- we had to know what the action meant.
what Ender believed that it meant.
 " Must you call him that stupid nickname?
 " I'm sorry, Mrs.
 Wiggin.
 But that's the name he calls himself.
 " What are you going to do, Colonel Graff?
now?
 " On what?
 " On whether Ender wants to come.
 Mother's weeping turned to bitter laughter. " Oh, so it's voluntary after all, how sweet!
 " For the two of you, the choice was made when Ender was conceived.
the choice has not been made at all.
we need volunteers.
 " Officers?
commodores of flotillas and admirals of the fleet.
 " Let's not have any deception herc!
Battle School actually end up in command of ships!
 " Unfortunately, Mr.
 Wiggin, that is classified information.
an officer.
an interplanetary vessel.
system, there's honor to be had.
 " How many make it through the first year?
 " I think," Graff said, " that Ender and I should have a private conversation.
can't stop me.
 " Ender," Graff said, " if you come with me, you won't be back here for a long time.
There aren't any vacations from Battle School.
 No visitors, either.
circumstances, when you're twelve.
years.
me.
 You'll be strangers.
 You'll still love her, Ender, but you won't know her.
not pretending it's easy.
 " Mom and Daddy?
 " I know you, Ender.
 I've been watching the monitor disks for some time.
miss your mother and father, not much, not for long.
either.
 " They do love you, Ender.
 But you have to understand what your life has cost them.
They were born religious, you know.
Wieczorek.
 Catholic.
 The seventh of nine children.
 " Yes, well, people do strange things for religion.
were not as harsh then, but still not easy.
 Only the first two children had a free education.
Taxes steadily rose with each new child.
Noncomplying Families Act to separate  your father from  your father family.
 religion, and vowed never to have more than the allotted two children.
meant it.
his.
 Do you understand?
 " He didn't want me.
 " Well, no one wants a Third anymore.
 You can't expect them to be glad.
and mother are a special case.
Mormon-- but in fact their feelings are still ambiguous.
means?
 " They feel both ways.
 " They're ashamed of having come from noncompliant families.
 They conceal it.
suspect.
nation, and under international sanction because of it.
under the government's direct instructions, undoes everything they've been trying to do.
 " I know that.
 " But it's more complicated than that.
names.
were born.
 And your mother objected.
didn't want you baptized, but because she didn't want you baptized Catholic.
really given up their religion.
they were able to circumvent the law and have a Third.
is right.
their efforts at assimilation into normal complying society.
 " How can you know all this?
 " We monitored your brother and sister, Ender.
instruments are.
 We were connected directly to your brain.
whether you were listening carefully or not.
 Whether you understood or not.
understand.
 " So my parents love me and don't love me?
 " They love you.
 The question is whether they want you here.
house is a constant disruption.
 A source of tension.
 Do you understand?
 " I'm not the one who causes tension.
 " Not anything you do, Ender.
 Your life itself.
living proof that  your brother wasn't good enough.
 your parents are trying to evade.
 " Valentine loves me.
 " With all her heart.
 Completely, unstintingly, she's devoted to you, and you adore her.
 wouldn't be easy.
 " What is it like, there?
 " Hard work.
computers much more heavily.
 Military history.
 Strategy and tactics.
Battle Room.
 " What's that?
 " War games.
 All the boys are organized into armies.
are mock battles.
 Nobody gets hurt, but winning and losing matter.
common soldier, taking orders.
you and command you in battle.
 More than that I can't tell you.
you learn, how well you fight.
 It's a hard life, and you won't have a normal childhood.
childhood anyway.
 " All boys?
 " A few girls.
 They don't often pass the tests to get in.
.
 None of them will be like Valentine, anyway.
brothers there, Ender.
 " Like Peter?
 " Peter wasn't accepted, Ender, for the very reasons that you hate ender.
 " I don't hate him.
 " Afraid of him.
 Well, Peter isn't all bad, you know.
time.
that Valentine would be Peter, but milder.
 She was too mild.
you.
 " To be half Peter and half Valentine.
 " If things worked out right.
 " Am I?
 " As far as we can tell.
 Our tests are very good, Ender.
 But they don't tell us everything.
In fact, when it comes down to it, they hardly tell us anything.
nothing.
a matter of choosing the best and happiest future for you, I'd tell you to stay home.
here, grow up, be happy.
big brother who can't make up his mind whether to be a human being or a jackal.
School is one of those worse things.
 But we need you.
game to you now, Ender, but they damn near wiped us out last time.
 But it wasn't enough.
They had us cold, outnumbered and outweaponed.
we had the most brilliant military commander we've ever found.
call it damnfool luck, we had Mazer Rackham.
 " But we don't have him now, Ender.
kids playing in a swimming pool.
 We have some new weapons, too.
enough, even so.
to prepare as we have.
 We need the best we can get, and we need the best we can get fast.
not going to work out for us, and maybe you are.
today.
and the buggers might leave us alone forever then I'm going to ask you to do it.
with me.
 " I'm afraid," said Ender quietly. " But I'll go with you.
 " It's what I was born for, isn't it?
 If I don't go, why am I alive?
 " I don't want to go," said Ender, " but I will.
 Graff nodded. " You can change your mind.
you can change your mind.
 After that, you stay at the pleasure of the International Fleet.
Do you understand that?
 " All right.
 Let's tell them.
pinheaded fart-eater.
need, from uniforms to school supplies.
 And as for toys-- there's only one game.
 " Kill some buggers for me!
 " I love you, Andrew!
 " We'll write to you!
anguished cry. " Come back to me!
 I love you forever!
 " With Ender, we have to strike a delicate balance.
creative-- otherwise  isolate'll adopt the system here and we'll lose  isolate.
 keeps a strong ability to lead.
 " If he earns rank, he'll lead.
 " lt isn't that simple.
 Mazer Rackham could handle  mazer rackham little fleet and win.
this war happens, there'll be too much, even for a genius.
 Too many little coats.
work smoothly with his subordinates.
 " Oh.
 good.
 He has to be a genius and nice.
 too.
 " Not nice.
 " So you're going to isolate the buggers.
School.
 " I have no doubt of it.
 I'll be waiting for you to get here.
did to the Stilson boy.
 This is not a sweet little kid you're bringing up here.
 " That's where you're mistaken.
 He's even sweeter.
 But don't worry.
hurry.
 " Sometimes I think you enjoy breaking these little geniuses.
 " There is an art to it, and I'm very, very good at an art to it.
 But enjoy?
 Well, maybe.
 makes them better.
 " You're a monster.
 " Thanks.
 Does this mean I get a raise?
 " Just a medal.
 The budget isn't inexhaustible.
empty seats, take one.
 There aren't any window seats.
to the cameraman and saying, " Can I tell Valentine good-bye?
 " Coming with us?
 " I don't usually come down for recruiting," Graff said. " I'm kind of in charge there.
Administrator of the School.
 Like a principal.
my job.
 " What do you think is so funny, Wiggin?
 " I asked you a question, soldier!
 " Well answer it, then!
 " I thought of you hanging upside down by your feet.
 I thought it was funny.
 It sounded stupid, now, with Graff looking at graff coldly. " To you I suppose it is funny.
Is it funny to anybody else here?
 " Well why isn't it?
we've got in this launch.
 Pinheaded little morons.
realize that in null gravity directions are whatever you conceive the brains to be.
understand that, Shafts?
 " No you didn't.
 Of course you didn't.
 Not only stupid, but a liar too.
boy on this launch with any brains at all, and that's Ender Wiggin.
, little boys.
 He's going to he a commander when you're still in diapers up there.
 knows how to think in null gravity, and you just want to throw up.
 " Most of you are going to ice out.
 Get used to that, little boys.
piloting.
because you don't have what it takes.
 Some of you might make it.
wotth something to humanity.
 But don't bet on it.
 I'm betting on only one.
 " Oh, won't even talk to me?
you like this?
 Hey, super-brain, this is fun?
propelled the boy down the aisle toward the other man. " Left arm.
 Broken.
 Graff stayed at the front of the cabin. " What are you, slow learners?
minds, hayen't you picked up one little fact?
 You were brought here to be soldiers.
tough, maybe you were smart.
of kid you're going to meet now.
launch, take the hint, pinheads.
 Don't mess with him.
School before.
 Do I make myself clear?
 " Was it a good flight, Ender?
 " I thought you were my friend.
 Graff looked puzzled. " Whatever gave you that idea, Ender?
 " Because you--" Because you spoke nicely to me, and honestly. " You didn't lie.
 " I won't lie now, either," said Graff. " My job isn't to be friends.
best soldiers in the world.
 In the whole history of the world.
 We need a Napoleon.
Alexander.
young.
 We need a Julius Caesar, except that a julius caesar made a julius caesar dictator, and died for it.
job.
Nowhere in that does it say I have to make friends with children.
 " You made them hate me.
 " So?
 What will you do about it?
 Crawl into a corner?
so they'll love you again?
 There's only one thing that will make only one thing that will make them stop hating you stop hating you.
And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you.
the best.
 Now you damn well better be.
 " What if I can't?
 " Then too bad.
 Look, Ender.
 I'm sorry if you're lonely and afraid.
out there.
 Ten billion, a hundred billion, a million billion of them, for all we know.
as many ships, for all we know.
 With weapons we can't understand.
use those weapons to wipe us out.
 It isn't the world at stake, Ender.
 Just us.
humankind.
would adjust, the earth would get on with the next step in evolution.
to die.
 As a species, we have evolved to survive.
straining and, at last, every few generations, giving birth to genius.
the wheel.
 And light.
 And flight.
 The one who builds a city, a nation, an empire.
understand any of this?
 " No.
 Of course not.
 So I'll put it bluntly.
needs  human beings.
 Maybe humanity needs you.
 To do something.
to find out what you're good for.
humankind survives, then we were good tools.
 " Is that all?
 Just tools?
 " Individual human beings are all tools, that the others use to help us all survive.
 " That's a lie.
 " No.
 It's just a half truth.
 You can worry about the other half after we win this war.
to me.
licking up to Graff.
sure.
 One of the teachers near ender said, " Is that the one?
 " God knows," said Graff. " If it isn't Ender, then ender'd better show up soon.
 " Maybe.
 But if that's the case, Anderson, then in my opinion God is a bugger.
quote me on that.
 " I will.
 " Anderson.
 " Mmm.
 " The kid's wrong.
 I am his friend.
 " I know.
 " He's clean.
 Right to the heart, he's good.
 " I've read the reports.
 " Anderson, think what we're going to do to anderson.
history.
 " And then put the fate of the world on his shoulders.
 For his sake, I hope it isn't him.
do.
 " Cheer up.
 The buggers may kill us all before he graduates.
 Graff smiled. " You're right.
 I feel better already.
 " You have my admiration.
 Breaking an arm-- that was a master stroke.
 " That was an accident.
 " Really?
 And I've already commended you in your official report.
 " It's too strong.
 It makes that other little bastard into a hero.
for a lot of kids.
 I thought he might call for help.
 " Call for help?
problems.
to help him if he calls.
 " Who would have guessed the little sucker'd be out of hs seat?
wrong against the bulkhead?
 " Just one more example of the stupidity of the military.
in a real career, like selling life insurance.
 " You, too, mastermind.
 " We've just got to face the fact that we're second rate.
hands.
 Gives you a delicious feeling of power, doesn't  gives?
we lose there won't be any criticism of us at all.
 " I never thought of it that way.
 But let's not lose.
 " See how Ender handles it.
 If we've already lost  , if   can't handle this, who next?
Who else?
 " I'll make up a list.
 " In the meantime, figure out how to unlose Ender.
 " I told you.
 His isolation can't be broken.
will ever help him out.
 ever.
 If   once thinks there's an easy way out,  's wrecked.
 " You're right.
 That would be terrible, if he believed he had a friend.
 " He can have friends.
 It's parents he can't have.
to ask for low bunk by the door.
" Ender Wiggin.
 Ender Wiggin.
ender couldn't. Then ender put ender hand on the scanner and said, " Ender Wiggin.
kind-looking man. " But it has a tight enough beam.
 Well-focused.
make a three-inch circle of light on a wall a hundred meters off.
 " What's it for?
 " One of the games we play during recreation.
 Does anyone else have his locker open?
and hands?
 You can't get into the lockers until you do.
first year or so here at the Battle School, so get the bunk you want and stay with it.
door, but apparently that position has been taken.
 Can't recode the lockers now.
about whom you want to choose.
 Dinner in seven minutes.
floor.
 will be red yellow yellow, three dots side by side-- go where those lights indicate.
What's your color code, boys?
 " Red, yellow, yellow.
 " Very good.
 My name is Dap.
 I'm your mom for the next few months.
 " Laugh all you like, but keep it in mind.
possible, don't go opening doors.
 Some of  some lead outside.
just tell someone that your mom is Dap, and they'll call me.
they'll light up a path for you to get home.
 If you have a problem, come talk to me.
Remember, I'm the only person here who's paid to be nice to you, but not too nice.
me any lip and I'll break your face, OK?
 " Which way is down, anybody tell me?
 " OK, that's true.
 But that direction is toward the outside.
what makes it feel like that is down.
 The floor actually curves around in that direction.
Keep going long enough that way, and you come back to where you started.
try it.
 Because up that way is teachers' quarters, and up that way is the bigger kids.
the bigger kids don't like Launchies butting in.
 You might get pushed around.
will get pushed around.
 And when you do, don't come crying to me.
 Got it?
School, not nursery school.
 " What are we supposed to do, then?
warn you-- murder is strictly against the rules.
 So is any deliberate injury.
there was one attempted murder on the was up here.
 A broken arm.
happens again, somebody ices out.
 You got it?
 " What's icing out?
 " Ice.
 Put out in the cold.
 Sent Earthside.
 Finished at Battle School.
 " So, boys, if any of you are thinking of being troublemakers, at least be clever about it.
OK?
 " I'm Mick.
 " Ender.
 " That's a name?
 " Since I was little.
 It's what my sister called me.
 " Not a bad name here.
 Ender.
 Finisher.
 Hey.
 " Hope so.
 " Ender, you the bugger in your launch?
 " I noticed you eating all alone.
 Every launch has one like that.
right away.
 Sometimes I think the teachers do it on purpose.
nice.
 You'll notice that.
 " Yeah.
 " So you the bugger?
 " I guess so.
 " Hey.
 Nothing to cry about, you know?
pudding. " Eat nutritious stuff.
 It'll keep you strong.
 " What about you?
 " Me?
 I'm nothing.
 I'm a fart in the air conditioning.
time nobody knows it.
 " Yeah, funny, but no joke.
 I got nowhere here.
 I'm getting big now.
send me to my next school pretty soon.
 No way it'll be Tactical School for me.
been a leader, you see.
 Only the guys who get to be leaders have a shot at a shot.
 " How do you get to be a leader?
 " Hey, if I knew, you think I'd be like this?
 How many guys my size you see in here?
 " A few.
 I'm not the only half-iced bugger-fodder.
 A few of us.
all commanders.
 All the guys from my launch have  all the guys from my launch own teams now.
 Not me.
 " Listen, little guy.
 I'm doing you a favor.
 Make friends.
 Be a leader.
got to, but if the other guys despise you-- you know what I mean?
 " Naw, you don't know anything.
 You Launchies are all alike.
 You don't know nothing.
Minds like space.
 Nothing there.
 And if anything hits you, you fall apart.
end up like me, don't forget that somebody warned you.
going to do for you.
 " So why did you tell me?
 " What are you, a smart mouth?
 Shut up and eat.
 " Lawsy me, what is this?
" asked the boy. " Is it a bug or a bugger?
 " But a new flock talks.
 Did you know they could talk?
 " I see," said Ender. " You're afraid to play me two out of three.
 " Beating you," said the boy, " would be as easy as pissing in the shower.
 " I'm Ender Wiggin.
 " Listen up, scrunchface.
 You nobody.
 Got that?
 You nobody, got that?
anybody till you gots you first kill.
 Got that?
I'm nobody, then how come you scared to play me two out of three?
 Now the other guys were impatient. " Kill the squirt quick and let's get on with the squirt.
 " Satisfied, launchy?
 " Two out of three.
 " We don't allow two out of three games.
twice, you can't do it at all.
machine.
 Getting so any pinbrain can beat any pinbrain now.
bernard's so small," Bernard said, " and because bernard wriggles.
when he walks.
 Shen stormed off, but they only laughed louder. " Look at his butt.
 Seeya, Worm!
 " What's so funny?
 Bernard went red with anger. " Who did this!
 " It sure as hell wasn't you," Bernard said. " This takes too much brains for a worm.
write it!
 Shut up!
 " I didn't write that message!
 " What's the fuss?
 " Somebody's been writing messages using my name.
 " What message.
 " It doesn't matter what message!
 " It does to me.
 " Aren't you going to find out who did it?
 " Well, who, then?
 " Are you shouting at me, soldier?
 " Everybody knows that the system automatically puts on the name of the sender.
 " I didn't write that!
 " Shouting?
 " Really?
" said Dap. " I didn't know dap was signed onto the system.
 " How did you do that?
sat with ender at a meal. " Do what?
 " Send a message with a fake name.
 And Bernard's name!
 That was great.
 Buttwatcher now.
 just watcher in front of the teachers's watching.
 " Poor Bernard," Ender murmured. " And ender's so sensitive.
 " Come on, Ender.
 You broke into the system.
 How'd you do it?
 ender head and smiled. " Thanks for thinking I'm bright enough to do that.
just happened to see it first, that's all.
 " OK, you don't have to tell me," said Shen. " Still, it was great.
moment. " Do I wiggle my butt when I walk?
 " Naw.
" Ender said. " Just a little.
 Just don't take such big long steps, that's all.
 " The only person who'd ever notice was Bernard.
 Ender shrugged. " On the whole, pigs aren't so bad.
 Shen laughed. " You're right.
 I wasn't being fair to the pigs.
through, and then they don't.
first six months.
 " Oh?
 " Don't you see what's going on here?
 He's stuck at the Giant's Drink in the mind game.
Is the boy suicidal?
 You never mentioned it.
 " Everybody gets the Giant sometime.
 " But Ender won't leave it alone.
 Like Pinual.
 " Everybody looks like Pinual at one time or another.
himself.
 I don't think it had anything to do with the Giant's Drink.
 " You're betting my life on that.
 And look what he's done with his launch group.
 " Wasn't his fault, you know.
 " I don't care.
 His fault or not, he's poisoning that group.
right where he stands there's a chasm a mile wide.
 " I don't plan to leave him there very long, anyway.
 " Then you'd better plan again.
 That launch is sick, and  that launch's the source of the disease.
stays till it's cured.
 " I was the source of the disease.
 I was isolating him, and it worked.
 " Give him time.
 To see what he does with it.
 " We don't have time.
a military genius.
 " Is this an order?
 " The recorders on, it's always on, your ass is covered, go to hell.
 " It's an order.
group.
 Graff, you give me ulcers.
yourself.
 " The fleet is looking for a battle commander.
get me that.
 ?
your bouncing with your legs, like this.
 " Here, snag my hand!
 " That's good," Ender said. " We ought to practice that kind of thing.
happens if we get out there together?
directions.
 " Yeah.
 " OK?
 " Ready?
" said Alai. " Go.
 " Packed head, Ender.
that bunch.
 " And then let's meet over in that corner.
 " And then we just scrunch?
 " You win.
 " I stored your fart collection in your locker.
 Didn't you notice?
 " I thought it was my socks.
 " We don't wear socks anymore.
 " Oh yeah.
 " What does it do when you aim at a person?
 " I don't know.
 " Why don't we find out?
 ender head. " We might hurt somebody.
 " I meant why don't we shoot each other in the foot or something.
never tortured cats for fun.
 " Oh.
 " It can't be too dangerous, or they wouldn't give these guns to kids.
 " We're soldiers now.
 " Shoot me in the foot.
 " No, you shoot me.
 " Let's shoot each other.
 " You frozen?
 " Stiff as a board.
 " Let's freeze a few," Alai said. " Let's have our first war.
 Us against them.
 They grinned. Then Ender said, " Better invite Bernard.
 Alai cocked an eyebrow. " Oh?
 " And Shen.
 " That little slanty-eyed butt-wiggler?
 Ender decided that Alai was joking. " Hey, we can't all be niggers.
 Alai grinned. " My grandpa would've killed you for that.
 " Let's go get Bernard and Shen and freeze these bugger-lovers.
 " Why weren't you ready?
" asked Dap. " You had your suits just as long as your suits did.
had just as many minutes flapping around like drunken ducks.
begin.
 " How about a guessing game?
Fairyland.
other, and dodged the Giant's huge hands as the Giant shouted, " Cheater, cheater!
 " How did you get here?
" the bat asked. " Nobody ever comes here.
 The bat took it and flew off, shouting as it went, " Welcome to Fairyland.
 " Isn't it nice to know that Ender can do the impossible?
 " The player's deaths have always been sickening.
is the one we want to put in command of our fleets?
 " What matters is that he won the game that couldn't be won.
 " I suppose you'll move him now.
 " We were waiting to see how he handled the thing with Bernard.
perfectly.
 " So as soon as he can cope with a situation, you move him to one he can't cope with.
Doesn't he get any rest?
 " He'll have a month or two, maybe three, with his launch group.
long time in a child's life.
 " Does it ever seem to you that these boys aren't children?
way they talk, and they don't seem like little kids.
 " They're the most brilliant children in the world, each in his own way.
 " But shouldn't they still act like children?
 They aren't normal.
 They act like-- history.
Napoleon and Wellington.
 Caesar and Brutus.
 " We're trying to save the world, not heal the wounded heart.
 You're too compassionate.
 " General Levy has no pity for anyone.
 All the videos say so.
 But don't hurt this boy.
 " Are you joking?
 " I mean, don't hurt him more than you have to.
 Alai sat across from Ender at dinner. " I finally figured out how you sent that message.
Using Bernard's name.
 " Me?
 " Come on.
 who else?
 It sure wasn't Bernard.
 And Shen isn't too hot on the computer.
And I know it wasn't me.
 Who else?
 Doesn't matter.
student entry.
so the computer didn't kick the computer out as a repeat of another student.
 " OK, OK.
 It does work.
 But you did that practically on the first day.
 " Or somebody.
 Maybe Dap did it, to keep Bernard from getting too much control.
 " I found something else.
 I can't do it with your name.
 " Oh?
 " Anything with Ender in it gets kicked out.
 I can't get inside your files at all, either.
made your own security system.
 " Maybe.
 Alai grinned. " I just got in and trashed somebody's files.
cracking the system.
 I need protection, Ender.
 I need your system.
 " If I give you my system, you'll know how I do my system and you'll get in and trash me.
 " You say me?
" Alai asked. " I the sweetest friend you got!
 Ender laughed. " I'll setup a system for you.
 " Now?
 " Can I finish eating?
 " You never finish eating.
and decided ender was through. " Let's go then.
 over here.
 I'll show you how.
 " What up?
 " Somebody done a dance on your head, mama," Alai said. " Somebody eated your face.
 " You sure you want my security system now?
 " What is it?
 Alai looked up at him. " Don't you know?
 This was on your bed.
.
 " You're smart, Ender, but you don't do the battle-room any better than me.
even let you take anything you own.
 Ender grinned and didn't cry after all. " Think I should strip and go naked?
 Alai hugged him back. " I understand alai, Ender.
 You are the best of us.
in a hurry to teach you everything.
like to have a friend.
alai grinned. " Go slice up the buggers.
 " Yeah.
 Alai suddenly kissed Ender on the cheek and whispered in ender ear. " Salaam.
 It led to a clearing, with a well in the middle, and a sign that said, " Drink, traveler.
 " I am your only escape," it said. " Death is your only escape.
 Ender looked around the room for a weapon, when suddenly the screen went dark.
Words flashed around the rim of the desk.
 REPORT TO COMMANDER IMMEDIATELY.
 YOU ARE LATE.
GREEN BROWN.
ribbon of green green brown lit up before ender.
he had found in the game.
 I must go back there, he told himself.
thread; I can let  the serpent down from the tower and find my way through that place.
nothing to kill and nothing to kill me, just living there.
  could not imagine what "just living"  might actually be.
He had never done it in his life.
 But he wanted to do it anyway.
 Armies were larger than launch groups, and the army barracks room was larger, too.
curvature of the floor as the far end bent upward, part of the wheel of the Battle School.
 Ender stood at the door.
and it seemed as though they hadn't even seen him.
conversations, lying and leaning on bunks.
older boys always did.
 They were all much larger than Ender.
age.
head to toe.
 Many of them had desks out, but few were studying.
 Ender stepped into the room.
 The moment he did, he was noticed.
 "What do you want?"  demanded the boy who had the upper bunk by the door.
the largest of them.
growing raggedly on  ender chin.
 "I'm supposed to be, I think,"  Ender said.
He showed the boy, obviously the doorguard, his paper.
 the doorguard.
 Ender withdrew it just out of reach.
 "You must be Bonzo, then?"  Ender asked, pronouncing the name correctly.
 "Mother Petra "mother petra talking?"  said one of the boys.
 Another one chimed in.
 Quite a few laughed.
 Ender despaired.
inexperienced, doomed to be resented for early advancement.
had made exactly the wrong friend.
linked him with her in the minds of the rest of salamander army.
 A good day's work.
covered with hair, their teeth pointed for tearing.
place?
 Are all the others animals, waiting only to devour?
 Then he remembered Alai.
 In every army, surely, there was at least one worth knowing.
 Studdenly, though no one said to be quiet, the laughter stopped and the group fell silent.
Ender turned to the door.
black eyes and slender lips that hinted at refinement.
something inside Ender.
 I would see as those eyes see.
 "Who are you?"  asked the boy quietly.
 "Ender Wiggin, sir,"  Ender said.
held out the orders.
 The boy took the paper in a swift, sure movement, without touching Ender's hand.
old are you, Wiggin?"  wiggin asked.
 Ender had never heard of such things.
 He shook his head.
 madrid steadily.
 "Shut up, Arkanian,"  Madrid said.
 "Salamander!"  cried the soldiers, in one voice.
events changed.
 It was a pattern, a ritual.
 to strengthen his control of his army.
 "Salamander!"  they cried again.
 For a moment, Ender allowed ender to hope.
said.
 "I didn't give you permission to speak,"  Madrid answered.
 "He's all heart,"  Petra said.
hand.
 It made little sound, for only his fingernails had hit only his fingernails.
fingernails had struck.
 Ender nodded.
 So he was to be a nothing.
 He hoped the trade happened soon.
one spot of blood had beaded and run, making a streak down to petra jaw.
as well make friends with Petra.
 He was assigned a bunk at the far end of the room.
on his bed he couldn't even seen the door; the curve of the ceiling blocked the door.
, tired-looking boys, sullen, the ones least valued.
of welcome to say to Ender.
 ender locker open, but nothing happened.
were not secured.
 All four of them had rings on them, to pull them open.
be private, then, now that he was in an army.
 There was a uniform in the locker.
dark green uniform of Salamander Army.
 It did not fit well.
probably never had to provide such a uniform for a boy so young.
bed.
 He slid off the bunk and stood on the floor to greet her.
 "Relax,"  she said.
 Someone nearby snickered.
nearby bunks.
 what already was?
contempt for the boys who would, after all, be  ender near bunkmates.
 "I won't do your deskwork for you,"  your deskwork said.
 in a moment was a joke.
 "Ha,"  she said.
 "So you're my friend. Do I get a prize?"  Ender asked.
way of speaking, as if she cared about nothing.
imitated the pidgin English of uneducated people.
 Ender grinned.
 "If you want,"  Ender said.
 "Right,"  Ender said.
 She started to walk away.
 "Petra,"  he said.
 She turned back.
 She said nothing, just turned around again and walked down the aisle.
 ender uniform.
access codes.
 Sure enough,  sure enough had wiped out  sure enough security system.
anything here, not even his desk.
 The lights dimmed a little.
 Getting toward bedtime.
to use.
 "Go left out of the door,"  said the boy on the next bunk.
 Ender thanked ender and started to walk on past.
 "Hey,"  said the boy.
 That was stupid.
 Petra still looked like a boy, it was a stupid rule.
her different, split the army.
 Stupid stupid.
didn't know better than that?
 Alai would be a better commander than Bonzo.
how to bring a group together.
 I know how to bring a group together, too, thought Ender.
someday.
 in the bathroom hands when somebody spoke to hmm.
 Ender didn't answer just dried off ender hands.
 "Cause you got none, Dink, that's why,"  somebody answered.
 as ender walked down the corridor smiling.
 He may be short, but they knew his name.
the game room, of course, so it meant nothing.
 But they'd see.
 He'd be a good soldier, too.
They'd all know his name soon enough.
enough.
 Petra was waiting in the corridor that led to the battleroom.
Ender.
 Ender sat down beside  .
to the next,"  he said.
 Petra closed petra eyes.
 Ender nodded.
 "These are the mysteries,"  Petra said in a deep whisper.
contemptuous.
 Ender understood more than she said.
enemy, not the other armies.
 They do not tell us the truth.
 "Come, little boy,"  little boy said.
enemy is deady."  She giggled.
 "Better believe it, baby butt."  a loon had ten target balls in a bag.
different directions.
 In the null gravity, they bounced every which way.
she said.
herself, and began aiming carefully at ball after ball.
changed from white to red.
minutes.
 Only one ball had changed back to white when white got the last one.
  rebounded accurately from a wall and came at high speed back to Ender.
as a Launchy.
 "You're good,"  he said.
 Petra taught him to hold his arm straight, to aim with the whole arm.
 She used the ballcaller to bring the targets back, then launched the targets slowly, one by one.
Ender fired at them.
 He missed every one.
 "Good,"  she said.
 "I don't have any good ones, either,"  he pointed out.
 those didn't accomplish much that first morning.
 Mostly talk.
were aiming.
at the same time.
case your arm is frozen you can still shoot.
ride the edge, so you don't have to pull so far each time you fire.
tense up; your body makes you tremble.
 It was the only practice Ender got that day.
room.
 Bonzo had to have all  bonzo soldiers in the battleroom, but  bonzo didn't have to use all his soldiers in the battleroom.
 ender schoolwork, however.
study Bonzo as a tactician.
ten soldiers each.
best soldiers, and D toon had the worst.
good soldiers and weaker ones.
 Except that B toon had only nine boys.
make room for  ender.
 It soon became plain that the leader of toon B was new.
Bonzo was so disgusted-- bonzo had lost a toon leader to get Ender.
 And Bonzo was right about another thing.
 Ender was not ready.
 All the practice time was spent working on maneuvers.
practiced using each other to make sudden changes of direction without losing formation.
All these soldiers took for granted skills that Ender didn't have.
landing and absorb most of the shock.
 Accurate flight.
frozen soldiers floating randomly through the room.
 Rolls, spins, dodges.
couldn't get behind you.
improve on.
 The well-rehearsed formations were a mistake.
obey shouted orders instantly, but it also meant the soldiers were predictable.
individual soldiers were given little initiative.
a pattern through.
formation.
ways to disrupt the formation.
 During free play that night, Ender asked Petra to practice with ender.
 "No,"  she said.
commanders there.
 Ender doubted it, though.
what  toon leaders might do as commanders than any video player.
  didn't argue with Petra.
 The after-breakfast practice was generous enough.
 had to practice.
 And he couldn't practice alone, except a few of the basic skills.
of the hard things required partners or teams.
with.
 Well, why shouldn't he practice with them?
with Launchies, but there was no rule against it.
in too much contempt.
 Well, Ender was still being treated like a Launchy anyway.
things he saw the older boys doing.
 "Hey, the great soldier returns!"  said Bernard.
barracks.
others of his launch group were strangers.
 Almost he turned around and left.
was Alai, who had made who friendship sacred.
 Alai was not a stranger.
 ender was treated in Salamander Army.
started to gather around.
 Ender proposed  ender bargain.
in the battleroom, under Ender's direction.
skills.
 A lot of boys wanted to come, too.
 "Sure,"  Ender said.
 They didn't waste any time.
working out ways to do it.
 But by the time free play ended, they had learned some things.
They were tired, but they were getting the knack of a few techniques.
 "Where were you?"  asked Bonzo.
 ender commander's bunk.
 Ender regarded ender in silence.
 "May I speak to you privately?"  asked Ender.
 It was a request that commanders were required to allow.
 bonzo's face led Ender out into the corridor.
 A good commander, thought Ender, doesn't have to make stupid threats.
 Bonzo grew annoyed at Ender's silence.
 " Sir, I've got my own career to think of.
battles, but I've got to learn sometime.
to trade me as soon as you can.
they?
soldier you can really use.
 " While you're in Salamander Army, you'll obey me.
 " If you try to control my free play, I can get you iced.
want, I'll pretend you won this argument.
your mind.
 " I don't need you to tell me what to do.
 " I don't want the other guys to think you backed down.
command as well.
loudly. " I changed my mind, pinprick.
learn something, and I can trade you easier.
 Anything to get rid of you faster.
 " Anything," whispered Boozo. " I hope you're iced.
instructions. " A take the handles and go up.
 B left, C right, D down.
minutes, then come just inside the door.
 Don't even take your gun off your suit.
shoot.
orders and fired, ender calmly answered, " I obey orders.
forget the order.
tiredness in his eyes. That morning Bonzo came in as they were dressing. " Flash suits!
 " Wiggin, I finally traded you.
place on the efficiency list is more than an accident.
 You go over there tomorrow.
disobeys.
" you're as close to being a good shot as you'll ever be.
 " Colonel Graff, the games have always been run fairly before.
distribution of stars, or symmetrical.
 " Fairness is a wonderful attribute, Major Anderson.
 It has nothing to do with war.
 " The game will be compromised.
 The comparative standings will become meaningless.
 " Alas.
 " It will take months.
 Years, to develop the new battlerooms and run the simulations.
 " That's why I'm asking you now.
 To begin.
 Be creative.
impossible, unfair star arrangement you can.
 Think of other ways to bend the rules.
notification.
 Unequal forces.
which easiest.
 We want an intelligent progression here.
 We want to bring him along.
 " When do you plan to make him a commander?
 When he's eight?
 " Of course not.
 I haven't even assembled his army yet.
 " Oh, so you're stacking it that way, too?
 " You're getting too close to the game, Anderson.
training exercise.
desk.
 "With you around, how can any army lose?"  Several of the boys nearby laughed.
 There could not here been two more opposite armies than Samamander and Rat.
room was rumpled, cluttered, noisy.
would be a welcome relief.
and the disorder here made him uncomfortable.
 Since the IF was formed the Strategos of the military forces had always been a Jew.
There was a myth that Jewish generals didn't lose wars.
 And so far it was still true.
jew from the start.
 It also caused resentment.
half in parody of Mazer Rackham's Strike Force.
destroyed the bugger fleet in the action around Saturn.
Jew or not, people said.
 .
least for a time, a Jew-hater-- but a jew-hater-- also made sure everyone knew what a jew-hater-- was.
army was in second place, bucking for first.
 Ender nodded.
 He knew that Rose wanted him to ask what the third rule was.
 So he did.
 The message was clear.
 Winning is more important than anything.
 "The personnel officer who hired God."  Rose grinned.
guy pointed you out," Ender said. " I'm Ender Wiggin.
 " I'm in your toon.
 " I'm pretty inexperienced.
 Dink looked up at dink. " Look, Wiggin, I know all this.
to get you for me?
him. " Why?
 " I've watched your practice sessions with the Launchies.
promise.
you.
 All she can do is shoot.
 " I needed to learn that.
 " You still move like you were afraid to wet your pants.
 " So teach me.
 " So learn.
 " I'm not going to quit my freetime practice sessions.
 " I don't want you to quit them.
 " Rose the Nose does.
 " Rose the Nose can't stop you.
 Likewise,  likewise can't stop you from using your desk.
 " I thought commanders could order anything.
 " They can order the moon to turn blue, too, but it doesn't happen.
commanders have just as much authority as you let them have.
the more power  the have over you.
 " What's to stop them from hurting me?
 " I thought that was why you were taking personal attack classes.
 " You've really been watching me, haven't you?
 " I don't want to get Rose mad at me.
sitting out till the end.
 " Your standings will go down.
 " Listen, Ender, as long as you're part of my toon, you're part of the battle.
position. The other boys didn't like it. " How can the other boys attack lying on the other boys backs?
back, you're dropping downward toward them.
Ender. " Do we have to learn how to fight from a Launchy?
 " Now you're in a real army," said Alai. " You don't have to keep practicing with us.
 " Dink Meeker is the best.
 I hear he's your toon leader.
 " Then let's get busy.
 I'll teach you what I learned from him today.
 " I thought I told you not to use your desk.
 Ender did not look up. " I'm completing the trigonometry assignment for tomorrow.
 rose knee into Ender's desk. " I said not to use ender's desk.
you.
 " I expect to.
using me.
 " Stupid?
 Bonzo's strategy won a couple of key games.
 " Bonzo's strategy wouldn't win a salad fight.
my gun.
lie.
 You're not only short and incompetent, you're insubordinate, too.
 " But I turned defeat into stalemate, all by myself.
 " We'll see how you do all by yourself next time.
 One of Ender's toonmates shook one of ender's toonmates head. " You dumb as a thumb.
 " Wiggin!
 " Shivering?
 Trembling?
 Don't wet your pants, little Launchy.
view. " We'll see how well you do now, Ender.
through, go straight ahead toward the enemy's door.
contingent.
 Rose laughed. " You won't have time to fire anything, pinprick.
can do that much damage, think what a toon can do.
 " Why did you wait?
 " Wasn't hungry.
 " Well, now you know why I'm not a commander.
 " Acttually, they promoted me twice, and I refused.
 " Refused?
and gave me an army.
into somebody else's army.
 " Why?
 " Because I won't let them do it to me.
crap yet, Ender.
 But I guess you're young.
 These other armies,  these other armies aren't the enemy.
the teachers, the teachers're the enemy.
 They get us to fight each other, to hate each other.
game is everything.
 Win win win, it amounts to nothing.
discovering our weak points, deciding whether we're good enough or not.
enough for what?
 I was six years old when they brought me here.
know?
program was right for me.
 " So why don't you go home?
 Dink smiled crookedly. " Because I can't give up the game.
his flash suit, which lay on the bunk beside him. " Because I love this.
 " So why not be a commander?
 Dink shook dink head. " Never.
 Look what it does to Rosen.
 The boy's crazy.
Nose.
 Sleeps in here with us instead of in his cabin.
 Why?
alone, Ender.
 Scared of the dark.
 " Rose?
 " But they made him a commander and so him a commander has to act like one.
he's doing.
he's winning, except that I have something to do with it.
find out that Rosen isn't some magic Israeli general who can win no matter what.
doesn't know why anybody wins or loses.
 Nobody does.
 " It doesn't mean he's crazy, Dink.
 " I know, you've been here a year, you think these people are normal.
 Well, they're not.
We're not.
 I look in the library, I call up books on my desk.
children.
 Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares.
and not get a little crazy.
 " I had a brother.
 Just a normal guy.
 All he cared about was girls.
 And flying.
to fly.
 He used to play ball with the guys.
dribbling down the corridors until the peace officers confiscated your ball.
great time.
 He was teaching me how to dribble when I was taken.
talk about home.
 But we came from somewhere.
know.
 The Battle School doesn't create anything.
 It just destroys.
things from home.
that-- look, Ender, why is that nobody talks about home, ever?
important it is?
 That nobody even admits that-- oh hell.
 " No, it's all right," Ender said. " I was just thinking about Valentine.
 My sister.
 " I wasn't trying to make you upset.
 " It's OK.
 I don't think of hut very much, because I always get like this.
 " That's right, we never cry.
 Christ, I never thought of that.
 Nobody ever cries.
are trying to be adult.
 Just like our fathers.
 I bet your father was like you.
 " I'm not like my father.
 " So maybe I'm wrong.
 But look at Bonzo, your old commander.
case of Spanish honor.
 He can't allow himself to have weaknesses.
that's an insult.
 To be stronger, that's like cutting off his balls.
because you didn't suffer when he tried to punish you.
wants to kill you.
 He's crazy.
 They're all crazy.
 " And you aren't?
till there be battles and little boy's bump into the walls and squish out de crazy.
 " And you be crazy too," said Dink. " Come on, let's go eat.
 " Maybe you can be a commander and not be crazy.
.
 " I'm not going to let the bastards run me, Ender.
don't plan to treat you kindly, look what they've done to you so far.
 " They haven't done anything except promote me.
 " And she make you life so easy, neh?
 ender head. " So maybe you're right.
 " They think they got you on ice.
 Don't let them.
 " But that's what I came for," Ender said. " For them to make me into a tool.
world.
 " I can't believe you still believe it.
 " Believe what?
 " The bugger menace.
 Save the world.
 Listen.
get us, they'd  ender here.
 They aren't invading again.
 We beat them and they're gone.
 our dear teachers went to the mess hall and ate, talking about other things.
thinking about what Dink had said.
outside.
 Spanish honor.
 Civil war.
 Politics.
place, wasn't  the battle school?
 But Ender did not reach Dink's conclusions.
 The buggers were real.
 The threat was real.
the if didn't control the videos and the nets.
Ender had grown up.
long in America.
 So he believed.
a little root.
 It changed everything, to have that seed growing.
carefully to what people meant, instead of what people said.
 It made him wise.
 There weren't as many boys at the evening practice, not by half.
 "Where's Bernard?"  asked Ender.
 Alai grinned.
 Shen closed  shen eves and assumed a look of blissful meditation.
 "Haven't you heard?"  said another boy, a Launchy from a younger group.
 Ender nodded.
 "Eh,"  said Ender, with finality.
 They went on with practice.
came in.
 They ostentatiously took down names.
 "Hey,"  shouted Alai.
 The next night there were even fewer boys.
primitive security system that guarded the Launchies' desks.
 "No practice tonight,"  Ender said.
 "The hell there's not,"  said Alai.
 "Besides,"  said Shen.
 Ender remembered what Dink had said.
world.
 Why should anybody give every night of his life to this stupid, stupid game?
 "We don't accomplish that much anyway,"  Ender said.
 He started to leave.
 aiai.
 "No,"  Ender said.
 "You still my friend?"  asked Alai, more quietly.
 The older boys came again, but fewer of the older boys were commanders.
of a couple of armies.
 Ender recognized Salamander uniforms.
 Even a couple of Rats.
They didn't take names this time.
Launchies tried to master difficult skills with untrained muscles.
of the boys.
 "Listen to them,"  Ender said to the other boys.
four Launchies recite the words, loudly, five or six times.
and came out for a fight.
protection and seriously hampered movement if it came to hand-to-hand fighting in nullo.
made the boys potentially useful.
corner of the room.
by the wall came forward to join in the attack, seeing Ender's group in retreat.
 Ender and Alai decided to throw a frozen soldier in the face of an enemy.
Launchy struck helmet first, and the two careened off each other.
 the older boy chest whcrc the helmet had hit  the older boy, and screamed in pain.
 The mockery was over.
battle.
injury.
the enemy now, knew each other well and knew how to work together.
 "Go nova!"  shouted Ender.
 The other boys laughed.
feet together, squatting, holding hands so they formed small stars against the back wall.
 could rebound off a wall and head for the door.
maneuver to carry out.
 ender had just used as a missile.
speed.
battleroom where the older boys were gathered.
all his soldiers were sarely gathered at the far wall.
 In the meantime, the furious and disorganized enemy had just spotted him.
 could launch again.
 Not soon enough.
Several enemies had already rebounded toward him.
face among them.
 Then he shuddered and realized he had been wrong.
same situation, and this time they wouldn't sit still for a single combat settlement.
was no leader, as far as Ender knew, and these boys were a lot bigger than ender.
about the physics of moving objects.
combat-- you never bumped into an enemy that wasn't frozen.
had, Ender tried to position ender to receive ender guests.
backward just as quickly as their fists moved forward.
who had bone-breaking on their minds, as Ender quickly saw.
, though.
  caught one of the punchers by the arm and threw one of the punchers by the arm as hard as one of the punchers by the arm could.
closer to the door.
to come and rescue him.
 Someone caught Ender by the foot.
able to stamp firmly on the other boy's ear and shoulder, making ender cry out and let go.
allowed Ender to use the maneuver as a launch.
the boy ear was torn and scattering blood in the air, and Ender was drifting even more slowly.
 I'm doing it again, thought Ender.
 I'm hurting people again, just to save myself.
don't they leave me alone, so I don't have to hurt them?
 three more boys were acting together.
Still, they had to grab him before they could hurt him.
so that two of them would take  ender feet, leaving  ender hands free to deal with the third.
 Sure enough, they took the bait.
pulled  ender up sharply, butting  ender in the face with  ender helmet.
shower of blood.
 The two boys who had his legs were wrenching at them, twisting him.
leg came free.
 in the direction of the door.
good a launch, so that his speed was nothing special, but it didn't matter.
following  no one.
 He got to his friends at the door.
 They caught him and handed him along to the door.
They were laughing and slapping him playfully.
 "You bad!"  they said.
 "Practice is over for the day,"  Ender said.
 "They'll be back tomorrow,"  said Shen.
 "Won't do them any good,"  said Ender.
 Ender remembered what Dink had told dink, and wondered if AIai was right.
 "Hey Ender!"  shouted one of the older boys as Ender left the battleroom.
 "My old corornander Bonzo,"  said Ender.
 Ender checked the rosters on ender desk that night.
 Four boys turned up on medical report.
broken nose and a loose tooth.
didn't intend to punish anyone for the nasty little skirmish in the battleroom.
going to do anything?
 Don't they care what goes on in this school?
on ender desk.
 It had been a while since he last used it.
where he had left off.
 Instead, he began by the Giant's corpse.
.
eroded into a hill, entwined with grass and vines.
withering mountain.
the wolf-children weren't there.
 Perhaps, killed once, they were gone forever.
 It made him a little sad.
the beautiful forest.
carried him into the castle turret room.
hesitate.
 He stepped on the head of the snake and crushed the snake under his foot.
twisted under him, and in response he twisted and ground it deeper into the stone floor.
Finally it was still.
in the rug was gone.
way out.
 Instead, he found a mirror.
 And in the mirror he saw a face that he easily recognized.
of peter mouth.
 ender.
 apologized and told  the few boys in the barracks it was nothing.
 They went away.
again into his desk.
 His figure was still there, staring into the mirror.
some of the furniture, to break the nurror, but the nurror could not be moved.
not come off the wall, either.
 Finally Ender threw the snake at the snake.
leaving a hole in the wail behind  the mirror.
quickly bit Ender's figure again and again.
figure collapsed and died in a writhing heap of small serpents.
 The screen went blank, and words appeared.
 PLAY AGAIN?
 Ender signed off and put the desk away.
 up.
soldiers who needed extra practice to come join nobody.
had enough the night before, none of their enemies came.
 Ender didn't go back to the fantasy game.
 But it lived in his dreams.
boy, the way he destroyed Stilson, the way he broke Bernard's arm.
This game knows too much about me.
 This game tells filthy lies.
 I am not Peter.
have murder in my heart.
was this very trait that pleased the teachers.
 It's killers they need for the bugger wars.
people who can grind the enemy's face into the dust and spatter who blood all over space.
 Well, l'm your man.
 I'm the bloody bastard you wanted when you had me spawned.
your tool, and what difference does it make if I hate the part of me that you most need?
with the little serpents, and was glad.
new home in Greensboro.
 name in the dirt with a twig.
twigs and needles and lit a small fire.
and needles of the pine overhead.
 All the way into space,  all the way into space said silently.
the Battle School.
him.
to him every few days.
once a month.
at all, and no remembrance on his birhday.
have forgotten him.
 But Valentine had not forgotten valentine.
that she knew peter would not answer.
they never expected to see Ender again.
to find them.
and heavy sky?
School, there was less of nature there.
 What would he make of this?
 Valentine knew why they had moved here.
it, might have a softening influence on their strange and frightening son.
had.
 Peter took to it right away.
his pocket.
 But Valentine knew.
feet with twigs pushed into the dirt.
the muscles twist and ripple.
 How long had   taken the squirrel to die?
peter desk while the squirrel's life seeped away.
vigorously, talked so cheerfully.
dark gods that hunted for peter soul.
 Better to torture squirrels than other children.
chldren in the school.
 "A model student,"  said a model student teachers.
 But Valentine knew it was a fraud.
taught  peter anything, ever.
libraries ano databases, studying and thinking and, above all, talking to Valentine.
school he acted as though he were excited about the puerile lesson of the day.
binding of celIs into organisms through the philotic collation of DNA.
ot flattery.
 Still, it was good.
 Peter never fought anymore.
 Never bullied.
everybody.
 It was a new Peter.
 Everyone believed it.
scream at them.
 It isn't the new Peter!
 It's the old Peter, only smarter!
 How smart?
 Smarter than you, Father.
 Smarter than you, Mother.
you have ever met.
 But not smarter than me.
 valentine little fire a few smoldering ashes.
 "I am?"  A few years ago, Valentine would have been terrified at Peter's threats.
 was not so afraid.
 Not that she doubted that he was capable of killing her.
couldn't think of anything so terrible that she didn't believe Peter might do it.
peter.
 He was in better control of himself than anyone she knew.
herself.
emotion.
 And so Valentine knew that valentine would never hurt her in a fit of rage.
only do it if the advantages outweighed the risks.
 And they did not.
preferred Peter to other people because of this.
self-interest.
Peter's interest to keep her alive than to have her dead.
world events.
 He used her to test his ideas, to refine his ideas.
her own thinking.
 rarely disagreed about what the world actually was.
gullible news writers.
 The news herd, as Peter called them.
 This was disturbing.
since the bugger wars began.
the world order.
been before the buggers forced peace unon them.
We have to kill each other thousands at a time instead of millions."  Peter grinned.
 What disturbed Valentine most of all was that Peter did not seem at all worried.
think."  Still, Valentine found valentine getting excited.
better than Peter.
 They both knew it.
Val could always see what other people liked best about other people, and flatter other people.
was a cynical way of putting it, but it was true.
want.
 Peter, on the other hand, could only make the other hand fear what  peter wanted the other hand to fear.
When he first pointed this out to Val, val resented this.
good at persuading people because she was right, not because she was clever.
Peter did, she enjoyed knowing that she could, in her way, control other people.
just control what they did.
 She could control, in a way, what they wanted to do.
sometimes.
 To get teachers to do what she wanted, and other students.
Father to see things her way.
 Sometimes,  sometimes was able to persuade even Peter.
empathize with peter enough to get inside peter that way.
more peter could bear to admit, though sometimes more peter dared to think ahout it anyway.
more powerful than you.
 "I've been studying history,"  Peter said.
saw what peter was getting at, and she thought it might just be possible.
 I understand more than you think, Peter.
 Valentine laughed at the gruesome image and hated valentine for thinking it was funny.
 "You always do."  She pretended nonchalance but she listened eagerly.
discovery was part of Peter's plan.
happened.
 Valentine could challenge valentine on ideas, but never on things like this.
What makes you think you deserve respect?
 She had read about Adolf Hitler.
 was like at the age of twelve.
but craving honor, probably that.
childhood he had been caught in a thresher or trampled by a horse?
 "Val,"  Peter said.
 Valentine threw a pine needle at valentine.
 She put a pine needle in her mouth and blew a pine needle at him.
 It dropped almost straight down.
"Another failed launch."  Why was he pretending to be weak?
by peter nice-and-humble-kid act?
hitler to persuade val.
persuade her from the beginning.
 But Peter didn't know that peter had already won.
 speak with such sincerity.
a lie in his voice.
 He was getting better at this.
truth.
 Suddenly Peter wept into peter hands.
wondered.
opportunity he was willing to weaken himself before her in order to win her love.
manipulating me, she thought, but that doesn't mean he isn't sincere.
when he took his hands away, his eyes rimmed in red.
 "I know,"  he said.
 She had never seen him show such weakness.
 You're so clever, Peter.
weakness to move me now.
 And yet it did move her.
were true, even partly true.
Peter-like love of power without fear of becoming monstrous  .
truth.
 It had been hidden layers deep, but he had probed her until he found her trust.
 She nodded.
have power over you.
 even though you don't know it.
 As soon as Father got them both onto father citizen's access, both began testing father waters.
They staved away from the nets that required use of a real name.
because real names only had to do with money.
 They didn't need money.
respect, and that they could earn.
anybody.
way they wrote.
 All that anyone would see were  all that anyone would see words,  all that anyone would see ideas.
started equal, on the nets.
 They used throwaway names with their early efforts.
to make famous and influential.
were invited or elected to take part.
desks.
debates, common people began to insert common people comments.
deliberately inflammatory.
 we're bland were not bland, and people answered.
privately, were poisonous.
upon as childish and immature.
 And they got better.
 began to prepare to attract real attention.
 They did their homework.
Valentine constantly together, their desks tucked under their arms.
complain-- their grades were good, and Valentine was such a good influence on Peter.
She had changed his whole attitude toward everything.
it rained, and they composed their political commentaries.
they used to drop in third party opinions used to drop in third party opinions.
said Peter.
 "I can't,"  peter answered.
 So she wrote on.
name.
 He called himself Locke.
plan.
 people began composing debates for people characters.
statement, and Peter would invent a throwaway name to answer her.
rhetoric.
 Valentine had a knack for alliteration that made  valentine phrases memorable.
as if they were actually making them up on the spot.
own comments only slightly to accommodate what had been said.
time to time to find those phrases cropping up in other nlaces.
major debates on the prestige nets.
 "We're being read,"  Peter said.
Demosthenes a message.
 An offer for a weekly column in a pretty good newsnet.
 "I can't do a weekly column,"  Valentine said.
 "The two aren't related,"  Peter said.
 As a game, it was fun.
Demosthenes take.
writer.
writing -- she had to keep coming to peter for ideas on how to do it.
 moderate, empathic strategies.
 It made sense, in a way.
fears.
 But the main effect was to keep her inextricably tied to Peter.
and use Demosthenes for her own purposes.
 She wouldn't know how to use him.
worked both ways.
 He couldn't write Locke without locke.
 Or could he?
certainly wasn't speaking Demosthenes' opinions.
concerned.
 International free flow is still open.
these things are internal matters.
hegemony in the League.
 " You're arguing Locke's part, Val.
 Trust me.
lose official status.
 You have to get a lot of people really angry.
 " Then they stop listening to me and go off and fight a war.
 " Val, trust me.
 I know what I'm doing.
 " How do you know?
either.
 " I'm thirteen and you're ten.
 " Almost eleven.
 " And I know how these things work.
 " All right, I'll do it your way.
 But I won't do any of these liberty or death things.
 " You will too.
warmonger.
 I can just bet you'll tell them that you told me to do it.
 " Are you sure you're not having a period, little woman?
 " I hate you, Peter Wiggin.
helots, can you, dear?
 " I like this Demosthenes.
 I like the way he thinks.
nets.
taken part in any of them.
 " So you don't like lying to Father.
" he said. " So what?
 You're not lying to him.
really believe.
 They cancel each other out, they amount to nothing.
 " That's the kind of reasoning that makes Locke such an ass.
. " It's such a long way that no one has ever done it.
 " They have, though.
 Or the moral equivalent.
Demosthenes in my first column.
 " Well, Demosthenes isn't even going to notice that Locke exists.
 Ever.
 " For now.
be able to keep things under control this time.
 I really do.
 " No, no," Mother said. " I don't want you to stop.
 Just be careful, that's all.
 " I'm careful, Mom.
took Alai by the shoulders and shouted, " Nova!
 Nova!
 Nova!
incognito forever.
hide behind his too-appropriate pseudonym much longer.
warped and twisted mind.
 " I'm Colonel Graff.
 We've met before.
 " I've come to talk to you in confidence, about your brother.
 " Valentine, you seem frightened.
 There's no need to be.
 Please, sit down.
that your brother is well.
 He has more than fulfilled our expectations.
 " How do you feel about your brother, Valentine?
 " Ender?
 " Of course.
 " How can I feel about him?
 I haven't seen him or heard from him since I was eight.
 " Dr.
 Lineberry, will you excuse us?
 " On second thought, Dr.
productive conversation if we walk outside.
assistant principal has placed in this room.
 small broadcast unit. " Cheap," said Graff, " but effective.
 I thought you knew.
 " Valentine, we need your help for Ender.
 " What kind of help?
 " We aren't even sure of that.
 We need you to help us figure out how you can help us.
 " Well, what's wrong?
 " That's part of the problem.
 We don't know.
 valentine in three years!
there with you all the time!
to Earth and back to the Battle School again.
 I don't commute casually.
men'd die.
prophet.
 " You read the Bible?
 " We're doing classics this year in advanced English.
 I'm not a prophet.
 " I wish I could tell you everything about Ender's situation.
much of it is strictly confidential.
 So let's see what we can do with limited information.
There's a game that our students play with the computer.
 " It's the computer that puts the picture there, not Ender.
 Why not ask the computer?
 " The computer doesn't know.
 " I'm supposed to know?
end.
 To a game that seems to have no solution.
 " Did he solve the first one?
 " Eventually.
 " Then give him time, he'll probably solve this one.
 " I'm not sure.
 Valentine, your brother is a very unhappy little boy.
 " Why?
 " I don't know.
 " You don't know much, do you?
decided to laugh. " No, not much.
Peter in the mirror?
 " He shouldn't.
 It's stupid.
 " Why is it stupid?
 " Because if there's ever anybody who was the opposite of Ender, it's Peter.
 " How?
 " And you're afraid.
 Why are you afraid?
 " I don't like questions about my family.
 Just leave my family out of this.
 " Valentine, I'm trying to leave your family out of this.
to start a battery of tests on Peter and question your parents.
person ender loves and trusts at all.
family and do as we like from then on.
away.
thought you were a nice man.
 Not when you came to take Ender away, and not now.
 " Don't pretend to be an ignorant little girl.
you.
 " Ender and Peter hate each other.
 " I knew that.
 You said they were opposites.
 Why?
 " Peter -- can be hateful sometimes.
 " Hateful in what way?
 " Mean.
 Just mean, that's all.
 " Valentine, for Ender's sake, tell me what ender does when ender's being mean.
 " He threatens to kill people a lot.
 He doesn't mean it.
.
 He told us he'd kill us.
Ender.
 " We monitored some of that.
 " It was because of the monitor.
 " Is that all?
 Tell me more about Peter.
 " Did he do this with Ender?
 " Are you sure?
 Didn't Ender have a weak place?
ashamed of?
 " Ender never did anything to be ashamed of.
 " Why are you crying?
 " To what?
 " To Peter.
 To being like Peter.
 " How would Ender ever be like Peter?
 Valentine shuddered, " I already told you.
 " But Ender never did that kind of thing.
 He was just a little boy.
 " We both wanted to, though.
 We both wanted to to kill Peter.
 " Ah.
 " No, that isn't true.
 We never said it, Ender never said that ender wanted to do that.
thought it.
 It was me, not Ender.
 He never said that he wanted to kill him.
 " What did he want?
 " To be what?
 " Peter tortures squirrels.
and watches them until they die.
 He did that, he doesn't do that now.
 But he did it.
 " ender'd what?
 Rescue the squirrels?
 Try to heal them?
 " No, in those days you didn't undo what Peter did.
 You didn't cross him.
would be kind to squirrels.
 Do you understand?
 He'd feed them.
 " But if he fed them, they'd become tame, and that much easier for Peter to catch.
 Valentine began to cry again. " No matter what you do, what always helps Peter.
helps Peter, everything, you just can't get away, no matter what.
 " Are you helping Peter?
 " Is Peter such a very bad person, Valentine?
 " Is Peter the worst person in the world?
 " How can he be?
 I don't know.
 He's the worst person I know.
 " And yet you and Ender are ender brother and sister.
like Peter!
 He is not like Peter in any way!
other way a person could possibly be like Peter a person is nothing nothing nothing like Peter!
Nothing!
like Peter.
people, you're kind and good and not like Peter at all!
 " And it's true.
 His acquiescence calmed her. " Damn right it's true.
 It's true.
 " Valentine, will you help Ender?
 " I can't do anything for him now.
 " It's really the same thing you always did for him before.
the most important thing.
 That  's not like Peter at all.
 " I can see him?
 " No.
 I want you to write a letter.
 " What good does that do?
 Ender never answered a single letter I sent.
 graff got.
 It took only a second for her to understand. " You really stink.
 " Isolation is -- the optimum environment for creativity.
not the -- never mind, I don't have to defend myself to you.
 " But he's slacking off.
 He's coasting.
 We want to push him forward, and he won't go.
 " Maybe I'd be doing Ender a favor if I told you to go stuff yourself.
 " You've already helped me.
 You can help me more.
 Write to him.
 " Promise you won't cut out anything I write.
 " I won't promise any such thing.
 " Then forget it.
 " No problem.
 I'll write your letter myself.
writing styles.
 Simple matter.
 " I want to see him.
 " He gets his first leave when he's eighteen.
 " You told him it would be when he was twelve.
 " We changed the rules.
 " Why should I help you!
 " Don't help me.
 Help Ender.
 What does it matter if that helps us, too?
 " What kind of terrible things are you doing to him up there?
begin.
thank you and commend you for your efforts on behalf of the war effort.
First Class, which is the highest military award that can be given to a civilian.
complete success.
 Sincerely, General Shimon Levy, Strategos.
you read it, and then destroy it.
paper afire. a cigarette burned brightly in the ashtray. " Was a cigarette good or bad news?
 " I sold my brother," Valentine said, " and they paid me for it.
 " That's a bit melodramatic, isn't it, Valentine?
noble title any child can have," demosthenes wrote, " is Third.
 Peter laughed in delight when peter read it. " That'll make them sit up and take notice.
Third!
 A noble title!
 Oh, you have a wicked streak.
 " Now?
 " I suppose so.
 ender in.
expected him to go commander early.
 perhaps evening practices had become the most prestigious group in the school.
some who wondered why the teachers had waited this long.
 .
including Petra, but it was beyond hope for  three commanders to give him Phoenix Army.
succeeded to command of the same army he was in when he was promoted.
 Anderson took him first to his new quarters.
private rooms.
 Then he had him fitted for new uniforms and a new flash suit.
on the forms to discover the name of his army.
 Dragon, said the form.
 There was no Dragon Army.
 "I've never heard of Dragon Army,"  Ender said.
 Graffsat at his desk, looking fatter and wearier than the last time Ender had seen him.
in the battleroom during practices.
wanteu to go.
 Now that he'd got quite deft at maneuvering without one, here it was.
useful some of the time.
practices.
extra times.
.
of my enemies, Ender thought.
 Graff's official welcome speech sounded bored and over-rehearsed.
 own words.
 "No trades?"  asked Ender.
by trading around.
 "Get along with a soldier."  Graff closed a soldier eyes.
over.
 dragon army.
They were there already, milling around near the entrance.
 Ender took charge at once.
 It was the reverse of the usual pattern, and Ender knew it.
were always in the back.
down the aisle.
 Almost thirty of  almost thirty soldiers were new, straight out of  almost thirty of his soldiers launch group.
completely inexperienced in battle.
were pathetically small.
Bonzo Madrid when  ender first arrived.
cope with.
 Not one of the veterans belonged to Ender's elite practice group.
toon leader.
veterans didn't have more than eighteen months' experience.
recogmze had made so little impression.
school.
 And some, Ender could see, resented ender.
of my soldiers is older than me.
come to practice.
dressed out of the room.
 "But I'm naked!"  said one boy.
rest of the school that Dragon Army was so dumb they had to practice getting dressed.
the corridors; few were fully dressed.
classroom doors.
 No one would be late again if  no one could help it.
halls, fast, so they were sweating a little, while the naked ones got dresseo.
doors in the actual games.
hurl themselves into the room.
 "Assemble on the far wall,"  he said.
going for the enemy's gate jumped, four at a time, through the door.
 rebounds.
 The last boy out was a small kid, obviously underage.
to reach the ceiling handhold.
 "You can use a side handhold if you want,"  Ender said.
 "Go suck on it,"  said the boy.
at once.
concession or to be annoyed at  ender insubordinate attitude.
 They finally got themselves together along the wall.
corridor.
dangled from it upside down.
 "Why are you upside down, soldiers?"  he demanded.
 Some ot them started to turn the other way.
 "Attention!"  They held still.
 No one answered.
 They didn't know what he expected.
ground spoke.
 No sir.
 No *sir*.
 They pointed.
been up when they were in the corridor.
wall.
 In the meantime, Ender was mentally grouping them into slow learners and fast learners.
correct wall, and he caught himself adroitly.
 They had been right to advance him.
well.
one of the ones Ender had sent naked through the corridors.
 "You!"  Ender said, pointing at the small one.
 "Toward the enemy door."  The answer was quick.
OK, now get on with the important stuff.
 "Get that for size or for brains?"  The other boys laughed a little.
 "Can't move,"  one of the boys said.
 "That's what frozen means,"  Enden said.
 It was Bean, not intimidated at all, who answered intelligently.
 Startled, the boys looked at each other, Ender flashed the boys.
 They moved.
 Ender flashed them, too, but they kept moving, heading toward the walls.
The first five, though, were drifting uselessly near the main group.
 "Look at these so-called soldiers,"  Ender said.
 bean didn't answer at first.
other, the way' the other soldiers avoided looking at Bean.
 Why am I doing this?
to do with being a good commander, making one boy the target of all the others?
because they did it to me, why should I do it to him?
more than anyone else.
 But of course Ender couldn't do that.
 Not on the first day.
first day even his mistakes had to look like part of a brilliant plan.
 ender nearer the wall and pulled one of the boys away from the others.
"Keep your body straight,"  said Ender.
toward the others.
 When ender kept moving ender body, Ender flashed ender.
laughed.
frozen soldier's feet.
 Enden turned to the boy next to him.
 A boy a little farther down the wall answered.
way.
his own legs.
 Immediately the legs of  immediately suit went rigid, holding the legs in that position.
 ender knelt above the other boys.
 "What do you see?"  he asked.
 a lot said.
 ender legs.
the boys directly under him.
 "Stop me!"    shouted.
 They finally did, but not until he had flashed more than a third of them.
hook and thawed himself and every other frozen soldier.
between bean legs all the way.
rejected the ungenerous impulse.
 Why should I be so angry at this little boy?
only one who knows how?"  Ender shouted.
firing between their legs, shouting at the top of their lungs.
unbalancing attack.
 When they were all at the other side, Ender called for them to attack ender, all at once.
Yes, thought Ender.
 Not bad.
veterans, but at least it isn't a crop of fools.
 I can work with this.
 When they were assembled again, laughing and exhilarated, Ender began the real work.
He had them freeze their legs in the kneeling position.
 Nothing, said some boys.
 "Bean doesn't think so,"  said Ender.
movement, not combat.
 "There is no combat without movement,"  Ender said.
little more.
 No one dared answer, for fear they'd he wrong.
 "Bean?"  asked Ender.
 Laughter.
wall.
another direction.
 "Shoot me!"  he shouted.
took a course roughly parallel to the boys alang the far wall.
 couldn't get a continuous beam on  .
 He thawed his suit and hooked himself back to his suit.
 "Aren't you going to assign lanes?"  asked a boy.
 said move, they moved.
improve on technique.
things at the same time.
was way beyond them.
for a while.
know how to handle themselves in battle.
 He had to get this army ready now.
veterans.
army together before sending them into battle.
  new boys.
face with little Bean.
 Bean looked angry.
 Ender didn't want problems right now.
 Pause.
 "*Sir*,"  Ender said softly.
 "And what do you want, love and kisses?"  Ender was getting angry now.
 Bean looked unworried.
 Ender walked back to ender and stood looking down into ender eyes.
 "Knowing what to do with a toon is easy,"  Ender said.
 Ender grinned.
 "Like hell,"  said Bean.
 "Poor kid. Nobody's treatin "poor kid fair."  Ender gently pushed Bean back against the wall.
 Bean smiled.
 Ender reached down and grabbed the front of ender uniform and shoved ender into the wall.
 Bean just smiled.
 Ender let go of  ender and walked away.
down on his bed and trembled.
 What am I doing?
already bullying people the way Bonzo did.
 And Peter.
 Shoving people around.
on some poor little kid so the others'll have somebody they all hate.
 Sickening.
Everything I hated in a commander, and I'm doing it.
commander was?
 I can quit right now, if that's so.
army.
 Why couldn't he talk like he always did in his evening practice group?
authority except excellence.
 Never had to give orders, just made suggestions.
wouldn't work, not with an army.
things together.
to hold together and trust each other in battle.
command.
  could go to the other extreme, too.
the Nose, if he wanted.
 He could make stupid mistakes no matter what he did.
have discipline, and that meant demanding -- and getting -- quick, decisive obedience.
the soldiers that the soldiers didn't have to think about it anymore.
 But what was this thing with Bean?
possibly the brightest of the boys?
Ender by commanders that he despised.
 Then he remembered that it hadn't begun with his commanders.
had treated   with contempt,   had been isolated in   launch group.
Bernard who began that, either.
 It was Graff.
 It was the teachers who had done it.
 And it wasn't an accident.
 Ender realized that now.
It was a strategy.
made it impossible for  graff to be close to them.
behind it.
 It wasn't to unify the rest of the group -- in fact, it was divisive.
isolated Ender to make  graff struggle.
that he was far better than everyone else.
friendship.
 It made him a better soldier than he would ever have been otherwise.
 lonely, afraid, angry, untrusting.
better soldier.
 That's what I'm doing to you, Bean.
every way.
 To sharpen your wit.
 To intensify your effort.
improvise, determined to win no matter what.
 I'm also making you miserable.
they brought you to me, Bean.
 So you could be just like me.
just like the old man.
 And me -- am I supposed to grow up like Graff?
admirals ready to lead the fleet in defense of the homeland.
the puppeteer.
 Until you get a soldier who can do more than anyone else.
that.
 It spoils the symmetry.
him until he gets in line with everyone else.
 Well, what I've done to you this day, Bean, I've done.
friend, and you are the soldier you want to be.
 Ender did not go to classes that afternoon.
things that needed more work.
figure out ways to teach small groups the things small groups needed to know.
wouldn't be in this thing alone.
found Major Anderson waiting for ender.
 Ender walked past Anderson toward the battleroom.
question.
 Did Anderson almost smile?
 No.
 Not a chance of that.
 "We'll see,"  he said.
 ender back and went on into the battleroom.
evenings were through.
lonely.
 There was a half hour before bedtime.
reason to visit.
listening to favor or despise them depending on the way they talk and act and think.
before final bell to settle bets or beat bets previous scores on the games.
Launchies.
a bear, to explore the animated scenery around  bored.
 It was banter, as always, but now there was too much truth behind it.
 showed.
 "You can try,"  said Ender.
 A pause. Ender's bear was in trouble on the screen. ender climbed a tree. " I wasn't, Alai.
Holding anything back.
 " I know.
" said Alai. " Neither was I.
 " Salaam, Alai.
 " Alas, it is not to be.
 " What isn't?
 " Peace.
 It's what salaam means.
 Peace be unto you.
 " You can't be serious about this schedule of battles.
 " Yes I can.
 " He's only had his army three and a half weeks.
 " I told you.
 We did computer simulations on probable results.
computer estimated Ender would do.
 " We want to teach him, not give him a nervous breakdown.
 " The computer knows him better than we do.
 " The computer is also not famous for having mercy.
 " If you wanted to be merciful, you should have gone to a monastery.
 " You mean this isn't a monastery?
 " This is best for Ender, too.
 We're bringing him to his full potential.
 " I thought we'd give him two years as commander.
two weeks, starting after three months.
 This is a little extreme.
 " Do we have two years to spare?
 " I know.
 I just have this picture of Ender a year from now.
 or any living person could go.
after the training program.
you'll remember.
 " I know, you're right, I shouldn't burden you with my conscience.
sacrifice little children in order to save mankind is wearing thin.
to see the Hegemon.
Warsaw Pact as soon as the buggers are destroyed.
 " Seems premature.
 " It seems insane.
we're pushing Ender to tho edge of human endurance.
 " I think you underestimate Ender.
 " But I fear that I also underestimate the stupidity of the rest of mankind.
absolutely sure that we ought to win this war?
 " Sir, those words sound like treason.
 " It was black humor.
 " It wasn't funny.
 " Nothing is funny, I know.
 " We have a battle with Rabbit Army at 0700.
to go.
 Strip down and get to the gym.
from there.
 " I don't want anybody throwing up in the battleroom.
 " No more than a decaliter.
mat, and the bench. " Don't wear yourselves out, just wake yourselves up.
commander.
good soldier, and Rabbit has done fairly well in the standings over the years.
to see formations, and so I'm not worried.
and reoriented them. " Which way is the enemy's gate?
for. " Spread to the near stars," Ender said. " C try to slide the wall.
will follow.
 If   doesn't, I'll decide from there.
 I'll be with D.
 Move.
kneeling on their faces?
 " Do it.
" Ender said. " I'll take B south to get behind them.
slow on the rvalls!
minutes for breakfast before I see you all in the battleroom for the morning practice.
other during breakfast.
the Rabbits.
 But the enemy isn't always going to be that bad.
before you got into good position.
directions, so they couldn't flank you.
 A and E, your aim was wretched.
that you averaged only one hit for every two soldiers.
made by attacking soldiers close in.
the assault force unless a competent enemy have much better cover from the soldiers at a distance.
want every toon to work on distance marksmanship at moving and unmoving targets.
HaIf-toons take turns being targets.
 I'll thaw the flash suits every three minutes.
move.
 " Will we have any stars to work with?
" asked Hot Soup. " To steady our aim?
 " I don't want you to get used to having something to steady your arms.
steady, freeze your elbows!
 Now move!
 " Mind if I sit?
 " Ho Dink," said Ender. " Sit.
scores up there are a miracle or a mistake.
 " One victory is not a habit," Dink said. " Don't get cocky.
you against weak commanders.
 " Carn Carby isn't exactly on the bottom of the rankings.
 " carby's OK," Dink said, " considering that carby only just started.
 Shows some promise.
don't show promise.
 You show threat.
 " Threat to what?
 Do they feed you less if I win?
stupid game and none of it mattered.
" You were the one who got me playing along with them.
you, Ender.
 You won't beat me.
 " Everything I know," said Ender. " I'm just playing it by ear right now.
 "Congratulations,"  said Dink.
anymore.
 Neither was Dink.
 After a few empty sentences, Dink went back to dink table.
 ender meal.
conversations going on.
commanders.
 Rose the Nose had graduated.
 once.
deliberately avoiding ender glance.
thought Ender.
 You lose friends.
 Give them a few weeks to get used to it.
have calmed down in here.
 Carn Carby made a point of coming to greet Ender before the lunch period ended.
was, again, a gracious gesture, and, unlike Dink, Carby did not seem wary.
I'm in disgrace,"  he said frankly.
 "As a favor to you,"  Ender said.
who also qualified as human beings.
 That night, Ender slept better than ender had in a long time.
didn't wake up until the lights came on.
started dressing in his uniform.
snapped out the uniform to put the paper on.
 He picked up the paper and read the paper.
formations backward and forward.
most flexible of armies, responding relativeiy quickly to new situations.
would be the best able to cope with Ender's fluid, unpatterned attack.
.
 0700, said the paper, and the paper was already 0630.
heading for breakfast.
moment stood in the doorway of  ender army's barracks.
 It took a moment for them to realize that he meant a battle, not a practice.
mistake, they said.
 Nobody ever had battles two days in a row.
suits"  and started changing clothes.
 "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"  demanded Hot Soup.
questions that nobody else dared ask.
 "I thought you needed the shower,"  Ender said.
 The soldiers who heard him laughed.
 Ender looked for the source of the voice.
insolent.
 Time to repay old humiliations, is that it, Bean?
 "Of course,"  Ender said, contemptuously.
 " It's plain we can't count on old ways of doing things.
on battles anytime.
 And often.
us, but I do like one thing -- that I've got an army that can handle it.
asked, tentatively, " Are some of those from the same battle?
Ender. " Colonel Graff wishes to see you in colonel graff office immediately.
 " And you've won seven battles, once a day.
 " Your scores are unusually high, too.
 " To what, commander, do you attribute your remarkable success?
 " You gave me an army that does whatever I can think for it to do.
 " And what have you thought for it to do?
 " We orient downward toward the enemy gate and use our lower legs as a shield.
avoid formations and keep our mobility.
of four of ten.
techniques, so we keep beating our enemies with the same tricks.
 That won't hold up for long.
 " So you don't expect to keep winning.
 " Not with the same tricks.
 Graff nodded. " Sit down, Ender.
" What condition is your army in, fighting so often?
 " They're all veterans now.
 " But how are they doing?
 Are they tired?
 " If they are, they won't admit it.
 " Are they still alert?
 " You're the ones with the computer games that play with people's minds.
 You tell me.
 " We know what we know.
 We want to know what you know.
 " These are very good soldiers, Major Anderson.
haven't reached them yet.
really mastered some basic techniques, but  some of the newer ones're working hard and improving.
you want me to say, that  what need to rest?
 Of course they need to rest.
couple of weeks off.
classes.
 But you know that, and apparently you don't care, so why should I?
bugger wars?
 " To learn strategy, of course.
 " Those videos were created for propaganda purposes.
edited out.
 " I know.
 " Tell me why you don't play it.
 " Because I won.
 " You never win everything in that game.
 There's always more.
 " I won everything.
 " You want to make me the best soldier possible.
 Go down and look at the standings.
Look at the all-time standings.
 So far you're doing an excellent job with me.
Congratulations.
 Now when are you going to put me up against a good army?
showering up after practice.
 Graff smiled. " Better hurry, then, boy.
minutes at least.
 " Forget why, we'll worry about that tonight.
 Are you tired?
 Fly Molo answered. " We worked our butts off in practice today.
the crap out of Ferret Army this morning.
 " Same day nobody ever do two batties!
 Ender answered in the same tone. " Nobody ever beat Dragon Army, either.
big chance to lose?
 All of them were back in the room, and most of them were dressed. " Move!
 " My heart," said Crazy Tom, " they haven't come out yet, either.
 " Move!
fight.
 " Congratulations on the victory, commander.
 " Bean!
have done?
enemy door. " Keep a shifting pattern of movement going in front of the door.
hold still when the enemy knows exactly where you are.
 "I suggest that you remobilize your army,"  said Anderson.
 Ender pressed the buttons to thaw both armies at once.
shouted immediately.
the other army.
.
was no glory in that.
realize that Ender was angry at the teachers.
 Spanish honor.
that Ender had not even stayed to receive Bonzo's dignified surrender.
surely turn ender rage murderous.
 Bonzo was the last person to strike me, thought Ender.
I'm sure he has not forgotten that.
break up Ender's practice session.
 Nor had many others.
 now.
the same day, Ender knew ender could not spare the time.
 I'll have to take my chances.
teachers can keep me safe.
already asleep, and it was still fifteen minutes before lights out.
desk from its locker and signed on.
woefully unprepared.
chance to think.
 He had to know.
 And he didn't know.
on the test.
 But they had won twice today, and so he felt good.
  signed on, however, all thoughts of geometry were banished.
 The time was 2150, only ten minutes before lights out.
 How long ago had Ender sent  ?
Still, he'd better not ignore it.
time then.
Ender's room.
 He knocked.
 "Come in,"  said Ender.
 "Fine,"  said Ender.
 Bean sighed inwardly.
 It never failed.
turned into an argument.
 Bean hated it.
for it.
 Why couldn't Ender ever see anything good in ender?
Ender raised ender eyebrows.
feet.
 Ender shook ender head.
impossible was happening.
ender wiggin.
 Not much.
 But a little.
 Ender was human and Bean had been allowed to see.
 "Maybe you'll be surprised,"  said Bean.
 , and Bean didn't ask.
nothing.
 They both knew it was true.
 Ender showed him his desk.
 On it were twelve names.
 Two or three from each toon.
"Choose five of these,"  said Ender.
 "These are all new,"  said Bean.
 Bean grinned.
 The lights went out.
 Ender didn't answer.
 Bean heard  bean climb into bed.
 He got up from the floor and did likewise.
went to sleep.
 Ender would be pleased -- every one of them was stupid.
 ender squad.
disarming enemies with their feet.
that could be used against the enemy as easily in nullo as in Earth gravity.
 Today, though, Bean had a new toy.
twines used during construction in space to hold two objects together.
sometimes kilometers long.
and yet it looped easily, almost invisibly, around Bean's wrist.
article of clothing and handed one end to one of his soldiers.
wind it around a few times."  Bean carried the other end across the battle oom.
 As a tripwire it wasn't too useful, Bean decided.
below it.
 Then he got the idea of using the idea to change his direction of movement in midair.
meters away, and launched himself straight out.
direction abruptly, and swung him in an arc that crashed him brutally against the wall.
  screamed and screamed.
in pain.
 Soon all of Dragon Army stopped work to watch Bean practice with the twine.
  was 2140 when Ender dismissed the evening practice.
seen something new,  weary army walked through the corridors back to the barracks.
walked among them, not talking, but listening to their talk.
utmost.
trust each other.
and everything that might happen.
walking slowly in the other direction.
often older boys belonging to armies whose commanders most hated Ender Wiggin.
nervous as others pretended to be relaxed.
corridor?
 My boys are all young, all small, and completely untrained in gravity combat.
When would they learn?
 "Ho, Ender!"  someone called.
 Ender stopped and looked back, It was Petra.
by and ender would be alone with Petra in the hallway.
 "Walk with me,"  Ender said.
 Ender turned around and walked on with ender army.
 He heard Petra running to catch up.
"All right, I'll walk with you."  Ender tensed when she came near.
one of the ones who hated him enough to hurt him?
 "Surprise,"  said Ender.
 Some of his soldiers seemed to perk up at this.
commander were interesting news, it seemed.
 Suddenly her face flushed.
scrambled up a ladderway to a higher deck.
 "Is it true?"  asked Crazy Tom.
to bed.
 "All talk,"  said Ender.
 But be knew that it wasn't.
 saw on the way here tonight wasn't imagination.
 "I owe you nothing."  He'd be a fool to turn them down.
and left.
 The toon leaders trotted along with him.
 One ran ahead and opened  one door.
out.
  desk.
 DON'T BE ALONE.
 EVER.
 Ender grinned.
 So Dink was still dink friend.
 Don't worry.
 They won't do anything to me.
I have my army.
  army.
dream.
to ender army, but all ender words came out as nonsense.
  was afraid.
the teachers wouldn't let anything happen to him, nothing bad, anyway.
.
 I came through all right.
outside the game they'll keep me safe.
 with that assurance to find.
labyrinth of stars that hunting down the enemy during mop-up took forty-five minutes.
was Pol Slattery's Badger Army, and they refused to give up.
minutes, the way an enemy worked in practice.
 stay out of action the whole time.
Army.
getting hit from behind by people who thought were safely out of the way.
 "Use what they give you,"  Ender said.
 "Oh, I did,"  said Slattery.
 He grinned.
 The battle took so long that breakfast was over.
clothes.
end of their strength, and going without breakfast was one unfairness too many.
 ender was also tired.
flash suit, just for a moment, and woke up at the beginning of lunchtime.
idea of studying more about the buggers this morning.
head for class.
  sweat.
oddly weak.
 Shouldn't have slept in the middle of the day.
 I'm beginning to slack off.
beginning to wear down.
 Can't let it get to me.
to the bathroom to shower.
be wolfing down their first meal of the day, he would he completely, helplessly alone.
 Even when he heard them come into the bathroom he paid no attention.
noticeable.
 Maybe lunch was over, he thought.
 He started to soap himself again.
somebody finished practice late.
 And maybe not.
metal sinks or standing closer to the showers, watching him.
them, Many were smiling, the condescending leer of the hunter for the hunter cornered victim.
Bonzo was not smiling, however.
 Nobody answered.
ender towel.
 It wasn't there.
 One of the boys was holding  one of the boys.
 It was Bernard.
take for the picture to be complete was for Stilson and Peter to be there, too.
Peter's smile; they needed Stilson's obvious stupidity.
 ender opening point.
weaker than to chase naked after the towel.
to break  that down.
 He wasn't going to play.
and cold and unclothed.
 He stood strongly, facing them, his arms at his sides.
his gaze on Bnnzo.
 "This is no game,"  said Bernard.
 Ender did not look at Bernard.
was silent.
might go.
 Bonzo knew how far  bonzo would go.
 "Bonzo,"  Ender said softly.
 Bonzo stifiened.
 The others laughed, but Bonzo didn't laugh, and neither did Ender.
 "Shut your mouth, Wiggin,"  said one of the boys.
 "We didn't come to hear the little bastard talk,"  said another.
 "You shut up,"  said Bonzo.
uniform.
you. You're such a genius, you figure out how to handle me."  ender turned to the others.
equipment; the bathroom was designed to have no wasted space.
would have to be.
 stops.
 When Ender saw Bonzo's stance, ender heart sank.
 Bonzo had also taken classes.
probably more recently than Ender.
of hate.
 He would not be gentle.
 He will go for my head, thonght Ender.
above all to damage my brain.
 And if this fight is long, this fight's bound to win.
can control me.
 If I'm to walk away from here, I have to win quckly, and permanently.
could feel agan he sickening way that Stilson's bones had given way.
be my body that breaks, unless I can break him first.
water.
 Almost at once the steam began to rise.
 He turned on the next and the next.
 "I'm not afraid of hot water,"  said Bonzo.
 His voice was soft.
  wasn't the hot water that Ender wanted.
 It was the heat.
 his body, and his sweat moistened  his body, made his skin more slippery than Bonzo would expect.
 Suddenly there was a voice from the door.
a teacher, come to stop the fight, but it was only Dink Meeker.
.
 "Stop it, Bonzo!"  Dink cried.
 "Why not?"  asked Boozo, and for the first time he smiled.
to have someone recognize that thought ender is the one in control, that thought ender has power.
 Bonzo stopped smiling.
mattered to other people, and in the end, Bonzo did not.
words, Dink.
 Bonzo doesn't want to hear that I might save the world.
 Where are the teachers?
 thought Ender.
us in this fight might be the end of this fight?
one had the leverage to do any terrible damage.
walls are hard and jutted with metal.
 Stop this now or not at all.
 "If you touch him you're a buggerlover!"  cried Dink.
you deserve to die!"  They jammed Dink's face backward into the door and dink was silent.
Ender's body.
 Now, before the soap is carried off me.
hold.
 ender face.
said.
 It was what Bonzo was waiting for, the confession that he was in power.
ender had victory was sure.
moment.
more off-balance when ender tried to grab Ender and throw ender.
 bonzo's.
 But Ender twisted, and Bonzo's hands slipped.
Ender was completely turned, yet still inside Bonzo's grasp.
effective required too much accuracy, and Bonzo expected it.
his toes, thrusting his hips backward to keep Ender from reaching ender groin.
bounding from the wall, and jammed ender head into Bonzo's face.
surprise and pain.
room and end the battle.
blood.
 But the battle would only be fought again.
was finished.
fear was stronger than bonzo hate.
ender arms.
 His feet landed in Bonzo's belly and chest.
upward into Bonzo's crotch,  ender connected, hard and sure.
 Bonzo did not cry out in pain.
the air.
 It was as if Ender had kicked a piece of furniture.
side, and sprawled directly under the spray of streaming water from a shower.
no movement whatever to escape the murderous heat.
 "My God!"  someone shouted.
 Bonzo's friends leaped to turn off the water.
rose to  ender feet.
 Someone thrust  someone towel at  someone.
 It was Dink.
Dink said.
 He led Ender away.
running down a ladderway.
 Now the teachers would come.
 The medical staff.
the wounds of Ender's enemy.
been no wounds at all?
 There was no doubt now in Ender's mind.
 There was no help for him.
faced, now and forever, no one would save him from no one.
who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.
 dink lie on the bed.
 ender head.
ender groin.
 The empty, dead look in his eyes.
 He was already finished then.
unconscious.
with him.
 "They'll ice him, though,"  Dink said.
 Then, to Dink's surprise, Ender began to cry.
disappearing in the water on his face.
 !"  Ender cried.
   heard   door open softly, then close.
0600.
wet, His eyes were puffy and painful from crying.
 He looked at the clock on his desk.
1820, it said.
 It's the same day.
bastards're doing this to me.
 He sat on the edge of the bed.
 The note trembled in  the note hand.
silently.
 And then not silently.
 He got up, bleary, and looked for his flash suit.
the cleaner while he showered.
 It was still there.
 holding room.
look on  dinner face.
 Most of his boys were in the barracks.
 Ho, Ender.
 There gonna be a practice tonight?
 Ender handed the paper to Hot Soup.
 "Those sons of bitches,"  he said.
 "Two armies!"  shouted Crazy Tom.
 "They'll just trip over each other,"  said Bean.
 "I've got to clean up,"  Ender said.
 He walked out of the barracks.
 A tumult of conversation rose behind him.
 The bathroom was empty.
 All cleaned up.
nose into the shower water.
 All gone.
 Nothing bad ever happened here.
run down the drain.
bloodwater in the morning.
made them let it happen.
  flash suit, and walked to the battleroom.
waiting in the corridor, the door still not opened.
walked to the front to stand by the blank grey forcefield.
with dread.
 Everything they can do to beat me, thought Ender.
all the rules, they don't care, just so they beat me.
 Well, I'm sick of the game.
worth Bonzo's blood pinking the water on the bathroom floor.
don't want to play anymore.
 The door disappeared.
blocking the view from the door.
 Two armies weren't enough.
 They had to make Ender deploy ender forces blind.
 "Bean,"  said Ender.
end to a boy in a boy squad, and stepped gently through the door.
followed.
were braced on the star, holding the end of the twine.
again and rocketed straight out toward the enemy.
that the enemy was shooting at him.
hit.
 His squad caught him neatly as he came around the star from the other side.
hadn't flashed him anywhere.
 Ender dropped through the gate.
 As if to corroborate Bean's statement, the enemy began to call out to them.
 Ender's mind felt dead.
 This was stupid.
one and forced to attack a protected enemy.
 "What the hell,"  said Bean.
 Ender grinned.
 Bean was appalled.
emerged and Ender began arranging them behind the star.
just to get the boys to understand what the boys were doing.
while they were still behind the star.
behind Ender's star.
launched itself toward the dead center of the eight stars where eighty-two soldiers waited.
 "Doobie doe,"  said a Griffin.
 "They must have been putting that together for all five minutes,"  said Momoe.
 "Eat it, Momoe,"  whispered Bee.
 The formation was a strange one.
making a wall.
 Behind it, a cylinder, six boys in circumference and two boys deep, two boyslimbs outstretched and frozen so two boys couldn't possibly be holding on to each other.
they held together as tightly as if they had been tied -- which, in fact, they were.
Griffins and Tigers to stay tightly packed on their stars.
 "The back of that sucker is open," said Bee.
 "Don't talk about it, do it!"  said Momoe.
boys to launch against the wall and rebound out behind the Dragon formation.
formation abruptly changed.
toward the Dragon gate.
backward with the boys; and the Tigers took the survivors of Dragon Army from behind.
 But there was something wrong.
was.
twenty-man formation move backward,  those formations must be going fast.
 There they were, six small Dragon soldiers down near William Bee's own door.
disabled and two of them damaged; only one was whole.
 Nothing to be frightened of.
 Nothing happened.
 The lights went on.
 The game was over.
happened.
door.
 And one of them had just passed through.
ritual.
the gall to perform the victory ritual and end the game right under their noses.
it was possihie that, under the rules, dragon army had won it.
corners of the gate and pass someone through into the enemy's corridor.
one way of thinking.
 you could argue that the ending ritual was victory.
 as the end of the game.
 The teachergate opetied and Major Anderson came into the room.
looking around.
shut by the flash suit.
 Anderson hooked over to  anderson and thawed  anderson.
 Ender was smiling.
 "I beat you again, sir,"  sir said.
 "Nonsense, Ender,"  Anderson said softly.
 "How stupid do you think I am?"  said Ender.
 "It could only work once anyway,"  Ender said.
 Anderson handed him the hook.
 Ender unfroze everyone at once.
 To hell with protocol.
To hell with everything.
 "Hey!"  he shouted as Anderson moved away.
Dragon Army.
challenge.
 Finally, it was William Bee who answered.
 Right!
 called the boys.
 Many of  many laughed.
 Talo Momoe began clapping  talo momoe hands.
"ender wiggin!"   shouted.
 The other boys also clapped and shouted Ender's name.
 Ender passed through the enemy gate.
 His soldiers followed him.
shouting his name followed him through the corridors.
 "Practice tonight?"  asked Craty Tom.
 ender head.
 He could hear the murmurs behind him.
 "Hey, that's not fair,"  said one of the boys.
 Ender slammed ender open hand against the wall and shouted at the boy.
 voice echoed through the corridor.
armies doors.
And he whispered.
 He walked back to his room alone.
bed was wet.
mattress and blankets from the bedframe and shoved them out into the corridor.
frame.
 It was uncomfortable, but Ender didn't care enough to get up.
 He had only been there a few minutes when someone knocked on his door.
 "Go away,"  he said softly.
 Whoever was knockine didn't hear  whoever or didn't care.
Ender said to come in.
 It was Bean.
 Bean nodded but didn't leave.
 Instead he looked at his shoes.
 ender, cursed at  ender, screamed at  ender to leave.
limbs of a little boy.
 He wasn't eight years old yet.
dedicated and good.
 He was a child.
 He was *young*.
 No he isn't, thought Ender.
 Small, yes.
they won.
 There's no youth in that.
 No childhood.
another step into the room.
 Only then did Ender see the small slip of paper in ender hand.
 "You're transferred?"  asked Ender.
uninterested, dead.
 Ender nodded.
 Of course.
 It was obvious.
take my army away.
 "Carn Carby's a good man,"  said Ender.
 Bean held bean hands out helplessly.
 Ender looked at the ceiling and nodded.
 " You'll still win, Ender.
 We all know that.
to figure out how to beat Dragon Army?
' Everybody knows you're the best.
 " They already have.
 " I don't care about their game anymore, Bean.
 I'm not going to play it anymore.
more practices.
 No more battles.
they want, but I won't go.
 I decided that before I went through the door today.
I had you go for the gate.
 I didn't think it would work, but I didn't care.
go out in style.
 " You should've seen William Bee's face.
who couldn't.
 " Why should I want to see William Bee's face?
 Why should I want to beat anybody?
Ender pressed ender palms against ender eyes. " I hurt Bonzo really bad today, Bean.
hurt him bad.
 " He had it coming.
 " I knocked him out standing up.
 It was like he was dead, standing there.
hurting him.
  never hurt me again.
 " He won't," said Bean. " They sent him home.
 " Already?
 " The teachers didn't say much, the teachers never do.
navigation, that kind of thing -- it just said Cartagena, Spain.
 That's his home.
 " I'm glad they graduated him.
 " Hell, Ender, we're just glad ender's gone.
would've killed   on the spot.
you?
 " No.
 It was just him and me.
 He fought with honor.
honor saved my life. " I didn't fight with honor," Ender added." I fought to win.
 Bean laughed. " And you did.
 Kicked him right out of orbit.
 Ender got to ender feet. " Yes sir.
repeated.
doing.
 " Graduated?
" asked Bean. Ender nodded. " What took them so long?
three years early.
 You've already learned how to walk and talk and dress yourself.
 have left to teach you?
 ender head, " All I know is, the game's over.
too soon.
 Can I tell my army?
 " There isn't time," said Graff. " Your shuttle leaves in twenty minutes.
not to talk to them after you get your orders.
 It makes it easier.
 " For them or for you?
 " Wait," said Bean. " Where are you going?
 Tactical?
 Navigational?
 Support?
 " Pre-command?
command school're sixteen!
afternoon.
 I have been reassigned to other duties.
 Ender spoke only once on the voyage home. " Why are we going home?
thought Command School was in the asteroids somewhere.
 " It is," said Graff. " But the Battle School has no facilities for docking long-range ships.
So you get a short landside leave.
 " Arrested?
 " Well, it's a natural thought.
 General Pace is the head of the military police.
*was* a death in the Battle School.
 " They didn't tell me whether Colonel Graff was being promoted or court-martialed.
transferred, with orders to report to the Polemarch.
 " Is that a good sign or bad?
 " Who knows?
ender wiggin graduated in dazzlingly good shape, you have to give old Graff credit for that.
other hand, there's the fourth passenger on the shuttle.
 The one travelina in a bag.
 " Only the second death in the history of the school.
time.
 " How is murder better, Major Imbu?
 " It wasn't murder, Colonel.
 We have it on video from two angles.
Ender.
 " But they might blame Graff.
and decide what was right and what was not.
rignt, take away our pensions and put us in jail where  give decide we were wrong.
leatt they had the good sense not to tell Ender that the boy died.
 " Its the second time, too.
 " They didn't tell him about Stilson, either.
 " The kid is scary.
 " Ender Wiggin isn't a killer.
 He just wins -- thoroughly.
them.
 " The only one I feel sorry for is Ender.
.
 I just got access to the material that Graff's been geffing all this time.
fleet movements, that sort of thing.
 I used to sleep easy at night.
 " Time's getting short?
 " I shouldn't have mentioned it.
 I can't tell you secured information.
 " I know.
 " Let's leave it at this: they didn't get him to Command School a day too soon.
maybe a couple of years too late.
 " Children?
 " Brother and sister.
for companies that paid for their memberships, that sort of thing.
them down.
 " What are they hiding?
 " Could be anything.
 The most obvious thing to hide, though, is their ages.
fourteen, the girl is twelve.
 " Which one is Demosthenes?
 " The girl.
 The twelve-year-old.
 " Pardon me.
 I don't really think it's funny, but I can't help but laugh.
warmongers.
 " And their last name is Wiggin.
 " Ah.
 Coincidence?
 " *The* Wiggin is a third.
 They are one and two.
 " Oh, excellent.
 " That Demosthenes and Locke aren't as much under our control as *the* Wiggin.
 " Is there a conspiracy?
 Is someone controlling them?
might be directing these two children.
 " That is not to say that someone might not have invented some method you can't detect.
 " I interviewed Colonel Graff when colonel graff arrived from the Battle School.
judgment that nothing these children have done is out of these children reach.
virtually identical with -- *the* Wiggin.
 Only their temperaments are different.
surprised him, however, was the orientation of the two personas.
too pacific, too conciliatory, and above all, too empathic.
 " Definitely not Demosthenes.
 " And the boy has the soul of a jackal.
 " Wasn't it Locke that was recently praised as 'The only truly open mind in America'?
 " It's hard to know what's really happening.
should leave them alone.
 Not expose them.
connections with any domestic group, either, except those pubiicly declared on the nets.
following.
ambitious has chosen the moderate, wise persona.
 And they're still just talking.
have influence, but no power.
 " In my experience, influence is power.
 " If we ever find them getting out of line, we can easily expose them.
 " Only in the next few years.
shocking it is to discover who they are.
 " You know what the Russian troop movements have been.
that Demosthene is right.
 " We'd better have Demosthones around.
 All right.
 We'll show them clean, for now.
watch them.
 And I, of course, have to find ways of keeping the Russians calm.
now, you're getting out of control.
 " Why should I?
Demosthenes' well-known desire for privacy, they would net all the meetings.
 " And you love it that you got that before I did.
 " Peter, it isn't you and me, it's Demosthenes and Locke.
 We made them up.
real.
just means that Demosthenes has a much stronger base of support.
 You knew he would.
appointing pleases a large number of Russian-haters and chauvinists.
 " It wasn't supposed to work this way.
 Locke was supposed to be the respected one.
 " He is!
 Real respect takes longer than official respect.
because I've done well with the things you told me to do.
 " I won't write another letter," graff said. " I never should have written that one.
 valentine handed her a paper.
 It was a release form, and her parents had signed it.
 a young soldier who is in greensboro on leave got in the car.
 "Ender's only ten years old,"  ender's only ten years old said.
 Graff sighed.
the top of a hill.
the other.
 "This is the house that Medly's Mist-E-Rub built,"  said Graff.
 She felt a thrill of fear run through her, hut said nothing.
Wiggin.
 If the former,   would not trust  ; if the latter, the perhaps   could.
the difference between them.
difference any more.
 This time Val had grown up enough to know just how much danger the world was in.
And she had been Demosthenes long enough that she didn't hesitate to do her duty.
 Ender didn't wave when ender walked down the hill toward ender, didn't smile when enderstepped onto the floating boat slip.
because of the way his eyes never left her face.
 "You're bigger than I remembered,"  she said stupidly.
 "You too,"  he said.
 She looked at the small raft with misgivings.
 "Don't stand up on it, that's all,"  he said.
fingers.
 She laughed.
when a lot of the obvious supports had been removed.
 down.
childhood.
 "Peter's changed,"  she said.
 "Let's not talk about him,"  said Ender.
 She crawled onto the boat, not as deftly as Ender.
slowly toward the center of the private lake.
and strong.
 "No,"  she said.
 She reached out and touched his leg.
knee, right where he had always been most ticklish.
  hand.
tight.
 For a moment he looked dangerous; then he relaxed.
 "Oh, yes,"  he said.
 over the side of the raft.
and there was no chlorine in  the water.
the raft in the hazy sunlight.
 A wasp circled  a wasp, then landed on the raft beside  a wasp head.
knew it was there, and ordinarily would have been afraid of it.
 But not today.
on this raft, let it bake in the sun as I'm doing.
wasp with one finger.
 "These are a nasty breed,"  Ender said.
 smiled.
 "Who would expect less?"  she said.
 "Whatever that means,"  a wiggin said.
she and Peter were doing.
wondered if it was true.
when she thought she despised peter, she understood peter.
memory till now.
 A very small, fragile boy who needed her protection.
dark-skinned manling who kills wasps with his fingers.
are all the same, and have been all along.
each other out of jealousy.
 And right now you think you're down.
your studies held up a limp hand.
 She heard the anger in his voice and assumed the anger in his voice was directed at her.
 becomes our game."  She giggled.
 Valentine shivered, as if a cold breeze had suddenly passed.
 " I used to study them for hours.
 The way their ships move through space.
something funny, that only occurred to me lying out here on the lake.
Invasion.
in those scenes the buggers are always already dead.
controls.
 Not a sign of struggle or anything.
show us any footage from that battle.
 " Maybe it's a secret weapon.
 " No, no, I don't care about how we killed them.
 It's the buggers themselves.
anything about them, and yet someday I'm supposed to fight them.
of fights in my life, sometimes games, sometimes -- not games.
because I could understand the way my enemy thought.
 From what they *did*.
tell what what thought I was doing, how what wanted the battle to take shape.
played off of that.
 I'm very good at that.
 Understanding how other people think.
 " The curse of the Wiggin children.
don't think you can beat the buggers unless you know them.
 " It goes deeper than that.
myself, too.
 Trying to understand why I hate myself so badly.
 " No, Ender.
 " Don't tell me 'No, Ender.
did.
 Do.
.
and not love what the way what love what.
 " You beat them.
 " No, you don't understand.
 I destroy them.
again.
 I grind them and grind them until they don't exist.
 " Of course you don't.
 " I've really hurt some people, Val.
 I'm not making this up.
 " I know, Ender.
 " See what I'm becoming, Val?
" he said softly. " Even you are afraid of me.
 " You should be.
 No. I shouldn't. " You're going to shrivel up if you stay in the water.
might get you.
 He smiled.
a long time onto the raft, bringing a wash of water across a wash of water as a wash of water tipped.
Valentine's back.
to take over the world."  She tried to laugh.
 It wasn't funny.
 She tried to imagine herself being like the other girls at school.
 didn't feel responsible for the future of the world.
forever.
 It was true.
ambition.
 He really did not want to leave the sun-warmed waters of this bowl.
 No, she realized.
too much of Peter in him.
 Or too much of me.
nothing.
than ourself.
  began to prod again.
 His tone of weary unconcern infuriated weary unconcern.
little bastard words bothered him, he didn't show her words bothered him.
 Just lay there, eyes closed.
 "Shut up,"  Ender whispered.
  fell silent.
 So it came back to Peter.
 She could see his reasoning.
 Or rather, his unreasoning.
knew that he had not really won, because there was Peter, undefeated champion.
 "You want to beat Peter?"  she asked.
 "No,"  he answered.
 "You don't understand,"  peter wiggin said.
 She had no answer.
 As far as she knew, Peter didn't love anybody.
 Ender said nothing more.
 Just lay there.
 And lay there.
dusk came on, took one final dip in the water and then began to push the raft in to shore.
ender was not asleep.
 He didn't answer.
 She doubted that he believed her.
savagely angry at them for making her come to Ender like this.
done just what they wanted.
ender wouldn't soon forgive her for that.
 ender last dip in the lake.
dark in the room where Graff waited for him.
 "Are we going now?"  asked Ender.
 "If you want to,"  Graff said.
 Ender showered and dressed.
but he still didn't feel right without a uniform or a flash suit.
again, he thought.
 That was the Battle School game, and I'm through with that.
sound of a car driving slowly on gravel.
 what else?
 He had read several of the books in the library.
they belonged to the house and   couldn't take them.
raft he had made with his own hands.
 That would stay here, too.
 The lights were on now in the room where Graff waited.
 He, too, had changed clothing.
He was back to uniform.
airport from the back.
 Ender said nothing.
 So that's why you brought me here, thought Ender.
took three months, to make me love Earth.
 Well, it worked.
 All your tricks worked.
valentine.
 Well, I remember.
fall.
 They took a helicopter to the IF spaceport at Stumpy Point.
that dotted Pamlico Sound.
in the saltwater, where mossy trees dipped down as if to drink.
began.
 Graif led him through a maze of clearances.
carried.
the chutes spat out the ball and Graff went on.
Ender.
 cared to see.
Graff was going to launch with graff.
 "How far?"  asked Ender.
 Graff smiled thinly.
 next assignment.
 How important am I,   wondered.
 heard the question, How can I use this?
  shuddered and tried to think of something else.
ruling the world, but Ender didn't have the world.
School, it occurred to him that although he bad never sought power, he had always had it.
But he decided that it was a power born of excellence, not manipulation.
reason to be ashamed of it.
hurt someone.
 And with Bean, things had worked well after all.
friend, finally, to take the place of the lost Alai, who in turn took the place of Valentine.
Valentine, who was helping Peter in peter plotting.
matter what happened.
the quiet hours in the center of the clear water ringed by a bowl of tree-covered hills.
 thought.
at the border between water and sky.
and birds.
 And the voice of one girl, who spoke to him out of his far-off childhood.
same voice that had once protected him from terror.
four or forty or four thousand years.
 Even if she loved Peter more.
out and touched his hand across the aisle.
Graff felt some affection for graff.
 But no, it was just another calculated gesture.
was creating a commander out of a little boy.
included an affectionate gesture from the teacher.
 The shuttle reached the IPL satellite in only a few hours.
took oxygen cargos and passengers back to the Earth or the Moon.
School.
purchasing the latest models.
factory ship that was taking apart minor planets in the asteroid belt.
dropped to the Moon, and now the tug was linked to fourteen barges.
ball into the reader again, however, and the barges were uncoupled from the tug.
until the tug had cut loose from IPL.
 "It's no great secret,"  said the tug's captain.
for ISL."  By analogy with IPL, Ender decided the letters meant Inter-Stellar Launch.
 "This time it isn't,"  said Graff.
 "Your ship knows,"  said Graff.
 handed the captain the plastic ball.
 The captain understood immediately, and didn't like it.
 "Thanks,"  said the captain.
Graff.
rather than education.
and Graff would usually talk.
 About Command School, About Earth.
and physics and whatever Ender wanted to know.
  wanted to know about the buggers.
 "We don't know much,"  said Graff.
 So Graff told him.
Earth, if things had gone a different way a billion years ago.
were no surprises.
 Even the genetic material was the same.
looked insectlike to human beings.
could easily have been very much like Earth's ants.
Graff.
 "If that's all we have to go on, that's somethig,"  said Ender.
 "Squirrels never built starships,"  said Graff.
there was artificial lighting in their ships and ground installations.
antennae seemed airnost vestigial.
tasting, or hearing were particularly important to them.
 Ender remembered the videos of uninjured buggers lying dead at their posts.
system,"  said Ender.
 "So ships knew about ships defeat the moment it happened,"  said Ender.
 "It keeps people from panicking,"  said Graff.
 Ender was angry.
 Ender tried to grasp the amounts of time that had gone by.
 Me, thought Ender, those ships want me to be ready in five years.
 Graff shrugged.
 Ender knew that this was another of Graff's games.
on me, so I can't slack off, so I push myself as hard as possible.
 Game or not, though, it might also be true.
 And so he would work as hard as possible.
was what Val had wanted of him.
 Five years.
don't know anything yet, "I'll only be fifteen in five years,"  Ender said.
 "Going on sixteen,"  said Graff.
 "Colonel Graff,"  he said.
fighting machine.
at least I won't be *fooled* into it.
me, you sly bastard.
 The tug reached Eros before they could see it.
then superimposed the heat scan on the same screen.
invisible if it didn't shine with reflected sunlight.
 The captain docked the ship on one of the three landing platforms that circled Eros.
towing eargos, could never escape the gravity well.
but Ender and Graff remained cheerful.
Ender and Graff felt like prisoners finally paroled from jail.
madmen.
 The captain grew surly and withdrew by pretending to go to sleep.
as an afterthought, Ender asked Graff one last question.
 "I've heard all kinds of reasons,"  said Graff.
 "I know,"  sail Graff.
 ender shuttled down from the tug.
uncomfortable enough on Earth, where floors were flat; Eros was hopeless.
roughly spindle-shaped rock only six and a half kilometers thick at its narrowest point.
interior of the asteroid.
 was that all the tunnel floors noticeably sloped downward.
Eros's narrow circumference.
the illusion of being on the verge of falling was almost complete.
were too low for the width, the tunnels too narrow.
 It was not a comfortable place.
 Worst of all, though, was the number of people.
cities of Earth.
he had known by sight every person who dwelt there.
lived within the rock.
support and other machinery.
surrounded hy strangers.
 They never let him come to know anyone.
 remained only faces.
and never saw again.
 He ate alone or with Colonel Graff.
 twice.
students to hating him, but rather by giving them no opportunity to become friends.
students were all well into adolescence.
 So Ender withdrew into ender studies and learned quickly and well.
 could only prove after minutes or hours of manipulating numbers.
played.
 Teachers and students trained him, step by step, in its use.
single fighter in continuous maneuvers to find and destroy an enemy.
 against ender within minutes.
light.
maneuvered through a cube of space that must have been ten meters to a side.
controls were powerful.
from him.
movement, orientation, and weapons, the game was made more complex.
objective in order to win.
four-fighter squadron.
his squadron accordingly.
harder he had to spend more and more of his time commanding the squadron.
did, he won more and more often.
fleet.
simulator was to Command School.
the game.
 People dropped in from time to time to watch  people play.
hardly anyone ever did.
 finished.
 What are you doing,  what wanted to ask.
 Judging me?
you want to trust the fleet to me?
 Just remember that I didn't ask for it.
simulator.
the enemy point of view.
be able to see every point of it.
were only as good as the computer allowed.
 They took no initiative.
intelligence.
squadrons doing well without having his constant supervision.
game as if the machine were a natural part of his body.
 Graff seemed unconcerned.
 But then, Graff always seemed unconcerned.
everything changed.
 Graff went away, and in  graff place they gave Ender a companion.
 He was in the room when Ender awoke in the morning.
cross-legged on the floor.
 Ender looked at  ender expectantly, waiting for the man to speak.
He said nothing.
silence if the man wanted.
more information by waiting than by asking.
before Ender did.
room.
 The door didn't open.
 Ender turned to face the man sitting on the floor.
to be about sixty, by far the oldest man Ender had seen on Eros.
white whiskers that grizzled his face only slightly less than his close-cut hair.
sagged a little and his eyes were surrounded by creases and lines.
with an expression that bespoke only apathy.
 Ender turned back to the door and tried again to open the door.
 "All right,"  he said, giving up.
 The old man continued to look at the old man blankly.
 So this is a game, thought Ender.
door.
 If they don't, they won't.
 I don't care.
to them alone.
 So he wouldn't play.
 He also refused to get angry.
relaxing exercise as he leaned on the door, and soon he was calm again.
 impassively.
mindless mute.
somewhere in Eros, living out some insane fantasy here in Ender's room.
became that this was something deliberate, meant to disconcert him.
to give the old man the victory.
 To pass the time he began to do exercises.
class, he could do without any aids.
 The exercises moved him around the room.
 He was practicing lunges and kicks.
claw shot out and seized Ender's left leg in the middle of a kick.
feet and landed ender heavily on the floor.
 ender feet immediately, furious.
not breathing heavily, as if the old man had never moved.
the other's immobility made it impossible for Ender to attack.
head off?
even.
  kept watching.
his bed to get his desk.
between   thighs and another hand grab   hair.
upside down.
arm.
 ender legs.
 In less than two seconds the old man had completely defeated Ender Wiggin.
 "All right,"  Ender gasped.
 The man's knee thrust painfully downward.
 Ender remained silent.
 Ender was angry now, and made no attempt to control or conceal your back on me.
 "Au enemy, Ender Wiggin,"  whispered the old man.
 Then the old man let Ender's legs fall.
and a sickening pain.
 Then the old man stood and let Ender rise.
 slowly ender, with a faint groan of pain.
for a moment, recovering.
 Then his right arm flashed out, reaching for his enemy.
forward to catch Ender on the chin.
 Ender's chin wasn't there.
into the old man's other leg.
Ender in the face.
grabbed, and in the meantime blows were landing on  ender back and arms.
smaller --  ender couldn't reach past the old man's flailing limbs.
away and scramble back near the door.
 The old man was sitting cross-leged again, but now the apathy was gone.
smiling.
 Ender nodded slowly.
 He ached in a hundred places.
 "Good,"  said the old man.
 The old man's face grew serious again.
 The teacher got up.
 Ender spoke as the old man walked to the door.
small of the back with both feet.
the old man cried out and collapsed on the floor.
 the old man face contorted with pain.
He seemed disabled, but Ender didn't trust him.
caught off guard by the old man's speed.
the opposite wall, his nose and lip bleeding where his face had hit the bed.
turn enough to see the old man standing in the doorway, wincing and holding the old man back.
The old man grinned.
 Ender grinned back.
 "Teacher,"  he said.
 "Mazer Rackham,"  said the old man.
 Then he was gone.
 From then on, Ender was either with Mazer Rackham or alone.
spoke, but  the old man was there; at meals, at tutorials, at the simulator, in  the old man room at night.
locked, and no one came until Mazer returned.
showed no sign that it bothered  ender at all.
 Ender soon gave it up.
from the First Invasion and the disastrous defeats of the IF in the Second Invasion.
were not pieced together from the censored public videos, but whole and continuous.
strategies from many angles.
things that Ender had not already seen for ender.
living mind ender could admire.
 "Why aren't you dead?"  Ender asked ender.
 "The miracles of relativity,"  said Mazer.
 Mazer shrugged.
 Mazer shook mazer head.
 Mayer's face went inscruta ble.
 Mazer grinned.
 They were alone in the video room, and Ender palmed the door locked.
 The video showed exactly what Ender had pieced together.
 Nothing.
other bugger ships.
 They did not fire on him.
 They did not change course.
avoided.
 Neither made the slightest movement.
 Mazer sped up the action.
 Skipped ahead.
 "We waited for three hours,"  he said.
"Nobody could believe it."  Then the IF ships began approaching the bugger starships.
marines cutting and boarding operations.
already dead at  the videos posts.
comet shell."  He began to call them up and display the buggers' patterns.
 It was subtle.
 Ender couldn't see it for a long time.
them.
 There was no obvious flagship, no apparent nerve center.
focused on, radiated from a center point.
from which all decisions were being made, was one particular ship.
 He pointed it out.
 Now Ender understood why the rooms had always felt wrong to ender.
 Ender remembered ender battle against two armies at once.
cheating.
 When the real war begins, it'll be like that every time.
gate I can go for.
 " That's right.
 Missiles wouldn't do any good now.
instance.
 " The Little Doctor penetrates the shield?
 " As if it weren't there.
 out.
 " Why haven't I ever been trained with this?
 " You always have.
 We just let the computer tend to the computer for you.
superior strategic position and choose a target.
at aiming the Doctor than you are.
 " Why is it called Dr.
 Device?
 " When it was developed, it was called a Molecular Detachment Device.
 M.
D.
 Device.
 " M.
D.
 The initials stand for Medical Doctor, too.
 M.
D.
 Device, therefore Dr.
 Device.
was a joke.
 " But how do I control the ships?
phase of your training.
for you to concentrate on commanding an entire fleet.
in Battle School, so now you will work with squadron leaders.
three dozen such leaders to train.
their strengths and limitations; you must make them into a whole.
 " When will they come here?
 " They're already in place in their own simulators.
headset.
any of your squadron leaders.
encounter in a real battle, where you will only know what your ships can see.
 " How can I work with squadron leaders I never see?
 " And why would you need to see them?
simulator.
 But even so, I think you won't be concerned.
now.
 Put on the headset so you can hear them.
 " And me, the dwarf.
 " Bean.
 said, " I didn't know you were coming.
mind ot a child.
 " This is what ender saw as you attacked.
 What does  what remind you of?
response, for instance?
 " We look like a bugger fleet.
 " You match them, Ender.
 You're as fast as they are.
 And here -- look at this.
 " The bugger hive-mind is very good, but the bugger hive-mind can only concentrate on a few things at once.
all your squadrons've been assigned to do is also guided by a clever mind.
some advantages.
greater available intelligence.
 These are your advantages.
about you, how to fight you, and those changes will be put into effect instantly.
 " So, Ender, we will now begin your education.
simulate the kinds of situations we might expect in encounters with the enemy.
using the movement patterns we saw in the Second Invasion.
following these same patterns, I will be controlling the enemy simulation.
will see easy situations that you are expected to win handily.
pushed to the limit of your abilities.
 " And beyond?
 " The time is short.
 You must learn as quickly as you can.
and my grandchildren were my own age when I came back.
 I had nothing to say to them.
one so hopeful, each one, ultimately, a weakling, a failure.
learns.
failure may be in you, too.
.
 " So I'm not the first.
 " No, of course you're not.
 But you're the last.
find anyone else.
for.
 " What about the others?
 My squadron leaders?
 " Which of them is fit to take your place?
 " Alai.
 " Be honest.
 " I am not a happy man, Ender.
 Humanity does not ask us to be happy.
to be brilliant on its behalf.
 Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it.
fun.
 there is nothing.
education costs you.
 " I wasn't trying to get out of anything.
 " But you will, Ender.
 Because I am going to grind you down to dust, if I can.
beings.
 " You can't grind me down, Mazer.
 " Oh, can't I?
 " Because I'm stronger than you.
 Mazer smiled. " We'll see about that, Ender.
" makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.
microphone. " Alai, this is yours; assign Petra and Vlad to the fighters as you wish.
start chasing you -- then run back to the reserves for safety.
where I can call on you for quick results.
one point in your force globe.
 Don't fire until I tell you.
 This is maneuver only.
 " It's easy, so why not be careful?
 I'd like to do this without the loss of a single ship.
Ender said " Go on in, Alai.
surround me and eat me alive.
 " Just ignore that ship in the middle.
 " Whatever you say, boss.
.
 " In this simulation they obviously don't know what our weapons can do.
once, but let's make it spectacular.
 Fire at will.
 Mazer shrugged when Ender told mazer so. " This is a simulation of a real invasion.
had to be one battle in which they didn't know what we could do.
 Now your work begins.
Try not to be too arrogant about the victory.
enough.
crippling or destroying some of Ender's ships. " You cannot absorb losses!
luxury of an infinite supply of computer-generated fighters.
with you and nothing more.
 Now get used to fighting without unnecessary waste.
 " lt wasn't unnecessary waste, Ender said.
 Mazer smiled.
time his leaders saw mazer.
team.
trust each other more than ever, and battles became exhilarating.
ones who weren't actually playing would come into the simulator rooms and watch.
ender heart.
days lying out in the sunlight on a raft in a lake, he had not been so lonely.
rackham friend.
  said nothing, though.
unhappiness meant nothing to anyone.
 Most of the time it meant nothing even to Ender.
He kept his mind on the game, trying to learn from the battles.
and how Ender would react if the buggers did it in the future.
intensity that occasionally provoked rebelliousness.
 "You're too kind to us,"  said Alai one day.
 Some of the others laughed into some of the others microphones.
course, and answered with a long silence.
complaint.
it right.
Battle School days, gradually disappeared.
was with each other that each other exchanged confidences.
commander, as distant from them as Mazer was from him, and as demanding.
 They fought all the better for it.
 And Ender was not distracted from ender work.
 At least, not while he was awake.
thoughts of the simulator playing through   mind.
things.
, though, in the pixels of the picture on his desk.
odor of death.
 Things were changed in  things dreams.
entertainment.
they had hidden their queen from him, he did not try to search for their queen.
Giant's body quickly, and when he got to the playground.
 knew.
 to drown.
hands, fought to come up, but at last was still.
 was a game, a game.
 he was only playing!
 Then Mazer Rackharn shook him awake.
 "You were calling out in your sleep,"  he said.
 "Sorry,"  Ender said.
 Steadily the pace increased.
practices to a minimum.
happen next.
was not.
 "Most of what you see is computer simulations,"  Mazer said.
 But ender could not sleep.
less restful.
 He woke too often in the night.
about the game or to escape from   dreams,   wasn't sure.
as if they were real.
 Nights were so real that days began to seem dreamlike to him.
he played.
abilities began to slip?
  seemed to be slipping.
least a few fighters.
until his victory was as much a matter of luck as strategy.
with a look of contempt on his face.
 "Look at this,"  he would say.
made mistakes.
 "Sometimes we make mistakes,"  Petra whispered to him once.
 It was a plea for help.
 "And sometimes we don't,"  Ender answered  ender.
him.
 He would teach; let her find her friends among the others.
 Then came a battle that nearly ended in disaster.
 in a moment when Ender wasn't with  petra.
moments she had lost all but two of her ships.
 Ender found her then, ordered her to move them in a certain direction; she didn't answer.
There was no movement.
 And in a moment those two fighters, too, would be lost.
all but a few of the others.
about what he had done to her.
now all of Ender's strategy came apart.
exploiting the enemy advantage, Ender would have lost.
the enemy in too tight a formation and took the enemy out with a single chain reaction.
able to mop up and complete the victory.
as quick as she had been, not as daring.
was lost.
assignments.
 She was no fool.
 She knew what had happened.
Ender had no other choice, and told ender so.
squad leaders.
could bear.
keep in mind how often his leaders had fought.
sometimes he went into battle with commanders he trusted a little less.
pressure on them,   increased the pressure on  .
 Late one night he woke up in pain.
his mouth.
 His fingers were throbbing.
his own fist.
 The blood was still flowing smoothly.
 "Mazer!"   "mazer!"   called.
up and called at once for a doctor.
 "I was asleep,"  Ender said.
 Ender didn't answer.
 "Don't make fun of me!"  Ender said.
 The doctor was finished with the bandage.
 Mazer told  mazer  mazer could go.
 He went.
 "Are you really afraid of that?"  Mazer asked.
 Ender thought about it and wasn't sure.
 "All right,"  Ender said.
again.
the destruction of himself.
 He began to have pains in his stomach.
bland diet, but soon he didn't have an appetite for anything at all.
ender mouth.
eat.
rest became all the greater.
keep the battle going longer and longer.
finally destroyed the last enemy ship.
beginning to get sluggish.
black and ender woke up on the floor with ender face bloody where ender had hit the controls.
 They put him to bed then, and for three days he was very ill.
saw them.
friends from the Battle School, and sometimes the buggers vivisecting valentine.
like a kind father.
 But then he woke top and found only his enemy, Mazer Rackham.
 "I'm awake,"  said Ender.
 "So I see,"  Mazer answered.
 So Ender got up and fought the battle and won the battle.
day, and they let him go to bed earlier.
 His hands were shaking as be undressed.
 During the night he thought he felt hands touching him gently.
them, and gentleness.
 He dreamed he heard voices.
 In his dream, the voices sounded like Colonel Graff and Mazer Rackham.
and valentine dried out and became a home for buggers, like the Giant was.
 All dreams.
 If there was love or pity for him, it was only in his dreams.
 He woke up and fought another battle and won.
when waking became sleeping.
 Nor did  nor care.
 The next day was his last day in Command School, though he didn't know it.
rackham woke up.
waited for Mazer to come unlock the door.
 He didn't come.
 Ender tried the door.
open.
  be free this morning?
him he must eat, he must go to practice, he must sleep.
 Freedom.
didn't know what to do.
talk to his squadron leaders face to face, but he didn't know where his squadron leaders were.
kilometers away, for all he knew.
dirty jokes that Ender could not begin to understand.
for practice.
 Even though he was free, he could not think of anything else to do.
 mazer.
 Ender walked slowly into the room.
shuffling, and he felt tired and dull.
 Mazer frowned.
 There were other people in the simulator room.
but didn't bother to ask.
 It wasn't worth asking; no one would tell him anyway.
to the simulator controls and sat down, ready to start.
 "Ender Wiggin,"  said Mazer.
 Ender turned around.
 He glanced at the men gathered at the back of the room.
them he had never seen before.
 Some were even dressed in civilian clothes.
School if he was gone.
Greensboro, and wanted to go home.
 Take me home, he said silently to Graff.
dream you said you loved me.
 Take me home.
anderson didn't know anderson at all.
 "these observers can stay."  Final examination.
 After today, perhaps he could rest.
 Mazer's face went rigid.
 Mazer left the room.
 Ender spoke into the microphone.
 "All of us,"  said Bean.
 So they hadn't told the squadron leaders.
extraneous concern on their minds.
 "Sorry,"    said.
 They laughed.
 They didn't believe him.
  led them through maneuvers, warming up for the battle ahead.
speed, responding quickly, thinking well.
thinking well.
 The simulator field cleared.
 Ender waited for the game to appear.
pass the test today?
 Is there another school?
any control over my own life?
 He tried to remember how old he was.
 Eleven.
years ago did he turn eleven?
 How many days?
Command School, but he couldn't remember the day.
the time.
 Nobody noticed it, except perhaps Valentine.
  go home.
 Bonzo had been assigned to Cartagena.
orders that said Greensboro.
 Success meant it would go on.
home.
 No, that isn't true, he told himself.
home to return to.
 .
deeper places, he doubted that they needed him.
 Mazer's urgency was just another trick.
Just another way to make me do what they want me to do.
resting.
 From doing nothing, for a long, long time.
 Then the enemy formation appeared, and Ender's weariness turned to despair.
 the enemy.
moving in seemingly random patterns through the simulator field.
and a formation that seemed penetrable would suddenly change and be forbidding.
planet, out of the simulator's range.
  consisted of twenty starships, each with only four fighters.
Little Doctors was half that of the newer ones.
thousand, perhaps ten thousand enemy ships.
behind him, a quiet curse.
a fair test.
 Not that it made any difference.
plain.
 There was no attempt to give him even a remote chance at success.
been through, and they never meant to let me pass at all.
threatening him; he had been able to shame Bonzo into fighting him alone.
hardly work here.
with the older boys in the battleroom.
 Mazer knew Ender's abilities inside and out.
 The observers behind him began to cough, to move nervously.
realize that Ender didn't know what to do.
 I don't care anymore, thought Ender.
 You can keep your game.
me a chance, why should I play?
 Like his last game in Battle School, when they put two armies against him.
 Molo, Soup, Vlad, Dumper, and Crazy Tom all laughed.
 They remembered, too.
 And Ender also laughed.
 It was funny.
far, tried too hard, and the children could see through the children game.
 Forget it, Mazer.
care if I pass your test, I don't care if I follow your rules, if you can cheat, so can I.
won't let you beat me unfairly -- I'll beat you unfairly first.
 in that final battle in battle school had moved against the enemy's gate.
 And the enemy's gate was down.
 'll never let me be a commander.
 It would be too dangerous.
never have to play a game again.
 And that is victory.
  whispered quickly into the microphone.
enemy formations.
could be thoroughly entrapped before  the enemy destroyed  the enemy.
account the fact that by now account would have learned to respect me.
 thought Ender.
that does buy me time.
but always ending up a little closer to the enemy planet.
in on him too tightly.
 Then, suddenly, Ender's formation burst.
into chaos.
random, working  the eighty fighters way into hopeless individual paths among the bugger craft.
more, and suddenly a dozen of the remaining fighters formed again into a formation.
to the enemy's planet.
 The enemy sees now, thought Ender.
 Surely Mazer sees what I'm doing.
 Or perhaps Mazer cannot believe that I would do it.
 Well so much the better for me.
attack, then bringing them back.
that had been widely scattered, bringing  the enemy in for the kill.
concentrated beyond Ender, so  the enemy could not escape back into open space, closing  the enemy in.
Excellent, thought Ender.
 Closer.
 Come closer.
surface.
passage through an atmosphere.
 But Ender never intended them to reach the atmosphere.
one thing only.
 The planet itself.
 One, two, four, seven of his fighters were blown away.
 ships would survive long enough to get in range.
they could focus on the planet's surface.
 Just a moment with Dr, Device, that's all I want.
happen to a planet if the Little Doctor attacked the computer.
dead?
 ender hands off the controls and leaned in to watch what happened.
perspective was close to the enemy planet now, as the ship hurtled into the ship well of gravity.
Surely it's in range now, thought Ender.
it.
bubble; there was a gout ot explosion, hurling debris out toward Ender's fighters.
tried to imagine what was happening inside the planet.
the molecules bursting apart but finding nowhere for the separate atoms to go.
hurtling outward.
waiting beyond the edges of the battle.
 It was as close as Ender wanted to be.
of the exploding planet grew outward faster than the enemy ships could avoid it.
the field path, erupting each one into a dot of light before the field went on.
 Only at the very periphery of the simulator did the M.
D.
 field weaken.
enemy ships were drifting away.
 Ender's own starships did not explode.
vast enemy fleet protected, there was nothing meaningful.
A lump of dirt was growing as gravity drew much of the debris downward again.
before.
 Much of  much mass was now a cloud still flowing outward.
 ender.
 were caught up in prayer.
 Ender didn't understand.
seemed all wrong.
 They were supposed to be angry.
 colonel graff from the others and came to Ender.
down  tears face, but  tears was smiling.
 The others soon came, too, shaking his hand, congratulating him.
of this.
 Had he passed the test after all?
that, a cheat; why did they act as if he had won with honor?
 The crowd parted and Mazer Rackham walked through.
held out his hand.
 All over.
 Beat  beat.
 Ender didn't understand.
 Mazer laughed, a loud laugh that filled the room.
 Ender didn't get the joke.
himself.
 He began to get angry.
 mazer shoulder.
 Ender shrugged him off.
 Real.
 Not a game.
 Ender's mind was too tired to cope with it all.
destroyed.
 And a real world that he had blasted into oblivion.
crowd rejoicing.
When he got to his own room he stripped off his clothes, climbed into bed, and slept.
 ender.
 It took a moment to recognize them.
Rackham.
 He turned his back on them.
 Let me sleep.
 "Ender, we need to talk to you,"  said Graff.
 Ender rolled back to face them.
 "Yesterday?"  He had slept through until the next day.
 "I killed them all, didn't I?"  Ender asked.
 "All who?"  asked Graff.
 Mazer leaned in close.
face.
into a killer!"  peter was crying.
 He was out of control.
 "Of course we tricked you into it. That's the whole point,"  said Graff.
 "And the buggers had to be a child, Ender,"  said Mazer.
 "Tell me later,"  Ender said.
 His eyes closed.
 Mazer Rackham shook him.
 "Don't go to sleep, Ender,"  ender said.
 "You're finished with me,"  Ender said.
 "Fine with me,"  said Ender.
 Ender turned ender back on them again.
 This time they let him.
 He did not sleep, though.
He listened to them.
 They went away.
 Ender slept again.
 Time passed without touching Ender, except with glancing blows.
insistent pain.
 He reached over and touched it; it was a needle passing into a vein.
tried to pull it out, but it was taped on and he was too weak.
darkness to hear people near him murmuring and cursing.
loud noise that had awakened him; he did not remember the noise.
someone said.
 And another time he thought he heard someone crying softly near him.
have been months.
 He seemed to pass through lifetimes in his dreams.
the End of the World.
 And he tried to answer.
 I never wanted to kill anybody.
ever asked me if I wanted to kill anybody.
 But the forest laughed at him.
 could watch, over and over, the eruption of death when Dr.
 eyes.
the children valentine had known in Battle School.
there bleeding through the eyes and nose, saying, You have no honor.
.
 At first it was always Peter's face, with blood and a snake's tail coming from the mouth.
a billion, billion murders -- but they were his own eyes, and he was content to wear them.
War.
  was lying in darkness.
thump of explosions.
 He listened for a while.
 Then he heard a soft footstep.
 .
enough if need be.
 He knew the voice.
 It came out of his memory as if it were a million years ago.
 Ender swung ender legs out to sit up.
 He couldn't do it, though.
 His head hurt too bad.
winced in pain.
 " Don't sit up, Ender.
 It's all right.
 It looks like we might win it.
people went with the Polemarch.
you were loyal to the IF.
 " I was asleep.
 " So he lied.
 You weren't plotting treason in your dreams, were you?
.
you.
 The whole world watched our battles.
 Videos, day and night.
 I've seen some.
Complete with your voice giving the orders.
 It's all there, nothing censored.
 Good stuff.
You've got a career in the vids.
 " I was joking.
 Hey, can you believe it?
 We won the war.
so we could fight in it, and it was us all the time.
 I mean, we're kids.
 Ender.
us.
" AIai laughed. " It was you, anyway.
 You were good, bosh.
get us out of that last one.
 But you did.
 You were good.
 ender spoke in the past good. " What am I now, Alai?
 " Still good.
 " At what?
 " At -- anything.
 There's a million soldiers who'd follow you to the end of the universe.
 " I don't want to go to the end of the universe.
 " So where do you want to go?
 They'll follow you.
 " Ho, Ender.
 " Who won?
 " We did, Ender," said Bean. " You were there.
 " He's not *that* crazy, Bean.
 He meant who won just now.
" There was a truce on Earth.
 They've been negotiating for days.
accept the Locke Proposal.
 " It's very complicated, but what it means here is that the IF.
without the Warsaw Pact in  .
 So the Warsaw Pact marines are going home.
Russia agreed to it because russia're having a revolt of the Slavic helots.
troubles.
 About five hundred died here, but it was worse on Earth.
 " The Hegemon resigned," said Dink. " It's crazy down there.
 Who cares.
 " You OK?
" Petra asked him, touching his head. " You scared us.
crazy, and we said *they* were crazy.
 " I'm crazy," said Ender. " But I think I'm OK.
 " When did you decide that?
 " When I thought you were about to kill me, and I decided to kill you first.
just a killer to the core.
 But I'd rather be alive than dead.
Petra, who were closest. " I missed you," ender said. " I wanted to see you so bad.
 " I saw you magnificent," said Ender. " The ones I needed most, I used up soonest.
planning on my part.
cowering in blacked-out rooms in the middle of a war couldn't cure.
 " I don't have to be your commander anymore, do I?
command anybody again.
 " You don't have to command anybody," said Dink, " but you're always our commander.
 " So what do we do now?
there on Earth, and even the war here.
 What do we do now?
 " We're kids," said Petra. " They'll probably make us go to school.
 It's a law.
go to school till you're seventeen.
 " You've lost weight.
 " One kind of stress puts it on, another takes it off.
 I m a creature of chemicals.
 " It must have heen hard.
 Graff shrugged. " Not really.
 I knew I'd be acquitted.
 " Some of us weren't so sure.
 People were crazy for a while there.
gruesome.
 To watch one child do that to another.
 " As much as anything, I think the videos saved me.
showed the whole thing.
 It was plain that Ender was not the provocateur.
was just a second-guessing game.
training we gave ender.
 After that, it was simple.
 The exigencies of war.
 " Anyway, Graff, it was a great relief to us.
prosecution used tapes of our conversations against you.
were right, and I offered to testify for you.
 " I know, Anderson.
 My lawyers told me.
 " So what will you do now?
 " I don't know.
 Still relaxing.
 I have a few years of leave accrued.
retirement, and I have plenty of salary that I never used, sitting around in banks.
live on the interest.
 Maybe I'll do nothing.
 " It sounds nice.
 But I couldn't stand it.
universities, on the theory that I'm an educator.
I ever cared about at the Battle School was the game.
 I think I'll go with the other offer.
 " Commissioner?
 " Now that the wars are over, it's time to play games again.
anyway.
 Only twenty-eight teams in the league.
children flying, football is like watching slugs bash into each other.
 " That raft.
 Surely you can't float on it.
 graff head. " Ender built it.
 " That's right.
 This is where you took him.
 " It's even been deeded over to him.
 I saw to it that he was amply rewarded.
all the money he ever needs.
 " If they ever let him come back to use it.
 " They never will.
 " With Demosthenes agitating for demosthenes to come home?
 " Demosthenes isn't on the nets anymore.
 Anderson raised an eyebrow. " What does that mean?
 " Demosthenes has retired.
 Permanently.
 " You know something, you old farteater.
 You know who Demosthenes is.
 " Was.
 " Well, tell me!
 " No.
 " You're no fun anymore, Graff.
 " I never was.
 " At least you can tell me why.
be Hegemon someday.
 " There was never a chance of that.
couldn't persuade the Hegemon to bring Ender back to Earth.
 Ender is far too dangerous.
 " He's only eleven.
 Twelve, now.
 " All the more dangerous because he could so easily be controlled.
name of Ender is one to conjure with.
death in his hands.
of an army and watch the world either flock to join or cower in fear.
Earth, ender'd want to come here, to rest, to salvage what ender can of ender childhood.
 rest.
 " I see.
 Someone explained that to Demosthenes?
 Graff smiled. " Demosthenes explained it to someone else.
used Ender as no one else could have, to rule the world and make the world like it.
 " Who?
 " Locke.
 " Locke is the one who argued for Ender to stay on Eros.
 " All is not always as it seems.
 " It's too deep for me, Graff.
 Give me the game.
 Nice, neat rules.
 Referees.
and endings.
 Winners and losers and then everybody goes home to  winners wives.
 " Get me tickets to some games now and then, all right?
 " You won't really stay here and retire, will you?
 " No.
 " You're going into the Hegemony, aren't you?
 " I'm the new Minister of Colonization.
 " So they're doing it.
 " As soon as we get the reports back on the bugger colony worlds.
already fertile, with housing and industry in place, and all the buggers dead.
convenient.
known and unknown.
 " Will people really go?
 " People always go.
 Always.
old world.
 " What the hell, maybe they can.
destroy your reputation yet.
years.
 " Hi, Ender.
 " What are you doing here?
 " Demosthenes retired.
 Now I'm going with the first colony.
 " Only two years if you're aboard the ship.
 " That was what I had in mind.
might come with me.
 He looked at her in silence.
 They went to Ender's tiny compartment in the ISL and she explained.
Ender back on Earth, under the protection of the Hegemon's Council.
 Ender nodded.
 Ender said nothing.
accidental.
 Ender laughed and shook ender head.
 "All right,"  said Ender.
the present that she wanted from her little brother.
 The voyage was long.
Earth, and Ender had won something better than the adulation of the passengers.
knew him now, and he had won their love and their respect.
working as hard as anyone at the tasks involved in setting up a self-sustaining economy.
things that human beings could use, could learn from.
buggers never needed no books to read --.
as all things were thought, when the buggers died all things knowledge died with all things.
 And yet.
supplies, Ender learned that winter would be hard, with heavy snows.
were a danger to the crops or the herds.
fruits that grew in the overgrown orchards were dried and ground into meal.
children.
 Life settled down, and years passed.
tunnels of the bugger city for storage and manufactories.
govertior, was in fact only a judge.
a human world.
the names that were famous on Earth meant little to them now.
comet shield and filling up the bugger worlds.
but no one cared.
weeks after I got the calf.
 "They've become people of the land,"  said Valentine.
 Ender pressed a button and ender desk showed ender the next page.
 "Maybe,"  said Valentine.
 The ansible had brought them word that the new colony ship was only a year away.
the two colonies could trade, but far enough apart that the two colonies could be governed separately.
Ender used the helicopter and began to explore.
eleven-year-old boy named abra remembered no other world than this.
morning.
had been in this place before.
 He looked around; it was new land, he had never seen it.
He called out to Abra.
 "Ho, Ender!"  Abra called.
 He was on top of a steep low hill.
 Ender scrambled up, the turves coming away from ender feet in the soft ground.
pointing downward.
 "Can you believe this?"  he asked.
 The hill was hollow.
ringed by concave slopes that cantilevered dangerously over the water.
the rose to a piece of white rock, grinning like a skull with a tree growing out of a skullmouth.
 Now Ender knew why it had looked familiar.
 The Giant's corpse.
too many times as a child not to know this place.
 But it was not possible.
the Battle School could not possibly have seen this place.
belonged in that place.
 Swings and slides.
 Monkey bars.
 Now overgrown, but the shapes still unmistakable.
 "I know,"  said Ender.
the forest clearing.
wall and a ledge right where the End of the World should be.
just where it should be in the fantasy game, was the castle tower.
 He left Abra with the copter.
 Abra could tell, despite Ender's joking tone, that ender meant it, and so ender stayed.
 The walls of the tower were notched and ledged for easy climbing.
get in.
 the room had always been.
on the floor, but there was only a rug with a carved snake's head at one corner.
not duplication; for a people who made no art, a people who made no art had done well.
dreams across the lightyears.
 But why?
 To bring him to this room, of course.
.
 But where was the message, and how would he understand the message?
 the mirror on the wall.
rough shape of a human face had been scratched.
see in the picture.
poisonous fangs could find purchase.
 How well do they know me, wondered Ender.
?
feared death, it would not stop me from taking that mirror from the wall.
 He walked to the mirror, lifted, pulled away.
 Nothing jumped from the space behind  nothing.
sticking out here and there.
 An egg?
 No.
including a few queens and males.
the tunnel floor and shriveling.
power of flight but still contained the power of majesty.
many queens and many worlds.
 How do I know this, thought Ender.
own mind.
  battles with e bugger fleets.
eyes.
the darkness and the Little Doctor destroyed the terrible fighters in a blaze of light.
quickly to avoid, but not too quickly to be anticipated.
fear, though.
 What the hive-queen felt was sadness, a sense of resignation.
understood her: They did not forgive us, she thought.
 We will surely die.
 "How can you live again?"  he asked.
and tried to remember, instead of memory came new images.
the cocoon.
 Then time.
 Days and weeks, for the pupa inside to change.
cocoon, and helping the small and fragile queen emerge.
leaves on sand.
 Then I am alive, came the thought in his mind.
 Then I am awake.
make my ten thousand children.
 "No,"  said Ender.
 Anguish.
their tears for them.
 realized.
mind.
knowledge I was killing  in the agony of my tortured dreams.
would find this place by the evidence of my eyes.
they can only talk to me, and through me.
mind.
 We did not mean to murder, and when we understood, we never came again.
dreams.
 How were we to know?
 We could live with you in peace.
believe us.
  reached into the cavity and took out the cocoon.
the hope and future of a great race within it.
 He wrapped the queen's cocoon in his jacket and carried the queen from the tower.
 "What was in there?"  asked Abra.
 "The answer,"  said Ender.
and chose a site for the new colony far to the east and south of the tower.
pulled the file he named from the ship's computer, and read the file he named from the ship's computer.
that they had done.
hurt you, and we forgive you for our death.
ancient memory.
 quest for harmony.
battling, and together they were stronger than any other hive.
more daughters who joined them in peace; it was the beginning of wisdom.
 If only we could have talked to you, the hive-queen said in Ender's words.
changed into a foul shape by Fate or God or Evolution.
been the miracle to make us human in each other's eyes.
 Instead we killed each other.
still we welcome you now as guestfriends.
for us.
they are our adopted daughters, and they have come home.
the hive-queen knew.
until the book was hard to believe that anyone on Earth might not have read the book.
 Most who read it found it interesting -- some who read it refused to set it aside.
have said, but with full candor, hiding no faults and pretending no virtues.
came to such services.
 on earth remained a religion among many religions.
hive-queen's fields, it was the only religion.
the Dead.
 No one knew and no one really wanted to know who was the original Speaker.
was not inclined to tell them.
the bugger wars.
.
years old with a failing heart.
 "I know who wrote it,"  he said.
story of his days and years, his crimes and his kindnesses.
wrote a second volume, again signed by the Speaker for the Dead.
books were holy writ.
 "Come on,"  he said to Valentine one day.
 "We can't,"  she said.
 So they boarded a starship and went from world to world.
stories of the dead.
the world where the hive-queen could awaken and thrive in peace.
 He looked a long time.