Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4) (Ender Quartet)

the wall, then reached out his hands and touched the missile. "We need to bring it into contact with the floor," he said.
    Wang-mu tried to reach for it, too, but immediately she came loose from the wall and started drifting. Intense nausea began immediately, as her body desperately searched for some direction that would serve as down.
    "Think of the device as downward," said Peter urgently. "The device is down. You're falling toward the device."
    She felt herself reorient. It helped. And as she drifted closer she was able to take hold of it and cling. She could only watch, grateful simply not to be vomiting, as Peter slowly, gently pushed the mass of the missile toward the floor. When they touched, the whole ship shuddered, for the mass of the missile was probably greater than the mass of the ship that now surrounded it.
    "Okay?" Peter asked.
    "I'm fine," said Wang-mu. Then she realized he had been talking to Jane, and his "okay" was part of that conversation.
    "Jane is tracing the thing right now," said Peter. "She does it with the starships, too, before she ever takes them anywhere. It used to be analytical, by computer. Now her aiúa sort of tours the inner structure of the thing. She couldn't do it till it was in solid contact with something she knew: the starship. Us. When she gets a sense of the inner shape of the thing, she can hold it together Outside."
    "We're just going to take it there and leave it?" asked Wang-mu.
    "No," said Peter. "It would either hold together and detonate, or it would break apart, and either way, who knows what the damage would be out there? How many little copies of it would wink into existence?"
    "None at all," said Wang-mu. "It takes an intelligence to make something new."
    "What do you think this thing is made of? Just like every bit of your body, just like every rock and tree and cloud, it's all aiúas, and there'll be other unconnected aiúas out there desperate to belong, to imitate, to grow. No, this thing is evil, and we're not taking it out there."
    "Where are we taking it?"
    "Home to meet its sender," said Peter.
     
     
    Admiral Lands stood glumly alone on the bridge of his flagship. He knew that Causo would have spread the word by now -- the launch of the Little Doctor had been illegal, mutinous; the Old Man would be court-martialed or worse when they got back to civilization. No one spoke to him; no one dared look at him. And Lands knew that he would have to relieve himself of command and turn the ship over to Causo, as his X.O., and the fleet to his second-in-command, Admiral Fukuda. Causo's gesture in not arresting him immediately was kind, but it was also useless. Knowing the truth of his disobedience, it would be impossible for the men and officers to follow him and unfair to ask it of them.
    Lands turned to give the order, only to find his X.O. already heading toward him. "Sir," said Causo.
    "I know," said Lands. "I relieve myself of command."
    "No sir," said Causo. "Come with me, sir."
    "What do you plan to do?" asked Lands.
    "The cargo officer has reported something in the main hold of the ship."
    "What is it?" asked Lands.
    Causo just looked at him. Lands nodded, and they walked together from the bridge.
     
     
    Jane had taken the box of the starship, not into the weapons bay of the flagship, for that could hold only the Little Doctor, not the box around it, but rather into the main hold, which was much more copious and which also lacked any practical means of relaunching the weapon.
    Peter and Wang-mu stepped out of the starship and into the hold.
    Then Jane took away the starship, leaving Peter, Wang-mu, and the Little Doctor behind.
    Back on Lusitania, the starship would reappear. But no one would get into it. No one needed to. The M.D. Device was no longer heading for Lusitania. Now it was in the hold of the flagship of the Lusitania Fleet, traveling at a relativistic speed toward oblivion. The proximity sensor on the Little Doctor would not be triggered, of course, since it was nowhere near an object of planetary mass. But the timer was still chugging away.
    "I hope they notice us soon," said Wang-mu.
    "Oh, don't worry. We have whole minutes left."
    "Has anyone seen us yet?"
    "There was a fellow in that office," said Peter, pointing toward an open door. "He saw the starship, then he saw us, then he saw the Little Doctor. Now he's gone. I don't think we'll be alone much longer."
    A door high up the front wall of the hold opened. Three men stepped onto the