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

and Si Wang-mu were flesh and blood, and filled with lies, but they came to me and spoke the truth that I needed to hear. Is this not how the ancestors bring messages to their living children? I have somehow launched ships armed with the most terrible weapons of war. I did this when I was young; now the ships are near their destination and I am old and I cannot call them back. A world will be destroyed and Congress will look to the Necessarians for approval and they will give it, and then the Necessarians will look to me for approval, and I will hide my face in shame. My leaves will fall and I will stand bare before them. That is why I should not have lived my life in this tropical place. I have forgotten winter. I have forgotten shame and death.
    Perfect simplicity -- I thought I had achieved it. But instead I have been a bringer of bad fortune.
    He sat in the garden for an hour, drawing single characters in the fine gravel of the path, then wiping it smooth and writing again. At last he returned to the garden shed and on the computer typed the message he had been composing:
     
    Ender the Xenocide was a child and did not know the war was real; yet he chose to destroy a populated planet in his game. I am an adult and have known all along that the game was real; but I did not know I was a player. Is my blame greater or less than the Xenocide's if another world is destroyed and another raman species obliterated? What is my path to simplicity now?
     
    His friend would know few of the circumstances surrounding this query; but he would not need more. He would consider the question. He would find an answer.
    A moment later, an ansible on the planet Pacifica received his message. On the way, it had already been read by the entity that sat astride all the strands of the ansible web. For Jane, though, it was not the message that mattered so much as the address. Now Peter and Wang-mu would know where to go for the next step in their quest.

CHAPTER 5
     
    “NOBODY IS RATIONAL”

    "My father often told me,
    We have servants and machines
    in order that our will may be carried out
    beyond the reach of our own arms.
    Machines are more powerful than servants
    and more obedient and less rebellious,
    but machines have no judgment
    and will not remonstrate with us
    when our will is foolish,
    and will not disobey us
    when our will is evil.
    In times and places where people despise the gods,
    those most in need of servants have machines,
    or choose servants who will behave like machines.
    I believe this will continue
    until the gods stop laughing."
    from The God Whispers of Han Qing-jao
     
     
    The hovercar skimmed over the fields of amaranth being tended by buggers under the morning sun of Lusitania. In the distance, clouds already arose, cumulus stacks billowing upward, though it was not yet noon.
    "Why aren't we going to the ship?" asked Val.
    Miro shook his head. "We've found enough worlds," he said.
    "Does Jane say so?"
    "Jane is impatient with me today," said Miro, "which makes us about even."
    Val fixed her gaze on him. "Imagine my impatience then," she said. "You haven't even bothered to ask me what I want to do. Am I so inconsequential, then?"
    He glanced at her. "You're the one who's dying," he said. "I tried talking to Ender, but it didn't accomplish anything."
    "When did I ask you for help? And what exactly are you doing to help me right now?"
    "I'm going to the Hive Queen."
    "You might as well say you're going to see your fairy godmother."
    "Your problem, Val, is that you are completely dependent on Ender's will. If he loses interest in you, you're gone. Well, I'm going to find out how we can get you a will of your own."
    Val laughed and looked away from him. "You're so romantic, Miro. But you don't think things through."
    "I think them through very well," said Miro. "I spend all my time thinking things through. It's acting on my thoughts that gets tricky. Which ones should I act on, and which ones should I ignore?"
    "Act on the thought of steering us without crashing," said Val.
    Miro swerved to avoid a starship under construction.
    "She still makes more," said Miro, "even though we have enough."
    "Maybe she knows that when Jane dies, starflight ends for us. So the more ships, the more we can accomplish before she dies."
    "Who can guess how the Hive Queen thinks?" said Miro. "She promises, but even she can't predict whether her predictions will come true."
    "So why are you going to see her?"
    "The hive queens made a