Enders In Exile

CHAPTER
1

    To: [email protected], [email protected]
From: hgraff%[email protected]
Subj: When Andrew Returns Home
    Dear John Paul and
Theresa Wiggin,
    You understand that
during the recent attempt by the Warsaw Pact to take over the
International Fleet, our sole concern at EducAdmin was the safety of
the children. Now we are finally able to begin working out the
logistics of sending the children home.
    We assure you that
Andrew will be provided with continuous surveillance and an active
bodyguard throughout his transfer from the I.F. to American government
control. We are still negotiating the degree to which the I.F. will
continue to provide protection after the transfer.
    Every effort is being
made by EducAdmin to assure that Andrew will be able to return to the
most normal childhood possible. However, I wish your advice about
whether he should be retained here in isolation until the conclusion of
the inquiries into EducAdmin actions during the
late campaign. It is quite likely that testimony will be offered that
depicts Andrew and his actions in damaging ways, in order to attack
EducAdmin through him (and the other children). Here at IFCom we can
keep him from hearing the worst of it; on Earth, no such protection
will be possible and it is likelier that he will be called to "testify."
     
    Hyrum Graff

     
    Theresa Wiggin was
sitting up in bed, holding her printout of Graff's letter. "'Called to
"testify."' Which means putting him on exhibit as—what, a
hero? More likely a monster, since we already have various senators
decrying the exploitation of children."
    "That'll teach him to
save the human race," said her husband, John Paul.
    "This is not a time for
flippancy."
    "Theresa, be
reasonable," said John Paul. "I want Ender home as much as you do."
    "No you don't," said
Theresa fiercely. "You don't ache with the need for him every day."
Even as she said it she knew she was being unfair to him, and she
covered her eyes and shook her head.
    To his credit, he
understood and didn't argue with her about what he did and did not
feel. "You can never have the years they've taken, Theresa. He's not
the boy we knew."
    "Then we'll get to know
the boy he is. Here. In our home."
    "Surrounded by guards."
    "
That's
the part I refuse to accept. Who would want to hurt him?"
    John Paul set down the
book he was no longer pretending to read. "Theresa, you're the smartest
person I know."
    "He's a child!"
    "He won a war against
incredibly superior forces."
    "He fired off
one
weapon. Which he did not design or deploy."
    "He got that weapon
into firing range."
    "The formics are gone!
He's a hero, he's not in danger."
    "All right, Theresa,
he's a hero. How is he going to go to middle school? What eighth-grade
teacher is ready for him? What school dance is he going to be ready
for?"
    "It will take time. But
here, with his family—"
    "Yes, we're such a
warm, welcoming group of people, a love nest into which he'll fit so
easily."
    "We
do
love each other!"
    "Theresa, Colonel Graff
is only trying to warn us that Ender isn't
just
our son."
    "He's nobody
else's
son."
    "You
know
who wants to kill our son."
    "No, I don't."
    "Every government that
thinks of American military power as an obstacle to their plans."
    "But Ender isn't going
to
be
in the military, he's going to
be—"
    "This week he won't be
in the American military. Maybe. He won a war at the age of twelve,
Theresa. What makes you think he won't be drafted by our benevolent and
democratic government the moment he gets back to Earth? Or put into
protective custody? Maybe they'll let us go with him and maybe they
won't."
    Theresa let the tears
flow down her cheeks. "So you're saying that when he left here we lost
him forever."
    "I'm saying that when
your child goes off to war, you will never get him back. Not as he was,
not the same boy. Changed, if he comes back at all. So let me ask you.
Do you want him to go where he's in the greatest danger, or to stay
where he's relatively safe?"
    "You think Graff is
trying to get us to tell him to keep Ender with him out there in space."
    "I think Graff cares
what happens to Ender, and he's letting us know—without
actually saying it, because every letter he sends can be used against
him in court—that Ender is in terrible danger. Not ten
minutes after Ender's victory, the Russians made their brutal play for
control of the I.F. Their soldiers killed thousands of fleet officers
before the I.F. was able to force their surrender. What would