Enders In Exile

desire. I will return to the
ship and will follow Governor Wiggin's instructions as to the order and
timing of the transfer of materials and persons from the ship to the
ground. My work here is done. I commend you for your achievements here,
and thank you for your attention."
    There was scattered
applause, but he knew that most of them had tuned him out and were
merely waiting for him to be done in order to get back to lionizing
Andrew Wiggin.
    Ah well. When he got
back to the ship, Dorabella would be there. It was the best thing he
had ever done, marrying that woman.
    Of course, he had no
idea how she would take the news that she and her daughter would not be
colonists after all—that they would be staying with him on
his voyage back to Earth. But how could they complain? Life in this
colony would be primitive and hard. Life as the wife of an
admiral—the very admiral who was first to bring new settlers
and supplies to a colony world—would be a
pleasant one, and Dorabella would thrive in such social settings; the
woman really was brilliant at it. And the daughter—well, she
could go to university and have a normal life. No, not normal,
exceptional—because Morgan's position would be such that he
could guarantee her the finest opportunities.
    Morgan had already
turned to go back inside the shuttle when he heard Wiggin's voice
calling to him. "Admiral Morgan! I don't think the people here have
understood what you have done for us all, and they need to hear it."
    Since Morgan had the
words of Graff's and Wuri's letter fresh in his mind, he could not help
but hear irony and bad intent in Wiggin's words. He almost decided to
keep moving back into the shuttle, as if he hadn't heard the boy.
    But the boy was the
governor, and Morgan had his own command to think about. If he ignored
the boy now, it would look to his own men like an acknowledgment of
defeat—and a rather cowardly one at that. So, to preserve his
own position of respect, he turned to hear what the boy had to say.
    "Thank you, sir, for
bringing us all safely here. Not just me, but the colonists who will
join with the original settlers and native-born of this world. You have
retied the links between the home of the human race and these far-flung
children of the species."
    Then Wiggin turned back
to the colonists. "Admiral Morgan and his crew and these marines you
see here did not come to fight a war and save the human race, and none
of them will die at the hands of our enemies. But they made one great
sacrifice that is identical to one made by the original settlers here.
They cut themselves loose from all that they knew and all that they
loved and cast themselves out into space and time to find a new life
among the stars. And every new colonist on that ship has given up
everything they had, betting on their new life here among you."
    The colonists
spontaneously began applauding, a few at first, but soon all of them,
and then cheering—for Admiral Morgan, for the marines, for
the unmet colonists still on the ship.
    And the Wiggin boy,
damn him, was saluting. Morgan had no choice but to return the salute
and accept the gratitude and respect of the colonists as a gift from
him.
    Then Wiggin strode
toward the shuttle—but not to say anything more to Morgan.
Instead, he walked toward the commander of the marine squad and called
out to him by name. Had the boy learned the names of all of Morgan's
crew and marines as well?
    "I want you to meet
your counterpart," Wiggin said loudly. "The man who commanded the
marines with the original expedition." He led him to an old man, and
they saluted each other, and in a few moments the whole place was
chaotic with marines being swarmed by old men and women and young ones
as well.
    Morgan knew now that
little of what Wiggin had done was really about him. Yes, he had to
make sure Morgan knew his place. He accomplished that in the first
minute, when he distracted Morgan with the letter while he showed that
he knew all the original settlers by name, and acted—with
justification—as the commander of veterans meeting with them
forty-one years after their great victory.
    But Wiggin's main
purpose was to shape the attitude that this community would have toward
Morgan, toward the marines, toward the star-ship's crew, and, most
important, toward the new colonists. He brought them together with a
knowledge of their common sacrifice.
    And the kid claimed
that he didn't like making speeches. What a liar. He said exactly