Enders In Exile

Or none."
    "'Formicoid' is a word
that's been bandied about," said Ender.
    "Can't be sure till we
get the genetic material scoped and scanned," said Sel. "If they were
really formics, they'd be dead. The adult bodies have carapaces;
they're not furred, with an endoskeleton. Might not even be as close to
formics as lemurs are to us—or they might be as close as
chimps. But Ender," said Sel, his eyes glistening. "I talked to it. No,
I thought to it. I gave it an image and it responded. And it gave me
one back. Showed me how to hitch a ride on it through the tunnel."
    Ender looked at Sel's
scraped and torn clothing. "Rough ride."
    "Rough
road,
"
said Sel. "The ride was fine."
    "You know I came here
for the formics," said Ender.
    "Me too," said Sel,
grinning. "To kill them."
    "But now to understand
them," said Ender.
    "I think we've found a
key here. Maybe not to every last door, but it'll open something." Then
he put an arm across Ender's shoulder and led him away from the others.
Ender usually disliked the arm-across-the-shoulder move—it
was how one man asserted superiority over another. But there was no
hint of that in Sel. It was more like an assertion of camaraderie. Even
conspiracy. "I know we can't talk openly," said Sel, "but give it to me
straight. Are you governor or not?"
    "In fact as well as
name," said Ender. "The threat was averted and he's back on the ship,
cooperating as if that's all he ever intended."
    "Maybe it was," said
Sel.
    Ender laughed. "And
maybe this larva you've found will teach us calculus before the day is
out."
    "I'll be happy if it
knows how to count to five."
    Later, after night fell
and the men sat around a fire eating the fresh, easily spoiled food
Po's mother had sent for tonight's supper, Sel was expansive, full of
speculation, full of hope. "These creatures metabolize gold and extrude
it in their carapaces. Maybe they do it with whatever metal is in the
ore, or maybe they bred separate subspecies for each metal they needed.
Maybe this isn't the only population with survivors. Maybe we can
locate iron miners, copper miners, tin, silver, aluminum, anything we
need. But if this group is average, then we'll find some groups that
are all dead, and some that have larger populations. It would be too
freakish for this to be the last surviving group in the world."
    "We'll get on it right
away," said Ender. "While we still have marines from the ship to help
in the search. And they can take . . . locals with them to learn how to
fly the skimmers like experts before the ship goes away."
    Ix laughed. "You almost
said 'natives' instead of 'locals.' "
    "Yes," Ender admitted
freely. "I did."
    "It's all right," said
Ix. "The formics didn't evolve here either. So 'native' just means
'born here,' and that describes me and Po—everybody except
the ancient ones of Sel's generation. Natives and newcomers, but in the
next generation, we'll all be natives."
    "Then you think that's
the term we should use?"
    "Native
Shakespearians," said Ix. "That's what we are."
    "I hope we don't have
to do some kind of blood ceremony or initiation to be accepted into the
tribe."
    "No," said Ix. "White
man bringing skimmer is always welcome."
    "Just because I'm white
doesn't mean—" Then Ender saw the laughter in Ix's eyes and
smiled. "I'm too eager not to give offense," said Ender. "So eager I
was too quick to
take
offense."
    "You'll get used to our
Mayan sense of humor eventually," said Ix.
    "No he won't," said
Sel. "Nobody else has gotten used to it, anyway."
    "Everybody but you, old
man," said Ix.
    Sel laughed along with
the others, and then the conversation took another turn, with the
marines describing their training, and talking about what life was like
on Earth and in the high-tech society that moved throughout the solar
system.
    Ender noticed Sel
getting a faraway look in his eyes, and misunderstood what it meant. As
they prepared for sleep, Ender took a moment to ask Sel, "Do you ever
give any thought to going back? Home? To Earth?"
    Sel visibly shuddered.
"No! What would I do there? Here's where everyone and everything I love
and care about are." Then he got that wistful look again. "No, I just
can't help but think that it's just a damn
shame
that I didn't find this place thirty or twenty or even ten years ago.
So busy, so much work right around the settlement, always meant to make
this trip, and if I'd only done it back then, there'd have been more of
them alive, and I'd have had more years to take part in