Enders In Exile

people will self-select better than any testing system.
    It's like those foolish
attempts to control immigration to America based on the traits that
were deemed desirable, when in fact the only trait that defines
Americans historically is "descended from somebody willing to give up
everything to live there." And we won't go into the way Australian
colonists were selected!
    Willingness is the
single most important test, as you said. But that means all the other
tests are . . . what?
    Not useless, as you
suggested. On the contrary, I think the test results are a valuable
resource. Even if the colonists are all insane, shouldn't the governor
have a good dossier on each individual's particular species of madness?
    I know, you're not
letting through anyone who needs to maintain functional sanity with
drugs. Or known addicts and alcoholics and sociopaths, or people with
genetic diseases, etc. We always agreed on that, to avoid overburdening
the colonies. They'll develop their own genetic and brain-based quirks
in a few generations anyway, but for now, let them have a little
breathing room.
    But the family you
queried about, the ones with a plan for marrying off a daughter to the
governor—surely you will agree with me that in the long
history of motives for joining a faraway colony, marriage was one of
the noblest and most socially productive.
    —Hyrum

    "Do you know what I did
today, Alessandra?"
    "No, Mother."
Fourteen-year-old Alessandra set her book bag on the floor by the front
door and walked past her mother to the sink, where she poured herself a
glass of water.
    "Guess!"
    "Got the electricity
turned back on?"
    "The elves would not
speak to me," said Mother. It had once been funny, this game that
electricity came from elves. But it wasn't funny now, in the sweltering
Adriatic summer, with no refrigeration for the food, no
air-conditioning, and no vids to distract her from the heat.
    "Then I don't know what
you did, Mother."
    "I changed our lives,"
said Mother. "I created a future for us."
    Alessandra froze in
place and uttered a silent prayer. She had long since given up hope
that any of her prayers would be answered, but she figured each
unanswered prayer would add to the list of grievances she would take up
with God, should the occasion arise.
    "What future is that,
Mother?"
    Mother could hardly
contain herself. "We are going to be colonists."
    Alessandra sighed with
relief. She had heard all about the Dispersal Project
in school. Now that the formics had been destroyed, the idea was for
humans to colonize all their former worlds, so that humanity's fate
would not be tied to that of a single planet. But the requirements for
colonists were strict. There was no chance that an unstable,
irresponsible—no, pardon me, I meant "feckless and
fey"—person like Mother would be accepted.
    "Well, Mother, that's
wonderful."
    "You don't
sound
excited."
    "It takes a long time
for an application to be approved. Why would they take us? What do we
know how to do?"
    "You're such a
pessimist, Alessandra. You'll have no future if you must frown at every
new thing." Mother danced around her, holding a fluttering piece of
paper in front of her. "I put in our application
months
ago, darling Alessandra. Today I got word that we have been accepted!"
    "You kept a secret for
all this time?"
    "I can keep secrets,"
said Mother. "I have all kinds of secrets. But this is no secret, this
piece of paper says that we will journey to a new world, and on that
new world you will not be part of a persecuted surplus, you will be
needed, all your talents and charms will be noticed and admired."
    All her talents and
charms. At the coleggio, no one seemed to notice them. She was merely
another gawky girl, all arms and legs, who sat in the back and did her
work and made no waves. Only Mother thought of Alessandra as some
extraordinary, magical creature.
    "Mother, may I read
that paper?" asked Alessandra.
    "Why, do you doubt me?"
Mother danced away with the letter.
    Alessandra was too hot
and tired to play. She did not chase after her.
    "Of course I doubt you."
    "You are no fun today,
Alessandra."
    "Even if it's true,
it's a horrible idea. You should have asked me. Do you know what
colonists' lives will be like? Sweating in the fields as farmers."
    "Don't be silly," said
Mother. "They have machines for that."
    "And they're not sure
we can eat any of the native vegetation. When the formics first
attacked Earth, they simply destroyed all the vegetation in