Enders In Exile

tight
and looked over her shoulder at the neighbors who were watching,
awestruck. "Yes," she said, "I am a terrible daughter. But I am a very,
very good
mother
!"
    Several of the
neighbors applauded and laughed, though others clucked their tongues
and turned away. Alessandra did not care.
    "Let me look at you,"
said Mother.
    Alessandra stepped
back. Mother inspected her face. "A bruise, I think, but not too bad.
It will heal quickly. I think there won't be a trace of it left by the
time you meet that fine young man with prospects."

CHAPTER
6

    To: GovNom%[email protected]
From: GovAct%[email protected]
Subj: Naming the colony
    I agree that calling
this place Colony I is going to get tiresome. I agree that naming it
now instead of REnaming it when you and your colony ship get here in
fifty years will be much better.
    But your suggestion of
"Prospero" would not play well here right now. We're burying former
fighter pilots at the rate of one every other day while our
xenobiologist struggles to find drugs or treatments that will control
or eliminate the airborne worms that we inhale and that burrow through
our veins until they're so perforated we bleed out internally.
    Sel (the XB) assures me
that the drug he just gave us will slow them down and buy us time. So
there's a chance there'll actually be a colony here when you arrive. If
you have questions about the dustworm itself, you'll have to ask him at
SMenach%[email protected]\xbdiv.
    My address is my job
title but my name is Vitaly Kolmogorov and my permanent title is
Admiral. Do you have a name? Whom am I writing to?
    To: GovAct%[email protected]
From: GovNom%[email protected]
Subj: Re: Naming the colony
    Dear Admiral Kolmogorov,
    I have read with great
relief the recent report that the dustworm has been completely
controlled by the drug cocktail your xb Sel Menach developed. The worm
is being named for him, but the actual name will be held up while
committees argue endlessly about whether Latin should be used for
naming xenospecies. Some are arguing for a different language for each
colony world; others for standardization across all the colonies;
others for linguistic differentiation between species native to each
planet and the species from the formic home world that were
transplanted to all the colony worlds. Thus the Earthbound keep
themselves busy while you do the real work of trying to establish a
bridgehead in an alien ecosphere.
    I am part of the
problem, with my fussing about the colony's name. Please forgive my
wasting your time on this; yet it must be done, and you have already
prevented me from a faux pas that would have hurt the relations between
your colonists and the Ministry and its minions (including me). You
were right that Prospero doesn't work, but for some reason I am quite
drawn to using a name from The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Perhaps
Tempest itself, or Miranda, or Ariel. I suspect Caliban would not be a
good choice. Gonzalo? Sycorax?
    As to my name, there is
debate about whether to inform your colonists of who I am. I am
strictly forbidden to tell even you, the "acting" governor. Meanwhile,
my name is being bandied about on the nets, with no great secret made
of the fact that I am appointed governor of Colony I. The information
will simply not be transmitted to you by ansible. So easy to deceive
you or leave you ignorant—something that
I will keep in mind when I receive information from ColMin as governor
40 years from now. Unless I can get them to change this foolish
practice before I depart.
    I believe that the
powers-that-be think that having a child of thirteen appointed as
governor of your colony might hurt morale among your colonists, though
it will be forty years before I arrive. At the same time, others think
that having the victorious commander as governor will help morale.
While they decide, I trust both your powers of deduction and your
discretion.
    To: GovNom%[email protected]
From: GovAct%[email protected]
Subj: Re: Naming the colony
    Dear Governor-Nominate
Wiggin,
    I am impressed with the
alacrity with which ColMin acted on your petition for ansible bandwidth
to be made available for unrestricted access to the nets by colonists,
at the discretion of the governors.
    My first thought was to
inform everyone in the colony about the identity of their
governor-in-transit. The name of Ender Wiggin is revered here. After
our own victory, we studied your battles and debated about just which
superlative was most