Enders In Exile

counterattack."
    "So you're here to have
your picture taken with the colonists."
    "I'm here to have my
smiling picture taken with you and Ender and the colonists."
    "Ah," said Mazer. "The
court martial crowd."
    "The cruelest thing
about that court martial was the way they savaged Ender's reputation.
Fortunately, most people remember the victory, not the evidence from
the court martial. Now we place another image in their minds."
    "So you actually care
about Ender."
    Graff looked hurt. "I
have always loved that boy. It would take a moral idiot not to. I know
deep goodness when I see it. I hate having his name tied to the murder
of children."
    "He did kill them."
    "He didn't know that he
did."
    "Those weren't like
winning the war while thinking it was a game, Hyrum," said Mazer. "He
knew he was in a real fight for his life, and he knew that he had to
win decisively. He had to know that the death of his opponent was
always a possibility."
    "So you're saying he's
as guilty as our enemies said he was?"
    "I'm saying that he
killed them and he knew what he was doing. Not the exact outcome, but
that he was taking actions that could cause real and permanent damage
to those boys."
    "They were going to
kill him!"
    "Bonzo was," said
Mazer. "Stilson was a petty bully."
    "But Ender was so
untrained he had no idea of the damage he was doing, or that his shoes
had steel toes. Weren't we clever to keep him safe by insisting he wear
shoes like that."
    "Hyrum, I think Ender's
actions were perfectly justified. He didn't choose to fight those boys,
so the only choice he had was how thoroughly to win."
    "Or lose."
    "Ender never has the
choice to lose, Hyrum. It's not in him, even when
he
thinks it is."
    "All I know is that he
promised to try to work a picture with me and you into his schedule."
    Mazer nodded. "And you
think that meant that he'd do it."
    "He doesn't
have
a schedule. I thought he was being ironic. Except for hanging with
Valentine, what does he have to do?"
    Mazer laughed. "What
he's been doing for more than a year—studying the formics so
obsessively that we all worried about his mental health. Only
I have to say that with the colonists' arrival, he's been preparing to
be governor in more than just name."
    "Admiral Morgan will be
disappointed."
    "Admiral Morgan expects
to get his way," said Mazer, "because he doesn't realize Ender is
serious about governing the colony. What Ender was doing was memorizing
the dossiers of all the colonists—their test results, family
relationships with other colonists
and
with
family members who were left home, their towns and countries of origin
and what those places look like and what's been going on there in the
past year, during the time they were signing up."
    "And Admiral Morgan
doesn't get the point?"
    "Admiral Morgan is a
leader,
"
said Mazer. "He gives orders and they're passed down the chain. Knowing
the grunts is the job of the petty officers."
    Graff laughed. "And
people wonder why we used children to command the final campaign."
    "Every officer learns
how to function within the system that promoted him," said Mazer. "The
system is still sick—it always has been and always will be.
But Ender learned how
real
leadering is done."
    "Or was born knowing
it."
    "So he's greeting every
colonist by name and making a point of conversing with them all for at
least a half hour."
    "Can't he do that on
the ship after they take off?"
    "He's meeting the ones
who are going into stasis. The ones who are staying awake he'll meet
after launch. So when he says he'll try to fit you into his schedule,
he was not being ironic. Most of the colonists are sleepers and he
barely has time for a real conversation with all of them."
    Graff sighed. "Isn't he
even
sleeping
?"
    "I think he figures
he'll have time to sleep after launch—when Admiral Morgan is
commanding his vessel and Ender will have no official duties that he
doesn't assign to himself. At least that's how Valentine and I decode
his behavior."
    "He doesn't talk to
her?"
    "Of course he does. He
just doesn't admit to having any plans or any reasons for the things he
does."
    "Why would he keep
secrets from her?"
    "I'm not sure they're
secrets," said Mazer. "I think he might not
know
that he has plans of any kind. I think he's greeting the colonists
because that's what they need and expect. It's a duty because it means
a lot to them, so he does it."
    "Nonsense," said Graff.
"Ender always has plans within plans."
    "I believe you're
thinking of