Enders In Exile

passion,
her petulance, her frustration, and finally her love. The final
monologue, in which she submits to her husband's will, was so beautiful
it made Valentine cry a little, and she thought: I wonder what it would
be like to love and trust a man so much that I'd be willing to abase
myself as Kate did. Is there something in women that makes us long to
be humbled? Or is it something in human beings, that when we are
overmastered, we rejoice in our subjection? That would explain a lot of
history.
    Since everyone who was
interested in the play was already in it, and attending the rehearsals,
it wasn't as if the actual performance was going to surprise anyone.
Valentine almost asked the whole group, at the last rehearsal, "Why
bother to put it on? We just did it, and it was wonderful."
    But there was still a
kind of excitement throughout the ship about the coming performance,
and Valentine realized that rehearsal was not performance, no matter
how well it went. And there would be others there after
all, who had not been at the last rehearsal: Dorabella was going around
inviting members of the crew, many of whom promised to come. And
passengers who weren't in the play seemed excited about coming, and
some were openly rueful about having declined to take part. "Next
time," they said.
    When they got to the
theater at the appointed time, they found Jarrko standing at the door,
a stiff, formal expression on his face. No, the theater would not be
opened; by order of the admiral, the play reading had been canceled.
    "Ah, Governor Wiggin,"
said Jarrko.
    A bad sign, if the
title was back, thought Valentine.
    "Admiral Morgan would
like to see you at once, if you please, sir."
    Ender nodded and
smiled. "Of course," he said.
    So Ender had
expected
this? Or was he really that perfectly poised, so it
seemed
that nothing surprised him?
    Valentine started to go
with him, but Jarrko touched her shoulder. "Please, Val," he whispered.
"Alone."
    Ender grinned at her
and took off with real bounce in his step, as if he was truly excited
to be going to see the admiral.
    "What's this about?"
Valentine asked Jarrko quietly.
    "I can't say," he said.
"Truly. Just have my orders. No play, theater closed for the night,
would the governor please come see the admiral immediately."
    So Valentine stayed
with Jarrko, helping soothe the players and other colonists, whose
reactions ranged from disappointment to outrage to revolutionary
fervor. Some of them even started reciting lines there in the corridor,
until Valentine asked them not to. "Poor Colonel Kitunen will be in
trouble if you keep this up, and he's too nice to stop you himself."
    The result was that
everyone was quite angry with Admiral Morgan for his arbitrary
cancellation of a completely harmless event. And Valentine herself
couldn't help but wonder: What was the man thinking? Hadn't he ever
heard of morale? Maybe he'd heard of it, but was against it.
    Something was going on
here, and Valentine began to wonder if somehow Ender
was behind it. Could it be that in his own way, Ender was just as
sneaky and snaky as Peter?
    No. Not possible.
Especially because Valentine could always see through Peter. Ender
wasn't devious at all. He always said what he meant and meant what he
said.
    What is the boy doing?

CHAPTER
9

    To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]/hegemon
Re: While you were out
    I had one of my staff
run a set of calculations about how long it has been for you since you
began your relativistic voyage into the future. At best he could give
me only a range of possible subjective durations—a few weeks,
anyway. For me, a couple of years. So I am fairly safe in saying that I
miss you a great deal more than you miss me. At present you probably
still think that you will never miss me at all. The world is full of
people who are convinced of the same thing. They vaguely remember that
I was elected to the office of Hegemon. They just can't remember what
that office does. They think my name is Locke when they think of me at
all.
    Yet I am at war. My
force is tiny, commanded by—of all people—Ender's
old friend Bean. The other children from Ender's jeesh—Battle
School slang for "army," but it's caught on here and that's what
they're called—were all kidnapped by the Russians, inspired
by a conniving little bastard named Achilles, who was kicked out of
Battle School. It appears that Achilles chose his main enemy better
than Bonito de Madrid did—it was Bean