Enders In Exile

of the last war of mankind."
    That from a rather
gushy fan of Locke's—who also happened to be the head of the
opposition party in Great Britain. Naive to imagine even for a moment
that the brief attempt by the New Warsaw Pact to take over the I.F. was
the "last war." There's only one way to have a "last war," and that's
to have the whole of Earth under a single, effective, powerful, but
popular leader.
    And the way to
introduce that leader would be to find him on camera, standing beside
the great Ender Wiggin with his arm flung across the hero's shoulders
because—and who should be surprised by this?—the
"Boy of War" and the "Man of Peace" are brothers!
    And now Father was
blathering about something. Only he had addressed something to Peter
directly and so Peter had to play the dutiful son and listen as if he
cared.
    "I really think you
need to commit to the career you want to pursue
before
your brother gets home, Peter."
    "And why is that?"
asked Peter.
    "Oh, don't pretend to
be so naive. Don't you realize that Ender Wiggin's brother can get into
any college he wants
?"
    Father pronounced the
words as if they were the most brilliant ever spoken aloud by someone
who had not yet been deified by the Roman senate or sainted by the Pope
or whatever. It would never occur to Father that Peter's perfect grades
and his perfect score on all the college-entry tests would already get
him into any school he wanted. He didn't have to piggyback on his
brother's fame. But no, to Father everything good in Peter's life would
always be seen as flowing from Ender. Ender Ender Ender Ender what a
stupid name.
    If Father's thinking
this way, no doubt everybody else will, too. At least everybody below a
certain minimum intelligence.
    All Peter had been
seeing was the publicity bonus that Ender's homecoming would offer. But
Father had reminded him of something else—that everything he
did would be discounted in people's minds precisely because he was
Ender the Great's older brother. People would see them standing side by
side, yes—but they'd wonder why Ender's brother had not
been taken into Battle School. It would make Peter look weak and
inferior and vulnerable.
    There he'd stand,
noticeably taller, the brother who stayed home and didn't do anything.
"Oh, but I wrote all the Locke essays and shut down the conflict with
Russia before it could turn into a world war!" Well, if you're so
smart, why weren't
you
helping your little
brother save the human race from
complete destruction
?
    Public relations
opportunity, yes. But also a nightmare.
    How could he use the
opportunity Ender's great victory offered, yet not have it
look
like he was nothing but a hanger-on, sucking at his brother's fame like
a remora? How ghastly if his announcement sounded like some sad kind of
me-too-ism. Oh, you think my brother's cool? Well, I'll have you know
that I saved the world
too
. In my own sad, needy
little way.
    "Are you all right,
Peter?" asked Valentine.
    "Oh, is something
wrong?" asked Mother. "Let me look at you, dear."
    "I'm not taking my
shirt off or letting you use a rectal thermometer on me, Mother,
because Val is hallucinating and I look just fine."
    "I'll have you know
that if and when I start hallucinating," said Val, "I can think of
something better than seeing your face looking pukish."
    "What a great
commercial idea," said Peter, almost by reflex now. "Choose Your Own
Hallucination! Oh, wait, they have that one—they call it
'illegal drugs.' "
    "Don't sneer at us
needy ones," said Val. "Those who are addicted to ego don't need drugs."
    "Children," said
Mother. "Is
this
what Ender will find when he
comes home?"
    "Yes," said Val and
Peter simultaneously.
    Father spoke up. "I'd
like to think he might find you a bit more mature."
    But by now Peter and
Val were laughing uproariously. They couldn't stop, so Father sent them
from the table.

    * * * * *
    Peter glanced through
Val's essay on Russian nukes. "This is so boring."
    "I don't think so,"
said Valentine. "They have the nukes and that keeps other
countries from slapping them down when they need it—which is
often."
    "What's this thing
you've got against Russia?"
    "It's Demosthenes who
has something against Russia," said Val with fake nonchalance.
    "Good," said Peter. "So
Demosthenes will not be worried about Russian nuclear weapons, he'll be
worried about Russia getting its hands on the most valuable weapon of
them all."
    "The Molecular
Disruption Device?" asked Val. "The I.F. will