Enders In Exile

this message. However, there is no
other safe way for us to talk. (You'll notice that unlike Peter, I
required proof that you be alive, not just your finger inserted into
holospace.)
    I am doing things that
are certainly driving Quincy crazy. I get almost daily (monthly)
messages from Acting Governor Kolmogorov, keeping me abreast of events
in Shakespeare Colony as they transpire. Morgan has no idea what we say
to each other; he simply has to pass along the encrypted notes when
they come through the ansible.
    I also get all the
scientific papers and reports filed by the chem and bio teams. XB Sel
Menach is the Linnaeus and Darwin of this planet. He is facing the ONLY
non-formic-homeworld biota yet discovered (besides Earth's, of course),
and he has done a brilliant job of making the genetic adaptations that
create human-edible varieties of native plants and animals, and
varieties of Earth species that can thrive on this world. Without him,
we would probably be coming to a ragged and destitute colony; instead,
they generate surpluses of food and will be able to resupply this ship
for immediate departure (inshallah).
    All of this scientific
information is available to Admiral Morgan, if he's interested. He
seems not to be. I am the only person who is accessing the Shakespeare
Colony XB papers on this ship, since our XBs are in stasis and won't
wake up until we drop from relativistic speeds.
    You can see why I chose
not to go into stasis—I had visions of Admiral Morgan not
bothering to rouse me until he was firmly in control of the colony, say
six months after arrival. It wouldn't have been within his rights, but
it would certainly have been in his power. And who is to contradict
him, with his forty marines whose sole duty is to make sure his will is
uncontested, and a crew whose survival and freedom are tied to his
pleasure?
    Now, though, anything I
do is a potential provocation—that's what he made very clear
with his actions and threats. I don't think that was his
purpose—I think he really believed he was facing some kind of
attack. But he was too hasty to leap to the conclusion that I was
responsible for it, and he was paranoid enough to try to resolve it as
if it were an attack on his authority, rather than on the ship itself.
We are on notice, and not a word can pass between us that mocks him,
denigrates him, or questions his decisions.
    Nor can we trust anyone
else. While Governor Kolmogorov is completely in my confidence (and
vice versa), no one else on the planet can be trusted to agree that
having a fifteen-year-old boy as their governor is a good idea.
Therefore I can take no preemptive actions using my future authority as
governor. So my only alternative is to appear as if I really look up to
Quincy in a fatherly way, and intend to be guided by him in every way.
When you see me sucking up shamelessly, it is the moral equivalent of
war. I am passing an army under his nose, masquerading as a bunch of
simple farmers. That you and I are the entire army is not a problem for
me—as long as you're willing to pretend to be all innocence.
You and Peter were doing that for years, weren't you?
    This letter is not
going to be followed by many others—only in a real emergency.
I don't want him wondering what we're saying to each other. He has the
right to seize our desks and force us to disclose all contents.
Therefore, you will eradicate this message, as will I. Of course, I AM
taking the precaution of copying it, fully secure, to Graff. In case
there is someday a court martial determining whether Morgan was right
to put me in stasis and take me back to Eros, I want this to be
available as evidence of my state of mind after our little incident
over Peter's message.
    There is always the
chance, however, that Morgan's plan is even more dire—that he
plans to send the ship back rather than taking it, while he remains on
Shakespeare as governor-for-life. By the time anyone from Eros can be
sent to put down his rebellion, he will have finished out his lifespan
or be so old as to be not worth prosecuting.
    However, I do not
believe that is in his character. He is a creature of
bureaucracy—he wants supremacy, not autonomy. Also, my
judgment of him so far is that he can only do perfidious acts that he
can morally justify in his own mind. Thus he must work himself into a
frenzy over my supposed sabotage of ansible communications in order to
justify what would have amounted to a coup d'etat against me as
governor.
    This