Enders In Exile

own
good."
    "But in this case, I'm
quite right. You see, Admiral Morgan and I have become very close. Very
very close."
    "Are you sleeping with
him?"
    Dorabella's hand flew
up, prepared to strike, before she even knew what she was doing. But
she caught herself in time. "Oh, look," she said. "My hand thinks it
belongs to your grandmother."
    Alessandra's voice
shook a little. "When you said you were very
very
close I wondered if you were implying—"
    "Quincy Morgan and I
have an adult relationship," said Dorabella. "We understand each other.
I bring a brightness to his life that he has never had before, and he
brings a manly stability that your father, bless his heart, never had.
There is also physical attraction, but we are mature adults, masters of
our libido, and no, I haven't let him lay a hand on me."
    "Then what are we
talking about here?" asked Alessandra.
    "What I did not know,
as a girl your age," said Dorabella, "was that between cold chastity
and doing that which produces babies, there is a wide range of steps
and stages that can signal to a young man that his advances are
welcome, to a point."
    "I'm quite aware of
that, Mother. I saw other girls at school dressing like whores and
putting it all on display. I saw the fondling and grabbing and
pinching. We're Italians, I was in an Italian school, and all the boys
planned to grow up to be Italian men."
    "Don't try to distract
me by making me angry at your ethnic stereotypes," said Dorabella. "We
have only a few weeks left before we arrive—"
    "Two months is not 'a
few weeks.' "
    "Eight is a few. When
we reach Shakespeare, one thing is certain. Admiral Morgan is not going
to turn the colony over to a fifteen-year-old boy. That would be
irresponsible. He likes Ender—everyone does—but in
Battle School all they did was play games all day. It takes someone
with experience in leadership to govern a colony. This has never been
said outright, mind you. But I have gleaned this from things that were
hinted at or almost said or . . . overheard."
    "You've been
eavesdropping."
    "I've been present and
human ears don't close. My point is that the very best way it could all
turn out is if Ender Wiggin is governor, but taking the advice of
Admiral Morgan."
    "On everything."
    "That's better than
Ender being put in stasis and sent home."
    "No! He wouldn't do
that!"
    "It has already been
threatened, and there have been hints that it might be necessary. Now,
look at this picture: Ender and a beautiful colonist girl fall in love.
They pledge to marry. Now he's affianced. It happens that his
mother-in-law-to-be—"
    "Who happens to be a
deranged woman who thinks she's a fairy and the mother of a fairy."
    "In-law-to-be is
married or about to be married to the admiral who is most definitely
going
to be the power behind the throne, so to speak. Unless Ender gives him
trouble, in which case he'll take the throne, so to speak, quite
openly. But Ender will
not
give him trouble,
because he won't need to. His beautiful young wife will look out for
his interests by talking things over with her mother, who will then
talk things over with her husband, and everything will work smoothly
for everyone."
    "In other words, I
would marry him in order to be a spy."
    "There would be a pair
of loving and beloved go-betweens who would make sure there was never
any conflict between the admirals on this ship."
    "By suppressing Ender
and making him dance to Quincy's tune."
    "Until he becomes old
enough and experienced enough himself," said Dorabella.
    "Which would happen
exactly never, at least not in Quincy's eyes," said Alessandra.
"Mother, I'm not stupid and neither is anyone else involved in this.
You're betting that Admiral Morgan will seize power, and so by marrying
him, you'll be the wife of the governor of the colony. But because you
can't be sure that Ender Wiggin won't prevail, you want me to marry
him.
That way, no matter who wins this little power struggle,
we'll
be able to cash in. Am I correct?"
    Alessandra had spoken
the phrase "cash in" in English. Dorabella seized on that. "Shakespeare
Colony has no cash yet, darling," said Dorabella. "It's all barter and
allotment so far. You haven't been studying the lessons on our
colony-to-be."
    "Mother," said
Alessandra. "That
is
your plan, isn't it?"
    "Hardly," said
Dorabella. "I'm a woman in love. So are you. Don't deny it!"
    "I think about him all
the time," said Alessandra. "I dream of him every night. If that's
being in love, they need a