Enders In Exile

planet.
    Admiral Morgan's crew
would service and refit the transport. They had brought new
communications and weather satellites with them, which they would place
in geosync at intervals all the way around the planet. Then the old
transport would be given a captain and crew, and would voyage, not back
to Eros, but on to another colony.
    Despite all this
business, Ender had no illusion that Admiral Morgan himself was at all
distracted from watching over Ender's activities. The man was a
planner, a plotter, and while a "man of peace" like him might seem to
plod along, never doing much, he was always poised to strike.
    So as they approached
the key moment—the arrival on Shakespeare—Ender had
to give Morgan no reason at all for suspecting that Ender was plotting
anything. Morgan expected Ender to be a bright, eager boy of fifteen,
and those expectations had to be fulfilled; yet Morgan was also wary of
Ender's unassailable claim to the governorship. He had to be confident
that Ender was content to let him be the power behind the throne.
    That's why Ender went
to Morgan for permission to use the ansible to communicate with the
Shakespeare xenobiologists. "You know I've been studying the formics'
biological systems, and now I can communicate with them in real time. I
have a lot of questions."
    "I don't want you
bothering them," said Morgan. "There's too much to do already, working
out the landing."
    Ender knew that there
was nothing whatsoever for the landside colony to do except stand out
of the way. Morgan would land and then decide what supplies to
requisition for the return trip. Whether Morgan was on it or not, the
ship would return to Earth.
    "Sir, the XBs need to
know what grazing species we have so they can prepare to adapt them to
use the alien proteins. It's a massive project, and until we have a new
generation of adapted animals, there'll be no meat. You have no idea
how eager they are. And I'm fully up to speed, since I worked on the
manifest when we left Eros."
    "I've already sent them
the manifest."
    Actually, Ender had
sent the manifest before the ship departed. But why quibble? "The list
says things like 'cows' and 'pigs.' They need way more information than
that. I have it; I can send it; and nobody's using the ansible, sir.
This is really important." Ender almost said "really really really" but
decided that would be too over-the-top boyish and Morgan might suspect
something.
    Morgan sighed. "This is
why children should not be given adult assignments. You don't respect
priorities the way adults do. But . . . as long as you drop whatever
you're doing whenever the crew needs to use the ansible, go ahead. Now,
if you don't mind, I have
real
work to do."
    Ender knew that
Morgan's "real" work had more to do with preparing to have a shipboard
wedding than anything to do with the landing. Dora-bella Toscano had
him so frantic with lust—no, it was affection, the deep bonds
of permanent companionship—that he had agreed that she would
arrive on Shakespeare as the admiral's wife, not just as an ordinary
colonist.
    And that was fine with
Ender. He would not interfere with that in any way.
    Ender went to the
ansible room to send his messages directly. If he had linked from his
desk, the message would certainly have been intercepted and stored, to
be puzzled over at leisure. Ender toyed with the idea of switching off
the observation system so that nothing he said to Sel Menach could be
overheard, but decided against it. Though the security was I.F.
standard, which meant that a significant number of kids in Battle
School had been able to tweak it or hack it or, like Ender, get inside
it and spoof it completely, he still couldn't risk having Morgan ask to
see the vid of Ender in the ansible room and have the report come back
that there was no vid for that timeframe.
    Apart from that, he had
only one short message to send to Graff, asking for a bit of help with
his present situation, and then he could have a few moments of blissful
privacy before doing the work he had told Morgan he was coming here to
do.
    He did what he always
did when he had a chance to be completely alone. He rested his head on
his arms and closed his eyes, hoping for a few moments of sleep to
refresh his mind.
    He awoke because
somebody was gently rubbing his shoulders. "You poor thing," said
Alessandra. "Fell asleep in the middle of your work."
    Ender sat up, as she
kept kneading the muscles of his shoulders and back and neck.