Enders In Exile

wheels.
    The only thing that
worried him was bringing the Wiggin boy down with him for the first
landing. It would be easy enough to tell the old settlers that Morgan
had come ahead of Wiggin to prepare the way. That would give him plenty
of chance to make sure they were aware that Wiggin was a teenage boy
and hardly likely to be the real governor.
    Dorabella agreed with
him. But then she pointed out, "Of course, all the older people in this
colony are the pilots and soldiers who fought under Ender's command.
They might be disappointed not to see him. But no, it will make it all
the more special when he comes down later."
    Morgan thought about it
and decided that having Wiggin with him might be more of an asset than
not. Let them
see
the legendary boy. Which was
why he called the Wiggin boy to his quarters.
    "I don't know that you
need to say anything to the colonists on this first occasion," said
Admiral Morgan. This was the test—would Wiggin be miffed at
being held in silence?
    "Fine with me," said
Wiggin instantly. "Because I'm not good at speeches."
    "Excellent," said
Morgan. "We'll have marines there in case these people are planning
some sort of resistance—you never know, all their cooperation
might be a ruse. Four decades on their own here—they might
resent the imposition of authority from forty lightyears away."
    Wiggin looked serious.
"I never thought of that. Do you really think they might rebel?"
    "No, I don't," said
Morgan. "But a good commander prepares for everything. You'll acquire
habits like that in time, I'm sure."
    Wiggin sighed. "There's
so much stuff to learn."
    "When we get there,
we'll put the ramp down at once and the marines will secure the
immediate perimeter. When the people have assembled around the base of
the ramp, then we'll come out. I'll introduce you, I'll say a few
words, then you'll go back inside the shuttle until I can secure
appropriate quarters for you in the settlement."
    "Toguro," said Wiggin.
    "What?"
    "Sorry. Battle School
slang."
    "Oh, yes. Never went to
Battle School myself." Of course the little brat had to give his little
reminder that he had gone to Battle School and Morgan had not. But his
use of slang was encouraging. The more childish Wiggin appeared, the
easier it would be to marginalize him.
    "When can Valentine
come down?"
    "We won't start
bringing down the new colonists for several days. We have to make sure
we do this in an orderly way—we don't want to swamp the old
settlers with too many new ones before there's housing and food for
them all. The same thing with supplies."
    "We're going down
empty-handed?" asked Wiggin, sounding surprised.
    "Well, no, of course
not," said Morgan. He hadn't thought of it that way. It
would
be a nice gesture to have some key supplies with them. "What do you
think, some food? Chocolates?"
    "They have better food
than we do," said Ender. "Fresh fruits and vegetables—that's
going to be their gift to
us.
I bet they'd go
boky over the skimmers, though."
    "Skimmers! That's
serious technology."
    "Well, it's not like
they're any use up here in the ship," said Ender, laughing. "But some
of the xeno equipment, then. Something to show them how much it's going
to help them, now that we're here. I mean, if you're worried they'll
resent us, giving them some really useful tech will make us heroes."
    "Of
course—that's what I was planning. I just didn't think of the
skimmers on our
first
landing."
    "Well, it'd sure help
with carrying cargo to wherever it's going to be warehoused. I know
they'd appreciate not having to lug stuff by hand or in carts or
whatever they use for transportation."
    "Excellent," said
Morgan. "You're catching on to this leadership thing already." The kid
really
was
clever. And Morgan would be the one to
reap the good will that bringing the skimmers and other high-tech
equipment would create. He would have thought of all this himself if he
ever had a chance to stop and think about things. The boy could sit
around and think about things, but Morgan couldn't afford the time. He
was constantly on call, and though das Lagrimas handled most things
well, Morgan also had to deal with Dorabella.
    Not that she was
demanding. In fact, she was amazingly supportive. Never interfered with
anything, didn't try to butt in when it was none of her business. She
never complained about anything, always fit in with his plans, always
smiled and encouraged and sympathized but never tried to advise or
suggest.
    But she distracted