Ender's Shadow

of the existence of a parallel system of corridors on either side of the student area. The station must be not one but three parallel wheels, cross-linked at many points. That's where the teachers and staff lived, where the life support was located, the communications with the Fleet. The bad news was that they had separate air-circulation systems. The ductwork in one would not lead him to either of the others. Which meant that while he could probably spy on anything going on in the student wheel, the other wheels were out of reach.
      Even within the student wheel, however, there were plenty of secret places to explore. The students had access to four decks, plus the gym below A-Deck and the battleroom above D-Deck. There were actually nine decks, however, two below A-Deck and three above D. Those spaces had to be used for something. And if they thought it was worth hiding it from the students, Bean figured it was worth exploring.
      And he would have to start exploring soon. His exercise was making him stronger, and he was staying lean by not overeating -- it was unbelievable how much food they tried to force on him, and they kept increasing his portions, probably because the previous servings hadn't caused him to gain as much weight as they wanted him to gain. But what he could not control was the increase in his height. The ducts would be impassable for him before too long -- if they weren't already. Yet using the air system to get him access to the hidden decks was not something he could do during showers. It would mean losing sleep. So he kept putting it off -- one day wouldn't make that much difference.
      Until the morning when Dimak came into the barracks first thing in the morning and announced that everyone was to change his password immediately, with his back turned to the rest of the room, and was to tell no one what the new password was. "Never type it in where anyone can see," he said.
      "Somebody's been using other people's passwords?" asked a kid, his tone suggesting that he thought this an appalling idea. Such dishonor! Bean wanted to laugh.
      "It's required of all I.F. personnel, so you might as well develop the habit now," said Dimak. "Anyone found using the same password for more than a week will go on the pig list.”
      But Bean could only assume that they had caught on to what he was doing. That meant they had probably looked back into his probing for the past months and knew pretty much what he had found out. He signed on and purged his secure file area, on the chance that they hadn't actually found it yet. Everything he really needed there, he had already memorized. He would never rely on the desk again for anything his memory could hold.
      Stripping and wrapping his towel around him, Bean headed for the showers with the others. But Dimak stopped him at the door.
      "Let's talk," he said.
      "What about my shower?" asked Bean.
      "Suddenly you care about cleanliness?" asked Dimak.
      So Bean expected to be chewed out for stealing passwords. Instead, Dimak sat beside him on a lower bunk near the door and asked him far more general questions. "How are you getting on here?”
      "Fine.”
      "I know your test scores are good, but I'm concerned that you aren't making many friends among the other kids.”
      "I've got a lot of friends.”
      "You mean you know a lot of people's names and don't quarrel with anybody.”
      Bean shrugged. He didn't like this line of questioning any better than he would have liked an inquiry into his computer use.
      "Bean, the system here was designed for a reason. There are a lot of factors that go into our decisions concerning a student's ability to command. The classwork is an important part of that. But so is leadership.”
      "Everybody here is just full of leadership ability, right?”
      Dimak laughed. "Well, that's true, you can't all be leaders at once.”
      "I'm about as big as a three-year-old," said Bean. "I don't think a lot of kids are eager to start saluting me.”
      "But you could be building networks of friendship. The other kids are. You don't.”
      "I guess I don't have what it takes to be a commander.”
      Dimak raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting you want to be iced?”
      "Do my test scores look like I'm trying to fail?”
      "What do you want?" asked Dimak. "You don't play the games the other kids play. Your exercise program is weird, even though you know the regular program is designed to strengthen you for