First meetings in the Enderverse

about three dozen people have seen us sitting here eating. And any one of them might walk by and see me kissing you.”
    “Scandal,” she said.
    “Ruin,” he said.
    “We’ll be reported to the authorities,” she said.
    “It might just make their day,” he said.
    And since it was an emotional day, and she really did like him, and her feelings were in such a turmoil that she didn’t know what was right or good or wise, she yielded to impulse and kissed him back. On the lips. A brief childlike kiss, but a kiss all the same.
    Then the mushrooms came, and while John Paul paid for them and tipped the delivery girl, Theresa leaned against the door of her office and tried to think about what had happened today, what was still happening with this Wiggin boy, what might happen in the future, with her career, with her life, with him. Nothing was clear. Nothing was certain.
    And yet, despite all the bad things that had happened and all the tears she had shed, she couldn’t help but think that today had been, on balance, a very good day.

    ENDER’S GAME

    “Whatever your gravity is when you get to the door, remember-the enemy’s gate is down. If you step through your own door like you’re out for a stroll, you’re a big target and you deserve to get hit. With more than a flasher.” Ender Wiggins paused and looked over the group. Most were just watching him nervously. A few understanding. A few sullen and resisting.
    First day with this army, all fresh from the teacher squads, and Ender had forgotten how young new kids could be. He’d been in it for three years, they’d had six months-nobody over nine years old in the whole bunch. But they were his. At eleven, he was half a year early to be a commander. He’d had a toon of his own and knew a few tricks, but there were forty in his new army. Green. All marksmen with a flasher, all in top shape, or they wouldn’t be here-but they were all just as likely as not to get wiped out first time into battle.
    “Remember,” he went on, “they can’t see you till you get through that door. But the second you’re out, they’ll be on you. So hit that door the way you want to be when they shoot at you. Legs up under you, going straight down.” He pointed at a sullen kid who looked like he was only seven, the smallest of them all. “Which way is down, greenoh!”
    “Toward the enemy door.” The answer was quick. It was also surly, as if to say, Yeah, yeah, now get on with the important stuff.
    “Name, kid?”
    “Bean.”
    “Get that for size or for brains?”
    Bean didn’t answer. The rest laughed a little. Ender had chosen right. This kid was younger than the rest, must have been advanced because he was sharp. The others didn’t like him much, they were happy to see him taken down a little. Like Ender’s first commander had taken him down.
    “Well, Bean, you’re right onto things. Now I tell you this, nobody’s gonna get through that door without a good chance of getting hit. A lot of you are going to be turned into cement somewhere. Make sure it’s your legs. Right? If only your legs get hit, then only your legs get frozen, and in nullo that’s no sweat.” Ender turned to one of the dazed ones. “What’re legs for? Hmmm?”
    Blank stare. Confusion. Stammer.
    “Forget it. Guess I’ll have to ask Bean here.”
    “Legs are for pushing off walls.” Still bored.
    “Thanks, Bean. Get that, everybody?” They all got it, and didn’t like getting it from Bean. “Right. You can’t see with legs, you can’t shoot with legs, and most of the time they just get in the way. If they get frozen sticking straight out you’ve turned yourself into a blimp. No way to hide. So how do legs go?”
    A few answered this time, to prove that Bean wasn’t the only one who knew anything. “Under you. Tucked up under.”
    “Right. A shield. You’re kneeling on a shield, and the shield is your own legs. And there’s a trick to the suits. Even when your legs are flashed you can still kick off. I’ve never seen anybody do it but mebut you’re all gonna learn it.”
    Ender Wiggins turned on his flasher. It glowed faintly green in his hand. Then he let himself rise in the weightless workout room, pulled his legs under him as though he were kneeling, and flashed both of them. Immediately his suit stiffened at the knees and ankles, so that he couldn’t bend at all.
    “Okay, I’m frozen, see?”
    He was floating a meter above them. They all looked up at him, puzzled.