Shadow of the giant

All
I could do was put myself into a position with the most possible influence, and
then exploit whatever opportunities came."
    Rackham nodded. "But one thing was certain. Your
off-the-charts aggressiveness, your passion to control events, we knew that you
would place yourself in the center of everything."
    It was Peter's turn to laugh. "So you left me home from
Battle School so I would be what I am now."
    "As I said, you weren't suited for military life. You
don't take orders very well. People aren't devoted to you, and you aren't
devoted to anyone else."
    "I might be, if I found somebody I respected
enough."
    "The only person you ever respected that much is on a
colony ship right now and you'll never see him again."
    "I could never have followed Ender."
    "No, you never could. But he's the only person you
respected enough. The trouble was, he was your younger brother. You couldn't
have lived with the shame."
    "Well, all this analysis is nice, but how does it help
us now?"
    "We don't have a plan either, Peter," said
Rackham. "We're also just moving useful pieces into place. Taking others
out of play. We have some assets, just as you do. We have our arsenal."
    "You have the whole I.F. You could put a stop to all of
this."
    "No," said Rackham. "Polemarch Chamrajnagar
is adamant about it, and he's right. We could force the world's armies to come
to a halt. They would all obey us or pay a terrible price. But who would be
ruling the world then?"
    "The fleet."
    "And who is the fleet? It's volunteers from Earth. And
from that moment on, who would be our volunteers? People who love the idea of
going out into space? Or people who want to control the government of Earth? It
would turn us into an Earth-centered institution. It would destroy the
colonization project. And the Fleet would be hated, because it would soon be
dominated by people who loved power."
    "Makes you sound like a bunch of nervous virgins."
    "We are," said Rackham. "And that's a strange
line, coming from a nervous virgin like you."
    Peter didn't bother responding to that. "So you and
Graff won't do anything that would compromise the purity of the I.F."
    "Unless somebody brings out the nukes again. We won't
let that happen. Two nuclear wars were enough."
    "We never had a nuclear war."
    "World War II was a nuclear war," said Rackham.
"Even if only two bombs were dropped. And the bomb that destroyed Mecca
was the end of a civil war within Islam being fought out through surrogates and
terrorism. Ever since then, nobody has even considered using nukes. But wars
that are ended by nukes are nuclear wars."
    "Fine. Definitions."
    "Hyrum and I are doing everything we can," said
Rackham. "So is the Polemarch. And believe it or not, we're trying to help
you. We want you to succeed."
    "And now you're pretending that you've been rooting for
me all along?"
    "Not at all," said Rackham. "We had no idea
whether you'd be a tyrant or a wise ruler. No idea of what method you'd use or
what your world government would be like. We knew you couldn't do it by
charisma because you don't have much. And I'll admit you emerged with greater
clarity after we got a good look at Achilles."
    "So you didn't really get behind me until you realized
I was better than Achilles."
    "Your achievements were so extraordinary that we were
still wary of you. Then Achilles showed us that you were actually cautious and
self-restrained, compared to what could have been done by somebody who was
truly ruthless. We saw a tyrant on the make, and we realized you weren't
one."
    "Depending on how you define 'tyrant.' "
    "Peter, we're trying to help you. We want you to unite
the world under civilian government. Without any advice from us, you've
determined to do it by persuasion and plebiscite instead of using armies and
terror."
    "I use armies."
    "You know what I mean," said Rackham.
    "I just didn't want you to have any illusions."
    "So tell me what you're thinking. What you're planning.
So we won't interfere with our meddling."
    "Because you're on my side," Peter said
scornfully.
    "No, we're not 'on your side.' We're not really in this
game, except insofar as it affects us. We're in the business of dispersing the
human race to as many worlds as possible. But so far, only two colony ships
have taken off. And it will be another generation before any of them lands. Far
longer before we know whether the colonies will take hold and succeed. Even
longer than that before we know if they'll become isolated worlds or trade