Shadows in Flight, enhanced edition

the wall with the viewports, setting his helmet to illuminate the room and do a sweep of motion search.
    "No movement," he said softly. "But there's a heat source."
    Carlotta came into the room.

     
    Ender hesitated at the doorway. "Keep watch out here?" he asked.
    "Come in and shut the door," said Sergeant. "We may have found our pilots."
    Carlotta got to the windowed wall and then followed Sergeant as he walked lightly toward the control bay of the helm.
    Unmoving, several small shapes with iridescent colors clung to the control panel. They were smaller than Carlotta, about half her height, but longer than the rabs. They had wings -- that was the iridescence. No claws. In fact, the two front arms on each side seemed to be fused together, parting only near the end. But the "Y" formed by the ends of the feet was able to grasp levers and controls. And the jaws were Formic-like, also able to grasp.
    "What are they?" asked Carlotta softly. "Did the Hive Queens breed special pilot creatures?"
    "No," Ender said, focusing his eyes on the creatures.
    "Formics?" asked Sergeant. "These are Formics?"
    "Pretty sure," said Ender. "Males, I think."
    "Why didn't they die when the Hive Queen died?" asked Carlotta.
    "Very interesting question," said Ender. "But maybe they don't react the way the workers do. Maybe when a Hive Queen dies, they stay alive so they can attach to the next one." Then he said, "Wait, I think we're as close as they can bear. That one is about to take flight."
    Carlotta could see it now, too. The wings were extending. The eyes were standing straight up. "Is there any hope of communicating with them?" she asked.
    "I hope we're communicating lack of threat," said Ender. "Don't point your hands at them. Set the shotguns down."
    "No," said Sergeant.
    "You're right," said Ender. "But the two of you back away, all right? Let me go in unarmed and alone."
    Carlotta immediately complied; a moment later, Sergeant reached the same conclusion. Ender sent his shotgun drifting slowly toward Sergeant. He took off his helmet and sent it toward Carlotta. Then he rolled over onto his back.
    Carlotta realized that this put his eyes on the top of his head, like the Formic eyes. She caught his helmet and held it.
    Ender was keeping his arms down at his sides as he drifted toward the control panel where the Formics waited. Carlotta realized he was treating his arms like wings, showing them folded against his body. He was imitating their posture. Was this how the Formics showed submission? Were they submitting to us, and is Ender now submitting to them?
    As Ender drifted closer to them, the Formics began to move. They were so small. Staying hooked to various controls -- controls that were definitely not designed for their use, Carlotta could see that now -- three of the five of them reached out for Ender's head.
    She heard Sergeant's quick intake of breath.
    "Let him be," came the Giant's voice softly through the helmets. "It's a chance that he has to take."
    Carlotta could not help but marvel at Ender's stillness as the Formic males reached out and touched his head, bringing him carefully to a stop. Those Y-shaped claws, the mouths so near his face. The residual pain in her jaw reminded her of how dangerous it could be to let aliens near your head.
    The three Formics who were holding him lowered their mouths toward his head. The other two were standing watch, it seemed.
    They pressed the tips of their forejaws against Ender's head.
    Ender let out a low moan, almost a cry.
    Sergeant started forward.
    "No," said the Giant.
    Carlotta caught Sergeant, helped him back down to where his boots could remagnetize to the floor.
    Ender sighed again. Again. Then his voice came, an urgent whisper. "Don't hurt them," he said. "They're showing me."
    "Showing you what?" asked Carlotta, trying to keep her voice soft, to keep the fear out of it. Who knew what sense the Formics could make of the sounds they managed to hear?
    "Everything," said Ender. "How they've lived since the Queen died."

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 10
    Ender had never felt such loss of control over his own mind. Even in a nightmare, when nothing is going the way you want, the images still came from somewhere. You knew what you were seeing.
    But the images that started passing through his mind the moment the Formic males touched him were chaotic and strange. Half the time he didn't even know what he was seeing.
    Slow down! he felt as if his mind were shouting at them. Yet they did not