Shadows in Flight, enhanced edition

his foot. "Play nice, Ender," she said.
    Ender knew how this would play out. Carlotta would express her regret but she'd agree with Sergeant. If Ender tried to give the Giant extra calories, Sergeant would beat him and Carlotta would stand by, or even help hold him. Not that the beatings ever lasted long. Ender just had no interest in fighting, so he didn't defend himself. After a few blows, he always gave in.
    But this was different. The Giant was dying anyway. That caused Ender enough anguish that the idea of hastening the process was unbearable.
    Nothing unbearable had ever been proposed before. So Ender's reaction surprised even him. No, especially him.
    Sergeant's head was right there, just above Ender's own. Ender reached up, and with all the power of his arms, he rammed Sergeant's head into the wall.
    Blood sprayed out Sergeant's nose and floated in globules that "fell" in every direction in the turbulent gravity field.
    Ender shaped his hand into a fist and drove a knuckle into Sergeant's eye.
    Carlotta twisted on Ender's foot, shouting, "What are you doing? What's going on?"
    Ender braced himself against her grip and drove the edge of his hand into Sergeant's throat.
    Sergeant choked and gasped.
    "Here's how it's going to be," said Ender. "Your reign of terror is over. You proposed murder and you meant it."
    "He didn't mean it," said Carlotta.
    "He meant it and you would have helped him with it," said Ender. "If you try to give orders to anybody again, I'll kill you. Do you understand me?"
    "You would never kill me," croaked Sergeant.
    "I think you're terrified by the fact that nobody ever stopped you from doing anything. Well, this is your lucky day. I'm stopping you from now on. Got it?"
    "The Giant's going to ask what happened to Sergeant," Carlotta said.
    "He won't have to ask," said Ender. "I'm going to repeat our conversation to him, verbatim, and the two of you will be there to listen."

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 3
     
     

     
    Bean looked at his three children and it was only with effort that he concealed the depth of his grief and fear for them. He had known it was only a matter of time, and while he was relieved that Ender had finally woken out of his long pacifist slumber to end Sergeant's domination, he knew that they had only set the scene for conflict to come. What will happen when I'm gone? thought Bean.
    Petra, I have botched this completely, but I don't know how I could have done it better. They've had too much freedom, but I couldn't chase them through corridors where my body no longer fit.
    "Andrew," said Bean, "I appreciate your loyalty to me, and the fact that you repeated all conversations verbatim, including the incredibly stupid and dangerous things you said."

     
    Bean watched as Ender blushed a little -- not from embarrassment, but from anger. He also saw how Carlotta looked a little relieved, and Cincinnatus -- Bean had always hated the nickname "Sergeant" -- got a sudden look of triumphant hope.
    "Cincinnatus," said Bean. "The fact that Ender is not a killer does not mean he won't kill you, if he feels the need. You see, you're an attacker, a competitor, and you don't understand what Ender is -- a defender, like the boy I named him for. Just because he feels no need to control other people doesn't mean he'll let you take what he doesn't mean for you to have -- including my life. Including his own."
    "He sprang on me without warning!" Sergeant shouted.
    "You were introducing an entirely new element into your little world -- the murder of Ender's father. And you were so hopelessly ignorant of him that it never crossed your mind that he would react differently to this threat than he had to all your previous bullying," said Bean.
    "He wasn't my enemy," said Sergeant.
    "He's been the only enemy you faced since you first met him when Petra and I finally located all of you and brought you together when you were one year old. The other male antonine. The rival. You've done nothing that wasn't designed to keep him under your thumb for the past five years. Your imaginary enemies are all surrogates for Andrew Delphiki. You've designed humiliation after humiliation for him, manipulating your sister to side with you against Ender, and here's the sad result. Ender and Carlotta are productive members of our little four-person society, as am I. But you, Cincinnatus Delphiki, are a drain on our resources, producing nothing of value and disrupting the functioning of everyone else. Not to mention