Xenocide (Ender Wiggins Saga)

planning to lock her up."
    "You're not planning anything ," said Novinha. "Not with my children."
    "That's right," said Ender. "I'm not planning to do anything with children . I do have a responsibility, however, to do something about an adult citizen of Milagre who is recklessly endangering the survival of every human being on this planet, and maybe every human being everywhere."
    "And where did you get that noble responsibility, Andrew? Did God come down to the mountain and carve your license to rule people on tablets of stone?"
    "Fine," said Ender. "What do you suggest?"
    "I suggest you stay out of business that doesn't concern you. And frankly, Andrew, that includes pretty much everything. You're not a xenobiologist. You're not a physicist. You're not a xenologer. In fact, you're not much of anything , are you, except a professional meddler in other people's lives."
    Ela gasped. "Mother!"
    "The only thing that gives you any power anywhere is that damned jewel in your ear. She whispers secrets to you, she talks to you at night when you're in bed with your wife , and whenever she wants something, there you are in a meeting where you have no business, saying whatever it was she told you to say. You talk about Quara committing treason-- as far as I can tell, you're the one who's betraying real people in favor of an overgrown piece of software!"
    "Novinha," said Ender. It was supposed to be the beginning of an attempt to calm her.
    But she wasn't interested in dialogue. "Don't you dare to try to deal with me, Andrew. All these years I thought you loved me--"
    "I do."
    "I thought you had really become one of us, part of our lives-"
    "I am."
    "I thought it was real--"
    "It is."
    "But you're just what Bishop Peregrino warned us you were from the start. A manipulator. A controller. Your brother once ruled all of humanity, isn't that the story? But you aren't so ambitious. You'll settle for a little planet."
    "In the name of God, Mother, have you lost your mind? Don't you know this man?"
    "I thought I did!" Novinha was weeping now. "But no one who loved me would ever let my son go out and face those murderous little swine--"
    "He couldn't have stopped Quim, Mother! Nobody could!"
    "He didn't even try. He approved !"
    "Yes," said Ender. "I thought your son was acting nobly and bravely, and I approved of that. He knew that while the danger wasn't great, it was real, and yet he still chose to go-- and I approved of that. It's exactly what you would have done, and I hope that it's what I would do in the same place. Quim is a man, a good man, maybe a great one. He doesn't need your protection and he doesn't want it. He has decided what his life's work is and he's doing it. I honor him for that, and so should you. How dare you suggest that either of us should have stood in his way!"
    Novinha was silent at last, for the moment, anyway. Was she measuring Ender's words? Was she finally realizing how futile and, yes, cruel it was for her to send Quim away with her anger instead of her hope? During that silence, Ender still had some hope.
    Then the silence ended. "If you ever meddle in the lives of my children again, I'm done with you," said Novinha. "And if anything happens to Quim-- anything -- I will hate you till you die, and I'll pray for that day to come soon. You don't know everything, you bastard, and it's about time you stopped acting as if you did."
    She stalked to the door, but then thought better of the theatrical exit. She turned back to Ela and spoke with remarkable calm. "Elanora, I will take immediate steps to block Quara from access to records and equipment that she could use to help the descolada. And in the future, my dear, if I ever hear you discussing lab business with anyone, especially this man, I will bar you from the lab for life. Do you understand?"
    Again Ela answered her with silence.
    "Ah," said Novinha. "I see that he has stolen more of my children from me than I thought."
    Then she was gone.
    Ender and Ela sat in stunned silence. Finally Ela stood up, though she didn't take a single step.
    "I really ought to go do something," said Ela, "but I can't for the life of me think what."
    "Maybe you should go to your mother and show her that you're still on her side."
    "But I'm not," said Ela. "In fact, I was thinking maybe I should go to Mayor Zeljezo and propose that he remove Mother as head xenobiologist because she has clearly lost her mind."
    "No she hasn't," said Ender. "And if you did something like