Xenocide (Ender Wiggins Saga)

assistants, a pequenino named Glass, who discovered this-- I'll admit that I wasn't paying much personal attention to this project since it was relatively easy compared to the descolada problem we're working on."
    "Don't apologize," said Fei-tzu. "We are grateful for any kindness. All is undeserved. "
    "Yes. Well." She seemed flustered by his courtesy. "Anyway, what Glass discovered is that all but one of the genetic samples you gave us sort themselves neatly into godspoken and non-godspoken categories. We ran the test blind, and only afterward checked the sample lists against the identity lists you gave us-- the correspondence was perfect. Every godspoken had the altered gene. Every sample that lacked the altered gene was also not on your list of godspoken."
    "You said all but one."
    "This one baffled us. Glass is very methodical-- he has the patience of a tree. He was sure that the one exception was a clerical error or an error in interpreting the genetic data. He went over it many times, and had other assistants do the same. There is no doubt. The one exception is clearly a mutation of the godspoken gene. It naturally lacks the OCD, while still retaining all of the other abilities Congress's geneticists so thoughtfully provided."
    "So this one person already is what your splicer bacterium is designed to create."
    "There are a few other mutated regions that we aren't quite sure of at the moment, but they have nothing to do with the OCD or the enhancements. Nor are they involved in any of the vital processes, so this person should be able to have healthy offspring that carry the trait. In fact, if this person should mate with a person who has been treated with the splicer bacterium, all her offspring will almost certainly carry the enhancements, and there'd be no chance of any of them having the OCD."
    "How lucky for him," said Han Fei-tzu.
    "Who is it?" asked Wang-mu.
    "It's you," said Ela. "Si Wang-mu."
    "Me?" She seemed baffled.
    But Han Fei-tzu was not confused. "Ha!" he cried. "I should have known. I should have guessed! No wonder you have learned as quickly as my own daughter learned. No wonder you have had insights that helped us all even when you barely understood the subject you were studying. You are as godspoken as anyone on Path, Wang-mu-except that you alone are free of the shackles of the cleansing rituals."
    Si Wang-mu struggled to answer, but instead of words, tears came, silently drifting down her face.
    "Never again will I permit you to treat me as your superior," said Han Fei-tzu. "From now on you are no servant in my house, but my student, my young colleague. Let others think of you however they want. We know that you are as capable as anyone."
    "As Mistress Qing-jao?" Wang-mu whispered.
    "As anyone," said Fei-tzu. "Courtesy will require you to bow to many. But in your heart, you need bow to no one."
    "I am unworthy," said Wang-mu.
    "Everyone is worthy of his own genes. A mutation like that is much more likely to have crippled you. But instead, it left you the healthiest person in the world."
    But she would not stop her silent weeping.
    Jane must have been showing this to Ela, for she kept her peace for some time. Finally, though, she spoke. "Forgive me, but I have much to do," she said.
    "Yes," said Han Fei-tzu. "You may go."
    "You misunderstand me," said Ela. "I don't need your permission to go. I have more to say before I go."
    Han Fei-tzu bowed his head. "Please. We are listening."
    "Yes," whispered Wang-mu. "I'm listening too."
    "There is a possibility-- a remote one, as you will see, but a possibility nonetheless-- that if we are able to decode the descolada virus and tame it, we can also make an adaptation that could be useful on Path."
    "How so?" asked Han Fei-tzu. "Why should we want this monstrous artificial virus here?"
    "The whole business of the descolada is entering a host organism's cells, reading the genetic code, and reorganizing it according to the descolada's own plan. When we alter it, if we can, we'll remove its own plan from it. We'll also remove almost all of its self-defense mechanisms, if we can find them. At that point, it may be possible to use it as a super-splicer. Something that can effect a change, not just on the reproductive cells, but on all the cells of a living creature."
    "Forgive me," said Han Fei-tzu, "but I have been reading in this field lately, and the concept of a super-splicer has been rejected, because the body starts to reject its own cells as soon as