Orson Scott Card - Ender 08 - Shadow of the Giant

by Orson Scott Card

  "Nonsense," said Graff. "Cuddly wouldn't have cut it with this group anyway."

  "And you actually were cuddly," said Carn. "No offence, but you were spunky."

  "If that's your word for 'bratty little asshole,' " said Dink mildly.

  "Now now," said Graff. "You didn't dislike Bean personally. Most of you. But you didn't like serving under him. And you can't say that it's because you were too independent to serve under anybody, because you gladly served under Ender. You gave Ender everything you had."

  "More than we had," said Fly.

  "But not Bean." Graft said it like it was proof of something.

  "Is this a therapy group?" asked Dink.

  Vlad spoke up. "Of course it is. He wants us to reach the same conclusion he's already reached."

  "Do you know what it is?" asked Graff.

  Vlad took a breath. "Hyrum thinks that the reason we didn't follow Bean the way we followed Ender was because we knew something about Bean that the rest of the world doesn't know. And because of that, we're likely to be willing to challenge him in battle, while the rest of the world would just give up and surrender to him because of his reputation. Isn't that about it?"

  Graff smiled benignly.

  "But that's stupid," said Dumper. "Bean really is a good commander. I've seen him. Commanding his Rwandans in our campaign in Peru. It's true that the Peruvian Army wasn't well led or well trained, but those Rwandans—they worshipped Bean. They would have marched off a cliff if he asked them to. When he twitched, they sprang into action."

  "And your point is?" asked Dink.

  "My point is," said Dumper, "we didn't follow him well, but other people do. Bean's the real thing. He's still the best of us."

  "I haven't seen his Rwandans," said Fly, "but I've seen him with the men he and Suriyawong trained. Back when the forces of the Hegemon were a hundred guys and two choppers. Dumper's right. Alexander the Great couldn't have had soldiers more devoted and more effective."

  "Thanks for the testimonials, boys," said Bean, "but you're missing Hyrum's point."

  " 'Hyrum,' " muttered Dink. "Aren't we cosy."

  "Just tell them," said Bean. "They know it, but they don't know that they know it."

  "You tell them," said Graff.

  "Is this a Chinese re-education camp? Do we have to indulge in self-criticism?" Bean laughed bitterly. "It's what Dink said right at the start. I'm not hungry. Which might seem stupid, considering I spent my whole infancy starving to death. But I'm not hungry for supremacy. And all of you are."

  "That's the great secret of the tests," said Graff. "Sister Carlotta gave the standard battery of tests we used. But there was an additional test. One that I gave, or one of my most trusted aides. A test of ambition. Competitive ambition. You all scored very, very high. Bean didn't."

  "Bean's not ambitious?"

  "Bean wants victory," said Graff. "He likes to win. He needs to win. But he doesn't need to beat anybody."

  "We all cooperated with Ender," said Carn. "We didn't have to beat him."

  "But you knew he would lead you to victory. And in the meanwhile, you were all competing with each other. Except Bean."

  "Only because he was better than any of us. Why compete if you've won?" said Fly.

  "If any one of you came up against Bean in battle, who would win?"

  They rolled their eyes or chuckled or otherwise showed their derision for the question.

  "That would depend," said Carn Carby, "on the terrain, and the weather, and the sign of the zodiac. Nothing's sure in war, is it?"

  "There wasn't any weather in the Battle Room," said Fly, grinning.

  "You can conceive of beating Bean, can't you?" said Graff. "And it's possible. Because Bean is only better than the rest of you if all else is equal. Only it never is. And one of the most important variables in war is the hunger that makes you take ridiculous chances because you intuit that there's a path to victory and you have to take that path because anything other than winning is inconceivable. Unbearable."

  "Very poetic," said Dink. "The romance of war."

  "Look at Lee," said Graff.

  "Which one?" said Shen. "The Chinese or the American?"

  "Lee L-E-E the Virginian," said Graff. "When the enemy was on Virginia soil, he won. He took the chances he needed to take. He sent Stonewall Jackson out on a forest path at Chancellorsville, dividing his forces and exposing himself dangerously against Hooker, exactly the sort of reckless commander who could have exploited the opportunity if he'd realised it."

  "Hooker was an idiot."

  "We say that because he lost," said Graff. "But would he have lost if Lee had not taken the dangerous move he took? My point isn't to re-fight Chancellorsville. My point is—"

  "Antietam and Gettysburg," said Bean.

  "Exactly. As soon as Lee left Virginia and entered Northern territory, he wasn't hungry any more. He believed in the cause of defending Virginia, but he did not believe in the cause of slavery, and he knew that's what the war was about. He didn't want to see his state defeated, but he didn't want to see the southern cause win. All unconsciously. He didn't know this about himself. But it was true."

  "It had nothing to do with the North's overwhelming force?"

  "Lee lost at Antietam against the second stupidest and most timid commander the North had, McClellan. And Meade at Gettysburg wasn't terribly imaginative. Meade saw the high ground and he took it. And what did Lee do? Based on how Lee acted in all his Virginia campaigns, what would you have expected Lee to do?"

  "Refuse to fight on that ground," said Fly. "Manoeuvre. Slide right. Steal a march. Get between Meade and Washington. Find a battlefield where the Unions would have to try to force his position."

  "He was low on supplies," said Dink. "And he didn't have the information from his cavalry."

  "Excuses," said Vlad. "No excuses in war. Graff is right. Lee didn't act like Lee, once he left Virginia. But that's Lee. What does that have to do with Bean?"

  "He thinks," said Bean, "that when I don't believe in a cause, I can be beaten. That I would beat myself. The trouble is that I do believe in the cause. I think Peter Wiggin is a decent man. Ruthless, but I've seen how he uses power, and he doesn't use it to hurt anybody. He really is trying to create a world order that leads to peace. I want him to win. I want him to win quickly. And if any of you think you can stop me."

  "We don't have to stop you," said Crazy Tom. "We just have to hold out till you're dead."

  Utter silence.

  "There it is," said Graff. "There's the whole point of this meeting. Bean only has a little while. So while he lives, the Hegemon is perceived as unbeatable. But the moment he's gone, what then? Dumper or Fly would probably be appointed commander after him, since they're already inside the FPE. But every one of you at this table would feel perfectly free to take on either of them, am I right?"

  "Hell, Hyrum" said Dink, "we'd take on Bean."

  "And so the world would be torn apart, and the FPE, even if it was victorious, would stand on the bodies of millions of soldiers who died because of your competitive ambition." He looked fiercely around the table.

  "Hey," said Fly, "we haven't killed anybody yet. Talk to Hot Soup and Alai about that."

  "Look at Alai," said Graff. "It took him two purges to get real control over the Islamic forces, but now he has it, and what has he done? Has he left India? Has he withdrawn from Xinjiang or Tibet? Have the Indonesian Muslims left Taiwan? He remains face to face with Han Tzu. Why is that? It makes no sense. He can't hold India. He couldn't rule over China. But he has Genghis dreams."

  "It always comes back to Genghis," said Vlad.

  "You all want the world united," said Graff. "But you want to do it yourselves, because you can't stand the thought of anyone else standing on top of the hill."

  "Come on," said Dink. "In our hearts we're all Cincinnatus. We can hardly wait to get back to the farm."

  They laughed.

  "At this table sits fifty years of blood
y war," said Graff.

  "What about it?" said Dink. "We didn't invent war. We're just good at it."

  "War gets invented every time there's somebody so hungry for domination that he can't leave peaceful nations alone. It is precisely people like you that invent war. Even if you have a cause, like Lee did, would the South have struggled on for all those bloody years of Civil War if they hadn't had the firm belief that no matter what happened, 'Marse Robert' would save them? Even if you don't make the decision for war, nations will enter into wars only because they have you!'

  "So what's your solution, Hyrum?" said Dink. "You have little-cyanide pills for us all to swallow so we can save the world from ourselves?"

  "It wouldn't help," said Vlad. "Even if what you're saying is true, there are other Battle School graduates. Look at Virlomi—she's outmanoeuvred everybody."

  "She hasn't outmanoeuvred Alai yet," said Crazy Tom. "Or Hot Soup."

  Vlad insisted on his point. "Look at Suriyawong. That's who Peter will turn to after Bean ... retires. We weren't the only kids at Battle School."

  "Ender's Jeesh," said Graff. "You're the ones who saved the world. You're the ones with the magic. And there are hundreds and hundreds of Battle School grads on Earth. Nobody is going to think that just because they happen to have one or two or five, they can conquer the world. Which one of them would it be?"

  "So you want to be rid of us all," said Dink. "And that's why you brought us here. We're not leaving here alive, are we?"

  "Lighten up, Dink," said Graff. "You can all go home as soon as this meeting is over. ColMin doesn't assassinate people."

  "Now, that's an interesting point," said Crazy Tom. "What does ColMin do? It packs people into starships like sardines, and then it sends them off to colony worlds. And they'll never come back, not to the world they left. Fifty years out, fifty years back. The world would have forgotten all of us by then, even if we went to a colony and came right home. Which of course he wouldn't let us do."

  "So this isn't an assassination," said Dink, "it's another damn kidnapping."

  "It's an offer," said Rackham, "which you can accept or decline."

  "I decline," said Dink.

  "Hear the offer," said Rackham.

  "Hear this," said Dink, with a gesture.

  "I offer you command of a colony. Each one of you. No rivals. We don't know of any enemy armies for you to face, but there will be worlds full of danger and uncertainty, and your abilities will be highly adaptable. People will follow you—people older than you—partly because you are Ender's Jeesh, and partly because—mostly because—of your own abilities. They'll see how quickly to grasp important information, rank it by priority, foresee consequences, and make correct decisions. You'll be the founders of new human worlds."

  Crazy Tom put on a babytalk voice. "Wiw dey name da pwanets aftew us?"

  "Don't be such a dullbob," said Carn.

  "Sowwy."

  "Look, gents," said Graff. "We saw what happened to the Hive Queens. They bunched up on one planet and they got wiped out in a single blow. Any weapon we can invent, an enemy can also invent and use against us."

  "Come on," said Dink. "The Hive Queens spread out and colonised as many planets as you're colonising—in fact, all you're doing is sending ships to colonise the worlds they already settled because they're the only ones you know about that have an atmosphere we can breathe and flora and fauna we can eat."

  "Actually, we're taking our own flora and fauna with us," said Graff.

  "Dink's right," said Shen. "Dispersal didn't work for the Hive Queens."

  "Because they didn't disperse," said Graff. "They had Buggers on all the planets, but when you boys blew up their home world, all the Hive Queens were there. They put all their eggs in one basket. We're not going to do that. Partly because the human race isn't just a handful of queens and a whole bunch of workers and drones, every damn one of us is a Hive Queen and has the seeds of recapitulating the whole of human history. So dispersing humanity will work."

  "Like coughing in a crowd spreads the flu," said Crazy Tom cheerfully.

  "Exactly," said Graff. "Call us a disease, I don't care—I am a human, and I want us to spread everywhere like an epidemic, so we can never be stamped out."

  Rackham nodded. "And to accomplish that, he needs his colonies to have the best possible chance of survival."

  "Which means you," said Graff. "If I can get you."

  "So we make your colonies work," said Carn, "and you get us off Earth, too, so Peter can end all war and bring the millennial reign of Christ."

  "Whether Christ comes or not isn't my business," said Graff. "All I care about is saving human beings. Collectively and individually."

  "Aren't you the noble one."

  "No," said Graff. "I created you. Not you individually—"

  "Good thing you said that," said Carn, "because my dad would have had to kill you for that aspersion on my mother."

  "I found you. I tested you. I assembled you. I made the whole world aware of you. The danger you represent, I created it."

  "So you're really trying to atone for your mistakes."

  "It wasn't a mistake. It was essential to winning the last war. But it's not unusual in history for the solution to one problem to become the root of the next one."

  "So this meeting is clean-up," said Fly.

  "This meeting is to offer you a chance to do something that will satisfy your own irresistible craving for supremacy, while ensuring the survival of the human race, both here on Earth and out there in the galaxy."

  They thought about that for a moment.

  Dumper was the first to speak. "I've already chosen my life's work, Colonel Graff."

  "It's Hyrum," Dink whispered loudly. "Because he's our buddy."

  "You chose it," said Graff, "and you accomplished it. Your people have a nation, and you're part of the FPE. That struggle is over for you. All that's left is for you to chafe under Peter Wiggin's rule until you either rebel against him or become his military commander—and then his replacement as Hegemon. Ruling the world. Am I close?"

  "I have no such plans," said Dumper.

  "But it resonates with you," said Graff. "Don't pretend otherwise. I know you boys. You're not crazy. You're not evil. But you can't stop."

  "That's why you didn't invite Petra," said Bean. "Because then you couldn't have said 'you boys' all the time."

  "You forget," said Dink, "we're his colleagues now. So we can call him and Rackham 'you boys' too."

  Graff stood up from his seat at the head of the table. "I've made the offer. You'll think about it whether you mean to or not. You'll watch events unfold. You all know how to contact me. The offer is open. We're done here for today."

  "No we're not," said Shen. "Because you aren't doing anything about the real problem."

  "Which is?"

  "We're just potential warmongers and baby killers," said Shen. "You're not doing a thing about Hot Soup and Alai."

  "And Virlomi," added Fly Molo. "If you want somebody who's dangerous, it's her."

  "They will get the same offer as you," said Rackham. "In fact, one of them already has."

  "Which one?" asked Dink.

  "The one who was in a position to hear it," said Graff.

  "Hot Soup, then," said Shen. "Because you couldn't even get in to meet Mr. Caliph."

  "What smart fellows you all turned out to be," said Graff.

  " 'Waterloo was won,' " quoted Rackham, " 'on the playing fields of Eton.' "

  "What the hell does that mean?" asked Carn Carby. "You never even went to Eton."

  "It was an analogy," said Rackham. "If you hadn't spent your entire childhood playing war games, you'd actually know something. You're all so uneducated."

  CHAPTER 17 — BOATS

  From: Champi%T'it'u@Runa.gov.qu

  To: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au

  Re: "Good Idea"

  Of course Graff's "offer" sounded like a good idea to YOU. You live in A
ustralia.

  —Dumper

  From: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au

  To: Champi%T'it'u@Runa.gov.qu

  Re: Ha ha

  People who live on the moon—pardon me, the Andes— shouldn't joke about Australia.

  —Carn

  From: Champi%T'it'u@Runa.gov.qu

  To: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au

  Re: "Who was joking?"

  I've seen Australia and I've lived on an asteroid and I'd take the asteroid.

  —Dumper

  From: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au

  To: Champi%T'it'u@Runa.gov.qu

  Re: Asteroid

  Australia doesn't need life support like an asteroid or coca like the Andes to be livable. Besides, you only liked the asteroid because it was named Eros and that's as close to sex as you've ever gotten.

  —Carn

  From: Champi%T'it'u@Runa.gov.qu

  To: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au

  Re: At least

  At least I have a sex. Male, by the way. Open your fly and check to see what you are. (You grip the handle of the zipper and pull downward.) (Oh, wait, you're in Australia. Upward, then.)

  —Dumper

  From: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au

  To: Champi%T'it'u@Runa.gov.qu

  Re: Let's see ... zipper ... fly ... pull...

  Ouch! Ow! Oweeee!

  —Carn

  The sailors were so nervous to have The Lady aboard their dhow that it was a wonder they didn't swamp the boat just getting out to sea. And sailing was slow, with lots of tacking; even turning the ship seemed to require as much work as the reinvention of navigation. Virlomi showed none of her impatience, though.