IGMS Issue 8

by IGMS

  "Well, that's the awkward thing," said Valentine. "I'm perfectly happy to let you see the entire infodump -- in fact, I suggest that it be put into the library so everyone can have access to it. It's bound to be fascinating to people to have an idea of the things that have been happening on Earth. I can't wait to read it myself."

  "But?" asked Ender.

  "It's the cover letter itself." She looked genuinely embarrassed. "My brother makes slighting references to you. I hope you understand that neither Ender nor I discussed you with Peter in any way -- anything he says is his own assumption. I can assure you that Ender and I hold you in the highest respect."

  With that, she rotated the holodisplay and Ender and Valentine sat silently to watch Morgan read.

  At the end, he sighed, then leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, his forehead on his fingertips. "Well, I am embarrassed indeed."

  "Not at all," said Ender. "A perfectly understandable mistake. I'd rather fly with a captain who takes every potential threat to his ship seriously than one who thinks that losing communications for three hours is no big deal."

  Morgan took the olive branch. "I'm glad you see it that way, Admiral Wiggin."

  "Ender," Ender corrected him.

  Valentine stood up, smiling. "So if you don't mind, I'll leave the whole thing unencrypted here on your desk, as long as you assure me that every speck of it will be downloaded into the library -- except my brother's personal letter." She turned to Ender. "He says he loves me and misses me and he wants me to tell you to write to our parents. They aren't getting any younger, and they're very hurt not to have heard from you."

  "Yes," said Ender. "I should have done that as soon as the ship left. But I didn't want to take up ansible time on personal matters." He smiled ruefully at Morgan. "And then we end up doing this, all because Peter and Graff have an inflated sense of their own importance."

  "I'll tell my egocentric brother to send future messages a different way," said Valentine. "I assume you won't mind my sending such a message by ansible."

  They were heading for the door, Morgan shepherding them, full of smiles and "I'm glad you're so understanding," when Ender stopped.

  "Oh, Admiral Morgan," said Ender.

  "Please call me Quincy."

  "Oh, I could never do that," said Ender. "Our respective ranks allow it, but if anybody heard me address you that way, there'd be no way to erase the visual image of a teenager speaking to the captain of the ship in a way that could only seem disrespectful. I'm sure we agree on that. Nothing can undermine the authority of the captain."

  "Very wisely said," Morgan replied. "You're taking better care of my position than I am myself. But you wanted to say something?"

  "Yes. The play reading. It really is just that -- we're reading Taming of the Shrew. I'm playing Lucentio. Val has a small part, too. Everyone was looking forward to it. And now it's been canceled without a word of explanation."

  Morgan looked puzzled. "If it's just a play reading, then go ahead and do it."

  "Of course we will," said Ender, "now that we have your permission. But you see, some of the participants invited crew members to attend. And the cancellation might leave some bad feelings. Hard on morale, don't you think? I wanted to suggest a sort of gesture from you, to show that it really was a misunderstanding. To patch up any bad feelings."

  "What sort of gesture?" asked Morgan.

  "Just -- when we reschedule it, why don't you come and watch? Let them see you laughing at the comedy."

  "He could play a part," said Valentine. "I'm sure the man playing Christopher Sly --"

  "My sister is joking," said Ender. "This is a comedy, and every part in it is beneath the dignity of the captain of the ship. I'm only suggesting that you attend. Perhaps just for the first half. You can always plead urgent business at the break halfway through. Everyone will understand. Meanwhile, though, they'll all see that you really do care about them and what they do during this voyage. It will go a long way toward making them feel good about your leadership, during the voyage and after we arrive."

  "After we arrive?" asked Valentine.

  Ender looked at her in wide-eyed innocence. "As Admiral Morgan pointed out to me during our conversation, none of the colonists will be likely to follow the leadership of a teenage boy. They'll need to be assured that Admiral Morgan's authority is behind whatever I do, officially, as governor. So I think that makes it all the more important that they see the Admiral and get to know him, so they'll trust him to provide strong leadership."

  Ender was afraid Valentine was going to lose control right there and either laugh or scream at him. But she did neither. "I see," she said.

  "That's actually a good idea," said Admiral Morgan. "Shall we go start it up?"

  "Oh, no," said Valentine. "Everybody's too upset. Nobody will be at their best. Why not let us go smooth things over, explain that it was all a mistake and completely my fault. And then we can announce that you're going to attend, that you're glad the reading can go on after all, and we get a chance to perform for you. Everyone will be excited and happy. And if you can let off-duty crew come too, so much the better."

  "I don't want anything that lessens ship's discipline," said Morgan.

  Valentine's answer was immediate. "If you're right there with them, laughing at the play and enjoying it, then I can't see that it will cause any weakening of the crew. It might even help morale. We actually do a pretty good job with the play."

  "It would mean a lot to all of us," said Ender.

  "Of course," said Morgan. "You do that, and I'll be there tomorrow at 1900. That was the starting time today, wasn't it?"

  Ender and Valentine made their good-byes. The officers they passed looked amazed and relieved to see them smiling and chatting comfortably as they left.

  Not till they were back in the stateroom did they let down the façade, and then only long enough for Valentine to say, "He's planning for you to be a figurehead while he rules behind the throne?"

  "There's no throne," said Ender. "It solves a lot of problems for me, don't you think? It was going to be tough for a fifteen-year-old kid to lead a bunch of colonists who've already been living and farming on Shakespeare for forty years by the time I get there. But a man like Admiral Morgan is used to giving orders and being obeyed. They'll fall right in line under his authority."

  Valentine stared at him like he was insane. Then Ender gave that little twitch of his lower lip that had always been the giveaway that he was being ironic. He hoped she would leap to the correct conclusion -- that Admiral Morgan certainly had the means of listening in on all their conversations and was bound to be using it right now, so nothing they said could be regarded as private.

  "All right," said Valentine. "If you're happy with it, I'm happy with it." Whereupon she did that momentary bug-eyed thing she did to let him know she was lying.

  "I'm done with responsibility, Val," said Ender. "I had quite enough in Battle School and on Eros. I intend to spend the voyage making friends and reading everything I can get my hands on."

  "And at the end, you can write an essay called, 'How I spent my summer vacation.'"

  "It's always summer when your heart is full of joy," said Ender.

  "You are so full of crap," said Valentine.

  The play reading went off without a hitch. Everyone did well, or well enough, but Dorabella Toscano was luminous. She made a point of snubbing Admiral Morgan at first, but then played her great soliloquy straight to him, submissively kneeling and extending her hand. When he came up to her afterward, bursting with enthusiasm and, though he would not have said so, a feeling more ancient and powerful than mere admiration, she pouted at first. "You make me so mad to be almost stop this play," she said. But immediately she smiled and relented. "Now you are very glad you let me play my part?"

  For the rest of the voyage, the crew and colonists were amused to watch Dorabella's coy reeling in of the bachelor admiral, and no one was surprised when, a few weeks before la
nding, she was able to persuade him that it would be better for everyone if she first set foot on Shakespeare Colony as Mrs. Quincy Morgan.

  Dorabella had learned the lesson of her too-early marriage as a teenager. Morgan's desires had been held off until the ceremony was over. Afterward, the crew was even more amused than before, at Morgan's way of having urgent errands that somehow always seemed to lead back to his quarters and the woman who, wisely and patiently, waited for him there. He was never happier in his life.

  But that did not mean he forgot, even for a moment, that his future on Shakespeare depended on keeping Ender Wiggin in his place. So Ender never relaxed his façade of eager, teachable youth, and gave every impression of being quite infatuated with Alessandra, so that Morgan could anticipate being Ender's father-in-law -- thus gaining influence on the boy through a young wife whose mother was devoted to advancing Quincy Morgan's career and prestige.

  Through it all, Ender worked hard, going back over his correspondence with Governor Kolmogorov and the reports and logs of the original military expedition, learning everyone's name and story by heart. These were the people he had been sent to govern. If he did not try to understand them, he did not deserve his office and it would be right for Morgan to take it away from him.

  The months of the voyage passed quickly enough, because they were all so busy. Then ... rapid deceleration, protected from inertia by technology acquired from the formics. They were coming to the planet Shakespeare; for the colonists, this meant they were coming home.

  Admiral Morgan had been in communication with the acting acting governor, Ix Tolo -- ridiculous name -- because the official acting governor had had the bad manners to take off on a completely meaningless trip right when he was needed for the official public transfer of power. The man probably couldn't stand being displaced from his office. The vanity of some people.

  Morgan's executive officer, Commodore Vlad das Lagrimas, confirmed that, as far as could be ascertained from orbit, the runway the colonists had constructed for the shuttle met the specifications. Thank heaven they didn't have to pave these things anymore -- it must have been tedious in the days when flying vehicles had to land on wheels.

  The only thing that worried Morgan was bringing the Wiggin boy down with him for the first landing. It would be easy enough to tell the original settlers that Morgan was coming ahead of Wiggin to prepare the way. That would give him plenty of chance to make sure they were aware that Wiggin was a teenage boy and hardly likely to be the real governor.

  Dorabella agreed with him. But then she pointed out, "Of course, all the older people in this colony are the pilots and soldiers who fought under Ender's command. They might be disappointed not to see him. But no, it will make it all the more special when he comes down later."

  Morgan thought about it and decided that having Wiggin with him might be more of an asset than not. Let them see the legendary boy. Which was why he called the Wiggin boy to his quarters.

  "I don't know that you need to say anything to the colonists on this first occasion," said Admiral Morgan. This was the test -- would Wiggin be miffed at being held in silence?

  "Fine with me," said Wiggin instantly. "Because I'm not good at speeches."

  "Excellent," said Morgan. "We'll have marines there in case these people are planning some sort of resistance -- you never know, all their cooperation might be a ruse. Four decades on their own here -- they might resent the imposition of authority from forty lightyears away."

  Wiggin looked serious. "I never thought of that. Do you really think they might rebel?"

  "No, I don't," said Morgan. "But a good commander prepares for everything. You'll acquire habits like that in time, I'm sure."

  Wiggin sighed. "There's so much stuff to learn."

  "When we get there, we'll put the ramp down at once and the marines will secure the immediate perimeter. When the people have assembled around the base of the ramp, then we'll come out. I'll introduce you, I'll say a few words, then you'll go back inside the shuttle until I can secure appropriate quarters for you in the settlement."

  "Toguro," said Wiggin.

  "Oh, right"

  "Sorry. Battle School slang."

  "Oh, yes. Never went to Battle School myself." Of course the little brat had to give his little reminder that he had gone to Battle School and Morgan had not. But his use of slang was encouraging. The more childish Wiggin appeared, the easier it would be to marginalize him.

  "When can Valentine come down?"

  "We won't start bringing down the new colonists for several days. We have to make sure we do this in an orderly way -- we don't want to swamp the old settlers with too many new ones before there's housing and food for them all. The same thing with supplies."

  "We're going down empty-handed?" asked Wiggin, sounding surprised.

  "Well, no, of course not," said Morgan. He hadn't thought of it that way. It would be a nice gesture to have some key supplies with them. "What do you think, some food? Chocolates?"

  "They have better food than we do," said Ender. "Fresh fruits and vegetables -- that's going to be their gift to us. I bet they'd go boky over the skimmers, though."

  "Skimmers! That's serious technology."

  "Well, it's not like they're any use up here in the ship," said Ender, laughing. "But some of the xeno equipment, then. Something to show them how much it's going to help them, now that we're here. I mean, if you're worried they'll resent us, giving them some really useful tech will make us heroes."

  "Of course -- that's what I was planning. I just didn't think of the skimmers on our first landing."

  "Well, it'd sure help with carrying cargo to wherever it's going to be warehoused. I know they'd appreciate not having to lug stuff by hand or in carts or whatever they use for transportation."

  "Excellent," said Morgan. "You're catching on to this leadership thing already." The kid really was clever. And Morgan would be the one to reap the good will that bringing the skimmers and other high-tech equipment would create. He would have thought of all this himself if he ever had a chance to stop and think about things. The boy could sit around and think about things, but Morgan couldn't afford the time. He was constantly on call, and though das Lagrimas handled most things well, Morgan also had to deal with Dorabella.

  Not that she was demanding. In fact, she was amazingly supportive. He'd heard from other people that marriage was hellish. The honeymoon lasts a day, they said, and then she starts demanding, insisting, complaining.

  All lies. If he had known marriage was like this, he'd have done it long ago. But maybe it was only like this with Dorabella. He was glad he had waited, to marry the one in a million who could make a man truly happy. Because he was besotted. He knew the men joked about it behind his back -- he caught their smirks whenever he came back from a rendezvous with Dorabella for an hour or two in the middle of the working day. Let them have their laughs! It was all about envy.

  "Sir?" asked Wiggin.

  "Oh, yes," said Morgan. It had happened again -- in the middle of a conversation, he had drifted off into thinking about Dorabella. "I have a lot on my mind, and I think we're through here. Just be in the shuttle at 0800 -- that's when we're closing the doors, everything loaded by the dawn watch. The descent will take several hours, the shuttle pilot tells me, but nobody will be able to sleep -- you'll want to get to bed early tonight so you're well rested. And it's better to enter the atmosphere on an empty stomach, if you know what I mean."

  "Yes sir," said Wiggin.

  "Dismissed, then," said Morgan.

  Wiggin saluted and left. Morgan almost laughed out loud. The kid didn't realize that even on Morgan's ship, Wiggin's seniority as a Rear Admiral entitled him to courtesies, including the right to leave when he felt like it instead of being dismissed like a subordinate. But it was good to keep the boy in his place. Just because he had the office of admiral bestowed on him before Morgan actually earned his didn't mean Morgan had to pretend to show respect to an ignorant teenager. />
  Wiggin was in his place before Morgan got there, dressed in civilian clothes instead of military uniform -- which was all to the good, since it would not be helpful for people to see that they had identical dress uniforms and rank insignias, while Ender had markedly more battle decorations. Morgan merely nodded to Wiggin and went to his own seat, in the front of the shuttle with a communications array at his disposal.

  At first the shuttle flight was normal space travel -- smooth, perfectly controlled. But as they orbited the planet and then dipped down into their point of entry, the shuttle reoriented itself to have the shield meet and dissipate the heat, which is when the bouncing and yawing and rolling began. As the pilot told him beforehand, "Roll and yaw mean nothing. If we start to pitch, then we've got problems."

  Morgan found himself quite nauseated by the time they steadied out into smooth flight at ten thousand meters. But poor Wiggin -- the boy practically flew back to the head, where he was no doubt retching his poor head off. Unless the kid had forgotten not to eat and really had something to puke up.

  The landing went smoothly, but Wiggin hadn't returned to his seat -- he took the landing in the head. And when the marines reported that the people were gathering, Wiggin was still inside.

  Morgan went to the door of the head himself and rapped on it. "Wiggin," he said, "it's time."

  "Just a few more minutes, sir," said Wiggin. His voice sounded weak and shaky. "Really. Looking at the skimmers will keep them busy for a few minutes, and then they'll meet us with a cheer."

  It hadn't crossed Morgan's mind to send the skimmers out ahead of his own entrance, but Wiggin was right. If the people had already seen something wonderful from Earth technology, it would make them all the more enthusiastic when he came out himself. "They can't watch the skimmers forever, Wiggin," said Morgan. "When it's time to go out, I hope you're ready to join me."

  "I will," said Wiggin. But then another retching sound gave the lie to that statement.

  Of course, retching sounds could be made with or without nausea. Morgan had a momentary suspicion and so he acted on it, opening the door without any warning.