Ender's Shadow

metallic, machinelike voice? No matter. In some form the men of that distant fleet would hear his voice, transmitted faster than light, God knows how.
      "O my son Absalom," Bean said softly, knowing for the first time the kind of anguish that could tear such words from a man's mouth. "My son, my son Absalom. Would God I could die for thee, O Absalom, my son. My sons!”
      He had paraphrased it a little, but God would understand. Or if he didn't, Sister Carlotta would.
      Now, thought Bean. Do it now, Ender. You're as close as you can get without giving away the game. They're beginning to understand their danger. They're concentrating their forces. They'll blow us out of the sky before our weapons can be launched --
     
      "All right, everybody except Petra's squadron," said Ender. "Straight down, as fast as you can. Launch Dr. Device against the planet. Wait till the last possible second. Petra, cover as you can.”
      The squadron leaders, Bean among them, echoed Ender's commands to their own fleets. And then there was nothing to do but watch. Each ship was on its own.
      The enemy understood now, and rushed to destroy the plummeting humans. Fighter after fighter was picked off by the inrushing ships of the Formic fleet. Only a few human fighters survived long enough to enter the atmosphere.
      Hold on, thought Bean. Hold on as long as you can.
      The ships that launched too early watched their Dr. Device burn up in the atmosphere before it could go off. A few other ships burned up themselves without launching.
      Two ships were left. One was in Bean's squadron.
      "Don't launch it," said Bean into his microphone, head down. "Set it off inside your ship. God be with you.”
      Bean had no way of knowing whether it was his ship or the other that did it. He only knew that both ships disappeared from the display without launching. And then the surface of the planet started to bubble. Suddenly a vast eruption licked outward toward the last of the human fighters, Petra's ships, on which there might or might not still be men alive to see death coming at them. To see their victory approach.
      The simulator put on a spectacular show as the exploding planet chewed up all the enemy ships, engulfing them in the chain reaction. But long before the last ship was swallowed up, all the maneuvering had stopped. They drifted, dead. Like the dead Bugger ships in the vids of the Second Invasion. The queens of the hive had died on the planet's surface. The destruction of the remaining ships was a mere formality. The Buggers were already dead.
     
     
     
      Bean emerged into the tunnel to find that the other kids were already there, congratulating each other and commenting on how cool the explosion effect was, and wondering if something like that could really happen.
      "Yes," said Bean. "It could.”
      "As if you know," said Fly Molo, laughing.
      "Of course I know it could happen," said Bean. "It did happen.”
      They looked at him uncomprehendingly. When did it happen? I never heard of anything like that. Where could they have tested that weapon against a planet? I know, they took out Neptune!
      "It happened just now," said Bean. "It happened at the home world of the Buggers. We just blew it up. They're all dead.”
      They finally began to realize that he was serious. They fired objections at him. He explained about the faster-than-light communications device. They didn't believe him.
      Then another voice entered the conversation. "It's called the ansible.”
      They looked up to see Colonel Graff standing a ways off, down the tunnel.
      Is Bean telling the truth? Was that a real battle?
      "They were all real," said Bean. "All the so-called tests. Real battles. Real victories. Right, Colonel Graff? We were fighting the real war all along.”
      "It's over now," said Graff. "The human race will continue. The Buggers won't.”
      They finally believed it, and became giddy with the realization. It's over. We won. We weren't practicing, we were actually commanders.
      And then, at last, a silence fell.
      "They're all dead?" asked Petra.
      Bean nodded.
      Again they looked at Graff. "We have reports. All life activity has ceased on all the other planets. They must have gathered their queens back on their home planet. When the queens die, the Buggers die. There is no enemy now.”
      Petra began to cry, leaning against the wall. Bean wanted to reach out to her, but Dink was there. Dink was the