Shadows in Flight, enhanced edition

responsive to the mental connection between the Queen and the workers. They sense whether it's there. And if it isn't, they shut down the metabolism of every cell in the body, virtually at once. We can put the off switch we need in an organelle."
    "You can't just make organelles for humans," said Bean. "We've had mitochondria for so long that -- they joined the cells long before there were humans. The mitochondria reproduce when the cells divide. The Hive Queens had to insert their organelles into every egg."
    "Right," said Ender.
    "This is the clever part," said Carlotta.
    "We use a virus to insert the snippet of altered gene into the naturally occurring mitochondria. They get the off-switch and then express it at the appropriate time."
    "Well, it's not as if we've reached puberty yet," said Ender. "We have to wait and see. But one thing is certain -- the change has gone through every cell in our bodies."
    "You've already done it?" said Bean. His heart raced.
    "Calm, calm, Father," said Carlotta.
    "Of course we did it," said Cincinnatus.
    "And in a few years, we'll see if it worked," said Ender. "If not, we'll still have time to try again. Or try something else."
    He slept well that night, better than he had in five long years in space, because his children were safe, and perhaps cured, and certainly able to take care of themselves. He had accomplished it all -- if not directly, then by raising them to be the kind of people who would dare to take the steps necessary to save themselves.
    In the morning, they were all busy, but Bean was content to lie there and listen to the sounds of life in the meadow. He didn't know the names of any of the animals, but there were some who hopped and some that chirped and croaked, and some that landed lightly on him and crawled or wriggled to somewhere else and dropped or leapt off of him. He was part of the life here. Soon his body would be even more deeply involved with it. Meanwhile, he was happy.
    And maybe when he died, he'd find out that one religion or another was right after all. Maybe Petra would be there waiting for him -- impatient, scolding. "What took you?"
    "I had to finish my work."
    "Well, you didn't -- the children had to do it."
    And others. Sister Carlotta, who saved his life. Poke, who also saved his life, and also died for it. His parents, though he didn't meet them until after the war. His brother Nikolai.
    Bean woke again. He hadn't known he was going to fall asleep. But now the children were gathered around him, looking serious.

     
    "You had a little heart incident," said Cincinnatus.
    "It's called happiness," said Bean.
    He propped himself carefully on his elbows and knees. A position he had not adopted in at least a year, ever since he stopped trying to roll over. He hadn't been sure he could even do it. But there he was, on elbows and knees, like a baby. Panting, exhausted. I can't do this.
    "What I want," he said softly, "is to stand in this meadow and walk in the light of the sun."
    "Why didn't you say so?" said Carlotta.
    They got him to lie back down on the hammock cloth, and then they winched him up to sitting position, and then stood him up on his feet.
    The gravity he felt was so slight, so very close to nothing, yet being upright, even with the hammock holding him a little, was taking all his breath.
    "I'm going to walk now," he said.
    His legs were rubbery under him.
    The drones flew to him and clung to his clothing, fluttering to help hold him up. The children gathered around his legs and helped him take one step, then another.
    He felt the sun on his face. He felt the ground under his feet. He felt the people who loved him holding on to him and bearing him along.
    It was enough.
    "I'm going to lie down now," said Bean.
    And then he did.
    And then he died.

 
     
     
    Additional Content From Chapter 3
     
Return to chapter 3
     
    Sergeant was so proud of his perfect memory, thought Bean. Yet Bean and Petra had never announced anything to him, advanced though he was for a one-year-old. For of the three children on the
Herodotus
, Sergeant was the one who had never met his mother.
    Petra had given birth to Ender -- Andrew -- from her own body, had nursed him, had known him better than any of the children. All the others had been stolen as embryos and implanted in surrogate mothers. It had taken a long time to track them down.
    Bella -- Carlotta -- had been located while Bean and Petra were still together; Petra knew her, had loved her.
    But