A War of Gifts: An Ender Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t show it. Instead, Dink let him know which of Rosen’s rules and orders he had to obey, and which he didn’t. He also let him know that Dink wouldn’t be playing power games with him-he was going to get Ender into the battles from the start, pushing him, giving him a chance to learn and grow.
    Wiggin clearly understood what Dink was doing for him. He left, satisfied. There’s my contribution to the survival of the human race, thought Dink. I’m not what great commanders are made of. But I know a great commander when I see one, and I can help get him ready. That’s good enough for me. I can take this stupid, ineffective school and accomplish something that actually might help us win this war. Something real.
    Not this stupid make-believe. Battle School! It was children’s games, but structured by adults in order to manipulate the children. But what did it have to do with the real war? You rise to the top of the standings, you beat everybody, and then what? Did you kill a single Bugger? Save a single human life?
    No. You just go on to the next school and start over as nothing again. Was there any evidence that Battle School accomplished anything?
    Sure, the graduates ended up filling important positions throughout the fleet. But then, Battle School only admits kids that are brilliant in the first place, so they would have been command material already. Was there any evidence that Battle School made a difference?
    I could have been home in Holland, walking by the North Sea. Watching it pound against the shore, trying to wash over and sweep away the dikes, the islands, and cover the land with ocean, as it used to be, before humans started their foolish terraforming experiment.
    Dink remembered reading-back on Earth, when he could read what he wanted-the silly claim that the Great Wall of China was the only human artifact that could be seen from space. In fact the claim wasn’t even true-at least not from geosynchronous orbit or higher. The wall didn’t even cast enough of a shadow to be seen.
    No, the human artifact that could be seen from space, that showed up in picture after picture without exciting any comment at all, was Holland. It should have been nothing but barrier islands with wide saltwater sounds behind them. Instead, because the Dutch built their dikes and pumped out the salt water and purified the soil, it was land. Lush, green land-visible from space. But nobody recognized it as a human artifact. It was just land. It grew plants and fed dairy cattle and held houses and highways, just like any other land. But we did it. We Dutch. And when the sea levels rose, we raised our dikes higher and made them thicker and stronger, and nobody thought, Wow, look at the Dutch, they created the largest human artifact on Earth, and they’re still making it, a thousand years later.
    I could have been home in Holland until they were actually ready to have me do something real. As real as the land behind the dikes.
    Free time was over. Dink went to practice. Then he ate with the rest of Rat Army-complete with the ritual of pretending that all their food was rat food. Dink noticed how Wiggin observed and seemed to enjoy the game-but didn’t take part. He stayed aloof, watching.
    That’s something else we have in common.
    Something else? Why had he thought of it that way? What was the first thing they had in common, that made it so standing aloof was something else?
    Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot. We’re the smartest kids in the room. Dink silently laughed at himself with perfect scorn. Right, I’m not competitive. I know I’m not the bestbut without even thinking about it, I assume that I’m therefore second best. What an eemo. Dink went to the library and studied awhile. He hoped that Petra would come by, but she didn’t. Instead of talking to her-the only other kid he knew who shared his contempt for the system-he actually finished his assignments. It was history, so it mattered that he do well. He got