Enders In Exile Read Online Free PDF Page B

rightness of their cause if they just
stated it clearly enough. As a result, they tipped their hand in every
game and couldn't understand why everyone ganged up against them.
    Ender had watched the
arguments unfold on the nets, watched the teams form, saw how the
"moderates" led by Locke kept benefiting from Demosthenes' provocations.
    And now, as Demosthenes
continued to agitate in support of Ender, he was actually the one doing
Ender the most damage. To everyone who feared Demosthenes'
movement—which was the whole world outside
America—Ender would not be a hero, he'd be a monster. Bring
him
home, to lead America on a nuevo-imperialista rampage? Let him become
an American Alexander, Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, conquering the world
or forcing the world to unite in brutal war against him?
    Fortunately, Ender did
not want to be a conqueror. So he wouldn't be hurt by missing out on
the chance to try it.
    Still, he'd love to
have a chance to explain things to Demosthenes.
    Not that the man would
ever consent to be alone in a room with the killer hero.

    * * * * *
    Mazer never discussed
the actual court martial with Ender, but they could talk about Graff.
    "Hyrum Graff is the
consummate bureaucrat," Mazer told him. "He's always thinking ten steps
ahead of everyone else. It doesn't really matter what office he holds.
He can use anybody—below him or above him or complete
strangers who've never met him—to accomplish whatever he
thinks is needful for the human race."
    "I'm glad he chooses to
use this power of his for good."
    "I don't know that he
does," said Mazer. "He uses it for what he believes is good. But I
don't know that he's particularly good at knowing what 'good' is."
    "In philosophy class I
think we finally decided that 'good' is an infinitely recursive
term—it can't be defined except in terms of itself. Good is
good because it's better than bad, though why it's better to be good
than bad depends on how you define good, and on and on."
    "The things the modern
fleet teaches to its admirals."
    "You're an admiral too,
and look where it got
you
."
    "Tutor to a bratty boy
who saves the human race but doesn't do his chores."
    "Sometimes I wish I
were bratty," said Ender. "I dream about it—about defying
authority. But even when I absolutely decide to, what I can't get rid
of is responsibility. People counting on me—that's what
controls me."
    "So you have no
ambition except duty?" asked Mazer.
    "And I have no duties
now," said Ender. "So I envy Colonel . . . Mister Graff. All those
plans. All that purpose. I wonder what he plans for
me
."
    "Are you sure he does?"
asked Mazer. "Plan anything for you, I mean?"
    "Maybe not," said
Ender. "He worked awfully hard to shape this tool. But now that it will
never be needed again, maybe he can set me down and let me rust and
never think of me."
    "Maybe," said Mazer.
"That's the thing we have to keep in mind. Graff is not . . .
nice
."
    "Unless he needs to be."
    "Unless he needs to
seem
to be," said Mazer. "He's not above lying his face off to frame things
in such a way that you'll
want
to do what he
wants you to do."
    "Which is how he got
you here, to be my trainer during the war?"
    "Oh, yes," said Mazer,
with a sigh.
    "Going home now?" asked
Ender. "I know you have family."
    "Great-grandchildren,"
said Mazer. "And great-great-grandchildren. My wife is dead and my only
surviving child is gaga with senility, my grandchildren tell me. They
say it lightly, because they've accepted that their father or uncle has
lived a full life and he's getting really old. But how can I accept it?
I don't know any of these people."
    "Hero's welcome won't
be enough to make up for losing fifty years, is that it?" asked Ender.
    "Hero's welcome,"
muttered Mazer. "You know what the hero's welcome is? They're still
deciding whether to charge me along with Graff. I think they probably
will."
    "So if they charge you
along with Graff," said Ender, "then you'll be acquitted along with
him."
    "Acquitted?"