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/> "No," said Ender. "Bishop Peregrino, once they know what the Descolada will do, they'll see to it that no one leaves this planet, ever."
The Bishop scoffed. "What, do you think they'll blow up the planet? Come now, Speaker, there are no more Enders among the human race. The worst they might do is quarantine us here--"
"In which case," said Dom Cristao, "why should we submit to their control at all? We could send them a message telling them about the Descolada, informing them that we will not leave the planet and they should not come here, and that's it."
Bosquinha shook her head. "Do you think that none of them will say, 'The Lusitanians, just by visiting another world, can destroy it. They have a starship, they have a known propensity for rebelliousness, they have the murderous piggies. Their existence is a threat.' "
"Who would say that?" said the Bishop.
"No one in the Vatican," said Ender. "But Congress isn't in the business of saving souls."
"And maybe they'd be right," said the Bishop. "You said yourself that the piggies want starflight. And yet wherever they might go, they'll have this same effect. Even uninhabited worlds, isn't that right? What will they do, endlessly duplicate this bleak landscape--forests of a single tree, prairies of a single grass, with only the cabra to graze it and only the xingadora to fly above it?"
"Maybe someday we could find a way to get the Descolada under control," said Ela.
"We can't stake our future on such a thin chance," said the Bishop.
"That's why we have to rebel," said Ender. "Because Congress will think exactly that way. Just as they did three thousand years ago, in the Xenocide. Everybody condemns the Xenocide because it destroyed an alien species that turned out to be harmless in its intentions. But as long as it seemed that the buggers were determined to destroy humankind, the leaders of humanity had no choice but to fight back with all their strength. We are presenting them with the same dilemma again. They're already afraid of the piggies. And once they understand the Descolada, all the pretense of trying to protect the piggies will be done with. For the sake of humanity's survival, they'll destroy us. Probably not the whole planet. As you said, there are no Enders today. But they'll certainly obliterate Milagre and remove any trace of human contact. Including killing all the piggies who know us. Then they'll set a watch over this planet to keep the piggies from ever emerging from their primitive state. If you knew what they know, wouldn't you do the same?"
"A speaker for the dead says this?" said Dom Cristao.
"You were there," said the Bishop. "You were there the first time, weren't you. When the buggers were destroyed."
"Last time we had no way of talking to the buggers, no way of knowing they were ramen and not varelse. This time we're here. We know that we won't go out and destroy other worlds. We know that we'll stay here on Lusitania until we can go out safely, the Descolada neutralized. This time," said Ender, "we can keep the ramen alive, so that whoever writes the piggies' story won't have to be a speaker for the dead."
The secretary opened the door abruptly, and Ouanda burst in. "Bishop," she said. "Mayor. You have to come. Novinha--"
"What is it?" said the Bishop.
"Ouanda, I have to arrest you," said Bosquinha.
"Arrest me later," she said. "It's Miro. He climbed over the fence."
"He can't do that," said Novinha. "It might kill him--" Then, in horror, she realized what she had said. "Take me to him--"
"Get Navio," said Dona Crista.
"You don't understand," said Ouanda. "We can't get to him. He's on the other side of the fence."
"Then what can we do?" asked Bosquinha.
"Turn the fence off," said Ouanda.
Bosquinha looked helplessly at the others. "I can't do that. The Committee controls that now. By ansible. They'd never turn it off."
"Then Miro's as good as dead," said Ouanda.
"No," said Novinha.
Behind her, another figure came into the room. Small, fur-covered. None of them but Ender had ever before seen a piggy in the flesh, but they knew at once what the creature was. "Excuse me," said the piggy. "Does this mean we should plant him now?"
No one bothered to ask how the piggy got over the fence. They were too busy realizing what he meant by planting Miro.
"No!" screamed Novinha.
Mandachuva looked at her in surprise. "No?"
"I think," said Ender, "that you shouldn't plant any more humans."
