AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But Ender had no interest in watching them squabble. He strode off in the direction Leaf-eater had gone, and let them follow as they would. And, of course, they did, leaving their argument for later. As soon as Ender knew they were walking with him, he began to question them again. "These Questionable Activities you've carried out," he said as he walked. "You introduced new food into their diet?"
"We taught them how to eat the merdona root," said Ouanda. She was crisp and businesslike, but at least she was speaking to him. She wasn't going to let her anger keep her from being part of what was obviously going to be a crucial meeting with the piggies. "How to nullify the cyanide content by soaking it and drying it in the sun. That was the short-term solution."
"The long-term solution was some of Mother's cast-off amaranth adaptations," said Miro. "She made a batch of amaranth that was so well-adapted to Lusitania that it wasn't very good for humans. Too much Lusitanian protein structure, not enough Earthborn. But that sounded about right for the piggies. I got Ela to give me
some of the cast-off specimens, without letting her know it was important."
Don't kid yourself about what Ela does and doesn't know, Ender said silently.
"Libo gave it to them, taught them how to plant it. Then how to grind it, make flour, turn it into bread. Nasty-tasting stuff, but it gave them a diet directly under their control for the first time ever. They've been fat and sassy ever since."
Ouanda's voice was bitter. "But they killed Father right after the first loaves were taken to the wives."
Ender walked in silence for a few moments, trying to make sense of this. The piggies killed Libo immediately after he saved them from starvation? Unthinkable, and yet it happened. How could such a society evolve, killing those who contributed most to its survival? They should do the opposite--they should reward the valuable ones by enhancing their opportunity to reproduce. That's how communities improve their chances of surviving as a group. How could the piggies possibly survive, murdering those who contribute most to their survival?
And yet there were human precedents. These children, Miro and Ouanda, with the Questionable Activities--they were better and wiser, in the long run, than the Starways committee that made the rules. But if they were caught, they would be taken from their homes to another world--already a death sentence, in a way, since everyone they knew would be dead before they could ever return--and they would be tried and punished, probably imprisoned. Neither their ideas nor their genes would propagate, and society would be impoverished by it.
Still, just because humans did it, too, did not make it sensible. Besides, the arrest and imprisonment of Miro and Ouanda, if it ever happened, would make sense if you viewed humans as a single community, and the piggies as their enemies; if you thought that anything that helped the piggies survive was somehow a menace to humanity. Then the punishment of people who enhanced the piggies' culture would be designed, not to protect the piggies, but to keep the piggies from developing.
At that moment Ender saw clearly that the rules governing human contact with the piggies did not really function to protect the piggies at all. They functioned to guarantee human superiority and power. From that point of view, by performing their Questionable Activities, Miro and Ouanda were traitors to the self-interest of their own species.
"Renegades," he said aloud.
"What?" said Miro. "What did you say?"
"Renegades. Those who have denied their own people, and claimed the enemy as their own."
"Ah," said Miro.
"We're not," said Ouanda.
"Yes we are," said Miro.
"I haven't denied my humanity!"
"The way Bishop Peregrino defines it, we denied our humanity long ago," said Miro.
"But the way I define it--" she began.
"The way you define it," said Ender, "the piggies are also human. That's why you're a renegade."
"I thought you said we treated the piggies like animals!" Ouanda said.
"When you don't hold them accountable, when you don't ask them direct questions, when you try to deceive them, then you treat them like animals."
"In other words," said Miro, "when we do follow the committee rules."
"Yes," said Ouanda, "yes, that's right, we are renegades."
"And you?" said Miro. "Why are you a renegade?"
"Oh, the human race kicked me out a long time ago. That's how I got to be a speaker for the dead."
With that they arrived at the piggies' clearing.
Mother wasn't at dinner and neither was Miro. That was fine with Ela. When either one of them was there, Ela was stripped of her authority; she couldn't keep control over the younger children. And yet neither Miro nor Mother took Ela's place, either. Nobody obeyed Ela and nobody else tried to keep order. So it was quieter, easier when they stayed away.
Not that the little ones were particularly well-behaved even now. They just resisted her less. She only had to yell at Grego a couple of times to keep him from poking and kicking Quara under the table. And today both Quim and Olhado were keeping to themselves. None of the normal bickering.
