“I'm sorry,” said Jane softly.
“Yes,” he said.
“When I'm gone,” she said, “maybe Novinha will come back to you.”
“You won't be gone if I can help it,” he said.
“But you can't. They're going to shut me down in a couple of months.”
“Shut up,” he said.
“It's only the truth.”
“Shut up and let me think.”
“What, are you going to save me now? Your record isn't very good at playing savior lately.”
He didn't answer, and she didn't speak again for the rest of the afternoon. He wandered out of the gate, but didn't go up into the forest. Instead he spent the afternoon in the grassland, alone, under the hot sun.
Sometimes he was thinking, trying to struggle with the problems that still loomed over him: the fleet coming against them, Jane's shut-off date, the descolada's constant efforts to destroy the humans of Lusitania, Warmaker's plan to spread the descolada throughout the galaxy, and the grim situation within the city now that the hive queen kept constant watch over the fence and their grim penance had them all tearing at the walls of their own houses.
And sometimes his mind was almost devoid of thought, as he stood or sat or lay in the grass, too numb to weep, her face passing through his memory, his lips and tongue and teeth forming her name, pleading with her silently, knowing that even if he made a sound, even if he shouted, even if he could make her hear his voice, she wouldn't answer him.
Novinha.
Chapter 13 – FREE WILL
<There are those among us who think that the humans should be stopped from the research into the descolada. The descolada is at the heart of our life cycle. We're afraid that they'll find a way to kill the descolada throughout the world, and that would destroy us in a generation.>
<And if you managed to stop human research into the descolada, they would certainly be wiped out within a few years.>
<Is the descolada that dangerous? Why can't they keep on containing it as they have?>
<Because the descolada is not just randomly mutating according to natural laws. It is intelligently adapting itself in order to destroy us.>
<Us? You?>
<We've been fighting the descoloda all along. Not in laboratories, like the humans, but inside ourself. Before I lay eggs, there is a phase where I prepare their bodies to manufacture all the antibodies they'll need throughout their lives. When the descoloda changes itself, we know it because the workers start dying. Then an organ near my ovaries creates new antibodies, and we lay eggs for new workers who can withstand the revised descolada.>
<So you, too, are trying to destroy it.>
<No. Our process is entirely unconscious. It takes place in the body of the hive queen, without conscious intervention. We can't go beyond meeting the present danger. Our organ of immunity is far more effective and adaptable than anything in the human body, but in the long run we'll suffer the same fate as the humans, if the descolada is not destroyed. The difference is that if we are wiped out by the descolada, there is no other hive queen in the universe to carry on our species. We are the last.>
<Your case is even more desperate than theirs.>
<And we are even more helpless to affect it. We have no science of biology beyond simple husbandry. Our natural methods were so effective in fighting disease that we never had the same impetus that humans had, to understand life and control it.>
<Is that the way it is, then? Either we are destroyed, or you and the humans are destroyed. If the descolada continues, it kills you. If it is stopped, we die.>
<This is your world. The descolada is in your bodies. If it comes time to choose between you and us, it will be you that survives.>
<You speak for yourself, my friend. But what will the humans do?>
<If they have the power to destroy the descolada in a way that would also destroy you, we will forbid them to use it.>
<Forbid them? When have humans ever obeyed?>
<We never forbid where we do not also have the power to prevent.>
<Ah.>
<This is your world. Ender knows this. And if other humans ever forget, we will remind them.>
<I have another question.>
<Ask.>
<What about those, like Warmaker, who want to spread the descolada throughout the universe? Will you also forbid them?>
<They must not carry the descolada to worlds that already have multicellular life.>
<But that's exactly what they intend to do.>
<They must not.>
<But you're building starships for us. Once they have control of a starship, they'll go where they want to go.>
<They must not.>
<So you forbid them?>
<We never forbid where we do not also have the power to prevent.>
<Then why do you still build these ships?>
<The human fleet is coming, with a weapon that can destroy this world. Ender is sure that they'll use it. Should we conspire with them, and leave your entire genetic heritage here on this single planet, so you can be obliterated with a single weapon?>
<So you build us starships, knowing that some of us may use it destructively.>
<What you do with starflight will be your responsibility. If you act as the enemy of life, then life will become your enemy. We will provide starships to you as a species. Then you, as a species, will decide who leaves Lusitania and who doesn't.>
<There's a fair chance that Warmaker's party will have the majority then. That they will be making all those decisions.>
<So– should we judge, and decide that the humans are right to try to destroy you? Maybe Warmaker is right. Maybe the humans are the ones who deserve to be destroyed. Who are we to judge between you? They with their Molecular Disruption Device. You with the descolada. Each has the power to destroy the other, each species is capable of such a monstrous crime, and yet each species has many members who would never knowingly cause such evil and who deserve to live. We will not choose. We will simply build the starships and let you and the humans work out your destiny between you.>
<You could help us. You could keep the starships out of the hands of Warmaker's party, and deal only with us.>
<Then the domestic war between you would be terrible indeed. Would you destroy their genetic heritage, simply because you disagree? Who then is the monster and the criminal? How do we judge between you, when both parties are willing to countenance the utter destruction of another people?>
<Then I have no hope. Someone will be destroyed.>
<Unless the human scientists find a way to change the descolada, so that you can survive as a species, and yet the descolada loses the power to kill.>
<How is that possible?>
<We are not biologists. Only the humans can do this, if it can be done.>
<Then we can't stop them from researching the descolada. We have to help them. Even though they nearly destroyed our forest, we have no choice but to help them.>
<We knew you would reach that conclusion.>
<Did you?>
<That's why we're building starships for the pequeninos. Because you're capable of wisdom.>
As word of the restoration of the Lusitania Fleet spread among the godspoken of Path, they began to visit the house of Han Fei-tzu to pay him honor.
“I will not see them,” said Han Fei-tzu.
“You must, Father,” said Han Qing-jao. “It is only proper for them to honor you for such a great accomplishment.”
“Then I will go and tell them that it was entirely your doing, and I had nothing to do with it.”
“No!” cried Qing-jao. “You must not do that.”
“Furthermore, I will tell them that I think it was a great crime, which will cause the death of a noble spirit. I will tell them that the godspoken of Path are slaves to a cruel and vicious government, and that we must bend all our efforts to the destruction of Congress.”