Shadow of the Giant (25 page)

“You want me to win so I’ll pay for your fleet.”

“We want you to win so that the human race can stop spending its vast surpluses on ways to kill each other, and can instead send all the people that would have been killed in war out into space. And all the money that would have been spent on weapons can be spent on colony ships, and on trading ships, eventually. The human race has always produced a vast surplus of human beings and of wealth, and it has used up almost all of it either on stupid monuments like the pyramids or on brutal, bloody, pointless wars. We want you to unite the world so that this waste can finally stop.”

Peter laughed. “You are such
dreamers
. Such idealists!”

“We were warriors and we studied our enemy. The Hive Queens. They failed because they were too unified. Human beings are a better design for a sentient species. Once we get over this war thing. What the Hive Queens tried, we can
do
. Spread out the species so it can develop truly new cultures.”

“New cultures? When you insist that each colony be made up entirely of people from one nation, one language group?”

“We’re not absolutely rigid on that, but yes. There are two ways of looking at species diversity. One is that every colony should contain a complete copy of the whole human race—every culture, every language, every race. But what’s the point of that? Earth already has that! And look how well it’s worked.

“No, the great colonies of the past have succeeded precisely because they were internally unified. People who knew each other, trusted each other, shared the same purposes, embraced the same laws. Each one monochromatic to begin with. But when we send out fifty monochromatic colony ships, but all different colors, so to speak—fifty different colonies, each with a separate cultural and linguistic root—
then
the human race can perform fifty different experiments. Real species diversity.”

“I don’t care what you say,” said Peter, “I’m not going.”

Rackham smiled. “We don’t want you to.”

“The two colony ships you’ve launched. One of them was Ender’s.”

“That’s right.”

“Who’s the commander of the second ship?”

“Well, the
ship
is commanded by—”

“Who’s going to rule the
colony
,” said Peter.

“Dink Meeker.”

So that was the plan. They meant to take Ender’s Jeesh and anybody else who was dangerously talented in a military way and send them off into space. “So to you,” said Peter, “this war between Han Tzu and Alai is your worst nightmare.”

Rackham nodded.

“Don’t worry,” said Peter.

“Don’t worry?”

“All right,” said Peter. “Worry if you want. But your offer to Ender’s Jeesh, to take them all off planet, to give them colonies—now I understand what it’s about. You care about these kids whose lives you coopted. You want to get them off to worlds where there’s no rival. They can use their talents to help a community triumph over a new world.”

“Yes.”

“But the most important thing is, they won’t be on Earth.”

Rackham shrugged.

“You knew that nobody could ever unite the world as you need it to be united while those highly trained, highly aggressive, publicly certified geniuses are still in it.”

“We didn’t see a way it could happen.”

“Well, that’s a lie,” said Peter. “You saw the way it would happen, because it’s obvious. One of
them
would be the ruler of Earth, and all the others would be dead.”

“Yes, we saw that, but it wasn’t an option.”

“Why not? It’s the human way of settling things.”

“We love these kids, Peter.”

“But love them or not, they’ll all die eventually. No, I think you would have been content to let them work it out, if you thought it would work. If you thought one of them would emerge triumphant. What you couldn’t stand was the knowledge that they were so evenly matched that none of them would win. They’d use up the resources of Earth, all that surplus population, and
still
there’d be no clear winner.”

“That wouldn’t help anything,” said Rackham.

“So if you could have found a cure for Bean’s condition, you wouldn’t need me. Because Bean could do it. He could defeat the others. He could unite the world. Because he’s so much better than they are.”

“But he’s going to die,” said Rackham.

“And you love him,” said Peter. “So you’re going to try to save his life.”

“We want him to help you win first.”

“That’s not possible,” said Peter. “Not in the time he has left.”

“By ‘win,’” said Rackham, “I mean, we want him to help you get into a position where your victory is inevitable, given your abilities. Right now, you could be stopped by all kinds of chance events. Having Bean increases your power and influence. Another thing that would help is if we could get the rest of the Jeesh off this planet. If we’ve removed from the board all the pieces that could challenge you—if, in effect, you’re the queen in a game of knights and bishops—then you won’t need Bean anymore.”

“I’ll need somebody,” said Peter. “I’m not trained for war the way these Battle School kids were. And as you said, I’m not the kind of guy that soldiers want to die for.”

Rackham leaned forward. “Peter, tell us what you’re planning.”

“I’m not planning anything,” said Peter. “I’m simply waiting. When I met Virlomi, I realized that she was the key to everything. She’s volatile, she’s powerful, and she’s drunk. I knew that she’d do something destabilizing. Something that would break things apart.”

“So you think the war between India and China will happen? And that Alai’s Muslim League will be drawn into it?”

“That’s possible,” said Peter. “I hope it won’t happen.”

“But if it does, you’ll be poised to attack Alai when his forces are tied up fighting China.”

“No,” said Peter.

“No?”

“We’re not going to attack anybody,” he said.

“Then…what?” said Rackham. “Whoever emerges from that war—”

“I don’t think that war’s going to amount to much,” said Peter, “if it happens at all. But if it does happen, then both sides will be weakened by it. There’s no shortage of ambitious nations ready to step in and pick up the pieces.”

“So what do
you
think is going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” said Peter. “I wish you’d believe me. There’s only one thing I’m sure of. Alai’s and Virlomi’s marriage is doomed. And if you want either or both of them to command any of your precious colonies, you’d better make sure you’re ready to get them off planet fast.”

“Are you planning something?” asked Rackham.

“No! Aren’t you listening? I’m watching the whole damn thing just like you are! I’ve already played my cards—making the Muslim leadership suspicious of my intentions. Provoking them. Plus a little quiet diplomacy.”

“With whom?”

“With Russia,” said Peter.

“You’re trying to get them to join with you in attacking Alai? Or China?”

“No, no, no,” said Peter. “If I tried anything like that, word would get out, and then what Muslim nation would ever,
ever
join the FPE?”

“So what are you doing with your diplomacy?”

“Begging the Russians to stay out of it.”

“In other words, pointing out the opportunity and telling them that you’re not going to interfere in any way.”

“Yes,” said Peter.

“Politics is so…indirect.”

“That’s why conquerors rarely make great rulers.”

“And great rulers are rarely conquerors.”

“You closed the door on my becoming a conqueror,” said Peter. “So if I’m to be the ruler of the world—a good one—then I have to win that position in such a way as not to have to keep killing people in order to stay in power. It does the world no good if everything depends on me, if it all collapses when I die. I need to build this thing piece by piece, bit by bit, with powerful institutions that have their own momentum, so that it will make very little difference who’s at the head. It’s what I learned from growing up in America. It was a nation created out of nothing—nothing but a set of ideals that they never measured up to. Now and then they had great leaders, but usually nothing but political hacks, and I mean right from the start. Washington was great, but Adams was paranoid and lazy, and Jefferson was as vile a scheming politician as a nation has ever been cursed with. I learned a lot from
him
about destroying your enemies with demagoguery conducted under pseudonyms.”

“So you were praising him.”

“I’m saying that America shaped itself with institutions so strong that it could survive corruption, stupidity, vanity, ambition, recklessness, and even insanity in its chief executive. I’m trying to do the same thing with the Free People of Earth. Base it on some simple but workable ideals. Bring nations into it because they freely choose to join. Unite them with a language and a system of laws, and give them a stake in institutions that take on a life of their own. And I can’t do any of that if I conquer a single country and force it to join. That’s a rule I can never violate. My forces will defeat enemies who attack the FPE, and we’ll carry war into their territory to do it. But when it comes to joining the FPE, they can only do it if a majority of the people want to. If they choose to be subject to our laws and take part in our institutions.”

“But you’re not above getting other nations to do your conquering for you.”

“Islam,” said Peter, “has never learned how to be a religion. It’s a tyranny by its very nature. Until it learns to let the door swing both ways, and permit Muslims to decide not to be Muslim without penalty, then the world has no choice but to fight against it in order to remain free. As long as Muslim nations remained divided, working against each other, they weren’t going to be a problem for me, because I could pick them up one by one, especially after the FPE becomes large enough for them to see how the people within my borders prosper.”

“But united under Alai—”

“Alai is a decent guy,” said Peter. “I think he has some idea of liberalizing Islam from the top. But it can’t be done. He’s simply wrong. He’s a general, not a politician. As long as ordinary Muslims believe it’s their duty to kill any Muslim who tries to quit being a Muslim, as long as they think they have a holy duty to resort to arms to compel unbelievers to obey Islamic law—you can’t liberalize that, you can’t make it a decent system for anybody. Not even for Muslims. Because the cruelest, narrowest, most evil people will always rise to power because they’ll always be the ones most willing to wrap themselves in the crescent flag and murder people in God’s name.”

“So Alai is doomed to fail.”

“Alai is doomed to die. The moment the fanatics realize that he’s not as fanatically pure a Muslim as they are, they’ll kill him.”

“And install a new Caliph?”

“They can install whoever they want,” said Peter. “It won’t matter to me. Without Alai, there’s no Islamic unity, because only Alai can lead them to victory. And in defeat, Muslims don’t stay united. They move like a great wave—until they meet a wall of rock that doesn’t move. Then they crash and recede.”

“As they did after Charles Martel defeated them.”

“It’s Alai who made them powerful,” said Peter. “The only trouble is, Alai doesn’t like the things he has to do in order to rule a totalitarian system like Islam. He’s already killed a lot more people than he wanted to. Alai’s not a killer, but he’s become one, and he likes it less and less.”

“You think he’s not going to follow Virlomi into war.”

“It’s a race,” said Peter. “Between followers of Alai who plan to kill Virlomi in order to free Alai from her influence, and fanatical Muslims who plan to kill Alai because he betrayed Islam by marrying Virlomi in the first place.”

“Do you know who the conspirators are?”

“I don’t have to,” said Peter. “If there weren’t any conspirators planning murder, it wouldn’t be a Muslim empire. And there’s another race. Can they kill Alai or Virlomi before China or Russia attacks? And even if they do kill one or both of them, will that stop China or Russia from attacking, or simply encourage them to think that victory will be more likely?”

“And is there any scenario where you’ll go to war?”

“Yes,” said Peter. “If they get rid of Virlomi, and Russia and China don’t attack, then Alai—or his successor, if they kill him, too—will be pushed into attacking Armenia and Nubia. And
that’s
a war I’m ready to fight. We’ll destroy them. We’ll be the rock against which Islam crashes and breaks into pieces.”

“And if Russia or China does attack them before they can turn to you, then you still profit from the war as frightened nations unite with you against either Russia or China—whichever country is seen as the aggressive, dangerous one.”

“It’s like I said,” Peter answered. “I have no idea how things will turn out. I just know that I’m ready to take advantage of every situation I can think of. And I’m watching very closely so that if something happens that I haven’t foreseen, I can take advantage of it.”

“So here’s the key question,” said Rackham. “It’s the information I came here to get.”

“I’m dying to hear.”

“How long are you going to need Bean?”

Peter thought about that one for a while. “I’ve had to make my plans knowing that he was going to die. Or, once you made your offer, leave. So the answer is, as long as I have him, of course I’ll use him, either to intimidate would-be enemies, or to command my forces when we go to war. But if he dies or leaves, I can make do. My plans don’t depend on having Bean.”

“So if he left in three months.”

“Rackham, have you already found his other children? Is that what you’re saying? Have you found them and you aren’t telling him and Petra because you think I need Bean?”

“Not all of them.”

“You’re cold. You’re such bastards,” said Peter. “You’re still using children as your tools.”

“Yes,” said Rackham. “We’re bastards. But we mean well. Just like you.”

“Give Bean and Petra their babies. And save his life, if you can. He’s a good man who deserves better than to have you toy with him any longer.”