Read Xenocide (Ender Wiggins Saga) for Free Online Page B

food and water, every day of their lives. And they can never go away from Lusitania again or they'll carry death and destruction with them."
    "I suppose we knew that was a possibility," said Valentine.
    "When you left, it was only a possibility. We thought that the descolada would soon be controlled. Now they aren't sure if it can ever be controlled. And that means that you can never leave Lusitania once you go there."
    "I hope we like the weather."
    Miro studied her face, the way she was processing the information he had given her. The initial fear was gone. She was herself again-- thinking. "Here's what I think," said Miro. "I think that no matter how terrible Congress is, no matter how evil their plans might be, that fleet might be the salvation of humanity."
    Valentine answered thoughtfully, searching for words. Miro was glad to see that-- she was a person who didn't shoot back without thinking. She was able to learn. "I can see that if events move down one possible path, there might be a time when-- but it's very improbable. First of all, knowing all this, the Hive Queen is quite unlikely to build any starships that would carry the descolada away from Lusitania."
    "Do you know the Hive Queen?" demanded Miro. "Do you understand her?"
    "Even if she would do such a thing," said Valentine, "your mother and sister are working on this, aren't they? By the time we reach Lusitania-- by the time the fleet reaches Lusitania-- they might have found a way to control the descolada once and for all."
    "And if they do," said Miro, "should they use it?"
    "Why shouldn't they?"
    "How could they kill all the descolada virus? The virus is an integral part of the pequenino life cycle. When the pequenino body-form dies, it's the descolada virus that enables the transformation into the tree-state, what the piggies call the third life-- and it's only in the third life, as trees, that the pequenino males can fertilize the females. If the virus is gone, there can be no more passage into the third life, and this generation of piggies is the last."
    "That doesn't make it impossible, it only makes it harder. Your mother and sister have to find a way to neutralize the descolada in human beings and the crops we need to eat, without destroying its ability to enable the pequeninos to pass into adulthood."
    "And they have less than fifteen years to do it," said Miro. "Not likely."
    "But not impossible."
    "Yes. There's a chance. And on the strength of that chance, you want to get rid of the fleet?"
    "The fleet is being sent to destroy Lusitania whether we control the descolada virus or not."
    "And I say it again-- the motive of the senders is irrelevant. No matter what the reason, the destruction of Lusitania may be the only sure protection for all the rest of humanity."
    "And I say you're wrong."
    "You're Demosthenes, aren't you? Andrew said you were."
    "Yes."
    "So you thought up the Hierarchy of Foreignness. Utlannings are strangers from our own world. Framlings are strangers of our own species, but from another world. Ramen are strangers of another species, but capable of communication with us, capable of co-existence with humanity. Last are varelse-- and what are they ?"
    "The pequeninos are not varelse. Neither is the Hive Queen."
    "But the descolada is . Varelse. An alien life form that's capable of destroying all of humanity ..."
    "Unless we can tame it..."
    "... Yet which we cannot possibly communicate with, an alien species that we cannot live with. You're the one who said that in that case war is unavoidable. If an alien species seems bent on destroying us and we can't communicate with them, can't understand them, if there's no possibility of turning them away from their course peacefully, then we are justified in any action necessary to save ourselves, including the complete destruction of the other species."
    "Yes," said Valentine.
    "But what if we must destroy the descolada, and yet we can't destroy the descolada without also destroying every