Chapter 9

Congenital Defect

CIDA: The Descolada body isn't bacterial. It seems to enter the cells of the body and take up permanent residence, just like mitochondria, reproducing when the cell reproduces. The fact that it spread to a new species within only a few years of our arrival here suggests that it is wildly adaptable. It must surely have spread through the entire blosphere of Lusitania long ago, so that it may now be endemic here, a permanent infection.

GUSTO: If it's permanent and everywhere, it isn't an infection, Cida, it's part of normal life.

CIDA: But it isn't necessarily inborn– it has the ability to spread. But yes, if it's endemic then all the indigenous species must have found ways to fight it off.

GUSTO: Or adapt to it and include it in their normal life cycle. Maybe they NEED it.

CIDA: They NEED something that takes apart their genetic molecules and puts them back together at random?

GUSTO: Maybe that's why there are so few different species in Lusitania– the Descolada may be fairly recent, only half a million years old– and most species couldn't adapt.

CIDA: I wish we weren't dying, Gusto. The next xenobiologist will probably work with standard genetic adaptations and won't follow this up.

GUSTO: That's the only reason you can think of for regretting our death?

– Vladimir Tiago Gussman and Ekaterina Maria Aparecida do Norte von Hesse-Gussman, unpublished dialogue embedded in working notes, two days before their deaths; first quoted in “Lost Threads of Understanding,” Meta-Science, the journal of Methodology, 2001:12:12:144-45

Ender did not get home from the Ribeira house until late that night, and he spent more than an hour trying to make sense of all that happened, especially after Novinha came home. Despite this, Ender awoke early the next morning, his thoughts already full of questions he had to answer. It was always this way when he was preparing to Speak a death; he could hardly rest from trying to piece together the story of the dead man as he saw himself, the life the dead woman meant to live, however badly it had turned out. This time, though, there was an added anxiety. He cared more for the living this time than he ever had before.

“Of course you're more involved,” said Jane, after he tried to explain his confusion to her. “You fell in love with Novinha before you left Trondheim.”

“Maybe I loved the young girl, but this woman is nasty and selfish. Look what she let happen to her children.”

“This is the Speaker for the Dead? Judging someone by appearances?”

“Maybe I've fallen in love with Grego.”

“You've always been a sucker for people who pee on you.”

“And Quara. All of them– even Miro, I like the boy.”

“And they love you, Ender.”

He laughed. "People always think they love me, until I

Speak. Novinha's more perceptive than most– she already hates me before I tell the truth."

“You're as blind about yourself as anyone else, Speaker,” said Jane. “Promise me that when you die, you'll let me Speak your death. Have I got things to say.”

“Keep them to yourself,” said Ender wearily. “You're even worse at this business than I am.”

He began his list of questions to be resolved.

1. Why did Novinha marry Marc o in the first place?

2. Why did Marc o hate his children?

3. Why does Novinha hate herself?

4. Why did Miro call me to Speak Libo's death?

5. Why did Ela call me to Speak her father's death?

6. Why did Novinha change her mind about my Speaking Pipo's death?

7. What was the immediate cause of Marc o's death?

He stopped with the seventh question. It would be easy to answer it; a merely clinical matter. So that was where he would begin.

The physician who autopsied Marc o was called Navio, which meant «ship.»

“Not for my size,” he said, laughing. “Or because I'm much of a swimmer. My full name is Enrique o Navigador Caronada. You can bet I'm glad they took my nickname from 'shipmaster' rather than from 'little cannon.' Too many obscene possibilities in that one.”

Ender was not deceived by his joviality. Navio was a good Catholic and he obeyed his bishop as well as anyone. He was determined to keep Ender from learning anything, though he'd not be uncheerful about it.

“There are two ways I can get the answers to my questions,” Ender said quietly. “I can ask you, and you can tell me truthfully. Or I can submit a petition to the Starways Congress for your records to be opened to me. The ansible charges are very high, and since the petition is a routine one, and your resistance to it is contrary to law, the cost will be deducted from your colony's already straitened funds, along with a double-the-cost penalty and a reprimand for you.”

Navio's smile gradually disappeared as Ender spoke. He answered coldly. “Of course I'll answer your questions,” he said.

“There's no 'of course' about it,” said Ender. “Your bishop counseled the people of Milagre to carry out an unprovoked and unjustified boycott of a legally called-for minister. You would do everyone a favor if you would inform them that if this cheerful noncooperation continues, I will petition for my status to be changed from minister to inquisitor. I assure you that I have a very good reputation with the Starways Congress, and my petition will be successful.”

Navio knew exactly what that meant. As an inquisitor, Ender would have congressional authority to revoke the colony's Catholic license on the grounds of religious persecution. It would cause a terrible upheaval among the Lusitanians, not least because the Bishop would be summarily dismissed from his position and sent to the Vatican for discipline.

“Why would you do such a thing when you know we don't want you here?” said Navio.

“Someone wanted me here or I wouldn't have come,” said Ender. “You may not like the law when it annoys you, but it protects many a Catholic on worlds where another creed is licensed.”

Navio drummed his fingers on his desk. “What are your questions, Speaker,” he said. “Let's get this done.”

“It's simple enough, to start with, at least. What was the proximate cause of the death of Marcos Maria Ribeira?”

«Marc o!» said Navio. «You couldn't possibly have been summoned to Speak his death, he only passed away a few weeks ago–»

«I have been asked to Speak several deaths, Dom Navio, and I choose to begin with Marc o's.»

Navio grimaced. “What if I ask for proof of your authority?” Jane whispered in Ender's ear. “Let's dazzle the dear boy.” Immediately, Navio's terminal came alive with official documents, while one of Jane's most authoritative voices declared, “Andrew Wiggin, Speaker for the Dead, has accepted the call for an explanation of the life and death of Marcos Maria Ribeira, of the city of Milagre, Lusitania Colony.”

It was not the document that impressed Navio, however. It was the fact that he had not actually made the request, or even logged on to his terminal. Navio knew at once that the computer had been activated through the jewel in the Speaker's ear, but it meant that a very high-level logic routine was shadowing the Speaker and enforcing compliance with his requests. No one on Lusitania, not even Bosquinha herself, had ever had authority to do that. Whatever this Speaker was, Navio concluded, he's a bigger fish than even Bishop Peregrino can hope to fry.

“All right,” Navio said, forcing a laugh. Now, apparently, he remembered how to be jovial again. “I meant to help you anyway– the Bishop's paranoia doesn't afflict everyone in Milagre, you know.”

Ender smiled back at him, taking his hypocrisy at face value.

“Marcos Ribeira died of a congenital defect.” He rattled off a long pseudo-Latin name. “You've never heard of it because it's quite rare, and is passed on only through the genes. Beginning at the onset of puberty, in most cases, it involves the gradual replacement of exocrine and endocrine glandular tissues with lipidous cells. What that means is that bit by bit over the years, the adrenal glands, the pituitary, the liver, the testes, the thyroid, and so on, are all replaced by large agglomerations of fat cells.”