“You must understand,” Ender told her, “that humans will need a lot of open land. But we're only the beginning of the problem. You want the hive queen to teach you, to help you mine ore and smelt metals and make tools. But she'll also need land. And in a very short time she'll be far stronger than either humans or Little Ones.” Every one of her buggers, he explained, was perfectly obedient and infinitely hardworking. They would quickly outstrip the humans in their productivity and power. Once she was restored to life on Lusitania, she would have to be reckoned with at every turn.

“Rooter says she can be trusted,” said Human. And, translating for Shouter, he said, “The mothertree also gives the hive queen her trust.”

“Do you give her your land?” Ender insisted.

“The world is big,” Human translated for Shouter. “She can use all the forests of the other tribes. So can you. We give them to you freely.”

Ender looked at Ouanda and Ela. “That's all very good,” said Ela, “but are those forests theirs to give?”

“Definitely not,” said Ouanda. “They even have wars with the other tribes.”

“We'll kill them for you if they give you trouble,” offered Human. “We're very strong now. Three hundred twenty babies. In ten years no tribe can stand against us.”

“Human,” said Ender, “tell Shouter that we are dealing with this tribe now. We'll deal with other tribes later.”

Human translated quickly, his words tumbling over each other, and quickly had Shouter's response. “No no no no no.”

“What is she objecting to?” asked Ender.

“You won't deal with our enemies. You came to us. If you go to them, then you are the enemy, too.”

It was at that moment that the lights appeared in the forest behind them, and Arrow and Leaf-eater led Novinha, Quim, and Olhado into the wives' clearing.

“Miro sent us,” Olhado explained.

“How is he?” asked Ouanda.

“Paralyzed,” said Quim bluntly. It saved Novinha the effort of explaining it gently.

“Nossa Senhora,” whispered Ouanda.

“But much of it is temporary,” said Novinha. “Before I left, I squeezed his hand. He felt it, and squeezed me back. Just a little, but the nerve connections aren't dead, not all of them, anyway.”

"Excuse me," said Ender, "but that's a conversation you can carry on back in Milagre. I have another matter to attend to here. "

“Sorry,” Novinha said. “Miro's message. He couldn't speak, but he gave it to us letter by letter, and we figured out what went in the cracks. The piggies are planning war. Using the advantages they've gained from us. Arrows, their greater numbers– they'd be irresistible. As I understand it, though, Miro says that their warfare isn't just a matter of conquest of territory. It's an opportunity for genetic mixing. Male exogamy. The winning tribe gets the use of the trees that grow from the bodies of the war dead.”

Ender looked at Human, Leaf-eater, Arrow. "It's true," said Arrow. "Of course it's true. We are the wisest of tribes now. All of us will make better fathers than any of the other piggies. "

“I see,” said Ender.

“That's why Miro wanted us to come to you now, tonight,” said Novinha. “While the negotiations still aren't final. That has to end.”

Human stood up, bounced up and down as if he were about to take off and fly. “I won't translate that,” said Human.

“I will,” said Leaf-eater.

“Stop!” shouted Ender. His voice was far louder than he had ever let it be heard before. Immediately everyone fell silent; the echo of his shout seemed to linger among the trees. “Leaf-eater,” said Ender, “I will have no interpreter but Human.”

“Who are you to tell me that I may not speak to the wives? I am a piggy, and you are nothing.”

“Human,” said Ender, “tell Shouter that if she lets Leafeater translate words that we humans have said among ourselves, then he is a spy. And if she lets him spy on us, we will go home now and you will have nothing from us. I'll take the hive queen to another world to restore her. Do you understand?”

Of course he understood. Ender also knew that Human was pleased. Leaf-eater was trying to usurp Human's role and discredit him– along with Ender. When Human finished translating Ender's words, Shouter sang at Leaf-eater. Abashed, he quickly retreated to the woods to watch with the other piggies.

But Human was by no means a puppet. He gave no sign that he was grateful. He looked Ender in the eye. “You said you wouldn't try to change us.”

“I said I wouldn't try to change you more than is necessary.”

“Why is this necessary? It's between us and the other piggies.”

“Careful,” said Ouanda. “He's very upset.”

Before he could hope to persuade Shouter, he had to convince Human. “You are our first friends among the piggies. You have our trust and our love. We will never do anything to harm you, or to give any other piggies an advantage over you. But we didn't come just to you. We represent all of humankind, and we've come to teach all we can to all of the piggies. Regardless of tribe.”

“You don't represent all humankind. You're about to fight a war with other humans. So how can you say that our wars are evil and your wars are good?”

Surely Pizarro, for all his shortcomings, had an easier time of it with Atahualpa. "We're trying not to fight a war with other humans," said Ender. "And if we fight one, it won't be our war, trying to gain an advantage over them. It will be your war, trying to win you the right to travel among the stars." Ender held up his open hand. "We have set aside our humanness to become ramen with you." He closed his hand into a fist. "Human and piggy and hive queen, here on Lusitania, will be one. All humans. All buggers. All piggies.

Human sat in silence, digesting this.

“Speaker,” he finally said. “This is very hard. Until you humans came, other piggies were– always to be killed, and their third life was to be slaves to us in forests that we kept. This forest was once a battlefield, and the most ancient trees are the warriors who died in battle. Our oldest fathers are the heroes of that war, and our houses are made of the cowards. All our lives we prepare to win battles with our enemies, so that our wives can make a mothertree in a new battle forest, and make us mighty and great. These last ten years we have learned to use arrows to kill from far off. Pots and cabra skins to carry water across the drylands. Amaranth and merdona root so we can be many and strong and carry food with us far from the macios of our home forest. We rejoiced in this because it meant that we would always be victorious in war. We would carry our wives, our little mothers, our heroes to every corner of the great world, and finally one day out into the stars. This is our dream, Speaker, and you tell me now that you want us to lose it like wind in the sky.”

It was a powerful speech. None of the others offered Ender any suggestions about what to say in answer. Human had half-convinced them.

“You dream is a good one,” said Ender. “It's the dream of every living creature. The desire that is the very root of life itself: To grow until all the space you can see is part of you, under your control. It's the desire for greatness. There are two ways, though, to fulfil it. One way is to kill anything that is not yourself, to swallow it up or destroy it, until nothing is left to oppose you. But that way is evil. You say to all the universe, Only I will be great, and to make room for me the rest of you must give up even what you already have, and become nothing. Do you understand, Human, that if we humans felt this way, acted this way, we could kill every piggy in Lusitania and make this place our home. How much of your dream would be left, if we were evil?”

Human was trying hard to understand. “I see that you gave us great gifts, when you could have taken from us even the little that we had. But why did you give us the gifts, if we can't use them to become great?”