Xenocide Part 35

"And you don't know that I'm wrong," said Ender.

"It's my my life," said Jane. life," said Jane.

"The h.e.l.l it is," said Ender. "You're part of me and Miro, too, and you're tied up with the whole future of humanity, and the pequeninos and the Hive Queen too, for that matter. Which reminds me-- while you're having Han what's-his-name and Si w.a.n.g whoever-she-is--"

"Mu."

"--work on this philotic thing, I'm going to talk to the Hive Queen. I don't think I've particularly discussed you with her. She's got to know more about philotes than we do, since she has a philotic connection with all her workers."

"I haven't said I'm going to involve Han Fei-tzu and Si w.a.n.g-mu in your silly save-Jane project."

"But you will," said Ender.

"Why will I?"

"Because Miro and I both love you and need you and you have no right to die on us without at least trying to live."

"I can't let things like that influence me."

"Yes you can," said Miro. "Because if it weren't for things like that I would have killed myself long ago."

"I'm not going to kill myself."

"If you don't help us try to find a way to save you, then that's exactly what you're doing," said Ender.

Jane's face disappeared from the display over the terminal.

"Running away won't help, either," said Ender.

"Leave me alone," said Jane. "I have to think about this for a while."

"Don't worry, Miro," said Ender. "She'll do it."

"That's right," said Jane.

"Back already?" asked Ender.

"I think very quickly." think very quickly."

"And you're going to work on this, too?"

"I consider it my fourth project," said Jane. "I'm telling Han Fei-tzu and Si w.a.n.g-mu about it right now."

"She's showing off," said Ender. "She can carry on two conversations at once, and she likes to brag about it to make us feel inferior."

"You are are inferior," said Jane. inferior," said Jane.

"I'm hungry," said Ender. "And thirsty."

"Lunch," said Miro.

"Now you're you're bragging," said Jane. "Showing off your bodily functions." bragging," said Jane. "Showing off your bodily functions."

"Alimentation," said Ender. "Respiration. Excretion. We can do things you you can't do." can't do."

"In other words, you can't think very well, but at least you can eat and breathe and sweat."

"That's right," said Miro. He pulled out the bread and cheese while Ender poured the cold water, and they ate. Simple food, but it tasted good and they were satisfied.

Chapter 14

Virus Makers

I've been thinking about what travel between the stars might mean for us. Besides species survival? When you send out your workers, even light-years away, you see through their eyes, don't you? And taste through their antennae, and feel the rhythm of every vibration. When they eat, I feel the crushing of the food within their jaws. That's why I almost always refer to myself as we we, when I form my thoughts into a form that Andrew or you can understand, because I live my life in the constant presence of all that they see and taste and feel. It's not quite that way between the fathertrees. We have to try in order to experience each other's life. But we can can do it. Here at least, on Lusitania. do it. Here at least, on Lusitania. I can't see why the philotic connection would fail you. Then I, too, will feel all that they feel, and taste the light of another sun on my leaves, and hear the stories of another world. It will be like the wonderment that come when the humans first arrived here. We had never thought that anything could be different from the world we saw till then. But they brought strange creatures with them, and they were strange themselves, and they had machines that performed miracles. The other forests could hardly believe what our fathertrees of that time told them. I remember in fact that our fathertrees had a hard time believing what the brothers of the tribe told them about the humans. Rooter bore the brunt of that, persuading them to believe that it wasn't a lie or madness or a joke. A joke? There are stories of trickster brothers who lie to the fathertrees, but they're always caught and punished terribly. Andrew tells me that such stories are told in order to encourage civilized behavior. It's always tempting to lie to the fathertrees. I did it sometimes myself. Not lying. Just exaggerating. They do it to me now, sometimes. And do you punish them? I remember which ones have lied. If we have a worker who doesn't obey, we make him be alone and he dies. A brother who lies too much has no chance of being a fathertree. They know this. They only lie to play with us. They always end up telling us the truth. What if a whole tribe lies to their fathertrees? How would you ever know? You might better speak of a tribe cutting down its own fathertrees, or burning them. Has it ever happened? Have the workers ever turned against the Hive Queen and killed her? How could they? Then they would die. You see. There are some things too terrible to think about. Instead I'll think of how it will feel when a fathertree first puts in his roots on another planet, and pushes out his branches into an alien sky, and drinks in sunlight from a strange star. You'll soon learn that there are are no strange stars, no alien skies. no strange stars, no alien skies. No? Only skies and stars, in all their varieties. Each one with its own flavor, and all flavors good. Now you you think like a tree. Flavors! Of skies! think like a tree. Flavors! Of skies! I have tasted the heat of many stars, and all of them were sweet.

"You're asking me to help help you in your rebellion against the G.o.ds?" you in your rebellion against the G.o.ds?"

w.a.n.g-mu remained bowed before her mistress-- her former mistress-- saying nothing. In her heart she had words she might have uttered. No, my mistress, I am asking you to help us in our struggle against the terrible bondage forced on the G.o.dspoken by Congress. No, my mistress, I'm asking you to remember your proper duty to your father, which even the G.o.dspoken may not ignore if they would be righteous. No, my mistress, I'm asking you to help us discover a way to save a decent and helpless people, the pequeninos, from xenocide.

But w.a.n.g-mu said nothing, because this was one of the first lessons she learned from Master Han. When you have wisdom that another person knows that he needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom, you keep it to yourself. Food only looks good to a hungry man. Qing-jao was not hungry for wisdom from w.a.n.g-mu, and never would be. So silence was all that w.a.n.g-mu could offer. She could only hope that Qing-jao would find her own road to proper obedience, compa.s.sionate decency, or the struggle for freedom.

Any motive would do, as long as Qing-jao's brilliant mind could be enlisted on their side. w.a.n.g-mu had never felt so useless in her life as now, watching Master Han labor over the questions that Jane had given him. In order to think about faster-than-light travel he was studying physics; how could w.a.n.g-mu help him, when she was only learning about geometry? To think about the descolada virus he was studying microbiology; w.a.n.g-mu was barely learning the concepts of gaialogy and evolution. And how could she be of any help when he contemplated the nature of Jane? She was a child of manual workers, and her hands, not her mind, held her future. Philosophy was as far above her as the sky was above the earth. "But the sky only seems to be far away from you," said Master Han, when she told him this. "Actually it is all around you. You breathe it in and you breathe it out, even when you labor with your hands in the mud. That is true philosophy." But she understood from this only that Master Han was kind, and wanted to make her feel better about her uselessness.

Qing-jao, though, would not be useless. So w.a.n.g-mu had handed her a paper with the project names and pa.s.swords on them.

"Does Father know you're giving these to me?"

w.a.n.g-mu said nothing. Actually, Master Han had suggested it, but w.a.n.gmu thought it might be better if Qing-jao didn't know at this point that w.a.n.g-mu came as an emissary from her father.

Qing-jao interpreted w.a.n.g-mu's silence as w.a.n.g-mu a.s.sumed she would-- that w.a.n.g-mu was coming secretly, on her own, to ask for Qingjao's help.

"If Father himself had asked me, I would have said yes, for that is my duty as a daughter," said Qing-jao.

But w.a.n.g-mu knew that Qing-jao wasn't listening to her father these days. She might say say that she would be obedient, but in fact her father filled her with such distress that, far from saying yes, Qing-jao would have crumpled to the floor and traced lines all day because of the terrible conflict in her heart, knowing that her father wanted her to disobey the G.o.ds. that she would be obedient, but in fact her father filled her with such distress that, far from saying yes, Qing-jao would have crumpled to the floor and traced lines all day because of the terrible conflict in her heart, knowing that her father wanted her to disobey the G.o.ds.

"I owe nothing nothing to you," said Qing-jao. "You were a false and disloyal servant to me. Never was there a more unworthy and useless secret maid than you. To me your presence in this house is like the presence of dung beetles at the supper table." to you," said Qing-jao. "You were a false and disloyal servant to me. Never was there a more unworthy and useless secret maid than you. To me your presence in this house is like the presence of dung beetles at the supper table."

Again, w.a.n.g-mu held her tongue. However, she also refrained from deepening her bow. She had a.s.sumed the humble posture of a servant at the beginning of this conversation, but she would not now humiliate herself in the desperate kowtow of a penitent. Even the humblest of us have our pride, and I know, Mistress Qing-jao, that I have caused you no harm, that I am more faithful to you now than you are to yourself.

Qing-jao turned back to her terminal and typed in the first project name, which was "UNGLUING," a literal translation of the word descolada descolada. "This is all nonsense anyway," she said as she scanned the doc.u.ments and charts that had been sent from Lusitania. "It is hard to believe that anyone would commit the treason of communicating with Lusitania only to receive nonsense like this. It is all impossible as science. No world could have developed only one one virus that was so complex that it could include within it the genetic code for every other species on the planet. It would be a waste of time for me even to consider this." virus that was so complex that it could include within it the genetic code for every other species on the planet. It would be a waste of time for me even to consider this."

"Why not?" asked w.a.n.g-mu. It was all right for her to speak now-- because even as Qing-jao declared that she was refusing to discuss the material, she was discussing it. "After all, evolution produced only one human race."

"But on Earth there were dozens of related species. There is no no species without kin-- if you weren't such a stupid rebellious girl you would understand that. Evolution could never have produced a system as spa.r.s.e as this one." species without kin-- if you weren't such a stupid rebellious girl you would understand that. Evolution could never have produced a system as spa.r.s.e as this one."

"Then how do you explain these doc.u.ments from the people of Lusitania?"

"How do you know they actually come from there? You have only the word of this computer program. Maybe it thinks thinks this is all. Or maybe the scientists there are very bad, with no sense of their duty to collect all possible information. There aren't two dozen species in this whole report-- and look, they're all paired up in the most absurd fashion. Impossible to have so few species." this is all. Or maybe the scientists there are very bad, with no sense of their duty to collect all possible information. There aren't two dozen species in this whole report-- and look, they're all paired up in the most absurd fashion. Impossible to have so few species."

"But what if they're right?"

"How can they be right? The people of Lusitania have been confined in a tiny compound from the beginning. They've only seen what these little pig-men have shown them-- how do they know the pig-men aren't lying to them?"

Calling them pig-men-- is that how you convince yourself, my mistress, that helping Congress won't lead to xenocide? If you call them by an animal name, does that mean that it's all right to slaughter them? If you accuse them of lying, does that mean that they're worthy of extinction? But w.a.n.g-mu said nothing of this. She only asked the same question again. "What if this is is the true picture of the life forms of Lusitania, and how the descolada works within them?" the true picture of the life forms of Lusitania, and how the descolada works within them?"

"If it were true true, then I would have to read and study these doc.u.ments in order to make any intelligent comment about them. But they aren't true. How far had I taken you in your learning, before you betrayed me? Didn't I teach you about gaialogy?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Well, there you are. Evolution is the means by which the planetary organism adapts to changes in its environment. If there is more heat from the sun, then the life forms of the planet must be able to adjust their relative populations in order to compensate and lower the temperature. Remember the cla.s.sic Daisyworld thought-experiment?"

"But that experiment had only a single species over the whole face of the planet," said w.a.n.g-mu. "When the sun grew too hot, then white daisies grew to reflect the light back into s.p.a.ce, and when the sun grew too cool, dark daisies grew to absorb the light and hold it as heat." w.a.n.g-mu was proud that she could remember Daisyworld so clearly.

"No no no," said Qing-jao. "You have missed the point, of course. The point is that there must already already have been dark daisies, even when the light daisies were dominant, and light daisies when the world was covered with darkness. Evolution can't produce new species on demand. It is creating new species have been dark daisies, even when the light daisies were dominant, and light daisies when the world was covered with darkness. Evolution can't produce new species on demand. It is creating new species constantly constantly, as genes drift and are spliced and broken by radiation and pa.s.sed between species by viruses. Thus no species ever 'breeds true.'"

w.a.n.g-mu didn't understand the connection yet, and her face must have revealed her puzzlement.

"Am I still your teacher, after all? Must I keep my side of the bargain, even though you have given up on yours?"

Please, said w.a.n.g-mu silently. I would serve you forever, if you would only help your father in this work.

"As long as the whole species is together, interbreeding constantly," said Qing-jao, "individuals never drift too far, genetically speaking; their genes are constantly being recombined with other genes in the same species, so the variations are spread evenly through the whole population with each new generation. Only when the environment puts them under such stress that one of those randomly drifting traits suddenly has survival value, only then will all those in that particular environment who lack that trait die out, until the new trait, instead of being an occasional sport, is now a universal definer of the new species. That's the fundamental tenet of gaialogy-- constant genetic drift is essential for the survival of life as a whole. According to these doc.u.ments, Lusitania is a world with absurdly few species, and no possibility of genetic drift because these impossible viruses are constantly correcting any changes that might come up. Not only could such a system never evolve, but also it would be impossible for life to continue to exist-- they couldn't adapt to change."

"Maybe there are are no changes on Lusitania." no changes on Lusitania."

"Don't be so foolish, w.a.n.g-mu. It makes me ashamed to think I ever tried to teach you. All stars fluctuate. All planets wobble and change in their orbits. We have been observing many worlds for three thousand years, and in that time we have learned what Earthbound scientists in the years before that could never learn-- which behaviors are common to all planets and stellar systems, and which are unique to the Earth and the Sol System. I tell you that it is impossible for a planet like Lusitania to exist for more than a few decades without experiencing life-threatening environmental change-- temperature fluctuations, orbital disturbances, seismic and volcanic cycles-- how would a system of really only a handful of species ever cope with that? If the world has only light daisies, how will it ever warm itself when the sun cools? If its lifeforms are all carbon dioxide users, how will they heal themselves when the oxygen in the atmosphere reaches poisonous levels? Your so-called friends in Lusitania are fools, to send you nonsense like this. If they were real real scientists, they would know that their results are impossible." scientists, they would know that their results are impossible."

Qing-jao pressed a key and the display over her terminal went blank. "You have wasted time that I don't have. If you have nothing better than this to offer, do not come to me again. You are less than nothing to me. You are a bug floating in my watergla.s.s. You defile the whole gla.s.s, not just the place where you float. I wake up in pain, knowing you are in this house."

Then I'm hardly "nothing" to you, am I? said w.a.n.g-mu silently. It sounds to me as if I'm very important to you indeed. You may be very brilliant, Qing-jao, but you do not understand yourself any better than anybody else does.

"Because you are a stupid common girl, you do not understand me," said Qing-jao. "I have told you to leave."

"But your father is master of this house, and Master Han has asked me to stay."

"Little stupid-person, little sister-of-pigs, if I cannot ask you to leave the whole house, I have certainly implied that I would like you to leave my room room."

w.a.n.g-mu bowed her head till it almost-- almost almost-- touched the floor. Then she backed out of the room, so as not to show her back parts to her mistress. If you treat me this way, then I will treat you like a great lord, and if you do not detect the irony in my actions, then who of the two of us is the fool?

Master Han was not in his room when w.a.n.g-mu returned. He might be at the toilet and return in a moment. He might be performing some ritual of the G.o.dspoken, in which case he could be gone for hours. w.a.n.g-mu was too full of questions to wait for him. She brought up the project doc.u.ments on the terminal, knowing that Jane would be watching, monitoring her. That Jane had no doubt monitored all that happened in Qing-jao's room.

Still, Jane waited for w.a.n.g-mu to phrase the questions she had got from Qing-jao before she started trying to answer. And then Jane answered first the question of veracity.

"The doc.u.ments from Lusitania are genuine enough," said Jane. "Ela and Novinha and Ouanda and all the others who have studied with them are deeply specialized, yes, but within their specialty they're very good. If Qing-jao had read The Life of Human The Life of Human, she would see how these dozen species-pairs function."

"But what she says is still hard for me to understand," said w.a.n.g-mu. "I've been trying to think how it could all be true-- that there are too few species for a real gaialogy to develop, and yet the planet Lusitania is still well-enough regulated to sustain life. Could it possibly be that there is is no environmental stress on Lusitania?" no environmental stress on Lusitania?"

"No," said Jane. "I have access to all the astronomical data from the satellites there, and in the time humanity has been present in the Lusitania system, Lusitania and its sun have shown all the normal fluctuations. Right now there seems to be an overall trend of global cooling."

"Then how will the life forms on Lusitania respond?" asked w.a.n.g-mu. "The descolada virus won't let them evolve-- it tries to destroy anything strange, which is why it's going to kill the humans and the Hive Queen, if it can."

Jane, whose small image sat in lotus position in the air over Master Han's terminal, held up a hand. "One moment," she said.

Then she lowered her hand. "I have been reporting your questions to my friends, and Ela is very excited."

A new face appeared in the display, just behind and above the image of Jane. She was a dark-skinned, Negroid-looking woman; or some mix, perhaps, since she was not that that dark, and her nose was narrow. This is Elanora, thought w.a.n.g-mu. Jane is showing me a woman on a world many lightyears away; is she also showing dark, and her nose was narrow. This is Elanora, thought w.a.n.g-mu. Jane is showing me a woman on a world many lightyears away; is she also showing my my face to face to her her? What does this Ela make of me me? Do I seem hopelessly stupid to her?

But Ela clearly was thinking nothing about w.a.n.g-mu at all. She was speaking, instead, of w.a.n.g-mu's questions. "Why doesn't doesn't the descolada virus permit variety? That should be a trait with negative survival value, and yet the descolada survives. w.a.n.g-mu must think I'm such an idiot, not to have thought of this before. But I'm not a gaialogist, and I grew up on Lusitania, so I never questioned it, I just figured that whatever the Lusitanian gaialogy was, it worked-- and then I kept studying the descolada. What does w.a.n.g-mu think?" the descolada virus permit variety? That should be a trait with negative survival value, and yet the descolada survives. w.a.n.g-mu must think I'm such an idiot, not to have thought of this before. But I'm not a gaialogist, and I grew up on Lusitania, so I never questioned it, I just figured that whatever the Lusitanian gaialogy was, it worked-- and then I kept studying the descolada. What does w.a.n.g-mu think?"

w.a.n.g-mu was appalled to hear these words from this stranger. What had Jane told Ela about her? How could Ela even imagine that w.a.n.g-mu would think Ela Ela was an idiot, when she was a scientist and w.a.n.g-mu was only a servant girl? was an idiot, when she was a scientist and w.a.n.g-mu was only a servant girl?

"How can it matter what I think?" said w.a.n.g-mu.

"What do you think think?" said Jane. "Even if you can't think why it might matter, Ela wants to know."

So w.a.n.g-mu told her speculations. "This is very stupid to think of, because it's only a microscopic virus, but the descolada must be doing it all. After all, it contains the genes of every species within it, doesn't it? So it must take care of evolution by itself. Instead of all that genetic drift, the descolada must do the drifting. It could, couldn't it? It could change the genes of a whole species, even while the species is still alive. It wouldn't have to wait for evolution."

There was a pause again, with Jane holding up her hand. She must be showing w.a.n.g-mu's face to Ela, letting her hear w.a.n.g-mu's words from her own lips.

"Nossa Senhora," whispered Ela. "On this world, the descolada is Gaia. Of course. That would explain everything, wouldn't it? So few species, because the descolada only permits the species that it has tamed. It turned a whole planetary gaialogy into something almost as simple as Daisyworld itself."

w.a.n.g-mu thought it was almost funny, to hear a highly-educated scientist like Ela refer back to Daisyworld, as if she were still a new student, a half-educated child like w.a.n.g-mu.

Another face appeared next to Ela's, this time an older Caucasian man, perhaps sixty years old, with whitening hair and a very quieting, peaceful look to his face. "But part of w.a.n.g-mu's question is still unanswered," said the man. "How could the descolada ever evolve? How could there have ever been proto-descolada viruses? Why would such a limited gaialogy have survival preference over the slow evolutionary model that every other world with life on it has had?"

"I never asked that question," said w.a.n.g-mu. "Qing-jao asked the first part of it, but the rest of it is his his question." question."