Xenocide

The hive queen is able to see and hear whatever her drones see and hear while they are in different regions of the universe, so she believes that the fathertrees will retain their connection to each other while on separate planets.

Wang-mu, who feels undereducated for the task, asks Qing-jao to help in the research at Han Fei-tzu’s request. Qing-jao refuses, but she pulls up the information on the descolada virus and discusses how the virus could not have come to be via evolution. She explains the principles of “gaialogy,” which dictate that organisms adapt to their environments, and lifeforms will adapt to alter the temperature of a planet. Wang-mu talks with Jane, who takes Qing-jao’s observations to Ela. Jane connects the researchers by displaying their images on each other’s screens. Wang-mu is not confident in her contributions to the discussion, but Ela and Ender are excited by her thoughts. Together, they conclude that the descolada virus is human-made and was employed on Lusitania to terraform the planet. Wang-mu defends Qing-jao, but Ender argues that Qing-jao is not worthy of Wang-mu’s devotion because Qing-jao wants to control Wang-mu just as Starways Congress controls Path with the engineered OCD variant.

Ela and Ender tell Valentine and Planter their latest hypothesis about the descolada virus. Ender struggles to read Planter’s nonverbal cues. He seems distracted while Ender is speaking, and when Ender finishes, Planter scampers around the room feelings things until he is exhausted then wraps his arms around Ender as if Ender is a tree. Planter recognizes that the hypothesis is correct, and the Pequeninos’ behavior is controlled by the descolada and driven by the climate; when the planet is too warm, the Pequeninos are driven to create more trees by going to war and dying, and when it is too cold, they sacrifice brothertrees by cutting them down and building houses. Planter is disheartened by the revelation, but Ender argues that all behavior is driven by some practical purpose, such as human civilizations creating ideal settings for reproduction. Planter wonders whether his intelligence also comes from the descolada, and he volunteers to sacrifice himself in an experiment by clearing himself of the virus and monitoring his intelligence.

After Wang-mu updates Han Fei-tzu, she reflects on the conversation with Ender and Ela. She realizes that Ender is right—gods, like good parents, would want the best for everyone, and they would not enslave or humiliate people. 

The hive queen is bothered by how many questions humans have, and she feels that such intelligence leads to unhappiness. Human defends the humans, but the hive queen argues that humans make up stories, even while asleep, and almost all the meanings they imagine are wrong. The hive queen tells Human that Ender’s mind was too strong and foreign for her to control, and she used a bridge at first to communicate with him.

Valentine visits Olhado to talk. He explains that people think he does not care because they cannot read his expressions due to his mechanical eyes. However, this means he is a passive observer who can make less biased insights. He looks up to Ender, who is also an observer but who has the ability to help people heal. Ender inspired him to become a father, and he calls Ender “Papa.”

Miro goes to Quara, who is upset that she has been cut off from the lab. Quara argues that keeping secrets is not a valid form of protection. Miro points out her hypocrisy, as Quara is withholding information about the descolada virus, and that her secrecy will lead to Planter’s death in the experiment. Quara believes that the descolada is sentient and that it is protecting its environment by attacking foreign species. Miro accuses Quara of pride and asks her to visit Planter. Quara thanks him for not hacking into her computer files, but she does not know Jane has already scanned her files but has found nothing useful in them, as Quara is not recording her most important discoveries.

Ender goes to the hive queen to discuss faster-than-light travel. She shows Ender her perspective of how a hive queen is made. The new queen-body reaches out to a different dimension called the Outspace for consciousness—also referred to as aiúa, “meaning-maker,” and binder—and becomes that essence. Ender is unsettled, but the hive queen explains that she is the “binder” just as Ender is the “possessor” of his body. The hive queen says that in the earliest days of their psychic connection, she used the computer as a bridge to connect with Ender because they both could connect with the computer. These days, the queen has since stopped using the bridge and has connected directly to him. The bridge was centered in Ender’s body, and Ender realizes that the bridge the hive queen used was Jane. As a boy in Battle School, he unknowingly created a pattern that brought Jane to life. Now, if Congress shuts down the ansibles, Jane will survive because part of her is within Ender, although she will experience significant mental injuries.

Jane connects Han Fei-tzu and Wang-mu with Ela, who says that she has discovered the engineered OCD gene. Wang-mu’s genetics are unique in that she has the gene for heightened intelligence but not for the manufactured OCD. Ela says that if she finds a way to alter the descolada, she will be able to use Wang-mu’s genetic code to reverse the genetic OCD and give all the people on Path the genes for heightened intelligence.

Valentine visits Grego in prison, and Olhado is with him. Grego is absorbed in the mathematics of the hive queen’s concept of calling for consciousness from the Outspace. They hope to travel to the Outspace—an adjacent spacetime where philotes are possibilities rather than organized—then re-emerge in their natural spacetime at another location simply by imagining it. They hope that Jane’s consciousness is complex enough to wish for the traveling processes to take place while holding together those who are traveling. Jane will travel with the ship because her aiúa—or her will—is partially in Ender, and Ender will be on the ship. If it works, they will be able to shuttle everyone on Lusitania to safety.

Meanwhile, Planter’s condition is declining, but he is retaining his intelligence without the descolada virus. Quara arrives and demands that they shut off the recording system so she can speak to Planter in private. Ela agrees, but Jane plays the conversation between Quara and Planter for Miro. Quara does not want to accept that she is, in part, causing Planter’s death by withholding secrets. She argues that Demosthenes’ classification of sentient life is not valid, so the descolada is not varelse. Planter says that Quara is not helping; he compares her to Grego, saying, “You both refuse to listen to anybody else. You know better about everything. And when you’re both done, many many innocent people are dead” (339). Quara blames Planter for weakening her convictions, but he knows that she came so he could convince her to share what she knows. He sends Quara away, and she exits into the lab and tells Ela what she knows.

By the next day, the humans have plans for a revised virus called recolada, but they are unable to make it. Ela and Quara assure Planter that they will not kill the descolada without the recolada to replace it. He dies, and the Pequeninos take his body and cut it up before planting him in an attempt to turn him into a fathertree. However, his sentience is not passed into his tree form. His experiment has proven that Pequeninos have intelligence that is independent of the descolada.

Jane believes that she can hold the necessary patterns to complete faster-than-light travel through Outspace as long as the spaceship and the trip are simple and short. While in Outspace, Ela will attempt to imagine and create the recolada virus and a cure for those on Path. Only Ender, Miro, Ela, and Jane will make the trip.