Sum
@Summmluv
She smiles. She says his name.
Ender Wiggin, my precious.
‘We were going to do it no matter what Warmaker said or did,’ said Planter. ‘Look at us. Warmaker’s group were preparing to spread out and plant new forests in other worlds. But when they killed Father Quim, the rest of us were so filled with rage that we planned to go and punish them. Great slaughter, and again, trees would grow. Still doing what the Descolada demanded...'
Reklam
Planter nodded – a gesture he had learned in order to communicate with humans. ‘We live in Warmaker’s world now,’ he said. ‘What is he, except a fathertree acting as the Descolada instructs? The world is getting too warm. We need more trees. So he’s filled with fervor to expand the forests. Why? The Descolada makes him feel that way. That’s why so many brothers and father-trees listened to him – because he offered a plan to satisfy their hunger to spread out and grow more trees.’
‘Does the Descolada know that he was planning to put all these new trees on other planets?’ said Valentine. ‘That wouldn’t do much to cool Lusitania.’
‘The Descolada puts hunger in them,’ said Planter. ‘How can a virus know about starships?’
‘If you can look beyond the tribe to the virus, then look beyond the virus to the world,’ said Ender. ‘The Descolada is keeping this planet habitable. So the brothertree is sacrificing himself to save the whole world.’
‘Very clever,’ said Planter. ‘But you forget – to save the planet, it doesn’t matter which brothertrees give themselves, as long as a certain number do it.’
‘True,’ said Valentine. ‘It doesn’t matter to the Descolada which brothertrees give their lives. But it matters to the brothertrees, doesn’t it? And it matters to the brothers like you, who huddle into those houses to keep warm. You appreciate the noble gesture of the brother trees who died for you, even if the Descolada doesn’t know one tree from another.’
Planter didn’t answer. Ender hoped that meant they were making some headway.
‘And in the wars,’ said Valentine, ‘the Descolada doesn’t care who wins or loses, as long as enough brothers die and enough trees grow from the corpses. Right? But that doesn’t change the fact that some brothers are noble and some are cowardly or cruel.’
'Everything comes from the Descolada,' said Planter. 'The third life, the mothertree, the fathertrees. Maybe even our minds. Maybe we were only tree rats when the Descolada came and made false ramen out of us.
'Real ramen,' said Valentine.
'We don't know it's true,' said Ela. 'It's a hypothesis.
'It's very very very very very true,' said Planter. 'Truer than truth.'
'How do you know?'
'Everything fits. Planetary regulation - I know about this, I studied gaialogy and the whole time thought, How can this teacher tell us these things when every pequenino can look around and see that they're false? But if we know that the Descolada is changing us, making us act to regulate the planetary systems-'
'What can the Descolada possibly make you do that could regulate the planet?' said Ela.
'You haven't known us long enough,' said Planter. 'We haven't told you everything because we were afraid you'd think we were silly. Now you'll know that we aren't silly, we're just acting out what a virus tells us to do. We're slaves, not fools.'
‘More important than their world,’ said Wiggin. ‘Themselves. The third life. The Descolada gave them everything they are and the most fundamental facts of their life. Remember, our best guess is that they evolved as mammal-like creatures who mated directly, male to female, the little mothers sucking life from the male sexual organs, a half-dozen at a time. That’s who they were. Then the Descolada transformed them, and sterilized the males until after they died and turned into trees.’
Reklam