Act II, The Free LandChapter 28
Chapter 28: Over Here, Ender!
Terrinia. Years after the base fell.
Years of silence end with one shot from a far roof. Later, a cup of medicine and a question finally asked.
For years the two of them did not speak. Lesley watched from far away and kept a vow she never said. Chang’e became the youngest Chief Scientist in Terrinia. Lesley rose to command the Shield’s combat division.
One night Lesley woke with the dream still in her ears. Leave me alone. She touched her artificial eye, and the recording Mr. Bunny had filmed came up in the dark. A small girl held Lesley’s face in both hands.
“Happy Birthday, Lesley!”
“Sis? Does it work?”
Outside, someone screamed. The screams did not stop. The Enders were back.
That stubborn girl will go out alone, thought Lesley. Not this time.
She took the rifle and climbed. From a roof two blocks off she found her, alone in an empty street. Chang’e was taller than the child at the base. Her old white coat, cut down for that child, now ended at her wrists. A ring of bright crescents turned around her, a weapon Lesley had never seen.
Twenty Enders filled the far end of the street.
Chang’e’s small voice carried up the quiet street.
“I have finally developed my new weapon.”
The crescents flew out and cut the first Enders down. They snapped back and flew out again. There were too many. One crescent cracked and went dark, and then the ring broke. Chang’e fell hard on the stones.
“Lesley, I guess this is the end of me. Where are you now?”
She said it to nobody. It reached the roof anyway.
An Ender raised its arm to strike. Its chest plates opened. Lesley was already on the parapet.
“Over here, Ender!”
The shot took out its core.
Chang’e looked up and found her on the far roof. Neither moved. Then Chang’e got up and set the ring spinning again, and the swarm turned on them both.
Lesley came down off the roof. They fought the rest of the night side by side, and they brought down the big ones too. Later the Academy would call them the First Aspirants.
At dawn Chang’e sat on a broken curb, her ring dark, her knees up. Lesley stood a step away with her hands at her sides. She had said I’m sorry once and been shoved off. She did not say it again.
Chang’e reached out and took hold of Lesley’s coat. She had shoved at that coat once with both hands. Now she held a fistful and did not let go.
Lesley waited for the question. It never came. She did not offer the answer.
After that the suits were built, and Selrick Academy was officially founded. Lesley became its Chief Combat Instructor, and Chang’e the director of its Science Division.
Selrick Academy. The days after Vexana was taken.
Chang’e had slept eleven hours in six days.
The void notes glowed on every screen. A portal had taken Vexana. Nobody knew where it led. Chang’e had told a class she would never send a student anywhere she could not bring them back from. Nobody had sent Vexana. It did not help.
She coughed. Mr. Bunny’s screen showed a frown.
The door opened. Lesley came in with a cup and one small pill. “Drink.”
“I’m fine. It’s a cold. Colds are optional.”
Lesley waited. She could stand on a roof all night. She could stand in a lab door.
“I hate scary Big Sis!”
Chang’e drank it in one go. It tasted exactly as bad as she had known.
“Vexana was...” she started.
“There’s no time to lament.”
Lesley left. The door closed behind her.
That night Chang’e went looking. In Lesley’s room the cot was still made, its blanket folded square. Lesley sat in the one hard chair, boots on, rifle in reach, asleep upright.
Chang’e stood in the doorway with Mr. Bunny at her shoulder. She spoke very low.
“Big Sis, Mr. Bunny says he was lonely.”
Lesley opened her right eye. She looked at the robot, then at the girl. “Only him?”
“Mostly him.”
Chang’e climbed onto the cot.
“Where were you?” She said it fast, before she could stop herself. “That day. I stopped being angry a long time ago. I never asked.”
Lesley was quiet a while. “I was away on a mission. I can’t tell you what it was.”
She looked at the rifle. “I came back to a city on fire. From the roofs I saw every swarm leaning on one district, and one giant walking through the middle. Nothing stopped it. It was a decoy. I ran for the base.”
“You ran.”
“Over every roof. The giant fired first.”
Chang’e picked at the blanket. “You could have told me.”
“You never asked.”
“I just did.”
“Yes.”
She leaned sideways until her head rested on Lesley’s shoulder. In a minute she was asleep. Lesley sat up straight, as always, and did not move until morning.