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CHAPTER 1

The starship Herodotus left Earth in 2210 with four passengers It accelerated nearly to lightspeed as quickly as it could, and then stayed at that speed, letting relativity do its work

On Herodotus, just over five years had passed; it had been 421 years on Earth

On Herodotus, the three thirteen-month-old babies had turned into six-year-olds, and the Giant had outlived his life expectancy by two years

On Earth, starships had been launched to found ninety-three colonies, beginning with the worlds once colonized by the For to other habitable planets as soon as they were found

On Herodotus, the six-year-old children were se, but brilliant beyond their years, as the Giant had been when he was little, for in all four of theenetic enhanceence was beyond the level of savants in every subject matter, without any of the debilitations of autis They were se twenty-two, they would be the size of the Giant, and the Giant would be long dead For he was dying, and when he died, the children would be alone

CHAPTER 2

In the ansible room of Herodotus, Andrew "Ender" Delphiki sat perched on three books atop a seat designed for adults This was how the children operated the h the ansible, the instant communicator that kept Herodotus linked to all the coress

Ender was reviewing a research report on genetic therapy that showed soeant wants a sibmoot"

"You found me," said Ender "So can he"

Carlotta looked over his shoulder at the holodisplay "Why do you bother?" she said "There's no cure Nobody's even looking for it anymore"

"The cure is for us all to die," said Ender "Then Anton syndrome disappears from the human species"

"How can you research it without lab equip?"

"I have this incredibly brilliant enetic research they're doing and I' it e already know about Anton's Key fro hard on the probles that the humans could never see"

"We'll die eventually," said Carlotta "The Giant is dying now"

"You know that's all Sergeant wants to talk about"

"The giant's supposedly as brilliant as we are Let hiet mad"

"We can't let Sergeant boss us around just because he gets so angry e don't obey" Still, Ender knew Carlotta was right It wasn't his intent to pacify Sergeant He siry, it would take hi to say what he wanted Ender's research ti

Ender expected to find Sergeant in the Puppy -- the rammed by the Giant to remain within five meters of the surface of Herodotus no iven Ender knew Carlotta had tried for ra

"It's the gravity lensing field," said Ender "And it's active"

"It's just gravity Ten percent of Earth And we're sandwiched between two plates, it's not like we can fall"

"I hate the way it feels" They had played in that space when they were two-year-olds It was like spinning around until you were dizzy Only worse

"Get over it," said Carlotta "We've tested it, and sound really does get nullified in here"