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Then he whispered a command and the ships dropped like rocks toward the planet's surface They were starships and fighters, coh an atmosphere But Ender never intended thean to drop, they were focusing their Little Doctors on one thing only The planet itself

One, two, four, seven of his fighters were bloay It was all a gah to get in range It would not take long, once they could focus on the planet's surface Just a moment with Dr Device, that's all I want It occurred to Ender that perhaps the computer wasn't even equipped to shoould happen to a planet if the Little Doctor attacked it What will I do then, shout Bang, you're dead?

Ender took his hands off the controls and leaned in to watch what happened The perspective was close to the eneravity Surely it's in range now, thought Ender It e and the computer can't handle it

Then the surface of the planet, which filled half the siout of explosion, hurling debris out toward Ender's fighters Ender tried to i and growing, thenowhere for the separate atoo

Within three seconds the entire planet burst apart, becohters were ao; their perspective suddenly vanished, and now the simulator could only display the perspective of the starships waiting beyond the edges of the battle It was as close as Ender wanted to be The sphere of the exploding planet greard faster than the enemy ships could avoid it And it carried with it the Little Doctor, not so little any each one into a dot of light before it went on

Only at the very periphery of the simulator did the MD field weaken Two or three ene away Ender's own starships did not explode But where the vast enemy fleet had been, and the planet they protected, there was nothing ravity drewhot and spinning visibly; it was also much smaller than the world had been before Much of itsoutward

Ender took off his headphones, filled with the cheers of his squadron leaders, and only then realized that there was just aseach other, laughing, shouting; others eeping; soht up in prayer Ender didn't understand It seery

Colonel Graff detached himself from the others and ca He bent over, reached out his arhtly, and whispered, "Thank you, thank you, Ender Thank God for you, Ender"

The others soon ca him He tried to make sense of this Had he passed the test after all? It was his victory, not theirs, and a hollow one at that, a cheat; why did they act as if he had ith honor?

The crowd parted and Mazer Rackhaht to Ender and held out his hand

"YouEnd them or end us But heaven knows there was no other way you could have done it Congratulations You beat them, and it's all over"

All over Beat them Ender didn't understand "I beat you"

Mazer laughed, a loud laugh that filled the rooame since I became your enemy"

Ender didn't get the joke He had played a great ry

Mazer reached out and touched his shoulder Ender shrugged hirew serious and said, "Ender, for the past few months you have been the battle commander of our fleets This was the Third Invasion There were no gaht was the buggers You won every battle, and today you finally fought them at their home world, where the queen was, all the queens from all their colonies, they all were there and you destroyed theain You did it You"