Chasing Ender
Chapter 1
Ender looked up. Not big Ender, but little Ender, Bean's child. Bean himself floated a few feet away. Ender was worried. He, Bean, and Bella were the only ones left the relativistic ship. The Third Child, whose name no one would speak, was dead. The Child had caught a disease that nearly wiped out everyone. It healed for everyone else. Bean was getting larger. Ender and Bella were two, and speaking fluently.
"Father," Ender said. "We need to do something."
"You say that almost every day," said Bean. "What can we do?"
"I don't know. We've been cruising for three thousand years!'
"Two, subjectively."
"We know all the arguments!" said Bella furiously. "Ender is right! We can find Old Ender."
"I'll die if I ever enter normal gravity again," said Bean. "I wouldn't mind dying if you didn't need an adult representative."
"Old Ender can help us!" said Ender.
"And what would you do," said Bean. "If Old Ender was dead?"
Comprehension dawned on Ender.
"Are you saying?"
"Yes. Two weeks ago, realtime."
"Okay. Who knows, then?"
Jane knew. Jane was light-years away with Wang-mu, Peter Wiggin, and her husband, Miro.
"I've found something very interesting," said Jane to Miro as they met Peter and Wang-mu for breakfast. They were on the planet of Kalagan, which was mostly Mongolian. There was a small restaurant in the hotel. It was dimly lit and the food was excellent.
"What?" asked Peter.
"Julian 'Bean' Delphiki."
"Who's that?"
"You should know," said Jane. "He only helped you become Hegemon." Peter sat up in his chair.
"You mean the man who was the military commander of Hegemony forces?"
"Yes. He was sent out on a relativistic journey with his three children. One of them died. They had a genetic defect and can only live in null gravity. The children are two, and are still small enough that the defect doesn't matter. They are brilliant. Genetically altered."
"So," said Wang-mu. "He's godspoken?"
"No. He will never stop growing."
"Oh." They all sat at thought about the implications.
"What can we do?" asked Miro.
"We can warp to Bean. See if we can help him in any way."
"Okay then. When?"
"Now." Jane thought and thought, and suddenly they were all floating in Bean's ship.