Disclaimer: Ender's Shadow and Ender's Game belong to Orson Scott Card.
Absalom
In the black of space, a moving dot appears. We press toward it. "What is it?" She is answered as the distance between our ship and that moving dot closes. We can see that it is our destination: the Hive, the Bugger home world, the Formic planet. It is beautiful, as beautiful as the first astronauts in space have said that the Earth is.
"There they are, humankind's common enemy," I sigh. It's going to be a pyrrhic victory at best, with our forces outnumbered around one to maybe a hundred thousand. I don't know how much of a chance we have.
"Jing?" I shake my head at my name in Shiva's voice.
An infinity of their ships swarm over the planet like bees, the massive defensive fleet alert and wary of us. At once, they fire at us, breaking our eighty-ship formation. "Begin evasive action!"
"Yes sir!" Shiva coordinates our men to carry through with the order. They are all alert and tense.
However, it isn't yet time for the real battle to begin. Our soldiers are patient. Soon, it will be. There's just one loose variable, the most important one, to wait for.
A small handful of ships float near my planet. These are the humans, the only species to resist my reign so fiercely. I admire their stubbornness, and acknowledge their soldiers' skill in defeating the first fleet that I sent to colonize their planet. However, I thought it was a purely defensive effort, and did not expect them to be this bold.
Over the past few planetary rotations, they managed to wipe out all my children who I'd sent to colonize and govern worlds on several galaxies. Through the battles, at least one of their objectives was to preserve as many of their soldiers as possible. They value their own. Smart. Gallant warriors, indeed.
Presently, they come before me to prove that I can't just attack their planet and get away with it. I wish to defeat them now more than ever. Such an intelligent, autonomous race... These ships are modelled after the ones my children created. They learned lightspeed travel and the use of the ansible from the ruins of our fallen ships. It must have been only around thirty revolutions around their sun.
How dare they challenge me. And for them to think that a mere eighty ships can defeat us - such arrogance! They will be sorry, indeed.
Come, children. Let us show them that they're just sending their soldiers to the death. Their very autonomy and unwillingness to sacrifice will be their inevitable doom.
"Colonel, Colonel! The Ender boy won't wake up! His hands are bloody; there are teeth marks all over them."
"Calm down, soldier. Get two more men, a medic, and I'll also go with you."
The boy lay sideways and still, though his expression reminds all that nightmares still gnaw at him. I.F. personnel surround him, trying desperately to rouse him. His hand hangs over the side of the bed, the blood dripping carelessly onto the grey tile floor.
The medic goes into the room before me. He checks up on the boy silently and quickly, sizing up the situation as a professional is trained to do. "Doctor, how is he?"
"Colonel Graff. His injuries are minor, even though it looks like there's a lot of blood. After I bandage his hands, he should be fine."
"Good." I reach over to the boy's head. His ruffled hair and strained face indicate that he's still in a struggle. Out of the frying pan into the fire. I wish that there's another way. My hand squeezes his shoulder. "Ender. Ender Wiggin. This is Colonel Graff. You must wake up." He stirs, opening his eyes and turning to look at me. He looks so tired, more exhausted than any old man I have ever seen. Our child soldier, hope of humanity. "Come along. The simulators have already started up."
"Should I tell him that it's the final battle?"
"Do you think it would do him good, Rackham."
The supposed hero of the infamous First Invasion stares at me. Finally, those unpleasant eyes turn away. "Perhaps I pushed him too hard. But those men - all those who are out there dying right now - I knew them!" He looks at me again, as if seeking solace.
What can I offer this broken man? Absolutely nothing. "You did what you had to. We sent him here so that you can train him to save humanity." This of course he knows from the bottom of his heart.
"Colonel."
"He's getting ready. You should put on your headset to listen to the battle as well, even if in this final moment you can't advise him."
"What will happen afterward?"
"Humans would most likely take their near-demise for granted and just move on. Tell him what you need to tell him, then let the battle begin. We don't have forever." The former warrior nods, walking out of the door to speak to Ender one last time.
"Jing, they came on."
"Thanks, Shiva, I'm aware." I put on my headset nervously. The I.F. spent all those years preparing a batch of prodigy children, and now they're ready. I read the control panel. Our captain is Bean. We don't have time to wonder about the strange name. His commander, ominously, is Ender.
They haven't given us any orders yet. The children probably just woke up. Who knows what time it is for the I.F. I look around to see my men, all tensed up. "At ease," I say to them.
I understand. This is going to be the last battle of our lives, victory or defeat, and we all know it.
A voice relays a command to me. The boy, Bean, is young. He can't be more than six years old, yet he's gone through Battle School and is at Command School. "Shift all ships into formations of cylinders within cylinders." Ironically, it sounds like a three dimensional target.
We do as told. Our ships evade enemy attack, getting closer and closer to the planet. The enemy do not concentrate their forces to block us. Why not? We can't use Dr. Device in this situation. The radar shows a bunch of Formic ships creating a wall behind us. I puzzle at this development, as I'm sure my men are as well, if they're thinking about the situation.
A blast rocks the ship. Enemy impact made. "Oh, shit," whispered Shiva. We're so near the surface of the planet that we're about to enter their atmosphere.
Now I see that there's no escape. In these last few moments, we either make it or break it. It's a suicide mission, like the bombers in the Middle East who blow themselves up to make a stand for their beliefs. Like the pilots of Osama bin Laden.
Maybe we're all innate terrorists, I muse.
Like blind Samson. Like the Charge of Light Brigade. Acts of desperation.
These thoughts must have occurred to the boy prodigy as well. His voice comes onto our entire communication system, a childishly solemn cry carrying generations of anguish, mourning our demise. "O my son Absalom," he starts. "My son, my son Absalom. Would God I could die for thee, O Absalom, my son. My sons!"
Tears well up and begin to flow down my cheeks. I wipe them away so as not to impede my vision. As a religious man, I know what this means. Some of my other soldiers may not, though they can probably guess. A child so young, yet he knows the anguish of a soldier in battle. So bravely learned that he has the charisma to speak to his subordinates, understand their pain as his own. Few soldiers ever learn empathy. I don't know who you are, I think, but I'm grateful for that. That's probably the last act of kindness I'll ever see. Thank you.
They also weren't supposed to tell these children that real men are down here, fighting these wars. Either the boy figured it out on his own, or the International Fleet was foolish enough to tell them. No, I decide. He must have found out by himself. In the future, the I.F. may not be able to control these children.
Finally, Ender gives the final bid. "Straight down, as fast as possible. Launch Dr. Device against the planet. Wait till the last possible second. Squad P, cover the rest as you can." I dare to let the ship go down farther into the planet's atmosphere. Most of the other ships have already gone off radar. Then, it's just our ship and another one, Squad A.
"Don't launch it," says Bean. "Set it off inside your ship. May God be with you." I tell my men to turn off the launchers; they obey. I also shut down the flight controls, so that the ship's allowed to fall freely into the planet. We can feel our ears pop as our bodies are pulled downward by the gravity. We're going to hit land in 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4...
"Now!" I punch the button for Dr. Device to go off. The impact is immediate. Bright light accompanies a roar, and then... Everything went black.
Long live humanity.
A/N: Hope I did well. Please tell me what you think! Did I do justice to the characters?