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"We don't tell people-- human or pequenino-- about the research we're doing here," said Novinha sharply. "It could cause terrible misunderstandings that could lead to violence and death."
"So we humans are the judges of all other creatures," said Quara.
"No, Quara. We scientists are gathering information," said Novinha.
"Until we've gathered enough, nobody can judge anything. So the secrecy rule goes for everybody here. Quara and Grego both. You tell no one until I say so, and I won't say so until we know more."
"Until you say so," asked Grego impudently, "or until the Speaker for the Dead says so?"
"I'm the head xenobiologist," said Novinha. "The decision on when we know enough is mine alone. Is that understood?"
She waited for everyone there to assent. They all did.
Novinha stood up. The meeting was over. Quara and Grego left almost immediately; Novinha gave Ender a kiss on the cheek and then ushered him and Ela out of her office.
Ender lingered in the lab to talk to Ela. "Is there a way to spread your replacement virus throughout the entire population of every native species on Lusitania?"
"I don't know," said Ela. "That's less of a problem than how to get it to every cell of an individual organism fast enough that the descolada can't adapt or escape. I'll have to create some kind of carrier virus, and I'll probably have to model it partly on the descolada itself-- the descolada is the only parasite I've seen that invades a host as quickly and thoroughly as I need the carrier virus to do it. Ironic-- I'll learn how to replace the descolada by stealing techniques from the virus itself."
"It's not ironic," said Ender, "it's the way the world works. Someone once told me that the only teacher who's worth anything to you is your enemy."
"Then Quara and Grego must be giving each other advanced degrees," said Ela.
"Their argument is healthy," said Ender. "It forces us to weigh every aspect of what we're doing."
"It'll stop being healthy if one of them decides to bring it up outside the family," said Ela.
"This family doesn't tell its business to strangers," said Ender. "I of all people should know that."
"On the contrary, Ender. You of all people should know how eager we are to talk to a stranger-- when we think our need is great enough to justify it."
Ender had to admit that she was right. Getting Quara and Grego, Miro and Quim and Olhado to trust him enough to speak to him, that had been hard when Ender first came to Lusitania. But Ela had spoken to him from the start, and so had all of Novinha's other children. So, in the end, had