Page 866 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

"But not part of me."
<Part of you but also not-you. Other. Outside but inside. Bound to you but free. It couldn't control you, and you couldn't control it.>
"Could it control the computer?"
<We didn't think about that. We didn't care. Maybe.>
"How long did you use this bridge? How long was it there?"
<We stopped thinking about it. We were thinking about you.>
"But it was still there the whole time you were studying me."
<Where would it go?>
"How long would it last?"
<We never made one like that before. How would we know? The hive queen dies when the queen- body dies.>
"But what body was the bridge in?" <Yours. At the center of the pattern.> "This thing was inside me?"
<Of course. But it was still not-you. It disappointed us that way, when it couldn't let us control you, and we stopped thinking about it. But we see now that this was very important. We should have searched for it. We should have remembered it.>
"No. To you it was like-- a bodily function. Like balling up your fist to hit somebody. You did it, and then when you didn't need it you didn't notice whether your fist was still there or not."
<We don't understand the connection but it seems to make sense inside you.>
"It's still alive, isn't it?"
<It could be. We're trying to feel it. Find it. Where can we look? The old pattern isn't there. You don't play the Fantasy Game anymore.>
"But it would still be linked to the computer, wouldn't it? A connection between me and the computer. Only the pattern could have grown, couldn't it? It could include other people, too. Think of it being linked to Miro-- the young man I brought with me--"