"Mother," said Alessandra. "I'm not going with you."
"Yes you are."
"I'm sixteen," said Alessandra. "The law says I can decide for myself whether to join a colony."
"Nonsense."
"It's true. Valentine Wiggin joined this colony when she was only fifteen. Her parents didn't want her to, but she did it."
"Is that the lie she told you? It may seem romantic and brave, but you'll just be lonely all the time."
"Mother," said Alessandra. "I'm lonely all the time anyway."
Mother recoiled from her words. "How can you say that, you ungrateful little brat," she said. "I'm with you. You're never lonely."
"I'm always lonely," said Alessandra. "And you're never with me. You're with your darling angel fairy changeling child. And that's not me."
Alessandra turned away and headed back down the ramp.
She heard Mother's footsteps. No, she felt them, as the ramp bounced slightly under the impact of her feet.
Then she felt Mother shove her from behind, a brutal shove that threw her completely off balance. "Go, then, you little bitch!" Mother screamed.
Alessandra struggled to get her feet under her, but her upper body was moving far faster than her feet could match, and she felt herself falling forward, the ramp looking so steep, she was going to hit so hard and her hands wouldn't be able to hold her up--
All of those thoughts in a split second, and then she felt her arm grabbed from behind and instead of hitting the ramp she swung down and then up again and it wasn't Mother who caught her, Mother was still a few steps away, where she had been when she shoved her. This was Ensign Akbar, and his face looked so concerned, so kind.
"Are you all right?" he said, once he had her standing up.
"That's right!" Mother shouted. "Bring that ungrateful little brat right inside here."
"Do you want to go back to the ship with us?" asked Ensign Akbar.
"Of course she does," said Mother, who was now at Akbar's elbow. Alessandra could see the transformation in Mother's face as she switched from the screamer who called Alessandra a bitch and a brat to the sweet fairy queen. "My darling fairy child is only happy when she's with her mother."
>
"I think I want to stay here," said Alessandra softly. "Will you let me go?"
Ensign Akbar leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, exactly as Ender had done. "I wish I could stay here with you," he said. Then he stood up to military attention. "Good-bye, Alessandra Toscano. Have a happy life here in this good world."
"What are you saying! My husband will court-martial you for this!" The Mother moved past him, heading for Alessandra, a hand reaching out for her like the bony hand of death.
Ensign Akbar caught her by the wrist.
"How dare you," she hissed directly into his face. "You've signed your death warrant for mutiny."
"Admiral Morgan will approve of my preventing his wife from breaking the law," said Ensign Akbar. "He will approve of my allowing this free colonist to exercise her right to fulfil her contract and stay in this colony."
Mother put her face right up into his, and Alessandra could see how flecks of her spittle sprayed right into his mouth, his nose, and onto his chin and cheeks. Yet he didn't budge. "It won't be about this, you fool," she said. "It will be about the time you tried to rape me in a darkened room on the ship."
For a moment, Alessandra found herself wondering when such a thing might have happened, and why Mother didn't mention it at the time.
Then she realized: It hadn't happened. Mother only intended to say it had. She was threatening Ensign Akbar with a lie. And there was one thing for sure--Mother was a good liar. Because she believed her own lies.
But Akbar only smiled. "The lady Dorabella Morgan has forgotten something."
"What is that?"