Énouement

Chapter Fifty Six

"Because, by God, I'm the only person who understands exactly how brilliant you children actually are." I could hear Bean and Graff in the corridor ahead of me. I jogged to catch up with them.

"How brilliant are we?" Bean turned to me and grinned. Graff regarded me before nodded me to follow them.
"Our walk won't last forever, and I won't waste time on flattery. The other thing I wanted to tell you..." Graff trailed off and looked towards me again.

"I'll probably tell her later anyway." Bean commented. Graff nodded and cleared his throat.
"is that Sister Carlotta, being unemployed after you left, devoted a lot of effort to tracking down your parentage. I can see two officers approaching us right now who will put an end to this unrecorded conversation, and so I'll be brief. You have a name, Bean. You are Julian Delphiki."

"That's Nikolai's last name."
"Julian is the name of Nikolai's father. And of your father. Your mother's name is Elena. You are identical twins. Your fertilized eggs were implanted at different times, and your genes were altered in one very small but significant way." I titled my head at his comment confused. Bean was altered? " So when you look at Nikolai, you see yourself as you would have been, had you not been genetically altered, and had you grown up with parents who loved you and cared for you."

I disregarded that because it wasn't important.
"Julian Delphiki," said Bean. I squeezed his hand and smiled.
"Bean, you have a family! You have someone to go home to!"

"Nikolai is among those already heading for Earth. Sister Carlotta will see to it that, when he is repatriated to Greece, he is informed that you are indeed his brother. His parents already know that you exist —Sister Carlotta told them. Your home is a lovely place, a house on the hills of Crete overlooking the Aegean. Sister Carlotta tells me that they are good people, your parents. They wept with joy when they learned that you exist. And now our interview is coming to an end. We were discussing your low opinion of the quality of teaching here at Command School."

"How did you guess." I snorted.
"You're not the only ones who can do that."

The two officers —an admiral and a general, both wearing big false smiles —greeted us and asked how the interview had gone.

"You have the recording," said Graff. "Including the part where Bean insisted that it was still being recorded."
"And yet the interview continued."
"You all really are stupid if you thought it wouldn't." I remarked as I rolled my eyes. I didn't need to even know what Graff and Bean had been talking about, but I'd still cover Bean.

"I was telling him," Bean shifted, "about the incompetence of the teachers here at Command School."

"Incompetence?"
"It means you lack the ability to do something well." I spelled out slowly and Bean cracked a smile.
"Sophronia." Graff warned.
"Sorry, sir." The officers looked tired and exasperated with me, but I didn't care anymore. Bean cleared his throat and continued.

"Our battles are always against exceptionally stupid computer opponents. And then the teachers insist on going through long, tedious analyses of these mock combats, even though no enemy could possibly behave as stupidly and predictably as these simulations do. I was suggesting that the only way for us to get decent competition here is if you divide us into two groups and have us fight each other."

The two officers looked at each other. "Interesting point," said the general.
"Moot," said the admiral.
"Ender Wiggin is about to be introduced into your game. We thought you'd want to be there to greet him."
"Yes," said Bean. "I do."

"Wait, Ender is here? Graff you buried the lead!"
"I didn't want to overexcited you Sophronia."
"Fat chance. Can I see him?" I turned towards the officers.
"I'll take you," said the admiral.
"Let's talk," the general said to Graff.