posted
I just got through reading Xenocide, and there is something really bugging me. I can't figure out why for the life of me Jane reported the xenologers' illegal activities with the piggies to starways congress, which eventually resulted in the fleet being unleashed to destroy Lusitania. I didn't read Speaker for the Dead that long ago, but I remember being confused by this question at the time, and now I'm even more confused by it, because Jane said in Xenocide that she would not cut off Path's ansible to prevent Qing Jao from telling congress about her because it could lead to the same thing happening to them and she would rather die than cause their destruction.
Maybe I am missing something here but I don't see why it was necessary for Jane to report Miro and Ouanda. Perhaps congress would have noticed eventually what was going on, but why did she have to call it to their attention?
Posts: 1 | Registered: Aug 2006
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I'm at work now, so I can't check, but I thought that she explains her reasoning during the time when Ender shuts off the jewel in his ear. Was it just a whim based on her begrudging Ender? No, I'm sure that's not it. But I recall there being an explanation of some kind at that point.
Maybe something about the start of some political maneuvering that will end with Lusitania shut off from the rest of the Hundred Worlds so the queen can survive there?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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It's been awhile since i read it but im pretty sure she reported the illegal activities to Congress either during or right after her "fit" when Ender turned off the jewel, again its been awhile so i could easily be wrong.
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She did it to give Ender an enemy in common with the Lusitanians.
It's clear for most of the book that Ender and Jane think poorly of the restrictions on contact with the pequeninos. Violating those restrictions was a good act, and making Congress face up to those violations was necessary to allow a semblance of equality between the species (plus the possibility of restoring the Hive Queen, as pooka suggested). There was, from their perspective, a greater good being served by the risk Jane took in exposing the questionable activities.
Had Jane cut off Path, it wouldn't have saved Lusitania. There's no good to be gained from the risk.
Edit: Also, it's not clear Congress would send the little doctor to Lusitania before hand. Whereas, with Path, it was clear they would because of Path's unique situation and the fact they had already sent the fleet out once.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Why did Jane allow the message from Qing-Jao go out as it was?
I understand that if she had simply prevented the message entirely that it would have alerted Congress to Jane's eventual nature.
However, there are two scenarios (that I can think of) that make Jane's decision to allow Qing-Jao's Message go out as she wrote it flawed:
1) Jane could simply have stopped the messages. Yes, this would eventually have alerted Starways Congress. However, as Qing-Jao predicted, it would have taken a great deal of time for Congress to respond by sending out a fleet to "deal" with Path.
At this point Jane could simply have re-established communication with Path, thereby preventing the destruction of the Colony. Perhaps a resolution could have been reached by the time the second fleet arrived on Path.
Also, are we to assume that the Little Doctor doesn't require computer use to be fired? Why would Jane simply not allow it to be turned on? She didn't even need to black out the Lusitania Fleet. She could have simply not allowed the captains of the ship to use the Molecular Disruption Device. Eventually, someone would have realized an error, but this action would have bought tremendous time. An eternity.
Hell, Jane could simply have diverted the ships without telling them. Sent them to another location (even returning them to their original location) without letting them OR the monitors of the ships know what was happening.
Jane could simply have diverted the fleet and by the time anyone knew what was going on it would have given an enormous amount of time for the Lusitanians to save themselves. With decades more time a great deal could have been accomplished.
I was going to go into a second scenario. One in which Jane could simply have altered Qing-Jao's message when it went out to read as faulty. To be full of holes that would have caused its receivers to dismiss it. She could have manipulated it so that it seemed as if someone had subverted Han Fei-tzu and sent out a wrongful message. Then later sent a new message saying that Han had taken control again. This would sow the seeds of distrust in Path and would have caused Congress to focus on them instead of Lusitania. It probably would not have warranted death for Path, but instead a permanent failing of trust in the "super intelligence" that lived there.
I love the Ender's Game books, but after going back through and re-reading these there are simply too many flaws for me to fully enjoy what I before liked in ignorance.
Posts: 3 | Registered: Aug 2010
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to the first question it was after here anoyance with ender but it is also her calculation that she belives that ender can do it with a perpouse as was said. this is the same with Path. she could keep cutting off the messages but she would have to do it more and more and more. and that is not helpful to her. get it out now with little resistance so that people know of her and there are no real crimes she committed. also it helps to get the others on path to help her.
with the little doctor. this would be sepporate from any computer so that it does not get fired by some other hacker. they do the same with nukes. no wireless and is a pannel activetion with keys and codes.
but all this is down to the fact as she said later on that she had faith in them all to come up with a solution. she knew she could not but she had to get the ball rolling.
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