Fixer-Uppers [all day]

[momslilassassin]

Ben hadn't needed the radio broadcast to tell him that Leia had returned to the island, and he promised himself that he'd go track her down and see how she was doing once his shift at the shop was over. Seeing Dink and Carn over the weekend and hearing them talk about some teacher named Anderson had prompted him to listen to a few more of the audio tracks from Ender's past: he'd guessed from context that Anderson was the second voice in the earlier recordings. Ben took a deep breath, braced himself, and then clicked the next conversation.

"With Ender, we have to strike a delicate balance. Isolate him enough that he remains creative-- otherwise he'll adopt the system here and we'll lose him. At the same time, we need to make sure he keeps a strong ability to lead," Graff said and Ben could tell he was going to hate the way this discussion was going to go already.

Anderson replied with, " If he earns rank, he'll lead."

"lt isn't that simple," Graff replied. "Mazer Rackham could handle his little fleet and win. By the time this war happens, there'll be too much, even for a genius. Too many little boats. He has to work smoothly with his subordinates."

"Oh, good," Anderson said with some of the frustration Ben felt boiling up inside himself. "He has to be a genius and nice. too."

"Not nice. Nice will let the buggers have us all."

" So you're going to isolate him," Anderson concluded.

"I'll have him completely separated from the rest of the boys by the time we get to the School," Graff promised.

"I have no doubt of it. I'll be waiting for you to get here. I watched the vids of what he did to the Stilson boy. This is not a sweet little kid you're bringing up here," Anderson said.

"That's where you're mistaken. He's even sweeter. But don't worry. We'll purge that in a hurry," Graff said and Ben glared at the computer, even though he knew exactly how useless that was.

"Sometimes I think you enjoy breaking these little geniuses," Anderson said, and it didn't sound entirely complimentary.

"There is an art to it, and I'm very, very good at it," Graff said, and Ben snorted. "But enjoy? Well, maybe. When they put back the pieces afterward, and it makes them better."

"You're a monster," Anderson declared.

"Thanks. Does this mean I get a raise?" Graff asked.

"Just a medal. The budget isn't inexhaustible." And with that sentence, Ben decided he hated Anderson too. He glanced at his chrono and decided he had the time to listen to one more conversation before Ender would be showing up for lunch.

A new voice, but one Ben recognized, began talking first.

"You have my admiration. Breaking an arm-- that was a master stroke," Chamrajnagar began.

"That was an accident," Graff replied.

"Really? And I've already commended you in your official report," Chamrajnagar said.

"It's too strong. It makes that other little bastard into a hero. It could screw up training for a lot of kids. I thought he might call for help," Graff said and Ben snorted loudly. Ender solved his own problems and Graff knew that.

"Call for help? I thought that was what you valued most in him: that he settles his own problems. When he's out there surrounded by an enemy fleet, there ain't gonna be nobody to help him if he calls," Chamrajnagar argued.

"Who would have guessed the little sucker'd be out of hs seat? And that he'd land just wrong against the bulkhead?"

"Just one more example of the stupidity of the military. If you had any brains, you'd be in a real career, like selling life insurance," Charmrajnagar said wih a little laugh.

"You, too, mastermind," Graff shot back.

"We've just got to face the fact that we're second rate. With the fate of humanity in our hands. Gives you a delicious feeling of power, doesn't it? Especially because this time if we lose there won't be any criticism of us at all." Ben rolled his eyes at the screen.

"I never thought of it that way," Graff mused. "But let's not lose."

"See how Ender handles it," Chamrajnagar concluded. "If we've already lost him, if he can't handle this, who next? Who else?"

"I'll make up a list," Graff said.  

"In the meantime, figure out how to unlose Ender."

"I told you. His isolation can't be broken. He can never come to believe that anybody will ever help him out. Ever," Graff said. "If he once thinks there's an easy way out, he's wrecked." The hair on the back of Ben's neck stood up and he ran through a Jedi calming technique twice to bring himself back under control. They had screwed up his friend and good from the very start.

"You're right. That would be terrible, if he believed he had a friend," Chamrajnagar said dryly.

"He can have friends. It's parents he can't have," Graff said and Ben slammed the top on his computer shut with a little more vehemence than was really good for the machine. "Kriffing bastard," he snarled.

Ben picked up the flip camera from the AV Club on Wednesday to take apart and modify, his chosen way of repressing Bad Things.

Shhh, it was healthy.

Fixer-Uppers was open!

[OOC: Contents of audio NFB, stolen and modified from Orson Scott Card...]

Comments

[endsthegame]

"Ben?" Ender asked, ignorant of any rage that might be in the process of being built up here. He had a bag with him - pasta, this time, in a fit of the experimental. "I hope you're up for bolognese."

[momslilassassin]

Ben jumped just a little bit--he'd been so focused on taking the camera down to the screws that he'd missed Ender's approach--and tried to bluster past the error with a little smile. "Bolognese is food, right? It smells really good."

[endsthegame]

"It's a type of pasta sauce," Ender said, glancing at Ben like he was trying to intuit the source of that jump. "With tomatoes."

[momslilassassin]

"Sounds like a nice break from sandwiches," Ben replied, clearing off space on the counter where he'd made himself a nice little mess. His laptop had been exiled to under the counter.

[endsthegame]

"I thought it was my turn to try something new," Ender said, taking two packages out of the bag and setting them down on the desk.

Between the absence of the laptop and Ben's jumping and hammering away on that video camera, it didn't take a genius to realise he'd probably seen something that upset him.

Or had something happen to him, or heard something, Ender thought, and thought back to the radio broadcasts of the past couple of days.

[momslilassassin]

"Aunt Leia's back," Ben offered in explanation, reaching for one of the containers.

It was at least half of what was bothering him, so he didn't think it broke their agreement about honesty. Besides, Ender already knew that Ben loathed Graff, so that wasn't news.

Or so Ben told himself.

[endsthegame]

That made sense.

"I heard," Ender said, opening up his own container, and then searching for - and pulling up - a chair. "Have you spoken to her yet?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben shook his head. "Grandad, Jaina and Tahiri got to her yesterday. I didn't want to crowd her."

[endsthegame]

Sensible, and very Ben, and yet part of Ender's intuition was telling him there was something else going on here right now and he couldn't tell what.

"What are you expecting?" he asked, grabbing the plastic fork from the package and poking at his pasta.

[momslilassassin]

"News about her Alderaan," Ben said quietly, spinning his pasta on his fork but not eating. "It's weird having that not be ancient history."

[endsthegame]

"I like how you call it 'ancient', like it was over a millenium ago," Ender said, joking just a little bit, but not a lot.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's lips quirked up. "She and Dad are really old?"

Not nice, Ben.

[endsthegame]

"Or you're just really young," Ender said, rolling some spaghetti onto his fork and taking a bite. It took a little maneuvering. "So. Alderaan."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "The first Death Star blew it up while she watched. Two billion lives gone in a blink."

[endsthegame]

Ender thought immediately of how much that must have hurt, and winced a little as a wave of empathy struck him. "I can see why you're being careful."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "I'm not sure how much of that has sunk in for her," he said. "If it worked like it did for Dad, they were very busy immediately after Alderaan died."

[endsthegame]

"Which means being back in Fandom where it's considerably calmer is both a curse and a blessing," he said, sitting back with his pasta. At least Ben had succeeded in getting his mind off the question of what else might be wrong.

[momslilassassin]

"Exactly," Ben said, "and it's also full of relatives who know what was going to happen and didn't say anything."

[endsthegame]

Ender glanced up at him. "She might not react the way Jaina did," he said.

[momslilassassin]

Ben shrugged. "Maybe," he said softly, "but I'd rather not get the brunt of the anger just in case. Granddad deserve it more."

[endsthegame]

"Well," Ender said, after a moment, "I think that's the first time I've heard you say that."

Which was a good thing, even if it probably spelled trouble for Anakin.

[momslilassassin]

Ben blushed. "Say what?"

[endsthegame]

"That something like this was someone else's responsibility to deal with first," Ender said, and pointed his fork at Ben's food. "Eat or it's going to freeze over."

[momslilassassin]

"That's my line," Ben said, wrinkling his nose at Ender. He took a bite anyway. "Granddad will be better at this one anyway. And if he's not, well--"

Ben didn't exactly say, "he deserved the pain," but he felt it.

[endsthegame]

That was one Ben's Jedi would probably be less happy about, but Ender didn't mind as much; he just wondered what Ben himself would think about it if he gave it more than two seconds' thought. "Hopefully he will be, then," he said, a little lightly. "And hopefully Leia is the earliest in the timeline you guys will get."