Speaker for the Dead Chapter 17 Summary

The Wives

• The epigraph is from the big boss of Starways Congress, and basically says that he'll kill everybody on Lusitania if he has to. He also tells us that Demosthenes (a.k.a. Valentine) is writing on behalf of the Lusitanians, and that news has leaked out that the evacuation fleet to Lusitania has the "Little Doctor,"—a kind of super nuclear bomb that can destroy planets (Ender used it to destroy the bugger homeworld in Ender's Game).
• Ender and Ouanda and Ela are going to meet the wives; they chat with Mandachuva and confuse each other.
• They get to a tree crawling with worm things, which it turns out are male and female baby piggies.
• They see a wife and Ender asks her name, but the male piggies say the wives don't tell them their names.
• They call her Shouter, though.
• The Wives want Human as interpreter for Ender.
• There's sparring between Shouter and Ender for precedence, and Ender basically wins, because that's how he generally rolls.
• Jane tells Ender she's figuring out the Wives's language, and she catches Human embellishing what the Wives say. Ender tells him to speak the truth and only the truth.
• They look at the baby piggies crawling on the tree, and discover that the fertile females give birth and then their worm children eat their way out of their wombs.
• More about piggie ecology: The piggie males carry the little mothers to the father trees where they are fertilized with pollen; the nipples on the male piggies are for carrying the mothers and are also erogenous zones.
• The mothers give birth when they're still in their infant state, and only sterile female grow up to be wives, since the fertile females die giving birth.
• Ender looks into the mother tree, where all the mothers are, with a flashlight.
• Ela and Ouanda wonder if they could change the life cycle so that the females could grow to maturity and wouldn't die in childbirth.
• Ender tells them they are being horrible and that it's not up to humans to change the piggies's life cycle.
• Human translates but doesn't tell the Wives about Ela and Ouanda's idea.
• There's more sparring where Ender is wise and handles the recalcitrant piggie Wives the way he handles everyone. His awesomeness knows no boundary of race or species.
• We go over to Novinha with Miro, and Miro is mostly paralyzed though manager to let them know he wants to tell them something. Olhado uses a computer so Miro can signal at the right letter. It's time consuming, but he manages to communicate.
• Miro finishes what he has to tell them and says they have to go tell the Speaker now before the negotiations are over (the book doesn't tell us what the message is; that's suspense).
• Miro manages to tighten his grip on his mom's hand, so she knows he is recovering, at least a little.
• Novinha, Quim, and Olhado go to the Speaker, climbing over the fence.
• Back with Ender who tells the Wives he's planning to talk to other tribes; the Wives say those other tribes are enemies and he can't talk to them.
• Novinha shows up and explains Miro's message, which is that the piggies go to war in order to take the females from the trees and pollinate them with their own tribe's trees.
• Ender tells Human no war is allowed, which really upsets Human, but Ender (you knew this) convinces him.
• Ender says the tribe can be great by expanding its definition of who is in the tribe rather than by conquering other tribes.
• They set out for Human what the bargain will be: Humans will teach the piggies everything and release the Hive Queen, and the piggies will stop fighting and obey human law in human places.
• Ender also explains that humans don't turn into trees when they die.
• Human explains that the piggies wanted Pipo and Libo to slay Manduchuva and Leaf-eater and give them the third life. Pipo and Libo wouldn't though, so the piggies had to give them the third life.
• It's all a tragic misunderstanding.
• The piggies realize they murdered Pipo and Libo, and are very upset.
• This chapter is really long, you guys.
• Everybody grieves and forgives everybody, and Ender learns that if the treaty works he'll have to give Human the third life by cutting him and torturing hm.
• Novinha tells him he's compassionate enough to give Human the third life.
• Human comes back with a signed treaty—there are some minor changes to bang out, but then they're done.
• Ender still has to give Human the third life for it to be a piggie treaty, though (the covenant says from now on humans won't give piggies the third life, which is just as well for the humans).
• Ender signs the treaty with the name "Ender" and Novinha knows who he is. She is impressed.
• Human asks Ender to write his story as sequel to the Hive Queen and the Hegemon—a sequel making a trilogy, like all those sci-fi series. Ender says he will.
• Quim, Olhado, Ela and everybody insists on staying to see Ender cut up Human and send him to the third life, so Ender does the deed.
• The Bishop and Bosquinha meet them, and they see that Ender has killed Human, but Ender promises to explain.
• Jane's restored all the files.
• Everyone goes into mass. Novinha and Ender look like they're on the way to being a couple.