Tree-Tender sat in silence starring out over the field spread before him. A bitterly cold wind kicked up and swirled around the small hill he sat upon ruffling his short hair like fur. From this raised vantage point it was a barren desolate view, but there were signs of hope yet for the future. Large patches of snow and ice still dominated the view, but in the spaces where the long winter was finally in full retreat hints of green stood out in sharp contrast against the lifeless earth. It really was amazing how quickly plant life could reassert itself.

None of this registered to Tree-Tender though, not even the biting wind. All his attention was turned inward, towards the great decision he had to make. The other survivors had offered to be here with him, to help him, even if by just being a friendly presence. He had declined their offers though, knowing that this was a leap that only he could decide to make. None of them could possibly understand what it would mean if he were to go through with this.

Thirty years ago when Jane had delivered the three colonies to this world, Human Formic and Pequenino, everything had seemed perfect. All three colonies thrived and lived and worked together, each relying on the others, and each offering a unique benefit. No one had suspected what would be in store for them in years to come.

It had started a decade after their arrival with a longer colder than average winter. It just grew worse from there. Each year the winter grew even colder and lasted longer until it finally gripped the planet in a year round freeze. The best that either the Humans or the Formics could tell was that this planet moved through an unstable orbit cycle every few hundred years which plunged it into a deep ice age; something which Miro and Valentine's survey had not been able to detect. Evacuation had been considered when they realized this, but given their nature, that was only an option for the Humans and the Formics, the Pequeninos would have to be left behind. The three had grown so close that neither of them could agree to doing a thing like that. So they decided to stay and work together to weather whatever was to come.

The Formic queen had been the first casualty. Her insectoid physiology just could not handle the ever increasing cold even with the technology she was able to wield. With her had gone their only real interplanetary communication and any future hope of evacuation or rescue. The Humans hadn't brought one of their Ansibles with them, none of the Lusitanian colony worlds had. Despite Peter's work things were politically still unstable, and if the Starways Congress knew where the colony worlds were located they could still be in very grave danger. As for the Mother and Father Tree's philatic communications; they were too weak and imprecise to allow the same level of off world communication that the Queen had been capable of.

The forests of Brother Trees were the next to fall. Some fell unceremoniously to cold and ice. Others sacrificed themselves to stoke the fires that warmed the humans the brothers and wives, but most importantly of all preserved the Father Trees and The Mother Tree. In the end the result was the same, the forests they'd spent a decade raising had dwindled and fallen in half that time.

As the winter dragged on it slowly took its toll, gradually reducing the numbers of humans Brothers and Wives who still struggled against its freeze. Then the unthinkable happened; the first of the Father Trees succumb. Tree-Tender had stepped forward to lead the efforts to protect the remaining Father Trees and the Mother Tree for as long as this winter could last. Despite their greatest efforts there was no sign to an end to the cold, and one by one the Father Trees fell.

Just when it seemed that all hope would be lost, when the last Father Tree and the last Brother besides Tree-Tender met their ends, and The Mother Tree was on the brink, the long dark of the winter finally broke.

That had been two years ago. It had been no mean feat to not only survive that time, but to successfully sustain The Mother Tree too. But here they were, a handful of survivors - mostly humans, a few Wives, The Mother Tree, and Tree-Tender - the last of the Brothers. A warm sun shined down upon them from a cloudless sky, hope on the horizon for the first time in decades. Already The Mother Tree had opened and the first of the new little brothers and wives had emerged into the Second Life to crawl across her surface, but this new life would mean nothing with no Father Trees to carry the fertile little wives to.

There in lay the decision that Tree-Tender now contemplated alone atop this frigid hill. He had managed to lead his people through the long dark, and now he would need to move on to the Third Life. To become the first of the new Father Trees, to ensure that their survival hadn't been for naught.

That however, was not the problem before him. To move on to the Third Life and become a Father Tree was the greatest of all honors to the Pequenino, and something he knew he must do. The problem was that there were no other Brothers left to do the honor of planting him. That meant that it would have to fall to a human to perform the duty, and there in was the dilemma.

Not since Ender had planted Human to seal the treaty between their peoples had a human done such a thing. Tree-Tender, when still just an unnamed young Brother, had been there that day to witness that monumental event. Even at that age he had understood the significance of the treaty that act had sealed; from that day forward no Penqenino would harm a human and no human would harm a Pequenino. Sure there had been the unfortunate incident instigated by Warmaker, but aside from that the treaty had been wholly upheld. Certainly here on Nova Verao it had been held in the highest of regards. There had been perfect peace between the races, and they certainly wouldn't have made it though the long dark without that peace.

It wasn't even so much a fear that one planting would suddenly undo all these years of peace. The long dark had brought them too close together for anything to disturb their relations now. Plus, to the Pequeninos a planting wasn't even a form of harm. It was only the humans that saw it as form of death. To the Pequeninos it was the start of the Third Life, their real life, and the most sacred action they could undertake.

It was more a question of the symbolism that would come with it, and really Tree-Tender had to be truthful with himself; the real crux was that by becoming the first Brother to be planted by a human since Human he would be making a statement that he had done just as great of things as Human had.

His eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet at that revelation. That was why he was so conflicted about what lay ahead. He had no reservations about moving on to the Third Life and knew it was something he had to do no matter who planted him, but could he really accept that he was as great as Human or Rooter before him? Why not? Sure the Brothers Father Trees and Brother Trees hadn't made it, but he'd still managed to lead the Mother Tree and the Wives through the long dark giving them hope of continuing on this planet. Why shouldn't that be considered as great an accomplishment as building peace with the humans?

At that a new sense of pride swelled in him. It really was a great thing he'd done. He'd ensured the survival of their colony through the winter, and now he would be the Father for them as they rebuilt afterwards. With his head held high he spun on his heel and strode back towards the colony. He already knew which human he would want to do it.




Despite the cold still lingering in the air Duar was standing at the end of their village waiting for him. When they had first colonized this world there had been separate villages for each race, just like back on Lusitania, but during the longer winter they had been forced to consolidate them for the benefit of all. It was a small collection of buildings huddled tightly together in a circle surrounding the Mother Tree.

Before the winter had hit Duar -  which wasn't his real name at all - was just a young doctor and surgeon and not very prominent in the village, much like Tree-Tender really. The two were about the same age and had become something akin to friends. When the winter had struck and the political and religious leaders failed to rise to the task of leading the people through it; he, together with Tree-Tender, had stepped up to be the leaders all had needed - hence the nickname everyone now used in place of his given name. Duar was a shortening of Duarte, Portuguese for prosperous guardian. In fact Tree-Tender's name too had changed during the winter.

When Tree-Tender finally stood before Drau they embraced in a hug of friendship, a mannerism the Pequenino had picked up from the humans over the years. With his shorter stature he had to stand on his tippietoes and Drau had to bend down to meet him.

"So you've made your decision?"

"There was no decision to be made, I have to do this, we both know that. Merely a personal realization I had to accept."

Drau nodded solemnly in return. They had come close enough that he knew exactly what it was that Tree-Tender had to admit to himself. He was closest friend and argued the strongest to be there by his side with him while he'd grappled with it, but ultimately had accepted that it was something Tree-Tender had needed to do alone.

An uncomfortable moment passed between them; Tree-Tender trying to avoid eye contact with his friend. "You want me to be the one to do it." Drau broke the silence with the statement of fact they both knew.

Tree-Tender nodded.

Drau had known this was something his friend would ask of him and he thought he would be ready for it, but now his heart leapt into his throat and he felt a tear run down his cheek. Thanks to Ender's The Life of Human he, like all people from Lusitania, knew that to the Penqueninos moving on to the Third Life really wasn't death. Still though, to humans, especially those as close to them as Drau, it was a hard thing to understand and deal with. It may not be death as humans know it, but it may as well be. He would be saying goodbye to the person before him, his friend, and in his place would grow a tree. Somehow somewhere inside it would still be the memories and consciousness of his friend, and they can still communicate - after a fashion, but to a human it can never be the same without the flesh and blood.

Without another word they walked arm-in-arm into the village. There, the rest of the survivors waited for them in silence, this was an important event and they would all witness it. A patch of bare earth had been cleared not far from the base of the Mother Tree. Back on Lusitania, and here before the winter, the Father Trees were traditionally planted some distance from the Mother Tree, but it had been decided for several reasons that he should be close.

Tree-Tender took his place and lay on his back in the center of that clear patch, his dearest friend and now planter never moving from his side.

Drau knelt nervously besides his friend, their hands and eyes meeting in an embrace that shared more than any words ever could. He had seen plantings preformed before by other Penqueninos, and after the long dark had broken had spent many nights going over the details with Tree-Tender - both knowing what would eventually need to be done. Still, he worried that he might do something wrong, and Tree-Tender would only be able to guide him for so long once they began.

Still holding his friend's hand with one hand he removed the ceremonial knife from his belt with the other. It was a simple wooden blade, but stronger and sharper than any blade of steel - formed through the sacrifice made by a Brother Tree. Tears welled anew in Duar's eyes as he lowered the blade towards Tree-Tender's exposed stomach.

He wept not just for the lose of his friend, but for the pain that his friend would have to endure before passing into the Third Life. Strictly speaking the ritual was not necessary, any deceased Brother would eventually grown into a tree. The planting just speed up the process, and greatly increased the odds they would grow into a Father Tree instead of a simple Brother Tree. Plus, back on their home world of Lusitania it had become too engrained in the Penquenino's culture to abandon.

Tree-Tender winced when the blade met and easily penetrated the flesh of his belly just above his pelvis. The one hand which still held Duar's clenched tightly, the other reached out and grasped at the bare earth beside him. On Lusitania they had the Capsim Grass which when chewed acted as an anesthetic virtually eliminating the pain of the planting, but here they had none and he would have to endure the great pain to come. Which somehow seemed appropriate. He would break the treaty by being the first to be planted by a human since Human, and as penance he would endure the pain that Pipo and Libo felt when the Pequenino had attempted to plant them - not understanding that humans lacked the Third Life.

Duar hesitated when Tree-Tender squeezed his hand; he hated doing this but knew it must be done and would see it through, for his friend and the future of the colony. Tree-Tender's eyes managed to meet his and he gave a slight nod through his grimace of pain, signaling his friend to just do it.

The tears welled so strongly in his eyes he had difficulty seeing what he was doing. He needed to be able to see to be sure he made no mistake that would cause his friend even more pain than necessary, but he refused to release Tree-Tender's hand until he must and he would not remove the knife and stab his friend an extra time. So, he was forced to resort to doing his best to blink away his tears.

Once he could see clearly enough he pulled the knife upwards along his dearest friend's belly. The sharply honed blade easily passed through thick hide leaving a clean shallow cut, just deep enough to piece the skin but not damage the organs which lay below. Despite the pain he felt for his friend his hand remained steady and firm on the hilt of the blade guiding it quickly past Tree-Tender's stomach and continuing up his chest not stopping till just below his friend's throat.

Tree-Tendered screamed out and writhed beneath him. His eyes clenched shut and hand squeezed tightly around Duar's. With the first and longest incision finished Duar removed the tip of the blade. Momentarily relieved of any new pain Tree-Tender was able to open his eyes and look once more into the face of his friend. He said nothing, his breath coming in slightly ragged pants, but Duar could read the pain and suffering in those eyes. His heart clenched in his chest and he squeezed back tightly on Tree-Tender's hand.

"I'll finish quickly," he whispered a promise only Tree-Tender could hear.

Continuing from the top of the first incision he made two quick cuts following along Tree-Tender's collar bone veering down towards his arm pits. He then finished with two more cuts from the bottom tracing the rise of his pelvis. With the incisions complete he would need both his hands to continue, and reluctantly released his grip on Tree-Tender's hand.

He paused just briefly to stroke the back of his freed hand gently against Tree-Tender's cheek, just to let his pained friend know he was still there with him as a friend. He momentarily set the knife aside and his hands moved quickly to peel back the skin and muscle covering Tree-Tender's belly and chest. It gave some resistance parting from the ribs, but once the deed was done he was greeted by his first look inside of a Pequenino.

As a doctor and surgeon he'd seen his fair share of human's innards, but the differences in their cultures meant that the anatomy of the Pequenino had always remained a mystery to him. Detailed study of that anatomy would have to wait, he needed to work fast, and was just glad that the procedure was really no different from a autopsy - which he'd performed his share of over the years. Only, this time his subject alive and conscious, but not for long if he didn't hurry.

Tree-Tender shivered as the frigid air flowed into his open body, touching places never meant to be exposed to air. Starting to become light headed his head lulled lazily to the side. He could still feel the excruciating pain of being cut open, but somehow in some strange way it was growing less noticeable. He felt detached from it, almost as if it were happening to someone else. What made the sensation even stranger was that he was not experiencing the same detached feeling from all parts of his body. A hyper sensitivity was growing along his back where ever his body made contact with the ground, bringing with it a warm tingling sensation. Had he been able to think clearly about it he would have realized that his he was already beginning to take root and transition into the Third Life, but a nagging buzz filled the edges of his mind - like a murmur of growing voices, still too distant and indistinct to make out what they are saying.

Duar noticed his friend slipping away. He didn't know what would happen with the planting if Tree-Tender died before the ritual was finished, and he didn't want to find out. He tried to push away the fact that this was his friend laying here dying and to work with quick unattached clinical precision. He picked up the knife once more and began to work his way through his subject's sternum. It was harder going than slicing through the skin and muscle, but the absurdly sharp blade quickly succeeded in doing the job. With a crack the rib cage split open fully revealing the remainder of the internal organs.

This was the moment the two of them had spent late nights going over in detail. He needed to remove the organs and precisely place them around the body, but unlike a normal autopsy he would not be fully severing the organs. Each would still remain attached to and feeding the body, in effect becoming the first roots of tree that Tree-Tender would become.

While some obvious differences in anatomy were evident there really was more similarity than not - which was odd if you thought about it, evolving on totally different planets and all, but it seemed that all life needs the same basic structures to perform digestion. He began by diving into the coiled lengths of intestines. The slimy living mass of tubular muscles twisted and squirmed in his grasp, not unlike a coiled bunch of snakes - a far different experience from handling the bowels of the deceased. He made his first internal cut as close to the center of the continuous mass as he could find. With the intestines now in two pieces he began pulling them from the body cavity like unwinding a rope. He unwound each half onto separate sides of the body, laying them out in an intricate pattern that indeed looked much like a twisting root.

With the mass of intestines out of the way over a third of the cavity was already empty. Tree-Tender's cries of pain had ceased long ago, but his head still moved. It turned to look towards Duar leaning over him, but while it looked towards him the eyes were glassy and it felt as if their gaze looked through him rather at him. That combined with the twitch of internal muscles and the still beating heart - though growing more rapid and erratic - was enough to tell him his friend still lived.

He traced the upper half of the removed intestine into the stomach and reached in to remove it. He was surprised to find that it easily pulled free, an unexpected coiled length of esophagus hidden behind it, just long enough to allow him to place the organ on the ground just below his subject's armpit while still being attached. Organ after organ was easily removed in a similar manner and arrayed around the body - hidden connections just long enough to reach where they needed to rest keeping them attached to the body. As if they'd evolved to be removed in just such a manner, and in a way they had.




The murmuring voices in Tree-Tender's head had steadily grown louder and more distinct as each organ was removed from his body. He had been unable to lift his head, but he could see his friend crouched over him, and from time to time catch a glimpse of a piece of his body as it was lifted free and placed on the ground around him. While he knew that what he saw in Duar's hands were his own organs he felt nothing from them. Much like the disconnect he'd felt with the pain of being cut open, but even that too was nothing but a long forgotten memory now. The only thing he felt was the ground beneath him, and each time an organ was placed upon it it flared brightly with new life. He felt large, more significant, than he'd ever felt before, and that feeling only grew with each organ that was removed.




Finally, only the heart and lungs lay lonely inside the body. Tree-Tender's head had fallen back and his limbs no longer periodically twitched, but still the heart beat on, albeit much slower now, clearly approaching its last beat. That little muscle would remain where it was, the only organ to stay behind. It was time to remove the lungs and complete the ritual. He reached in and gently grasped the left lung, feeling it fill slightly with air as he did so. Like all the other organs it too was connected by an overly long bronchial tube allowing him to place it over Tree-Tender's shoulder beside his head. The heart skipped a beat and slowed further as he removed the second lung and placed it too beside Tree-Tender's head, framing it on the opposite side.




When only his heart and lungs remained the voices were screaming in Tree-Tender's head, but still he could not make out what they were saying. Time seemed almost to freeze, he floated in a haze of confusion; no longer connected to his dying body, barely able to see through its eyes or access his memories, not even sure who his is anymore. He saw a face leaning closely over him, placing something - he didn't know what - to either side of him. His vision faded and four words managed to pierce through the deafening howl of the voices 'Thank. You. My. Friend.'




Duar stepped back to view his work, hoping that he'd placed everything correctly. It all seemed right, the organs and entrails all laid out just as they had discussed. The body cavity sat empty, expect for the heart, which gave a violent shudder and a quiver and at last sat still. Duar's breath caught in his throat and he stood in silence holding his breath, waiting. He knew that the planting should take root almost immediately. For what felt like an eternity nothing happened. Then the heart twitched slightly - for a moment he thought that it was beginning to beat again, that his friend wasn't truly gone - but then a hint a green poked out from beneath it. Slowly the heart fell to the side and a bright green leafy sprout reached upwards towards the afternoon sun. Tears flowed freely from Duar's eyes and a smile broke out over his face. His friend had made it to the Third Life, but it would be several weeks before they could try to communicate once again and verify that this new life was indeed a Father Tree and not a silent Brother.




The moment his vision faded the cacophony of voices ceased. In their place a peaceful silence reigned, but he knew that he wasn't alone in this silence. He felt a countless number of friends surrounding him, while at the same time he felt a warmth of light bathing over him. It was the same light he'd lived under his whole Second Life, but now it felt more sustaining, he drew a new strength from it. As he basked in this new feel a single voice reached out from the silence and spoke to him. "Welcome. Brother. To the Third Life."

He instinctively knew who it was that spoke to him, from unthinkable distance, on another world, orbiting another star. The star he'd been born under, on Lusitania. A warmth of pride swelled inside him, that this would be the first Brother to reach out to him. He uttered his first words of his Third Life, his true life under the full sun.

"Thank you. Human."




Duar stood before Tree-Tender, the rest of the village again gathered in hushed silence, waiting. A month had passed since the planting, and Tree-Tender had grown large enough that he should be able to speak, if they had been successful and he was now a new Father Tree to carry on the Pequenino population. He stepped forward and raised the two speaking sticks towards Tree-Tender's trunk. "This is it my friend. Are you still in there?" He whispered only loud enough for the tree to hear before striking the first stick against the side of the trunk.

He beat out a steady rhythmic drumming against the tree, waiting, hoping, praying it would speak. Several long minutes stretched on under the steady beat, the tone never waiving, never changing. Worry began to ripple through the gathered crowd. Had Duar done something wrong during the planting? Just when they all thought the worse the echoing tone shifted slightly upwards in pitch. It was only a slight change, but slowly it grew, then faster and faster, more easily the pitch shifted, rising and falling, rising and falling. The internal structures of the tree shifted and reformed, molding and shaping the pitch of the drum beat against its side. Through that rise and fall in pitch the language of the Father Tree rang out for all those gathered to hear, they spoke rich and deep, and for those who could understand they spoke four words.

"Thank. You. My. Friend."

A cheer erupted from the crowd and Duar fell to his knees weeping in joy. Tree-Tender still lived and the Pequeninos would survive here on Nova Verao.