“So that's it?" asked the expendable."Final decision," said Ram. "And it's the right one.""Why do you think so?""Because we live or die, we'll learn something important from jumping into the fold. Thousands of future travelers will either follow us or not. But if we don't make the jump, we'll learn nothing, have no new options.""A lovely speech. It has been sent back to Earth. It will inspire millions.""Shut up," said Ram.”

“Whoop-de-do," said Ram."What?""I'm celebrating.""Was that irony or loss of mental function?" asked the expendable."Was that a rhetorical questions, a bit of humor, or a sign that you are losing confidence in me?""I have no confidence in you, Ram," said the expendable."Well, thanks.""You're welcome.”

“And when we diverge, it will be impossible for the expendables and the ship's computers on all the ships to know which version of Ram Odin to obey," said Ram. "Therefore I order you and all the other expendables to immediately kill every copy of Ram except me.""I'm so sorry," said the expendable. "One of the versions of Ram Odin did not include the word 'immediately,' and therefore his order was complete a fraction of a second before all the others. He is the real Ram Odin."Ram gave a little half smile. "How ironic. By specifying that you should act at once-"The expendable reached out with both hands, gave Ram's head a twist, and broke his neck. The sentence remained unfinished, but that did not matter, since the person saying it was not the real Ram Odin.”

“So our reliance on the computers caused the failure of the mission?" asked the expendable."The mission didn't fail," said Ram. "It succeeded nineteen times. We're just the exhaust trail.”

“You understand that the piggies are animals, and you no more condemn them for murdering Libo and Pipo than you condemn a cabra for shewing up capim."That's right," said Miro.Ender smiled. "And that's why you'll never learn anything from them. Because you think of them as animals.”

“Are you asking us to impregnate all the females on all the ships with your DNA, so that you can be sure of having progeny?""No!" said Ram in horror. "What a terrible thing for a woman, to wake up pregnant- a violation of trust. It would destroy all nineteen colonies.""Not to mention being embarrassing when all the babies look like you.”

“I didn't know that empty rationalization was part of your programming," said Ram. "We would not be fit companions for human beings without it.”