“We humans get slower as we age. Give me a few more years and I'll be downright cozy.”

“But not part of me.”

“How long did you use this bridge? How long was it there?”

“But it was still there the whole time you were studying me.”

“How long would it last?”

“But what body was the bridge in?”

“This thing was inside me?”

“It's still alive, isn't it?”

“Jane,” whispered Ender. “You're a big girl now.”

Jane's voice came in answer: “You're cheating, Ender. I can't hear what she's saying to you. I can only feel your heart pounding and your rapid breathing.”

“Neither is Jane.”

“She's the bridge. You made her.”

“You reached out across the light-years and found me because I was looking for you. And then you found a pattern and called a creature from another space who grasped the pattern and possessed it and became Jane. All of this instantaneously. Faster than light.”