The Authorized Ender Companion (4 page)

She and her family returned to their native Armenia and greeted Petra, Bean, and their children when the small family came to Armenia to negotiate a treaty between the Armenian government and the Free People of Earth. Mama reminisced with Petra and gave her advice on being a mother.

Weeks later, while Petra and Bean were involved in military matters, Mama babysat the children. Mazer Rackham arrived and took the babies, warning Mama not to speak about it to anyone but Petra. She called Petra immediately, who raced to the airport to meet with Mazer. Petra telephoned her mother again a few hours later, telling her everything was okay—she’d retrieved the babies and all was well.

Mama and Papa Arkanian cared for the babies, with Elena Delphiki’s and Peter Wiggin’s help for a year while Petra conducted military operations.
Elena
happily turned the responsibilities over to her
daughter
when Petra returned home from war.

Arkanian, Papa (SH, SG)

Papa Arkanian was Petra Arkanian’s father. He picked her up when she returned from the Formic War and offered to get her some candy. They had a bit of an awkward relationship since it had been nine years since they’d seen each other.

He and his wife had conceived their third child before the laws preventing such had been relaxed.

The Arkanian family moved to Brazil following the establishment of the new Hegemony. There they were promised safety from world leaders who would seek to manipulate Petra. This promise required they soon go into hiding, to be hidden from Achilles Flandres.

Once Achilles was dead, the Arkanian family, minus Petra, returned to Armenia. Papa was happy to see his daughter, her husband Bean, and their children during a brief visit they made to Armenia, staying at the Arkanian home.

As Petra conducted military operations, her father informed her that Bean had been killed in combat. Papa wept for Bean and helped care for the grandchildren Petra and Bean’s responsibilities had left behind.

Once Petra returned a year later from Moscow and her army assignments, Papa greeted her at the airport in Armenia and told her to go home to her children and be their mother. She was still his daughter, and he wanted her to have the joy of being with her children as he’d had in his own life.

Arkanian, Petra (EG, ES, EE, SH, SP, SG)

Petra Arkanian was a couple of years older than Ender Wiggin, and one of the few female students at Battle School. At a very young age, she was taken to Ground School on Earth and was found to be so aggressive that the teachers
and administrators there had her DNA tested to ensure she was actually female.

At Battle School, years later, she was a member of Salamander Army when Ender was assigned there. She was an outcast, primarily because of her gender, but nonetheless befriended Ender when he came to Salamander. She slept at the front of the barracks because their commanding officer, Bonzo Madrid, didn’t trust her. Bonzo further alienated Petra from the male soldiers by not allowing any of the male soldiers to be naked around her.

She and Ender became friends. Petra took Ender to the Battle Room on his first day for additional practice, though she used much of her Free Play time to practice in the game room. The practices ended when Ender defied Bonzo’s orders, participated in a battle against Leopard Army, and was traded to Rat Army.

She was promoted to command Phoenix Army, the second army Ender’s new Dragon Army faced and soundly defeated. She was angry at the loss, but still tried to warn Ender that some of the other commanders sought to kill him. She did this because she knew she could fight alongside Ender, helping to protect him. She was extremely talented in hand-to-hand combat.

Petra was promoted to Tactical School, and a week later to Command School where she was one of the squadron leaders under Ender’s command in the “exams.” She suffered from exhaustion, which clouded her thinking during a battle on one exam. Because of this, she lost Ender’s trust to a degree and was not used for a few exams. Though she eventually regained it, she carried great guilt about letting Ender down in the battles and was never as confident or in control as she’d been prior to the exhaustion.

At Command School, Petra became friends with Bean. Although their relationship was rocky in the first few weeks, they became close, confiding in each other, sharing a deep, mutual respect for one another.

Following Ender’s victory in the “final exam,” Petra joined her fellow squadron leaders and shared time with Ender as he recovered from the tremendous physical, mental, emotional stress he’d endured. She gave him some of the details of the war that had broken out on Earth immediately following his victory, and jokingly said that despite their saving the world, she and her friends would probably have to go back to school on Earth.

Petra and Ender shared a sorrowful good-bye as Petra left space to return to Earth. Ender told her that he loved her like his sister and that he would miss her terribly. She was worried about his apparent obsession with the Formics, stemming from his guilt of killing the entire species, and tried to
convince him to let it go. Like siblings, the two shared parting banter, sad that they’d never see each other again.

Petra was greeted on Earth by her father and spoke awkwardly with him as they returned to her childhood home. She had a hard time understanding Armenian, and was nervous to see the rest of her family. Their reunion was joyous, but a bit awkward. She met her newborn youngest brother, David, and remet Stefan, who had been two when she’d left for Battle School.

Petra returned to school, and though she was initially accepted as one of the popular girls because of her heroic efforts in the war, she was relegated to being one of the outcasts/rebels.

She was soon kidnapped by a group of apparent Russian soldiers. She knew it was because of her role as one of Ender’s closest allies. After nearly six weeks in solitary confinement, she was moved to another place where she was greeted by several others of Ender’s allies. They were forced to play war games, as their kidnapper had apparent designs on world domination.

Most of her fellow captives thought that reaching out to Ender’s brother Peter was the key to their escape, but Petra had another idea: Bean. She secretly sent him coded messages in pictures on the nets, but not directly to him. She just hoped he would find them and figure out the message.

She and her fellow captives met their kidnapper—Achilles Flandres, a former Battle School student who had been sent home to Earth to be locked up in a psychiatric hospital. He was a mass murderer, who had his eyes set on taking over the world.

Petra tried desperately to keep her friends with whom she’d been kidnapped unified in front of Achilles. But Achilles had other plans. Despite Petra’s best efforts, the group was split up, each prisoner taken somewhere alone. They would be allowed to remain in contact with each other, but not in physical presence.

After several months in this undisclosed, solitary confinement, Petra longed for human contact. She knew that was her captor’s goal, but nonetheless felt that she would believe the lies and consent to the demands of the first person who came to her.

That first person was Vlad, one of her fellow prisoners. He had decided to join Achilles and work with him in his plans and had come to ask her to do the same. She was surprised that she didn’t give in right away, and Vlad left, rejected. She knew in her heart that if he had come back immediately and asked her again, she would have accepted. But that was not to be.

The next morning, a group of soldiers, led by a psychiatrist, took her from
her cell. Her message had gotten through to Bean, and Petra and the others were being rescued. But it was a poorly planned rescue mission.

They took her to a van where she frustratingly bantered with the psychiatrist about the mistakes he’d obviously made in planning her rescue. Achilles revealed himself a moment later and killed the psychiatrist and the rest of Petra’s rescuers.

Achilles made it clear that he knew about Petra’s coded message, though he had been unable to figure it out. He assumed it had been sent to Bean, and was determined to understand what it meant. He also revealed that he was allowing the other prisoners to be rescued, but not Petra; she was too valuable to him. She had, after all, gotten the message out. In so doing, she proved she was the smartest and best of the ten prisoners.

Petra was taken from the van to an airplane where Achilles almost caused her to be sucked out and killed. But he helped her save her own life, and she resisted the urge to kill him. They traveled to New Delhi. Achilles hoped she’d help him rule the world; Petra had other plans in mind.

In India, she was forced to create strategies for the Indian army, which Achilles was planning to use to take over Asia, and then the world. Petra came up with tactics that were different than the other strategists’ plans. She planned to divide the army up so its supply lines would not be a burden. Achilles ignored the plans, though.

Bean had been posting coded messages to Petra throughout the forums on the nets. He used historic code names. Petra read the messages and wanted to respond but was not allowed to.

She accompanied Achilles to Pakistan where he met with that nation’s prime minister. Acting as a representative of India’s prime minister, Achilles convinced the Pakistani leader to follow India’s lead by pulling their military forces away from the Indian/Pakistani border. It was Achilles’s plan to convince Pakistan to work with India in their takeover of the world. Pakistan would become the leader of the Islamic world while India maintained its hold on the Hindu population. They would not reunify, but only work together to achieve worldwide greatness.

Petra was shocked that Achilles had so masterfully manipulated the leader of Pakistan. Her appearance with Achilles was made known to Hyrum Graff who told Bean that Petra was alive. They thought she was working with Achilles, however.

It was clear to Petra that she was not in Achilles’s camp, though. One day, after a failed assassination attempt on Bean and his Thai colleague Suriyawong
that had been orchestrated by Achilles, Petra made an offhanded comment to Virlomi, a female Battle School graduate who had recognized Petra in the Indian military compound. Petra subtly told Virlomi that she was Bresis—the subject of Bean’s secret computer messages.

Virlomi took it upon herself to answer the messages, and posted a not-very-well-coded reply to Bean’s message that said Petra was alive and not responding to Achilles’s demands.

Achilles called Petra to his office and told her that he would kill Virlomi for her seditious message. Petra insulted Achilles, and it turned into a physical confrontation between the two of them.

Knowing that Achilles would kill her for seeing him helpless, Petra used her own skills in manipulation to make Achilles believe she was actually on his side. She kissed him, trying to cover her feelings for Bean, which Achilles had also tried to prey upon.

That night, Petra hoped desperately that Achilles would not kill Virlomi for her message. The next morning at breakfast, she learned that Virlomi had disappeared. She was possibly dead, but it was also possible she had escaped from the compound and was still alive.

Virlomi had escaped and provided Bean and Suriyawong with intelligence to mount a rescue operation for Petra. In the meantime, Petra led a rebellion among the war planners who posted a strategy for removal of India’s forces from Burma on the nets. Achilles killed all the rebels and took Petra hostage, knowing that Bean wanted to rescue her.

Bean arrived at the headquarters and used Achilles’s Chinese soldiers to make a deal that would allow them to obey their orders by returning Achilles to China, but also to let Petra free. Petra was livid. She wanted Achilles to die. But the deal was made and enforced by the Chinese soldiers, and Petra was safe.

Though still angry with Bean for not killing Achilles, Petra realized that she loved him.

In the aftermath of Achilles’s actions, China controlled Asia and aligned itself with Russia, which controlled Europe. Peter Wiggin became the new Hegemon, and Petra moved with her family to Brazil—the new home of the Hegemony. She told Bean that she wanted to marry him and have his children.

Although the Hegemon, Peter Wiggin, had promised to keep Petra safe, she was forced to leave the Hegemony compound a short time after arriving there. Peter had made the decision to bring Achilles from China to Brazil. Bean resigned from his position in the Hegemony, knowing that Achilles would want to kill him. He went into hiding, taking Petra with him.

Petra knew that if she was in hiding with Bean, she would be the safest she could possibly be. She was madly in love with him and continuously made overtures to him for marriage and parenthood.

Their hiding took them around the world. Bean had Petra use the IDs that had once been created for Bean’s mother figure, Sister Carlotta. They traveled to Poland, where they met with another Battle School alum, Ambul. They sought the help of the Muslim League and called upon Ambul to help them get it.

Petra and Bean kissed for the first time in a park in Poland. Though Bean swore he’d never have children, he had tender feelings for Petra. Petra, for her part, decided to visit Anton, the scientist who had manipulated Bean’s genetics. She wanted to learn all there was to learn about Bean’s condition, particularly if it could be reversed in future generations.

Anton told Petra and Bean that Volescu, the scientist who had created Bean in the first place, could unturn the genetic key if it was active in Bean’s children. The scientist also tried to convince Bean to marry Petra and have a family with her, stating that reproduction was the greatest human desire.

Bean consented to marry Petra and have children, but only if Volescu could ensure that the next generation would be free of his mutation. Petra was elated. She loved Bean, of course, and he finally admitted he loved her, too.

They were married in Spain, and bounced around the islands of the Mediterranean for a week as a honeymoon. Soon they arrived in Rotterdam, Bean’s hometown, where Volescu had set up a fertility clinic.