The Authorized Ender Companion (44 page)

Ender became obsessed with the Formics in this period as well. He watched and rewatched the vids from the various wars over and over again, trying to understand how they could allow themselves to be so easily annihilated. This
obsession continued unabated, however. When Ender first toured his colony ship, he was fascinated by the Formic technology, which had been adapted for human use on spaceships. He was shocked to learn that the Molecular Detachment Device that he’d used to extinguish the Formics was also based on their own technology.

Valentine arrived at Eros and told Ender that it was she, as Demosthenes, who had seen to his assignment in the colonies and inability to return to Earth in order to keep him free from Peter and his power as the leader of Earth. She had come to Eros to join him on the first colony vessel. Graff had, moments before, told Ender that his siblings were the essayists Locke and Demosthenes. Ender loved Valentine and was glad to see her, but he had no idea that she and Peter had been so manipulative on the world stage. But their reunion was a joyous one.

As his colony ship departed from Earth, Ender posed for the requisite photos with Graff, Mazer, and other military and political leaders. Once on board the vessel, he met with the ship’s commander, Admiral Quincy Morgan, and advised the officer that he would not interfere with any operations on the ship. Ender said he had no authority as governor until he arrived at Shakespeare Colony and was no longer interested in giving military orders. The conversation was a little reassuring to Admiral Quincy, who was secretly making plans to usurp Ender’s position as governor when the ship reached its destination.

Ender spent his time on the ship getting to know the passengers who would be his fellow colonists. If he was to govern them, he wanted to know them all as well as possible. Among them were Dorabella and Alessandra Toscano, a mother and daughter from Italy. Dorabella wanted her daughter to marry Ender. Ender knew that was Dorabella’s intent, but did not betray this knowledge. Instead, he was friendly with them, even helping them plan a reading of Shakespeare’s
The Taming of the Shrew
on board the ship. The play reading earned the ire of Admiral Morgan, bringing Ender and him into another confrontation.

Admiral Morgan believed Ender was causing a mutiny by holding the play reading. He was more convinced of this when a large message from Earth interfered with ship communications. Admiral Morgan screamed at Ender, insulting him along the way. Ender listened to the insults patiently, and responded calmly to every accusation. The message, it turned out, was actually from Peter to Valentine, updating Valentine on Peter’s rise to Hegemon of Earth.

Valentine arrived and showed the message to Admiral Morgan who, embarrassed,
allowed the play to go on, and even ageed to attend. Ender knew that Morgan was still trying to usurp his role as leader of the people, and was now toying with him. Morgan attended the play where Ender performed opposite Alessandra Toscano. The performance increased Alessandra’s affection for the future governor.

Ender fostered this affection by being kind to Alessandra, earning him the ire of his sister Valentine. She asked him to stop leading the girl on, which Ender denied ever doing. His sister’s request gave him cause to think about his actions, though, and he realized that he could do more to soften Alessandra’s feelings for him.

Ender also kept in contact with the governor of Shakespeare. The two knew that potential power struggles awaited Ender on the planet and were both working to prevent them. A new governor, scientist Sel Menach, would be in power when Ender arrived. He would ensure that Ender’s position as leader of the colony would be maintained and respected. It was up to Ender to make sure that Admiral Morgan did not try to take over in the colony.

With the help of Hyrum Graff and the new Polemarch Bakossi Wuri, Ender created a scenario where Admiral Morgan believed he could take over the governorship, but was proved wrong. Ender interrupted Morgan’s planned ceremony on the surface of Shakespeare and received a hero’s welcome from the original colonists. Morgan, humiliated, was livid at Ender. Ender gave Morgan a note from Graff and Wuri warning Morgan not to interfere with Ender’s position as both governor and a superior officer or he would face charges of mutiny. Morgan left Shakespeare Colony defeated, and Ender began his assignment as governor.

Ender also used his influence to give Alessandra the confidence to leave her mother on the spaceship and stay on Shakespeare, too. The two would never be lovers, but Alessandra was grateful to be free of her mother’s influence forever.

Almost immediately after arriving at Shakespeare, Ender learned that a species of Formic-like creatures called Gold Bugs had been discovered. He was saddened to learn that there were no Formics on the world. Or so he thought.

More comfortable in his position as governor, Ender finally wrote a letter to his parents. It was a heartfelt communication, the first he’d sent since he left their home at six years of age. Though his parents were now very old, they cherished the letters Ender sent them.

Ender also opened communication with Peter. Although his older brother was nearing sixty, and was the Hegemon, Ender found he was able to build a
relationship with him, though he would forever remember Peter as the bully of their youth.

After two years on this new planet, he learned that a new colony ship was on its way. He was instructed to find a new place on the planet for them to settle. Traveling with an eleven-year-old boy named Abra Tolo, Ender discovered a grassy hill. He recognized it as being created from the Giant’s Drink game he’d played as a boy in Battle School, though that seemed impossible. Ender explored the hill, and there he found the pupa of a Formic Hive Queen. The Formics had apparently created the grassy hill from Ender’s mind, and left it for him to find years later. Ender could communicate with the Hive Queen mind to mind; he promised to care for the alien creature forever.

Through the philotic communication between Ender and the Hive Queen, he was able to write the book
The Hive Queen
, which told the story of the Formic Wars from the Buggers’ perspective. The book was published on Earth under Ender’s new pseudonym, “Speaker for the Dead.” The book was revolutionary on Earth, becoming one of the world’s most-read documents.

Through the book, Ender’s name was tarnished, however. He was no longer the hero of the Formic Wars, but the monster that killed billions, wiping out an entire species. Public opinion on the war, which was history now on Earth, had soured. Ender, once thought of as a hero, was now viewed as the greatest war criminal of all time—“Ender the Xenocide.”

The Speaker for the Dead also wrote
The Hegemon
, a book that told the story of his brother Peter and his rise to power in world politics as well as his life with his wife, Ender’s friend Petra. In writing the book, Ender spoke with Peter, and the two estranged brothers were able to make peace for the first time in their lives. Peter was an old man, while Ender was still young. But they both were grateful for the chance to reconcile before Peter’s death, which occurred shortly before the Earth publication of the book.

At the request of Hyrum Graff, Ender and his sister Valentine traveled from Shakespeare to Ganges, where a former Battle School colleague of Ender’s, Virlomi, was governor. Also on Ganges lived a boy named Achilles Flandres II. Achilles was actually the last missing embryo that had belonged to Bean and Petra who were married while Ender traveled to Shakespeare. Achilles II had caused some problems at the new colony. Ender sought out the boy, hoping to teach him about his true parents.

Ender discovered that it had been Achilles II who had started a religious movement from
The Hive Queen
, and destroyed Ender’s reputation. Their confrontation grew violent as Ender tried to tell Achilles II his true parentage.
Achilles II was digusted at the thought that his “father’s” killer was his real father. Even though Achilles nearly killed Ender, he came to accept that Ender was telling the truth. Achilles II changed his name to Arkanian Delphiki, after his real parents.

Ender soon left that colony to travel to others, with Valentine by his side, carrying the Hive Queen with him world to world. He began to hide his identity, which proved to be easy, as few believed Ender the Xenocide was still alive. He kept the Hive Queen secret for centuries as he traveled to each new world and colony. He hoped to find a planet suitable for the Hive Queen to grow and hatch new Formic eggs—relaunching the species.

Ender had been given a monetary pension by the then-grateful citizens of Earth before leaving Eros to colonize. It was a fund he lived on for decades as he traveled through space at relativistic speed, governing worlds. The fund was kept secret as public opinion changed after the war.

On what would have been his subjectively twentieth birthday, Ender arrived at the distant planet called Sorelledolce. Per the law of his home world, Ender would receive a check for the amount in the trust fund, but would also now have to pay taxes on the money. When he approached the tax collector, Benedetto, to receive his promised check for the amount in the fund, his identity was questioned, and he was accused of lying about his name. Benedetto would not allow Ender access to the funds he needed to pay taxes because he had never paid taxes. However, upon discovering Ender’s assets, Benedetto was a little more helpful. Ender made an arrangement with Benedetto that would allow Ender time to take care of his taxes, but there was an apparent problem: the illegal programs used by the tax man to spy on customers’ assets were gone.

Ender studied tax law on Sorelledolce, hoping to use his assets to provide life for the Hive Queen. It was a penance, in Ender’s mind, for his act of xenocide with her species. If he could use his assets to give life to the Hive Queen, it would remove the blood from his hands. He was shocked to receive a computer advertisement for financial software that would answer all of his questions, particularly since interstellar travelers were supposed to be free from advertisements. He was more shocked when the advertisement spoke to him, taking the form of a young human woman, saying she was meant to help Ender specifically. She started giving him advice, addressing him as Ender. She confessed that Ender had made her, and that she evolved along the way. This was Jane, and though Ender was initially disturbed by her presence, she would become a lifelong companion to him.

On Sorelledolce, Ender also attended his first “Speaking,” the funerary rite based on his books,
The Hive Queen
and
The Hegemon
.

Thanks to Jane, Ender was able to resolve his tax issues with Benedetto. When Benedetto was exposed as a crook and was killed by some of his past clients, Ender felt responsible. Jane taught him to not feel guilty about the bad things which are not his fault that happen to the people around him.

After two weeks on Sorelledolce, Ender left the planet with Valentine and Jane. He listed his occupation as “Speaker for the Dead” from that time on, taking interest in obituary columns with each new planet he and Valentine visited. At that same time, he began wearing a small receiver in his ear that looked like a jewel. It was actually his direct link to Jane. The jewel allowed Jane to speak privately and directly to Ender.

More than three thousand years by Earth’s time after the victory over the Formics, Ender had traveled with Valentine to so many planets at light speed that he hadn’t aged past thirty-five. He and Valentine spent many months on the Icelandic and Calvinist planet Trondheim, where they both became teachers at the university. It was here that Ender met Plikt, one of his students. Plikt challenged Ender on many of his lessons, but Ender appreciated the questions.

When Ender learned of the death of a xenologist on a planet called Lusitania, he was saddened. Jane created a simulation of the murder, graphic though it was. She also told Ender that a young girl named Novinha had called for a Speaker for the victim. Ender saw his own sorrow and premature adulthood in Novinha’s face. He made the decision to travel to Lusitania and Speak this death. He was thirty-six years old now, and by the time he reached the planet, Novinha would be thirty-nine.

With Jane in command of their spaceship, he traveled to Lusitania. Though traveling to Speak for the dead, Ender also knew that Lusitania might be the best place to allow the Hive Queen to grow. The Hive Queen herself promised Ender that the species would thrive there, and they would not bother the native creatures on the planet, the pequeninos, but they sensed another life-form with whom they would be compatible.

When Ender arrived at Lusitania, he was received relatively coldly. The planet was staunchly Catholic, and the church had spoken out against Speakers. The colony’s governor greeted him, but had secretly banned him access to colony maps. With Jane’s help, and that of a young boy named Olhado, Ender made his way to the home of the Ribeira family—the family who had called him to Speak.

There, he was treated quite badly by most of the children. However, the
longer he was in their home, waiting to meet their mother Novinha, the more they warmed up to him. Ender had the thought that he was now, like it or not, a member of the Ribeira family.

His first meeting with Novinha did not go as well, though. She was angry that he had come to Speak the death of her husband and tried to cast him from her house. Her children spoke up on Ender’s behalf, though, and Novinha listened to him, albeit angrily.

Frustrated by the apparent hatred he felt from Novinha, Ender returned to his home. The next day, he investigated the life of Marcão, learning that Novinha had been unfaithful to her husband. With Jane’s help, he learned it was Libo, her now-dead childhood friend, who had fathered her six children.

When Ender, hoping for more information on Marcão and Novinha, visited with the abbot of a Catholic order known as the Children of the Mind of Christ, Jane kept making comments about his conversation. Frustrated with her chatter, Ender turned off the jewel, shutting her out of his ear and mind. Jane was insulted by the act and didn’t speak again to Ender for some time.