The Authorized Ender Companion (10 page)

Delphiki, Elena (ES, SH, SP)

Elena Delphiki and her husband, Julian I, desperately wanted a child. When they finally conceived one, thanks to in vitro fertilization and surgery, they all but worshipped him. Their son Nikolai was the world to them, which made it so hard when he chose to go to Battle School.

While Nikolai was in Battle School, Elena and her husband met with Sister Carlotta, who brought saddening news. The remaining embryos that the
Delphikis had tried to conceive with, were stolen and destroyed by Julian’s half-brother, a scientist named Volescu. There was hope, though Elena didn’t know it at the time. One of the fertilized embryos had successfully developed into a child—a boy named Bean. Elena’s husband told her of their unknown son, giving hope for the future.

She took her newly reunited family on a vacation after they returned from the war. But the vacation ended up being more dramatic than relaxing, as their house was bombed, and their lives threatened. They were rescued by a group of Greek soldiers and informed that several of Bean’s colleagues from Command School had been kidnapped.

After being watched under guard in a small apartment, the Delphiki family was taken by Hyrum Graff and Sister Carlotta to another undisclosed location. Elena was uptight, wanting to know what was going on and what the real plans were. Carlotta and Graff split the family up for their own safety. Bean went with Carlotta, while Graff oversaw the rest of the family’s protection and journey deeper into hiding.

The Delphiki family came out of hiding to join Bean in Brazil, where he was given a position in the new Hegemony that was centered in the South American country. They were promised protection from future kidnappings by living there. They had to return to hiding, though, a short time after arriving in Brazil. Achilles was on his way to the Hegemony compound and was a threat to the Delphiki family.

Achilles was killed months later, and the Delphikis were allowed to return to Brazil. They worked in the government for a time, but soon retired. Elena felt too old to be out working all the time.

Bean married Petra Arkanian, and they had several children through in vitro fertilization. Achilles had stolen and implanted the embryos, leading Bean and Petra on a worldwide hunt for their children. They eventually found them all, but Bean left Earth for space, where he and three of his babies would wait for a cure for the genetic mutation that cursed him and his children.

Elena cared for the babies while Petra mourned the loss of Bean and worked in the military. When Petra finally returned to Brazil more than a year later, Elena turned the care of her grandchildren over to her.

She was proud of her life’s work, and wanted to see Petra live life fully with her family.

Delphiki, Julian I (ES, SH)

Julian and Elena Delphiki tried hard to have children, resorting to test-tube in vitro conception and surgery. Finally they got their son Nikolai and
treated him like he was to be the king of the world until the International Fleet came calling, wanting to take him to Battle School. At Nikolai’s suggestion that he may be the next Mazer Rackham, they let him go.

Several months later, during a visit from Sister Carlotta, Julian learned that the fertilized embryos he and his wife had given to have a child had been stolen and destroyed. They were, in actuality, the same embryos that the evil scientist Volescu had grown illegally.
From them had been created Bean
, a wunderkind at Battle School.

Volescu was Julian’s half-brother, and it broke his heart that the son of his father’s mistress would steal the embryos that were to be his children. However, he held out hope that Bean, his unknown son, would return to them someday.

Bean and Nikolai both returned home after Ender’s victory over the Formic home world. Julian took his boys and his wife on a vacation but quickly learned that it was dangerous to be related to Bean. Their home was bombed, and they were saved by Greek soldiers. They learned that ten of Bean’s colleagues from Command School had been kidnapped, and Bean’s life was in jeopardy.

After a few weeks under the Greek army’s protection, the Delphiki family was moved again to an undisclosed location. They were to be split up, with Julian and Elena taking Nikolai with Hyrum Graff and going into hiding, while the nun who’d helped raise him, Sister Carlotta, took Bean.

They came out of hiding at the end of the conflict and joined Bean in Brazil, the new home of the Hegemony. Bean had been given a position in the new government, and his family was promised protection if they moved there. The promise was shortlived, and the family had to go back into hiding to avoid Achilles who was on his way to the compound.

Once Achilles was killed, Julian and Elena returned to Brazil and watched the events of the world unfold. They were proud of their family, and grateful for the grandchildren both Bean and Nikolai brought them.

Delphiki, Julian II “Bean” (EGS, EG, ES, [EE], SH, SP, SG)

He was without a name, but the boy who would one day become Julian Delphiki II, and be given the nickname Bean, was born precocious. At
under
a year old, Bean knew that his home, which he described as “the clean place,” was dangerous. He heard adults fighting and hid in a toilet tank. He was found by a janitor named Pablo de Noches, and taken into his home. It is unclear how long Bean stayed with Pablo, though it was thought to be a very short time. He escaped from Pablo’s house, and went into the streets.

At age four, Bean was tiny. He looked like he was two, and had barely any clothing to speak of. He lived on the streets of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, watching how the different groups of homeless children worked together. These “crews” of kids were the key to survival, and soon Bean aligned himself with a crew led by a nine-year-old girl named Poke.

Poke was not a particularly smart crew leader, so Bean (who had been given his name by Poke and her crew member Sergeant) advised her to find a bully to protect the crew from other bullies. Poke found Achilles, who Bean knew would eventually kill Poke. However, Achilles was a smart, charismatic leader, and the crew fell in line behind him.

Bean was never truly accepted by Achilles. He knew that Achilles sought to kill him. In spite of this, Bean tried to help Achilles and the “family” gain food. He knew that his small stature would elicit compassion from the woman who ran the soup kitchen, and it did, granting Achilles’s family access to the front of the food line.

Since Achilles would not accept Bean, Bean convinced another bully to protect small children, which led to more food being available at the kitchen because supporters wanted to care for the children. This made Achilles angrier, so Bean hid in the city. In hiding, Bean overheard talk by a group of bullies who was planning to kill Achilles, so he raced to warn Achilles.

Achilles supposedly went into hiding. When Poke left the family late one night to find Achilles, Bean followed her. He witnessed Poke and Achilles kissing each other and discussing a promise Achilles had made to Poke. Bean ran away from them, but realized that the promise they’d been talking about was Achilles’s agreement not to kill Bean. Bean realized that Achilles would kill Poke instead.

He raced back to save Poke, but he was too late. Achilles had beaten her to death. Bean was devastated. Poke had given her life to save his. It was an act that would haunt Bean for the rest of his life.

Sister Carlotta told Bean about Battle School, and asked if he’d like to go. Bean said yes, warning that it was him or Achilles, but both could not go. He took the tests, and scored nearly perfect on them. Sister Carlotta tested him again, and the four-year-old Bean proved he was the most qualified Battle School student she’d ever seen.

Bean lived with Sister Carlotta, taking lessons in math, reading, and art from her. He shared with her his memories of hiding in the toilet at the “clean place.” He snuck out one night to find Pablo de Noches, and was unknowingly followed by Carlotta. Carlotta protected him from sex offenders
and thugs, and when Bean found Pablo, she was there to take him back home but also to learn more about Bean’s past from Pablo. Pablo was not helpful, however, and Bean’s past remained shrouded in mystery.

It was time for Bean to go to Battle School. He was five years old and told himself that Sister Carlotta was untrustworthy. She had kept any information she’d learned from Pablo away from Bean, and he didn’t like that. He distanced himself from her, so that when he finally left, he would not miss her.

On his flight to space, Captain Dimak, the commander of the flight and a teacher at Battle School, exposed Bean’s remarkably high scores on all of the tests to the other children in his launch group. The children resented him, and Bean realized that he was out of place in this group just as he’d been with Achilles’s “family.”

Bean was annoyed at the mockery launchies endured, but was grateful that he was being picked on as it helped make him more a part of his launch group than he’d been on the journey into space.

He figured out that the school officials monitored the students through their clothes, and that food portions were exceptionally larger than he was used to. He decided to explore the school, finding himself on a deck he was not supposed to be on, and meeting other students like Dink Meeker and Petra Arkanian. Bean was annoyed with Petra’s apparent condescension at first, but soon became intrigued by her.

He also discovered the school’s duct system, and learned that he could fit inside it and be able to travel anywhere in the school unseen. Curious about constant comparisons to Ender Wiggin, Bean decided to learn more about Ender by speaking with Ender’s former commander, Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo spoke terribly of Ender, giving Bean a clear picture of Battle School politics. The games played at school, he realized, were designed to train soldiers in combat, but also to give them experience with incompetent commanders like Bonzo. Bean recognized that Battle School was just like living on the street with a crew. He knew how to play that game.

Bean knew that the teachers and administrators were always watching. In order to deceive them, to take control of his own situation, he set up an additional false identity, named for Poke, and wrote false diary entries that proclaimed love and respect for Achilles.

After several months at Battle School, Bean had begun the practice of hacking into fellow students’ computers. He was caught when a member of his launch group, Nikolai, informed the school administrators that his computer
had been hacked. This led to a discussion between Bean and their group administrator, Dimak.

They discussed space battle strategy as well as Bean’s antisocial behavior. Bean pointed out many challenges of fighting battles in space. He expressed a theory that humanity had already sent a fleet into space to attack the Formic home world. Dimak denied it, but his profuse sweating confirmed the theory’s accuracy to Bean.

From the conversation with Dimak, Bean resolved to become more social. He befriended Nikolai, sharing with him the things he learned about Battle School from hacking into the computers and seeing the school’s maps. It made for a quick bond.

Bean continued his journeys through the ductwork, spying on Battle School faculty. He stole one teacher’s computer password and used it to obtain confidential information. He also witnessed a conversation between his supervisor Dimak and school commandant Hyrum Graff. Graff informed Dimak that Sister Carlotta feared that Bean’s intelligence and strange growth patterns had been the result of genetic manipulation in embryo. The fear Graff, Dimak, and apparently Sister Carlotta shared of a new species represented by Bean hurt the boy. But it also motivated him to become better than the best student at Battle School—better than Ender.

Using the stolen password, Bean studied the teacher’s evaluations of other students, focusing on Ender’s. Ender Wiggin became Bean’s obsession for several months. He watched and studied what Ender did. He met with Ender’s friends to learn about who he truly was. He learned from one of these friends, Shen, that Ender altruistically cared about others before himself. It was a concept foreign to him. He still couldn’t understand how Poke had given her life for him, or how Ender could care about others first.

One thing he learned from studying Ender and from the teacher’s evaluations was that there were several talented students who were being overlooked for promotion. They were a group of apparently average students. Bean knew that given the opportunity this group of students could excel above and beyond those students thought to be exceptional. All they needed was the perfect commander, who again was Ender.

Dimak and Graff recognized Bean’s talent as well as his obsession with Ender, and assigned him to make up a theoretical army for Ender to command, made up of launchies and students listed on other commanders’ transfer lists. Bean knew it was a real army, and assigned the students he’d studied through their profiles. He included himself on the list, as well as his only real friend, Nikolai.

When he assigned himself to Ender Wiggin’s Dragon Army, Bean was confident to the point of arrogance. He was quickly bored by Ender’s instructions regarding the enemy’s gate and using frozen legs in zero-gravity combat situations. Bean knew he was Ender’s best soldier, and made it clear on their first day together. Bean requested command of a toon, which Ender was hesitant to assign. Bean was loyal to Ender, even getting in a fistfight with toon leader Fly Molo over respect he felt Fly owed Ender.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Sister Carlotta discovered that the people who donated the fertilized embryo that grew to become Bean were named Julian and Elena Delphiki—Nikolai’s parents.

Bean was a very important part of Ender’s army, and the rest of Battle School recognized it. This was why Bonzo Madrid confronted Bean and warned him that he was going to kill Ender. Bean antagonized Bonzo further, but afterward felt guilty. He was sure he’d signed Ender’s death warrant and felt that he was reliving his past with Poke. He felt responsible for Achilles killing her, and felt responsible for Bonzo’s threat.