The Authorized Ender Companion (37 page)

Silver Bugs ([GB], [EE])

Silver Bugs were large insectoids, bred by the Formics to mine for precious metals on one of their worlds. When that world was colonized by humans after Ender’s victory against the Formics, the Silver Bugs were thought to exist because of the discovery of Gold Bugs by xenobiologist Sel Menach and his assistant Po Tolo.

Their exoskeleton was saturated with the precious metal they mined, making the bugs a precious natural resources themselves.

Simulators (EG)

The simulators were video games used in Command School to train new students on controlling spaceships in combat. They featured a large screen where the player’s ship was represented by a small light while enemy ships were small lights of a different color.

Sisters of St. Nicholas (ES)

The Sisters of St. Nicholas was the order of Catholic nuns to which Sister Carlotta, Bean Delphiki’s guardian, once belonged.

Si Wang-mu (XN, CM)

Si Wang-mu was a fourteen-year-old girl of Chinese descent who lived on the planet Path. She was the daughter of poor farmhands who spread manure in the fields. Her parents named her for one of the most revered gods of Chinese tradition, hoping that she would be chosen among the godspoken. She was not.

Wang-mu longed to be taught by the godspoken, particularly Han Qing-jao, the sixteen-year-old daughter of their planet’s greatest statesman, Han Fei-tzu. She bribed her way past the Han family guards and spoke boldly and bluntly to Qing-jao.

Impressed that Wang-mu was not intimidated by her status as a godspoken, Qing-jao hired her to be her servant. In exchange for performing her duties as a secret maid, Wang-mu would receive a good education from Qing-jao. Qing-jao was certain that Wang-mu had been forced to prostitute herself as the bribe to get past the guards and into the Han household. For this, Qing-jao was determined to repay her through education.

Wang-mu felt that being the godspoken was an easier way of life than being a worker in the fields. But as she observed Qing-jao perform the rituals of purification, like following the grain in the wooden walls, she came to understand the great burden her mistress felt. She hoped to help alleviate the burden, which Qing-jao appreciated. The two young women became friends, surpassing their simplistic master/servant relationship.

Wang-mu would often ask Qing-jao questions about the godspoken and the project she had undertaken to find the Lusitania Fleet, which had mysteriously disappeared. It was these questions that led Qing-jao to uncover the sentient computer Jane’s existence and the true identity of the fiery political analyst Demosthenes.

Having been discovered, Jane revealed herself to Qing-jao, Wang-mu, and Han Fei-tzu. She told them that the godspoken were actually the result of a genetic manipulation performed by the Starways Congress generations earlier, and that the voice of the gods was actually the manifestation of this evolution in the form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Qing-jao was angered by this news and informed the Congress of Jane’s existence and her role in making the fleet disappear. This led to a rift between Qing-jao and her father and Wang-mu.

Wang-mu, no longer believing in the gods, wanted to preserve Jane’s life. Because of this, Qing-jao sent her away. Wang-mu left the Han house but was ordered to return by Han Fei-tzu, who said that Qiang-jao could excuse Wang-mu from her personal service, but not the family’s.

Fei-tzu, no longer believing in the gods either, called Wang-mu to be his own servant. She agreed, and he promised to treat her as an equal. Together they agreed to help Jane and the Lusitanian scientists with three projects: (1) studying a way to cure the Descolada; (2) figuring out faster-than-light travel; and (3) reversing the genetic manipulation for the god-spoken. A fourth project was added under the direction of Ender and his
stepson Miro: help locate Jane’s point of origin, which would help preserve her life.

They agreed to provide aid however they could, but felt inadequate. Wang-mu, ever the loyal servant, agreed to perform the baser tasks related to the research, including gathering genetic material from as many godspoken people as she could. She felt it was her duty as a servant to help maintain Fei-tzu’s prestige in the society.

Wang-mu sought Qing-jao’s help in studying the Descolada. Qing-jao refused, stating that there was not enough scientific evidence to warrant the research. In the process, Qing-jao asked specific questions about the virus, which Wang-mu could not answer. She took the questions with her, however, to an ansible conversation Jane arranged between her and Ender and Ela on Lusitania.

She asked the questions Qing-jao had brought up, and it led Ender and Ela to come up with a hypothesis that said the Descolada had been created to manipulate the life on Lusitania for an unknown purpose. While this left the question of who would or could create such a devastating disease, Wang-mu likened it to Starways Congress’s genetically manipulating the people of Path for their purposes.

Wang-mu was bitter because of what she’d learned about gods and Congress. She decided to look to serve the closest gods she knew—people such as Han Fei-tzu, and even Ender Wiggin. She felt they were noble and worthy of service, if not worship.

A few weeks later, Si Wang-mu was awakened by Fei-tzu, who was receiving a message from Jane and Ela. They had developed a theory that would allow reversal of Congress’s genetic manipulation of the godspoken, but let them maintain their superior intellect. They were not sure it would work yet, but it was progress.

In the process of this research, they also learned that Wang-mu had the altered genes that gave the godspoken their calling, but had mutated. She had the superior intellect of a godspoken, but not the OCD. This revelation came as no shock to Fei-tzu, who said that he and Wang-mu were equals. Wang-mu found it a little hard to believe at first, but quickly accepted it.

When the antivirus arrived on Path, delivered by the accidental creation of Ender Wiggin—Peter Wiggin II—Si Wang-mu greeted the ship with great relief. She rejoiced as Han Fei-tzu took the inoculation and spread it to the people of Path.

Peter II invited Wang-mu to join him in his new interstellar quest to destroy the Starways Congress. They would travel through the newly discovered
faster-than-light dimension, Outspace, and instantaneously reach planet after planet, subverting the galactic government.

Wang-mu was hesitant at first, but decided to bring down the evil empire that had created the godspoken through genetic manipulation. After a tearful good-bye to Fei-tzu, whom she called “father” and he “daughter,” Wang-mu joined Peter II on his spaceship.

As the ship used Jane to travel instantly from planet to planet, the new Peter explained his existence to Wang-mu, who accepted his moment of creation with some skepticism as she always did. But she came to realize the story’s veracity when Peter II told her to get off the ship. They had arrived at the Japanese planet Divine Wind without Wang-mu even knowing they had left Path.

Peter II needed her; he made that very clear. She was, he said, smarter than he. Together, they would bring down the Congress, beginning on Divine Wind. There, she got to know Peter II a little better. She could see that he was developing his own personality and encouraged him to do so.

Jane had established a secret identity for Wang-mu and Peter II on Divine Wind. They were made out to be giddy young lovers. They acted out the part well in public, but in private Peter II spoke so cruelly to Wang-mu that she was often on the verge of tears.

Their first stop on their subversive journey was to the home of a Japanese philosopher named Aimaina Hikari. He was influential among the Starways Congress, but was not a member of the Congress itself. He had helped them determine their course of action to destroy Lusitania and the Descolada by stating that Ender’s act of xenocide was not immoral, but necessary, and to repeat such an act would also be.

In their meeting with Hikari, Wang-mu bowed herself beneath him socially at every turn. This led to a sort of a “humble contest,” where Wang-mu and Hikari tried to show that they were more humble than the other.

Peter II and Wang-mu were not able to change Hikari’s mind about the Lusitanian Fleet, but did give him cause to second-guess himself. They also learned from some of the things he said that he was a believer in a religion called Ua Lava, centered on the planet Pacifica. Having planted their seed of discord on Divine Wind, Wang-mu and Peter II went to Pacifica to follow up.

There they met Grace Drinker, a well-known teacher of Ua Lava. She was the matriarch of an entertaining Polynesian family on Pacifica, but more importantly she was a friend to a man named Malu—the prophetic figurehead of the followers of Ua Lava.

Grace quickly saw through Wang-mu and Peter II’s lies about their identities
and determined that they really wanted to meet with Malu. Fortunately, Malu wanted to see them, too. He came to speak with them, through Grace as a translator, and confirmed that Jane needed to be saved.

Malu viewed Jane as a god, and spent most of his time speaking to Peter II, who wore a device that communicated with Jane in his ear. After delivering to Peter II the message he wanted to, Malu left on his boat to return to his isolated secret island.

Peter II had become consumed with saving Jane, and this made Wang-mu jealous. She realized that she had fallen in love with Peter II and wanted him to herself.

She was even more shocked to learn that Malu had returned and sought to speak with her—not Peter II. Malu taught Wang-mu that her love for Peter II was what was necessary to save him and especially the “god” Jane from destruction.

As Jane was cut off from her home among the computer networks, her consciousness, or Auía, searched throughout the galaxy for a new house. It tried jumping into Peter II’s body, but he already had an Auía—a portion of Ender’s, anyway—and there was not room for Jane’s. The conflict between Auía that went on inside Peter II hurt him. Wang-mu, desperate to keep him, screamed for him to live.

She was his support and held him close to her as Jane’s soul left, but the rest of Ender’s joined with Peter II’s. Peter II had been given a new life, as had Ender, when his soul joined back with Ender’s. Wang-mu expressed her love to him, and Malu and the others on Pacifica, including Peter II, credited her with saving him.

Wang-mu and Peter II were shown an illegally created computer network Jane had taught the people of Pacifica to secretly make before she was forced from the computers she’d called home. Wang-mu witnessed her new Polynesian friends start up the network and learned that Jane could again control faster-than-light travel. Peter II rejoiced at the news. Neither of them had wanted to live the rest of their lives on the too-laid-back Pacifica.

At that moment, Wang-mu realized that Peter II was still much of Ender. He, like Ender before him, wanted to travel from planet to planet, living perhaps thousands of more years. Wang-mu first thought this was unappealing, but then embraced the idea because she would be with Peter II. She had fully fallen in love with him, and wanted to be with him for the rest of her life. No matter what kind of life they lived, she knew that it would be joyous with him.

As the Lusitania fleet approached the planet it was to destroy, the commanding officer ignored orders to quarantine the planet. He launched the
devastating Molecular Detachment Device. Jane transported Wang-mu and Peter II to Lusitania, without a spaceship, and then with a spaceship, using the instantaneous travel process to help them capture the deadly missile that was heading for the planet.

They then took the missile to the cargo hold of the fleet’s flagship. Wang-mu watched as Peter II confronted the fleet’s commanding officer and got him to communicate to the Starways Congress that the Descolada had been eradicated. From there, Wang-mu joined Peter II as they were instantly taken to the descoladore world. Peter II again used his Ender-like influence to dissuade Miro II, Ela, and the pequenino Firequencher to not use the Molecular Detachment Device on the home of the Descolada.

Ender’s stepdaughter Quara was angry with Peter II and hurled vicious words at him because he’d said that she was to never return to the planet, but would have to stay on Lusitania. Jane instantly took the group back to Lusitania. Wang-mu tried to befriend Quara, but the angry scientist would have nothing of it. She hated Wang-mu, and was as cruel to her as she’d been to her family all through the years. Wang-mu watched Quara storm away from their conversation and hoped that though it might take years, they would become friendly.

Wang-mu joined Peter II in attending Ender’s funeral. Immediately following the service, they were joined by Jane and Miro II, and the two couples were married. Jane blinked them away, presumably sending them on a private honeymoon.

Si Wang-mu, the humble servant of the most righteous man on Path, had married Peter Wiggin II, the literal embodiment of the first Speaker for the Dead. She was happy, and would be, for she was with the man she loved.

Skimmer Pilots (GB, EE)

The skimmer pilots were talented at driving the skimmers, a popular mode of transportation among human colonists on former Formic worlds. They also served as sometime-bodyguards to Ender Wiggin when he began his tenure as governor of one of the colonies. They transported him to find Sel Menach and learn of the Gold Bugs. They were armed and often used their skimmers to haul cargo throughout the planet.

Skysplitter (XN)

Skysplitter was a pequenino fathertree, the most revered form of native life on Lusitania. He lived twenty-nine generations before Ender arrived on
the planet. A pequenino named Planter sang the songs of Skysplitter’s legends, teaching Miro Ribeira von Hesse about him.

Slattery, Pol (EGS, EG)

Pol Slattery was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School. He was the commander of Leopard Army, which Ender faced while a member of Salamander Army, and was the eighth army Ender’s army faced and beat in a week’s time.