Read The Authorized Ender Companion Online
Authors: Jake Black
The Authorized Ender Companion (6 page)
Bee—Army where Pakistani student Ahmed was assigned when he led the Muslim religious rebellion at the Battle School.
Centipede—Army against which Ender faced off in his first battle as a member of Rat Army.
Condor—Army that shared a bathroom with Salamander. Condor was the army Ender faced in his first battle as a member of Salamander Army.
Dragon—An army of poor repute. Dissolved until it was recreated for Ender to command. Their color code was Grey-Orange-Grey.
Ferret—This was the seventh army defeated by Ender’s Dragon Army.
Flame—An army on the list Ender saw soon after arriving at Battle School.
Griffin—An army defeated by Ender’s Dragon Army. Bean used his new rope strategy with his newly assigned toon to help defeat the Griffins. William Bee was their commander.
Hound—One of the surprised armies that Salamander beat as part of Bonzo Madrid’s quest to increase Salamander reputation.
Leopard—Leopard Army faced Salamander Army while Ender was a member of that army. The eighth army in seven days Ender faced and defeated, Leopard Army was commanded by Pol Slattery.
Lion—A symbol on a door Bean saw early in his explorations of Battle School.
Manticore
Phoenix—Ender was a toon leader in this army at the age of nine. It was commanded by Petra Arkanian.
Rabbit—The first army Ender’s Dragon Army faced, and beat. Rabbit was commanded by Carn Carby. Once Ender’s army had proven dominant, Bean (a former member of Ender’s team) had been assigned Rabbit. Achilles Flandres was assigned to Rabbit as a test of Bean’s true leadership abilities. Nikolai Delphiki replaced Bean in command of Rabbit Army.
Rat—Army that shared a bathroom with Salamander and was commanded by Rosen. Bonzo Madrid bragged about beating Rat Army, using it as a step toward increasing Salamander’s profile. Rat Army became Ender’s second assignment, as Bonzo Madrid had him traded there from Salamander.
Salamander—The first army to which Ender was assigned. It was commanded by Bonzo Madrid, and had the color code Green-Green-Brown.
Scorpion—Bonzo Madrid bragged about beating this army in an upset while commanding Salamander.
Spider
Squirrel—Army that shared a bathroom with Salamander.
Tide—Ender saw this army listed in his earliest days at Battle School.
Tiger—Fought by Ender’s Dragon Army and teamed in a two-on-one fight with Griffin Army. Commanded by Talo Momoe.
Battle School Counselor (WG)
The Battle School counselor unsuccessfully tried to calm Zeck Morgan down when the religious zealot took offense that Dink Meeker was allowed
to give gifts celebrating a holiday while all other religious practices were forbidden and punished.
BATTLE SCHOOL SLANG (EGS, EG, WG, ES)
As with most communities, Battle School had its own jargon or slang that was used among the community members. Orson Scott Card created the slang used by the kids at Battle School from the following list (note, not all terms on slang list appear in Ender’s books/stories):
Aboon:
Father; i.e., godfather (Arabic: Abun, “father”)
Asliha:
Arms dealer (Arabic for “weapon”)
Barred:
Dead (Arabic: Bard)
Binoon:
Especially close friend (Arabic: Ibnun, “son”)
Bunduck:
A gunman or hired thug (Swahili: Bunduki, “gun”)
Chisel:
To have sex (transl. Russian expression)
Dayboo:
Fatso (Japanese: Debu)
Dakira:
Stash, supplies (Arabic)
Dakwa:
An invitation you dare not refuse (Arabic: Da’wa)
Doll back:
A screwup, can’t do anything right (Russian: Dolbak)
Dow:
Weapon (Vietnamese: Dao, “knife”)
Dull Bob:
Idiot (Russian: Dolbaeb)
Eemo:
Hick, person who’s “out of it” (Japanese: Imo, “potato,” derisive term for a country hick)
Emossin’:
Half-baked, lousy, fifth-rate (Japanese slang: Imasen, literally “a thousand things are missing”)
Fedda:
Money (Swahili: Fedha)
Fold:
Kill; usually “get folded,” for “get killed.”
Forthwith:
A command to appear in person immediately (police bureaucratese)
Gacha:
A cop. Sounds like American slang for “got you” which perhaps
encouraged Americans to pick up the Japanese criminal slang term “gacha” for “badge.”
Git:
Jerk (British slang)
Goffno:
Excrement (Russian: Govno)
Greek:
Disappeared, presumed murdered, as in “He went Greek” (from Arabic: Gariqa, to sink or plunge)
Greeyaz:
Worthless trash, said of people or things (Russian)
Grim:
Truly ugly woman (Russian: Grimza)
Habba:
Death (Arabic)
Hafla:
Clandestine meeting (Arabic)
Hakeeba:
A bagman, a thieves’ bank (Arabic)
Hareess:
Watchman, lookout (Arabic)
Jeesh:
Troops, army (Arabic: Jaish)
Kala:
Fort or stronghold (Arabic)
Kalb:
Dog (Arabic insult)
Kay-quop:
Thief, crook (Vietnamese: Ke cuop, “robber”)
Kintama:
Testicle (Japanese)
Koncho:
Traitor (Japanese: Kancho, “enema”)
Krozh:
Loot, winnings (Russian: Kurazh)
Kumo:
Electronic thief. (Kumo is Japanese for “spider,” and in Japanese criminal slang it means “cat burglar,” but it has come to mean “electronic thief.”)
Kuso:
Excrement (Japanese)
Liss:
Thief (Arabic)
Marubo:
A violent, dangerous punk. Japanese slang, it means literally “B label,” which may have meant “a second-rater” or (more likely) the B stood for boryoku, or “violence,” the idea being that as a kid in school, this guy was stamped “B for boryoku.”
Messed:
Arrested (from Russian: Myesty, “to arrest”)
Mintaka:
A criminal’s area of control, his turf (Arabic)
Myent, Myentura:
A cop, the police (Russian)
Moose:
A pushover; someone you can jerk around (trans. Russian for “cuckold”)
Neeshka:
Low-class woman (Russian)
Nessoon:
Thief who steals high-tech items from factories and warehouses (Russian)
Nizodd:
Struggle for power within an organization (Arabic: niza’)
Nuzhnik:
Toilet (Russian)
Oomay:
A jerk or worse (Swahili: Uume, “male generative organ”)
Piff:
Screw up (Portuguese: Pifar, “to fall apart”)
Puddle:
Kill. Presumably from the idea of the victim lying in a puddle of blood.
Rabeeta:
Connection, alliance (Arabic: Rabita)
Sabeek:
Top guy, big boss (Arabic: Sabiq)
Shirty:
Cop (Arabic: Shurti)
Shtuka:
Thing (Russian)
Slither:
Dangerous guy, snakelike, quick, sneaky.
Soak a noky:
Get out of the way (Japanese: soko noke)
Stukotch:
Informer (Russian)
Suroff:
Accountant for a criminal organization (Arabic)
Toguro:
A thing that’s really cool (lit. a huge coiled turd)
Tude:
Attitude.
Twiss:
Freelance legal officer. A Japanese criminal slang term for “kill” is mageru, which means “twist.” In America, the term was translated and mispronounced as “twiss,” and “twiss boy” was “killer.” This became a derogatory term for a cop, and then for somebody only pretending to be a cop—for instance, a bounty hunter, a security guard, a bouncer, or a private eye. The “boy” was eventually dropped so that “twiss” alone came to mean “boastful fake cop.”
White rabbit:
A small-time crook; literal translation of Japanese “shiro usagi,” with the same slang meaning.
Vang:
Electronic money, virtual money (Vietnamese for “gold”)
Yelda:
Male generative organ (Russian)
Zhopa:
Buttocks (Russian)
Bebei, Sister (SD)
Sister Bebei was a teacher at the school portion of the monastery, the Children of the Mind of Christ, on the planet Lusitania. She taught Quara Ribeira.
Bee, William (EGS, EG, ES)
Commander of Griffin Army, William Bee was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School, and on the losing end of one of Ender’s Dragon Army’s victories. He was promoted to Tactical School, but was not thought to be compatible enough with Ender to go on to Command School.
Bella’s Birth Father (
See also
Delphiki, Bella) (SG)
Bella was one of the embryos created by Petra Arkanian and Bean Delphiki, stolen by Achilles Flandres, and implanted in a Portuguese woman. The husband of this woman was sterile but he lied, telling her that their attempts at in vitro fertilization had worked. A rich man, he bought the embryo from Achilles, but had to surrender the child it became to her real parents, Petra and Bean.
Bella’s Birth Mother (
See
also Delphiki, Bella) (SG)
Desperate for a child, the woman who carried the girl “Bella” thought she was giving birth to her own daughter, conceived in vitro with her husband. Her husband was sterile, though, and the embryo that had been implanted into her womb actually belonged to Bean Delphiki and his wife Petra Arkanian. Bella was born, and Petra discovered her existence, taking back the child that was actually hers and Bean’s, and thus breaking the heart of Bella’s birth mother.
Bellini, Radaghasye (SG)
Radaghasye Bellini was the president of Brazil when Peter Wiggin ascended to the position of Hegemon. He was one of the first to ratify Peter’s
worldwide constitution, and was given the top position of authority in South America, governing the continent as more and more of its nations joined the Hegemony, which Peter called the “Free People of Earth.”
Belt, the (EG)
The Belt is a region of space not far from Earth’s orbit where Battle School, a space station, was located.
Benedetto (IC, SD)
Benedetto had a rich Italian heritage. He worked as a tax collector on the starport at the planet Sorelledolce, and insisted on speaking Italian there, even though he was fluent in Starcommon. He doubted the veracity of Ender Wiggin’s identification when Ender presented it to him in an effort to gain access to Ender’s pension. Benedetto would not allow Ender access to his trust fund to pay his taxes because Ender had never paid taxes. However, once Ender’s assets were revealed on Benedetto’s computer, the accountant warmed up to the young man, and was more helpful. Once Ender left the bank, Benedetto tried to use an illegal Predator program to spy on Ender’s finances, but discovered the programs he used for such matters were gone. Unbeknownst to Benedetto, they had been erased by Ender’s financial program, Jane.
Benedetto figured out Ender’s true identity and tried to have Ender incarcerated. However, Jane had restored the files, and Ender was free. Jane confronted Benedetto later, warning him to erase all his research and to forget everything he’d learned about Ender or confess everything about him. Benedetto chose to reveal to the world the identity of Ender Wiggin on Sorelledolce, but Jane intercepted the message, exposing Benedetto’s corrupt accounting practices in the process.
Some of his past victims killed Benedetto for stealing from them. Ender Spoke Benedetto’s death. Feeling bad for the tax man’s death, Ender gave Benedetto’s family an annuity.
Bernard (EG, ES)
A contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School, Bernard was the boy whose arm Ender broke on their first journey into space. Bernard held a particular enmity toward Ender and put together a gang of fellow students at Battle School. His gang shoved Ender around, and was generally mean to him. However, Ender hacked into the Battle School computer system and sent private messages to Bernard and their classmates calling Bernard a “butt
watcher.” When Bernard complained to Dap, his launch group’s supervisor, Dap accused Bernard of questioning authority. Bernard and his gang picked on Ender more, in an effort to reassert their own power.
Bernard’s best friend was Alai, who said that Bernard used to torture cats for fun. Alai and Ender invited Bernard to join their team in the group’s first Battle Room practice. With his teammates, Bernard froze the rest of the group in that first practice.
Bernard joined Ender’s Free Play practices in the Battle Room that were set up after Ender’s promotion to Salamander Army. He grew disenchanted with Ender, however, when Ender was promoted to command Dragon Army. He accompanied Bonzo Madrid into the bathroom when Bonzo had decided to kill Ender there.
Bimba (SG)
Bimba was a child to Pipo and Conceição, born on the planet Lusitania.
Bloom, Klaus (SG)
Klaus Bloom was a world leader who helped ratify Peter Wiggin’s constitution for the Free People of Earth, the Hegemony. He was given a position of authority in the growing world government in Europe.
Boatman (CM)
The boatman was a large Polynesian man who lived on the planet Pacifica. He was protective of the sacred island of his people and refused to have Peter Wiggin II and Si Wang-mu there.
Bob (SG)
Bob was married to Randi and ran a grocery store. He did not know that Randi had been in love with Achilles Flandres and had been implanted with an embryo she thought Achilles had fathered. Randi left Bob to have her baby in secret, per Achilles’s premortem instructions.
