The Authorized Ender Companion (7 page)

Bosque, Mayor/Governor Faria Lima Maria do “Bosquinha” (SD)

The female political leader of the human colony on the planet Lusitania, Bosquinha was known for being a strong-willed Catholic woman. The position of mayor and governor were combined, and as such she held both. A solid leader, she governed the planet’s colony fairly. She also became the legal guardian of a girl named Novinha, whose parents had died finding a cure for the dreaded, deadly virus known as the Descolada.

Bosquinha greeted Ender Wiggin when his ship arrived at Lusitania. The mayor/governor was opposed to the idea of “Speakers of the Dead,” of which Ender was one. Her religion fought against the funerary right of Speaking, seeing it as pagan. Lusitania was a staunchly Catholic planet, and to maintain order with her colonists, she adhered to Catholic dogma.

Shortly after the Speaker’s arrival, Bosquinha noticed that Starways Congress had begun absorbing all of the computer files on the planet. They had the right to do so, she knew, because something had gone wrong with the human interaction with the planet’s native species, the pequeninos. She advised the religious leaders to do as the government had and transfer their most important files into Ender’s well-hidden computer storage.

She attended the Speaking Ender performed for the late Marcão Ribeira, and afterward told the Speaker what they’d done with his computer storage. He said it was a good idea. She also told him that she had been demoted from her gubernatorial role, and was now merely chief of police, facilitating the evacuation of the planet.

Lusitania had lost its charter because of Miro and Ouanda’s interaction with the pequeninos and was to be evacuated by the Starways Congress. Ender convinced her to forestall the evacuation and meet with him and the religious leaders to plan a rebellion against the Congress. She reluctantly agreed, hoping to save the planet she’d governed for decades.

In that meeting, it was discovered that the Descolada, the disease that had virtually wiped out the planet a generation before, was still active. All who lived on Lusitania were carriers. As a result, Bosquinha and the others decided that they should rebel, in order to prevent exposing other planets to the deadly virus, and to protect themselves. They made it appear as if they’d shut down the ansible, and they deactivated the wall protecting the pequeninos. In so doing, they symbolically left the Starways Congress.

A day later, when Ender Wiggin had negotiated a treaty between humans and the piggies, Bosquinha went into the forest with Bishop Peregrino. There she learned of the treaty and signed it as the political leader of the human colonists on the planet.

Bosquinha (
See
Bosque, Mayor/Governor Faria Lima Maria do “Bosquinha”)

Boulanger, Nero (ES)

Nero Boulanger was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School. He was approximately the same age as Ender; however, he did not arrive at
the school until a couple of years after Ender. Nero was in Bean’s launch group, and argued with the commanding officer of their flight into space over who had the highest test scores in the launch group. The officer, Captain Dimak, mocked Nero’s arrogance and ignorance, making an example out of him. Nero had been humiliated before ever reaching Battle School.

Braun, Helga (ES)

Helga Braun, or “Hazie” as she preferred to be known, ran a soup kitchen in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She hated the violence that went on in the streets around her kitchen, but was pleased that Achilles and other bullies like him had taken to civilizing the children. She contacted her friend, Sister Carlotta, a nun who helped recruit for the International Fleet, alerting her that something was going on: that civilization had come to the children of Rotterdam. She gave Achilles his name because of his gimp leg. She also named Ulysses because he wandered from kitchen to kitchen.

Brian (EGS)

A member of Ender’s Dragon Army, Brian was promoted to commander three years ahead of schedule along with several members of their army.

Bridegan, Captain (WG)

Captain Bridegan was the International Fleet officer who tested Zeck Morgan, finding him fit for Battle School. He had used threats of arresting Zeck’s parents to get him to consent to going to the school.

Brother Language (SD, XN)

The Brother Language was the language the male pequeninos spoke in their “second life.”

Brown, Hinckley (TP)

Hinckley Brown was thought to be the top military mind of his generation, and yet left the army to be with his family, a Mormon brood noncompliant with the Hegemony’s population rules. He was an outspoken critic of the population laws. As a result of his departure, the Hegemony pulled funding from his daughter Theresa’s graduate research. Theresa and Hinckley did not get along, despite Hinckley’s attempts at reconciliation. He had missed much with his family because of his military obligations.

As Theresa Brown’s father, he was also the grandfather to Andrew “Ender” Wiggin.

Brown, Theresa (
See
Wiggin, Theresa
)

Bruxinha (SD)

Bruxinha was a colonist on the planet Lusitania. She was married to Libo and together they had four children. She did not know that Libo had also fathered children with his childhood sweetheart, Novinha, until she heard it at the Speaking ceremony for Novinha’s husband, Marcão Ribeira. She was crushed, but Ender, in Speaking, tried to ease her pain by making it clear that her husband’s adultery was not her fault.

Buggers (
See
Formics)

Cabra (SD)

Cabra was a less-developed grass-eating animal on the planet Lusitania. They were all female and had somehow evolved to avoid extinction from the Descolada plague. How they reproduced was a scientific mystery to the planet’s xenobiologists.

Calendar (SD)

Calendar was a pequenino—the native life on Lusitania—who interacted with the human scientists, Miro and Ouanda. He witnessed Miro’s climb over the fence that surrounded them.

Calicut (
See
Hundred Worlds)

Canadian Kid (WG)

The Canadian Kid was a member of Rat Army who participated in Dink Meeker’s Christmas celebration of secretly giving gifts in other soldiers’ socks.

Capim (SD, NX, CM)

Capim was a plant native to the planet Lusitania. Grasslike, it was studied by Ender Wiggin’s scientist stepchildren. When chewed, capim had anesthetic properties for the pequeninos.

Captain (EE)

The Captain was an officer in the International Fleet who showed Ender around the spaceship that would take the hero of the Formic War to his new colony. The Captain had a family on Earth, and was not going to the
new colony. On their tour of the ship, the Captain showed Ender how Formic technology made faster-than-light travel possible, as well as the weapon that Ender had deployed to destroy the Formics.

Carby, Carn (EGS, EG, ES, SH, SG)

Carn Carby was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s in Battle School. A little older than Ender, Carn commanded Rabbit Army, which was the first army to lose to Ender’s unbeatable Dragon Army. Carby took the loss graciously in the Battle Room, but was embarrassed and angry in the public areas of Battle School.

He eventually came to respect Ender, and even sought to help protect him when his life was in jeopardy from Bonzo Madrid. Carn was graduated from Battle School approximately a month later and replaced as commander of Rabbit Army by Bean, Ender’s closest confidant and best soldier. He was promoted to Tactical School and, two weeks later, to Command School.

Carn was promoted to become one of Ender’s unseen squadron leaders at Command School, leading soldiers into battle during the simulated “exams” that were actually real conflicts.

After the Formic War ended with Ender’s victory, Carn was one of the former soldiers who were kidnapped by Achilles Flandres and taken to Russia. There, he and his fellow prisoners were forced to play war games against each other, preparing Achilles’s armies for strikes against the rest of the world.

The captives were eventually separated, and put into solitary confinement without face-to-face contact with each other from then on. After several months, thanks to the efforts of Peter Wiggin and from a distance, Bean, Carn and his colleagues, except Petra Arkanian, were rescued by Russian operatives.

Over the next year, Carn was made a leader in the Australian military, though that assignment did not have significant worldwide influence. He was approached by both Hyrum Graff and Peter Wiggin and was offered a ship to go into space as part of the colonization program, freeing him from the heavy responsibilities of Earth and its political instability.

As Peter built the Hegemony into the Free People of Earth, Graff again offered Ender’s colleagues the opportunity to leave Earth and govern a planet. It was his fear that Ender’s army would be used in the worldwide conflict, manipulated by whatever political power rose to prominence, and he wanted to prevent that. Every member who received the offer, which did
not include Han Tzu, Petra Arkanian, or Alai, said no. The others were already too involved in matters on Earth to leave.

Carlotta, Sister (ES, SH, [SP], [SG])

Sister Carlotta was a nun who joined the International Fleet’s recruitment program, searching for the next leader of the Fleet who would defeat the Formic armies. She believed that doing so would ultimately protect the children of the world, despite being ostracized from her order. Carlotta heard from her friend, Helga Braun, a soup kitchen owner, that a boy named Achilles had been civilizing the homeless children of Rotterdam. Thinking that this Achilles could be the leader the Fleet was looking for, Carlotta went to Rotterdam.

There she found that Achilles was not the person she was looking for, but instead discovered Bean, the smallest child she’d ever seen. She set up a school to teach Achilles, Bean, and the rest of their “family” of children to read. When Bean was revealed to already know how to read, Carlotta knew for certain that he was the miracle child she’d sought.

When Bean’s friend and former crew leader Poke was found dead and her death blamed on a bully named Ulysses, Sister Carlotta helped him through his mourning process. In so doing, she discovered that Bean had witnessed the murder, and that it was actually Achilles who perpetrated it. Bean was scared for his own life, so Carlotta chose to test him for Battle School. It was her hope that by getting him into Battle School, he would be safe from Achilles.

She administered the Battle School screening tests, and Bean earned a nearly perfect score. Sister Carlotta tested him again, and he scored well again—unheard of in a four-year-old boy. She made the decision to recommend him for Battle School, even though he was very much underage.

While waiting for Battle School to decide whether to accept Bean or not, Carlotta took him in. She taught him lessons in reading, arithmetic, art, and fed him until he was fat. She listened to his memories of escaping the mysterious “clean place” by hiding in a toilet. When he snuck out to find the man who found him in the toilet three and a half years earlier, she followed him.

Sister Carlotta told Bean that she had protected him from thugs and sex offenders. She’d also learned that Bean had escaped from an illegal organ-harvesting plant. She never shared this knowledge with Bean, which created some emotional distance between them. A few months later, when Bean was five, she shed a few tears for him as he left for Battle School. Like a parent,
Sister Carlotta loved Bean and hoped he’d be okay at the space-bound military training facility.

Only a day after Bean left, Sister Carlotta continued her investigation into who he was. She visited the clean place/organ farm, and studied the toilet in which he’d hidden, but was no further ahead into learning more about him.

Colonel Graff, the commander of Battle School, contacted Sister Carlotta, seeking an interpretation of Bean’s activities at Battle School. She told Graff that Bean was smart, and he knew that the Battle School officials were watching him. She was certain that Bean was intentionally deceiving Graff and his colleagues to gain control of his own situation. However, because Graff asked specifically about Achilles, Sister Carlotta grew concerned and was determined she had to find him before the Fleet did to keep him away from Bean.

In exchange for her information on Bean, Carlotta asked for information on any studies of the human genome that the Fleet had conducted in the last ten years. Graff reluctantly promised to get summaries to her.

These summaries led Carlotta to Sophia, Russia, where she met a retired scientist named Anton, who had discovered a way to genetically accelerate mental and physical human development in embryos. Anton spoke in code to Carlotta, telling her about his research before the implant in his brain (designed to stop him from discussing his findings) caused a panic attack. Carlotta was able to determine that Bean had been genetically altered by Anton’s research, and because of that would not live to an old age.

As thanks for additional information exchanges with Graff, Carlotta was able to locate Doctor Volescu, the scientist who took Anton’s research and put it into practice. She met with Volescu, who confirmed that he had illegally performed the procedure of turning Anton’s Key in twenty-four fertilized embryos. Twenty-three of these embryos had been destroyed, leaving one to grow and mature—Bean.

Although Volescu provided Sister Carlotta with this information, he was arrogant and defiant in his attitudes toward her. This angered Carlotta, and she stated that he didn’t deserve to have a son like Bean.

Carlotta discovered that Volescu was not the DNA donor, however. That honor belonged to Volescu’s half-brother Julian Delphiki. Sister Carlotta told Julian and his wife Elena about Volescu’s tests. She gave them hope that they might have another son—Bean, who had coincidentally befriended the Delphiki’s firstborn, Nikolai, at Battle School.