The Authorized Ender Companion Page 16
She swore an oath to Ender that she would not kill any more humans and would get rid of the Descolada once they were in space. She was also laying many eggs, including a few new queens. The Formic society had been reborn on Lusitania, and the Hive Queen sought to protect it by getting her entire race off the planet.
Ender approached the Hive Queen weeks later, hoping to find a way to harness faster-than-light travel. He believed that the Formic’s fashion of instantaneous communication held the key to such high speed travel. What he learned from her, though, was unexpected.
The Hive Queen taught Ender about the origin point of philotes. They existed, according to the Hive Queen, in another space/time continuum. When the Formics, or any other living creature, called for them to enter a living biological entity, the philotes cross from their realm and enter the body. They connect all living things.
The Formics had called for a philote to cross over from its continuum and enter Ender when he was in Battle School. They hoped this philote would give them a connection to Ender such as the one that existed among their species. But instead, it gave Ender a connection to a complex computer network that was closer to Formic mind than Ender’s human mind was. Ender had used the computer when he played the Giant’s Drink fantasy game. The Formics were able to learn about Ender through the game and its connection to him becase Ender had also been calling a philote through his extreme concentration in the game. It was a bridge between the Formics and humanity.
This philote in Ender used its connection to the game and expanded to become self-aware, as most philotes do once placed in a host biological body. This connection between Ender and the computer’s philotes grew and developed throughout the computer network. It was the genesis of Jane. Though still unsure about how this could help in faster-than-light travel, Ender rejoiced because he had learned the truth about Jane’s origins from the Hive Queen.
The Hive Queen helped build a spaceship for Ender, Jane, Ela, and Miro to use to travel into space to test Grego’s and Olhado’s theories of travel. Using what the Hive Queen had taught Ender about the calling of philotes from another dimension, Grego and Olhado believed that by calling on the philotes that had come to our space, humans could travel to that other dimension. Once there, they could imagine the location they wanted to travel to and would appear there because in the imagining, they “called” the philotes there. It was instantaneous travel, much faster than light.
She made the humans a second ship to use to search for appropriate worlds that the piggies and Formics could inhabit. However, while the humans thought the ship was to search for the worlds, the Hive Queen and Jane had something else in mind. They wanted the searchers to locate the home world of the virus that had plagued the planet Lusitania and threatened the rest of the universe.
Miro II approached the Hive Queen to learn how she had built the philotic bridge with Ender originally. It was his hope that she would help him figure out how to put Jane’s essence in Valentine II’s body. The Hive Queen reacted by saying that doing such was essentially impossible. However, Miro II persisted. Having done all he could, he left it to Jane, Valentine II, and the Hive Queen to figure out.
The Hive Queen turned to the pequenino fathertree Human to figure out how to save Jane and Valentine II. They agreed to work together to call Ender’s philotic essence as it left his dying body and hold on to it long enough to create another bridge, this time between Valentine II and Jane. Since Valentine II was a part of Ender, and Jane was a small part of him, combined with the essence of the Hive Queen, they thought it would work. What they didn’t know for certain was how to make it happen.
When Jane’s philotic “soul” or “Auía” left the ansibles, it bounced around searching for a new home. It tried Ender, Peter II, Valentine II, and even the Formics before settling briefly in the Philotic Web that connected the pequenino mothertrees. The Hive Queen communicated with her and guided her back to Valentine II’s body, which Jane took over and lived in from then on. The Hive Queen was able to communicate to Val-Jane, since Jane’s genesis had been with the Hive Queen. They were still philotically connected.
Through this continuing connection, the Hive Queen was able to help Jane, though in her human form, be able to bounce her Auía through the mothertrees and the secretly reestablished computer networks on a few of the Hundred Worlds so that she could continue her faster-than-light travel.
The Hive Queen confessed that even after all this time, she still didn’t understand humans or pequeninos.
Thanks to Jane, she successfully sent all of her drones and lesser queens to other planets, preserving them as the Lusitania Fleet came closer, prepared to destroy the apparently rogue world. The Hive Queen herself refused to leave, though. She felt it was appropriate for her to die in the same fashion as had the rest of her people three thousand years before. Human pleaded with her to leave.
When the destruction of the planet did not occur, the Hive Queen remained in solitude. She did not attend Ender’s funeral or participate in any other public ceremonies.
Hive Queen, The (EE, IC)
Ender Wiggin’s first book, The Hive Queen, told the story of the Formic race and its apparent sole survivor. Ender wrote the book under the pseudonym the “Speaker for the Dead.” It was this book that changed public perception of the final Formic War from human achievement to evil xenocide. Ender’s role in the war was particularly vilified in public opinion as a result of this book.
Ho (CM)
Ho was a character in the fairy tale The Jade of Master Ho.
Honshu (See Hundred Worlds)
Hook (EG, ES)
The Hook was a device used in Battle School’s Battle Room. It was thought to use either magnetism or gravity manipulation to allow its user to go anywhere they wanted in the zero-gravity Battle Room environment. It was often used by army commanders.
Hookers (ES)
In the poverty-stricken streets of Rotterdam, Netherlands, twelve-year-old children had often resorted to prostitution as a means of finding food. Some were too gaunt to be what the customers wanted, though, and had to fend for themselves, often fighting the younger groups of children known as “crews.”
Horned reptile (GB)
The horned reptile was a strange creature Sel Menach and Po Tolo discovered on the journey throughout the former Formic world they’d helped colonize. It looked like a combination of a lizard and a jackrabbit. The creature was so interesting to Sel that he insisted on taking several pictures of it. It was similar in form to the reptiles of Earth and had large horns on its head.
Hovercars (CM)
Hovercars were the primary mode of transportation around the human colony on the planet Lusitania. Nothing beyond their name is known.
Howell, Dr. (TP)
A member of Theresa Brown’s dissertation committee, Dr. Howell informed Theresa that her research funding was being withdrawn as a political maneuver by the Hegemony to get at her father.
Human (SD, XN, CM)
Human was a pequenino, one of the native sentient life-forms on the planet Lusitania. He was among the smartest of the pequeninos, or piggies as they were otherwise known, and had established a good relationship with the human colonist Miro.
He had been told by the fathertree named Rooter, the object of pequenino worship, that the original Speaker for the Dead had come to their planet and needed to speak to the piggies. He begged Miro to allow it to happen.
Ender came and Human spoke with him. Human told the Speaker that the pequeninos sought space travel and knew it was up to the Hive Queen to teach them how to achieve it. He also showed Ender their ritual with a “brothertree,” a tree that would give its life so the pequeninos could build houses and arrows out of wood. Because of his relationship with Miro, he invited him to participate in the mourning of the tree.
Human was frustrated with Ender for not immediately promising to bring the Hive Queen. Through this frustration, Human revealed that Ender was not only the original Speaker for
the Dead, but also Ender the Xenocide, who had killed the Formic species. He also learned that he and the other pequeninos had caused pain to the humans they’d killed—Pipo and Libo—something he hadn’t realized.
He was among the pequeninos who saw Miro Ribeira climb over the fence and wanted to plant his friend as a tree. He waited for Ender to come before planting Miro. Ender stopped Human from planting Miro, and instead asked Human to let him see the wives—the female leaders of the piggies. Human nervously agreed and took Ender, Ouanda, and Ela to them.
Human served as the translator between the chief wife, Shouter, and Ender. With Human’s help, Ender was able to draft a treaty with the piggies that resulted in a prohibition against either party killing each other, and forbade the pequeninos from declaring war on other piggies. Furthermore, the treaty gave the pequeninos access to the Hive Queen, who would teach them to mine and use metal.
To finalize the treaty, however, Human was to receive the “Third Life,” the ritual where a piggie was brutally killed and a tree planted within his body. It was the greatest honor a pequenino could receive, and it was required to be performed by Ender himself.
Ender completed the ritual, and Human became a fathertree. Ender wrote the book of Human’s life, called The Life of Human.
Human was considered the wisest of the fathertrees. Over the course of the next thirty years, he created many sons—male pequeninos—like Planter. He communicated with the other fathertrees silently, and was in contact with the Formic Hive Queen.
When he learned from Ender’s stepdaughter Quara that the scientists on Lusitania were developing a way to eradicate the Descolada, the virus that killed non-Lusitania life, but was necessary for native existence, he contacted the Hive Queen. Together they immediately created plans to leave the planet in a Formic-designed spacecraft. They would allow the humans to continue their scientific study, but would not be there as test subjects. They simply needed the Descolada to live, and if it was to be wiped out, they needed to leave.
Years later, as Ender lay dying, his philotic essence divided among three personages—including Valentine Wiggin II and Peter Wiggin II—Human worked with the Formic Hive Queen to figure out how to capture the philote that gave Ender life, hold on to it, transfer it into Valentine II, and also provide Jane, the sentient computer, a body to call her own. It was tricky, but they thought it might be possible by using the fathertrees’ connection and the Philotic Web. The just didn’t know how.
Jane was ultimately able to take over Valentine II’s body, and with the continued help of the Hive Queen and Human, was still able to create faster-than-light travel. Human expressed a fondness for the Hive Queen through this process—a friendship built out of mutual goals. He didn’t fully understand the Formics, and the Hive Queen confessed she didn’t understand the pequeninos. Regardless, they connected and appreciated each other—so much so that Human begged her to leave the planet when the fleet came near and was about destroy it.
The Hive Queen refused to leave Lusitania, stating the she felt it was appropriate for her to die as her ancestors and fellow Formics had three thousand years before. Human, rooted to the planet as a tree, would die with her.
The disaster was averted, though, and a few days later, Ender’s remains were buried in the pequenino land near Human’s tree.
Hundred Worlds (EG, ES, EH, YM, EE, SG, SD, XN, CM)
The “Hundred Worlds” was the name given to the different planets and colonies settled by humans during the three thousand years following Ender Wiggin’s victory over the Formics. Known planets and colonies include:
Albion (IC)—Albion was home to a woman named Jane, the author of a book on interstellar estate planning, for whom Ender postulated the computer program Jane was named.
Andhra (EE, SG)—Andhra was a colony on the planet Ganges, governed by Virlomi.
Armenia (SD)—Named for the home nation of Petra Arkanian, the planet Armenia was settled by human colonists and was involved in interplanetary trade.
As Fábricas (SD)—A small borough/factory district on the planet Lusitania.
Associated Planet (IC)—The term “Associated Planet” refers to human-settled planets in the galaxy that have not aligned themselves with the Starways Congress’s Hundred Worlds.
Ata Atua (CM)—Ata Atua is an island on the planet Pacifica where the religious leader Malu lived. It is considered holy.
Baía (SD, XN)—Baía was a planet in the Hundred Worlds. It apparently was home to a prestigious university where Ender’s stepson Grego hoped to one day teach. The original settlers of Lusitania, a team of scientists, first lived on Baía before moving to Lusitania.
Bairro das Fabricadoras (SD)—The Bairro das Fabricadoras was a region on the planet Lusitania that had a foundry where Marcão Ribeira spent much of his time as a young man.
Calicut (SD)—Calicut was a planet in the Hundred Worlds. It was home to scientists who traveled to Lusitania to take over the research on that planet’s native life, the pequeninos, once it was discovered Ender Wiggin’s stepchildren had violated contact rules.
Colony IX (EE)—Colony IX was the ninth planet/colony where settlers were assigned; but because the original settlers on the ground were not receptive, the Colony IX travelers were rerouted to Shakespeare.
Córdoba (SD)—Córdoba was a city on the planet Moctezuma. There, Ender Wiggin Spoke the death of San Angelo.
Cyrillia (SD)—A colony among the Hundred Worlds that participated in interplanetary trade.
Divine Wind (CM)—Divine Wind was a planet within the Starways Congress that had been settled by colonists of Japanese descent. It was thought to be a world of significant influence in the Starways Congress.
Falstaff (EE)—Falstaff was a colony not far from Shakespeare, the first colony settled on former Formic worlds.
Gales (SD)—Gales was a planet in the Hundred Worlds. It had been the home of the mysterious owner of a spaceship called Havelok.
Ganges (EE)—Ganges was a planet in the Hundred Worlds settled by humans. It was governed by Ender Wiggin’s Battle School colleague Virlomi. Randi and her son Achilles Flandres II were also settlers on that planet. It was also the second planet Ender and Valentine visited.
Helvetica (IC)—The planet Helvetica was a failed human colony established as part of the Dispersal Project. Full of Jungian and Calvinist believers, the planet’s collapse became the subject of a book written by Valentine Wiggin under her alias, Demosthenes.
Honshu (CM)—Honshu was a colony of the Hundred Worlds settled by humans of Japanese descent. It was the home of well-known and well-respected philosophers, though the planet’s name itself is unknown.
Jonlei (XN)—Jonlei was a city on the planet Path. The House of Han lived there.
Jung Calvin Colonies (IC)—The Jung Calvin Colonies were a small band of human settlements that failed on the planet Helvetica.
Libyan Quarter (IC)—The Libyan Quarter was a portion of the colony on the planet Sorelledolce.
Lusitania (SD, XN, CM)—Lusitania was settled by colonists of Brazilian descent; it was a stridently Catholic planet. It was also home to the pequeninos, the only other fully sentient race discovered in the galaxy. Ender Wiggin moved to this planet after being called to Speak a pair of deaths there. He eventually married a woman native to the world and got involved in local politics involving three sentient species. Ender woke the Hive Queen there. Ultimately, Ender died on Lusitania.
Memphis (CM)—Memphis was a colony of human settlers. The colonists on this planet had defied a congressional order to dispose of old computers that housed Jane, the sentient program. They instead reconnected their old units, creating a small network where Jane could exist without congressional knowledge.
Mercutio (EE)—Mercutio was a settlement that split off from Shakespeare Colony, the first colony Ender Wiggin governed.
Milagre (SD, XN, CM)—Milagre was the capital city of the planet Lusitania. Ender Wiggin lived there when he moved to Lusitania.
Miranda (EE)—Miranda was a new settlement near Shakespeare Colony, the first colony Ender Wiggin governed.
Moctezuma (SD)—Planet in the Hundred Worlds. Ender and Valentine visited it, when Ender Spoke the deaths of two prominent citizens there.
Moskva (CM)—Moskva was a planet settled by humans, its population was primarily of Russian/Slavic descent. Peter Wiggin II and Si Wang-mu posed as travelers from that planet when they visited the planet Pacifica.
Nagoya (CM)—Nagoya was a city on the planet Divine Wind, which was settled by colonists of Japanese descent.
Oporto (SD)—Named for a large city in Portugal, Oporto was a portion of a human colony on the planet Lusitania.
Otaheti (XN)—Otaheti was one of the planets in the Starways Congress’s Hundred Worlds. It was home to Polynesian colonists.
Outback (CM)—Outback was one of the planets in the Starways Congress’s Hundred Worlds. It was home to a prestigious university, Abo University, and had been settled by humans primarily of Australian descent.
Pacifica/Lumana’i (CM)—Pacifica was a planet in the Hundred Worlds, settled by humans from the Pacific Islands. The colonists called it Lumana’i. Of all of the worlds humans had settled, Pacifica was the most like Earth. Though it was primarily settled by Polynesians, and named for Earth’s Pacific Ocean, the planet had deserts, polar ice caps, and jungles, as well as vast island land.
Path (XN, CM)—Path was a planet in the Hundred Worlds colonized by settlers of Chinese descent. It was steeply trenched in ancient Chinese religious tradition and was home to the “godspoken,” a group of genetically altered citizens who believed they heard the voice of God, but were really reacting to a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Polonius (EE)—Polonius was a colony established near Shakespeare Colony, the first human settlement Ender Wiggin governed after defeating the Formics.