- This article is about one of Petra Arkanian and Bean's sons with Anton's Key. You may be looking for his brother with the same name, or other uses of Andrew.
Andrew Delphiki, nicknamed Ender, was the eldest son of Petra Arkanian and Bean and a passenger on the Herodotus.[3] He was first introduced in Shadow of the Giant.
History[]
Shadow of the Giant[]
Andrew was born two months prematurely due to the symptoms of Anton's Key that he carried.[2]
He was taken into space aboard the Herodotus along with his father Bean, and his siblings Carlotta and Cincinnatus. One of his brothers who did not carry Anton's Key stayed behind on Earth and was also named Andrew to avoid suspicion when this Andrew disappeared. To differentiate between the two, Bean called him Ender, for Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin.[2]
Shadows in Flight[]
The four-person family traveled at relativistic speeds to forestall death, waiting for scientists on Earth to develop a cure for Anton's Key.[3]
Ender also developed a cure for giantism caused by Anton's Key.[3]
The Last Shadow[]
Around 3165 AX, the inhabitants of the starship Herodotus landed on the planet Nokonoshima. There, Ender married a woman named Mayumi, Carlotta married a man named Yuuto, and Cincinnatus married a woman named Airi. They remained on the planet for 4 years, as it took awhile for Carlotta to find a spouse. Mayumi gave birth to Petra Delphiki III and Mazer Delphiki, and Ender's siblings also had children of their own. However, three weeks after Thulium Delphiki was born in 3169 AX, the Delphiki family kidnapped their children and took them back aboard the Herodotus to continue their relativistic journey. Before they left, the Herodotus stopped at the Tochoji spaceport for repairs and refitting.[1]
Sometime before 3180 AX after having children, Ender and Carlotta wrote the Herodotus Papers, a series of writings about varied topics. Carlotta wrote about Andrew Wiggin and the Battle School, while Ender wrote about their decision to have children, observations about the modified Anton's Key genome, and if people in the Hundred Worlds were still researching it. He also gave a scientific name to those with modified Anton's Key, Homo leguminensis. Around this time Ender gave his niece Thulium the nickname Ultima Thule.[1]
In 3180 AX, a computer program reflecting the mind of Hyrum Graff found its way into the computers of the Herodotus and conversed with Carlotta and Thulium. Graff revealed that he had been slowing down the Herodotus to non-relativistic speed in order so that the Leguminids may help solve the problem of the Descolada on Lusitania. After their conversation, Carlotta told the rest of the family on board the ship. The cousins met together in the mess hall with Ender and talked about identifying the Descolada planet. Sergeant came in and listened to the discussion briefly before starting to walk out. After prompting by Ender, Sergeant explained his thoughts that it was most likely that even if the virus was created, its creators were most likely extinct by millions of years. Graff appeared as a hologram again in the room, who Sergeant promptly dismissed and left the mess hall. After much discussion about the finances of the Delphiki family and the Descolada problem, Thulium proposed that the Leguminids simply go to Lusitania to converse with the scientists there about the issue. Suddently, Sprout realized that Graff came to the Herodotus to escape the Hundred Worlds-wide Ansible shutdown, to which Graff affirmed his hypothesis. Graff explained to the Delphikis that the Lusitanian scientists had found a possible origin point of the Descolada, a planet they called Descoladora.[1]
At that moment, a man and a woman appeared in the room. The woman walked to Ender and expressed that he looked much like his parents, Bean and Petra Arkanian. The hologram of Graff thought the woman was Valentine Wiggin, though much younger than she should be. She introduced herself as Jane and the man as Miro Ribeira to the group and explained how Andrew Wiggin had created her body and Peter Wiggin II while Outside, as well as the concept of an Aiúa and how the Recolada had neutralized the Descolada on Lusitania. The Leguminids doubted Jane's story and were baffled at how she and Miro appeared instantaneously on the ship. Jane then instantly transported the Delphikis to a plain of grass on Lusitania. Jane stated that she had left the Herodotus in orbit around the planet and explained the concept of instantaneous travel to them, and that she had sent Carlotta and Cincinatus to Nokonoshima to persuade their spouses to join the Delphikis on Lusitania. Ender spoke out, saying that he did not wish to live as man and wife with his ex-wife Mayumi. Miro then rebuked the Delphikis for considering themselves separate from humanity. Despite his objection, Ender was teleported by Jane to join his siblings on Nokonoshima.[1]
They eventually met up with Airi, Yuuto, and Mayumi, and asked them to come to Lusitania with them, but they all refused. They questioned how they had arrived instantaneously and did not forgive them for stealing their children. After talking a bit more, however, Yuuto agreed to go back with them, as he thought the children needed a father figure, but he did not say he would forgive Carlotta. When they returned to Lusitania, they met with Thulium.[1]
Some time later, a meeting was called for all members of the Descolada Project, where they discussed the discovery of the Recorder virus being a precursor to the Descolada, and about the intentions of the Makers of the Recorder. Jane also mentioned that the Folk had invited the Lusitanians to a banquet that night, and they hypothesized that it was a trap. Peter II and Wang-mu refused to go with them, citing that Dog had given them a hint that they would be harmed by the Folk and that Wang-mu was pregnant. Mazer 'Boss' Delphiki entioned that they should come up with a name for instantaneous travel, and Petra 'Little Mum' Delphiki suggested that they name it Detouring. Jane asked for a show of hands of who would go meet the Folk, and everybody except for Peter and Wang-mu volunteered. Sergeant suggested they bring armaments but Ender discouraged it, and Jane said that the instant conflict occurred they would leave. Sprout asked why there were no Formics or Pequeninos at the meeting, and Jane explained that the Fathertrees and Hive Queens banned their children from going to Nest. Ela explained that they would address the Folk by explaining that they planned to leave Nest for good after the banquet, with the assurance that they would not add their world to any database or atlas. Sprout suggested that they bring breeding pairs of Keas and Ravens, and the rest said that if they wanted to come they could take them to the Lusitanian Colonies. Peter then demanded that they leave Sergeant behind due to his hostile nature, fearing an incident with the Folk, however Jane and the rest saw no reason to leave him. The group also noted Thulium was not present, and Jane expected to find her on Nest.[1]
The group then Detoured to a spot near the ocean on Nest. The Kea Royal Son greeted them and explained that he and other Keas would guide them to the Folk. The group came to a doorway built into a recessed place in a rocky cliff, and the door opened automatically. They entered into a room that turned out to be an elevator, and it lowered them down a long time. The elevator opened into a large room. The Folk made introductions to the adults of the group but ignored the children. Far back in the room they saw several highly elaborate chairs in the middle, one of which was occupied by Thulium. One of the Folk said that Thulium had brought her friends as promised, and asked her to introduce them to the Folk. As she listed their names, a spotlight shone on each one as though the Folk knew their names. The group was invited to sit down, but Sprout snuck over to Thulium and noticed that they had her face thickly caked with makeup that looked chalky, but noticed some bumps Thulium usually did not have. Sprout scraped away the layer of white, which fell off and uncovered dozens of small blisters, and a clear fluid had burst out of them. Sprout called out to Jane and showed her the blisters. A few Folk moved to try to intercept Jane, and some of what looked to be the Folk's highest officers looked cheerful, as if they had already won a war that wasn't supposed to start. Jane Detoured everybody back to the Q-Bay. Sprout and Jane talked to Thulium and she explained that she had gone yesterday to the Folk, and the blisters appeared that morning when she woke up. They began to examine the microorganisms to find out how to cure it.[1]
Miro told the group that Sprout had suggested that the biological weapon could be a plague on Nest that the Folk had become immune to, and they suggested getting a live sample to look at it. Carlotta used a scalpel to scrape an infinitesimally thin patch from the inside of her wrist. After 6 hours of examinations, it ended up looking like a parasite. Jane mentioned that the Hive Queen had requested to see Thulium before she died, and soon after Jane, Thulium, and Sprout had Detoured away. When they returned, Thulium apologized for her actions and Jane explained the cure to those in the room. Sprout was treated first and it was done in half an hour. Jane sent people out of the building as soon as their cure was complete.[1]
Ender and the others working on the project began testing how the Recorder virus found on Nest became the Descolada. As they began experiments, some could only be performed in computer simulations, as the Descolada was too virulent and too intelligent for experiments with the actual virus to be safe. They were able to confirm that each break would result in Descolada-like behaviors, but only when both were broken did the Recorder become Descolada. It was looking like the Recorder was deliberately turned into a bioweapon. Blue proposed that they put the Recorder in a vacuum chamber to test if it could survive in space. After the test, it seemed that in a vacuum, the Recorder would fold itself repeatedly like a fan. Instead of the break points in the Descolada being two among billions of genes, they were two among 88 genes exposed and weakened at the fold points. Thus, the group reasoned that the Descolada was due to radiation damage, and not a bioweapon.[1]
Everyone agreed that they needed to send a paper demonstrating the differences between Recorder and Descolada, how the Descolada on Lusitania was neutralized, and describing the behavior of Recorder in a vacuum. They put the names of the entire research team, including those of the Pequeninos who had worked with them. The Formics who had been part of the project had no names, and they could not reveal the existence of Formics anyway. Ela's name came first, as head of the team. Jane also asked Plikt and Valentine to write monographs that included accounts of the work of the Ribeira family and the Leguminids. Jane was never mentioned; nor was Detouring; and no account mentioned Nest. Jane declared the Descolada project to be at an end, as they had disseminated a course of action for any world that ran across a mutated Recorder virus.[1]
Afterward, the Leguminids had a meeting that was also attended by Miro. They realized that a normal world and education were off the table for them, as well as returning to the Herodotus, as it had already been claimed by Sergeant and the twins. Thulium said she intended to travel but would usually stay on Lusitania, and Miro said that he, Jane, Peter, and Wang-mu would stay there as well. Boss asked if they could stay at their building on Lusitania, and Miro agreed if Yuuto would pay for it. The rest of the Leguminids agreed to stay and live with the people of Lusitania. Ender and Mayumi bought a house on the planet where they lived with their children.[1]
Some time later, Wang-mu gave birth to her and Peter's son, Fei-Tzu Wiggin, and Ender and Mayumi would sometimes babysit for him.[1]