The Herodotus as seen on the cover of Shadows in Flight.
The Herodotus was a starship launched from Earth in 8 AX.[1]
Description[]
The ship carried two smaller scout ships that could launch from it, nicknamed The Puppy and The Hound by the crew. There was a library, and a massive hanger where Bean stayed due to his large size.[1]
History[]
Shadow of the Giant[]
The Herodotus was sent out so Bean and his children would still be alive when a cure for Anton's Key was discovered.[1]
Shadows in Flight[]
The voyage lasted 421 years, but only 5 years passed for its passengers. During this time, Bean was looking for a habitable planet where his children might live and have children of their own. When he found the planet, he shut off communication with Starways Congress and changed the trajectory of the Herodotus to intercept the planet.[1]
As they approached the planet, however, the crew noticed that an alien ship was also approaching the planet. This was the Formic Ark, a generation ship carved from an asteroid that left to colonize the planet hundreds of years before the Xenocide. Eventually the Herodotus got close enough to the ship for Bean's children to venture out in The Hound to investigate the Formics.[1]
After the Formic drones showed Bean's children how to rid themselves of the giantism of Anton's Key, they made plans to return to the Herodotus and colonize the planet with the artificial wombs it had aboard.[1] For some reason, the Delphiki children abandoned this plan and left the planet, continuing their interstellar journey.[2]
The Last Shadow[]
Around 3165 AX, the Delphikis aboard the Herodotus landed on the planet Nokonoshima. There, Ender Delphiki married a woman named Mayumi, Carlotta Delphiki married a man named Yuuto, and Cincinnatus Delphiki married a woman named Airi. They remained on the planet for 4 years, as it took awhile for Carlotta to find a spouse. The families all had several children. 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.[2]
In 3180 AX, after the hologram of Hyrum Graff informed the Delphikis about the Descolada problem on Lusitania, Jane teleported the entire family (minus the parents, who were sent back to Nokonoshima) to Lusitania, and the Herodotus was teleported into orbit around the planet.[2]
Crew[]
- Julian Delphiki Jr. (deceased)
- Bella "Carlotta" Delphiki (formerly)
- Andrew "Ender" Delphiki (formerly)
- Cincinnatus Delphiki
- Petra 'Little Mum' Delphiki (formerly)
- Mazer 'Boss' Delphiki (formerly)
- Dysprosium Delphiki
- Lanthanum Delphiki
- Brussels 'Sprout' Delphiki (formerly)
- Delft 'Blue' Delphiki (formerly)
- Thulium Delphiki (formerly)
Trivia[]
- The ship was named after the Greek historian Herodotus, who is known as the "Father of History", likely due to his quote "Happiness . . . never abides long in one place", referencing the relativistic journey that the ship went on.[3]