by Black, Jake
After weeks of not getting anything he’d been promised, Bean tried to test the patience of the Thai military leadership. To protect Sister Carlotta, he sent her away. She left for Madrid. But before she left, she and Bean had a little fight. Peter had told Bean that Carlotta had written some memos about Bean before he went to Battle School. She’d never told him about the memos and refused to share their content with him. It was a touchy subject between the two of them.
When Carlotta left, Bean sent a message to the leader of the Thai military speaking about strategic matters. The message was intercepted by the military leader assigned to take care of Bean, a young man named Suriyawong, who was a Battle School graduate and a smart soldier. He met with Bean, and though he didn’t trust him at first, saw that Bean was not a threat to his position in the Thai military.
Suriyawong gave Bean a group of soldiers to train, and maps. He did not share much intelligence, though. This was not a huge problem for Bean, however, as Graff and Sister Carlotta kept him up to speed on world affairs.
After six months of training his troops, Graff told him that the Indian and Pakistani armies had pulled their troops back from their shared border and appeared to be working together.
Graff also told him that Achilles and Petra had orchestrated the withdrawals. Bean refused to believe that Petra had sided with Achilles and determined that she was giving him solid military advice that Achilles was ignoring.
It was clear to Bean that the troop withdrawals were the preliminary steps to an Achillesled Indian invasion of Asia. He was proven correct days later as India invaded Burma. With this knowledge in hand, Bean approached the leader of the Thai military, the Chakri, and learned that the Thai military would not act until they were directly threatened.
With Suriyawong, Bean returned to his barracks. It suddenly hit him that the Chakri was in cahoots with Achilles, and there was an imminent threat on his life and Suriyawong’s. The two Battle Schoolers escaped from the barracks just as it was bombed.
Bean and Suriyawong called upon the soldiers Bean had been training to protect them. The Chakri had represented that Indian spies had killed Bean and Suriyawong, and their deaths would not go unavenged. Bean got a message to Graff, Peter, and Carlotta that explained what really had happened. The Chakri resigned from his post, caught in his nefarious scheme, and the Thai Prime Minister took Bean into protective custody.
It was time to find Achilles and rescue Petra. And Sister Carlotta was on her way back.
Bean went with Suriyawong first to dinner and then to the airport to greet Sister Carlotta. They learned there that her plane had been shot down over China, and there were no survivors. It had been Achilles who ordered the plane brought down. Bean was crushed to learn that Sister Carlotta was dead. He cried, and returned to the prime minister’s home where he was allowed to grieve in private.
He soon received an e-mail that Sister Carlotta had asked Hyrum Graff and Peter Wiggin to forward to Bean if they’d lost contact somehow. It contained the content of the memos that had been such a touchy issue in their relationship.
The memos and this e-mail told Bean about his genetic manipulation and the turning of Anton’s Key. This manipulation had made Bean brilliant, but also accelerated his physical growth. As a result, Carlotta said, Bean would die young.
Bean took the message as fact, particularly in light of his continual growth. He mourned privately, quietly for his beloved Sister Carlotta. She had been a mother to him, and he already missed her terribly. He would not seek vengeance for Sister Carlotta, as she asked him not to in the e-mail. But he would ensure that Achilles was stopped, no matter the cost.
He learned that the missile that shot down Carlotta’s plane had been fired from China, and that Achilles was actually working with the Chinese to take over Asia. His actions in India were a cover to subvert that nation and Pakistan, preparing them for Chinese rule. Bean tried to tell the Thai government this, but they doubted him.
With his small squadron and the support of a lone Thai general, Bean went to India on the offensive. It was his goal to rescue Petra. He found Virlomi, an Indian Battle School grad who replied to Bean’s forum posting looking for Petra. She gave Bean the intelligence he needed to mount a rescue operation for his friend.
They began the mission, and gave orders to kill Achilles as well. He rescinded the order to kill Achilles, though, upon confronting him. Achilles held Petra hostage, and Bean used Achilles’s Chinese military allies against him. The Chinese had orders to return Achilles to China and brokered a deal with Bean that allowed Petra to go free and let them still obey their orders. The deal was kept, and Bean rescued Petra, though Achilles lived.
Bean was given the high-ranking position of Strategos in the new Hegemony led by Peter Wiggin. Though Bean and Peter still didn’t see eye to eye, they agreed that they could work together. The Delphiki family moved to Brazil to be at the center of the Hegemony.
In memory of Poke and Sister Carlotta, Bean set up memorials to them outside of the Hegemony’s compound. It was there that he and Petra spoke about the future. Petra told Bean that she wanted to have his children, while Bean, concerned that his children would suffer the same genetic manipulation he had, said he would never have children.
He was growing still and was nearly a fully grown adult, in size anyway, though he was barely a teenager. The disease he’d been given genetically continued to prey upon him, and it frightened and angered him.
Over the next several months, Bean grew very tall and large in stature. He towered over the small army Peter Wiggin had assigned him in the Hegemony. He trained the soldiers well and was preparing to take them on a mission to free a prisoner in China from a convoy.
The prisoner was Achilles, and Peter wisely took Bean off the mission, assigning it to Suriyawong instead. Achilles was to come to the Hegemony compound. The move infuriated Bean, who resigned from his position in the Hegemony. With Petra, he went back into hiding underground, using fake IDs to travel the world.
Petra continuously made overtures to Bean to marry him or to be the mother of his children. Bean adamantly refused her advances. She was able to at least convince him to kiss her. He did have tender feelings for her, but was not willing to bring more lives into the world that would suffer the same fate he did.
They traveled to Poland where Bean contacted one of his former Battle School soldiers, Ambul. Bean asked Ambul to go to Damascus and seek the help of another former Battle Schooler, Alai, who had ascended to a high position within the powerful Muslim League. Bean knew that if he could get Alai’s help, he could finally defeat Achilles. It would be tricky to convince Alai, but Bean knew Ambul would be up to the task.
As they waited for word from Damascus, Petra convinced Bean to visit Anton, the scientist who had developed the gene manipulation that controlled Bean. He reluctantly agreed.
Anton spent much of their time together trying to convince Bean to settle down with Petra and have a family with her. It was the key to not dying lonely or depressed. Bean refused to believe this and tried arguing that he needed to stop Achilles. Having a family would interfere with that.
His arguments were in vain, however. As he spoke with Anton and Petra, Bean realized that he loved Petra and agreed to marry her and give her the children she wanted. But, he had a condition: he would only do so if the children could be born without the genetic mutation that had caused his growth and intelligence. Anton said that Volescu, the doctor who had created Bean in the first place, could ensure the request. Bean and Petra began efforts to find Volescu. They become engaged and were happy that they were in love.
They were married in Spain and honeymooned for a week in the islands of the Mediterranean. They made their way to Rotterdam, Bean’s hometown, to meet with Volescu. Volescu agreed to determine if any of their embryos had Bean’s mutation, but Petra was suspicious. She realized that there was no test for that. She changed their plans with Volescu, stating that he would test the embryos, but they would
go elsewhere for implantation. Bean arranged for security to watch over Petra and the embryos every step of the way.
Bean and Volescu destroyed the “tainted” embryos together. The newlyweds took the remaining embryos to the nearby women’s clinic for implantation. Along the way, Bean showed Petra many of the important landmarks from his Rotterdam childhood. It was an emotional experience, particularly when he returned to the site of Poke’s murder.
As they prepared for implantation, Bean received a message from his Battle School colleague Han Tzu, informing him that Achilles had arranged for his own release from China, and that Peter Wiggin was playing right into his hands. Bean passed the message on to Peter’s parents in Brazil.
Petra and Bean decided that once the implantation had taken place, they would need to leave Rotterdam separately. They made plans to reconnect a week later. Before they could part, though, the plans changed once again.
Walking out of the women’s clinic, Bean placed Petra in a cab driven by an Indonesian driver. He did not trust the Dutch taxi drivers. It was a smart move, as the Dutch drivers were working with Volescu and Achilles to steal all of the embryos, and possibly kill Bean.
Bean escaped from his Dutch cab with the aid of some other Indonesian soldiers. From them he learned that Alai had sent them to rescue Petra and Bean. Petra was safely on the road to Damascus.
Through this conversation, Bean also realized that Volescu didn’t know which embryos had the mutation and which didn’t. He realized that as many as eight of their embryos were stolen, and could potentially grow to be humans like him—with the intelligence and size that resulted from his genetic mutation.
Traveling to Damascus, Bean realized that he loved Achilles, and had since they were children on the streets of Rotterdam. He felt that he had gone about defeating Achilles the wrong way—he’d been too reactionary, and tried too hard to avoid him. What he needed to do was directly confront him.
He arrived at Damascus, and met briefly with Alai, who had become the Caliph for the entire Muslim world. He was reunited with Petra and tried to comfort her in her hopelessness at the loss of the embryos. Bean promised his wife that he would find the embryos in time for Petra to give birth to the child she carried from the implantation.
Over the next several months, Bean and Petra stayed with Alai in his compound. They both acted as advisers to Alai and his Muslim military leaders. They helped plan a Muslim invasion of China, hoping to free the captive Muslim peoples of Asia. Alai trusted Bean, though he accused Bean of leaking information about the military’s movements and plans to Peter Wiggin, or worse, Achilles. Bean was able to convince Alai that he was not the source of the leak, however, and their mutual trust resumed.
Bean and Alai consulted with each other frequently during the first stages of Alai’s Asian liberation. Alai was worried things were going too well, since the Chinese hadn’t acknowledged any kind of invasion or strike. Bean and Petra told him everything was good and helped him find the confidence to lead his people.
Having done all they could for Alai, Bean and Petra left his compound to resume their search for their embryos. They went to a restaurant where they saw Alai make his first televised speech as Caliph. They were pleased for him and were certain that his armies would be successful.
Both Bean and Alai hoped they would never be on opposite sides in a war, as they had sadly been with their Battle School colleague Han Tzu, who was a leader in China.
The search for the embryos appeared potentially short-lived as Achilles posted an online auction for them to bait Bean to face him in Brazil. Bean took the bait, but not unprepared. He traveled to the Hegemony compound in Brazil with Peter Wiggin and several bodyguards. There he confronted Achilles.
Achilles pretended that he had the embryos. He tried to blow up Bean. When that didn’t work, he tried preying on Bean’s emotions about the embryos, which he still did not have, but had implanted in other surrogates. Bean remained cool and calm. He killed Achilles with a bullet to the brain. He didn’t feel satisfaction through the kill, but had a sense of justice for Poke and Sister Carlotta, who had died at Achilles’s hands.
Petra rejoined him in Brazil a short time later, and they moved into a small house where they would raise their child once it was born. They also began scouring the Earth searching for the embryos and their surrogates.
A few weeks after Achilles’s death, Bean was confronted by Mazer Rack-ham, the soldier who had trained Ender. Mazer was secretly working with Graff in the Ministry of Colonization and had an offer for Bean: take a newly designed starship and go into space with his children, traveling at light speed. This would allow him to exist at relativistic time, while years passed on Earth, and a cure for his manipulation could be found.
Bean considered this, knowing that the International Fleet would not make such an offer altruistically. He was right. In exchange for the ship, they expected him to aid Peter Wiggin in his assertion of world dominance. Bean believed that Peter wouldn’t listen to him, but Rackham promised the ship if Bean at least tried. To preserve his family, and perhaps his own life, Bean agreed.
Rackham also promised to provide Bean with the intelligence the International Fleet had on Volescu’s whereabouts. Bean would be able to ask the doctor himself about the location of his embryos.
Before heading out to find Volescu, Bean and Petra watched a televised statement made by Virlomi, who had become a virtual goddess among the Indian people. She declared war on the Muslim occupiers under the direction of Alai. It was her plan, Bean told Peter Wiggin, to marry either Alai or Han Tzu, the Emperor of China, and declare war on the other. Bean helped Peter develop a strategy for this impending war.
He and Petra traveled to Rwanda where Volescu was hiding. The doctor had developed a weapon that would pass on Bean’s genetic mutation to all future generations of humanity. Bean nearly killed Volescu, but Petra stopped him. They called in Anton to study what Volescu had done.
He was by Petra’s side when their first son, Andrew Arkanian Delphiki (whom they would call Ender), was born two months early. Bean told Petra of the ship and the relativistic travel that would allow him to live while a cure was searched for the genetic mutation. Little Ender also had the mutation, and so Petra insisted that she travel to space with Bean and their children. Bean agreed, but had second thoughts later.
While thinking about his future, Bean realized that Peter was embezzling Ender Wiggin’s pension for his own purposes. After speaking with Theresa Wiggin and Hyrum Graff, Bean convinced the Ministry of Colonization to use the Mind Game (aka, the Giant’s Drink) from Battle School as an investment counselor for Ender’s money. This computer program had a level of sentience, and could use the money extremely well. Bean never knew that this decision led to the creation of Jane, who would become Ender’s dearest companion during his journeys in space.
He also asked that the program be used to help find his embryos. In the midst of this, Peter assigned Bean to Rwanda to lead that nation’s armies. The Rwandan leader, Felix Starman, requested Bean in exchange for ratifying the constitution Peter had written to unify the countries that followed him as Hegemon.
Bean and Petra, with son Ender, would go to Rwanda together. But Petra was not there long. She left for Portugal to retrieve one of the embryos Graff had tracked as being their daughter, named Bella.
Meanwhile, Bean trained the Rwandan army, and led the troops in combat against nations that were attacking people who had ratified Peter Wiggin’s constitution. He had created a confederation of nations—made up of people, not governments—called the “Free People of Earth.” With Bean’s brilliant use of the militaries within the Hegemony, the Free People of Earth was continually expanding.
Bean traveled to the Philippines where another of his embryos had been born. This one, a boy named Ramón, was free of the genetic mutation. While there, looking for his son, Bean was invited to attend a meeting with the rest of Ender’s Command School mates.
Graff again off
ered 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.
Petra and Bean traveled to her home country of Armenia, staying with Petra’s parents, to negotiate Armenian entry into the Free People of Earth. Though the Armenians wanted to join the world government, they were concerned about invasion from their neighbors. Bean reassured them they’d be protected by the Free People of Earth (FPE) military.
Bean cared for his babies. He was a tender father despite his massive size. It was apparent to Petra’s parents that he loved the children and Petra very much.
As the wars between China, India, and Russia began, Bean organized strikes with the armies of the FPE. His involvement with these armies was cut short, however, as a deal was made with Peter Wiggin and Mazer Rackham to allow Bean to take his mutated babies into space. Mazer tracked down the remaining embryos, save one, and delivered them to Petra and Bean. Three of their children had the mutation, while five did not. One was still missing.
Bean divorced Petra immediately upon finding these children, and put a plan in motion where he would fake his death in Iran and leave for space. He wanted Petra, who was furious with him for divorcing her and leaving her with five babies to raise, to remarry.
Though deeply saddened at having to leave Earth and never see Petra again, Bean knew it was for the best. He made sure his pension would be given to her to raise their children and asked that he and the three babies he was taking with him not be called back to Earth until after Petra died so she would not have to face him again.
