The Authorized Ender Companion (34 page)

In the middle of their studies of the response, Jane figured out how to travel through Outspace and returned the travelers to Lusitania. Quara was angry that they’d been given no warning and got into a physical confrontation with Jane, which Jane easily won. Jane felt bad about shoving Quara to the ground, but Miro theorized that throughout her life, Quara longed to be abused. She had loved her father Marcão and thought that love was shown through abuse, since he’d been so abusive to her mother. Jane didn’t want to show Quara such “love,” knowing that in her heart, Quara didn’t really want that either.

As the Lusitanian destruction fleet drew near, Quara and her comrades returned to the descoladore planet. They figured out that the message the descoladore had sent them was a deadly heroinlike molecule.

Jane saved the ship and crew by instantly moving them to the other side of the planet. Quara decided that the descoladore needed to be eliminated and wanted to use the Molecular Detachment Device on their planet, just as it was supposed to have been used on hers.

The deadly weapon had not been used on her home world, however, thanks to the efforts of Peter Wiggin II and Si Wang-mu. They appeared on Quara’s ship and dissuaded everyone but her from using the so-called “Little Doctor” on the descoladore. It was Peter II’s hope, and Ender’s since he carried Ender’s soul within him, that the device never be used again. He wanted humanity to learn about the descoladore and hopefully build a relationship with them.

He knew that this would never be accomplished as long as Quara and her angry, hateful self was present. She was incredibly hurt by this and hated Peter II and Wang-mu for it.

After the small group returned to Lusitania, Wang-mu tried to befriend Quara. Quara would have none of it, saying hateful, cruel things to Wang-mu
before walking out on her. Wang-mu hoped they’d be able to come to some sort of understanding but knew it would take many years.

Ribeira von Hesse, Marcos Vladimir “Miro I” (SD, XN)

The son of Novinha and Libo, Miro grew up believing that a man named Marcão was his father.

Miro had become a xenologist on Lusitania, building strong relationships with the native life-forms, the pequeninos. He visited them regularly and studied their culture. He had a close, loving relationship with his fellow xenologist Ouanda. The two had fallen in love as their parents—Libo and Novinha—had decades earlier. Miro did not know that he and Ouanda shared a father in Libo.

During Ender’s first visit to the Ribeira household, Miro was at first cold to the Speaker, but warmed up and was eventually the most cordial member of the family toward Ender. He was frankly honest about Marcão’s abusive actions, and said he might even allow Ender access to the pequeninos.

This issue was a matter of dissension between Ouanda and Miro. Miro had previously introduced the pequeninos to the original Speaker for the Dead’s writings, and the pequeninos wanted the Speaker to visit them. Ouanda didn’t think it was a good idea.

When Jane, Ender’s sentient computer program, felt spurned by Ender, she sent out an unsigned memo to the interplanetary computer networks stating that Miro and Ouanda had broken the interstellar law and taught the piggies agriculture. They were required to report to the nearest planet to face an inquiry into their criminal action.

Not knowing about the arrest warrant, Miro and Ouanda had a public argument in front of the piggies about bringing the Speaker to them. In the course of this argument, they realized that if they did not bring Ender to speak with the piggies, their pequenino friend Human could be killed.

Miro and Ouanda took Ender to speak with the piggies. In observing the brief conversation they had, Miro learned that Ender was not only the original Speaker for the Dead, but also Ender the Xenocide. Though he doubted the veracity of the piggies’ claims, a seed of belief was planted in him.

He also learned much about the piggies that he’d not been able to realize before—such as that they felt remorse for causing Pipo and Libo pain, and that they hadn’t intended to hurt them. He was invited to participate in their ritual of sacrificing a tree to build a house and arrows. And he learned that the pequeninos longed to leave the planet and explore the stars, feeling that they needed the Hive Queen to do so.

Miro attended the Speaking for his father, Marcão, and was saddened to learn that he was not his real father. It was there that he learned of his true parentage, and that Ouanda was his sister.

Following the Speaking, Ender learned of the call for Miro’s arrest. He forbade Miro from going to Trondheim to answer the accusations, and instead planned a rebellion against the Starways Congress.

Miro learned of the arrest warrant when he went back to the pequeninos, and was denied access to the fence that protected the native animals. He chose to climb the fence to get to them, resulting in serious, life-threatening injuries. Mandachuva, one of the piggies, raced to get help for Miro, bringing back Ender, Ouanda, and the leaders of the colony.

Miro was taken back to his mother’s home to heal from his injuries. The damage to his nerves was severe, and he could not talk, and had very limited use of his hands. Despite these new handicaps, and with Olhado’s help, Miro told his mother and siblings that the piggies were planning to make war on the other tribes of pequeninos. Novinha took this message to Ender, who was making a treaty with the piggies.

After a few weeks, Miro recovered from his injuries. He was able to walk and talk, but with limited capacity. He avoided Ouanda, feeling pain that she was his sister. But he read her files closely tracking the progress in piggie research. He found he had access to all of her work, even the confidential parts. This had been given to him by Jane, Ender’s sentient computer program. Jane had taken a liking to Miro, and the two became fast friends.

Miro felt that he had to leave Lusitania, and so Ender and Jane arranged for him to take Ender’s spaceship into space to meet Valentine, Ender’s sister, who was heading toward Lusitania herself to protect the planet from the Starways Congress’s planned xenocide.

Though it only seemed like a few weeks to Miro, nearly thirty years had passed on Lusitania by the time he rendezvoused with Valentine in space. Their meeting was confrontational at first. Both Miro and Valentine were defensive of their perspectives on how to best serve humanity and Lusitania.

During his travel, Miro determined that since the Descolada virus had mutated/evolved and was again threatening the planet, perhaps the Starways Congress was correct in wanting to destroy it entirely. Valentine disagreed, seeking to preserve all life on the planet.

Valentine was patient with Miro’s speech impediments, which endeared her to him somewhat. She and her husband Jakt moved from their ship to his, which took them the rest of the way back to Lusitania.

During this portion of the voyage, Miro and Jane taught Valentine, Jakt,
and Plikt the ideas of the Philotic Web—the foundation of life, matter, and communication. Jane also revealed herself to the travelers and stated that she could save Lusitania from destruction but at the cost of her own philotic-based existence.

Miro was devastated and pleaded with her to find a way to stop the invasion fleet from destroying his home world and save her own life. He felt that he couldn’t bear to lose her as she’d become his closest friend and confidant. Jane agreed to try, but the idea of her death was still a heavy burden to Miro. He cried that night, being consoled in Valentine’s arms.

Upon his return to Lusitania, his full-blooded siblings greeted him. Ouanda and Libo’s other children were not there, and Miro missed them. His journey into space had felt like a month to him; but because of the effects of relativistic space travel, it had been nearly thirty years on Lusitania. All of his family were older than he now. The age difference created some awkwardness between them and him.

Almost immediately after landing, Miro, Ender, Plikt, and Valentine went to the Formic Hive Queen’s lair, near the piggie land. The Hive Queen was busy creating spaceships to take the piggies off the planet, escaping the impending xenocide. She communicated mind to mind with everyone except Miro, which was thought to be because he did not have the necessary emotional relationship Ender and the others did—a prerequisite to such philotic communication.

He was hurt by the lack of communication and sad that the piggies he’d grown to love were seeking to leave their home world. He was so upset after the visit to the Hive Queen that he did not want to attend mass with his family. He ended up going, though, because he felt too restless at home and needed to do something.

At mass, he ran into Ouanda for the first time since he returned to the planet. He spoke only briefly to her, being disconcerted because of her age. He ran out of the cathedral and to the pequenino land where he met up with Quim, who had been holding mass there for the piggies.

The two brothers fought at first, but reconciled quickly. Miro grew concerned because Quim had decided to travel to unsettled piggie areas, preaching the gospel. Miro was sure his brother would be killed.

Miro learned his brother had been killed by a message Ender sent him through Jane. He was supposed to inform his family, and so he had them gather in the family home to tell them all together.

When he did tell his family, Novinha angrily slapped him and sent him away. Miro went out into the night, finding himself at the pequenino forest,
finding solace in his friends the piggies. The fathertrees told him that they would punish Warmaker, the fathertree who had killed Quim.

He hoped this news would pacify the angry, vengeful citizens who sought justice for Quim. It did not. They rioted and burned much of the piggies’ home forest. They killed several pequeninos in the process. Miro stood in their way before they could kill the fathertrees, Rooter and Human. With the help of his brother Grego (who had incited the riot in the first place), Miro helped disperse the mob.

He witnessed the arrival of the reborn Formics who were sent by Ender via the Hive Queen to protect the pequeninos from the humans, and rejoined Ouanda as she studied the pequeninos’ rebuilding after the fire.

In the midst of a confrontational philosophical conversation with Ender, Miro and his stepfather theorized that Jane could be saved if they were able to locate her point of philotic origin. If all life was connected through the Philotic Web, Jane included, they thought that finding this point of origin held the key to preserving her life.

Embittered by the loss of Ouanda, and his physical state, Miro was terrified of losing Jane, too. His theorizing with Ender, though often in disagreement, was helpful in giving him hope that Jane would live. It was a rare glimpse of optimism, albeit skeptical optimism, Miro enjoyed.

Miro approached his sister Quara, who had been cut off from the lab, to ask for her help as they studied the Descolada and how to remove it from the pequeninos. He hoped she would agree in time to save their test subject Planter, a pequenino who had sacrificed himself for the good of science. She was hesitant, but through Miro’s apparent sincerity, agreed to think about it. She thanked him for not using Jane to hack into her files. Miro felt guilty for her gratitude as he had, in fact, done just that.

Quara went to see Planter and agreed to share the information she had on the Descolada with Miro and Ela. It wasn’t in time to save Planter, but it allowed the young scientists to develop a theoretical antivirus.

A few days later, Miro was chosen to go into space with Ela, Ender, and Jane. They were going to test Grego and Olhado’s theories about using Outspace to instantly travel between planets. The idea relied on calling philotes—the primary substance of life—and sending them home to their native dimension. Then, once there, the traveler would think of the philotic pattern of where he wanted to go, or of something he wanted to create, and the philotes would go there instantly. It required a powerful memory, though, to prevent one’s own philotes from dispersing.

Jane had such a powerful memory, and could maintain the philotic patterns
of some of the travelers. She needed Miro to be on the ship with her, however, because of the closeness that had developed over their years together. It would help her focus on the philotic patterns.

The travel required each traveler to focus on his own philotic pattern, too. The pattern Miro thought of, once inside the mysterious other dimension known as Outspace, was of his undamaged, younger self. Because that was the pattern he imagined, that new body was created, and his true philotic self leaped from his old damaged body to his new body, creating Miro II. The original body dissolved.

Ribeira von Hesse, Marcos Vladimir “Miro II” (XN, CM)

Miro II was a body created in the home dimension of the philotes—the spark of life. When Ender, Miro I, Ela, and Jane traveled to this dimension—known as Outspace—they were able to have their thoughts made real. They had to focus on their own bodies remaining real or the philotes would abandon them in Outspace, and the travelers would be killed.

Miro I, whose body had been irreparably damaged, imagined his younger self. Consequently, his philote jumped from his old damaged body to a new, younger, perfect one. The old body dissolved, and Miro II took over. Miro II had the same memories and the same experiences as Miro I, as the philote was analogous to being Miro’s soul. However, with his new body, he was a younger man in appearance and ability.

The Catholic leadership on Lusitania was concerned that Miro II had never been baptized. The new Miro consented to receive the sacrament, purifying himself in the eyes of the church.

With Valentine II, and in the newly built second ship, Miro explored the universe using Outspace for instantaneous travel. He searched for a suitable planet whereon the pequeninos and reborn Formics could live.

They found many new planets that could hold the creatures. On their journey, Miro fell a little in love with Valentine II. He was still loyal to Jane, but found his feelings growing for the young version of Ender’s sister.