by Black, Jake
Poke was not a particularly smart crew leader, so Bean (who had been given his name by Poke and her crew member Sergeant) advised her to find a bully to protect the crew from other bullies. Poke found Achilles, who Bean knew would eventually kill Poke. However, Achilles was a smart, charismatic leader, and the crew fell in line behind him.
Bean was never truly accepted by Achilles. He knew that Achilles sought to kill him. In spite of this, Bean tried to help Achilles and the “family” gain food. He knew that his small stature would elicit compassion from the woman who ran the soup kitchen, and it did, granting Achilles’s family access to the front of the food line.
Since Achilles would not accept Bean, Bean convinced another bully to protect small children, which led to more food being available at the kitchen because supporters wanted to care for the children. This made Achilles angrier, so Bean hid in the city. In hiding, Bean overheard talk by a group of bullies who was planning to kill Achilles, so he raced to warn Achilles.
Achilles supposedly went into hiding. When Poke left the family late one night to find Achilles, Bean followed her. He witnessed Poke and Achilles kissing each other and discussing a promise Achilles had made to Poke. Bean ran away from them, but realized that the promise they’d been talking about was Achilles’s agreement not to kill Bean. Bean realized that Achilles would kill Poke instead.
He raced back to save Poke, but he was too late. Achilles had beaten her to death. Bean was devastated. Poke had given her life to save his. It was an act that would haunt Bean for the rest of his life.
Sister Carlotta told Bean about Battle School, and asked if he’d like to go. Bean said yes, warning that it was him or Achilles, but both could not go. He took the tests, and scored nearly perfect on them. Sister Carlotta tested him again, and the four-year-old Bean proved he was the most qualified Battle School student she’d ever seen.
Bean lived with Sister Carlotta, taking lessons in math, reading, and art from her. He shared with her his memories of hiding in the toilet at the “clean place.” He snuck out one night to find Pablo de Noches, and was unknowingly followed by Carlotta. Carlotta protected him from sex offenders and thugs, and when Bean found Pablo, she was there to take him back home but also to learn more about Bean’s past from Pablo. Pablo was not helpful, however, and Bean’s past remained shrouded in mystery.
It was time for Bean to go to Battle School. He was five years old and told himself that Sister Carlotta was untrustworthy. She had kept any information she’d learned from Pablo away from Bean, and he didn’t like that. He distanced himself from her, so that when he finally left, he would not miss her.
On his flight to space, Captain Dimak, the commander of the flight and a teacher at Battle School, exposed Bean’s remarkably high scores on all of the tests to the other children in his launch group. The children resented him, and Bean realized that he was out of place in this group just as he’d been with Achilles’s “family.”
Bean was annoyed at the mockery launchies endured, but was grateful that he was being picked on as it helped make him more a part of his launch group than he’d been on the journey into space.
He figured out that the school officials monitored the students through their clothes, and that food portions were exceptionally larger than he was used to. He decided to explore the school, finding himself on a deck he was not supposed to be on, and meeting other students like Dink Meeker and Petra Arkanian. Bean was annoyed with Petra’s apparent condescension at first, but soon became intrigued by her.
He also discovered the school’s duct system, and learned that he could fit inside it and be able to travel anywhere in the school unseen. Curious about constant comparisons to Ender Wiggin, Bean decided to learn more about Ender by speaking with Ender’s former commander, Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo spoke terribly of Ender, giving Bean a clear picture of Battle School politics. The games played at school, he realized, were designed to train soldiers in combat, but also to give them experience with incompetent commanders like Bonzo. Bean recognized that Battle School was just like living on the street with a crew. He knew how to play that game.
Bean knew that the teachers and administrators were always watching. In order to deceive them, to take control of his own situation, he set up an additional false identity, named for Poke, and wrote false diary entries that proclaimed love and respect for Achilles.
After several months at Battle School, Bean had begun the practice of hacking into fellow students’ computers. He was caught when a member of his launch group, Nikolai, informed the school administrators that his computer had been hacked. This led to a discussion between Bean and their group administrator, Dimak.
They discussed space battle strategy as well as Bean’s antisocial behavior. Bean pointed out many challenges of fighting battles in space. He expressed a theory that humanity had already sent a fleet into space to attack the Formic home world. Dimak denied it, but his profuse sweating confirmed the theory’s accuracy to Bean.
From the conversation with Dimak, Bean resolved to become more social. He befriended Nikolai, sharing with him the things he learned about Battle School from hacking into the computers and seeing the school’s maps. It made for a quick bond.
Bean continued his journeys through the ductwork, spying on Battle School faculty. He stole one teacher’s computer password and used it to obtain confidential information. He also witnessed a conversation between his supervisor Dimak and school commandant Hyrum Graff. Graff informed Dimak that Sister Carlotta feared that Bean’s intelligence and strange growth patterns had been the result of genetic manipulation in embryo. The fear Graff, Dimak, and apparently Sister Carlotta shared of a new species represented by Bean hurt the boy. But it also motivated him to become better than the best student at Battle School—better than Ender.
Using the stolen password, Bean studied the teacher’s evaluations of other students, focusing on Ender’s. Ender Wiggin became Bean’s obsession for several months. He watched and studied what Ender did. He met with Ender’s friends to learn about who he truly was. He learned from one of these friends, Shen, that Ender altruistically cared about others before himself. It was a concept foreign to him. He still couldn’t understand how Poke had given her life for him, or how Ender could care about others first.
One thing he learned from studying Ender and from the teacher’s evaluations was that there were several talented students who were being overlooked for promotion. They were a group of apparently average students. Bean knew that given the opportunity this group of students could excel above and beyond those students thought to be exceptional. All they needed was the perfect commander, who again was Ender.
Dimak and Graff recognized Bean’s talent as well as his obsession with Ender, and assigned him to make up a theoretical army for Ender to command, made up of launchies and students listed on other commanders’ transfer lists. Bean knew it was a real army, and assigned the students he’d studied through their profiles. He included himself on the list, as well as his only real friend, Nikolai.
When he assigned himself to Ender Wiggin’s Dragon Army, Bean was confident to the point of arrogance. He was quickly bored by Ender’s instructions regarding the enemy’s gate and using frozen legs in zero-gravity combat situations. Bean knew he was Ender’s best soldier, and made it clear on their first day together. Bean requested command of a toon, which Ender was hesitant to assign. Bean was loyal to Ender, even getting in a fistfight with toon leader Fly Molo over respect he felt Fly owed Ender.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Sister Carlotta discovered that the people who donated the fertilized embryo that grew to become Bean were named Julian and Elena Delphiki—Nikolai’s parents.
Bean was a very important part of Ender’s army, and the rest of Battle School recognized it. This was why Bonzo Madrid confronted Bean and warned him that he was going to kill Ender. Bean antagonized Bonzo further, but afterward felt guilty. He was sure he’d signed Ender’s death warrant and felt that he was reliving his past
with Poke. He felt responsible for Achilles killing her, and felt responsible for Bonzo’s threat.
Four weeks after Dragon Army had been created, after Bean had proven his value to the army by not getting frozen in battle and freezing nearly four dozen enemy soldiers, Ender gave Bean command of a toon. It was a special squadron of five soldiers—one from each toon in Dragon Army. Bean was ordered to hold special practices with them and teach them as many unique formations and attacks as he could.
Ender relied on Bean and confided in him that he was near his breaking point. Bean knew the officers could destroy Ender’s spirit, but nonetheless comforted Ender, reassuring him that he would come out on top.
Bean’s special squadron utilized a long ropelike supply used in space construction. It had been difficult for Bean to obtain it, arguing with Graff, Dimak, and another teacher, Dap, that he needed access to the storage closet. With that access eventually granted, Bean trained his special squad in using the rope as a tool in the nullgravity environment. He was disappointed that Nikolai refused to be in the squadron, but found a suitable replacement.
Bean also organized members of Dragon Army to be bodyguards for Ender when his life was threatened by Bonzo Madrid. Despite Bean’s best efforts to protect Ender, Bonzo found him alone, but Ender protected himself, killing Bonzo. Bean was glad Ender lived through the attack, but was angry he could not protect Ender himself. Bean made the decision to kill someone; that someone would have to be Achilles.
He showed such skill as a toon leader that he was assigned command of Rabbit Army. Although he was four years younger than the usual age of a commander, Bean’s army accepted him. The first soldier to embrace him as a leader was Itú. However, one of his soldiers was a new launchy—Achilles Flandres from Rotterdam.
Bean was certain that Achilles had a renewed desire to kill him. Yet, after his experience following Ender in Dragon Army, he knew how to command respect and utilize authority. He gave Achilles specific orders, refusing to tolerate Achilles’s stories of their time in Rotterdam. Bean assigned Achilles to Ambul’s toon, making clear the level of obedience he expected from his new soldier and renewed enemy.
Determined to make Achilles pay for Poke’s murder, he, with the help of some of his toon leaders, laid a trap for Achilles. They lured Achilles into the duct system, and tied him up with deadline—Bean’s chosen tool in the Battle Room. There Achilles would suffer from the heat in the ductwork and dehydrate to death. Unless he confessed on a recorder that he’d killed Poke and six others. Achilles confessed and was kicked out of Battle School for it. But he swore a new murderous vengeance against Bean.
After a week in command of Rabbit Army, and five losses in the battles, Bean was promoted to go to Tactical School. He was replaced in his army by Nikolai. As he traveled to Tactical School, Bean wrote letters to political analysts Locke and Demosthenes, telling them that Battle School should be shut down. The children at Battle School, he knew, would end up fighting in the world conflict that developed between the Russians, Muslim nations, China, and North America after the Formic War.
He studied at Tactical School for a week when another unexpected and perhaps premature promotion came. Bean was sent to Command School, where he served as one of Ender’s squadron leaders in the simulator/exams, later revealed to be real battles. They communicated by radio.
During his time at Command School, Bean figured out that the simulators were real battles, and that the International Fleet had the ability to communicate ship to ship at light speed. He forced himself to disbelieve this, however, so as to allow himself to emotionally disconnect from the deaths that occurred in the simulators.
Also at Command School, Bean became friends with Petra Arkanian. They distrusted each other at first, but soon built a deep mutual respect between them. Around this same time, during a conversation with Graff (who had been reassigned to Command School), Bean learned his true parentage and true name. He was Julian Delphiki II, son of Julian and Elena Delphiki of Greece. And his brother was Nikolai—the truest friend he’d ever had.
Bean had been told that he was the backup plan if Ender snapped and was unable to complete his final simulator. He was ready to fulfill that obligation if need be.
When the final Command School simulation was played, Ender had been struggling with severe emotional trauma. It was Bean who eased his nerves by reminding Ender “The enemy’s gate is down,” a command Ender had impressed on Bean and the others in Dragon Army at Battle School. However, Bean realized he didn’t have a strategy if Ender snapped. The point was moot, however, as Ender led the fleet to victory.
Following Ender’s victory, war did break out on Earth. Graff protected Bean from being captured and used by either of Earth’s factions. The conflict did not last long, though, and Bean was one of Ender’s friends who told him that the war had ended thanks to something called the “Locke Proposal.”
Bean returned to Earth and was adopted by his biological parents, the Delphikis. The new family went on a vacation together, but were attacked. Their holiday house was bombed, and it was clear that their lives were in jeopardy.
They were rescued by Greek soldiers, and from them Bean learned that ten of his friends, including Petra, were kidnapped. He thought that Achilles was mounting a war against the world, but couldn’t be sure.
After a few weeks of living with his family in a small apartment under the protective guard of the Greek Army, Bean was ready to move on. He wanted to leave his family for their own protection and search for Petra and the others. When Graff and Sister Carlotta showed up at their hiding place and took the family to another undisclosed locale, it appeared that he might get his chance to do just that.
However, it was not exactly to be. Graff planned to take the rest of the Delphiki family further into hiding, while Bean would travel with Sister Carlotta. He didn’t know what she had in mind, but he went along with the plan, if only to protect his new family. He wanted to find his friends and beat Achilles.
They traveled to Brazil where they kept on top of world matters through the nets and e-mail. They used a series of servers to hide their location and were successful in remaining hidden.
Bean loved to get out of their hiding place and go outside. With his training from Battle School and experience as a streetwise child in Rotterdam, he was safe. He knew that he was protecting Sister Carlotta just as much as she was watching over him.
One day, in looking at their e-mail messages, Bean and Carlotta came across a picture of a dragon. Bean thought it might be a signal from his captive colleagues. He stayed up all night decoding it and determined that it had been secretly sent by Petra Arkanian, disclosing her location in Russia.
Knowing Peter Wiggin could arrange for military rescue operations for Petra and company, Bean sent the information to him. Peter acted swiftly in his secret identity, Locke, and set in motion a rescue mission. The mission was successful, for the most part, though Petra remained in Achilles’s custody.
Bean realized, in the course of this discovery, that he had deep feelings of affection and friendship for Petra. He promised himself he would do whatever he had to in order to protect and save her. She would not, he swore, become another Poke.
In response to Bean’s aid in freeing the kidnapped soldiers, Peter Wiggin contacted Sister Carlotta and Bean, hoping for a meeting with them. They did not respond via e-mail, but rather together left for Peter’s hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina.
It was Bean’s first visit to America, and he was awestruck by the nation’s apparent wealth and the unnecessary waste and extravagance that he witnessed there. With Carlotta, he went to Peter’s university, and met the young man at a nearby restaurant. There Bean and Peter snipped at each other, verbally sparring to prove their own superiority.
Bean left his “grandmother” Carlotta and Peter and looked around Greensboro. He wanted to see Ender’s family’s house, and there he met Ender’s mother Theresa. She knew who he was, and she took him into her home.
The two spoke frankly with one another, and Bean learned much about Theresa and her husband’s goals for their children. They missed Ender and Valentine, who had gone into space never to return, but also were secretly proud of Peter. They knew that he was Locke, but pretended not to. Though Theresa at times felt that Bean was condescendingly judging or condemning her, she shared some of the most intimate details of her life with him. Particularly, she told him how much she loved her children and longed for Peter to have kids of his own. Bean was struck by that, believing that he himself would never have children, either.
As they concluded their conversation, Sister Carlotta and Peter arrived at the house. Peter introduced Carlotta as a traveler, but Theresa revealed that Bean had exposed his true identity to her already. Nonetheless, Theresa invited Bean and Carlotta to join her family for dinner, and they went to a nearby restaurant.
At dinner, Bean and Sister Carlotta planted a seed in Peter, hoping that he would join them in their travels-in-hiding. As they discussed it more later in private, Bean helped the trio come up with a plan that would set Peter on his path of political dominance, as well as prevent Achilles from exposing Peter’s identity as Locke.
Bean simply wanted to find and rescue Petra, but knew that to do that he had to align himself with Peter. It was why he visited Theresa—to learn if Peter was trustworthy. In the process, he determined that he knew he had to trust Peter regardless and be his best general as he launched his rise to power in the world.
As Peter revealed his true identity to the world, Bean and Sister Carlotta traveled to Thailand. There they’d been promised a group of soldiers to command, and access to all intelligence related to Achilles and Petra. They got none. Bean spent much of his time posting secret notes to Petra on the computer forums, but she never replied. He was unsure if she was even alive.
He was also growing. It seemed that every day he was another centimeter taller. He outgrew clothing almost faster than he could replace it. Bean was rapidly becoming a giant, and it was a strange sensation. He’d been the smaller-than-average kid at Battle School; now he was growing larger and faster than normal.