by Black, Jake
He attended Ender’s Speaking, and also went to mass with his family and Ender. He had grown close to Ender, seeing in him a father figure unlike any he’d ever had.
Thirty years later, Grego, now in his mid-thirties, had become a reputable physicist. As he had through most of his life, Grego approached science from a devil’s advocate position, arguing the counterpoints to his siblings’ research and views.
He felt, contrary to his sisters, that the Descolada needed to be wiped out entirely, regardless of the cost to the native Lusitanian life that depended on it for life and reproduction. He had an us-versus-them mentality toward the virus, feeling that in order for humanity to survive, the disease had to go.
Grego was present when Miro returned from his thirty-year space mission, bringing Valentine Wiggin to Lusitania to help prevent the destruction of the planet. Grego, like the others, felt a bit of awkwardness as he’d aged three decades while Miro, due to the relativistic space travel he’d experienced, had not aged at all.
As the news that the piggies were planning to leave Lusitania to preserve the Descolada spread, Grego was called into a meeting with the leaders of the planet. He was chastised for having loose lips about the plans to eradicate the virus, and causing many problems within the colony.
Ever the rebel, Grego moved to walk out of the meeting, but was stopped by threats of being jailed. He slowly agreed to work with Ender and his family to figure out a way to move from planet to planet at faster-than-light speeds, in an effort to evacuate Lusitania if the need came up.
When his brother Quim was killed by the pequeninos, Grego escaped into drinking. The alcohol fueled bar fights and even led to a riot where several angry citizens burned a large portion of the piggies’ forest, killing many pequeninos. Grego tried to stop the mob he had incited, but lost control of it. He went to the forest as it burned and, with his brother Miro’s help, was able to disperse the angry mobocrats. But the damage had been done, and he was primarily responsible.
Grego was put in jail for sharing secrets he should not have, though he consented to imprisonment because of the great guilt he carried for his actions that led to the death of so many piggies.
From his jail cell, Grego continued his study of the mysterious Philotic Web, trying to figure out a way to travel at faster-than-light speed. Jane helped guide his research, as it was thought that such speed was the only way to preserve the sentient computer’s life.
He also conducted some rather controversial research from jail, searching for the point of origin for the philote that first housed Jane’s essence. Jane thought this was a waste of time, but Ender and Miro felt it was extremely important, and necessary, to saving Jane.
He was at times frustrated to tears over the difficulty of figuring out faster-than-light travel. But he was committed to it, nonetheless, working hard from his cell to find a way to make it possible.
After Ender learned the principles of philotic travel from their extradimensional home, Grego and his brother Olhado realized that the answer to faster-than-light travel was to call on the philotes they had inside of them—all life was based on philotes—and cross over to the philotes’ dimension. From there, they would think of the philotic pattern of their destination, and the philotes would take them there instantly. It was a phenomenal theory, one that Grego hoped to publish as a paper and use to get hired in a university away from Lusitania.
He was at first angry that he was not allowed to travel into space to test the theory, but only the minimum crew was. In this case it was Ender, Jane, Miro, and Ela as each had an integral part to play in the test.
The tests worked, though Ender accidentally created new, living versions of his siblings, Peter and Valentine. Grego was attracted to Peter II’s leadership and fanatical ideology. Ender was worried that Grego would become a disciple of Peter II’s, and tried to keep the two apart.
Freed from jail, Grego was among those of his siblings who asked Miro to try to convince Ender to leave the Children of the Mind of Christ abbey he’d joined with Novinha, and save their world.
When Ender unexpectedly died a few days later, Grego joined his mother and mourned with her at their home.
A few days later, he and Olhado learned that the Hive Queen and pequeninos had worked together to reestablish a computer network for Jane, spread through a few worlds and using old computers. They watched with great anticipation as Jane used the network to regain control of faster-than-light travel, which had been uncertain in recent days after Ender’s death.
Jane used this restored power to save Ender’s family members from the anticipated destruction of Lusitania. When the planet was not destroyed, Grego returned to his home world and attended Ender’s funeral service—a parting good-bye to his stepfather.
Ribeira von Hesse, Lauro Suleimão “Olhado” (SD, XN, CM)
Olhado, born on the planet Lusitania to Novinha and Libo, but raised by Marcão Ribeira, had lost his eyes in a laser accident. He had the ability to “see” through metal implants. He met Ender Wiggin when he arrived on Lusitania and led him to the Ribeira household. Though he was deceptive at first, he revealed his true identity to Ender, giving Ender a little smile, but also some cause for concern.
He took Ender to the Ribeira home, and in the course of that first visit, plugged his computerized eye into a terminal to show Ender a visual display of what his father Marcão was really like.
Using his computer skills, Olhado helped Ender learn how to access the Lusitanian computer systems and transfer money electronically. He was hurt when he learned that Ender used the system to look in on Olhado’s mother’s files, feeling that Ender had caused him to betray Novinha. He spent the next several days with his eyes turned off, listening to loud music.
His brother Quim mocked him for helping Ender, adding to the guilt he already felt. Their older sister Ela helped him feel better about helping Ender though, since their mother’s secrets had been one of the poisons in their family relationship.
He attended the Speaking for his father, Marcão, and there learned that he was not actually the father of his family. His real father had been a man named Libo, and his mother was an adulteress.
Olhado accompanied his mother into the forest when she had to deliver a message to Ender, who was negotiating a treaty with the pequeninos, the native life of Lusitania. Olhado used his eyes to record the signing of this treaty, and the performance of a pequenino ritual. In the ritual, Ender killed a piggie named Human, and planted a tree in him. This allowed Human to become a fathertree—the highest honor in pequenino society.
When Ender sought to give the Formic Hive Queen a place where she could come out of her cocoon, it was Olhado who drove him there, using his advanced eyes and superior skimmer driving techniques.
Over the thirty years that passed while the people of Lusitania waited for the fleet to arrive and destroy their planet, Olhado married and had several children. Though they were all born with natural eyes, they often showed their father’s distant expression.
Olhado and his family were present when his brother Miro returned from his space journey that brought Ender’s sister Valentine to Lusitania. Though only a month had passed for Miro, nearly three decades had for Olhado, thanks to relativistic space travel.
After learning of his brother Quim’s murder at the hands of the piggies, Olhado retired to his home and stayed with his wife and children. But, as he had often done when he wanted to escape from the world, he silently turned off his electronic eyes and stopped speaking with anyone.
His son Nimbo was among the members of the mob that sought revenge for Quim’s death by burning a large portion of the pequeninos’ home forest. Nimbo was hurt in the riot, but was saved by his uncles Miro and Grego.
Valentine Wiggin sought out Olhado when his brother Grego was locked in jail. Grego was frustrated, trying to figure out how to make faster-than-light travel possible. Valentine approached Olhado, a brick maker by trade, to see if he could provide any insight.
Olhado didn’t believe he could help in the scientific study, but Valentine asked him anyway. She felt he could see the world from a different perspective, and Grego would be able to channel those different thoughts into a new theory. Olhado agreed to try.
He also told Valentine what he thought about his family. He spoke tenderly of Ender, saying that he called Ender “father” when they were in private, and Ender reciprocated, calling Olhado “son.” Olhado said he learned how to be a father from Ender. The deep love shared semisecretly between her brother and his stepson moved Valentine to tears.
Olhado went to Grego and, using the things Ender learned from the Hive Queen a short time earlier about philotes and their existence in Outspace, helped his brother develop a theory of faster-than-light travel. Proudly Olhado and Grego theorized that if one could get the philotes that were in him—all life contained philotes—to return to their home dimension, then imagine the philotic pattern of his destination, a person could be taken there instantly, traveling like the philotes themselves. It would require a powerful memory to maintain one’s own philotic pattern and prevent it from dispersing.
Fortunately, Jane had just such a powerful memory. Grego gave Olhado all the credit publicly for the idea, but said he would put his own name on the papers that would be published presenting the theory to the galaxy. This was okay with Olhado, though, as he never felt like he was a scientist and was happy to be a brick maker on Lusitania for the rest of his life.
He was among his siblings when they asked Miro to convince Ender to leave the religious order he’d joined to be with Novinha and return to save their home world from the Starways Congress’s fleet.
A short time later, as Ender lay dying at the abbey where he’d joined Novinha, Olhado and his family joined their pequenino friend, Plower, for a picnic in the piggies’ land. They were eating when something unusual occurred with the mothertrees. They came to life and burst forth with beautiful fruit. Jane had been cut off from the computer networks that housed her, and her soul (or Auía) had traveled throughout the galaxy looking for a new place to dwell. It had chosen the mothertrees for a time, causing them to bring the fruit.
When Ender died a short time later, Olhado joined with his mother and brother Grego in mourning together at their childhood home. Olhado was particularly lonesome for Ender, having built a very close relationship with him.
With his brother Grego, Olhado watched as a pequenino scientist named Waterjumper and the Hive Queen reestablished a small computer network with a few worlds. This new network allowed Jane to restart faster-than-light travel.
Olhado knew that this form of travel was the last hope of Lusitania’s survival and was grateful for it because it meant his family, whom he loved so tenderly, could live. Jane used her abilities to first remove Olhado and his family from Lusitania as the destruction fleet came near. When the fleet did not kill the world, Olhado returned to Lusitania and attended Ender’s funeral service, saying his final good-bye to the man he considered his father.
Ribeira von Hesse, Lembrança das Milagres de Jesus “Quara” (SD, XN, CM)
Quara was the youngest of the Lusitania-born children of Novinha and Libo, and was raised by Novinha’s husband Marcão Ribeira. Following Marcão’s death, Quara did not speak to anyone outside of the family for months, breaking her silence to tell Ender that he stinks.
She took a shine to Ender, even visiting his home after school and boasting to him that she was especially talented at math.
During the Speaking for her father, Marcão, Quara expressed a hope that Ender would be her new dad. She was happy when Ender married Novinha.
Thirty years later, now a woman in her late thirties, Quara joined her family as one of the top scientists on Lusitania. She studied the deadly virus known as the Descolada, and felt that the disease was actually a living, sentient creature. While her siblings and mother had been developing ways to wipe out the virus—yet allowing for it to still perform its necessary functions in the biology of the native Lusitanian life, the pequeninos—Quara saw that the virus was communicating with itself.
This theory of an intelligent molecule was a contentious issue between Quara and her siblings. She was certain that destroying the Descolada was xenocide and could not be allowed. Following an intense debate with her siblings, mother, and stepfather Ender, it was decided that Quara would continue to study the virus from a perspective that it was alive, while the others would keep looking for ways to defeat it.
All of the scientists were sworn to secrecy, but Quara ignored the order and told Human, the pequenino that had evolved to a fathertree—the highest honor given a piggie—that her family was working to kill the Descolada. The pequeninos relied on the virus, and having learned from Quara that it was threatened, made the decision to pursue construction of a spaceship that would take them away from Lusitania with the Descolada intact.
Quara had a special relationship with a pequenino named Deaf, who was not hard of hearing, despite his name.
She was present when her brother Miro returned from his trip into space, traveling for thirty years to bring Ender’s sister Valentine to the planet. She had aged to be much older than he because of the effects of relativistic space travel. The age difference created some awkwardness between Miro and the rest of his siblings.
After Miro’s return, Quara was called into a meeting with the leaders of her planet, and chastised harshly for revealing all of the human settlers’ plans to eradicate the Descolada. Despite the tongue-lashing, Quara remained committed to saving the virus, which she considered another life-form.
It was revealed that Quara was feeding her sister Ela’s antivirus research to the Descolada, desperately trying to prove the virus could communicate. Their mother, Novinha, enraged in grief over her son Quim, cut off Quara’s access to the research.
Once Quara learned of Quim’s death, she also grieved. She hurled terrible words at her mother, and left their home angrily. When she returned in sorrow to reconcile with Novinha, it was impossible, as Novinha had left the home and joined the abbey known as the Children of the Mind of Christ. Quara carried a tremendous burden of guilt in her heart for the fight with her mother.
Although cut off from the lab, Quara continued her research and communication with the pequeninos. When Miro, Ender, and Ela developed a theory on how to remove the Descolada from the piggies and were experimenting with Planter, Quara promised she’d visit Planter. She was angry with Miro and Ela, and hesitant to review her findings with them. She told Miro she would consider changing her stance on the matter, but not out of loyalty or love for her family.
She did go to see Planter. The dying piggie begged her to share the information she had on the Descolada with Ela and Miro. Quara argued that to do so was xenocide, but Planter countered by saying to not do so was xenocide for two species instead of one. Quara was angry with Planter for manipulating her feelings, but agreed to give her sister the information she’d discovered about the enslaving virus. She hoped it would help keep Planter alive, so she could spit in his face.
Ela took Quara’s research and was able to develop a theoretical antivirus, but was unable to manufacture it. Planter died, but Quara knew that she had ultimately done the right thing in sharing the information. She hoped that though it wasn’t in time to save Planter, she and Ela would someday be able to manufacture the antivirus.
Once Ela created the cure for the Descolada, Quara stopped fighting to save the virus. The recolada allowed all the life on Lusitania to continue to flourish without its native disease. She was heartbroken over the eradication of the Descolada, but knew deep within herself that it was best.
She was among her siblings when they asked Miro II to convince Ender to leave the religious order he’d joined to be with their mother.
A short time later, as Ender himself lay dying at the abbey, Quara learned that she had been mostly correct in her interpretation of the Descolada. It could communicate, but Miro II learned that it was n
ot sentient. He had discovered the virus’s home world, and asked Quara to return to it with him to further study the virus’s origin.
The request was essentially asking Quara to say good-bye to her home. Jane could no longer sustain many trips at faster-than-light speed. If Quara joined Ender, Valentine II, her sister Ela, a Formic drone, and a pequenino scientist named Firequencher on the journey, she’d not be able to return to Lusitania in her life time.
As usual, she argued with her siblings on the expedition. When Miro II was forced to say hateful things to Valentine II in order to give up her body so Jane could inhabit it, Quara criticized him angrily. Firequencher and the Drone tried to silence her before removing her from the room. They understood, as Quara seemed to not, that Miro’s cruel words were necessary for Jane to live by taking over Valentine II’s body.
Quara fought constantly with Jane. When Jane essentially became Valentine II, there was some question about whether she could still control faster-than-light travel. With Ela, she had determined that the Descolada virus communicated with its creators, the descoladore, through signals that were translated into molecules. She sent a signal to the planet and received a response, but was not able to decode it.
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.