Speaker for the Dead

by Orson Scott Card

Further information: List of Ender's Game characters Eight years after the Descolada virus is cured, Xenologer Pipo and his thirteen-year-old son and apprentice Libo have developed a friendship with the Pequeninos. They allow Novinha to join their science team as the colony's only xenobiologist, after she manages to pass the test at age thirteen. After accidentally sharing information about human genders with a male Pequenino named Rooter, the scientists find Rooter's body eviscerated, a sapling planted within it, and guess this may be a torturous sacrificial ritual.

A few years later, Novinha discovers that every lifeform on Lusitania carries the Descolada virus which, though lethal to humans, appears to serve a beneficial purpose to native lifeforms. When Pipo learns of this, he suddenly has an insight, and before he tells the others, races off to talk to the Pequeninos. Hours later, Libo and Novinha find Pipo's body cut open just as Rooter's had been, but with no sapling planted. As Pipo's death appears unprovoked, the Pequeninos are now considered a threat by the Starways Congress and restrictions on studying them are tightened. Novinha, having fallen in love with Libo but fearing that he will find out from her files what led to Pipo's death, marries another colonist, Marcos Ribeira, so as to lock her files from being opened, under colony law. Emotionally distraught, she then makes a call for a Speaker for the Dead for Pipo.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, living innocuously on the planet Trondheim, responds to Novinha's call. Though she has traveled with him for thousands of years, his sister Valentine is now pregnant and settled. He travels on alone, save for an artificial intelligence named Jane who communicates with Ender through a jewel in his ear and appears to live in the ansible network that enables faster-than-light communications. After relativistic travel, Ender arrives at Lusitania 22 years later (1970 S.C.), finding that Novinha had canceled her request for a Speaker five days after sending it. In the intervening time, Libo had died in a similar manner to Pipo, and Marcos had succumbed to a chronic illness. Novinha's eldest children, Ela and Miro, have requested a Speaker for Libo and Marcos. Ender, gaining access to all of the appropriate files, learns of tension since Pipo's death: Novinha has turned away from xenobiology to study crop growth, which created a loveless relationship with Marcos; Miro has secretly worked with Ouanda to continue to study the Pequeninos, while sharing human technology and knowledge with them. Over the course of time, Miro and Ouanda have fallen in love. With Ender's arrival, Miro tells him that one of the Pequeninos, Human, has taken a great interest in Ender, and Ender becomes aware that Human can hear messages from the Formic Hive Queen. Ender and Jane discover that Marcos was infertile: all six of Novinha's children, including Miro, were fathered by Libo, Ender also learns what Pipo had seen in Novinha's data.

As word of Miro's and Ouanda's illegal sharing of human technology with the Pequeninos is reported to Congress, Ender secretly goes to meet with the Pequeninos. They know his true identity, and they implore him to help them be part of civilization, while the Formic Queen tells Ender that Lusitania would be an ideal place to restart the hive, as her race can help guide the Pequeninos. By the time Ender returns to the colony, Congress has ordered Miro and Ouanda to be sent off-planet for penal action and the colony to be disbanded. Ender delivers his eulogy for Marcos, revealing Novinha's infidelity. Miro, distraught to learn that he is Ouanda's half-brother, attempts to escape to the Pequeninos, but he suffers neurological damage as he tries to cross the electrified fence. Ender reveals to the colony what he discovered that Pipo had learned: that every life form on Lusitania is paired with another through the Descolada virus, so that the death of one births the other, and as in the case of the Pequeninos, who become trees when they die. The colony leaders recognize Ender's words, and they agree to rebel against Congress, severing their ansible connection and deactivating the fence, allowing Ender, Ouanda, and Ela to go with Human to speak to the Pequenino wives, to help establish a case to present to Congress.

The Pequenino wives help Ender corroborate the complex life cycle of the Pequeninos, affirming that the death ritual Pipo observed was to help create "fathertrees" who fertilize the Pequenino females to continue their race. The Pequeninos believed they were honoring Pipo, and later Libo, by helping them become fathertrees, but Ender explains that humans lack this "third life", and if the Pequeninos are to cohabitate with humans, they must respect this difference. To affirm their understanding, Ender is allowed to perform the ritual of giving Human "third life" as a fathertree, providing Ouanda with the confirmation needed to present to Congress.

Miro recovers from most of the physical damage from his encounter with the fence, but he is still paralyzed. Valentine and her family inform Ender they plan to help Lusitania with the revolt, and they are traveling from Trondheim to help; Ender has Miro meet them halfway. Novinha, having gained understanding into the death of Pipo and Libo, finally absolves herself of her guilt, and she and Ender marry. Ender plants the Hive Queen as per her request, and he writes his third book, a biography of the life of the Pequenino, Human.