Delft Delphiki, more commonly known by his nickname Blue, was the son of Carlotta Delphiki and the grandson of Bean and Petra Arkanian.[1] He was first introduced in The Last Shadow.
History[]
Early Life[]
Delft was born on the planet Nokonoshima to Carlotta and Yuuto in the city of Tochoji. In 3169 AX, 3 months after his birth, he was kidnapped by his mother and taken aboard the lightspeed ship Herodotus with the rest of his family. As the child of Carlotta, he possessed the high intelligence of Anton's Key but without the out of control growth hormone.[1]
The Last Shadow[]
In 3180 AX, Delft, now mainly going by his nickname Blue, was having his 9th birthday due to the effects of relativistic space travel. His older brother Brussels Delphiki, now going by Sprout, set up birthday decorations for his brother. Sprout had snuck a printer picture of their home city to show his brother, as their mother and uncles had tried hard to prevent them from seeing their home to try and distance them from it. They reminisced about their father Yuuto and wondered if he was still alive. Carlotta entered the room and explained to them why they were named after certain things. Their cousin, Thulium Delphiki entered the room to celebrate Blue's birthday as well.[1]
As they ate ice cream, they noticed a man standing in the back of the room. After questioning by Carlotta, the man revealed that he was a computer program that reflected the mind of Hyrum Graff, the former Battle School administrator and Minister of Colonization. He revealed that Andrew Wiggin had died, and that he had been reading all the data that the Delphikis had been sending to research institutions who purported to be studying Anton's Key. Graff revealed that he had been slowing down the Herodotus to non-relativistic speed in order so that the Leguminids may help solve the problem of the Descolada on Lusitania. The Delphiki family were unsure, and decided to finish celebrating Blue's birthday before deciding.[1]
Carlotta proceeded to inform the rest of the family about the new development shortly afterwards. The cousins met together in the mess hall with their uncle Ender Delphiki and talked about identifying the Descolada planet. Cincinnatus Delphiki came in and listened to the discussion briefly before starting to walk out. After prompting by Ender, Sergeant explained his thoughts that it was most likely that even if the virus was created, its creators were most likely extinct by millions of years. Graff appeared as a hologram again in the room, who Sergeant promptly dismissed and left the mess hall. After much discussion about the finances of the Delphiki family and the Descolada problem, Thulium proposed that the Leguminids simply go to Lusitania to converse with the scientists there about the issue. Suddently, Sprout realized that Graff came to the Herodotus to escape the Hundred Worlds-wide Ansible shutdown, to which Graff affirmed his hypothesis. Graff explained to the Delphikis that the Lusitanian scientists had found a possible origin point of the Descolada, a planet they called Descoladora.[1]
At that moment, a man and a woman appeared in the room. The woman walked to Ender and expressed that he looked much like his parents, Bean and Petra Arkanian. The hologram of Graff thought the woman was Valentine Wiggin, though much younger than she should be. She introduced herself as Jane and the man as Miro Ribeira to the group and explained how Andrew Wiggin had created her body and Peter Wiggin II while Outside, as well as the concept of an Aiúa and how the Recolada had neutralized the Descolada on Lusitania. The Leguminids doubted Jane's story and were baffled at how she and Miro appeared instantaneously on the ship. Jane then instantly transported the Delphikis to a plain of grass on Lusitania. Jane stated that she had left the Herodotus in orbit around the planet and explained the concept of instantaneous travel to them, and that she had sent Carlotta, Cincinatus, and Ender to Nokonoshima to persuade their spouses to join the Delphikis on Lusitania. When asked by their children when their parents would return, Jane simply said when their work is done, and Miro remakred that it seemed hard to convince their other set of parents to leave their home planet, which sent Blue into a spiral of self-doubt and worry.[1]
For the next several days, the Delphikis worked on their own computers on the Descolada problem or whatever they were working on prior on the Herodotus. After about a week, Blue and the rest of the cousins went to go meet the Pequeninos, except for Thulium.[1]
Blue later attended a presentation to the Leguminids on the prior research about the Descolada hosted by Valentine Wiggin.[1]
Soon after the revelation that humans and sentient birds lived on Descoladora, which was now called Nest, Blue's mother returned with his father, Yuuto, from Nokonoshima, and Blue finally met his father.[1]
After the Keas, Ravens, and Yachachiyruna had been sent to the Lusitanian Colonies to escape The Folk, Sprout was walking with Blue in the Bird Meadow and told him that he did not want to be called Sprout anymore, and asked to be called Brussels. They noticed a Raven in the air, and it turned out to be Dog and Phoenix. Sprout asked why they were not on one of the colonies, and they asked to sit down. Dog explained that she could hear the Hive Queen of Shakespeare when she first came to Lusitania because the Ravens already used philotic communication. Hence, they stayed on Lusitania to test if they could communicate with the ravens on the colonies lightyears away with philotes, and they could. Dog also explained that she was already 20 years old, and that Ravens could now live to be 40. They also explained that Keas could not philotically communicate, and that the level of proficiency in philotic communication differed among Ravens. The birds encouraged Sprout and Blue to see the colonies, and to also visit them to hear knowledge that even Ruqyaq did not know.[1]
Delft and the others working on the project began testing how the Recorder virus found on Nest became the Descolada. As they began experiments, some could only be performed in computer simulations, as the Descolada was too virulent and too intelligent for experiments with the actual virus to be safe. They were able to confirm that each break would result in Descolada-like behaviors, but only when both were broken did the Recorder become Descolada. It was looking like the Recorder was deliberately turned into a bioweapon. Blue proposed that they put the Recorder in a vacuum chamber to test if it could survive in space. After the test, it seemed that in a vacuum, the Recorder would fold itself repeatedly like a fan. Instead of the break points in the Descolada being two among billions of genes, they were two among 88 genes exposed and weakened at the fold points. Thus, the group reasoned that the Descolada was due to radiation damage, and not a bioweapon.[1]
Everyone agreed that they needed to send a paper demonstrating the differences between Recorder and Descolada, how the Descolada on Lusitania was neutralized, and describing the behavior of Recorder in a vacuum. They put the names of the entire research team, including those of the Pequeninos who had worked with them. The Formics who had been part of the project had no names, and they could not reveal the existence of Formics anyway. Ela's name came first, as head of the team. Jane also asked Plikt and Valentine to write monographs that included accounts of the work of the Ribeira family and the Leguminids. Jane was never mentioned; nor was Detouring; and no account mentioned Nest. Jane declared the Descolada project to be at an end, as they had disseminated a course of action for any world that ran across a mutated Recorder virus.[1]
Afterward, the Leguminids had a meeting that was also attended by Miro. They realized that a normal world and education were off the table for them, as well as returning to the Herodotus, as it had already been claimed by Sergeant and the twins. Thulium said she intended to travel but would usually stay on Lusitania, and Miro said that he, Jane, Peter, and Wang-mu would stay there as well. Boss asked if they could stay at their building on Lusitania, and Miro agreed if Yuuto would pay for it. The rest of the Leguminids agreed to stay and live with the people of Lusitania. Carlotta then bought a house for Yuuto, Sprout, Blue, Thulium, and her to live in.[1]
Some time later, Sprout and Blue decided to go to one of the colonies to visit Ruqyaq. They Detoured and Sprout led Blue into the clearing, and then started beating on a hollow log with two sticks. Soon, the Yachachiyruna and some Ravens came out of the woods, and Ruqyaq arrived last. Ruqyaq expressed that Nest was merely a training ground, where they learned our science and engineering and languages, but on the colony they could become one nation and later many nations, with languages developing freely. Ruqyaq began to tell a story that was an allegory for the life of Sprout and Blue, which praised them for saving the species of Nest from the Folk. Ruqyaq then told a story about their ancestors, the Huapaya people of the mountains. He explained how they selectively bred a certain kind of berry in the mountains that eventually became corn, potatoes and tomatoes, explaining that this ability for breeding led them to become great breeders, though now they chose to be breeders of birds. Sprout asked if the Yachachiyruna would teach them their genetic science, and they agreed if Sprout would share theirs. Bidding farewell to Ruqyaq, and acknowledging and saluting Yachachiyruna and Ravens alike, Sprout and Blue returned home to their mother's house.[1]
As they went back, Blue said that he noticed they did not ask for the secret of Detouring. Sprout mentioned that Jane wished for the ability to die out with its current users. Then they went into the kitchen and annoyed Carlotta by snitching food that she was still in the midst of preparing, and she drove them out of the kitchen with a spoon.[1]
Personality[]
Trivia[]
- Delft's namesake is the city of Delft that became famous for making ceramic 'China', named that because the ceramic first came from the country of China. So his nickname was at first China, but because Delft china is always painted with blue designs, he began being called Blue.[1]