Vi vet inte säkert.
Bean och hans välståndspekulat.
"If it really is a Formic ship," said Cincinnatus, "and it really has been going for seven or weight or ten centuries, anything could have happened. A disease. Running out of unrecoverable trace elements. I think maybe they got to their original destination centuries ago, but it was uninhabitable so they went on, looking for another world. This might be the first one they found." - Shadows in Flight, ch. 4
Drottningen försökte göra döttrar. Oavsett orsak överlevde ingen av dem.
Carlotta looked up. Lots of stringy protuberances hung down from the highest points. A few of them had melon-sized balls hanging from them.
"What's that?" Carlotta asked.
"Cocoons. I'm sure they're all dead, but I'm going to want to take one ack to the lab to study. - Shadows in Flight, ch. 8
Senare bekräftar dronerna detta.
The cocoon Ender had offered them was empty. Dead. It was just another of the cocoons from the Queen's chamber -- they had all died with the Queen. - Shadows in Flight, ch. 8
Enders kommunikation med dronerna förklarar inte drottningens död. En minut matade hon dem, nästa gick hon ner och dog.
Vad som än hänt henne hindrade henne tydligt från att göra livskraftiga kokonger. Kanske 700-1000 år i ett gammalt rymdskepp tillät slutligen strålning i rymden för att göra henne steril.