Butler, Octavia Xenogenesis 1 Dawn

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alone! Let us begin again on our own."
Silence.
She pulled at her arm, and after a moment he let her go. She got the
impression he was watching her very closely.
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"I think I wish your people had left me on Earth," she whispered. "If
this is what they found me for, I wish they'd left me." Medusa
children. Snakes for hair. Nests of night crawlers for eyes and ears.
He sat down on the bare ground, and after a minute of surprise, she
sat opposite him, not knowing why, simply following his movement.
"I can't unfind you," he said. "You're here. But there is... a thing I can
do. It is. . .deeply wrong of me to offer it. I will never offer it again."
"What?" she asked barely caring. She was tired from the walk,
overwhelmed by what he had told her. It made no sense. Good god, no
wonder he couldn't go home-even if his home still existed. Whatever
his people had been like when they left it, they must be very different
by now-the children of the last surviving human beings would be
different.
"Lilith?" he said.
She raised her head, stared at him.
"Touch me here now," he said, gesturing toward his head tentacles,
"and I'll sting you. You'll die-very quickly and without pain."
She swallowed.
"If you want it," he said.
It was a gift he was offering. Not a threat.
"Why?" she whispered. He would not answer.
She stared at his head tentacles. She raised her hand, let it reach
toward him almost as though it had its own will, its own intent. No
more Awakenings. No more questions. No more impossible answers.
Nothing.
Nothing.
He never moved. Even his tentacles were utterly still. Her hand
hovered, wanting to fall amid the tough, flexible, lethal organs. It
hovered, almost brushing one by accident.
She jerked her hand away, clutched it to her. "Oh god," she
whispered. "Why didn't I do it? Why can't I do it?"
He stood up and waited uncomplaining for several minutes until she
dragged herself to her feet.
"You'll meet my mates and one of my children now," he said. "Then
rest and food, Lilith."
She looked at him, longing for a human expression. "Would you have
done it?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Why?"
"For you."
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II
FAMILY
1
Sleep.
She barely remembered being presented to three of Jdahya's
relatives, then guided off and given a bed. Sleep. Then a small,
confused awakening.
Now food and forgetting.
Food and pleasure so sharp and sweet it cleared everything else from
her mind. There were whole bananas, dishes of sliced pineapple,
whole figs, shelled nuts of several kinds, bread and honey, a vegetable
stew filled with corn, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions,
mushrooms, herbs, and spices.
Where had all this been, Lilith wondered. Surely they could have
given her a little of this instead of keeping her for so long on a diet
that made eating a chore. Could it all have been for her health? Or had
there been some other purpose--something to do with their damned
gene trade?
When she had eaten some of everything, savored each new taste
lovingly, she began to pay attention to the four Oankali who were with
her in the small, bare room. They were Jdahya and his wife lel
Kahguyaht aj Dinso. And there was Jdahya's ooloi mate Kahguyaht--
Ahtrekahguyahtkaal lel Jdahyatediin aj Dinso. Finally there was the
family's ooloi child Nikanj--Kaalnikanj oo Jdahyatediinkahguyaht aj
Dinso.
The four sat atop familiar, featureless platforms eating Earth foods
from their several small dishes as though they had been born to such
a diet.
There was a central platform with more of everything on it, and the
Oankali took turns filling one another's dishes. One of them could
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not, it seemed, get up and fill only one dish. Others were immediately
handed forward, even to Lilith. She filled Jdahya's with hot stew and
returned it to him, wondering when he had eaten last-apart from the
orange they had shared.
"Did you eat while we were in that isolation room?" she asked him.
"I had eaten before I went in," he said. "I used very little energy while
I was there so I didn't need any more food."
"How long were you there?"
"Six days, your time."
She sat down on her platform and stared at him. "That long?"
"Six days," he repeated.
"Your body has drifted away from your world's twenty-four-hour
day," the ooloi Kahguyaht said. That happens to all your people. Your
day lengthens slightly and you lose track of how much time has
passed."
''But-''
"How long did it seem to you?"
"A few days. . . I don't know. Fewer than six."
"You see?" the ooloi asked softly.
She frowned at it. It was naked as were the others except for Jdahya.
This did not bother her even at close quarters as much as she had
feared it might. But she did not like the ooloi. It was smug and it
tended to treat her condescendingly. It was also one of the creatures
scheduled to bring about the destruction of what was left of humanity. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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