Patronizing bastard, she thought. But she said only, 'Does that mean that you can learn to eat anything at all? That you can't be poisoned?'
'No. I didn't mean that.'
She waited, chewing nuts, thinking. When the ooloi did not continue, she looked at it.
It was focused on her, head tentacles pointing. 'The very old can be poisoned,' it said. 'Their reactions are slowed. They might not be able to recognize an unexpected deadly substance and remember how to neutralize it in time. The seriously injured can be poisoned. Their bodies are distracted, busy with self-repair. And the children can be poisoned if they have not yet learned to protect themselves.'
'You mean. . . just about anything might poison you if you weren't somehow prepared for it, ready to protect yourselves against it?'
'Not just anything. Very few things, really. Things we were especially vulnerable to before we left our original homeworld.'
'Like what?'
'Why do you ask, Lilith? What would you do if I told you? Poison a child?'
She chewed and swallowed several peanuts, all the while staring at the ooloi, making no effort to conceal her dislike. 'You invited me to ask,' she said.
'No. That isn't what I was doing.'
'Do you really imagine I'd hurt a child?'
'No. You just haven't learned yet not to ask dangerous questions.'
'Why did you tell me as much as you did?'
The ooloi relaxed its tentacles 'Because we know you, Lilith. And, within reason, we want you to know us.'
2
The ooloi took her to see Sharad. She would have preferred to have Jdahya take her, but when Kahguyaht volunteered, Jdahya leaned toward her and asked very softly, 'Shall I go?'
She did not imagine that she was intended to miss the unspoken message of the gesture-that Jdahya was indulging a child. Lilith was tempted to accept the child's role and ask him to come along. But he deserved a vacation from her-and she from him. Maybe he wanted to spend some time with the big, silent Tediin. How, she wondered, did these people manage their sex lives, anyway? How did the ooloi fit in? Were its two arm-sized tentacles sexual organs? Kahguyaht had not used them in eating-had kept them either coiled against its body, under its true arms or draped over its shoulders.
She was not afraid of it, ugly as it was. So far it had inspired only disgust, anger, and dislike in her. How had Jdahya connected himself with such a creature?
Kahguyaht led her through three walls, opening all of them by touching them with one of its large tentacles. Finally they emerged into a wide, downward-sloping, well-lighted corridor. Large numbers of Oankali walked or rode flat, slow, wheel-less conveyances that apparently floated a fraction of an inch above the floor. There were no collisions, no near-misses, yet Lilith saw no order to the traffic. People walked or drove wherever they could find an opening and apparently depended on others not to hit them. Some of the vehicles were loaded with unrecognizable freight-transparent
beachball-sized blue spheres filled with some liquid, two-foot-long centipede-like animals stacked in rectangular cages, great trays of oblong, green shapes about six feet long and three feet thick. These last writhed slowly, blindly.
'What are those?' she asked the ooloi.
It ignored her except to take her arm and guide her where traffic was heavy. She realized abruptly that it was guiding her with the tip of one of its large tentacles.
'What do you call these?' she asked, touching the one wrapped around her arm. Like the smaller ones it was cool and as hard as her fingernails, but clearly very flexible.
'You can call them sensory arms,' it told her.
'What are they for?'
Silence.
'Look, I thought I was supposed to be learning. I can't learn without asking questions and getting answers.'
'You'll get them eventually-as you need them.'
In anger she pulled loose from the ooloi's grip. It was surprisingly easy to do. The ooloi did not touch her again, did not seem to notice that twice it almost lost her, made no effort to help her when they passed through a crowd and she realized she could not tell one adult ooloi from another.
'Kahguyaht!' she said sharply.
'Here.' It was beside her, no doubt watching, probably laughing at her confusion. Feeling manipulated, she grasped one of its true arms and stayed close to it until they had come into a corridor that was almost empty. From there they entered a corridor that was empty. Kahguyaht ran one sensory arm along the wall for several feet, then stopped, and flattened the tip of the arm against the wall.
An opening appeared where the arm had touched and Lilith expected to be led into one more corridor or room. Instead the wall seemed to form a sphincter and pass something. There was even a sour smell to enhance the image. One of the big semitransparent green oblongs slid into view, wet and sleek.
'It's a plant,' the ooloi volunteered. 'We store it where it can be given the kind of light it thrives best under.'
Why couldn't it have said that before, she wondered.
