'Unless you like it here well enough to stay.'
'I don't believe a word you say.'
'Believe what you want! I'm telling you how to act if you ever want to feel the ground under your feet again!'
Celene began to cry quietly and Lilith frowned at her. 'What's the matter with you?'
Celene shook her head. 'I don't know what to believe. I don't even know why I'm still alive.'
Tate sighed and shook her head in disgust.
'You are alive,' Lilith said coldly. 'We have no medical supplies here. If you want to commit suicide, you might succeed. If you want to hang around and help get things started back on Earth... well, that seems a lot more worth succeeding at.'
'Did you have any children?' Celene asked, clearly expecting the answer to be no.
'Yes.' Lilith made herself reach out, take the woman's hand, though already she disliked her. 'All the people I have to Awaken are here without their families. We're all alone. We've got each other, and nobody else. We'll become a community-friends, neighbors, husbands, wives- or we won't.'
'When will there be men?' Celene demanded.
'In a day or two. I'll Awaken two men next.'
'Why not now?'
'No. I'll get rooms ready for them, get food and clothing out for them-the way I have for you and Leah.'
'You mean you build the rooms?'
'It's more accurate to say I grow them. You'll see.'
'You grow the food, too?' Leah asked, one eyebrow raised.
'Food and clothing is stored along the walls at each end of the big room. They're replaced as we use them. I can open the storage cabinets, but I can't open the wall behind them. Only the Oankali can do that.'
There was silence for a moment. Lilith began gathering her own fruit peelings and seeds. 'Any garbage goes into one of the toilets,' she said. 'You don't have to worry about stopping them up. They're more than they appear to be. They'll digest anything that isn't alive.'
'Digest!' Celene said, horrified. 'They... they're alive themselves?'
'Yes. The ship is alive and so is almost everything in it. The Oankali use living matter the way we used machinery.' She started away toward the nearest bathroom, then stopped. 'The other thing I meant to tell you,' she said focusing on Leah and Celene, 'is that we're being watched-just as we were all watched in our isolation rooms. I don't think the Oankali will bother us this time-not until forty or more of us are Awake and getting along fairly well together. They will come in, though, if we start to murder each other. And the would-be murderers-or actual murderers-will be kept here on the ship for the rest of their lives.'
'So you're protected from us,' Leah said. 'Convenient.'
'We're protected from one another,' Lilith said. 'We're an endangered species-almost extinct. If we're going to survive, we need protection.'
4
Lilith did not release Curt Loehr from his suspended animation plant until Joseph Shing's plant lay beside it. Then, quickly, she opened both plants, lifted Joseph out and dragged Loehr out. She set Leah and Tate to work dressing Curt and worked alone to dress Joseph since Celene would not touch him while he was naked. Both men were fully clothed by the time they struggled to full consciousness.
After the initial misery of Awakening, they sat up and looked around. 'Where are we?' Curt demanded. 'Who's in charge here?'
Lilith winced. 'I am,' she said. 'I Awoke you. We're all prisoners here, but it's my job to Awaken people.'
'And who are you working for?' Joseph demanded. He had a slight accent and Curt, hearing it, turned to stare, then to glare at him.
Lilith introduced them quickly. 'Conrad Loehr of New York, this is Joseph Shing of Vancouver.' Then she introduced each of the women.
Celene had already settled close to Curt, and once she was introduced, she added: 'Back when things were normal, everyone called me Cele.'
Tate rolled her eyes and Leah frowned. Lilith managed not to smile. She had been right about Celene. Celene would put herself under Curt's protection if he let her. That would keep Curt occupied. Lilith caught a faint smile on Joseph's face.
'We have food if you two are hungry,' Lilith said, slipping into what was becoming a standard speech. 'While we eat, I'll answer your questions.'
'One answer now,' Curt said. His question: 'Who are you working for? Which side?'
He had not seen her push his suspended animation plant back into the wall. She had not turned her back on him since he had been fully Awake.
'Down on Earth,' she said carefully, 'there are no people left to draw lines on maps and say which sides of those lines are the right sides. There is no government left. No human government, anyway.'
He frowned, then glared at her as he had earlier at Joseph. 'You're saying we've been captured by. . . something that isn't human?'
'Or rescued,' Lilith said.
Joseph stepped up to her. 'You've seen them?'
