'You know,' she told him, 'you could become a target yourself. Some people could decide to take their anger at me out on you.'
'I know kung fu,' he said examining her bruised knuckles.
'Do you really?'
He smiled. 'No, just a little tai chi for exercise. Not so much sweating.'
She decided he was telling her she smelled-which she did. She started to get up to go wash, but he would not let her go.
'Can you talk to them?' he asked.
She looked at him. He was growing a thin black beard. All the men were growing beards since no razors had been provided. Nothing hard or sharp had been provided.
'You mean talk to the Oankali?' she asked.
'Yes.'
'They hear us all the time.'
'But if you ask for something, will they provide it?'
'Probably not. I think it was a major concession for them just to give us all clothing.'
'Yes. I thought you might say that. Then you should do what Tate wants you to do. Awaken a large number of people at once. There's too little to do here. Get people busy helping one another, teaching one another. There are fourteen of us now. Awaken ten more tomorrow.'
Lilith shook her head. 'Ten? But-'
'It will take some of the negative attention off you. Busy people have less time for fantasizing and fighting.'
She moved away from his side to sit facing him. 'What is it, Joe? What's wrong?'
'People being people, that's all. You're probably not in any danger now, but you will be soon. You must know that.'
She nodded.
'When there are forty of us, will the Oankali take us out of here or-'
'When there are forty of us, and the Oankali decide we're ready, they'll come in. Eventually, they'll take us to be taught to live on Earth. They have a. . . an area of the ship that they've made over into a fragment of Earth. They've grown a small tropical forest there-like the forest we'll be sent to on Earth. We'll be trained there.'
'You've seen this place?'
'I spent a year there.'
'Why?'
'First learning, then proving I'd learned. Knowing and using the knowledge aren't the same thing.'
'No.' He thought for a moment. 'The presence of the Oankali will bring them together, but it might turn them even more strongly against you. Especially if the Oankali really scare them.'
'The Oankali will scare them.'
'That bad?'
'That alien. That ugly. That powerful.'
'Then. . . don't come into the forest with us. Try to get out of it.'
She smiled sadly. 'I speak their language, Joe, but I've never yet been able to convince them to change one of their decisions.'
'Try, Lilith!'
His intensity surprised her. Had he really seen something she had missed-something he wouldn't tell her? Or was he simply understanding her position for the first time? She had known for a long time that she might be doomed. She had had time to get used to the idea and to understand that she must struggle not against nonhuman aliens, but against her own kind.
'Will you talk to them?' Joseph asked.
She had to think for a moment to realize he meant the Oankali. She nodded. 'I'll do what I can,' she said. 'You and Tate may be right about Awakening people faster, too. I think I'm ready to try that.'
'Good. You have a fair core group around you. The new ones you Awaken can work things out in the forest. There they should have more to do.'
'Oh, they'll have plenty to do. The tedium of some of it, though. . . wait until I teach you to weave a basket or a hammock or to make your own garden tools and use them to grow your food.'
'We'll do what's necessary,' he said. 'If we can't, then we won't survive.' He paused, looked away from her. 'I've been a city man all my life. I might not survive.'
'If I do, you will,' she said grimly.
He broke the mood by laughing quietly. 'That's foolishness- but it's a lovely foolishness. I feel the same way about you. You see what comes of being shut up together and having so little to do. Good things as well as bad. How many people will you Awaken tomorrow?'
