on each other, staring at the Oankali. An ooloi approached them and they drew back. They were not terrified as they could have been, but they were frightened.
The ooloi spoke to them and Lilith realized it was Kahguyaht.
She stood up, staring at the trio. She could not distinguish individual words in what Kahguyaht was saying, but its tone was not one she would have associated with Kahguyaht. The tone was quiet, calming, oddly compelling. It was a tone Lilith bad learned to associate with Nikanj.
Somewhere else in the room, a scuffle broke out. Curt, in spite of the drug, had attacked the ooloi that approached him. All the Oankali present were ooloi.
Peter tried to go to Curt's aid, but behind him, Jean screamed, and he turned back to help her.
Beatrice fled from her ooloi. She managed to run several steps before it caught her. It wrapped one sensory arm around her and she collapsed unconscious.
Around the room, other people collapsed-all the fighters, all the runners. No form of panic was tolerated.
Tate and Gabriel were still awake. Leah was awake, but Wray was unconscious. An ooloi seemed to be calming her, probably assuring her that Wray was all right.
Jean was still awake in spite of her momentary panic, but Peter was down.
Celene was awake and frozen in place. An ooloi touched her, then jerked away as though in pain. Celene had fainted.
Victor Dominic and Hilary Ballard were awake and together, holding one another, though they had shown no interest in one another until now.
Allison screamed and threw food at her ooloi, then turned and ran. Her ooloi caught her, but kept her conscious, probably because she did not struggle. She went rigid, but seemed to listen as her ooloi spoke soothingly.
Elsewhere in the room, small groups of people, supporting one another, confronted the ooloi without panic. The drug had quieted them just enough. The room was a scene of quiet, strangely gentle chaos.
Lilith watched Kahguyaht with Tate and Gabriel. The ooloi was sitting down now, facing them, talking to them, even giving them time to stare at the way its joints bent and the way its sensory tentacles followed movement. When it moved, it moved very slowly. When it spoke, Lilith could hear none of the hectoring contempt or amused tolerance that she was used to.
'You know that one?' Joseph asked.
'Yes. It's one of Nikanj's parents. 1 never got along with it.,'
Across the room, Kahguyaht's head tentacles swept in her direction for a moment and she knew it had heard. She considered saying more, giving it an earful-figuratively.
But before she could begin, Nikanj arrived. It stood before Joseph and looked at him critically. 'You're doing very well,' it said. 'How do you feel?'
'I'm all right.'
'You will be.' It glanced at Tate and Gabriel. 'Your friends won't be, I think. Not both of them, anyway.'
'What? Why not?'
Nikanj rustled its tentacles. 'Kahguyaht will try. I warned it, and it admits I have a talent for humans, but it wants them badly. The woman will survive, but the man may not.'
'Why!' Lilith demanded.
'He may choose not to. But Kahguyaht is skillful. Those two humans are the calmest in the room apart from you two.' It focused for a moment on Joseph's hands, on the fact that he had gouged one with the nails of the other and that the gouged hand was dripping blood onto the floor.
Nikanj shifted its attention, even turning its body away from Joseph. Its instinct was to help, to heal a wound, stop pain. Yet it knew enough to let Joseph go on hurting himself for now.
'What are you doing, foretelling the future?' Joseph asked. His voice was a harsh whisper. 'Gabe will kill himself?'
'Indirectly, he might. I hope not. I can't foretell anything. Maybe Kahguyaht will save him. He's worth saving. But his past behavior says he will be hard to work with.' It reached out and took Joseph's hands, apparently unable to stand the gouging any longer.
'You were only given a weak, ooloi-neutral drug in your food,' it told him. 'I can help you with something better.'
Joseph tried to pull away, but it ignored his effort. It examined the hand he had injured, then further tranquilized him, all the while talking to him quietly.
'You know I won't hurt you. You're not afraid of being hurt or of pain. And your fear of my strangeness will pass eventually. No, be still. Let your body go limp. Let it relax. If your body is relaxed, it will be easier for you to handle your fear. That's it. Lean back against this wall. I can help you maintain this state without blurring your intellect. You see?'
Joseph turned his head to look at Nikanj, then turned away, his movements slow, almost languid, belying the emotion behind them. Nikanj moved to sit next to him and maintain its hold on him. 'Your fear is less than it was,' it said. 'And even what you feel now will pass quickly.'
Lilith watched Nikanj work, knowing that it would drug Joseph only lightly-perhaps stimulate the release of his own endorphins and leave him feeling relaxed and slightly high. Nikanj's words, spoken with quiet assurance, only reinforced new feelings of security and well-being.
Joseph sighed. 'I don't understand why the sight of you should scare me so,' Joseph said. He did not sound frightened. 'You don't look that threatening. Just. . . very different.'
