There were few flowers, and those mainly bromiliads and orchids, high in the trees. On the ground, a colorful stationary object was likely to be a leaf or some kind of fungus. Green was everywhere. The undergrowth was thin enough to walk through without difficulty except near the river where in some places a machete was essential-and not yet permitted.
'Tools will come later,' Nikanj told Lilith. 'Let the humans get used to being here now. Let them explore and see for themselves that they are in a forest on an island. Let them begin to feel what it's like to live here.' It hesitated. 'Let them settle more firmly into their places with their ooloi. They can tolerate one another now. Let them learn that it isn't shameful to be together with one another and with us.'
It had gone with Lilith to the riverbank at a place where a great piece of earth had been undercut and had fallen into the river, taking several trees and much undergrowth with it. There was no trouble here in reaching the water, though there was a sharp drop of about ten feet. At the edge of the drop was one of the giants of the island-a huge tree with buttresses that swept well over Lilith's head and, like walls, separated the surrounding land into individual rooms. In spite of the great variety of life that the tree supported, Lilith stood between a pair of buttresses, two-thirds enclosed by the tree. She felt enveloped in a solidly Earthly thing. A thing that would soon be undercut as its neighbors had been, that would soon fall into the river and die.
'They'll cut the trees down, you know,' she said softly. 'They'll make boats or rafts. They think they're on Earth.'
'Some of them believe otherwise,' Nikanj told her. 'They believe because you do.'
'That won't stop the boat building.'
'No. We won't try to stop it. Let them row their boats to the walls and back. There's no way out for them except the way we offer: to learn to feed and shelter themselves in this environment-to become self-sustaining. When they've done that, we'll take them to Earth and let them go.'
It knew they would run, she thought. It must know. Yet it talked about mixed settlements, human and Oankali-trade partner settlements within which ooloi would control the fertility and 'mix' the children of both groups.
She looked up at the sloping, wedge-shaped buttresses. Semi-enclosed as she was, she could not see Nikanj or the river. There was only brown and green forest-the illusion of wilderness and isolation.
Nikanj left her the illusion for a while. It said nothing, made no sound. Her feet tired and she looked around for something to sit on. She did not want to go back to the others any sooner than she had to. They could tolerate one another again now; the most difficult phase of their bonding was over. There was very little drugging still going on. Curt and Gabriel were still drugged along with a few others. Lilith worried about these. Oddly, she also admired them for being able to resist conditioning. Were they strong, then? Or simply unable to adapt?
'Lilith?' Nikanj said softly.
She did not answer.
'Let's go back.'
She had found a dry, thick liana root to sit on. It hung like a swing, dropping down from the canopy, then curving upward again to lock itself into the branches of a nearby smaller tree before dropping to the ground and digging in. The root was thicker than some trees and the few insects on it looked harmless. It was an uncomfortable seat-twisted and hard-but Lilith was not yet ready to leave it.
'What will you do with the humans who can't adapt?' she asked.
'If they aren't violent, we'll take them to Earth with the rest of you.' Nikanj came around the buttress, destroying her sense of solitude and home. Nothing that looked and moved as Nikanj did could come from home. She got up wearily and walked with it.
'Have the ants bitten you?' it asked.
She shook her head. It did not like her to conceal small injuries. It considered her health very much its business, and looked after her insect bites-especially her mosquito bites-at the end of each day. She thought it would have been easier to have left mosquitoes out of this small simulation of Earth. But Oankali did not think that way. A simulation of a tropical forest of Earth had to be complete with snakes, centipedes, mosquitoes and other things Lilith would have preferred to live without. Why should the Oankali worry, she thought cynically. Nothing bit them.
'There are so few of you,' Nikanj said as they walked. 'No one wants to give up on any of you.'
She had to think back to realize what it was talking about.
'Some of us thought we should hold off bonding with you until you were brought here,' it told her. 'Here it would have been easier for you to band together, become a family.'
Lilith glanced at it uneasily, but said nothing. Families had children. Was Nikanj saying children should be conceived and born here?
'But most of us couldn't wait,' it continued. It wrapped a sensory arm around her neck loosely. 'It might be better for both our peoples if we were not so strongly drawn to you.'
2
Tools, when they were finally handed out, were waterproof tarpaulins, machetes, axes, shovels, hoes, metal pots, rope, hammocks, baskets, and mats. Lilith spoke privately with each of the most dangerous humans before they were given their tools.
One more try, she thought wearily.
'I don't care what you think of me,' she told Curt. 'You're the kind of man the human race is going to need down on Earth. That's why I woke you. I want you to live to get down there.' She hesitated. 'Don't go Peter's way, Curt.'
He stared at her. Only recently free of the drug, only recently capable of violence, he stared.
'Make him sleep again!' Lilith told Nikanj. 'Let him forget! Don't give him a machete and wait for him to use it on someone.'
'Yahjahyi thinks he'll be all right,' Nikanj said. Yahjahyi was Curt's ooloi.
