At once the three of them touched him, reassured him directly, drawing Akin and Tiikuchahk in to let him know that they had a home here, that they would be cared for.
Akin wanted desperately to go back to his true home. When food was served, he did not eat. Food did not interest him. When Dichaan left, it was all Akin could do to keep himself from following and demanding to be taken home to Earth. Dichaan would not have taken him. And no one present would have understood why he was making the gesture. Nikanj would understand, but Nikanj was back on Earth. Akin looked at the Toaht ooloi and saw that it was paying no attention to him.
Alone, and more lonely than he had been since the raiders abducted him, he lay down on his platform and went to sleep.
6
Are you afraid?? Taishokaht asked. ?Humans are always afraid of them.?
?I?m not afraid,? Akin said. They were in a large, dark, open area. The walls glowed softly with the body heat of Chkahichdahk. There was only body heat to see by here, deep inside the ship. Living quarters and travel corridors were above?or Akin thought of their direction as above. He had passed through areas where gravity was less, even where it was absent. Words like up and down were meaningless, but Akin could not keep himself from thinking them.
He could see Taishokaht by its body heat?less than his own and greater than that of Chkahichdahk. And he could see the other person in the room.
?I?m not afraid,? he repeated. ?Can this one hear??
?No. Let it touch you. Then taste the limb it offers.?
Akin stepped toward what his sense of smell told him was an ooloi. His sight told him it was large and caterpillarlike, covered with smooth plates that made a pattern of bright and dark as body heat escaped between the plates rather than through them. From what Akin had heard, this ooloi could seal itself within its shell and lose little or no air or body heat. It could slow its body processes and induce suspended animation so that it could survive even drifting in space. Others like it had been the first to explore the war-ruined Earth.
It had mouth parts vaguely like those of some terrestrial insects. Even if it had possessed ears and vocal cords, it could not have formed anything close to Human or Oankali speech.
Yet it was as Oankali as Dichaan or Nikanj. It was as Oankali as any intelligent being constructed by an ooloi to incorporate the Oankali organelle within its cells. As Oankali as Akin himself.
It was what the Oankali had been, one trade before they found Earth, one trade before they used their long memories and their vast store of genetic material to construct speaking, hearing, bipedal children. Children they hoped would seem more acceptable to Human tastes. The spoken language, an ancient revival, had been built in genetically. The first Human captives awakened had been used to stimulate the first bipedal children to talk?to ?remember? how to talk.
Now, most of the caterpillarlike Oankali were Akjai like the ooloi that stood before Akin. It or its children would leave the vicinity of Earth physically unchanged, carrying nothing of Earth or Humanity with it except knowledge and memory.
The Akjai extended one slender forelimb. Akin took the limb between his hands as though it were a sensory arm?and it seemed to be just that, although Akin learned in the first instant of contact that this ooloi had six sensory limbs instead of only two.
Its language of touch was the one Akin had first felt before his birth. The familiarity of this comforted him, and he tasted the Akjai, eager to understand the mixture of alienness and familiarity.
There was a long period of getting to know the ooloi and understanding that it was as interested in him as he was in it. At some point?Akin was not certain when?Taishokaht joined them. Akin had to use sight to find out for certain whether Taishokaht had touched him or touched the Akjai. There was an utter blending of the two ooloi?greater than any blending Akin had perceived between paired siblings. This, he thought, must be what adults achieved when they reached for a consensus on some controversial subject. But if it was, how did they continue to think at all as individuals? Taishokaht and Kohj, the Akjai, seemed completely blended, one nervous system communicating within itself as any nervous system did.
?I don?t understand,? he communicated.
And, just for an instant, they showed him, brought him into that incredible unity. He could not even manage terror until the moment had ended.
How did they not lose themselves? How was it possible to break apart again? It was as though two containers of water had been poured together, then separated?each molecule returned to its original container.
He must have signaled this. The Akjai responded. ?Even at your stage of growth, Eka, you can perceive molecules. We perceive subatomic particles. Making and breaking this contact is no more difficult for us than clasping and releasing hands is for Humans.?
?Is that because you?re ooloi?? Akin asked.
?Ooloi perceive and, within reproductive cells, manipulate. Males and females only perceive. You?ll understand soon.?
?Can I learn to care for animals while I?m so
limited??
?You can learn a little. You can begin. First, though, because you don?t have adult perception, you must learn to trust us. What we let you feel, briefly, wasn?t such a deep union. We use it for teaching or for reaching a consensus. You must learn to tolerate it a little early. Can you do that??
Akin shuddered. ?I don?t know.?
?I?ll try to help you. Shall I??
?If you don?t, I won?t be able to do it. It scares me.?
?I know that. You won?t be so afraid now.?
