I thought for a moment, remembering. ?That it was made up of islands, warm and green?some of them like this, I think.? I gestured toward the forest. ?That it could have fed everyone easily, but didn?t because some Humans took more than they needed. That it took no part in the last war, but it died anyway.?
?Everything died,? the female said bitterly. ?But how do you know even that much? Have you known another Filipina??
?No, but a few people from the Philippines have come through Lo. Some of my adult siblings told me about them.?
?Do you know any names??
?No.?
She sighed. ?Maybe I?ll see them on Mars. Who is this?? She looked at Aaor.
?My closest sibling, Aaor.?
She stared at us both and shook her head. ?I could almost stay,? she said. ?It doesn?t seem as bad as it once did?the Oankali, the idea of
different children.
?
?You should stay,? I told her. ?Mars may not be green during your lifetime. You won?t be able to go outside the shelters unprotected. Mars is cold and dry.?
?Mars is Human. Now.?
I said nothing.
?I?m tired,? she said after a while. ?Does anyone care if I sleep??
I cleared some ground for her and spread a piece of Lo cloth on it.
?You two are children, aren?t you?? she asked Aaor.
?Yes,? Aaor answered.
?So? Will you be a woman someday??
?I don?t know.?
?I don?t understand that. It bothers me more than most things about you people. Come and lie here. I know your kind like to touch everyone. If you want to, you can touch me.?
I took that to include me, too, and pressed two pieces of Lo cloth edge-to-edge so that we could have a wider sleeping mat.
?I didn?t invite you,? she said to me. ?You look too much like a man.?
?I?m not male,? I said.
?I don?t care. You look male.?
?Let it sleep here,? Aaor said. ?The insects won?t come near you with one of us on either side.?
She stared at me. ?Really? You scare the bugs away??
?Our scent repels them.?
She sniffed, trying to smell us. In fact, she did smell me?unconsciously. I smelled ooloi. Interesting, perhaps attractive to an unmated person.
?All right,? she said. ?I?ve never yet caught an Oankali or a construct in a lie. Come and sleep here. You?re honestly not male??
?I?m honestly not male.?
?Come keep the bugs off, then.?
We kept the bugs off and kept her warm and investigated her thoroughly, though we were careful not to touch her in any way that would alarm her. I thought hands would alarm her, so I only touched her with my longest sensory tentacles. This startled her at first, but once she realized she wasn?t being hurt, she put up with our curiosity. She never knew that I helped her fall asleep.
And I never knew how it happened that during the night she moved completely out of contact with Aaor and against me so that I could reach her with most of my head and body tentacles.
I discovered that I had slightly altered the structure of her pelvis during the night. I hadn?t intended to try such a thing. It wouldn?t have occurred to me to try it. Yet it was done. The female could bear children now.
I detached myself from her and sat up, missing the feel of her at once. It was dawn and my parents were already up. Nikanj and Ahajas were cooking something in a suspended pot made of layers of Lo cloth. Lilith was looking through the ashes of the night?s fire. Tino and Dichaan where out of sight, but I could hear and smell them nearby. Last night, once my attention was on Marina Rivas, I had almost stopped sensing them. I had not known then how completely she had absorbed my attention.
Nikanj left the belly of cloth and its weight of cooking food?nut porridge. The Humans would not want it until they had tasted it. Then they would not be able to get enough of it. It might actually contain some nuts from wild trees. Lilith or Tino might have gathered some. More likely, though, all the nuts had been synthesized by Nikanj and Ahajas from the substance of Ahajas?s body. We could eat a great many things that Humans could not or would not touch. Then we could use what we?d eaten to create something more palatable for Humans. My Human parents shrugged and said this was no more than Lo did every day?which was true. But resisters were always repelled if they knew. So we didn?t tell them unless they asked directly.
Nikanj came over to me and checked me carefully.
