?There?s more to healing than just closing wounds.?
?You?re healed.?
She looked at me for a time, then looked away at the trees. ?I must be,? she said.
?More than healed.?
She put her head to one side. ?What??
?When your fertility is restored, you?ll be able to have children without trouble. You couldn?t have done that before.?
Her expression changed to one of remembered pain. ?My mother died when I was born. People said she should have had a cesarean, you know??
?Yes.?
?She didn?t. I don?t know why.?
?You need to be changed a little genetically so that your daughters will be able to give birth safely.?
?Can you do that??
?I won?t have time. We?ll be escorting you and the male prisoners to Lo today. I?m not experienced enough to do that kind of work anyway.?
?Who?ll do it??
?An adult ooloi.?
?No!?
?Yes,? I said, taking her by the arms. ?Yes. You can?t condemn your daughters to die the way your mother did. Why do adult ooloi frighten you??
?They don?t frighten me. My response to them frightens me. I feel
as though I?m not in control of myself anymore. I feel drugged?as though they could make me do anything.?
?You won?t be their prisoner. And you won?t be dealing with unmated ooloi. The ooloi who changes you won?t want anything from you.?
?I would rather have you do it?or someone like you.?
?I?m a construct ooloi. The first one. There is no one else like me.?
She looked at me for a little longer, then pulled me closer to her and drew a long, weary breath. ?You?re beautiful, you know? You shouldn?t be, but you are. You remind me of a man I knew once.? She sighed again. ?Damn.?
9
Back to Lo.
We gave the drugged prisoners to the people of Lo. A house would be grown for them from the substance of Lo and they would not be let out of it until a shuttle came for them. Then they would be transferred to the ship. They understood what was to happen to them, and even drugged, they asked to be spared, to be released. The one who had called Lilith and Tino animals began to cry. Nikanj drugged him a little more and he seemed to forget why he had been upset. That would be his life now. Once he was aboard the ship, one ooloi would drug him regularly. He would come to look forward to it?and he would not care what else was done with him.
I took Marina to the guest area before Nikanj was free to check her. I didn?t want to watch it examine her. I got the impression that it was perfectly willing not to touch her. There must have been too much of my scent on her to make her seem still alone and unrelated.
She kissed me before I left her. I think it was an experiment for her. For me it was an enjoyment. It let me touch her a little more, sink filaments of sensory tentacles into her along the lengths of our bodies. She liked that. She shouldn?t have. I was supposed to be too young to give pleasure. She liked it anyway.
?I?ll send someone to change you genetically,? I said after a time. ?Don?t be afraid. Let your children have the same chance you have.?
?All right.?
I held her a little longer, then left her. I asked Tehkorahs to check her and make the necessary adjustment.
It stood with Wray Ordway, its male Human mate, and Wray smiled and gave me a look of understanding and amusement. He was one of the few people in Lo to speak for me when the exile decision was being made. ?A child is a child,? he said through Tehkorahs. ?The more you treat it like a freak, the more it will behave like one.? I think people like him eased things for me. They made Earth exile feel less objectionable to the truly frightened people who wanted me safely shut away on the ship.
?You know I?ll take care of the female,? Tehkorahs said. ?She seemed to like you very much.?
I felt my head and body tentacles flatten to my skin in remembered pleasure. ?Very much.?
Wray laughed. ?I told you it would be sexually precocious? just like the construct males and females.?
Tehkorahs looped a sensory tentacle around his neck. ?I?m not surprised. Every gene trade brings change. Jodahs, let me check you. The female won?t want to see me for a while. You?ve left too much of yourself with her.?
I stepped close to it and it released Wray and examined me quickly, thoroughly. I felt its surprise before it let me go. ?You?re much more in control now,? it said. ?I can?t find anything wrong with you. And if your memories of the female are accurate??
