and to drink from Lilith?s breasts. Jesusa?s breasts, covered by rough cloth that scratched against the top of my hand, were small and wonderfully sensitive. How had she become accustomed to the rough cloth? Probably she had never worn anything else.
She moaned and shared with me the pleasure of her body until I took my hand away and reluctantly detached from her.
?No!? she said.
?I know. We?ll sleep together tonight. I have to talk to you, though, and I wanted you to experience a little of that first. I wanted you to live in my skin for a while.?
She sat up and glanced at TomAs, who slept on. ?Is that what you do?? she asked. She meant was that all I did.
?For now. When I?m an adult, I?ll be able to do more. And also
even now, if I spend much time with you, I?ll heal you. I can?t help it.?
?I can?t go home if you heal me.?
?Jesusa
that doesn?t really matter.?
?My people matter. They matter very much to me.?
?Your people are tormenting themselves unnecessarily. They don?t even know about the Mars colony, do they??
?The what??
?I thought not. And with their background in high-altitude living, they may be better suited to it than most Humans. The Mars colony is exactly what it sounds like: a colony of Humans living and reproducing on the planet Mars. We transport them and we?ve given them the tools to make Mars livable.?
?Why??
?There are no Oankali living on Mars. It?s a Human world.?
?This should be a Human world!?
?It isn?t anymore. It won?t ever be again.?
Silence.
?That?s a hard thing to think about, but it?s true. Humans who are sent to Mars are healed completely of any disease or defect. They?ll pass only good health on to their children.?
?What else had been done to them??
?Nothing. Not even what I?ve already done with you. Their healing won?t be done by some hungry ooloi child. It will be done by people who are adult and mated and not especially interested in them. That?s good if they want to go to Mars. That?s safe.?
?And I think what we did is not safe.?
?Not safe at all.?
?Then you must tell me what you want of me?and of TomAs??
I turned my face away from her for a moment. I could still lose her. I stood a good chance of losing her. ?You know what I want of you. Your people must have warned you. I want to mate with you. With both of you. I want you to stay with me.?
?To
to marry? But you?re
we?re strangers.?
?Are we? Not really. Not after what we?ve shared. I don?t think one of your priests would make us a marriage ceremony, but Oankali and constructs don?t have much of a ceremony. For us, mating is biological
neurochemical.?
?I don?t understand.?
?Our bodies please one another and depend on one another. We keep one another well and make children together. We??
?Have children with my brother!?
?Jesusa
? I shook my head. ?Your flesh is so like his that I could transplant some of it to his body, and with only a small adjustment, it would live and grow on him as well as it does on you. Your people have been breeding brother to sister and parent to child for generations.?
?Not anymore! We don?t have to do that anymore!?
?Because there are more of you now?all closely related. Isn?t that so??
She said nothing.
?And unfortunately there was a mutation. Or perhaps one of your founding parents had a serious genetic defect that was controlled, but not corrected. That wouldn?t have mattered if they?d had an ooloi to clear the way for them, but they didn?t.? I touched her face. ?You have one now, so why should you be separated from TomAs??
