"Will you stop it!" she shouted. "I'm a prisoner here just like you. I can't let you out. I can't get out myself. Do you understand?"
Leah stopped struggling. Now she glared up at Lilith.
"Get off me." Her voice was naturally deep and throaty. Now it was almost a growl.
"I intend to," Lilith said. "But don't jump me again. I'm not your enemy."
Leah made a wordless sound.
"Save your strength," Lilith said. "We've got a lot of rebuilding to do."
"Rebuilding?" Leah growled.
"The war," Lilith said. "Remember?"
"I wish I could forget." The growl had softened.
"You kill me here and you'll prove you haven't had enough war yet. You'll prove you're not fit to take part in the rebuilding."
Leah said nothing. After a moment, Lilith released her.
Both women stood up warily.
"Who decides whether or not I'm fit?" Leak asked. "You?"
"Our jailers."
Unexpectedly, Celene whispered, "Who are they?" Her face was already streaked with tears. She and Tate had come up silently to join the discussion-or watch the fight.
Lilith glanced at Tate, and Tate shook her head. "And you were afraid Awakening a man would cause violence," she said.
"I still am," Lilith told her. She looked at Celene, then Leah. "Let's get something to eat. I'll answer any questions I can."
She took them to the room that would be Celene's and watched their eyes widen when they saw, not the expected bowls of god-knew-what, but recognizable food.
It was easier to talk to them when they'd eaten their fill, when they were relatively relaxed and comfortable. They refused to believe they were on a ship beyond the moon's orbit. Leah laughed aloud when she heard that they were being held by extraterrestrials.
"Either you're a liar or you're crazy," she said.
"It's true," Lilith said softly.
"It's crap."
"The Oankali modified me," Lilith told her, "so that I can control the walls and the suspended animation plants. I can't do it as well as they can, but I can Awaken people, feed them, clothe them, and give them a certain amount of privacy. You shouldn't get so wrapped up in doubting me that you ignore the things you see me do. And remember two things in particular that I've told you. We are on a ship. Act as though you believe that even if you don't. There is no place to run on a ship. Even if you could get out of this room, there would be nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nowhere to be free. On the other hand, if we endure our time here, we'll get our world back. We'll be put down on Earth as the first of the returning human colonists."
"Just do as we're told and wait, huh?" Leah said.
"Unless you like it here well enough to stay."
"I don't believe a word you say."
"Believe what you want! I'm telling you how to act if you ever want to feel the ground under your feet again!"
Celene began to cry quietly and Lilith frowned at her. "What's the matter with you?"
Celene shook her head. "I don't know what to believe. I don't even know why I'm still alive."
Tate sighed and shook her head in disgust.
"You are alive," Lilith said coldly. "We have no medical supplies here. If you want to commit suicide, you might succeed. If you want to hang around and help get things started back on Earth... well, that seems a lot more worth succeeding at."
"Did you have any children?" Celene asked, clearly expecting the answer to be no.
"Yes." Lilith made herself reach out, take the woman's hand, though already she disliked her. "All the people I have to Awaken are here without their families. We're all alone. We've got each other, and nobody else. We'll become a community-friends, neighbors, husbands, wives- or we won't."
"When will there be men?" Celene demanded.
"In a day or two. I'll Awaken two men next."
"Why not now?"
"No. I'll get rooms ready for them, get food and clothing out for them-the way I have for you and Leah."
"You mean you build the rooms?"
"It's more accurate to say I grow them. You'll see."
"You grow the food, too?" Leah asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Food and clothing is stored along the walls at each end of the big room. They're replaced as we use them. I can open the storage cabinets, but I can't open the wall behind them. Only the Oankali can do that."
There was silence for a moment. Lilith began gathering her own fruit peelings and seeds. "Any garbage goes into one of the toilets," she said. "You don't have to worry about stopping them up. They're more than they appear to be. They'll digest anything that isn't alive."
"Digest!" Celene said, horrified. "They... they're alive themselves?"
"Yes. The ship is alive and so is almost everything in it. The Oankali use living matter the way we used machinery." She started away toward the nearest bathroom, then stopped. "The other thing I meant to tell you," she said focusing on Leah and Celene, "is that we're being watched-just as we were all watched in our isolation rooms. I don't think the Oankali will bother us this time-not until forty or more of us are Awake and getting along fairly well together. They will come in, though, if we start to murder each other. And the would-be murderers-or actual murderers-will be kept here on the ship for the rest of their lives."
"So you're protected from us," Leah said. "Convenient."
"We're protected from one another," Lilith said. "We're an endangered species-almost extinct. If we're going to survive, we need protection."
4
Lilith did not release Curt Loehr from his suspended animation plant until Joseph Shing's plant lay beside it. Then, quickly, she opened both plants, lifted Joseph out and dragged Loehr out. She set Leah and Tate to work dressing Curt and worked alone to dress Joseph since Celene would not touch him while he was naked. Both men were fully clothed by the time they struggled to full consciousness.
After the initial misery of Awakening, they sat up and looked around. "Where are we?" Curt demanded. "Who's in charge here?"
Lilith winced. "I am," she said. "I Awoke you. We're all prisoners here, but it's my job to Awaken people."
"And who are you working for?" Joseph demanded. He had a slight accent and Curt, hearing it, turned to stare, then to glare at him.
Lilith introduced them quickly. "Conrad Loehr of New York, this is Joseph Shing of Vancouver." Then she introduced each of the women.
Celene had already settled close to Curt, and once she was introduced, she added: "Back when things were normal, everyone called me Cele."
Tate rolled her eyes and Leah frowned. Lilith managed not to smile. She had been right about Celene. Celene would put herself under Curt's protection if he let her. That would keep Curt occupied. Lilith caught a faint smile on Joseph's face.
"We have food if you two are hungry," Lilith said, slipping into what was becoming a standard speech. "While we eat, I'll answer your questions."
"One answer now," Curt said. His question: "Who are you working for? Which side?"
He had not seen her push his suspended animation plant back into the wall. She had not turned her back on him since he had been fully Awake.
"Down on Earth," she said carefully, "there are no people left to draw lines on maps and say which sides of those lines are the right sides. There is no government left. No human government, anyway."
He frowned, then glared at her as he had earlier at Joseph. "You're saying we've been captured by. . . something that isn't human?"
"Or rescued," Lilith said.
Joseph stepped up to her. "You've seen them?"
Lilith nodded.
"You believe they are extraterrestrials?"
"Yes."
"And you believe we are on some kind of. . . what? Space ship?"
"A very, very large one, almost like a small world."
"What proof can you show us?"
"Nothing that you couldn't perceive as a trick if you wanted to."
"Please show us anyway."