Butler, Octavia - Dawn

"There's nothing there!" Tate said over her right shoulder. Lilith jumped, dropped the picture, refused to turn and glare at Tate as she bent to pick it up. "Get away from me!" she said quietly.

Grudgingly, Tate moved back several steps. Lilith could have found the spot again without any particular concentration, without having Tate move away, but Tate had to learn to accept Lilith's authority in anything to do with controlling the walls or dealing with the Oankali and their ship. What the hell did she think she was doing, coming back, creeping along behind Lilith? What was she looking for? Some trick?

Lilith rubbed one hand on the face of the picture and placed it against the wall. She found the bulge at once, though it was still to slight to be seen. It had ceased to grow with the removal of the picture, but had not yet vanished. Now Lilith rubbed it gently with the picture, encouraging it to grow. When she could see the protrusion, she stepped away and waited, gesturing for Tate to come.

Standing together, they watched the wall disgorge the long, translucent green plant. Tate made a sound of disgust and stepped back as the smell drifted to her.

"You want to look at it before I open it?" Lilith asked. Tate came closer and stared at the plant. "Why is it moving?"

"So that every part of it is exposed to the light for a while. If you could mark it, you would see that it's very slowly turning over. The movement is suppose to be good for the people inside, too. it exercises their muscles and changes their position."

"It doesn't really look like a slug," Tate said. "Not when someone's in it." She went to it, stroked it with several fingers, then looked at her fingers.

"Be careful," Lilith told her. "Celene isn't very big. The plant probably wouldn't mind taking someone else in."

"Would you be able to get me out?"

"Yes." She smiled. "The first Oankali to show these to me didn't warn me. I put my hand on the plant and almost panicked when I realized the plant was holding me and growing around my hand."

Tate tried this, and the plant obligingly began to swallow her hand. She tugged at her band, then looked at Lilith, obviously afraid. "Make it let go!"

Lilith touched the plant around her captive hand and the plant released her. "Now," Lilith said, moving to one end of the plant. She drew her hands along the length of the plant. It opened in its usual slow way, and she lifted Celene out and put her on the floor where Tate could look after her. "Get some clothes on her before she wakes up if you can," she told Tate.

But by the time Celene was fully awake, Lilith had Leah Bede out of the wall and out of her plant. She dressed Leah quickly. Not until both women were fully awake and looking around did Lilith push the two plants back through the wall. When that was done, she turned, meaning to sit down with Leah and Celene and answer their questions.

Instead, she was suddenly staggered by Leah's weight as the woman leaped onto her back and began strangling her. Lilith began to fall. Time seemed to slow down for her.

If she fell on Leah, the woman would probably injure her back or her head. The injury might be only superficial, but could be serious. It would be wrong to let a potentially useful person be lost for one act of stupidity.

Lilith managed to fall on her side so that only Leah's arm and shoulder struck the floor. Lilith reached up and took Leah's hands from her throat. It was not difficult. Lilith was even able to go on taking care not to cause injury. She also took care not to let Leah see how easy it was for Lilith to defeat her. She gasped as she tore Leah's hands from her throat, though she was nowhere near desperate for air yet. And she allowed Leah's hands to move in her own as Leah struggled.

"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.