Butler, Octavia - Dawn

"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."

She nodded, not minding. Each pair or group of new people would have to be handled slightly differently. She explained what she could of the changes that had been made in her body chemistry, then, with both men watching, she grew another room. Twice she stopped to allow them to inspect the walls. She said nothing when they attempted to control the walls as she did, and then attempted to break them. The living tissue of the walls resisted them, ignored them. Their strength was meaningless. Finally they watched silently as Lilith completed the room.

"It's like the stuff my cell was made of when I was Awake before," Curt said. "What the hell is it? Some kind of plastic?"

"Living matter," Lilith said. "More plant than animal." She let their surprised silence last for a moment, then led them into the room where she and Leah had left the food. Tate was already there, eating a hot rice and bean dish.

Celene handed Curt one of the large edible bowls of food and Lilith offered one to Joseph. But Joseph kept focused on the subject of the living ship. He refused to eat himself or let Lilith eat in peace until he knew everything she did about the way the ship worked. He seemed annoyed that she knew so little.

"Do you believe what she says?" Leah asked him when he finally gave up the interrogation and tasted his cold food.

"I believe that Lilith believes," he said. "I haven't decided yet what I believe." He paused. "It does seem important, though, for us to behave as though we are in a ship-unless we find out for certain that we aren't. A ship in space could be an excellent prison even if we could get out of this room."

Lilith nodded gratefully. "That's it," she said. "That's what's important. If we endure this place, behave as though it's a ship no matter what anyone thinks individually, we can survive here until we're sent to Earth."

And she went on to tell them about the Oankali, about the plan to reseed Earth with human communities. Then she told them about the gene trade because she had decided they must know. If she waited too long to tell them, they might feel betrayed by her silence. But telling them now gave them plenty of time to reject the idea, then slowly begin to think about it and realize what it could mean.

Tate and Leah laughed at her, refused absolutely to believe that any manipulation of DNA could mix humans with extraterrestrial aliens.

"As far as I know," Lilith told them, "I haven't seen any human-Oankali combinations. But because of the things I have seen, because of the changes the Oankali have made in me, I believe they can tamper with us genetically, and I believe they intend to. Whether they'll blend with us or destroy us. . . that I don't know."

"Well, I haven't seen anything," Curt said. He had been quiet for a long time, listening, slipping his arm around

Celene when she sat near him and looked frightened. "Until I do see something-and I don't mean more moving walls-this is all bullshit."

"I'm not sure I'd believe no matter what I saw," Tate said. "It isn't hard to believe our captors intend to do some kind of genetic tampering," Joseph said. "They could do that whether they were human or extraterrestrial. There was a lot of work being done in genetics before the war. That may have devolved into some kind of eugenics program afterward. Hitler might have done something like that after World War Two if he had had the technology and if he had survived." He took a deep breath. "I think our best bet now is to learn all we can. Get facts. Keep our eyes open. Then later we can make the best possible use of any opportunities we might have to escape."

Learn and run, Lilith thought almost gleefully. She could have hugged Joseph. Instead, she took a bite of her cold food.

5

Two days later when Lilith saw that Curt was not likely to cause trouble-at least, not soon-she Awakened Gabriel Rinaldi and Beatrice Dwyer. She asked Joseph to help her with Gabriel and turned Beatrice over to Leah and Curt. Celene was still useless when it came to getting people dressed and oriented. Tate was apparently becoming bored with the process of Awakening people.