I liked the acting. It scared me at first, and I couldnt understand a lot of it, but
Its like what we doconstructs and Oankali. Its like when we touch each other and talk with feelings and pressures. Sometimes you have to remember a feeling you havent had for a long time and bring it back so you can transmit it to someone else or use a feeling you have about one thing to help someone understand something else.
You do that?
Yes. We cant do it very well with Humans. The ooloi can, but males and females cant.
Yeah. He sighed and lay down on his back. They had cleared some of the plant growth and rubble from the stone floor of the shelter and could wrap themselves in their blankets and lie on it in comfort.
What was this place? Akin asked, looking up at the stars through the roofless building. Only the overhang of the hill provided any shelter at all if it happened to rain that night.
Dont know, Gabe said. It could have been some peasants house. I suspect it goes back further, though. I think its an old Indian dwelling. Maybe even Inca or some related people.
Who were they?
Short brown people. Probably looked something like Tinos parents. Something like you, maybe. They were here for thousands of years before people who look like me or Tate got here.
You and Tate dont look alike.
No. But were both descended from Europeans. Indians were descended from Asians. The Incas are the ones everyone thinks of for this part of the world, but there were a lot of different groups. To tell the truth, I dont think were far enough into the mountains to be seeing Inca ruins. This is a damn old place, though. He pulled his mouth into a smile. Old and Human.
They walked for many days, exploring, finding other ruined dwellings, describing a great circle back to the salvage camp. Akin never asked why Gabe took him on the long trip. Gabe never volunteered an explanation. He seemed pleased that Akin insisted on walking most of the time and usually managed to keep up. He willingly tried eating plants Akin recommended and liked some of them well enough to take them back as small plants, seeds, stalks, or tubers. Akin guided him in this, too.
What can I take back that will grow? Gabe would say. He could not know how much this pleased Akin. What he and Gabe were doing was what the Oankali always didcollect life, travel and collect and integrate new life into their ships, their already vast collection of living things, and themselves.
He studied each plant very carefully, telling Gabe exactly what he must do to keep the plant alive. Automatically, he kept within himself a memory of genetic patterns or a few dormant cells from each sample. From these, an ooloi could recreate copies of the living organism. Ooloi liked cells from or memories of several individuals within a species. For the Humans, Akin saw that Gabe took seed when there was seed. Seed could be carried in a leaf or a bit of cloth tied with a twist of grass. And it would grow. Akin would see to that. Even without an ooloi to help, he could taste a plant and read its needs. With its needs met, it would thrive.
This is about the happiest Ive ever seen you, Gabe remarked as they neared the salvage camp.
Akin grinned at him but said nothing. Gabe would not want to know that Akin was collecting information for Nikanj. It was enough for him to know that he had pleased Akin very much.
Gabe did not smile back, but only because he made an obvious effort not to.
When they reached camp a few days later, Gabe met Tate with none of the odd anxiety he often showed when she had been out of his sight for a while.
23
Ten days after Akin and Gabe returned, a new salvage team arrived to take their turn at the dig. While both teams were still on the site, the Oankali arrived.
They were not seen. There was no outcry among the Humans. Akin was busy scrubbing a small, ornate crystal vase when he noticed the Oankali scent.
He put the vase down carefully in a wooden box lined with clotha box used for especially delicate, especially beautiful finds. Akin had never broken one of these. There was no reason to break one now.
What should he do? If Humans spotted the Oankali, there might be fighting. Humans could so easily provoke the lethal sting reflex of the Oankali. What to do?
He spotted Tate and called to her. She was digging very carefully around something large and apparently delicate. She was digging with what looked like a long, thin knife and a brush made of twigs. She ignored him.
He went to her quickly, glad there was no one near her to hear.
I have to go, he whispered. Theyre here.
She almost stabbed herself with the knife. Where!
That way. He looked east but did not point.
Of course.
Walk me out there. People will notice if I get too far from camp alone.
Me? No!
If you dont, someone might get killed.
If I do, I might get killed!
Tate.
She looked at him.
You know they wont hurt you. You know. Help me. Your people are the ones Im trying to save.
She gave him a look so hostile that he stumbled back from her. Abruptly she grabbed him, picked him up, and began walking east.
Put me down, he said. Let me walk.
Shut up! she said. Just tell me when Im getting close to them.
He realized belatedly that she was terrified. She could not have been afraid of being killed. She knew the Oankali too well for that. What then?
Im sorry, he whispered. You were the only one I dared to ask. It will be all right.
She took a breath and put him down, held his hand. It wont be all right, she said. But thats not your fault.
They went over a rise, out of sight of the camp. There, several Oankali and two Humans waited. One of the Humans was Lilith. The other
looked like Tino.
Oh, Jesus God! Tate whispered as she caught sight of the Oankali. She froze. Akin thought she might turn and run, but somehow she managed not to move. Akin wanted to go to his family, but he too kept very still. He did not want to leave Tate standing alone and terrified.
Lilith came over to him. She moved so quickly that he had no time to react before she was there, bending, lifting him, hugging him so hard it hurt.
She had not made a sound. She let Akin taste her neck and feel the utter security of flesh as familiar as his own.
Ive been waiting for you for so long, he whispered finally.
Ive been looking for you for so long, she said, her voice hardly sounding like her voice at all. She kissed his face and stroked his hair and finally held him away from her. Three years old, she said. So big. I kept worrying that you wouldnt remember mebut I knew you would. I knew you would.
He laughed at the impossible notion of his forgetting her and looked to see whether she was crying. She was not. She was examining himhis hands and arms, his legs
A shout made them both look up. Tate and the other Human stood facing one another. The sound had been Tate shouting Tinos name.
Tino was smiling at her uncertainly. He did not speak until she took him by the arms and said, Tino, dont you recognize me? Tino?
Akin looked at Tinos expression, and he knew he did not recognize her. He was alive, but something was the matter with him.
Im sorry, Tino said. Ive had a head injury. I remember a lot of my past, but
some things are still coming back to me.
Tate looked at Lilith. Lilith looked back with no sign of friendliness. They tried to kill him when they took Akin, she said. They clubbed him down, fractured his skull so badly he nearly did die.
Akin said he was dead.
He had good reason to think so. She paused. Was it worth his life for you to have my son?
She didnt do it, Akin said quickly. She was my friend. The men who took me tried to sell me in a lot of places before