Dawn

Lilith and her Oankali family reach the camp. Nikanj and its mates are greeted by the Oankali and Lilith feels envious. She sits down in silence with Leah, Wray, Gabriel, and Tate. Tate hands her a yam and some fish. Allison says that Victor caught turtles and roasted them and that the Oankali kept away from them.

Gabriel says he’s not sure there’s not Oankali right there. Lilith sighs and says, “Okay, Gabe, what have you got? Questions, accusations, or condemnations?” (239). He replies that he has all three and that Lilith had chosen to stand with the Oankali.

Lilith asks where Gabriel was standing when Curt hacked Joseph to death. Tate puts a hand on Lilith’s arm and tells her that no one thought Curt would do such a thing. Lilith replied that he did, and they all stood by and watched.

After more silence, Wray asks why Lilith took off her clothes and laid down with the ooloi. Lilith says that she did so to use her body to heal Nikanj. Gabriel wants to know why Lilith did not just let it die. Lilith demands, “Why should I let it die, then be stuck with some stranger? How would that help me or you or anyone here?” (240). Gabriel replies that Lilith always has an answer for everything but they don’t quite ring true. He remains inflexible and angry.

Tate takes his hand, but they are unable to hold onto each other. Tate wants to know what they can do about that feeling. Lilith says that she does not know and that they must ask Kahguyaht. Gabriel says he never wants to see Kahguyaht again. Allison wants to know if he really feels that way.

Lilith answers for him: “Not really. He wishes he hated Kahguyaht. He tries to hate it. But in the fighting, it was Nikanj he tried to kill. And here, now, it’s me he blames and distrusts” (240). Gabriel angrily tells Lilith that she can’t speak for his feelings. He calls her the Oankali’s whore and says that everyone knows it.

Tired of fighting, Lilith asks what Gabriel is when he spends his nights with Kahguyaht. For a moment, it looks like Gabriel will strike Lilith, but instead, he turns and goes to the shelters. Tate glares at Lilith and follows him.

Kahguyaht comes up to Lilith and says that she did not have to do that. Lilith replies that she’s tired and that she resigns as the Oankali’s scapegoat. Kahguyaht does not answer and goes over to Tate and Gabriel. Lilith thinks about Joseph, how he would tell her not to antagonize both peoples, and then thinks about how Joseph is not there.

The people in the group avoid Lilith, which she is fine with. Her Oankali family offers to take her with them when they leave the training area, but Lilith wants to stay in the Earth-like setting as she prepares to return to Earth. She fills her time with routine chores like gathering fruit and catching fish.

Lilith only teaches the others when they request it. She realizes that she enjoys teaching when it’s done with a willing participant. Gradually, her former allies come to ask her questions, except for Tate. This hurts Lilith because Tate had been her friend.

Lilith has only Nikanj and its mates, whom she shares a bed with at night. At first, she does not want to engage in sex with Nikanj, but she soon feels glad to have the comfort. Nikanj tells her she is free to find another human mate if she chooses and that they will be Awakening more humans soon, so she could choose a mate from that group, which confuses her because it had also told her that the first human group would be leaving for Earth soon.

Lilith goes off into the forest to gather bean pods, returning late in the day. When she enters the camp, she does not see the usual group of people around the fire. Nikanj stands up, with no one else in sight. Lilith runs up to Nikanj and demands to know where everyone is, and why no one came to find her.

Nikanj says that Tate said that she was sorry for her behavior and wished that she could have spoken to Lilith, who now asks where Tate is. Nikanj says that Kahguyaht has enhanced Tate’s memory, which would help her and the other humans on Earth.

Lilith realizes that she has been left behind: “But what about me? I did all you asked. I didn’t hurt anyone. Why am I still here?” (244). Nikanj takes her hand and tells her that it was to save her life and that people had been making threats against her.

Lilith weeps and asks why they could not have waited to take the group away until she had returned to the camp. Nikanj says that Lilith would have become upset and possibly hurt or even killed someone, which would have forced the Oankali to put her back in suspended animation. Nikanj says again that it had already lost Joseph and could not lose her, too.

Nikanj says that the humans will escape as soon as they are put down on Earth, just as Lilith had encouraged them and as the Oankali had expected. The Oankali also expected the humans to eventually return to them, knowing that they must.

Lilith wants to know why the humans must return. Nikanj reveals that humans now need their ooloi in order to have children; human eggs and sperm will not unite without an Oankali. It asks if Lilith thinks that the humans should be told that they can return at any time. Lilith believes people should think that they are deciding for themselves. Many will prefer that the human species just end in a “clean death.”

Nikanj asks if Lilith considers the Oankali plan to be unclean, and Lilith says yes. Then it asks, “Is it an unclean thing that I have made you pregnant?” (246). Nikanj explains that it impregnated Lilith with Joseph’s child. It would not have done so this soon but wanted to use Joseph’s sperm, which it could not keep alive for long.

Shocked, Lilith furiously says that Nikanj promised not to do this, but Nikanj said it would only wait until Lilith was ready. She insists that she is not ready, but Nikanj says that she is and will now have Joseph’s daughter. Nikanj made a companion for Lilith, knowing how very lonely she has been.

Lilith says in horror that it will not be a daughter but a non-human thing. Nikanj insists that Lilith is ready to be the mother of a human-Oankali hybrid. The child will be a beautiful amalgamation of them all, Lilith and Joseph, Ahajas and Dichaan, and Nikanj itself, free of deadly conflicts. Ahajas is pregnant also, and Lilith and Joseph will be that child’s parents, too. Ahajas’s child will look like a human after metamorphosis and will be the sibling of Lilith’s child.

Lilith wants to reject all of this, but Nikanj continues that these children will be better than all of them, with the best characteristics of both species. Lilith maintains that this will destroy the human race. Nikanj says they will all leave together, their family, but that they have work to do first.

It’s time to go home, but Lilith bitterly asks to remain in the training area since it’s the closest thing to Earth. Nikanj says that Lilith will return with the next group of Awakened humans, and Lilith knows that she cannot refuse. She thinks that at least she will have another group to teach. She will have more information and perhaps they will find a solution to what the Oankali are doing to them.