"Butler, Octavia - Xenogenesis 01 - Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Butler Octavia E)

He stood up and waited uncomplaining for several minutes until she dragged herself to her feet.
"You'll meet my mates and one of my children now," he said. "Then rest and food, Lilith."
She looked at him, longing for a human expression. "Would you have done it?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Why?"
"For you."


















II


FAMILY



1

Sleep.
She barely remembered being presented to three of Jdahya's relatives, then guided off and given a bed. Sleep. Then a small, confused awakening.
Now food and forgetting.
Food and pleasure so sharp and sweet it cleared everything else from her mind. There were whole bananas, dishes of sliced pineapple, whole figs, shelled nuts of several kinds, bread and honey, a vegetable stew filled with corn, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and spices.
Where had all this been, Lilith wondered. Surely they could have given her a little of this instead of keeping her for so long on a diet that made eating a chore. Could it all have been for her health? Or had there been some other purpose--something to do with their damned gene trade?
When she had eaten some of everything, savored each new taste lovingly, she began to pay attention to the four Oankali who were with her in the small, bare room. They were Jdahya and his wife lel Kahguyaht aj Dinso. And there was Jdahya's ooloi mate Kahguyaht--Ahtrekahguyahtkaal lel Jdahyatediin aj Dinso. Finally there was the family's ooloi child Nikanj--Kaalnikanj oo Jdahyatediinkahguyaht aj Dinso.
The four sat atop familiar, featureless platforms eating Earth foods from their several small dishes as though they had been born to such a diet.
There was a central platform with more of everything on it, and the Oankali took turns filling one another's dishes. One of them could not, it seemed, get up and fill only one dish. Others were immediately handed forward, even to Lilith. She filled Jdahya's with hot stew and returned it to him, wondering when he had eaten last-apart from the orange they had shared.
"Did you eat while we were in that isolation room?" she asked him.
"I had eaten before I went in," he said. "I used very little energy while I was there so I didn't need any more food."
"How long were you there?"
"Six days, your time."
She sat down on her platform and stared at him. "That long?"
"Six days," he repeated.
"Your body has drifted away from your world's twenty-four-hour day," the ooloi Kahguyaht said. That happens to all your people. Your day lengthens slightly and you lose track of how much time has passed."
''But-''
"How long did it seem to you?"