T’Gatoi orders Gan to go call for help, but he argues that he should stay to help her instead, Qui, his older brother should call for help. He is in great pain and great danger-if the eggs are not removed before the gestating Tlic eat through their egg shells, they will begin to eat their Terran host from the inside out. T’Gatoi senses that something is wrong and rushes outside, finding Bram Lomas, a Terran who has also been impregnated by a Tlic and whose eggs are ready to hatch.

Indeed, Gan was promised to T’Gatoi out of the gratitude of his mother before he was even born. While they are sitting, Gan reflects about how T’Gatoi, as ruler of the Preserve, protects all of the Terrans from the masses of Tlic, and how they are all indebted to her. Gan’s father frequently drank eggs and lived to twice his natural lifespan, bearing three clutches of Tlic eggs and siring four Terran children. Gan’s mother, Lien, initially refuses to drink the egg until T’Gatoi pressures her to, chiding her for suffering needlessly and allowing old age to take her earlier than it has to, since the eggs also have a life-prolonging effect on Terrans. Gan and his family are drinking sterile Tlic eggs, which for Terrans have a narcotic, pleasant effect, while T’Gatoi sits with them and talks.

The Tlic and Terrans have formed an interdependent relationship around this arrangement, and live peaceably amongst each other.Īn adolescent Terran named Gan, who is mated to a female Tlic named T’Gatoi and will soon be implanted with her eggs, is visiting his family at their home. Since the Terrans are ideal hosts, the Tlic of the Preserve have formed an arrangement with them: the Tlic offer protection and the Terrans offer one male from each family to serve as a host to Tlic eggs. The Tlic, who are large, intelligent, centipede-like beings, are parasitic and need host animals for their eggs. On an unnamed alien planet, a group of humans (referred to as Terrans) live in a protected community called the Preserve, along with a segment of the ruling alien race, the Tlic.

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler