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Back Daughter of Eden
Chapters (68)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication
  3. Part I
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 20. 20:25 MT.
  30. Part II
  31. Twenty-six
  32. Twenty-seven
  33. Twenty-eight
  34. Twenty-nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-one
  37. Thirty-two
  38. Thirty-three
  39. Thirty-four
  40. Thirty-five
  41. Thirty-six
  42. Thirty-seven
  43. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 22. 20:05 MT.
  44. Thirty-eight
  45. Thirty-nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-one
  48. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.
  49. Forty-two
  50. Forty-three
  51. Forty-four
  52. Forty-five
  53. Forty-six
  54. Forty-seven
  55. Forty-eight
  56. Forty-nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-one
  59. Fifty-two
  60. Fifty-three
  61. Fifty-four
  62. Part III
  63. Fifty-five
  64. Fifty-six
  65. Fifty-seven
  66. Fifty-eight
  67. Also by Chris Beckett
  68. Copyright page

‘I don’t get that thing about cheating and space,’ I said, ‘but if it only takes you twenty wakings to get here, and if you knew how to find us, how come you’ve taken four hundred years?’

Behind me, Gaia had just come out of the shelter and it was her that answered me.

‘You need to understand, Angie, that for the first three hundred years, hardly anyone on Earth knew that Eden existed, or even that the Defiant had come back. It was all kept a secret. My great-grandmother found out about it and, after a lot of work and a lot of arguing, she managed to find the . . .’ She broke off, and looked at Marius for help. This was going to happen often: one or other of them would be speaking and then suddenly they’d stop and look at one of the other two, realizing that they’d been about to say a word we wouldn’t understand and hoping for suggestions for another word to put in its place. ‘My great-grandmother found the Defiant ’s memory,’ Gaia said. ‘I think that’s the best way to put it. She found the memory of where it had been, and the . . . well, you saw the linkup, didn’t you, that black square thing I gave to Leader Harry? So you know we’ve got a way of saving pictures and sounds and words? Well, my great-grandmother found pictures of these trees you have here, and she found . . . well . . . the voices of the five people who found this place. And they were . . . well, I guess you won’t know this word, but . . .’

Marius took over from her. It made me think of kids playing football, and how they pass on the ball to someone else when they’re about to be dragged down. ‘It’s a bit hard to explain,’ he said, ‘but we can send pictures and voices from one place to another—’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Trueheart. She and Fox were still sitting over their game of chess, but they’d been listening to everything. ‘We know about lecky-trickity and telly vijun.’

Marius and Gaia glanced at one another and smiled.