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Back Daughter of Eden Save as PDF
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

Marius smiled at her. He liked Trueheart, and she liked him. Not in a man–woman way, I don’t mean. They just noticed and liked each other’s smartness. ‘I’ll try and explain it to you, Trueheart, but it’ll have to wait. Right now we’re going to get ready to go out in the forest for a few days. When we get back we’re going to show everyone some pictures from Earth, over there in the big clearing with the stones, and then we’ll get to work on this thing.’

‘What do you mean pictures ?’ I asked.

Gaia laughed. ‘I’ll show you.’ She took out a linkup from a pocket in her wrap, and held it up in front of Trueheart and me and Fox and Clare. ‘Speak!’ she told us. ‘Move about! It’ll remember.’

‘Boo!’ shouted Fox, but I looked at the black square and couldn’t think of anything to say. It seemed dumb, somehow, to talk to a thing like that, and I felt myself blush. ‘Hello!’ I said awkwardly.

Smiling at how nervous we were, Gaia showed us the picture she’d made. Here was my beautiful little Fox, and here was his voice saying boo. Here was Clare – it looked exactly like her – and here was Trueheart with her batface and her smart curious eyes. But next to her was another horribly ugly batface I didn’t recognize at all.

‘Oh Angie, darling,’ said Clare. ‘It looks just like you.’

The ugly old batface’s mouth moved. ‘Hello!’ it said shyly from inside the glass, speaking in a strange voice I didn’t know.

Everyone else laughed and shouted. ‘That’s her! That’s Angie! That’s exactly how she speaks!’

After the Earth people had left Strongheart’s shelter, Starlight told me that she, Newjohn and Strongheart had sat for a moment in silence.

‘Do you think they’re really going to take anyone back to Earth?’ Newjohn asked after a while.

‘Don’t see how they can,’ Starlight said. ‘There isn’t room inside the veekle.’

Newjohn nodded. ‘That’s what I’ve been thinking too.’

‘Perhaps this veekle is just the beginning,’ said Strongheart. ‘Maybe they’ll bring down a bigger one later.’

Newjohn shrugged. ‘But would you go? If you could leave Eden forever and live on Earth, would you really want to do it?’

‘I’m not sure,’ said Starlight. ‘They haven’t told us enough about Earth for me to say.’

Strongheart thought for several heartbeats. ‘We wouldn’t be high people on Earth, would we?’ he said. ‘We’d just be low people like everyone else. Or maybe even lower.’

‘I don’t reckon it will happen anyway,’ said Newjohn. ‘I think we’ll stay here on Eden.’

Strongheart shook his head. ‘Well, let’s make sure they don’t turn us into low people here as well.’

Thirty-five