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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

There was another big gasp that filled up whole of the clearing, then, for a few heartbeats, a strange stunned silence followed by muttering and murmuring, as we all stared at this stranger. She was completely different from what any of us had pictured when we’d listened to the stories. And she was different too, in spite of having the same dark skin, from the Earth woman standing in front of us.

This time the Earth people had the sense not to move the picture on so quickly. We needed to study this picture, we needed to absorb it, we needed to weigh it up in our minds, like a Veeklehouse trader weighs a lump of blackglass in his hand, turning it this way and that, looking for cracks and blemishes. More than a hundred heartbeats passed in which all the grownups who could see at all, and all the newhairs, and all the kids who weren’t too small to understand, were staring staring staring, some in silence, some whispering to one another, as they tried to figure out what this picture meant to them.

Off over to the left of where we were, there was a bunch of people who were standing because there was no room left to sit. And from over there, another small child suddenly spoke out loudly as little children do. ‘Who’s that, Mum?’ the child asked. But this time no one laughed in the way that they’d laughed when Candy spoke, and her mum stooped down and whispered the answer in her ear.

‘It’s Mother Gela, apparently,’ I guess the mother said to her little daughter, ‘but now be a good girl and be quiet.’

The kid wasn’t having that, though. ‘I thought you said that was Gela over there !’ she said, still in the same loud voice that everyone could hear.

‘Sssssh!’ her mother told her, looking anxiously round. I’m sure most grownups there were every bit as confused as that child was, but no one else spoke out, no one else asked to have the confusion cleared up, even though not long before they’d all been shouting: ‘Gela! Gela! Gela!’ Partly because they were embarrassed, I guess. But mainly because people didn’t really want to hear Gaia answer the question as to whether or not she was still Gela in some way – Gela born in a different body, maybe, Gela changed by being made new again – or whether she was someone completely different. They preferred to leave that unexplained.

Presently Strongheart spoke from his high seat behind us, his voice gruff and choked up. ‘Make her talk and move like the other pictures.’