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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

‘The thing is . . .’ began Deep. ‘The thing is that you people rely on stories that one person passes on to another, and of course, no matter how careful you are, they’re bound to change over time. But we’ve got these pictures and clips and—’

‘Deep means we can make copies of voices and words that don’t change in the way that stories do,’ Gaia said.

The people round us were getting bored.

‘Show us some more pictures!’ a man shouted out.

‘I want to see Gela again!’ called out a woman. ‘I want to see Gela and her ring!’

GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.
MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.

‘How can it matter so much to them who the President of America was four centuries ago?’ Marius grumbled. The three of us had returned to the landing vehicle so we could talk without being overheard. We’d turned the lights down so as not to feel like goldfish in a bowl. All round us, our softly glowing screens offered us information about the world we were in, beautifully organized into diagrams and tables. ‘I mean, it’s not as if they’ve got the slightest understanding as to what a President was – or what America was, for that matter!’

I like Marius a lot, but I think he suffers from a common delusion of very clever folk. Since he’s much better at reasoning than ninety-nine point nine per cent of the people he meets, he’s prone to assume that his way of thinking about the world is the only one that makes any sense at all.

‘It’s an article of faith,’ I said. ‘It’s just one of the things that binds these people together and defines who they are.’

‘That’s right,’ Deep said. ‘Come on, Marius, it’s not that hard to get! The President thing is a little part of a larger story. And the story means a lot to them.’

‘It’s a powerful story,’ I said, ‘about how Angela was brought to Eden against her will, and suffered here, and longed for light and Earth, just as they all do, and eventually found it again after her death.’

Marius snorted. ‘Which of course is nonsense. If we try and protect this belief system, we’re essentially denying them access to the truth.’

‘Which is what?’ I asked.

‘That Earth isn’t a paradise. That Gela isn’t waiting there. That there’s no life after death. That no more than a handful of people from Eden will ever visit Earth. Yes, and that the universe doesn’t work in the way they think it does. It isn’t a backdrop for human stories. It’s—’

‘What gives your life meaning, Marius?’

‘Science, I guess. Getting to the truth. Peeling away the surface and figuring out how things really work.’

‘And why does the truth matter?’