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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

‘My poor sweet Gerry, for instance,’ Luke went on. ‘He used to talk excitedly to me about President guiding the world, President speaking to him across the sky, President being the one that tells the story we’re all of us in, every one of us: Johnfolk, Davidfolk, humans, bats, bucks. But I’ve never heard him, have you? Not if I’m really honest. I’ve never heard him once. Or Mother Gela either, for that matter. There’s no one really speaking to us, no one reaching out to us, no one guiding us. And all the while the darkness is creeping towards us, out of airholes, out of cracks, out of little gaps, the darkness that truly belongs here as we never never will. It’s all round us all the time, watching us, waiting, ready to lunge out at us when the moment is right. Do you know what I mean? Do you ever feel that way?’

Roger said nothing. Why should he listen to the self-pity of a man who’d caused his brother’s death? Without saying a word, he rode on ahead to join the other two guards.

Forty-nine

It wasn’t the voice of Gela as we’d imagined it. We’d imagined her as gentle gentle and wise wise. We’d thought of her as being so grownup that we would all still be children beside her, so that, even if we were grownups ourselves, even if we were old old old, she would comfort and look after us, forgive us the silly things we’d done and love us anyway. But this voice wasn’t like that at all. It was angry and bitter, a sharp tough young woman used to getting her own way, maybe four five years older than Trueheart. It reminded me a bit of Starlight as she was way back when we were in Veeklehouse together and she set out across the Pool.

‘If some of us decide to stay here, they won’t die,’ the voice said, ‘not if they’re careful. We’ve established that you can eat the plants here and the meat as well. It’s all absolutely disgusting, but you can eat it. We’ve even found a source of vittermin dee, which I guess is . . . well . . . lucky, though I can’t say I feel very lucky right now. And . . .’ There was a long pause. The head barely moved, the fire-waterfall crackled away, the lines and flashes kept flickering out onto the screens and disappearing again.