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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 know what you’re thinking,’ he said, quickly so as to blot out the memory. ‘You’re thinking it’s about time I admitted that the Davidfolk were right all along. Isn’t that so? You’re thinking we destroyed the Circle that Gela and Tommy laid, and we broke Gela’s Family in two, and we stole Gela’s ring from the rest of Family, and now, as if all that stuff wasn’t bad enough, we’ve brought all this killing to Old Ground, and done for Gela’s messenger as well. Is that right? Isn’t that what you’re thinking? Never mind that the ring keeps coming back to us. As far as you’re concerned, everything points to us Johnfolk being the ones who are in the wrong.’

The three guards said nothing. They didn’t even turn their heads towards him.

‘Mother of Eden, guys!’ Luke cried out. ‘I don’t care what you say! I don’t care if you want to yell at me! But answer me at least!’

Fifty-one

So, it’s done now.’

From behind the loud crackling and hissing, the young woman’s voice murmured into our ears like she was right there next to us. Lines and flashes appeared on the screens and vanished again.

‘It’s just me and Tommy here now. Him and me. We’re everyone there is on Eden. He’s already driving me nuts, but it seems we’re stuck with each other. We gave them two months before we’d make up our minds that we were here for the long haul. Tommy figured that was how long it would take to get the other starship ready and bring it back to us, if the ship hadn’t already been scrapped, and if Earth was interested enough to get right down to it. Those two months have gone.

‘Of course, the other three may still have got back to Earth for all we know, but the odds were always against it. We just can’t know what’s happening out there, far away in the depths of this dreary black night sky that’s always above us, but my agreement with Tommy was that at this point we’d start acting like this was going to be home for a good long time. Last night . . . No, wait, I am going to have to stop saying night and day . . . At the end of our last waking time, me and Tommy had sex. It wasn’t exactly a promising situation. I don’t love him. He expects women to love him at first sight because there were plenty of women on Earth to tell him he was godz gift, but he isn’t my type at all, and I’m just so angry with him and the other two for trapping me here in the first place.’