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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

‘And what does that tell you, people?’ Mary asked. ‘Isn’t it obvious what’s happened? Isn’t it obvious obvious? One of those silly women, long long ago, got hold of this Screen and spoke to it!’

Somewhere in the background that young woman’s voice was still murmuring from the hissing crackly screens, but Mary’s was the only voice that people were listening to now. She had one of the best-known faces in all of the Davidfolk Ground, much better known than even David Strongheart’s, because she travelled more often than him, and visited places he’d never think of going. There’d be a few in the crowd who hadn’t seen her before, but there’d always be someone nearby to tell them who she was. And everyone knew about Mary Shadowspeaker. Everyone knew she was honest and brave and smart.

Deep tried to interrupt her. ‘But even if no one had used it at all, the bat-tree in that thing would only have lasted a few years at mo—’ he began, but Mary was in full flow now, and she couldn’t be stopped, not even when he had the veekle to make his voice boom out across whole clearing. People hissed at him to be quiet.

‘Gela is still with us!’ Mary called out. ‘I can still hear her voice, the same as ever. She’s telling me these Earth folk are just people like us, and the Earth they come from is just another place like Eden, with troubles and worries of its own. Well, this woman here told you that herself, didn’t she? She showed us the houses in the water. She told us about the floods and the fights. It’s a place just like Eden where trouble comes and people have to run from trouble. But that’s not the Earth where our Mother waits for us! This woman said that too, remember? She told us they know nothing of Gela where she comes from. She said the last they heard of Gela was that she’d come here to Eden and died.’

She held us all now. Even the Earth people stood and watched her in amazement. How many people could have moved so quickly in their heads from that first bewildering, head-spinning moment of seeing the people from Earth, to where Mary was now? How many people would have had the courage to speak out as she was doing, with the veekle and the screens right there in front of us to prove how powerful and smart the Earth people were? But of course she was as smart as any of the Earth people, and she was brave and powerful too. In her own way, she was as powerful as anyone there. Even Strongheart, even Newjohn, even Starlight.