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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

But behind us, Strongheart was rising unsteadily to his feet, signalling to his horn man to blow and make us quiet.

‘That’s enough now!’ the old man called out. ‘This meeting is over. We mustn’t be rude to our visitors from Earth. They’ve come to help us. They’ve come to stop the fight with the—’

He was the Head Guard, the Head of True Family, the most powerful man in all of Eden, a man that people would kneel and bow in front of if he ever came near them, a man that, if he asked for silence, would normally get silence at once. But now the people in the crowd didn’t let him finish. Mary had found her way, as she always did, to people’s deepest longings and fears, and it was like when a stream floods over its banks, or a jug full of juice is smashed on the ground. You can’t put it back, you can’t fix it together again. No one was interested in what that old man had to say.

‘Gela! Gela! Gela!’ part of the crowd began to chant, and then Mary started singing ‘Come Tree Row’ in her loud strong voice, and the chanting faded down as we all joined in. We sang it through again and again, round and round, so as to come again and again to that place at the end of the song where it reaches its home. And when Gaia’s voice finally boomed out from the veekle, asking if she could say a few more words, people shouted angrily at her to shut up and let us sing.

‘You’ve got nothing to give us!’ a man shouted out.

‘Yeah,’ another man called out, ‘you’re useless. Go on back to Earth and leave us alone.’

‘Yeah, go back to Earth, why don’t you?’ a woman echoed. ‘Why can’t you just bloody go?’ More folk took that up until it became another chant: ‘Go! Go! Go!’ And then some of the newhairs began to pick up stones and throw them, so that the Earth people had to hold their arms in front of their faces to protect themselves.