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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

‘Never mind that,’ said Roger. ‘I bet he wishes he hadn’t messed with the Davidfolk.’

Behind him, Luke’s own ringmen were silent.

Fifty-four

It was different this time when we walked back to the Earth people’s shelter with them. People crowded round them, and, while there were still some who just wanted to stare at them or hear them speak, there were many who yelled at them that they should go.

‘Why bother to come here at all,’ a woman called out, ‘if you’ve got nothing to bring us, and you can’t take us back? Why come here and upset us for no reason? It’s just cruel, that’s what it is, it’s just bloody cruel!’

Other people shouted angrily in agreement.

‘We didn’t mean to upset anybody,’ Gaia said, when she could make herself heard. ‘We didn’t even think there was anyone here.’

‘In other words,’ another woman shouted, ‘you waited to come here till you thought we’d all have died!’

‘We should take that red box off them,’ a man called out. ‘It’s the only thing they’ve got that’s any use.’

Even when we were back inside our fence it didn’t finish, though we had guards with spears round us to keep people from coming near. Someone hurled something heavy that landed beside us with a soft thud. It was a big stinking turd. ‘Thanks for nothing, Earth people,’ shouted the young guy who’d thrown it, before the guards chased him away. ‘I’m going to find that shadowspeaker,’ he called out as he ran off. ‘At least she talks some sense.’

‘We need to go,’ Deep said. ‘This is dangerous.’

Gaia nodded. ‘Yes. We need to go now. We’re already causing a food problem, and if we stay any longer one of us or one of them is going to get killed.’

‘Now?’ I said. ‘Really now, you mean?’ It was one thing to know that they had to go soon and we’d have to go back to our old life, without screens and metal needles and bikes and the beautiful tall Earth people, but it was another to think it was going to happen this same waking. And nothing had been settled, of course. Everything had been turned upside down, but nothing had been sorted out. ‘But what about that message you sent across the Dark? Aren’t you going to wait for the Johnfolk to come?’