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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 Gaia didn’t let him finish. ‘And you know there are lots of questions you can’t answer in that kind of way at all. Like . . . like what it’s like to be inside the mind of another person, or how we should live our lives. In the end, all there is in the world is . . . well . . . this.’

She gestured with her hand through that bowl of clear glass that sat on top of the veekle, and out into forest. There was a bunch of whitelantern trees out there, with a couple of redlanterns among them, steam rising here and there from their airholes. The trees round the Circle were pruned to make the lanternflowers grow thickly and flutterbyes were dancing in all that white and pink treelight, while a single jewel bat was swerving and looping through them, grabbing out at them with its little hands as they darted out of its way.

I couldn’t really see what Gaia meant, so I turned back to admire the shining screens.

We came out again, and Gaia invited the other Michael’s Place people to come inside two at a time. Flame was squeaking like a little kid, just like my Fox and Candy. Tom and Dave and Davidson were tense and stiff, but you could see that even they couldn’t wait to get inside. No one seemed to notice or mind that they were stepping inside the Circle of Stones.

Meanwhile, more people were gathering in the clearing.

‘Yeah, go on. Run off back to Earth, why don’t you?’ someone shouted. A stone came flying and hit Deep on the head. ‘You’re no use to us here.’

With a kind of hurt smile, Deep felt where he’d been hit and looked at the red blood on his hand. Guards shook their spears and shouted out to leave the Earth people alone.

Just as Gaia came outside again with the last of the Michael’s Place folk, Strongheart hobbled into the clearing, supported by his shelterwomen Jane and Flowerlight, and followed by Starlight and Newjohn, and four five other high people.

‘You’re leaving us so soon?’ the old man quavered. ‘But you’ve only just come!’

‘People are unhappy with us because we haven’t brought anything for them,’ Gaia told him. ‘The longer we stay, the unhappier they’ll be. And of course, all the time we’re here, more people will keep coming to see us, eating up all your stores of food, until there’s none left.’

‘People will come here anyway to get away from the New Earthers in Wide Forest,’ Strongheart said, his whole face all creased up with worry. ‘I thought you were going to stay and help us stop the fight with the Johnfolk.’