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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

Starlight stepped in now. ‘Oh come on, you idiot! Use your head! You can see these things are bright and new. The Mementoes that were here before are so old that they’re crumbling away, and none of them do anything at all. The Head Guard can show them to you now if you don’t believe me.’

Luke hadn’t spotted Starlight before. He’d vaguely noticed that there were high women in the shelter as well as women helpers, but women in New Earth played no part in the kind of talk that was going on now, and he’d paid them no attention. Now he’d seen Starlight, though, he recognized her at once. She might not remember meeting Headman Dixon’s little boy when she was over there, because she’d been too busy watching Luke’s dad Dixon and his mother Lucy – when a leopard’s singing to you, as people say, you don’t look at the flowers! – but the little boy remembered her alright, even after more than ten years.

‘The fishing girl!’ he hissed. ‘The slinker who tried to steal our ring. So she’s still alive, is she? Now I know this is all a trick!’

And not only that. He knew for certain again that he was in the right. After wakings of doubt and shame, he knew once more that he was one of the good guys in the story of Eden. He knew that the Johnfolk were the true followers of President and Mother Gela, and these people round him were the cowardly slinkers who’d followed the Holeface back at the time of Breakup. All his guilt had gone.

Fifty-six

I went to find Mary. It was too late to get her to meet the people from Earth, which I would have liked her to do, but, scared though I was to meet her, I thought I should still tell her something about what I’d learned about them. She was a powerful person and would have a lot of say in how this story was told from now on.

After she’d shouted at the Earth people, the guards told her she must leave the cluster and not come back while the Earth people were still there. But everyone seemed to know where she was, camping beside a pool with her two helpers and her guards, a mile or so out in forest, saying what she thought to anyone who came to see her. I got a young batface boy to take me there for half a stick.