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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

‘I can’t believe you could even think of saying a thing like that,’ he spluttered, ‘when your own brothers are fighting them right now. Tom’s dick and Harry’s, girl, for all we know your brothers are dead – have you thought of that? – and one of those slinkers back there in metal masks may have been the ones who did for them!’

‘I love my brothers, Dad, but they might equally well have done for some of those guys’ brothers or those guys’ mates.’

‘So you take the side of the Johnfolk, do you? I can’t believe it! Gela’s tits, I never thought I’d ever hear my own daughter taking the side of the ringstealers, but least of all when those slinkers are over here, doing for our young men, and wrecking our clusters.’

‘I’m not taking their side. I’m just saying that maybe they aren’t quite as bad as we think. Those guys were fair with us, weren’t they? And one of them was the son of their Headman.’

‘What do you mean fair ? They came here for no reason but to wreck our clusters, and to—’

‘But we’d wreck their clusters, wouldn’t we, if we had the chance? And anyway, maybe that wasn’t the real reason they came over here. Those men said, didn’t they, that they’d come over to tell us their story.’

‘Oh and that makes it okay, does it? The fact they came here to spread their lies and their filth makes it okay that they fight and do for our boys?’ Tom wasn’t much of an actor, but now he put on a silly voice and a silly face, and tried his best to say his words in something that sounded a bit like New Earth speech. ‘“President is rarly a marn,”’ he squeaked. ‘“Gela gave Jarn the ring.”’

‘I’m just saying—’

‘You’re not just saying anything, girl, if you’ve got even a bit of sense left in you.’ He’d turned his big thick guard’s spear upside down and was waving the blunt end of it in his daughter’s face. ‘You’re not saying anything else at all, if you don’t want this across your back.’

He looked round for support and straight away spotted me watching them.

‘You tell her, Angie. She won’t listen to me. You were with that shadowspeaker all that time. You talked with her about the mind of our Mother. You tell this dumb dumb daughter of mine what Mother Gela thinks about the Johnfolk!’