This edition published in Great Britain in 2002 by
An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2H 9EA A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset at The Spartan Press Ltd, Lymington, Hants
Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
An explosion of light: the moment of her birth.
A sense of self flooded through her body. She had arms, legs; her limbs were flailing. She was falling, and glaring light wheeled about her.
But she remembered another place: a black sky, a world – no, a moon – a face before her, smiling gently. This won’t hurt. Close your eyes.
But the memories were dissipating.
She landed hard, face down, and she was suffused by sudden pain. Her face was pressed into dust, rough, gritty particles, each as big as a moon to her staring eyes.
The flitter rose from liberated Earth like a stone thrown from a blue bowl. The little cylindrical craft tumbled slowly as it climbed, sparkling, and Hama Druz marvelled at the beauty of the mist-laden, subtly curved landscape below him, drenched as it was in clear bright sunlight. But the scars of the Occupation were still visible. Away
