Unlikely that any person would escape without so much as a bruise from such an impact. In all that time we shall eat only milk and honey, so we shall certainly get thirsty after a while. Apparently her picture of Eden was slightly different from mine because small, almost imperceptible changes began to take place all around us: the number of flowers increased spectacularly, a blue bird of paradise emerged from behind the rocks and perched on the nearest tree near us, clung to a branch and with its head down began to sing so loudly and rhythmically that I thought it had some kind of amplification station hidden somewhere. On the banks there was a fine gravel, and here and there a golden sand stretched along the banks forming a little beach. I tried to slam the library door, but it seemed to be too late: softly rustling down from the surrounding reddish hills, a silky carpet of incredibly green grass descended towards me. There was nothing I could salvage from the shuttle, the mothership had
