The court lawyer was dressed in a white suit with a clock symbol over one pocket. He approached the witness stand and smiled a practised smile.
‘Please state your name and date of birth for the record,’ he said.
‘Eden Anfield. I was born on 6th September 1995.’
I glanced at my screens. Green zone.
He smiled again. ‘There. That wasn’t difficult, was it, Eden?’
I said nothing. Already I’d decided I hated this white-suited man with his patronising tone. His job was to trick me into saying something that would help him find Ryan guilty.
Admiral Wolfe stood. ‘You say you were born in 1995?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you are a minor. Where is your legal guardian?’
‘I don’t have one. I’m a hundred and twenty-seven. I’m older than all of you.’
I smiled to myself; my truth monitor was green.
‘All minors are appointed a legal guardian along with their resettlement package. Did no one speak to you about this?’
‘I don’t want a legal guardian. I want to be on my own.’
‘You have twenty-four hours to find a legal guardian of your own, or the Institute will appoint you one.’
Wolfe took his seat and the lawyer approached me again.
‘OK, Eden, let’s begin by telling the court how you met Orion.’
I hated the way he used our first names, as though we were all friends.
‘We had classes together at school. We sat next to each other in Art. He asked about my friend, Connor.’
‘This is Connor Penrose, the subject of Orion’s time mission?’
‘Yes, although I didn’t know that at the time of course.’
‘Of course. So you introduced Orion to Connor?’
He continued with his questions about Ryan and Connor. He wanted to know how they met and what sort of role I had played. I explained that as I was friends with Connor – and Connor was the reason for the time mission – I had become friends with Ryan as well.
‘At what point did you become more than friends?’ asked the lawyer. His voice was quiet, solicitous, encouraging confidences.
I kept my eyes on him. ‘We were never more than friends.’
‘May I remind you that you are under oath,’ he said, glancing at my truth monitor. I was in the amber zone. ‘Let me rephrase the question. At what point did you develop romantic feelings for Orion?’
‘Just before he left.’
‘And how did those feelings manifest?’
I swallowed. Surely he wasn’t asking me for intimate details. Personal details. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘When did you start having an intimate physical relationship with him?’ he said.
To my irritation, I felt the warmth of a blush on my cheeks. Surely Ryan’s lawyer should be shouting objection across the court by now?
‘We didn’t. I knew he was leaving.’
White Suit looked at my truth screen. I was safely in the green zone.
‘But you were in love with him?’
I felt sick. This was none of his business. ‘I cared for him,’ I said, forcing myself not to look at Ryan. ‘But I was not in love with him.’
I glanced at my screen. My physical responses had elevated into the red zone.
The lawyer smiled. ‘Let the records show that the witness’s truth monitor was in the red zone for that answer.’ He turned back to me. ‘Sometimes we don’t realise the depth of our emotions for another person.’
I wanted to punch him. Evidently these truth monitors were going to make it impossible to play down my true feelings.
‘OK, Eden,’ he continued. ‘So you cared for each other. And Orion had trusted you enough to tell you about his mission.’
‘No. He didn’t tell me about his mission. I worked it out.’
I expected the lawyer to ask me how I’d worked it out, but he didn’t. Of course he had already spoken to Cassie and Ben and probably Ryan as well. White Suit seemed interested in one thing only: my relationship with Ryan.
‘Once you had worked out what Ryan’s mission was, did the two of you spend a lot of time together? When he was off-duty, for instance?’
These were not the sort of questions I wanted. I needed to tell the court concrete stuff regarding my involvement in saving the planet. I needed the court to understand that I didn’t deserve to die. That I had made an exceptional contribution. ‘He needed to be friends with Connor so I invited Ryan around when I knew Connor was going to be there.’
‘So Ryan spent time at your house?’
‘Yes. But I did more than that. I helped . . .’
‘Stick to the question, Eden. For the moment, I need to know about your relationship with Orion.’ He paused and looked at me. ‘I know it’s difficult to talk about personal, intimate matters. But this is important. So, can we agree that you were very fond of Orion?’
‘Yes.’
‘And sometimes you spent time alone together?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you ever hold hands with him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Kiss?’
I exhaled and watched my monitor moving into the amber zone. ‘Yes.’
‘Had things been different, you and Orion would probably have formed a deeper romantic attachment. But you ran out of time. Would you say that’s a fair explanation?’
I shrugged. ‘We can’t possibly know what would have happened.’
White Suit smiled. ‘You’re right. Let’s not speculate. Let’s talk about your feelings again. At the time he left, you were fond of each other. You would have liked more time together.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Yes or no?’
‘Yes.’
White Suit smirked. ‘That sort of fondness, in this time-scape, is commonly referred to as love. Thank you, Miss Anfield. No further questions, Your Honour.’
But he hadn’t asked about my part in the mission, or how Travis had tried to kill me. He hadn’t given me the chance to explain that Ryan had come back to save my life because I had made an exceptional contribution to the mission and didn’t deserve a death sentence, not just because he loved me. He’d only asked about one small part of what happened; the part that helped him prove that Ryan was guilty of stealing a time-ship and travelling back to 2012 because he wanted to be with his girlfriend.
Wolfe turned to Ryan’s lawyer. ‘Your witness.’
I took a deep breath. This was my chance to set the record straight. Saul White approached the witness box.
‘You say that you and Orion were never more than friends during his original mission. Is that correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you ever try to convince him to remain with you in 2012?’
‘No.’
‘Did you try to return to the twenty-second century with him?’
‘No.’
‘So you were reconciled to the fact that the two of you would never see each other again?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why do you think Orion stole a time-ship and travelled back to your time-scape?’
‘Speculation!’ said White Suit.
‘Let the witness answer,’ said Admiral Wolfe. ‘I’m curious.’
I stared at my screen. ‘Because he thought it was wrong for me to be killed by the mission cleaner. There was no need. I wasn’t a threat to the timeline. The mission leader – Benjamin Hansen – didn’t feel I was a threat. And the mission would have failed if it wasn’t for me.’
My screen remained in the green zone.
‘You don’t think it was because he was in love with you?’
‘No,’ I said. My voice shook and my screens registered amber.
Ryan’s lawyer noticed my amber response too. He frowned and then smiled broadly.
‘So let’s back up,’ he said. ‘You believe that Orion travelled back to 2012 because he knew that you had made an exceptional contribution to the mission and did not therefore deserve to be killed by the mission cleaner.’