Chasing Stars (13 page)

‘And they’re the people who will decide what happens to Ryan?’

‘One of them will judge his case.’

‘Which one?’

‘I think they all get their quota of cases to try. Obviously Admiral Westland won’t be allowed to judge the case because it concerns his son.’

I let that information sink in. It was a long way from my world. ‘How long have you and Ryan known each other?’ I asked, after a while.

‘Since we were twelve. Middle school. We had the same art class. He did portraits. I did mythical creatures.’ He held his arm out to me. ‘These are all mine.’

I resisted the urge to reach out and run my fingers over his tattoos. ‘They’re good.’

‘We both loved drawing but we loved flying even more. We applied to Lakeborough Academy at the same time.’

‘Did he always want to be a pilot?’

‘He wanted to be a time agent. Just like his dad. It’s why he volunteered for the mission to your time.’

‘What about you? What do you want?’

‘I want adventure. Look at Orion. He’s travelled back to 2012 twice over. He’s helped save the planet from some unknown catastrophe. I know he’s locked up right now, but soon he’ll be free again. And you. You’ve saved the Earth and travelled forward in time. You’ve both lived. I want to live like that. I don’t want to follow my dad into some dull nine-to-five job and worry about meeting my mortgage payments every month.’ He sat up. ‘Speaking of adventure, how do you feel about doing something adventurous right now?’

I laughed a short, nervous laugh. ‘I’m not brave at all.’

‘It only lasts about two seconds, it will get your adrenalin pumping and it’s completely safe. I promise.’

I sat up. The sun was harsh. Already my underwear was bone dry. I pulled off my blonde wig and shook out my hair. ‘What is it?’

‘We jump from the top of the waterfall into the pool below.’

Of all the things Peg could have suggested, he’d managed to pick my biggest fear.

‘I nearly drowned. Twice.’

Did he know that? Had Ryan told him?

‘I promise you won’t get hurt. It’s much easier than climbing back down over the rocks.’

I didn’t want to be afraid. I wanted so much to be brave and strong and good at things. I had jumped through time. Jumping from a waterfall should be so much easier.

Peg took my dress and wig and dropped them on to the dry rocks below. He held out a hand. ‘If you want, we can jump together.’

I shook my head. ‘No.’

He drew his hand back. ‘Not a big deal. We can climb down.’

‘No, I meant I don’t want to hold your hand. I’ll do this myself.’

He cocked his head to the side. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Are you sure it’s deep enough?’

‘It’s over thirty metres deep.’

Swallowing the terror that was making its way up my throat, I inched my way to the edge of the waterfall.

‘You first,’ said Peg. ‘I don’t want to jump and then have to climb back up and get you.’

I didn’t look down. I knew that if I did, the dizziness would paralyse me. I shut my eyes and counted backwards.

Three.

Images of the rocks by the harbour wall flashed through my mind.

Two.

Of Travis swimming after me and pushing me under. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to die.

One.

I jumped. I fell through the air, my arms both shooting up above me, reaching for the sky. Someone shrieked and I realised it was me. And then, abruptly, a bitter coldness exploded over my skin from my toes to my scalp. I kicked my legs, swam towards the bright sunshine and gasped the warm air.

Peg whooped as he jumped, tumbling forwards, his hands hitting the water first in a graceful dive.

When he re-emerged, he shook his head like a dog. ‘What do you think?’ he shouted.

‘It was good,’ I said.

A complete understatement. My body was trembling from the buzz of it. The sick thrill of stepping off the edge, the rush of free-falling, the stream of adrenalin gushing through my veins. I’d never felt so energised, so scared and exhilarated at the same time. But most of all: I’d never felt so brave.

‘That was impressive,’ said Peg. He’d reached the edge of the pool and was clambering out. ‘I’ve been here many times but I’ve never known anyone take their first jump so quickly.’

I shrugged and tried not to smile. ‘If I’d thought about it, I’d never have done it,’ I said, bending down to pick up my clothes. ‘Come on.’

I led the way back down the mountain path in my underwear, letting the warm air and dappled sunlight dry my skin.

The journalists outside the Lakeview Hotel were showing no signs of giving up and going home.

‘You are the only news story right now,’ said Peg quietly as he pulled into a parking space on the opposite side of the street. ‘You and Ryan.’

‘Can you help me with the wig?’ I asked.

I bundled my hair into a bun and held it in place while Peg pulled the wig over it.

‘Almost perfect,’ he said, as he moved a wayward strand of wig hair into place.

‘Thanks for rescuing me today,’ I said. ‘I think I’d have gone mad if I’d stayed in my room any longer.’

He passed me the sunglasses. ‘You’ll need these.’

I slipped the glasses on to my face and checked out my reflection in the rear-view mirror. I Iooked so unlike myself. ‘Thank your friend for the wig. When will she need it back?’

‘There’s no rush. Belle has loads of wigs.’ He hesitated, as though reaching a decision about something. ‘I’m going out with a few friends tomorrow tonight. It would be great if you’d come along. Everyone would love to meet you.’

‘Thanks. What should I wear?’

‘It’s just a bar. Wear anything you like. There’s no dress code.’

‘I don’t know what casual looks like in the twenty-second century.’

‘This dress is perfect. Anything like this would be fine.’

He told me he would pick me up at eight, from my room. I heard him start his car as I crossed the road, but he didn’t pull away until I had thrust my way through the reporters and into the lobby.

Chapter 9

It was while I was flicking through my new wardrobe of clothes, looking for something suitable to wear to the pub, that I found Miranda. The com-screen was on, tuned into a lightweight political chat show.

‘Admiral Wolfe believes that Admiral Westland knew that his youngest son planned to return to 2012,’ one of the commentators was saying.

‘If this was true, what does it mean for the Board of Guardians?’

‘If Westland has helped his son break the Temporal Laws, he will be stripped of his title and put on trial for conspiracy. That would lead to an immediate election and almost guarantee that Admiral Wolfe will win the presidency.’

‘What can we expect from Wolfe if he’s elected president of the Board?’

‘For starters, time missions to the past will come to an end. Wolfe has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t think there is ever a good enough reason to approve a time mission to the past.’

‘That’s bad news for Westland Travel.’

‘Absolutely. Admiral Westland’s fortune comes from building ships capable of travelling through four dimensions. If time travel is eradicated, there will be no demand for his ships.’

‘Is there any chance that Westland and his son are innocent?’

‘Of course. Westland claims his son only broke the Temporal Laws in order to save the life of a girl who had helped the mission and been unjustly eliminated by the mission cleaner.’

‘What sort of sentence is Orion facing if he’s found guilty?’

‘That will come down to the judge. Sentencing guidelines are very broad – he could be punished with as little as a six-month curfew program, or he could be looking at some serious time on the far side of the moon.’

I touched a button to turn off the TV show and accidentally brought up a search engine. There was still almost an hour until Pegasus was due, so I decided to look up Miranda. I’d avoided it – pushing all thoughts of her into the deep, dark corners of my mind – because our separation was still so fresh. Less than a week had passed since I left my own time. But from where I was now, she had lived her life and died.

I had no idea if Facebook still existed, but Ryan had said we all leave a digital footprint – it was how he’d found out what happened to me – so I decided to give it a go. I wasted almost twenty minutes looking for somewhere to type her name. Just before I was about to give up, I stumbled across the voice commands.

‘Search for Miranda Honeychurch,’ I said, then squeezed my eyes closed and made a silent wish that she’d had a good life. I didn’t think I could bear to discover that my sudden departure had ruined things.

There were thousands of results. But the result second from the top of the fourth screen was her. Her photograph was just as I remembered her from 2012, with an icon that said
Complete Profile
. I touched the icon.

A three-dimensional hologram of Miranda leapt out of the com-screen. It was life-sized. She was dressed in a red dress I recognised. She had bought it just a few months before I left the twenty-first century. Tears sprang to my eyes as I looked at her smiling face.

There were four folders on the screen: biography, photographs, blog and messages. I touched biography.

The hologram shrank back into the screen and a fresh page opened on-screen. It was brief.

Miranda Williams (née Honeychurch) was born in 1980, the younger of two daughters, to Ben Honeychurch, a teacher and Mary Honeychurch, a shop assistant. A bright child, she excelled in school and went on to study Law at Exeter University. Her legal career was brought to an abrupt halt, however, when her elder sister Beatrice died tragically in an automobile accident orphaning Miranda’s niece, Eden. Miranda raised Eden for ten years. Tragedy struck again when, at sixteen, Eden disappeared without a trace. Miranda completed her legal studies as a mature student and went on to become a partner at Williams and Penhallow, where she married Thomas Williams, a senior partner. They were married in 2016 and had two children, Travis (b. 2017) and Eden (b. 2019). Miranda died from pneumonia following a hip operation in 2075, aged ninety-five.

Author: Eden Williams 2075

I made a quick calculation. Eden Williams had been fifty-six when her mother died at the ripe old age of ninety-five. She might even be alive herself. I made another calculation. She would be a hundred and four. Not likely then. But the knowledge that Miranda had had a career and a husband and two children made my heart sing.

I scrolled through the photographs, poring over pictures of her as an old lady, family photos with Thomas and her children. In later shots she was surrounded by little children again, grandchildren presumably. I must have relatives somewhere. I wondered if any of them had worked out that I was related to them. After the trial, I would look them up. Settle into the twenty-second century, as Westland had suggested.

I skipped over the blog and touched the folder that said messages. The page opened to a list of subfolders, each with a name: Eden, Travis, and other names I didn’t recognise. I was about to close the page when one of the folders caught my eye.
Eden Anfield
. My heart thumping against my ribs, I touched the screen. A window popped open.

Password required. Clue: the name of our feline visitor
.

‘Katkin,’ I said to the screen.

The folder opened, revealing a short message.

Dear Eden,

Many years have passed since the day I came home and found you gone. Not a day goes by without me thinking of you. But I believe I know what happened to you and I hope that I’m right. They told me you had drowned in the sea off Perran Towans. I never believed it. In my heart I knew you were still alive somewhere. For many years this was nothing more than a belief. But when Nathaniel Westland invented a way to travel through time, I worked it out. Westland was the name of the boy you were with. He was from the future. You followed him home. It’s the only thing that makes sense
.

I’ve had a rich and full life. Although I lost you and Travis, my life has been blessed with a loving husband, two delightful children and five grandchildren
.

Ever since Nathaniel Westland invented time travel, I’ve hoped and prayed I will see you again. Now I am sick and I know I don’t have very long left. It is my greatest hope that one day you will find this message and visit me or my children or grandchildren
.

Whatever happens, I hope it’s been worth it for you
.

With love, for ever,

Miranda x

Tears were streaming down my cheeks. I wished so much that I could travel back and wrap my arms around her. I wanted to tell her everything. To say goodbye properly.

The screen went blank and then the face of the hotel receptionist blinked on my screen. Incoming call. I wiped my face on the back of my sleeve and pressed
accept call
.