The oldest entry on the display was dated before the selection trial.
Eli read the timestamp twice while Juno’s recorder captured the transparent screen. A stream of light moved from the listed event into a column on the right, then disappeared below the frame. The display associated the entry with a gate death, but it did not show the person who had operated the device or where the energy went.
“Tessa,” he said. “Look at this date.”
She stepped beside him without touching the screen. “Before the trial began.”
“Before the selection site opened.”
“The event is dated before it. We don’t know when it was entered here.”
An old event could have been imported later. The timestamp did not establish when the mechanism had been installed. Eli wrote the date and the location label exactly as displayed, leaving the parts he could not read blank.
Juno herself was not in the room with them; she had lent the recorder under a limited agreement before the descent. Its storage held roughly twelve minutes of raw capture. Eli checked the indicator. Several entries and the surrounding equipment housings were already recorded.
