Dr. Nasti Chen was responsible for the assessment of the infection. She had to take DNA samples from each of the crew. She did not get one from Joshua, she did not press it, records showed he was as human as Icrel and Chitra. It was the same reason she didn't get one from Dr. Clayton, although she did ask, she did press, but every time she felt Dr. Clayton's strong and gentle eyes wash away at her will. It was the humour tone of the 'Nah' that made her back off, of course she didn't need it either. She was just being curious—nosey, more likely, at the silent and pensive Dr. Ruth Clayton.

She didn't even remember the hints at secret intelligences.

'Where's Dr. Clayton's?' asked Lt. Castillo, who did.

'I only need three humans for a baseline, Diana, Vazican, Hestamoloc and Gesto are all close enough to human that I don't need everyone's to account for mutations.'

'Who are the three humans?'

'Me, Chitra, Doctor Matsumoto.'

Lt. Castillo lingered a while longer, hoping to dig more information out of Dr. Chen about her outburst the day before and why she ignored Dr. Clayton. Lt. Castillo was beginning to suspect Dr. Clayton knew more than just official secrets.

'How long with your assessment take?'

'Two days. Aumegden's infection was rapid, but I don't know if other plant-life is as infectious or it's just that particular one she found. Dr. Matsumoto says they are all different species despite originating in the same clusters.'

'Should I tell them to avoid the city?'

'Give them the two days in protective gear. Don't let them take any more samples. I think they'll have enough to occupy them for a few decades before we need to return here again.' Dr. Chen did not look at Lt. Castillo. She pointedly ignored her.

Dr. Matsumoto went for a walk. He needed the fresh air. He needed space. He wore his protection suit and helmet. The air did not taste any fresher, but he felt a little at peace. Everything was so tense around the base. In a sweet turn of circumstance, it was Hestamoloc who joined him. Dr. Matsumoto and Icrel had changed tactics from analysing to simply accounting, taking as much data as they could. Mostly this involved pictures and mapping, finding that the clusters of variety of flowers didn't repeat in the streets, but those indoors or on the upper storeys of the buildings had groupings of the same flower frequently repeating.

He liked that the city almost spiralled around itself, concentric rings with alleys to connect streets. It had a meditative quality about pace the pacing.

'We got an update on the satellites this morning,' said Hestamoloc, for want of something to say, expecting the academic already knew, 'they've found a source of advanced life in another hemisphere. Probably won't migrate here for another few years maybe.'

'Decades or centuries, so I believed. Migratory evolution is a slow progress so I'm told.'

'Dr. Matsumoto—'

'Please, call me Tatsuya, or Su, or Yaya. Not Tattie though, please.'

Hestamoloc laughed and Dr. Matsumoto got that fluttering in his belly he hated and loved.

'Tatsuya, have you been allowed near Aumegden, has Doctor Chen told you anything?'

'No. And Aumegden's own bout of research didn't reveal much. We know plants behave like animals because they are just as alive as any multi-cellular organism.'

'I bet this makes you regret coming out here,' said Hestamoloc.

'A little, but… I am glad to be out of the city, off planet. So many worlds, so little time, and I've only realised when I've lost the energy to go to all of them.'

'Nonsense, you could still. I'm planning on going to as many as possible on my savings.'

'I'll come with, we'll split the costs,' Dr. Matsumoto joked.

'I'd like that.'

A silence followed where both parties realised they were only joking to defend their own egos from being rejected, and when they met eyes, they also realised the other was doing it as well. They stopped walking to look at each other.

'I'm old though.'

'And I'm a genetic mongrel.'

'I… I'm not sure I'm a thrill seeker.'

'Me neither, I just want to walk around beaches and forests and eat food I've never tried before and wander museums and galleries I've never heard about.'

Dr. Matsumoto had many thoughts cascading through him. He was looking for reasons to say no, keeping himself safe, the thrill of uncertainty was not as pleasant as he thought and it all became so real to him that he needed to return to his office in the university with the rest of his life scheduled. He also wanted to kiss Hestamoloc, badly. Damn the safety precautions, just take off the helmets and kiss. And he also noticed that the tingling in his fingers and fluttering in his belly were all sending these thoughts through his mind, it was the speed at which astounded him, the immediate and sharp switch of relaxed, if tense, to fully wound and shaking with the anticipation. And that's the most surprising thing about the plants in the city, he thought, they act like they have nerve-endings, he thought.

Dr. Chen declared the infection to be unfit for them to stay. She took DNA samples of all of them, forcing it out of Joshua and Dr. Clayton with the threat of having to abandon them if they continued to refuse. She did not check their DNA first as a courtesy. Everyone had to wait for her to make sure no one was infected to begin the packing up, or at least, see if they should leave some of the base camp for those left behind to use while they were exiled.

Diana found Orlo. 'Let's take the crown with us, take it back so we have something to prove this place had value.'

She knew the measure of Orlo, most people did, he was not a complex person, he was not that deep of character, ambition that was easy to manipulate because he was always teetering on the line of being average. But of course, he was the smart-kid, that was his role and he liked it.

'I like your thinking.'

'Obviously drag me out of there if I start to want to wear it, and I'll do the same to you.' She produced two beta mood patches, the ones that were mere emotional sedation. 'I stole these while Dr. Chen wasn't looking. Can you take them?' She then remembered Orlo didn't have eyes. 'They're mood patches.'

'No, I can't.'

'Then I'll double up if I need to.'

Orlo was not one to examine character thoroughly, especially in humans, he found them to be very unpredictable, sometimes bordering on savage irrationality, but it did strike him strange that the ingénue would steal. But then, had it been Chitra, perhaps in a different time track, she would have expected it from the femme fatale.

When they entered the black domed building, sneaking through the city, they came upon Icrel and Chitra swiftly moving away from one another. Very clever in a moment of intimacy.

'Really? And don't even bother denying it.'

'I don't want to die without ever kissing someone,' hissed Chitra.

'Wow. Thanks.'

'You've never kissed someone?' asked Diana.

'We aren't all traditionally pretty,' said Chitra.

'You don't think you're pretty?' asked Diana and Chitra, for once, could see the genuine surprise. She refused to feel guilty and admit she had been mischaracterising Diana all along, it was just character growth.

'I think you're pretty. And still kinda hurt about being just anyone,' said Icrel.

'Shut up, that's not what I meant. Is that what you two came here to do?'

'Ew, no,' said Orlo and Diana. 'No offense. None taken.'

'I have my spouse waiting for me back home,' said Orlo.

'You're married.'

'Arranged since I was young, luckily. Not that I knew of course, my parents knew better. We met last year. Apparently we were waiting for me to come of age. Honestly, so much better than this messy shit you humans get up to.'

'Not a human,' pointed out Diana.

'So when's the big day?' asked Icrel.

'I have to get my masters first, obviously, we don't marry off the immature of our species y'know, unlike you. I think she is planning on taking a vow of chastity for a year to cleanse the spirit, and if she's going to, I might too. Somewhere in the next three years, I suppose.'

I didn't lie, he isn't that complex. His want for status within the academic community had nothing to do with the marriage. He would be married if he merely passed with a 3rd or 2:2, as long as he displayed he was mature enough to marry, and he was never going to be a great musician so a science degree it had to be.

'So why are you here?' asked Chitra. 'The crown!'

'Sh! Yes. We want to bring it back. If we can study it, even in private, we'll have done something that isn't just an acknowledgement at the end of a book, or in the tiniest of footnotes in a paper.'

'How can you trust yourself?'

'Because I have mood patches and Orlo.'

'And now you have us,' said Icrel, simply desperate to be part of a group. He gave a look to Chitra, who feeling bad for just dismissing his romantic interest, humoured him.

None of them were wearing their protective gear.

Joshua Smiley was experimenting with his front face, staring at it in the bathroom mirror. He pursed his lips.

'In another life, I could have been a woman,' he said aloud for the first time. He imagined what that would be like, where he wouldn't have had to be so conscious about appearing masculine, because if even one person was suspicious enough to think him a little feminine, he could be hunted down. He thought he would suit bold lips, like vibrant oranges or yellow, instead he was relegated to the more masculine nude shades of lipstick.

The students entered the room with the crown. Diana applied the first patch and opened her satchel. 'Block the door so I don't run out,' she said. She took a few steps closer. 'Someone block the crypt thing, I have the urge to take the crown and run down there.'

'Diana, maybe someone else should do it,' said Icrel, a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Chitra almost lunged. Diana almost slapped him. Icrel almost pushed her to the ground, bolting straight for the crown. Orlo waited for the moment of chaos to distract them, having them all tearing one another so he could take the crown. But none of them did anything. They all just flinched at the thought.

Joshua returned to the mess hall to eat his lunch with Gesto, Dr. Clayton and Dr. Zimorax. He got a terrible throbbing in his head, another migraine that blocked his senses. The future was presenting itself to him as the tangled mess it can sometimes be. Dr. Clayton noticed his discomfort and she too could feel the quantum fluctuations.

Icrel sidled across the walls of the room to the side with the mausoleum, Orlo doing the same on the other side. They reached the other end of the room and blocked off the entrance to the crypt.

Diana edged herself closer to the crown, she knew she should have waited until they were blocking the crypt, but he body moved her forward. When they did block the crypt, she took bolder steps, eventually reaching the crown.

She slapped the second mood patch on and swayed at the effects. She was going to fall asleep soon. It was almost like being drunk.

She readied her satchel to throw the crown in. She was wearing gloves, she was not going to touch it at all. Just throw it in and run back to base.

The cold metal was sliding down her forehead. She had put it on in the blink of an eye. Everyone was too slow to stop her. Only reaching out and lunging when she had it placed on her head.

There was pause, a moment of tension, and then Diana collapsed on to the floor.

They rushed to her, her eyes were moving, her face was twitching.

The archive access key had been activated and her mind was downloading the millennia of information. She was losing memories in her brain to make space for the lost history of a lost peoples.

Joshua collapsed on to the floor, shaking. Time had suddenly solidified around him.

The Doctor knew immediately what it was, she could feel it, she had been trained to feel it. She still rushed him to the medical bay where a scan showed he was having something of an epileptic seizure. The dorsolateral prefrontal right cortex was ablaze with activity.

'He's a Janus!' cried Dr. Chen, as she did her best to strap him down.

'He's having a retro-active vision. He's seeing what is going to happen and the ways it's been changed. It's not a seizure, it happens to time-sensitive species,' said the Doctor, pulling the zip of his collar down to allow his neck the freedom to move.

'How do you know that?'

'Not now. Get me a neural adapter.'

'I don't have one of those.'

'Anything to stabilise or boost psychic connection?'

'He's having an epileptic seizure, you can't go into his mind.'

'I know what I'm doing.'

Dr. Chen searched for the mood patches, there was only one left. She did not have time to ask why. 'These balance out emotional chemicals but they sort of blur focus. Sedate and bored.'

The Doctor slapped it on Joshua and put her fingers to his temples. With a deep breath she focused her psychic will around his mind. Not into it, not booting the door in and storming the castle, but providing a blanket of calmness. He bounced against it, the Doctor holding his head more firmly.

'Joshua, listen to me, you seeing so much of time, it's fracturing your mind.'

'It's like REM sleep,' said Dr. Chen, to herself.

'Joshua, you are a Janus, you can do this, you are a man—wom—person of skills and concentration. You have the will of every Janus who has come before you. They are with you. You were born to manage this. You can manage this. Focus on the now.'

Joshua's jerking and shaking eased. Not completely stilled.

'Focus on your hands. Feel the present. If you can, grab the straps of the bed and hold on to them.'

He did not.

'Joshua—who cares?—Joshua, come back.' The Doctor concentrated.

Joshua's writhing subsided, but the eyes still rapidly ran across the lids, seeing all the possibilities of the past.

The Doctor brought her psychic blanket tighter in. She was holding him, holding his mind. It was frantic and wild, lashing out in fear and confusion. The Doctor could not hold back the tide of information, it was simply there and waiting, but she could help him ignore it. She distracted him with his own happy memories until he was eventually observing the past he had experienced and was not concerned the past he would experience.

The fear and confusion would not go away entirely, in time it would rise up as panic attacks if Joshua stayed near temporal instabilities or was involved in them again.

And just as he was relaxing into sedation, the cry came in from Gesto that Diana was wearing the crown and collapsed. She was being carried by Gesto and Icrel as they hurried into the base camp medical bay.

No sooner had the call come in, than the Doctor and Dr. Chen were rigging up another bed to lay her on and a means of scanning her.

'Janus are time sensitive. This planet has temporal anomalies and wormholes. Did Diana taking the crown change the future?'

'Probably, but it's been happening in small ways. How many gods were there when we first arrived?'

'The death goddess with the half-face, the accountant with the book, the warrior, the monster, and the lover. Four, I think.'

'You listed five just them.'

'No. I said the death goddess, the warrior and the monster, the historian.'

'How many wisdoms followed the historian?'

'What?'

'How many helpers did the historian have?'

'Four, but one was always crossed out.'

The Doctor shook her head. 'Small changes that we didn't notice. Small things like the flowers and the layout of the city. It was all straight lines when we arrived.'

'What? No, it was always concentric circles.'

Just then Diana was brought in. Dr. Chen was going to point out that the concentric circles were why they stayed because it showed a level of understanding and planning that was far more in line with concentrated efforts of modern architecture and limited space than the slap-dash, higgledy piggledy of most foundational cities.

A brain scan showed she also was having a neuron overload in her hippocampus, neocortex and amygdala. All of which where memories are stored, although there was frantic activity in the right superior temporal cortex, which dealt with spatial awareness. The latter activity flared and died, but the rest continued its frantic firing.

Dr. Chen performed a brain scan and could see in real-time her neurons being overwritten. She could see the physical storage of personal memories giving way to something else.

Nursebot-W7Alpha, processing this information of Joshua and Diana, voiced, 'Input processes are glitching. Rebooting.'

'What! No!'

But it was too late. It curled up on itself as it began to reboot its systems.

Lt. Castillo and Dr. Vazican had joined them, ushering Gesto Chen and the students out, but Gesto stayed in the door to watch in case she needed to lend a hand.

'What can we do?' asked the Doctor.

'I don't know. Her whole brain is being deleted to make room for this. I don't… I don't understand at all. What is that crown?'

'I'm taking it off,' said Dr. Zimorax.

'You might kill her.'

'Do you know that for certain?'

'No, but its a delicate thing, the mind.'

'I'm next of kin. I have that right.' Dr. Zimorax gently took the crown off and tossed it away. It hit the observation window for Aumegden's quarantine chamber.

Aumegden looked over and saw the crown.

She had been stewing in the whispering of the roots and plants. The crown called to her.

'How many gods are there, Dr. Zimorax, in the city?' asked the Doctor.

'What?'

They were all a little calmer now that Diana was lying down, but with no answers everyone was still breathy and sweaty.

'How many deities are there?'

'What's that got to do with anything?'

The Doctor looked to Dr. Chen and Lt. Castillo straightened her back in comprehension.

'Just answer it,' Lt. Castillo said.

'Uh, the prophet with the book.'

'How many heads?'

'What?'

'How many heads did the prophet have?'

'One, obviously.'

'Okay. Go on.'

'The prophet with the book, the beast and the lover, the goddess of death, the defender, and the chieftain. Did Diana talk to you as well?'

The Doctor looked to the others, and wondered if that too had changed. A private conversation instead of an argument with them all there. Or, no, that wasn't right either, it was all of them, all four students getting spooked and seeing things that weren't there.

'Doesn't matter.'

And then Aumegden, controlled by the roots, broke out of the isolation chamber and started hammering on the glass for the crown.