'What were you all thinking! Have we taught you nothing over the past five years!' Dr. Zimorax had taken the students away from their packing up to scold them. 'You not only have put your lives at risk, but your futures—our futures as well. Do you know how much is riding on every expedition, every paper, every speaking engagement? Clearly not.' She continued on this theme for a few more sentences before she ran out of breath and Dr. Matsumoto had to step in. He was not one for shouting, he didn't like confrontation, so he merely reminded them that they were representing the university and should know better by now. Then Dr. Zimorax got a second wind and started in again.
'Shut up,' Chitra didn't realised she yelled until the ringing had stopped in her ears. 'You haven't one, neither of you, mentioned Diana. You're her aunt, why don't you care? It's disgusting.'
'That is personal between me and her mother. It does not concern her or you, Chitra Feplin. And do not even pretend you cared for her either, you think me and Su are blind because we are older. We know exactly what is going on. And I swear to the highest code, if you are pregnant, Chitra, the Algorithm better stop me. I will not be disgraced because some immature, frustrated, bored, and lonely children couldn't keep their hands off one another for more than a few weeks.' She turned on Icrel. 'That goes the same for you. I will not be held responsible for whatever mistakes you have made. I will make it so the board of research ethics will always have to consider you a threat to social stability in groups.'
'What is she talking about?' asked Dr. Matsumoto, flustered and attempting to be gentle.
'Nothing,' said Chitra, unable to meet their eyes. 'We haven't done anything like that.'
'We are adults and we can do what we like,' said Icrel, with an angry shrug.
'No. You cannot. And you aren't adults in my culture until you are at least forty,' said Dr. Zimorax.
'Is that why you treat Diana like shit?'
'I do not. I treat her like I treat everyone else. At a professional distance.'
Dr. Matsumoto was getting to uncomfortable to continue listening, he zoned out a little, worried that his holding hands with Hestamoloc and a future relationship might also put him in jeopardy for the same reasons.
(It wouldn't, because Hestamoloc was privately hired and there would be no evidence of an inappropriate intimacy unless one of them contracted a disease from the other and died subsequently.)
Dr. Chen confirmed that no one, not even Gesto Chen who had physical contact with Aumegden, was infected. They could all leave if they wanted. The only problem would be Diana. So Dr. Chen, with Dr. Zimorax, placed her in the hover craft. Joshua was still a little too disorientated to be trusted driving, so Gesto took the driver seat. It was not a complex craft.
Not all of the base camp was packed away, only the scientific research equipment and the domestic quarters. There were still the beds, mess halls and medical bay. The medical bay's tools had been taken, but the structure had to stay in place for Aumegden.
'How long will she have?' asked Lt. Castillo before Dr. Chen left.
'Without fresh water and food she'll die in two weeks, but I don't know what kind of life the root system will give her.'
'You're talking like she's already gone.'
'Well, I have no means of removing the parasite, and I don't know if anyone else will. You know just as well as I the military only calculate numbers. She is one woman, an unfortunate case.'
'They like her too much, too much of a poster child. They'll want her back.'
'Then they can send an emergency response team. Everyone else is my priority and everyone else is still alive and unaffected.'
Lt. Castillo found the Doctor sitting on her bunk bed, turning the crown over in her hands. She did not even want to know how the Doctor got it. Later, she would realise it was while they were distracted by Aumegden and probably used the perception filters to make them forget again.
'Tell me everything.'
'I'm only theorising,' said the Doctor.
'Tell me everything.'
'Primitive data cache. They give it to the next ruler so they'll know the history of the people. It would re-write their brain to make them know, make them remember. But I think it might also be the crown itself, not just the data uploaded to it. Diana's spatial awareness was full of activity but didn't change much of her neural pathways. This crown was sitting there for hundreds of years aware of the surroundings, spatially aware.'
'How long did you know Joshua was a Janus?'
'From when we landed, I suspected. He told me some days ago. The quick reflexes and headaches when we were near temporal storms.'
'So his seizure was him seeing through time?'
'Probably.'
'Changed time. I've been near black holes with time-sensitive psychics. Did the future change?'
'Or the past. I think the past has been changing in small ways that we don't notice. Like the city. I am certain when we first came here it was full of straight lines, or maybe a gradual spiral, but now it's a spider web of circles and lines. I know there were different deities. It's the same ideas, same roles, but just a little different.'
'You're here to stop it aren't you?' asked Lt. Castillo.
The Doctor could not meet her eye.
'But you can't say anything or it'll destroy the timeline, or change it again.'
'Knowledge of the future changes it. Precogs who aren't just attuned to the immediate environment, when they look into the future, they see what would have happened without their knowledge.'
Lt. Castillo was not a fool, she was glad the Doctor didn't meet her gaze, because Lt. Castillo was also terrible at hiding her emotions. No, that implies she ever wanted to. If the Doctor looked at her, she would see the cold expectation and the easy lie, Lt. Castillo knew the Doctor was there to either make it happen, or make it happen the right way.
Lt. Castillo didn't know what the right way was, but she imagined that the infected people were thrown into a rift, or not. The Doctor was not there to help them, but to keep others safe.
Lt. Castillo expected to come home a war hero, but her files were heavily redacted for the safety of the peace. She had some loyalty to a higher cause, but she was there to survive. If she was permitted a higher setting on her laser gun, she would have fired it already.
'Do you know what happened—happens? Would you survive?'
'Yes. And I should walk away, I know I should walk away, but I can't.' The Doctor finally looked away from the crown. She didn't look at Lt. Castillo, she looked by her, around her, near-enough that it wasn't rude, but not at her. She was even smiling a little, amused at her own little folly. 'I want to know what happened. Curiosity killed the cat.' She chuckled, and then continued her little monologue, 'And look,' she handed the crown to Lt. Castillo, 'no pressure, no want. I want to know what happened and it's not even this thing making me want to.'
'It's already taken Diana.'
'I think it should have taken Zimorax or you, but then time changed.'
You changed it, thought Lt. Castillo. She handed the crown back. 'Find out. We won't leave without you.'
The Doctor appreciated this. She laid in her bunk to get comfortable and put the crown on her head.
This is what she learned:
