Purple flowers as far as the eye could see, softly moving in the wind.

Jennifer stepped first into the park to lead the way. Flowers crunched beneath her boots. Beside her, Lily started to shake.

"We do go this way, we do," Lily mumbled to herself.

Jennifer did her best to stay strong and keep Lily upright.

The scent of the flowers was intense, more and more pungent as they walked further into the field. Jennifer felt it surrounding her, almost overwhelming her. She pulled her makeshift mask back up over her face so she could breathe without getting so dizzy at the smell.

"Oh, they're lovely, they're lovely," Lily said.

Lily stumbled, but Jennifer and Graham pulled her upright again and kept walking. From a few steps away she could hear Richards breathing louder and louder.

"We're getting close, sir," he said. "We're definitely getting close. I know, because my head hurts."

Distant lightning rippled across the sky, followed by the crack of thunder. Jennifer blinked away the after-images and the pollen floating into her eyes.

Between one blink and the next she saw another smaller anomaly in a different place, a hole in the universe just waiting for her to put her hands through; Solaris stumbling away from her in a small motel room in civilian dress; Graham's gentle smile as he handed her a book more than a decade ago; Johnson's grim face as he stared down Solaris in that dark hallway on North Port.

It didn't matter to her which were memories or flights of imagination or visions granted to her. She kept her eyes straight forward, checking the faces of the flowers guiding their way.

The flower field grew thick. Even the trees they began to pass were infested with flowers, all the way to their top limbs.

Richards stumbled, cried out.

Jennifer stopped in her forward march, ready to leave Lily Bow to Graham and pull Richards up herself, when all the daylight above them abruptly cut out.

"What?" she asked.

She let go of Lily's shoulder completely and fumbled with her pockets. A small light came from a few metres away, the blue light of a comms device illuminating where Richards sat in the field. Jennifer pulled her own device out and lit it up, adding to their bubble of light. All around them the walk was dark, the field hard to make out.

Graham turned his torch light on, too, and turned to her with a quizzical expression, his arm still on Lily's elbow.

"I don't understand what just happened," Jennifer said.

"The daylight and night-time were created by artificial sources," Lily explained. "The equipment must have cut out. Maybe the anomaly swallowed the edges of it."

"I feel this is information I could have been told earlier, Ms Bow," Jennifer said. She sighed. "Well, this doesn't change our mission in the least. Forward we go, as long as we can."

*

Joan stuck her comms device between the dashboard and the window so she could keep an eye on it as she drove.

"Everyone strapped in?" she asked, then sped off before anyone had the chance to answer.

Behind her, the whole group was mumbling, asking questions and offering suggestions she had no interest in paying attention to. She went right and the signal got stronger. They couldn't be far.

*

The wind grew strong. Dust started to blow through the field. Jennifer picked up the pace, trying to keep her eyes on their surroundings.

"Everyone stay close," she said, as loud as she could.

*

Solaris paused a moment to check the map again. She'd made progress, gotten closer to her destination, but there were still kilometres to go. Other than the occasional still-functioning street light, there was nothing else to illuminate her path.

The animal in its cage shifted on top of the old blanket she'd found and made a yowling noise.

"At least one of us is comfortable," Solaris said, and started to walk again.

*

The dust got strong and separated them again.

Jennifer called out, her voice disappearing into the wind.

Someone bumped into her, and fell down. When she reached down to pull them up, they pulled her to the ground instead.

"It's okay," that person whispered in her ear. "I saw this part."

Suddenly the overhead lights of the world turned on again. The area grew bright enough that Jennifer could see Lily's face through the dust. She'd pulled down her mask at some point, and her face was thick with dirt.

Jennifer didn't turn off her torch light just in case.

Lily wiped her face off with frantic hands, then leaned forward, kissed Jennifer high on the cheekbone above the edge of the mask. Then she sat back, face solemn.

"I'm sorry," Lily said. "I saw my vision of this so long ago. I thought it would feel different."

Jennifer wiped her face with one sleeve then stood up. "Never mind that. We can find the others and make our way to where we're meant to be."

Lily nodded, then was silent.

They moved forward. The dust was thinning out.

Jennifer could hear a faint sound, like someone calling out for her. She looked around, but couldn't see the others. Then looked down at the blinking light of her comms device, and Dr Fortuna's code lit up on the screen.

"Captain?" Fortuna said, again, when Jennifer finally brought it to her ear.

The sound was faint but the signal was getting through.

"I'm here," Jennifer said.

"Stay where you are," Fortuna said. "I have access to the shuttle bus and I can find your signal with my device."

Jennifer felt a smile forming on her face. "That will make things a lot quicker."

"Violet field," Lily mumbled. "One day you'll find another violet to distrust."

*

Joan drove up to the Captain's signal first. In the distance the dust was thick like a fog, but up close it was just a dirty swirl, turning a purple field red.

"What's wrong with the environmental adjusters you all told me about?" Joan asked.

From the back, one of the researchers said, "This is why we wanted to leave straight away. Two weeks ago everything worked fine."

Joan nodded, and parked the bus with a screech of tires. She rolled her window down a slither and yelled, "Get in quickly," then rolled it up and looked at the research team in the back with narrowed eyes until one of them jumped in his seat, shivered, and then finally opened the back doors.

Captain Li and Lily Bow jumped into the vehicle and helped slam the doors shut behind them. Joan readjusted which signal she was looking for while they belted up.

Murray was next. His signal wasn't far away. When she stopped again, three metres from him, she could see him stumbling towards Richards as Richards clutched at his head.

Luckily, she didn't have to roll down her window and yell. Murray nodded at her through the window, grabbed Richards by the shoulder, and ran them both back to the back doors of the shuttle bus.

"I'm glad to see you," Captain Li said.

"Yeah, likewise," Murray said. "What about you, doc? Glad to see me?"

"Not particularly," Joan said, and drove back out of the dust cloud, closer to the direction of the departure site.

"We still have to find Commander Solaris," Captain Li said.

"I tried her signal first. I can try it again," Joan said.

"I fear her communicator still isn't working. It's possible we'll have to find another way to seek her out," Captain Li said.

Joan nodded.

"I don't suppose anyone here had a convenient vision of where we find her?" Murray asked.

Mr Ash cleared his throat. "There are roughly six roads that lead to Orphusville. If we can still connect to the monitoring equipment in the town hall, we can check which are free from blockages and try those first."

*

Solaris had passed through the dark areas and was nearing Orphusville and its dimming lights when the sound of wheels broke the silence. She stopped and looked into the distance. Squinted against the vehicle's lights.

She waited for it to stop before she started walking again.

The Captain alighted, walked toward her.

"Captain, you are quite red right now," Solaris said.

Captain Li nodded. "I will need a long time in the decontamination room when we return. And I see you've found a friend."

Solaris looked at the animal in its cage. "I do believe this creature will also require decontamination."

"I'm very glad to see you," Captain Li said.

"I do confess to some relief also."

*

From there the trip was much more calm. Graham watched and listened as Jen talked on her communicator to the time cops, finally breaking through the atmosphere in one of their dark ships, ready to use their secretive tech to cordon off the area.

Night was setting over Orphusville but it was still bright, lit up by the edges of the anomaly that seemed to have swallowed half the main street. It flickered, white and violet in his peripheral vision. Its roar pressed against the edges of his mind.

Jen finished her conversation, switched off, and laid a hand on Commander Solaris's shoulder over her jacket. "I would appreciate your advice on how to block out psychic intrusions in this moment, Mr Solaris."

Solaris tilted her head to the side, her dark eyes intense in the vehicle. "I cannot teach you a full course in psychic blocking here. Nor can I promise this will work quickly enough to ease your mind. But I will say that the best way to start is by imagining a wall in your head, keeping something out. And if that does not work, imagine putting your hands up to build a shield with your mind."

Then Solaris looked over to the driver's seat, so Graham did, too. He saw Fortuna nod, and breathed out in relief. The last thing they needed was for her to get caught in a vision and lose control of the vehicle.

Graham closed his eyes and concentrated on trying to build a block with his mind. His head hurt harder than ever. He could feel them getting closer to it, could feel all the skin on his body standing on end.

"Let me out," Lily Bow said. "Let me out now!"

"I will not allow that," Jen said.

Graham opened his eyes. Lily was halfway out of her seat and reaching for the door. Solaris reached for her, but Lily forced the doors open, rolled out on the ground.

"We have to stop her!" he yelled.

She had to be injured but she got up, and with a fast limp, ran toward the anomaly and dived straight in.

There was no wall in his mind. It was unguarded at the edges and a vision rushed in—

and his head hurt and his mouth was bleeding and he yelled, "You'll have to kill me, Jen!"

—and then Jen was shaking his shoulder, saying, "Shake it off."

They rushed out of the bus. Behind them something dark from the black ship above was blanketing the town they'd left behind in a strange light. Graham followed everyone else onto the shuttle craft and strapped himself in, ready for them to shoot straight up and go home.

They sped away from the site.