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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 6322328" data-attributes="member: 10689">Episode 2, Chapter 12: Bug Bugs and BuzzbuzzAnd then, after a lovely afternoon on the beach, we finally get down to business. We ask around after Titus Memmius, and find out that at this time of day, he's usually in the tepidarium room of the baths. So that's where we go.It's easy for us to find Titus Memmius, and also easy to determine that, fortunately, he is not buzzing. He doesn't have any kind of chronal instability, either. He's still overweight, just as we saw in the video footage from our bugs, but thinner than he once was, and his skin has a sickly grayish look to it. Just as the servant said, he is here because he's ill. These symptoms look very familiar to Michel - he's seen them before in patients who had long histories of using drugs and alcohol. It might be withdrawal; it might be hepatitis; it might be both.  So did someone keep Memmius drugged for long periods of time so that the cockroach could take his place? Anyone who wanted to get close to Lucretius would know that Memmius was a good way to do that - he's the person to whom De Rerum Natura was dedicated.We go back to re-examine the video footage from our bug, trying to figure out when Cockroach!Memmius shows up, and when Lucretius starts timetraveling.Lucretius's timetravel device appears to be the little wooden box that he was so anxious to protect. It's about as big as a shoebox, and looks like <a href="http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/ne/p/2006/front_dials_375x600.jpg" target="_blank">this.</a>It first appears fairly early in our surveillance period, around 79 BCE. Lucretius brings in an amphora, opens it, and takes out the box. He looks very surprised at the box, and a bit confused, too - from the expression on his face, it looks like he was expecting to find something in the amphora, but was surprised to find that. For the next few weeks, he studies the wooden box, trying to figure out what it is.Mace focuses on the amphora to see if there are any inscriptions on it. There are two marks on it: first, on the amphora itself, the seal of the island of Rhodes; and on the top, a Roman seal with the word Sullani - ie, the army of Sulla, who conquered Greece and the Near East. The box itself has some markings on it too: there are Greek letters on bottom that spell out "Archim""Archim?" Edward reads. "Could that be Archimedes?" It could be - he lived about 200 years before the time when we are now."Who was in Rhodes," Michel wonders, "who could have had Archimedes' things?" Lots of people, we realize, when we think about Ancient History. Rhodes was a major center of math and science research at this time. It was especially known for mechanical inventions - even automata. Edward checks the tether to see if anyone in Sulla's army was particularly interested in science - ie, if there was anyone in particular who would have been gathering up items like this to send to Lucretius, and therefore who might be another timetraveler - but he can't find anyone. So instead, he focuses on the amphora itself. If we track that, maybe we can find who sent it to Lucretius.We go back to the video footage and concentrate on the day that Lucretius brought the amphora home. We see a slave come in and hand Lucretius a message; when we zoom in on the message, we see that it says: "Sulla's expedition is selling off interesting trinkets at harbor that you might like to take a look at. -- Memmius"So someone - presumably one of the cockroaches - knowing that Lucretius would trust his patron Memmius, forged a message from him to get Lucretius to pick up a time machine.So where next? Caesar's campaigns in Dacia in 60 BCE? That's a long time after Lucretius gets the box. The first radiation spike, with Apollonius in 50 CE? That's even longer."I want to gank Buzzbuzz," Henry declares.The premodern majority of the team stares."Attack the cockroach from behind so that we can interrogate him," Henry explains. "But won't that create a paradox?" Michel wonders. "We cannot prevent either Actual Memmius or Roach Memmius from talking to Lucretius.""We could have one of us pretend to be Roach Memmius," Henry suggests. "We can go to him and buzz.""Or we can plant a device that buzzes?" Michel suggests."We'll plant a bug bug!" says Edward.Instead, we do another round of time-traveling and Spying to plant some bugs in Real!Memmius's house 30 years ago to see what he knows. And sure enough, our surveillance shows that there's a night when Titus Memmius is passed out drunk and a 7 1/2 foot tall cockroach appears in his bedroom.Michel hits stop. "I do not want to see what happens next."Edward grimaces. "Neither do I.""No, no," Michel explains. "I do not wish to see what happens next, because we are about to change it."</blockquote>

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