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He was pondering this when he realized that the stairs had moved already. The three spans of the arch had imperceptibly pivoted on their central fulcrum, swinging to the norths of their respective Cities. Each stairway now led down to the iron gate of the Watch Tower on its segment of the sphere.

"All it needed was an expert's touch," he sighed.

The screen flickered weakly and dissolved away into the air.

"That's that as far as available power's concerned," he said flatly. "From now on it'll be purely a salvage job."

Vael was silent.

The Doctor looked away to the south, where the glowing object was forcing its way out of the fractured ground.

"Look," he said with a scowl. "The Beginning is starting at last. You were right again, Vael. Best to head it off before it reaches us. Come on."

He set off down the vertiginous spiral, down one strand of the thin arrow head of stairs that rose above the Process's Watch Tower. Vael Voryunsti Sheverell, his mind half crushed by the hunting eye that burned in his head, edged down the dizzying flights of steps after his quarry.

25: Spring Tide

When the quakes started, the Phazel slaves left their search amongst the artery lanes of the First Phase and headed for the safety of open ground. There were no guards to stop them. From the bank of the mercury stream, they watched the buildings of the City collapsing. The stream was narrowing as its banks edged closer together. The surface was disturbed, flowing in smooth, fast waves that set the protesting millwheel spinning. Mercury spilled across the bank in wide, mirrored globules amongst the sea of glowing flowers. Above the stream, the dark air shimmered as the separated Time lines of the City Phases came into agitated fractal conjunction.

The Phazels sat in their chairs on the bank near the smoke forest and watched the deadly play of the Gods. The constant rumble in the ground was punctuated by the latest crashes of splintering stone and falling masonry. The end of the world, if this was what they were witnessing, was embodied in a huge glowing canker that slowly emerged from the bloated land away to the south.

The City across the stream no longer bore relation to the Now in which they lived. Buildings that collapsed here were still standing in the next Now.

Through the shimmering of fractured Time, Captain Pekkary saw two figures moving through the light flowers on the opposite bank. One of them waved in desperation at them. It was the girl, Ace. The intruder they had handed over to Vael. He did not recognize the other shape. It was gaunt and had a tiny hairless head. It was wrapped in a long, heavy coat.

Amid protests from his crew, Pekkary walked down to meet them. Chesperl and Amnoni followed. Reogus held back, certain that this was another trap. But recriminations could not be harboured at a time like this. They were certainly all doomed.

The two figures moved along the far bank. They were searching for a way across, but the stepping stones were lost in the mercury torrent.

Ace was calling to him. Her voice came through the temporal interface mangled and unintelligible. She remonstrated with the other figure who turned and ran back towards the City.

The Phazels watched Ace's arms sweeping out in explosive gestures, but they understood nothing. She pointed repeatedly to the coiling strands of grey that rose into the sky from both the Cities.

Finally, the other figure appeared, dragging a roll of heavy material that he had fetched from the buildings nearby. Ace ran to help him.

Pekkary felt his arm gently taken. "Quennesander Olyesti," said Amnoni, "you know who that is, don't you?"

He gazed through the shimmering air as the bizarre companions came down to the opposite edge of the stream. With a sudden nauseous chill, Pekkary finally recognized himself. A phantom from the farthest Future, beyond slavery and beyond guard duty. Fascinated by what he scarcely dared meet, Pekkary went to face them across the flow.

They