Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Times Crucible - Marc Platt [113]
"Ace! Hurry up!"
"Shut up, will you!" she panicked.
The Process gurgled as it arched on to her walkway. "Ace Phazel. She is here. Stop her!"
Ace ran. One of the girders swung out at her as she passed, snagging the side of her bomber jacket. She ripped the material as she pulled free.
A giant wheel was clanking round at the end of the walkway. Ace jumped for one of its passing platforms and scrambled half on as it carried her higher.
She kicked her legs out and fell exhausted on to the next level of walkways. The need to find the Doctor pressed on her mind again. She forced herself up and trudged warily on.
"Over here."
Through the iron grids, she saw a cocoon.
"Professor." She ran along a girder towards the glittering mass of threads.
"Of course!"
She saw the cocoon tremble as she heard his insistent words in her head.
The tips of his fingers were edging out of the mesh.
"Hang on and I'll get you out of there," she said.
She fumbled for her knife and then stopped. There was a second cocoon beyond the first.
"Ace," said his voice from the second. "Is that you?"
She stared between the two.
"Are you there, Ace? Hurry up and get me down. We're going to miss the Beginning."
"Ace. Don't listen to him. It's that troublemaker Vael. Just get me down."
"If it's not Ace, who is it? You have to let me down! The Process has to be stopped!"
Ace didn't need to dither. The answer was as clear in her head as anything. "Stuff off, goik!" she snarled and kicked the second cocoon hard because the Doctor couldn't see.
The cocoon groaned under the attack.
Ace flicked open the knife and started to hack at the filaments of the other mesh.
A claw hand grabbed her arm from behind and the knife clattered away out of reach. The Ace guard stood over her. It shoved its other claw hand into her face.
They grappled together, falling to the floor, rolling over and over on the walkway. Ace, kicking and fighting against her own remorseless and repulsive future. The edge lurched closer. The guard squealed and trilled, driven by the brutal will of its master.
"Ace!" the Doctor kept calling. "What's happening? Are you all right?"
The guard was the stronger by far. It forced Ace into a head-lock and began to drag her upwards.
Ace flailed her arms uselessly, but she could not break the grip. Her hand snatched out for anything to use as a weapon. She caught at one of the badges on her jacket, grasped it and ripped it off.
It was the Blue Peter badge awarded for heroic achievement. She rammed the pin into the guard's hand.
The guard screeched and Ace broke free. She grabbed at the insect helmet, her hands crushing the squirming eyes as she wrenched it away.
The future Ace staggered back in the shock of its release. Its face thin and grey, its hair filthy and sparse. Its huge and weary brown eyes blinking as they met Ace's own with a look of imploring terror. It was a terrible, wasted thing.
Ace moved to hug the pitiful creature but it stepped back in fear. It toppled backwards on the edge of the walkway and fell with a little moan into the depths.
All the energy went out of Ace. She collapsed to the floor, unable to look over the side as she heard the grinding machinery below.
Her future was snatched away. It was fixed. There was no escape. Nowhere to run to. Just sit and wait for it to arrive. She was cold. Unable to think. Yet even now there was a voice whispering in her head.
"Ace. Let me out."
"Leave me alone!" she shrieked and drove that evil insinuating voice out for ever.
She sat on the walkway, slowly rocking back and forth, unable and uncaring.
"I'm sorry, Ace," said the gentlest voice she had ever heard. "I've put you through a lot of cruel things, but no one deserves that. Least of all you."
She made no sound.
"It was a bad dream, Ace. Just a possibility. I'll never let it happen to you. I'll make sure it doesn't."
She sobbed and