Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Times Crucible - Marc Platt [47]
The creature lunged at him again and this time the charge delivered by the wand was singularly diminished. The Doctor began to be forced backwards. Since he was being slowly driven towards the steam, he decided that a tactical withdrawal might be in order.
The monster cartwheeled down towards him. The next lunge knocked the wand from his hand and it slid away into the dust with a final feeble spark.
The Doctor was thrown backwards. His hat rolled away across the bank. The horror rose above him, slavering horribly. "Process," it croaked again.
Something blue and gold whizzed through the air and struck the rampant brute on the side of its head. It gave a fierce hiss and swivelled round to observe its new assailant.
The ball bounced back towards the boy, who scooped it up and threw it again. It caught the beast on one of its several eyes.
The Doctor scrambled out of the range of the outraged monstrosity.
"Run!" he yelled to the boy.
The creature turned back towards him and set off in pursuit.
He was heading along the bank, unsure of where to run. Across the mirrored stream, just above the clunking millwheel, he saw a row of nine oval stones.
He'd try anything once. He jumped to the first, then second stone as the creature reached the bank behind him. It waited at the edge, weaving its neck back and forth, uncertain of whether to follow.
The Doctor jumped to the third and then fourth stone. The creature still lingered, hissing its frustration at him.
He went on to the fifth, halfway across, and looked around. Mercury spilled in silver cascades from the struts of the millwheel. The coloured starlight shimmered in the stream's poisonous reflection. Like Elivâger, the cold, venomous stream that rises in Niflheim and flows through the abyss of the Ginnunga Gap, beneath the rainbow bridge of Valhalla.
On both banks, the City swept upwards until its crooked buildings, tilting inwards, seemed to touch the stars. With a shock, the Doctor understood why this place was drowning in a sense of claustrophobic vertigo. It had no horizon.
"I don't like your world," he called to the monster. "It's all warped. I can't see a future in it."
The beast stopped its weaving procrastination. With an angry hiss, it lurched forward and set its footmouth on the first stone.
Caught off guard, the Doctor's balance slipped. He floundered to keep his position, as the monster arched unsteadily over and reached the second stone. Finally, with a cry of exasperation, he lost his footing completely and fell headlong into the toxic stream. The current was stronger than it appeared. It carried him swiftly towards the massive, clanking roil of the millwheel.
Vael watched the tiny figure vanish under the great wheel. The monstrous shape lurched from the stones back to the bank. The Pilot snatched up the fallen hat and rod. Then he ran. The creature ignored him, swinging back and forth on its foot surveying the land. A God surveying its Creation. Or a God searching for something it has mislaid.
The other Chronauts still stared down from the ridge. Standing targets, stunned by the loss of their ship and their arrival in this desolation. Telepathic concussion had set in. Mutual amnesia. Still forgetting that they could no longer hear warnings by thoughts alone.
"Get down!" Vael hissed at them, and they crouched obediently into the grey ground smoke.
A raucous whispered scream of rage welled up from the bank of the mercury stream. It echoed across the land, glancing off the cold grey shapes of the City until it was lost in the stars.
"The Process of Creation, this is myself. In the Beginning, the Process creates the World. The World and the Process to go on for ever! The Future, it is already planned. Then Doctor defies the Process and steals the Future. The stolen Future, it is lost! The Process, it destroys the Doctor! All who defy the Process are destroyed! But Future is stolen and lost. Hunt and search for the stolen Future! It must be found!"
The Process gave another scream of anger and began to