Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Times Crucible - Marc Platt [59]
From somewhere there came an echo. A second hiss, deeper and more laboured than the first. Ace strained to look, but her head was held tight by her bonds. The dull clank of one single machine began to cut through the silence.
Ace had crouched and spread her arms wide when the filament had started to fall. Now she was able to peel her arms free of the tight cocoon and move about a bit. The strand glimmered faintly like an endless procession of glowworms on a conveyor belt. She managed to get one hand into a pocket and pull out the Swiss Army knife. Opening the knifeblade blind was a dicey business. She expected to feel it slice into her fingers.
The repeated clanking sound was drawing closer. "It's coming," she heard Vael say, and the Process gave a glottal croak that sounded like a choke of fear. Through the binding filament, Ace could see the girders moving again. A whole section was slowly tilting by degrees towards the platform. She found what felt like a blade against her thumb and started to ease it between the threads. But when she saw the shape that was descending, she nearly gave up altogether.
A small ledge was jolting down on a diagonal wheel towards the main platform. On it stood a second creature like the Process, its neck extended to observe the scene it was entering. Its features were similar, but its hide was rough and greying unlike the sleek red brown of the original. The fins that ran in lines along its back were stiffer and less mobile. This monster was older, but no less repulsive than the first.
No, not the first. Ace suddenly remembered that this new arrival was the creature she had seen on the bank of the first City she had visited. No, that was the second City, the one in the future, where she had been first, before crossing the mercury stream into the past.
The two creatures reared up and hissed at each other as the ledge levelled with the platform. Vael ducked for safety behind his slobbering master.
Ace was reminded of the dinosaur movies she had seen. There was always a scene when the bikini-clad heroine was being chased by Godzilla or King Kong or a lizard with glued-on horns. It was about to munch her when another special effect monster turned up and the two had a bout of all-in wrestling.
Ace had no rock to hide behind. She didn't own a leather bikini. And she was fed up with thinking the weirdest things when she was in dead trouble. The older Process arched forward off its ledge with a smooth predatoriness that she'd rarely seen in a stop-motion special effect.
"I return myself," croaked the creature. It was the voice that the Guard Captain had spoken with. "Time disrupts." It put down its leading footmouth and arched up the second foot from behind. "Why?" it demanded.
The younger Process swung its upper footmouth around and down. The two creatures began to circle the edge of the platform, always keeping the other in opposition. Ace dared not move, glimpsing each as it crossed her limited line of vision. It was not easily apparent which Process was pursuing the other.
The voice of the younger Process was wilder and more manic. It was attempting innocence. "Time, it has not changed! If Time changes, the older Process is destroyed!"
"More worse for you!" The older creature's threats were more considered and its tirade carried far more weight. "If the older Process is destroyed, then the younger Process is not long lived!"
They were too busy haranguing each other, Ace decided, to notice her. She set to work on the filaments with the knife.
"The World City, it is left in your control. But the Phazels, they are idle," complained the older. "The stolen Future, it is not secured. Now disrupts!"
Ace saw it swing its head towards the cowering Vael.
Vael bowed his head. "Process, I only obey my orders. But. . ." He lifted his head and Ace saw that he was looking at her. "But the cause of the disruption has been