" No one can get in." " No?" "No one from this time period." "Where are you from?" "Please wait here until you're needed." "Psst." "'All irregularities will be handled 'by the forces controlling each dimension." "'Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life." "'Medium atomic weights are available." "'Gold, Lead," "'Copper," "'Jet, Diamond, Radium," "'Sapphire, Silver and Steel." "'Sapphire and Steel have been assigned. '" "Ah!" "I was just about to..." "No." "No, I was just..." " Well, I was just doing something." " Yes." " So what was it?" " You were busy making a mistake." " I never make mistakes." " Come here." "I'm unable to make mistakes." "It's built-in." " Instant reduplication never fails." " It did this time." " Silver!" " Ohh." "Open that." "Well, can you?" "It would help if I knew what it was." "Just a minute." " Would you mind?" " What?" "I think he wants us to go with him." "Come on." "Oh, this is them." "What is that?" " What's behind there?" " Why should we know?" " Because you belong in this thing." " We're not..." " What?" " Well, we're not engineers." " Are you historians?" "Researchers?" " A little of both." " You don't know what brought you?" " This did." " But not how?" "You don't know that?" " No." "What can you tell us?" "You're in danger!" "Do you know that?" " No." " Yes, we realise that." "Good." "Cos we put ourselves in danger because of you." " Then we must thank..." " No!" "Don't thank us." "It's not you we care about." " You'll just have to guess." " Right." "We are real... and it's our job to safeguard the structure of time - the past, present and the future, all of it." "It was an experiment, that's all." " Experiment?" "!" " Yes!" "I mean, what's the point of a future?" "What's the use of technology, learning..." "If you can't experiment?" "If you can't go bulldozing back?" " We haven't exactly bulldozed..." " Shh." "You came here hoping to play happy families but it's gone wrong." " All right..." " You're stuck here, stranded." "You can't even use the machinery that brought you here." "And the language, you just about got that right." " Thank you." " But not the names you chose." "You got those wrong by several hundred years." "How's that for learning?" "How's that for "accumulated technology"?" "Oh, sorry." "Um, do you think I might have that?" "Allow me." "Thank you." "I need to tell them." "Tell them what?" "Well, there are others." "Others like us, here." "Two other groups." " We already know that." " Oh." "But there's an engineer in one, perhaps he could help." "I'm afraid it's too late." "Too late?" "They're all dead." "Ah!" "Something out of nothing." "How did they die, the others?" "We'd like to know how they died." "They killed themselves... because of the danger, not only to them but to everything and everyone." "Yes." " Would you have done the same thing?" " If it meant..." "Cos you can always do it now, you know, save us a lot of trouble." "No." "Someone, some of us, have to tell them what went wrong to make sure it never happens again." " Yes." " So we have to go back." "If we can get you back, yes." "And if you can't?" "How do these things work?" "I was there." " That's the farmhouse?" " Yes." " You were there?" " Yes." " Well, that tells me nothing." " All right." "Rural study group, room two, please." " Neither does that." "The bedroom." " What?" "The bedroom of that place, I want to see it." " Well, show me." " I can't." " Can't?" "There's no monitor?" " There's a monitor in every room." "Then show me that room!" "If it's a question of secrecy, there'll be no secrets." " It's not a question of secrecy." " Then what is it?" "If you must know, it's more a question of privacy, of decency." " Privacy?" " Yes!" "Decency?" "What is he talking about now?" "I'm talking about how unlike these times and the times in-between, we have acquired - or rather gained - certain standards." "What kind of standards?" "If you like, moral standards." "Are you trying to tell us that it's taken 1,500 years of troubles, wars and famines to learn not to peep into one another's bedrooms?" " If you're going to laugh at us..." " Then don't preach." "Save it for your own time." "Now, show us that room." "Rural study group..." "room five, please." "Perhaps... perhaps they're asleep." "No, they're not asleep." "And the third group?" "The same thing has happened to them." " Please." " Switch it off." " This monitoring device..." " It doesn't work properly." " What about between groups?" " Between?" "Each group keeps its own log, its own recorded diary, right?" " Yes." " Do you have access to their log?" "Of course, but they're dead." "Then it's no use to them any more." "So let's hear it." "I need to know more about the power system that brought you across time." " I've already said..." " It's built into this capsule." " It's a kind of time... time source." " Yes." "Oh, so you do know that." " Yes, but only that much." " Only that much?" " Yes, and that some piece of..." " Machinery?" "Yes, machinery was used to bring us back here." "Well, why didn't you ask what it was?" "We didn't think it was necessary." "Well, that piece of machinery did bring you here and it's keeping you here." "But now it's acting on its own behalf." "It's thinking for itself." "It's already caused people to kill themselves." "Now what's it got in mind for you?" "And your baby?" "But if we don't know the answers..." " They might." " Yes." "Oh, get her out of here." "Their last log will be with them." "Yes, that's about it." "I can't do much more without taking the entire capsule apart." " Not very sensible." " No." " What are you doing?" " Ah." "This is where the time source lives." " Is it still here?" " Oh, yes." "Uh, I think I heard your baby crying a moment ago." "Look." " I know." "Animal blood." " What sort of animal?" " I'd need to do tests." " Then do tests." " That depends on whether Steel..." " I'm sorry." "It rather depends upon me, I need to know!" "Look." "Now, these are impulse stimulators - electronic nerves." " An artificial nervous system?" " Well, partly artificial." "These would be used to trigger existing nerves and muscle, it's a way of bypassing the original brain." "Now, these..." "As you know, these are the gadgets they use in scientific surgical operations." " Operations on living animals?" " Yes." "It's very advanced, it's very sophisticated." " But still a form of vivisection?" " Oh, yes." " The sounds of pain." " What?" "It's just something Steel once asked and I didn't know the answer then." " What was the question?" " The scientists of the future, 1,500 years in the future, what are they guilty of?" "Do those tests, hm?" "'The children were included in the discussion." "'It seemed only right that they should be." "'The time unit that brought us here is to blame." "'It is responsible but not because of any malfunction." "'Its actions were deliberate." "It has turned against us." "'It turned against us all. '" " Could it?" " Yes." "'It has played tricks with our minds 'and it is now our turn to be experimented upon." "'It urges us to escape into this time period." "'It wants us to become a risk, a threat to the past and the future." "'In other words, a threat to the whole human race." "'It has the power of time itself 'and we are no match for it." "'Therefore..." "Therefore the only alternative, 'the only sure safeguard is our own self-destruction." "'This final entry is logged at 8:45pm, 'day 25, old calendar. '" "'Calendar... calendar... calendar. '" "'You said it was an animal, some kind of animal." " 'Well?" "'" " I can't make any sense of it." "'What kind of animal is it?" "'" "It's not one animal." "It's every kind, every species of animal." " In one small sample of blood?" " Yes." "Where's Eldred?" "This is our private room!" "We don't expect to be disturbed." "We want you to tell us something." "About the future, the time you come from." "We've no objection." "If you'd wait outside..." " Tell us about the animals." " Animals?" " Yes." " What animals?" "The animals that exist in your period." "There are no animals." "Not there, not any more." "Only in children's books, legends, things like that." " But none living?" " No." "Well, we've no further use for them." "Well, no one would consider eating their flesh, not any more." "No one has for the past several hundred years." " What about pets?" " Pets?" "Domesticated." "Animals in zoos?" "That's the past, the atomic age." " That's history." " Yes." "Anyway, the world, it's better off without them." "They were unclean, they were cruel and most of them carried some kind of disease." " Cruel?" " Yes." "What about the scientists?" "Oh, well, there's that, yes, but that's different." "Well, what did they do?" "Your scientists?" "Well, the creatures that are used, they're not really animals, not in that state." "What exactly are they?" "Just pieces." " Pieces?" " Yes." " Pieces?" " Kept alive." "Propagated, as pieces." "Reproduced." "But we never see them, of course." "The public never sees them." "Well, they're never allowed out of the laboratories." "Well, that's where you're wrong." "What did he mean "wrong"?" "What did he mean?" "We'd like to know what you meant by that." "Whatever is in there did leave one of those laboratories, it came back here with you - it was made to, trained to." "It's responsible for bringing you back here." "Pieces of animal and pieces of machinery made to work together, made to coordinate - perfected and then shaped into a time unit." "Given a kind of mind, a kind of brain." " A brain?" " Yes..." " one that's working against you." " Against us?" "But why?" "Let's think of a hundred reasons, shall we?" "Or a thousand." "Things that once ran wild but at least free, things that breathed and ate and produced their young, things that swam in the sea, things that managed to survive, once... reduced to a few living pieces?" "Well, it's in here now, somewhere." "It can hear us and it can see us and it only wants one thing from its encounter with the human race... it wants revenge." "'... revenge... revenge... revenge... '" "'... revenge... revenge... '" " 'Steel?" "' - 'Yes?" "'" "'It's broken free." "It's escaped." " 'It's out here with us. ' - 'Where?" "'" " 'I don't know. ' - 'But it's in the open?" "'" " 'Yes. ' - 'Wait here. '" "'No, Steel." "It's an illusion. '" "Oh, my baby." "Keep the child with us at all times." " Get them to take this capsule back." " Back?" "You said you could contact their base." "There's enough power to make an emergency signal." " But I..." " Then make one!" "Can you do it?" " Yes." " Get on with it!" "You two, into the screening room." "Quickly!" "Here!" "It's fighting us, Steel." "Yes, but how?" "'Don't turn around, Steel." "'Steel, it let us in here, remember." "'Now we know why." "'It's using us to help it escape from this capsule." "'We have to send it back before it can break out!" "'" " 'Did I hurt you?" "' - 'We don't have much time!" "'" "'What about Rothwyn and Eldred?" "We can't send them back with it. '" " 'It is their problem. ' - 'We can't!" "'" "'They caused it, let them solve it!" "'It belongs in the future, it doesn't belong here. '" "'Yes, well, first, we have to contain it. '" " 'Get it back in its hole. ' - 'How?" "'" "'Lure it back." "It's made of all animals, it'll eat anything." "'Feed it!" "'" "He likes it." " What have you done?" " 'We fed it. '" "I want to know what's going to happen." "You're going home, that's what." "Come on." "Places everybody, please, quickly." "Right." "There's the future." "That's home!" "There's home!" " Not ours, is it?" " Definitely not." " Sapphire, take your place, please." " Can I ask you something?" " It's hardly the time!" " Yes." "The figure, the man we saw." "The one that made us sleep." "Was that our child?" " Yes, it was." " Very good." "Hold tight!" " Well?" " It's gone." " Just an empty roof?" " Yes." "Steel?" "You can't leave like that, you know." " What?" " You put a knot in the lift cable." "Imagine a world without animals." "Yes, well, they're not as clever as they thought." " What do you mean?" " They had mice in their capsule."