eugenesis-text

suddenly sounded… stupid. No, not stupid: cold. This wasn’t about Perceptor’s latest theory, this was about
one person. The person sitting on a pew, arms folded politely in his lap, waiting for an explanation.
Okay, he thought, here goes. ‘You and a select crew of Autobots travelled into space to clear a
path through an asteroid belt. Once you completed your mission, you were attacked…’
‘By the Decepticons. Yes. Megatron ambushed us. We were forced back through the command
chamber, and then I…’ Optimus remembered his own finger hovering over a single button, a countermagnetic
safety field challenging the tip; he remembered measuring the fate of an entire race not in eras or
cycles or six tidy epochs, but in millimetres: the distance between his finger and the quadthruster key. ‘I set
the Ark on a collision course with the nearest uninhabited planet.’
‘That’s right. The force of the crash shut you down. All of you. The Sidestep Drive kicked in, hiding
the Ark, and…’ Nightbeat’s voice petered out. He had reached an impasse. On the one hand, there was the
Past: Mount St Hilary, human contact, the fuel raids, Prime’s adventures on Earth during the ’80s. On the
other hand, thirty years in the future, post-Empire, post-Unicron, post-everything, there was his home
planet, burnt to the bone and swarming with Quintessons. How to bridge that gap
‘Optimus… you were offline for a very long time.’
‘I see.’ Prime nodded, and for a moment Nightbeat thought that the inevitable question would not he
asked. ‘How long’
‘Four million years.’
‘I’m sorry’
‘This is the year 2012. You’re in the future. We pulled you forward in Time.’
‘You rescued me. You found me on that planet and brought me back home.’
‘Yeah, but… it’s not quite that simple.’
‘What about the others’ Prime was suddenly animated. ‘What about Prowl and Ratchet and
Wheeljack – did you retrieve them too’
‘You’re jumping ahead. Prowl and the others are fine, but they’re still on board the Ark. Their time
will come.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘After four million years, the Ark’s computer is brought back online by a freak natural occurrence.
The Autobots and the Decepticons are repaired to blend in with the landscape of the alien planet. You’re
stranded there, on Earth, for a number of years before returning to Cybertron in 1991.’
It was a simplified version of what really happened, but it would do.
‘And here I am now. Right.’
‘Well, sort of… I’m sorry Optimus, I’m not explaining this very well.’ Nightbeat looked at the
wormhole and took Prime’s arm with an assurance he wouldn’t have thought possible ten minutes ago.
‘This is a holistic wormhole,’ he explained, leading him to the altar. ‘And that is the Ark, 1984, still
embedded in the Earth, still containing the bodies of your crew. We didn’t save you, Optimus – we stole
you. The wormhole is a time machine. We travelled into the past, to a time before Auntie repaired you,
and brought you to 2012.’ He spread his hands at the madness of it all, as if absolving himself of
responsibility. ‘This is the future.’
Prime turned his back on the wormhole, rubbed his optic lids, and leaned on the lectern, practically
wrapping his arms around the stem. He made an odd, muffled sound that, for a moment, Nightbeat thought
was laughter.
‘This is quite a lot to absorb, Nightbeat. I mean, why Why use your machine to abduct me Why go
to all the trouble of searching and…’ His voice was lost behind his hands. ‘Too many questions.’
Nightbeat went to speak – he wanted to blurt an explanation before he’d even formulated one in his
head – but his companion was already motioning him to stop.
‘I would like a moment alone,’ Optimus said firmly. ‘I need time to gather my thoughts.’
‘By Iacon’s Great Dome! Optimus!’
Hoist steamed towards Prime and pumped his hand. ‘Haven’t changed a bit, have you Not a bit. It’s
been a while! Good to have you back, commander.’
‘Stick to Optimus, old friend. I’m not used to the formalities.’ He waited to be released from Hoist’s
grip, amused by this new method of greeting, and said, ‘It’s good to see you again too.’
Nightbeat snuffed a spark of annoyance at being relegated. And as for Hoist! ‘It’s been a while!’ Thank
goodness he’d had a chance to brief Prime on the basics before the engineer had come back online. He