eugenesis-text

Quark watched his friend take pot shots at low-flying Tridents and realised that the twitch in his neck
had disappeared.
Three tetrahedral aircraft raced over a blur of matchstick towns and gate-crashed the Manganese
quadrant, once home to the planet’s biggest spaceport, Transgalactica, an interstellar hotspot for traders and
pilgrims, tourists and fugitives. Like so much of Cybertron, it had long been reduced to a swirl of fireblitzed
buildings.
Jolup heard his hoarse, wind-lashed voice and wondered how long he had been screaming. It was a
sound borne of pure exhilaration; action stripped of all consequence. He felt the polar wind chill his nerve
circuitry and savoured every body-jarring rush of propulsion. The horizon swung itself upside-down as he
threw himself into another barrel roll; a flick of retro-thrust flame etched his flight path retrospectively.
He would not be tethered, caged, roped, controlled. Up here, in his newly-inherited airborne mode,
he was free. He gasped in joy. Truly, this was what it felt like to be alive. ‘This is incredible!’ he yelled.
Sevax and Ryknia yelped in agreement and tried to match his pace. This was the first real chance
they’d had to test their adopted bodies. The parched Cybertronian air was a perfect foil, lubricating their
sleek changeforms.
‘Let’s not forget why we’re here,’ said Ryknia, gunning for the nearest mountain. ‘We’ve been gone
hours.’
Sevax nudged into the lead. ‘Cybertron’s a big place. We wouldn’t want to disappoint Quantax by
conducting a slapdash search, would we But you’re right: we’re letting our new forms get the better of us.’
‘I have a suggestion,’ said Jolup. ‘Let’s ditch Quantax and take control.’
‘Ha! I hope you’re joking. Quantax has the weight of Xenon behind him, and therefore the weight
of an entire army. I don’t think the rest of the Quintessons would rally to our defence.’
‘That’s because they don’t trust us. They think we’re half-Decepticon.’
Sevax accelerated towards the Manganese Mountains. ‘All the more reason not to murder Quantax.
Look, why don’t we just follow orders, find a suitable location for the second phase, and put all thoughts of
insurrection behind us.’
Along with the Vosian crater (big and ugly enough to survive without its geographical tag: it was now
simply ‘the Crater’), the Manganese Mountain range was one of the only Cybertronian landmarks visible
from space. A deep scar running down the planet’s cheek, it connected Mytharc to Mismia and was
vulnerable only to perspective: from its northernmost peak, the lightly chromed summits became little more
than homogeneous, butterscotch pleats.
The largest mountain looked different from all the others. The summit itself, a teetering pillar of
metal, was at right angles with a smooth plateau over ten miles wide.
Ryknia transformed and landed en Pointe. Sevax and Jolup plumped for a regular runway slowdown,
braving the crisp tunnels of high-altitude wind.
Sevax looked at the metallic summit and the featureless stretch of tungsten on which it stood. ‘It’s like
we’re standing on someone’s grave,’ he decided.
‘Yes, a striking metaphor,’ said Jolup. ‘You must use it in your next opus.’
‘It’s a simile, actually. And yes, I probably will.’
‘According to Quantax’s topographical scan,’ said Ryknia, ‘this is Mount Edeus, part of the
Manganese belt. It’s remote, it’s deserted, it’s easily defendable – it’s perfect.’
‘But there’s no way we can get inside!’ said Sevax.
‘Ah, but there is!’ Ryknia pointed to the vertical outcrop. ‘There’s a doorway built into that cliffface.’
They walked over.
‘It’s ancient,’ said Sevax, jabbing the acne’d hinge. ‘I doubt anyone’s been inside for centuries.’
Ryknia drew a circle with his arm-mounted pulse rifle, extracted a plug of metal and climbed inside.
An array of lights blinked and parried as he crossed the coffinous chamber, empty except for a door at the
opposite end. He beckoned to the others and took the lead. Their footfalls were burnt onto vidcam reels by
auto-surveillance cameras that hung from the ceiling, their lenses fogged and frowning.
The other door slid open obligingly. The Quintecons stepped through, brushing the underfloor
sensornet. A thousand lights exploded into life and the core of the complex was revealed: thousands of