eugenesis-text

‘It’s Iacon,’ said Wheeljack. ‘And who’s to say the Quintessons haven’t got to them too’
‘What about your Sonic Canyons HQ’ asked Sygnet.
Mainframe looked up. ‘How did you know about Delphi’
‘Common knowledge,’ said Sygnet. ‘Main base in the Archives Centre, auxiliary post in the Canyons.
We’ve known about them for a while.’ He shrugged. ‘I really shouldn’t be saying all this.’
‘One way or another,’ said Wheeljack, ‘I don’t suppose it matters now.’
The upstairs room seemed to change shape as overhead lights flickered on and off. After a moment of
indecision, the filaments dulled to grey and the room sank a little lower, a little darker. A faint stretch of
natural light fell across Mainframe’s lifeless console. He looked up apologetically. ‘That was the last of the
power. The whole system was running on reserves.’ He tossed the comms-box to Wheeljack. ‘Didn’t even
get a chance to hook up.’
‘Back to square one, then,’ said Wheeljack. ‘Let’s head for the Canyons.’ He peeled away the floor
plating and took the lasers from their brackets. Centurion and Mainframe followed suit, then headed for the
door.
‘Isn’t Sygnet coming with us’ whispered Centurion.
‘I don’t think he wants to,’ said Wheeljack, ushering his team-mates ahead. He looked around.
Sygnet was standing in front of the window, his expression studiously blank. ‘Well’
‘Well what’
‘Are you coming with us or not’
‘A Decepticon and three Autobots. Nice ratio.’
‘Fine. Stay here. Sit in the dark and wait for the Quintessons to find you.’
‘And what makes you think they won’t find you If I join you I’ll either end up dead or an Autobot
prisoner.’
‘At least this way you have a choice.’ There was a long pause, during which Wheeljack fussed and
fiddled with the words he was about to say. ‘Besides, we might need… we might need someone with your
talents.’
‘Well why didn’t you just say so’
Xenon jabbed the pad once more, annoyed. ‘What’s happening, Haxian Why can’t I release the
liquid’
Inside the torture chamber, Galvatron gingerly raised an optic cover and wondered the same thing.
‘I deactivated the release mechanism. And please commander, hear me out before you shoot me.’
Haxian gestured at the monitor screen, where thousands of plot-points and schem-threads described a 3D
Galvatron. ‘He’s incredible.’
‘What am I looking at’ asked Xenon.
‘This scan shows physiological complexity on a scale I’ve never seen – a level of internal construction
thousands of years ahead of our own, ahead of the other Cybertronians we’ve tested.’
‘And still he couldn’t transform!’
‘Hm. Perhaps – perhaps you misunderstand me, commander. We’re looking at a robotic anomaly
here. Something so powerful, so unique…’
‘No, no, I understand. Thank you for stopping me. We came within a second of losing the most
powerful weapon in our arsenal. It’s funny how things come full circle, isn’t it How the same process
informs the beginning and the end. Who would have thought, after all this time, that we would be learning
from them… It’s a strange feeling, when something takes on a life of its own. I sometimes think the whole
universe is looped: this near-infinite curve which bends at the same speed, at the same angle, until it rejoins
at source and we return, instantaneously, to Alpha Point. Perhaps we weren’t meant to have loose ends.
Have the guards take Galvatron back to his cell, Haxian. I need time to think.’
‘I can’t go any faster!’ screamed Nightbeat, losing his voice to the preening wind. His vehicular mode
had already melted into a watery strip of yellow and blue, disturbed only by the odd dash of exhaust fume
or grit kick. ‘Any faster and I’ll start losing wheels!’