eugenesis-text

‘No, not here.’ He prised the box open. ‘This modifier has been tampered with. It belongs to a
primitive matter transporter, possibly even a short-span teleport hatch.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Chromedome crouched opposite the screen and peered behind the mound of old
computers.
‘Are you listening to me, Chromedome I believe this component was cannibalised from some sort of
teleporter. Here. In this Institute.’
‘Come here,’ said Chromedome quietly, unlatching his weapon. ‘Look behind the glass. There’s
something in there.’
A robot was slumped in shadow behind the shattered monitor screen. Perceptor peered closer.
‘Soundwave’
Ryknia entered the control room to find Sevax and Jolup seated at the conference table, staring at
their hands as if grappling with bad news.
Jolup looked up. ‘Well’
‘Xenon says that Galvatron is the exception that proves the rule. He’s built from a different stock to
the rest of his race. Very advanced. Haxian will modify the chip as soon as he’s back on his feet.’ Ryknia sat
down. ‘I told Xenon that we’d killed Galvatron. There was no point bringing the downsized Cybertronians
into it.’
‘Are we safe in here’ asked Sevax.
‘Like I said, Xenon thinks Galvatron’s one of a kind. The regular Cybertronians shouldn’t prove a
problem. Besides, if any of them could break the program, they’d have done so by now.’
‘We had an escapee yesterday,’ grunted Jolup. ‘Transformed into a jet.’
‘I’ve looked into that. He was hooked up to a Cybertronian we didn’t chip. He managed to break off
and get through the bars.’
‘Well I don’t like it,’ said Sevax.
‘Tough. Get over it. We’re finding out more about the Cybes as we go along. I’ve told the
welcoming committee to double-chip if in doubt.’
‘But two breakouts in two days…’
‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.’
‘Shame the same can’t be said of the Reddies,’ Jolup smirked. ‘The Inhibitor Chips have really kicked
in now. The Grade Cs are like zombies.’
Sevax shot Jolup a dark look. ‘This isn’t funny. We’d be slaughtered if they overrode the Inhibitor.
Something else has been bothering me, too: why didn’t Galvatron recognise us Why hasn’t anybody
recognised us None of the prisoners have called us by our “real” names, whatever they are.’
‘Xenon intercepted our host bodies over Aquaria,’ said Ryknia slowly, ‘but he never interrogated
them. Perhaps they never served under Galvatron. Perhaps they deserted the Decepticon army years ago.’
‘So why were they passing Aquaria Coincidence’
‘I’m sorry, Sevax, but I have to ask who – apart from you – really gives a damn It doesn’t matter
who we used to be. Our predecessors are dead.’
Soundwave had been dumped on a table and laid out like a corpse, as if doing so would reassure the
crowd of Autobots that he was harmless. Prowl, Perceptor and Red Alert stood beside him like family
members.
Rev-Tone could stand the silence no longer. ‘So what are we going to do with him’
Everyone spoke at once, offering his viewpoint without listening to anyone else’s. Prowl let the noise
crash around him, too tired to intervene. He found himself trying to discern the majority view and hated
himself for doing so. He stared at Kup, who was talking to Chromedome and waving his gun around.
‘I say we revive him,’ said Prowl quietly. ‘He might have information.’
The other voices died away.
Kup rested his weapon on Soundwave’s chest. ‘I don’t think I caught that. You said you wanted to
revive him’
‘Don’t even start, Kup. I’ve had enough. We’re going to save Soundwave.’