eugenesis-text

Soundwave saw the laser pistols and raised his hands. ‘I’m unarmed.’
Prowl waved Throwback and Getaway aside. They hovered by the door, reluctant to holster their
weapons.
‘Where am I, Prowl Autobase’
Prowl sketched the situation as briefly as he could, recounting the fall of Iacon but skipping the AMC
interlude. ‘We’re camping inside the Institute for Higher Programming until we can make contact with
other pockets of resistance.’
‘Ah. And there I was thinking you had revived me out of compassion. All you want is a glorified
cassette deck.’ Soundwave pointed to his dented chest. ‘Sorry, but your efforts were wasted. I cannot send
nor receive messages in this condition.’
‘You’re a liar, Soundwave.’
‘Prove it.’
Prowl was at a loss. In the corridor outside, dozens of Autobots waited for a reply, a wisecrack, a
cutting remark, but he did not specialise in these things. He simply nodded to Soundwave’s injury and
asked, ‘What happened to you’
‘The Quintessons carpet-bombed Polyhex. I was caught near the front line, and transformed before
the cluster bombs hit. The bombing had opened fissures in the ground, and I fell into the ducts… I planned
to get as far away from Polyhex as possible, but the fall left me damaged. The fact that I made it this far
before burning out is a miracle.’
‘Where were you heading’ Prowl asked, having sensed Soundwave’s hesitation. ‘Towards other
Decepticons Are there any more of you out there’
‘No. We were all stationed in Polyhex.’
‘Then I’m afraid you’re the last of your kind. The last free Decepticon.’
‘I’d hardly call this freedom.’
‘There are worse places to be,’ said Prowl. ‘Like facedown in a downloading theatre.’ He closed the
cell door and stepped back as Getaway attached a coded lock.
‘The last of my kind, you say’ Soundwave called from inside. ‘Now that the Quintessons have taken
over, is there really any difference between Autobot and Decepticon’
Prowl activated the lock. ‘Oh yes.’
Jolup burst into the control room, shok baton in one hand, plasma rifle in the other. He found Sevax
sitting at the conference table opposite three red, headless Decepticons and a smoking pistol. ‘I heard
gunshots! What happened More escapees’
‘I released them,’ mumbled Sevax, looking at the splattered oil and circuitry slipping down the wall.
‘For interrogation purposes.’
‘You what’
‘They were high-rankers. Squad leaders or lieutenants, I think.’
‘What was all that about “negating rank” and “bleaching out personalities”’
Sevax cocked his weapon half-seriously at Jolup’s head. ‘Don’t start. I thought they might know
about us – about our bodies, anyway.’
‘And you didn’t like what they had to say’
‘Quite the opposite, in fact. If they knew anything, they didn’t talk. I threatened to blow their heads
off unless they told me everything they knew about us.’ He mimed each kill-shot. ‘Nothing. Not a thing. It
makes you wonder.’
‘Correction: it makes you wonder.’
‘They had guns to their heads and they still couldn’t remember a single thing about us.’
‘You’re taking this whole thing too seriously. It doesn’t matter who these bodies belonged to before
we moved in. It’s all in the past. Life began when we left Aquaria.’
Sevax shrugged. ‘What are you doing back here, anyway I thought you were running the recycling
site.’
‘Boring. I left Q-362 in charge. The Grade As are making good progress, although a few have been
smelted. Accidentally, of course. Don’t look at me like that – you’re the one who just shot three high
graders.’