eugenesis-text

Doubleheader into the corridor. ‘I know this may sound insensitive, but do you think Longtooth wanted to
disappear’
‘I don’t get it. Why would he want to disappear’
Nightbeat shrugged. He could think of hundreds of reasons. He left the room, switched off the lights
and closed the door.
Burnt into the floor of Longtooth’s quarters, glowing in the dark, was a perfect figure eight.
The stolen Autobot shuttle moved deeper into hyperspace, passing between imprints, echoes and
silhouettes. In the Void, nothing held true – space itself was white, not black, and the normal landmarks
and signposts – nebulae, gas funnels and star fields – were simply dark copies of the real thing.
The three Decepticon escapees sat on the bridge and stared straight ahead. There was no
conversation. How different it had been at first. The aftermath of cryogenic coma, the rush of reactivation -
it had been ablaze with touch and taste and sound. They had surrendered to the impulse, escaped their
prison and taken to the air.
One thought had overridden all else: a specific location more vital and urgent than their own names,
a planet unlike the alien world on which they had awoken. They could not explain the motivation, but the
thought was there all the same, guiding their flight path, goading them on. They had pinpointed the largest
congregation of similar beings, stolen a spacecraft and set off towards the co-ordinates.
But now… perhaps it was the boredom of null-space, perhaps it was the aching silence, but the zeal
that had carried them this far was gone. They felt betrayed, and it was an overwhelming feeling, like
drowning in feathers or sand, like slow-motion suffocation.
They’d felt it before.
The shuttle phased back into reg-space and the Decepticons stood up expectantly, wondering
whether they would recognise the planet they had travelled so far to find. They already knew its
name: Aquaria.
Death’s Head loosened his axe and rolled off the sub, happy to let the current drag him towards the
floor of the docking chamber. He was sucked through the dark, red-ringed mouth of a chemical duct and
flushed into the bowels of the complex. His world became a delirious rush of wastewater and hot flotsam.
Blind, lost and anxious, he dug his fingertips into the wall and waited for the aqua fortis to drain away.
When he stood up he was shaking.
He wrung litres of fluid from his cloak, drained his mouth grille and replaced his left hand.
What was this place A penal colony A research base A city He worked a fingernail into an
overhead panel, wondering who was here and what they were hiding. The panel came free and he climbed
onto a simple set of rungs: at least the inhabitants of the complex were a similar size.
The ladder led to a low-ceilinged corridor, greasy-green and sparkling-dark. He noticed lettering on
the opposite wall, and with equal amounts of curiosity and dismay realised that he did not recognise the
language. Although versed in thousands of galactic dialects, the loops and curlicues meant nothing to him.
The only vaguely universal aspect was a rigid pentagram. As he began to explore the interlacing passageways
he saw the same symbol reappear on doors and oubliettes.
He hugged each curve and corner, wondering where everyone was. The next corridor was always as
empty as the last, and he began to wonder whether the submarine had been empty too – some automated
leftover going through the motions. Only a persistent drone in the background convinced him of activity.
Eventually he came upon a clearing, a nexus for the tunnels that ran like spokes towards some distant
outer rim. In front of him was a vault door hundreds of metres high. He rubbed the surface and activated
microprocessors in his fingertips.
‘Tactile strength: indeterminate. Composition: indeterminate. Depth: indeterminate.’ He wandered
off. ‘Very enlightening, yes’
Several miles away he found an unlocked door with pentagrams on either side. The room beyond
was empty, but the floor was covered in glowing circles.
‘Some kind of afterglow,’ he whispered into his thumb, ‘but caused by what’