Tales of the Intermezzo - Full Circle A Transformers Universe Story copyright 2001 by Dave Van Domelen based on properties owned by Hasbro =========================================================================== "intermezzo - n. A brief entertainment between two acts of a play." - American Heritage Dictionary "Congratulations, Ambassador Jakzun!" a meaty hand slapped down between Jakzun's shoulderblades. "ConGRATulations!" Jakzun coughed into his hand. "Thank you, Admiral Wyte. But I merely brought the parties together, they did all the work." The Admiral grinned broadly. "Don't sell yourself short, Ambassador! This sector has been one of the most inhospitable I've ever seen. Just getting someone to the table must have required divine intervention. And finally, we have allies out on ths border. Good job!" With that, the greying tiger of a man chuckled and stalked off to find others to celebrate with. He may have thought a lot of Jakzun's work, but few liked to socialize with the man. He was an excellent diplomat in the tricky realm of interspecies relations, but it was almost as if he couldn't relate to his own kind. For the next few hours, Jakzun accepted congratulations both hearty and tentative, mingling and making himself available to those who wanted to be seen in the presence of a successful man. He sipped his drink slowly and didn't eat a thing...nor did he really partake of any aspect of the party beyond what was required of him. Once the party started to wind down, he excused himself and returned to his private launch in the far docking bay. Sleek and black, it was designed to avoid combat and allow a diplomat to reach the parties he would negotiate with, without exposing himself to much fire from those who would prefer to see war continue. Jakzun sat down in the control seat of the ebon craft...and shut down. For, in truth, he was no more human than he was one of the Eridani he convinced to ally with humanity. "Ambassador Jakzun" was a remote unit, an organic drone. The embassy ship was the true intelligence. And its name was Skyjack, the Last Decepticon. "Access hypercom summary for the last standard day," Skyjack commanded. He didn't need to speak aloud, but he liked the sound of an intelligent voice after a day of concentrating on dealing with organics. News poured into Skyjack's circuits, and he seamlessly integrated it into his plans for humanity. He was only one Decepticon, but he had done more to harm the Terrans than any single non-human in history. He had not been able to halt their advance into space, especially in the wake of the failed Vehicon invasion, but he had made sure humanity never found its way into Cybertronian space. He smiled internally as he assimilated news of the alliance he had helped forge. The Terrans were as elated as Admiral Wyte at the prospect of allies on the borderlands, especially given the continued failure of the Terran Diplomatic Corps to find friends here in the past human generation. That, of course, had been Skyjack's doing. A mysterious destruction here, a garbled communication there, and humanity had been very unwelcome in these parts. But now he had allowed them an ally in the Eridani...because the Eridani were even more disliked than humanity! With the stroke of a pen, the Terrans had further alienated every other power in the sector, and acquired enemies on the far side of Eridani space that they weren't even aware of. "Jakzun" had been careful to appear ignorant of the state of war the Eridani suffered. Not an easy task...the Eridani practically radiated desperation. It would be a matter of months before humanity found itself embroiled in a war that had been going on for decades. Wait. Almost buried in minutae, an item triggered Skyjack's search protocols. A piece of information regarding Terra itself, the first in years. Five hundred years ago, humanity devised another path to immortality, something they seemed obsessed with. However, it would sterilize everyone exposed to it, and would only grant immortality to one in a million. So it had been decided to have all not willing to engage in the experiment abandon Earth, let nature recover and let the Immortals come out. Earth had gone under quarantine for a century, and quite isolationist after that. The few hundred Immortals, led by "the Prime", sought no contact with the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere, and they seemed to have the power to keep out the curious. And those determined to destroy the "monsters" that now ruled Terra. Now, apparently, a new political faction known as the Unity had arisen to oppose the consensus that the Prime led. There was to be a vote soon on the issue of allowing "ephemerals" onto Earth again. Despite calling themselves Terrans, most humans had lost interest in Terra itself, and the news was relegated to the equivalent of the "back page." But Skyjack knew the real meaning of this news. It wasn't about letting others in...it was about letting the Immortals OUT. Rumors of their personal powers worried him only slightly. It was the fact that there would be people with a long view of history actively engaged in human affairs that concerned Skyjack. His only real advantage in his secret war against humanity was his longevity, his ability to see the big picture and plan over decades and centuries. The Immortals would share this view, and could trivially counter his plots. Time to return to Terra. * * * * A limited organic might have wondered if he'd arrived on the right planet, as Earth bore no resemblance to the place Skyjack had spent centuries lying in wait after the Great War ended. But he was not so limited, and he knew it could be no other world, despite the radically altered coastlines and utter lack of technology visible on the surface. It was a warmer world, but tropical rather than arid. It had been reformed into a human view of paradise. All in a few centuries. Perhaps the rumors of the powers of the Immortals were erring on the side of caution. Skyjack nervously fingered the controls in his hand, a sort of deadman switch. He considered just activating his failsafes and fleeing, but he had to know more. He had to know what the Immortals had done, had become. There was an energy flux as the first of the Immortals arrived in the "natural" amphitheater. It was not, thankfully, a Transwarp flux. It was more akin to the power Skywarp had possessed in life, a sort of electrogravitic projection. Skyjack's own Transwarp bubble isolated him from the rest of the universe and provided unbeatable camoflage provided the target did not have Transwarp technology. The Immortal wore loose, flowing robes that appeared to be more ceremonial than functional in nature. That made sense...an immortal capable of controlling his environment had no more need for clothing than Skyjack did. A natural division was becoming clear as more Immortals warped in. Half clustered around a dais at the south end of the amphitheater, while the other half were loosely grouped at the north end. Followers of the Prime and members of the Unity, no doubt. The last to arrive materialized on the dais. "Greetings, my fellow humans." "Greetings, Prime," the others chorused. Even those at the north end partook in the ritual greeting, although their hostility was evident. "We have an important decision to reach today," the Prime said calmly. His voice was quiet, yet managed to carry to all within the amphitheater. "Will we continue to remain apart from the ephemerals, or will we mingle with them, forever changing them?" A clear leader of the Unity stepped forward, his long, thin mustache flowing in the slight breeze. "They need not be ephemeral, Prime. We have eliminated the flaws of the original immortality process. We can bring all humanity into the ranks of true humanity. Can we accept the moral consequences of allowing humans to die by the billions when we can prevent that?" "So you say," one of the Prime's supporters countered. "But let us assume that the genetic puzzle has been solved. How many of us went mad over the long years? We were able to heal the damaged minds of our comrades in time, with great effort, but that was only the madness of a few dozen. Consider a million million madmen, immortal and possessed of even a fraction of the power we have developed. How much of the universe would be ravaged by humanity's insanity before we could calm their tortured psyches? Remember, we *anticipated* the madness that long life brings and took every step we could think of to alleviate it. We had the collective talent of millions of ephemerals working to keep a few hundred sane...and we have no guarantee that a mere five hundred years has shaken out all our tendencies towards madness." "And we have *learned* from that!" the Unity representative countered. "We can even tailor the immortality process to select for the stronger minds, and not torture those who could not handle immortality with that burden, should we want to. But WE CAN END DEATH. It is our moral responsibility to do so, regardless of other consequences!" "What of those who may not want immortality?" called out another of the Prime's faction. "Do we force them to accept eternity when they want only a good life followed by whatever reward they believe awaits them? We may have rejected immortality of the soul in exchange for immortality of the body, but do not pretend that all of humanity has cast aside faith in the supernatural." Skyjack caught himself nodding in agreement. If anything, humanity had become even more religious as it hurled itself into space. Uncertainty of life breeds belief in certainty after life. Many Terrans considered the Immortals to be abominations in the sight of God, or nature, or just humanity itself. They would not all accept the gift of eternal life, no matter how much power came with the offer. "The truth always hurts," replied one of the Unity. "It hurts to find that your parents are not infallible. It hurts to find that life is not fair. I do not expect all will thank us for taking death from them, but I do expect that given time they will all accept the truth. There is no eternity, even our deathlessness means naught in the face of the eventual death of the universe. But we can live that full measure, reach the potential that a mere century or two of life can never fulfill. We will give all of humanity the chance to truly grow up, to leave the childhood that many die still embracing." The Prime cleared his throat. The amphitheater fell silent. "There is one issue we do need to consider that has not been raised. What of other races? We can still be killed, and they may unite against humanity rather than risk being outlived. Even the other long-lived races may not appreciate all humanity joining them in that status. Billions of immortals swarming across the universe...that's an image to make anyone pause. Is that not right, Skyjack?" The bubble of warped spacetime around Skyjack dissolved as if it were a fog blown away by an errant breeze. He grasped his controls more tightly, unsure if they would have any effect. After all, if the Prime had known he was there, then all Skyjack's other plans could be compromised. "As a representative of one of the existing immortal races, how do you think the rest of the galaxy would react to the Unity's plans?" the Prime repeated, as other Immortals looked at Skyjack with varying degrees of shock and surprise. "It cannot be allowed," Skyjack said, knowing every word could be his last. "You would destroy the universe and replace it with a new one in which none but yourselves can live." "Isn't that what the Decepticons wanted to do before they were destroyed?" sneered one of the Unity. "Of course!" Skyjack spat back. "It's only natural for any species to want to dominate their world, their universe. We all struggle for living room, for dominance. But it is no hypocrisy to try to stop another species from doing the same. Every atom you take is an atom I lose. And you stand poised to grab entire galaxies. I had worried about your entry to the galactic stage simply as a few hundred long-lived individuals. But your plan to transform your entire race? That I cannot allow." "You cannot allow?" the Prime grinned genially. "Even I, the Prime, cannot tell others here what to do...we operate on consensus. You are not even part of our consensus. You may present your case, but it is not for you to allow or disallow our final decision." There was a rumbling of amused assent. Even the Unity agreed with the Prime on this count. "Then here is my most potent argument," Skyjack said, dropping the console in his hands to the ground. "What is that supposed to be?" the Unity leader asked. The Prime beat Skyjack to responding. "It is a switch, Unity. Of the kind called 'deadman.'" The sky started to boil as space itself shredded around the entire planet. The Immortals started to show fear. "A Transwarp bomb," Skyjack explained. "It will scatter your atoms through time and space." "It will NOT!" the Unity leader reached out, exerting his will on the roiling skies. "No, Unity. It will," the Prime sighed sadly. "Given any more time, the Unity would no doubt become stronger than those who believe in my wisdom. Skyjack's bomb will provide an ending of sorts to our tale, and a beginning to his own. We are equally matched now, and the Transwarp device breaks the tie in favor of the rest of the universe." "NOOOOO!" screamed the membership of the Unity with one voice. "You! Cybertronian! We WILL survive this!" the Unity leader shouted. "And we will destroy your world, your race!" "You'll try," the Prime nodded. "But you will fail." He turned to Skyjack. "You may reactivate your protective bubble now, Skyjack. In your own way, you have probably saved the universe, even without this." He pulled a pendant out from under his robes, a glittering jewel of energy that looked hauntingly familiar to Skyjack. "My badge of office," he explained as Skyjack's Transwarp bubble closed up and his external sensors were destroyed by the rapidly approaching wall of devastation. "You've seen it before. Think about it." Then he grinned and was devoured by the Transwarp explosion. Just before all Skyjack's sensors went black, the Unity leader lost his struggle against the curdling of reality. He shouted out a phrase that had seared itself into Cybertron's collective memory, in a voice that echoed coldly through the circuits of Autobot and Decepticon alike. "You cannot destroy...my destiny!" Darkness descended. "No," Skyjack whispered into the emptiness of his private warp bubble. "I've created your destiny...Unicron. And may Primus...the Prime...have mercy on my spark." =========================================================================== Author's Notes: So ends the Skyjack Trilogy. Those just joining us will want to read "Night Watchman" and "Soul of the City" at my fanfic archive site http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Fanfic for the first two parts. And in case anyone didn't figure it out, the Prime's badge of office is the core of the Matrix. It's so nice to have a DVDROM and the Transformers Movie on DVD so I can check dialogue without leaving the computer....