The Sparking Ceremony
By Katy "Illusionna" Edwards
Eruditae stepped out of her lab into the street and looked up at the eternally dark sky. The constellations, she knew, shifted each night to the west, as Cybertron wandered through the void of space. She couldn't tell, however, from when she had last emerged a few cycles ago. But her memory banks still held a map of the sky upon her activation. She could tell, from that map, how the sky had shifted, sending one constellation slightly below and introduced a new one on the opposite horizon.
She spent a long while examining the stars, trying with her hand to block out the lamps that illuminated the street. This was it—all her hard work was about to come to fruition, and it was more beautiful than the stars.
A large van rolled up, a dark purple with chrome trim. He didn't need his lights on, the street was so well lit. When he transformed, he was a stalwart box, his chest thrusting out proudly. "You ready?" he asked her, a broad smile on his shining, mirrored faceplate.
She couldn't have been any more ready. She nodded her head, and went back into her lab. He held the door open, making sure it wouldn't accidentally slide out of the wall and close on her. She pulled out the wheeling table and the subject on it jolted slightly. Eruditae gasped, letting go of the table to prevent the lifeless body from falling onto the cold metal ground. She didn't need to, the golden chassis landed in almost the same position as it began. She lifted one of its arms and placed it back on the table. "We have to be careful, Caravan," she said, in an almost scolding voice, as if it'd been his fault.
"He'll be fine," Caravan replied with a chuckle. He transformed back into his van mode, and started his engine. "You didn't make him out of crystal did you?"
Him, Eruditae didn't answer him. She bristled with excitement; soon the lifeless body that she pushed into the vehicle in front of her would be a he, no longer an it.
Caravan drove through the cityscape, curving this way and that to avoid any imbalances in the road, more for Eruditae's peace of mind than for his sake. The tall, sterile buildings towered toward the sunless heavens. A few windows glowed, like golden stars, alone in the silver night.
They finally arrived at their destination, and it took Eruditae no time at all to exit Caravan and open his rear doors. She wheeled the gurney out of the back. She gazed with admiration at her work, the perfection with which she had finished the body.
Caravan transformed and beamed at Eruditae. "Reckoning time," he clicked at her playfully. She nodded and wheeled the table up to the building's double doors. They slid open with a slow hissing sound.
The entrance hall to the Temple of Primus was deathly quiet. The ceiling, which stretched up several stories, was bathed in a rosy glow that simulated a dawn from a time when Cybertron orbited one star or another. A fountain of energon bubbled in the middle of the room, pale pink liquid fuel falling from one tier, to another, to the base near the floor. At the top tier, a golden ball spun on a geyser of energon, twirling like a sun in space.
Eruditae pushed the gurney toward another set of swingable double doors. Above them blazed the maxim that adorned every Temple of Primus on the planet: The Light is never further than your optics.
Caravan held open one of the doors, and she pushed the table through. The ceiling dropped to a single story in the sanctuary, giving it a cozier feel. This particular temple had individual seats built up from the floor, each with a cushion of a gold, pliable 'cloth' resting on it. Eruditae placed an energon chip in the small bowl by the door, as was custom, and wheeled the gurney forward.
Several Transformers were waiting at the altar down the isle. Smiles emerged on their faceplates as she walked in. She pushed the table to the altar, and bowed her head in respect.
"Welcome, child of Primus," said the priest, smiling fondly. Eruditae looked up and nodded as he continued, "We were beginning to wonder if you had finished your work." He looked at the body on the gurney, "but I see you have." There was a moment of silence before he asked, "You have the required energy?"
Eruditae nodded again, "Yes, Voice of Primus," she replied. She had the money to pay for the sparking long before she had finished the body. After all, creating more efficient ways for space vehicles to travel was a lucrative trade in this age of exploration and expansion. She opened a compartment in her arm, and emptied it of the energon chips it was packed with. She did the same with the other arm, and then placed her hands on the gurney. The Voice of Primus began count the chips, and a priestess leaned over to Eruditae, "He's exquisite," she touched the body's face, before gripping its shoulders and nodding for Eruditae to take its feet. They hoisted him onto the altar and the priestess' words echoed in her head. He's exquisite. The luteous body on the altar was more than exquisite. It was perfect. From the top of its amber head, through all the shades of gold on its lovely body, to the bottom of its yellow feet. It—was—perfect.
The Voice of Primus brought Eruditae back to the here and now by placing his hand on her shoulder. "His interface?"
She reached for its hips, but the priestess placed her hands over Eruditae's and chuckled. "Not that one, dear."
"Oh!" Eruditae felt a flush of foolishness come over her, and she opened the body's chest compartment to reveal a small plug—the one made especially for this moment.
The Voice of Primus nodded his head, and the priestess pulled a wire from the altar, and plugged it into the body's receiver. Another priest opened the body's cranial unit and plugged another interface in. Then, both Transformers stepped back, and the Voice of Primus took a small step forward, so his thighs were touching the altar.
"Primus," his voice boomed through the hall, "this woman as come to one of Your many Voices to ask You now that You grant this being life. We have connected him to the conduits that lead into Your Heart, to Your Avatar, the Great Vector Sigma, so that You, in Your Great Knowledge, may grant him the individuality of a Transformer!"
The moment the last word bounced off of the walls of the sanctuary, Eruditae felt a surge of energy tingle at her feet. She could feel it building in the room, until it became a powerful hum, and she could see the altar glowing red from the power it was channeling. The body began to glow with an aureate light, and her circuits sizzled with the power that emanated from it. She began to panic; the energy would destroy all of the delicate circuitry that had taken so long, so painstakingly slowly to build. They would all be melted; her perfect, golden body would be melted onto the red-hot altar. The hum in her audio receptors was becoming more than she could bear, and the sensation of energy was almost painful.
Then suddenly, it stopped.
The hall was silent. Eruditae's audio receptors were silent. The Voice of Primus and the priests were silent. The Voice of Primus looked down at the silent, still body, and removed the interface from his cranial unit, closed it, and did the same with his chest cavity. Eruditae looked from him to the body on the altar. Was it failure? Had her beautiful chassis not been granted life?
Then, as if in a dream, the body's citrine optics burst forth with the light of life with a loud cracking noise. He moved his head from one side to the other, and then sat up. He looked into Eruditae's optic sensors for a long moment, before the Voice of Primus leaned over him, and asked gently, "Welcome, child of Primus." When he got no reply, he continued, "what is your name?"
The golden being, which still seemed to glow slightly with a lustrous aura, replied in a deep, rich voice, "My name is Spanner."