Authors Note
I'm back again with my next installment to this series. Sorry I haven't been around for a while but it has been a bit busy as the dreaded exams are nearly here. Just today were started to be given a lecture for what to do when we go back to sea. It's only two months now till I'm back out there. So with this story you'll just have to be patient.
Before I let you read on I will admit I didn't really like how this first chapter came out. I have been struggling for a while on how to go about this, so just bare with me for now. It will get better I promise.
In the mean time I have a deviantart account with the same penname where I have got some photos of my travels around the world from last year and things I done since I've been back in the UK. The link to it is on my profile page. GO CHECK IT OUT!
Anyway, enjoy.
Along a short stretch of road came a blue sports bike with a young rider. The bike had to keep to a slow speed as the road wasn't all that wide, plus there were road humps designed to slow the traffic. The bike slowed for every one of them so that it wasn't thrown off the road. At one point the bike had to stop to allow an oncoming vehicle to pass through a gap made by a parked van. As the oncoming car went past, the bike sped off again down the road. To the left were a few bungalows and to the right was a six foot wooden panel fencing with large trees looming over the narrow road. The bike came to the end of the length of fencing which was replaced by a junction into the campus of Warsash Maritime Academy. The bike took the right hand turn and crawled down the short bit of lane which sloped down and swooped to the left toward a small building which was the campus reception. At the far end of the building was a space to park motorbikes. The bike slid past the building and did a U-turn into the space and parked up. The rider killed the engine and got off.
Jack took off his silver helmet and surveyed around him. Next to the reception building was an accommodation block. He remembered seeing the hideous sixties style block tower when he was on the Isle of Wight ferry during the late months of last year.
"I'll just wait here then" The motorbike said. Jack looked around, making sure no one heard Arcee. Rather than look like he was talking to his motorbike he went off to do what he was here for. He left his helmet with Arcee and walked toward the side of the accommodation block. Once again a small bit of tarmac carried on up a slope into another car park which formed a semi-circle shape around a patch of grass. Now he had no idea where to go.
He saw a cadet walk out of the long white washed building, running the length of the flat edge of the semi-circle at the far end of the area he was in. Jack saw on the cadet's white shirt was the BP logo. He stopped him for a question "Excuse me, you don't happen to know anyone called Michael Rickers? And where I could find him?"
"Michael?" The cadet asked "Yeah I know him. He's in the library, last I know" The cadet pointed to a building on Jacks left. It was a modern style building in a semi-circle shape like the car park was.
"Thanks" Jack said.
"No worries pal" The cadet walked off toward the reception building, heading off toward the lower part of the campus.
Jack walked across to the library. He pulled open a seemingly heavy door, which didn't turn out to be heavy. He stepped into a space which led off in two directions but there was another door that led into the library proper. Before he went in he set his mobile to silent after seeing the sign about it being a quiet study area. He pushed the second door open and walked past the scanners so that people didn't steal from the library. He did a quick visual scan, the main desk was in front of him, and there were studying desks, tables and bookcases to the right and a stairs to the upper level to his left. He walked to his right and quietly went past the bookcases and desks with one or two cadets giving him a funny look as they had never seen him before. Old enough to be a cadet but too young to be on any other course the academy had on offer. In the far end in an alcove of bookshelves he found Michael staring intently at a certain shelve, trying to decide which book to select.
"Michael" Jack called out quietly. Michael turned quickly in Jacks direction to see who had called him.
"Jack, how you doing?" He asked, pleased to see Jack.
"Alright I suppose. This is a nice campus from what I've seen so far"
"It is, isn't it?"
"What you doing?" Jack asked.
"Ah, I've been given a two thousand word law assignment to write up by the end of May. I want to get it out of the way before things get really busy"
"What's it about?" Jack asked, but wasn't too sure if he should have.
"It's a case with a cross channel ferry possibly colliding with a yacht where all three on board died. I have to write about whether the owners of the ferry have any liability in the tort of negligence"
Jacks faces was completely blank "What?"
"Exactly. I'm getting this done now so I don't have to blag it later on. But now you're here I can stuff doing this. Let's get on our way" Michael padded out of the alcove and over to a table to pick up his backpack and put it on. He led the way to the way out of the library with Jack following close behind.
They went through the first door but Michael didn't head straight out, he had something to show Jack. He led him to line of memorials that lined the walls until they came to the most recent one.
"What's this?" Jack asked looking at the photo of a cadet smiling with pride into the camera.
"This is the memorial to Richard Walkers"
"Your friend on the Catalonian Star" Jack spoke absentmindedly.
"It's been hard without him. We were such close friends" Michael's head dropped slightly, looking at the floor "It should have been me, not him"
"It wasn't your fault" Jack tried to cheer Michael up.
"Yes it was, the fire happened all because of me. He died because of me and I still can't forgive myself for that"
Jack remained quiet for a moment, not quite understanding Michael's sorrow.
"Did he know?" He slowly asked. "I mean the whole, secret agent stuff?"
Michael slowly nodded "Yeah, he was the only one not involved who knew about it. We trusted each other completely, like brothers. We always had each other's back. You would have liked him. If anything you remind me of him sometimes"
"Really?"
"Yeah, you're a mature young lad, you stay level headed and you think before you act with a great appreciation for the situation. However you're not into football like he was" Both of them snorted.
"So, where is she parked up?"
"Follow me" Jack led Michael back to the main entrance of the building, through the semi-circle car park and down towards the reception building with the motorbike park where Arcee was waiting.
"Hello again" Michael said to Arcee as they approached knowing no one was able to hear.
"How are you?" Arcee asked back as the two humans mounted on her saddle.
"Ok, considering what's about to happen I suppose"
Jack realised something "Hang on, you haven't got a helmet, I know you need one"
"Don't worry, let's get to my place. I can lead on into the city on my bike. So for now, just keep schtum"
"What?" Jack not understanding the British phrase
"Just say nothing"
"Oh"
Jack put his helmet on and 'started' Arcee's engine and in time at all, they were heading out of the campus and towards Michael house in the village.
Half an hour later and on the old Southampton Portsmouth road came two motorbikes. The first one was a cruiser, Michael's silver Suzuki Intruder 125 and following close behind was Arcee and Jack. On the straight bits of road Arcee tried a bit of racing, but soon got bored because Michaels bike just couldn't keep up, barely doing 40 miles an hour on the up-hills. She was seriously considering telling him to get a new bike.
They followed him right into the city centre and he led them passed the city hall and down the hill leading from there and making a sharp turn at the end of the hill and into the car park of the student halls of residence where many of the Warsash cadets lived.
As the two bikes swept around the yellow tower blocks the sound of loud music and the smell of a barbeque filled the air. The two bikes park up by the patch of grass overlooking the road and toward the train tracks where twenty or so people were having a party. All of which noticed the arrival of the two motorbikes.
Both Michael and Jack dismounted, taking their helmets off and walked over to the group. Some were dancing to the music which was blasting out of a series on massive speakers hooked up to a power supply from one of the flats directed next to the patch of grass. They were dancing barefoot on the grass while some were chatting away and some were huddled around the instant barbeque that had been placed on top on a manhole cover.
Arcee looked on as Michael introduced her ward to his friends, and almost immediately they were on the drink. Michael quickly guzzling down a bottle of beer which frankly amazed Jack who could barely drink a sip of the stuff while completely sober. Arcee found it slightly funny how out of place Jack looked. He seemed to be quite mature for his age and acted older than he should do when with the other two back at base, but in amongst people actually older than him, he suddenly seemed young again, but she was glad that Michaels friends didn't put his age against him.
Soon Arcee herself had a problem. Quite a number of students noticed her vehicle form and were very interested as to why such an expensive looking motorbike should be parked up in the halls of residence. She didn't like the amount of eyes looking at her. It seriously unnerved her and she wished she could just leave for a short while. But all she could do was sit there, watching them looking at her while she also tried to keep an eye on Jack.
A few hours down the line and at the Autobot base, Arcee was calling in "Ratchet, I could do with some assistance here"
"What's the problem?" Ratchet asked.
"Well, I'm not able to carry two drunken humans" Was all she said.
"I'll send Bulkhead out to go get them" He replied, not wanting to do it himself, plus it was his form of payback for all the nonsense he got from Bulkhead when he was with Miko and for breaking his tools.
Arcee was still in the car park watching Michael and Jack stumble around in an attempt to dance to more club music. By now Jack had consumed six bottles, but that was nothing compared to Michael's nine bottles, three gin and tonics, four shots of vodka and a half bottle of rum. Arcee just couldn't understand how he could drink so much compared to Jack. Something for her to look into on a slow day, which was quite rare for her.
Thankfully for Arcee, Bulkhead turned up in no time at all and filled the available space in the car park as his vehicle form was more suited for American roads, but he managed to squeeze in. He gave a quick blast on the horn to tell Michael and Jack he was there.
Jack, being Jack tried to take control and drag Michael over toward Bulkhead, but Michael wasn't having any of it. He tried to stagger over to his motorbike.
"No, no you're… your drunk. Jus, just leave it here. It'll be fine" Jack slurred out.
"I'm not leaving it here, I'll ride it back to base"
"Your drunk, don't be stupid"
Michael turned back to Jack and made a swing for him but missed sending himself crashing to the grass. Jack tried to haul him up.
"Get up you stupid drunk" He tried to lift the two hundred and fifty pound man off the floor with difficulty.
"I am a professional seafarer in, in… the merchant navy. You don't know nothing" Michael managed to say through his drunken haze. Jack got the man to his feet and helped him toward Bulkhead who had his rear passenger door open and ready. Michael fell in and jack got in behind. The door closed and Bulkhead reversed out of the car park. Arcee followed close behind as soon as no one was looking at her.
While they were on the road back to where Michael normally bridged to base, Michael noticed it was all too quiet inside of Bulkhead.
"How about some tunes?"
"What do you want here buddy?"
"Bass Phenomenon" Michael shouted out with excitement.
"What?"
"By Kr-Kr, err, Krafty Kuts. Bass Phenomenon"
Sure enough Bulkhead played that song and all three all them were repeating the only lyric over and over again. Bulkhead like the track so much he decided to share it with Arcee, who as far as she was concerned only heard "Don't be fronting with the bass phenomenon" Over and over with an annoying sound in the background.
A little while later Bulkhead and Arcee came through the ground bridge and Bulkhead let Michael and Jack get out, or in Michael's case, fall out.
Ratchet could only stare at the state Michael was in. "Michael" He started, unimpressed by his behaviour seeing that Miko and Raff were present "You have a tribunal coming up which will decide your future and all you can do is act like a buffoon?"
Michael got to his feet and made his way over to where there was a set of human sized tools. He picked up a weighty spanner and lobbed it at Ratchet's face. Ratchet dodged it with ease, but everyone was stunned at this rather violent outburst.
"Oooh, look at me, I'm so clever, I know better than anyone else" Michael tried to pretend Ratchet's voice, but doing a bad job of it.
"What was that for?" Ratchet asked, still stunned by what he just seen and heard. But Michael just stumbled off down a corridor, slurring out something that no one could understand.
Optimus voice came through the com link "Optimus to base, requesting a Ground Bridge"
Ratchet entered Optimus' position and activated the ground bridge portal and through the swirling wall of light came Optimus and Elita. As soon as the two came to stand in the centre of the control room, they knew something was up.
"Is something wrong?" Optimus asked.
"Michael's back" Ratchet answered. This puzzled the Autobot leader. Why would that be a problem?
"He threw a spanner at me because at the moment he is heavily under the influence of alcohol"
"Where is he?" Elita quickly asked, concerned for her charge.
"He went down that way" Ratchet pointed out the corridor, Michael had staggered down.
Elita rushed off to find Michael before anything bad happened to him, leaving everyone else to wonder why Michael had lost his self-control so easily. Optimus knew straight away that the pressure of the upcoming tribunal was really getting to Michael and he was doing his level best to hide it.
Michael was lying down on the floor, feeling like he was about to throw up, and he probably was about to considering how much he had to drink in such a short period of time. Elita found him easily because of the groaning he was making.
"Michael" She knelt down next to him. He was shivering due to how cold the large corridors could get so she laid a hand over him as a temporary blanket "Look at you" She said gently "Why did you do that?"
"It's not fair" Michael said with difficulty due to the alcohol "Why won't they leave me alone?"
"Let's get you to your room" Elita picked Michael up off the floor and carried him through the series of corridors towards where Michael had a room set up for him for whenever he visited the base. Elita took a route that wouldn't go through the main control room so no one would see how bad he got. She got to his room and opened up the cybertronian sized door and stepped in. She knelt down and laid Michael on the bed, on his side and retrieved a bucket just in case he did throw up.
With the blanket now over him and the effect of the alcohol setting in, Michael had soon fallen asleep. Elita stoked his hair slightly.
"We'll get through this. This tribunal won't spilt us apart, and I mean it. I promise you, everything is going to be fine" She whispered to him in his sleep.
