Arc 4: 10 Duty

by Macx

The discovery of a locked doorway on a planet no one would have suspected it leads to more startling discoveries.

Duty
by Birgit Staebler
mac@robyn.rhein-neckar.de

Earth
A long time ago

The last modification had been done. The last stone had been set; the last lock had been closed. C'cane looked at his masterpiece and if his race were able to smile, he was grinning from one non-existent ear to another. Instead his colors changed to something brighter and he hovered over the gigantic structure, proud as could be.
"The Guardians will be here within the next few days," Har informed him.
"Thank you." C'cane moved away from his latest project, looking around the wild, unnamed planet. It was beautiful in its ferocity, but it has calmed down enough to be chosen as another point where to install one of his gates.
"You did good work," Har went on. "Do you think it was really necessary to plant this one in particular, though?"
He looked at his friend. "Yes, I do. We don't know if they have left forever and we need to be prepared. If they touch our planes again, we have to have a way to contact our allies."
Har sighed. "They are gone, C'cane. No one and nothing will ever bring them back. They are gone and they can't touch us again."
"Maybe not directly.... They can still try and influence what they have touched before."
"C'cane!" Har exclaimed. "Please! Just let the Guardians take over their duty, then we'll be back home and wait for the next assignment!"
The other sighed. "Okay."
They moved away, C'cane looking almost longingly back at his new construction. He was proud of every single one of them, but he was also worried. None of the other Tjineran seemed to share his fears and with the friction between certain groups growing, he knew there was little thought left to their old enemies. They had been gone for millennia now, but C'cane was as worried as the day their war had broken out. He knew they were watching from beyond the barrier and he hoped that those who were their allies among them would help if the time came.

The Guardians came as announced a few days later, setting up camp and taking over their duty. C'cane watched them with mixed feelings, knowing that they would wait in vain. There would never be a Gatekeeper for this doorway; never. There couldn't be. How could there if it was unlike the others? How would he be able to handle what powers lurked beyond the entrance into the doorway system? He felt bad condemning the Guardians to this task without telling them, but it had to be.
C'cane left without ever getting to know them. He was bound to be home and he hoped never to come back again.

* * *

Earth
Egypt

His name was K'ral, son of Ja-kann and Endra, last of the priests of the Guardian Gods and first of the Keepers. Kneeling on the stone floor, eyes fixed on the ornamented wall, he tried to come to grips with this immense burden – because it was a burden. K'ral swallowed and tried to chase those thoughts away. Burden... no, there was no such thing as a burden. It was his duty and his pride, his sense in life. He had served his gods and he and his sons and daughters would continue to do so for all time. He was sworn to them and he would follow his oath. His wife had smiled as he had told her of his 'calling' and she and his twin son and daughter were the first of a new order of Keepers. When he died, he knew the duty would fall to them, and later to their families.
"K'ral?"
The soft voice startled him and he looked up, guilt flooding his features as he discovered who his visitor was. "I... I'm sorry, you highness. I didn't hear you!" He bowed deeply.
"Oh, K'ral, please." A warm hand touched him. "Rise. Didn't we tell you that we don't want this kind of ...admiration and worship?"
He scrambled to his feet, confused again by these creatures. "But, my lady..."
She held up one delicately sculptured hand, green eyes sparkling with their strange inner lights he had always found so fascinating. "Stop, please, K'ral. We chose you and the others for a reason. You are strong, you are unlike the other priests or warriors. You are our Keepers and you will protect us. And you understand that we are not your gods, which is why we will go to sleep soon."
He licked his lips, remembering the teachings. It was hard to melt them into what his mind wanted him to believe, but he knew there was truth there. K'ral was one of the chosen ones, the Keepers, and he would make them all proud. His family would be one of the few to which this honor fell.
"You and the others will have to work together for all time, your children and grand-children," she went on. "You are up to it, K'ral, I know it."
"Thank you, my lady," he whispered, smiling tentatively.
Her lips creased into a smile as well and he was struck by her exotic, alien beauty. Her skin was the same golden brown as always, metal but still so flexible as if it were his own skin, and the white traditional gown flowed around her, hiding her slender form. K'ral had witnessed not only her full beauty, the metal-covered body of woman but then again not female at all, and its powers of shape-changing into the mighty cat she represented. He honored her, he served her, he was her Keeper. She was not one of them and neither were her friends, but he was drawn to those beings more than to any other god. No, wrong. She wasn't a god. She was not one of them, but she was also no god. Now she reached out with one hand and he took it, inclining his head slightly.
"You will follow our wishes?"
"Yes, I swore an oath. I will never break it."
She smiled. "Come."
They left the small temple and stepped into the bright sun outside. K'ral squinted and then, as his eyes adjusted, took in the magnificent pyramid not very far away. Their hiding place.
"I will miss you," he said softly.
Her smile widened. "I will miss you and everyone else as well. I feel sad to go to sleep, K'ral, but we all have to. It is necessary. Our influence has become to great when all we wanted to do was follow our duty. Now we have to retreat and do what was asked of us in secret, and you have to do what we asked of you."
"And we will always do it," he assured her.

The next day the entrance to the great pyramid was closed, everything sealed, and the stories about this 'tomb' circled. K'ral smiled sadly as he felt what others could only guess: the occupants of the pyramid falling asleep.
"Rest easy and well," he whispered. "May nothing disturb you in your duty until you are needed."
Someone joined him and he discovered it to be a fellow Keeper, a young woman with short, straight hair and much darker skin than his. She held the same sad expression he knew he had.
"We will keep them safe," she said.
K'ral nodded. "Yes, we will. Forever."

* * *

Earth
Cairo, 1920
Giza Plateau

Professor Harrison West watched the work at the excavation site. Hundreds of Arab laborers dressed in long white cotton robes swarmed the area and went after their business, a stark contrast to the empty sands everywhere. There were tents clustering the immediate line of the site, forming an impenetrable seeming wall toward the desert. Swirls of smoke rose between the tents, indicating cooking fires. There was digging equipment everywhere. The mid-day heat burned down on the large crater-like excavation site, the so-called 'hot pit', turning the sand into an oven. West wiped sweat off his brow. Whatever had made him come here, to this hellhole? Curiosity, was the answer. His partner and friend Joseph Harrow had sent a message that he had discovered something incredible and wonderful. He hadn't said what exactly he had found, just that West should come immediately. West, knowing his easy to excite partner, had hesitated, but then curiosity had won over better knowledge. Harrow might be easy to excite, but he also was a scientist and every time he had told West there was something incredible, this had been true.
So he had booked a journey to Cairo.
"Harry!" someone called jovially and West turned.
Joe Harrow came over, his steps full of unreleased energy. He was a middle-aged man of slim built with light brown hair. A pair of glasses adorned his face, constantly balancing on the tip of his nose. His narrow face was smudged with sand and dirt, and his eyes were positively alight.
"Joe," West greeted him.
"Did you have a good flight?" the Englishman asked, his blue eyes sparkling with youthful energy.
"Bumpy," West answered gruffly. He hated flying and Harrow knew it. But since it was the fastest, though not the cheapest way to get to North Africa, West had had to fly.
Harrow grinned. "Well, let's raise your spirits, Harry. You won't believe what I found!" The younger man grabbed his partner by the arm and dragged him over to one of the tents standing separated from the rest. It was also larger and easily distinguished as an exhibition tent.
Harrow opened the tent and stepped inside, motioning West to follow him. Inside it was just as bright as outside since the material of the tent was white linen. There were several tables lined up and on the tables lay different objects. West saw vases, pots and other 'normal' excavation finds. Harrow walked over to a something rectangular and about four feet tall, covered by a whitish sheet.
"What's that?" West wanted to know.
"That," Harrow said with a grin, "is what I found."
He pulled off the cover and West stepped closer, eyes widening. What he saw was a chalky gray piece of stone, covered from top to bottom with ancient glyphs. The enter piece of the stone was an intricately carved masterwork, set in deep natural colors, all nearly perfectly preserved. It showed a scene unlike any he had ever seen before. There were five figures, five Egyptian gods, if he was right, and they were standing around a triangular shape set into the ground. All were depicted much larger than on any other pictures he had ever seen and their coloring was odd. West studied them carefully. Yes, the coloring was definitely off.
"Where did you find this?" he asked, voice soft.
"The Temple of Ti. I...errr.... bargained with the caretaker and he gave me some extra time in the passages cut off to the public."
"A lot of time, as it seems," West remarked, still studying the fascinating piece of art. He recognized some of the glyphs and his mind rallied to translated them.
Sent from Above.
Keepers.
Secret.
From Beyond.
Waiting for....
He didn't know the next hieroglyph and stopped. "What time?" he wanted to know.
Harrow joined him and his face was serious. "That's the problem I'm facing: I can't date it. It seems to be ancient, older than anything I have ever seen, but it is also incredibly well-preserved. I found it in a closed-off chamber of the temple and there were barely any paintings in the room. It looked more like a lecture hall than a holy place, with benches lined up and all."
"In a temple?"
Harrow nodded. "What do you make of it?"
"I don't know. These figures," he gestured at the gods, "look unlike anything I have ever seen on paintings. I recognize them because of their looks, but the colors...."
"They are wrong," his colleague agreed.
They stood in front of the slab and West chewed his lower lip. Keepers? Waiting for what? And what was the triangular shape on the ground? He had never seen anything like it before.
"We need to study this," he decided. "It might be the key to a totally new dynasty!"
"Or more," Harrow muttered.

The night came quickly, making further excavations impossible. As the workers sat around their fires and talked, West still examined the slab of stone. He was fascinated by the object and just couldn't stop. Around midnight he got up to answer the call of nature. The second he had left, the stone started to vibrate ever-so slightly. It quieted down immediately and when the scientist returned, nothing had changed.

The slab was transported to Cairo the next day, starting its journey to Paris. Colleagues of West and Harrow mocked their findings as they translated more and more of the slab, developing a wild theory of the extraterrestrial origin of the Egyptian gods and the pyramids. Five years later they published their papers, but no one believed them. The stone was buried in the depths of a New York museum.
No one ever went down there to excavate it again.
No one ever believed.
But it was never forgotten......

* * *

Earth
near Cairo, 2189

He looked up from the book he was reading, unable to tell what had made him abandon the novel he had hunted down for weeks and finally discovered in one of the small book shops of Cairo. With a shrug he returned to his reading, but the feeling of ... yes, uneasiness ... made him stop again. With a sigh he shut the book and placed it on the table. A look at the clock told him it was close to four p.m. The room was silent, as were the streets. He lived outside the large Egyptian city, and it was rather quiet anyway, whatever time of day.
A tingle on the back of his neck made him sit up straight. He frowned, unable to surpress the fear that rose inside of him. He knew the tingle and he knew what it meant. With an agility that belied his 61 years he got up and walked over to the phone. He dialed a number.
"Elle? Is Yunet with you? .....Yes.... Thank you." He waited, actually starting to tap his fingers against the wall. "Yunet? Yes, you felt it too..... I know.... I don't .... I'm not sure exactly. Can you and Nabeh check it out? Thank you."
He replaced the receiver in the cradle and stared at the wall, the tingle subsiding. He had never felt it this intense before. Sometimes, back in his youth, he would feel a faint flittering, like an echo, then it would be gone again. This time it had been stronger and if Yunet had felt it as well, it meant he was not hallucinating in his old age. How he wished he would be able to go out to the pyramids as well and check on what he had kept safe all his life, but he couldn't. His place was that of a watcher and guide; his duties had been passed on to Yunet.
"My prayers go out to all," he whispered, then returned to his chair.

* * *

Cybertron
the doorway chamber beneath West Central, 2189

The Cybertronian centerway hummed with the power hidden beneath the smooth surface or black, transparent and gray quartz, the runes flowing into intricate patterns. Starscream sent the command and the energies flowed, coalescing, opening the door from their side and sending out a loud signal to the coordinates on the other side. Sphere, who had opened the doorway, kept a close optic on every move it made. There was a sizzle, then a soft booming noise. The column of light between the rings collapsed and silence settled over the doorway chamber. She looked at her brother and team mate.
"Anything?"
Starscream frowned slightly and called up more data. "Nothing," he finally answered. "It's locked, no doubt about it. The impulse we sent through should be strong enough to read it with the recon satellite and determine the approximate position of the doorway structure."
"We'll relay the data to Rodimus Prime's office," she decided. "How about lunch?"
Starscream looked at her in surprise as he sent the data on its way. Cybertronians rarely went out for lunch or dinner since their energon supplies could be replenished by quicker means.
"Lunch?" he echoed.
She shrugged. "Call it left-over squishy behavior, but I need a change of scenery. I think I spent every minute of the last two months in this room!"
He smiled wryly. It was true. They had worked for months to locate the Terran doorway, but no method they had tried had helped. If this echo effect they were hoping for could be achieved, whether or nor the recon satellite picked up the seismic activity – they had to see. If nothing showed they'd be back to square one and had to try out some other idea.
"Okay," he finally decided.
The two robots left the doorway chamber.

* * *

A lot had happened in the last years and Rhyan Masters couldn't say that all of it had been good, especially where it concerned him and Daemon. Their partnership had grown and tightened, but the surrounding incidents had proven to be straining. All had culminated when Firefall and the Venerakkin had returned to Cybertron, though only briefly, and she had offered him a chance to get off the planet. The Council had been only too happy to let them go and since Firefall had taken him on as her responsibility, not many had objected. Midnight had been one of those none too happy about the solution. As a Sentinel, Daemon was one of his team and Midnight had always tried to help them, but Daemon was impossibly stubborn when it came to interacting with others.
Rhyan sighed deeply and sat back, looking over the vast wild landscape before him again. The planet's name was Cetaryl, far outside the known commerce routes and a small backwater world. Perfect to be yourself and learn what it meant to be off-world. Rhyan had explored most of the area and he wanted to go a longer distance, wanted to explore. He had adapted quickly and he didn't feel all that overwhelmed, though sometimes something like homesickness struck. Each time he reminded himself of what his home had turned into, of what had happened, and that Earth was no longer an option for him and his partner. Firefall had offered them a way out of their growing despair on Cybertron and both had taken it, but Daemon was rather unwilling to admit that he felt better as well. This had mostly to do with Sonikk, their help, their guide and their guardian. She was a Venerakkin and she did her best to get both human and robot acclimated; and Rhyan liked her. She did a really good job, especially considering what a pain Daemon could be and currently was.
Masters rose and stretched, walking down the hill he had been sitting on. This part of the planet looked like the African plains. Tall grass, gently rolling hills, trees and mountains in the distance, warm weather. And a lot of wildlife. The animals were not afraid of the visitors, but they kept their distance. Rhyan was no zoologist, but he knew some stuff, and his trained mind had started to detect predators from prey after a few weeks of watching the animals.
Sonikk had brought along a container habitat for Rhyan and an energon converter for the two robots. They used solar energy mostly, sometimes lightning when a thunderstorm hit. The habitat was large for one person and it easily fit Daemon in car mode. His partner had spent the first nights transformed and inside the habitat, seeking closeness to his Interface. Rhyan had only smiled and let him do. Daemon didn't like to be reminded of his dependence on Rhyan as both a buffer and a catalyst. He chuckled. Buffer and catalyst. This function was currently quite needed. Daemon disliked Sonikk, calling her their 'nanny' or 'prison guard', but there was also something else developing. It was subtle but here. Rhyan came back into the camp and nodded at Sonikk who was fiddling with something. She smiled briefly at him, then looked around.
"Where's Daemon?"
"Somewhere out there. Sulking." Rhyan flashed her a grin.
Sonikk reflected the grin. "Nothing new then."
"Nope. But his mood is much better than yesterday, so that's an improvement. You had a fight again, right?"
Sonikk sighed. "Yes."
"About?"
"Don't you know already?" she asked.
Rhyan smiled. "Interfacing isn't telepathy and Daemon and I share something only very similar to Interfacing. We aren't a typical Sentinel/human team, Sonikk. I feel more than others, but in some areas I'm less talented. So, no, I don't know. I didn't pry."
"It was the usual." Sonikk shrugged. "I think he is starting to feel under pressure because I'm here to help you two."
Rhyan nodded and looked at the dark blue Venerakkin. She was the first of her kind he had ever seen up close and personal and he found her a likable person. She was slender in built compared to Daemon, about half a head smaller, and had an aerial transformation as well as an animal one. They had grown friendly with each other right from the start and Sonikk had taught him a few tricks with the exo-suit.
"The usual," he agreed. "I hope you are not growing fed up with the two of us, but Daemon is not the easiest person."
"I noticed," Sonikk muttered.
"You know about his past, you know what he was, and you have to understand that wherever he went he was greeted by animosity and fear."
"Until he met you."
Masters shrugged. "In a way, yes. Even after that he had a hard time and lived in constant fear of deactivation. His own kind sees a killer in him, fears him without knowing what he has become, and it gets to you, Sonikk. We keep running, but the past catches up."
"Firefall offered this as a way out of the past without having to run again and again," she said calmly.
"I know and so does he, but it's not easy for Daemon to trust or to let his guard down. Be patient."
Sonikk smiled. "I can be very patient, Rhyan. And I'll stick around whatever he does. I'm hard in the taking."
Rhyan smiled. "I appreciate your help, believe me. Thanks for everything so far."
"No problem." She rose and transformed into her animal form. "I'll keep an eye on him."
Masters watched her go and leaned back in his chair, sighing.

*

Daemon felt trapped and in a way he was. He was on a planet light-years from what he had known as his home for so long, light-years from any civilization, and though he felt better than ever, he was also just a prisoner again. And his guardian was female Venerakkin he had never seen before and who kept close optics on his every move. She was supposed to be a companion to help him and Rhyan adapt to the strangeness of alien worlds, but to him she was nothing but a prison guard. And he let her feel it. The animosity he projected was almost a being with a life of its own and nothing Rhyan could say or do would make him change his opinion. Rhyan adapted much more easily than his Sentinel partner. He took tours to explore the landscape, he voluntarily wanted more information, and he tried out his exo-suit's functions.
Daemon, please, at least try it> Rhyan asked him softly. Firefall has done this to help, not to punish you for anything. We are free to go wherever we want to, but we have to get used to this 'wide open universe', so to say>
Daemon only snarled something and left.

* * *

"Tell me again why I'm doing this," Cathy Lee Russell muttered, pulling her coat tighter around herself to keep the chilly wind out.
"Because it's important to find the doorway before any government on Earth does," Colonel Matt Frasier told her calmly.
Technically he was no longer a colonel since he had left the special EDC unit he had worked for several years earlier. In the old days they had been called IMF, the Impossible Mission Force. They had had access to the latest in technology without stealing it, though none of the computer wizards of Special Sections would call it that way. They simply 'acquired' the files. There was also an account with a whole lot of money at their disposal to assure a nearly endless flow of currency for them to accomplish their goal. Few knew where the money came from. It didn't officially exist and was rerouted from under the nose of many congress men into a black account, something that was called under a different name each time there was a household discussion going on. Few, very few, knew were the money went. Even fewer knew about the existence of Special Squad as such. The name existed, but there was a big gap between what the EDC description was and what the Squad did. And those who knew, really didn't want to know. It was sometimes the stuff of nightmares.
Matt Frasier had known about a lot of things and in the end, when the EDC had tried to gain more control of him and his team, he had left. Special Squad no longer existed. It was now called 'Intercept', but he didn't care any more. He was out of the business.
Going to Cybertron had been an option and he had taken it, offering his services to the Cybertronian Alliance and Optimus Prime had gladly accepted. Frasier brought with him a lot of talents and knowledge. That he was now back on Earth was nothing but a job to him. They had to find the locked doorway before any Earth government did.
"I thought the weather in South America at this time of year would be much warmer," Cathy muttered, looking at the leaden gray sky with unease. The wind here was very strong and the dark clouds passing overhead didn't do anything to inspire hope for sunshine.
"Welcome to Arica, place of the weird and freaky weather," Frasier joked.
Cathy grimaced.
"Let's go somewhere more comfortable," the colonel decided. "We have reservations at the Diego de Almagro for tonight and tomorrow we'll take a rental car to the ruins."
She sighed, cursing Jeff who had 'volunteered' her. She had hoped to get teamed up with him, but he and Steve were somewhere in the icy regions the Siberia; not her most favorite place. She hated the cold.

* * *

The North and South Poles.
The Marian Depths.
Mayan temples.
The Bermuda Triangle.
The pyramids.
Stonehenge.
The list went on and on.
Rodimus Prime felt the words swim in front of his optics, forming an impenetrable soup of letters, mixing with the report numbers behind each site. Each meant a possible area used to hide an ancient doorway, but no positive findings had come in yet. They were running around in the dark with their optics wide open but seeing nothing. How could you find a single ancient artifact on such a large planet? It had to be in a place where no human could easily gain access to, which meant underground. Maybe it had resulted in religious gatherings. Nicholas Cavanaugh had come up with the religion part. What if the doorway had once been plainly visible as it was on other worlds and what if old mankind had thought of it as a place of worship?
The theory had launched four weeks of intense study of human religions, comparing religious shapes and objects to possible doorway designs, but not much had come up. Still, the most important places of gatherings or worship had been searched quite thoroughly by their hidden teams on Earth. Some were still scrutinously combed.
Rodimus leaned back and sighed. He had no idea how long this would go on and whether or not they would find a sign of the lost structure. They couldn't open it because the Tjineran, who had built the doorway, had somehow locked it, and there were no Tjineran – or Veneran how they called themselves today -- around or willing to talk to them. The only one he knew who was couldn't answer many questions. Ranora was a warrior, not one of the scientists or old Tjineran who had been the founders of the doorway system. She knew a few snippets, but her main training had been in fighting.
"This is frustrating," he muttered and deleted the list from his screen.
But they had to find and secure the doorway. If Earth ever caught wind of its existence... he didn't want to know what they would do with the artifact. They couldn't use it, they couldn't leave it; scientists would explore the structure, but what if they set off some kind of self-destruct mechanism? Was there still a Gatekeeper around? If yes, why didn't he or she answer? His head started to swim again and Rodimus rose, deciding that he needed some time away from the doorways.
His terminal beeped insistently as he headed for the door and the young Autobot groaned. No! With a fatalistic expression in his face he walked back. There was a message on his screen, one sent by the team keeping an eye on their hidden recon satellite.
The satellite had transmitted data from Earth! Rodimus opened the file and read over it several times.
"Yes!" he exclaimed, already dialing the code to call Midnight and everyone else whose partner was undercover on Earth.
The African continent. They had a first, real lead!

* * *

She was awakened by the resounding booming noise that seemed to go through every fiber of her body. Puzzled she tried to attach a memory to the sound but failed. All she remembered was a dark blue face, framed by gold, compassionate eyes and gentle hands. She recalled words of promise, her Duty to be fulfilled soon when he came; their Duty. Faces flowed by her inner eye and each had a name. She remembered them all.
The booming noise came again, closer, darker. Memories were jolted loose. Something inside her stirred and she felt limbs that had rested for so long twitch.

* * *

Nicholas Cavanaugh looked at the wide expanse of trees, grass, mountains and rivers. Nature, he thought. Pure and total nature. Beautiful to look at and even more beautiful when you walked along the sloping and almost endless walkways that snaked through the National Park. Outfitted in the latest of protectional gear but not looking like an Interfaced human in combat armor he and his team partner had covered a wide area of this park already. They had scanned and mapped and cartographed the quadrant assigned to them and there had been no success so far. All on horseback. He sighed. Two weeks of almost endless forests and mountains had made him wish for civilization again. Two weeks on a horse made him wish for a massage and a very hot bath! Nick was no one to argue against wilderness and camping, but spending two weeks running around mountainsides was getting to him.
"Okay, ready to go?"
Nick nodded and sighed again. Dr. Kyle Scott gave him a slap on the shoulder, handing him the reigns of his horse.
"Hey, cheer up! It's like a vacation!"
Nicholas grimaced. "Two weeks of wilderness are enough for me. I'm not an extremist in these things, especially in a saddle! Horses hate me!"
Kyle grinned and swung into the saddle. "Come on! We only have about three more weeks of explorations, then we are off to the next site."
He sounded much too cheerful to Nick's ears. Kyle was a scientist you barely met outside med bay and Nicholas had been hard pressed to believe that he would spend the next months wandering through nature parks or climb around mountains. But Kyle was infinitely more adaptable in these matters as Cavanaugh, as it seemed. He had slipped into his role as explorer and researcher outside the confines of a lab.
Kyle gave him a friendly elbow in the ribs. "Enjoy it." With that he urged his horse on.
Nick cast a look heavenwards and followed, his horse trotting after Kyle's. In the back of his mind he heard Tornado's quiet laughter and he administered a kick – which resulted in more laughter. Grumbling to himself he followed the blond medic. Suddenly Tornado's presence changed.
Nick, we have a lead!>> the Seeker leader said, excitement worming into his voice.
From the way Kyle sat on his horse, a slightly far-off expression on his face, he was communicating with Voodoo as well.
What is it?>>
Starscream sent a new ping through the centerway and this time we got a better reply. The satellite picked up a reply from the African continent>>
Africa? And we are in the Rockies! Figures! Can I go home now?>> he asked plaintively.
Tornado smiled. No, you will make arrangements to fly to Capetown. Nikaa and Shanygn are already in Cairo and searching the pyramids, Steve and Jeff are on their way to Kinshasa in Zaire>>
Fun!>> Nicholas groaned. He cast a look at Kyle who had apparently received similar information. We are at least a week away from the next airport!>>
A day's ride to the next town>> Tornado informed him with an audible smile.
Oh, shut up!>>
"Looks like we are going to get us some sun," Kyle now said and walked his horse over to Nick's.
"Africa. Whoopee," Nick muttered. "Where to?"
Kyle consulted his electronic map and compass, then pointed down the trail. "That way. Let's go. We have a plane to catch."

* * *

The three-star hotel was one of the better ones in Cairo and as overrun by tourists as every other hotel as well. Andrea Shanygn was not interested in stars or hotel comfort, except that the room had to have a bed and a shower unit. Otherwise she could live without room service or people wanting to carry her bags. She traveled light anyway – as did her companion. Shanygn had undergone some cosmetic changes for this undercover trip to Earth, mainly to disguise her 'alieness'. Her blue hair was now black, though women on Earth wore blue colors in their hair as well. Still, it wouldn't do to be that recognizable. Her skin color, a light blue, had been chemically altered for the time being. First Aid had assured her that the tan would wear off in a month or so. If she was still on Earth by then, Shanygn would just have to reapply the chemicals. Her blue eyes, which were of a much darker blue than any human's, had been covered by contact lenses, generating brown eyes. She nearly hadn't recognized herself in the mirror!
Nikaa hadn't changed at all. He was naturally dark-skinned and dark-eyed, his equally dark hair bound back out of his face. He looked more like a native of Egypt or any of the surrounding countries than an alien. Shanygn, with her 'browner' looks matched him and there had been no problems until now. Their passports were perfect forgeries.
Nikaa was currently walking through their shared room, checking out everything. Shanygn was busy patching into the tourist terminal each room had and getting an idea of the place they would soon need to scan.
"Nikaa," she suddenly said without looking up.
"Hm?"
"Leave it."
Nikaa, who had been combing the room for useful tidbits, valuable bits and whatever might come in handy, cast the woman a strange look. "Eh?"
"I said leave it. Whatever you just stuck in your pockets, leave it in the hotel room."
"It's complimentary!" he protested.
Shanygn looked up, a wry expression in her face. "Decorative plates and knobs are not complimentary. Leave them. They aren't worth anything."
Nikaa sighed deeply. "You have no idea!" he told her and unpacked what he had already pocketed. "To you this stuff is worthless, but other worlds, other cultures, would see this as a treasure! The hotel wouldn't even miss it!"
"Nikaa....."
"All right, all right, all right!" He grumbled something to himself and Shanygn smiled, going back to her work.
Their target were the pyramids, attraction to countless tourists, a mystery to many archeologists even today. Tours were led through the artifacts each day and one of those tours would be their entrance.
"That will be our target," Shanygn now said and pointed at the picture on the terminal's screen.
Nikaa sauntered over and frowned at the pyramid he now saw. "Cheops' pyramid," he read. "What makes you think the doorway might be there?"
"The size and the estimated age." Shanygn turned away from the terminal and got out her personal filo, an expensive, high-tech variation of the ones business people kept. It was filled to the top with every bit of information about the pyramids in Egypt and when she typed in 'Cheops', it spilled out a several MB-sized file. "481 feet high, 756 feet long at the base. Estimated age goes from 4000 to more than 10000 years, depending who you believe. Some scientists have the theory it was there before the great flood humans wrote about in their Bible. No one believes them though." Shanygn smiled wryly. "It would mean the structure was erected before mankind had the technology to do so."
"But it would also point to an extraterrestrial influence," Nikaa now continued, nodding. "If the Tjineran built a doorway here, maybe they hid it under this pyramid." He shrugged. "Sounds fine. When do we go scouting?"
"Tomorrow. I won't book us onto a hotel tour because I bet we will stay much longer than the tourists." She smiled humorlessly. "Pack your overnight bag – with your own stuff!"
Nikaa grimaced at her and grabbed a small backpack he had carried along. He always traveled light and what he needed was hidden in the clothes he was wearing, she knew. She remembered Gryph's snide remarks about his 'traveling light' and his grin. She still wondered how those two fit together; they did, apparently, and Gryph was quite protective of her Interface, but they mostly were at each other's throat.
"Now we should get some shut-eye," she decided.
Nikaa looked at the bed, then at the couch. Shanygn raised an eyebrow and he grinned, wordlessly flopping down on the bed. She raised the other eyebrow, then she took the day-cover of the bed and pulled. Nikaa landed unceremoniously on the floor.
"Ouch!" he called. "That was uncalled for."
"I don't think so." Shanygn smiled. "We switch in the next hotel: you get the bed, I take the couch."
The thief muttered as he picked himself up. He grabbed the cover she threw him and settled down on the couch. Shanygn disappeared into the bathroom.

On Cybertron, light-years away, Gryph smirked secretly, amused to no end by her Interface's grumbling.
Serve's you right, mouse>> she told him.
Nikaa made a rude noise in return. Her smirk turned into an evil smile.
Others are worse off than you>>
Not by much>> Nikaa growled.

* * *

"Something is going on."
The man looked up, dark eyebrows narrowing into a frown. The woman sat down on the couch, a worried look on her face.
"What did you hear?"
"Not exactly hear, Nabeh... feel...."
Nabeh's frown deepened as the meaning behind the words sunk in. "They have really awakened?"
Yunet only nodded.

* * *

They had been on the planet for nearly six planetary months now, which accounted to about three Standard months back on Cybertron, and a few hours ago a message had come in that had made Sonikk sigh. She didn't really want to break the news to Daemon, but she had to. Rhyan Masters had been rather understanding and they would change planets soon anyway, but neither had planned to go back to Cybertron first.
Sonikk knew robots who were much worse to be around than Daemon, but not many. Daemon was annoying, enraging, unnerving and a lot more. His attitude left a lot to be desired and for someone who should be grateful that they had 'rescued' him from Cybertron he showed no gratitude at all. She could deal with his mood changes, she could even deal with his silence, even with his open dislike for her, but all combined together was quite a challenge. She had more than once felt like blasting him right where he stood.
She sighed and made her way over the plains, keeping a close optic on her surroundings. Firefall has asked her specifically, mainly because she had nerves of steel, as her sisters had always told her. She was one of the most patient 'kkin there was and she had been around the galaxy. Sonikk knew a lot about alien cultures, other languages, other planets, and she was a walking library on facts when it came to first contact situations. Adding to that that she was currently not really needed it made her the perfect candidate. Sonikk smiled humorlessly. Perfect candidate..... perfect sucker for the job.
She banished those thoughts. Daemon was likable when he tried and Rhyan was very likable. She had found the human part of this team open and willing to learn, the robot the total opposite. Sonikk had seen the way those two interacted, how much Daemon fell back on his partner and how Rhyan Masters supported him.
Walking through the tall grass she scared some of the rabbit-like mammals that lived here by the hundreds and finally caught scent of Daemon. She saw the tracks he had left and followed him, thinking about him. He was mysterious, he was fascinating, he was annoying, he was a pain.... and he was dangerous. But like all of her Venerakkin brothers and sisters Sonikk was trained quite well and she had no illusions that she could take him out if necessary.
She discovered him several miles away from the base camp. Sonikk walked up to her 'protege', already assessing his current mood. He was not happy, he was more than slightly tense, and his optics glowed a deep red.
"I'm not going back!" Daemon growled before she could say anything.
Sonikk sighed. "I'm needed back on Cybertron for a few days concerning 'kkin matters. You can stay here or you can come back with me. If you stay here I've to be sure you stay out of trouble." Daemon's expression grew icy. Sonikk smiled secretly. "And if you come along, I have to be sure you stay out of trouble as well, so the better decision would be to come along. That way I can keep an eye on you."
The red of his optics flared. "I'm not a child! I don't need a watcher!"
Sonikk gave him a tired smile. "You aren't, but you still need someone to watch you. That's why I'm here and what I was assigned to do."
He growled softly. "I should never have accepted Firefall's offer. I knew it was a trick!"
"Trick? She offered you your freedom!"
"And made me a prisoner again! Here I'm trapped just like I was trapped on Cybertron!"
Sonikk sighed deeply. "I'm not a prison guard. I'm only here to help you."
Daemon towered over her all of a sudden. "Of course!" he spat. "Who set you up to it? What do the Venerakkin get out of watching and observing me?!"
"We are not observing you!" she shot back. "We are trying to help you adjust! You and your partner need help...."
"I'm not an invalid!" Daemon snarled.
Sonikk just had about enough. She pushed him back, her own optics glowing dangerously. She was still being patient and he had not yet managed to break her calmness, but she would show him that he couldn't boss her around.
"But you will soon be if you don't stop this!"
Daemon sneered. "You have no idea what I am. You don't know what you are getting into."
"Oh, I know all about you. I know what Firefall knows, what she got out of the old files, and I know about Synchrony."
He glared at her. "Then you better leave me alone!" he hissed. "Go back to Cybertron and never return!"
"Oh, no, you won't get rid of me that way, Sentinel!" Sonikk told him angrily. "You are coming back with me. You are too unstable to be left alone without help!"
Daemon gave a cry of rage at her words and attacked. Sonikk had expected it, had seen it in his subtle change of stance, but she had not expected the force behind it or the skill. She was challenged to evade some of the blows, but she landed a few of her own. Daemon was good, she had to confess, very good; and he was ruthless. Using her speed and smaller size Sonikk finally managed to get him pinned down. Daemon glared at her, but he didn't try to dislodge her from where she sat straddling him.
"Like I said," Sonikk told him, oxygen pumps beating wildly. "You are too unstable!"
The Venerakkin rose abruptly and stepped back, glaring at Daemon. "We are going back no matter what you opinion is!"
Daemon stumbled to his feet, glaring back. Sonikk wished he would stop looking so damn adorable! Then again, it might be her imagination.
"You have no right....!" he started.
"I have every right, Sentinel! If you want to play it like this, I am the commanding officer here!"
His glare intensified. "Not mine!"
"Yours," she whispered in a low, warning voice. "I'm your commander and if you want me to pull rank, I'll do it!"
Daemon's optics narrowed. "No one commands me! Not ever again! Especially not you!"
Sonikk snorted. "Will you come peacefully when I let you go or do I have to shoot you?"
He hissed softly, but then nodded. Sonikk let the Sentinel go and Daemon got up, glaring at her. She sighed deeply. Maybe she could trade the baby-sitter job for a spy mission. Would be better for her nervous system!
"Trust Firefall," she then said. "She wants to help you find a new life and we have achieved something here. Nothing will happen and we'll be back to the training sessions somewhere else in a few days."
He turned away and walked a few steps, his posture tense. She realized she was asking a lot of him: trust. Daemon couldn't trust and didn't trust easily.
"I can't trust her," he finally spoke her own thoughts out loud. "But.... I'll come."
"Peacefully?"
There was a glint in his optics as he looked back at her. "We'll see."

* * *

Fire may be the nearest thing to magic in the natural world. It is one of the few metaphors -- for ardor, for rage, for irreversible change -- whose nature itself is metaphorical; that is, it changes the shape of what it touches. Anyone who has sat at the hearthside on a winter's night or by a bonfire on the beach in summer knows the hypnotic effect of flames. There is something endlessly astonishing about solid matter disappearing as we watch, its molecules reorganizing themselves into gases and ash, releasing the heat of the sun that gave the matter its substance, undoing the effects of time, consuming the tangible past.
Brainstorm gazed at the fires raging over the plains of Nebulos, consuming all and everything in its path. He thought he felt the heat even up here in the coldness of space where he silently sat in front of the viewing screen, staring like hypnotized at the images. Inside he cringed as more and more of the woodland fell victim to the roaring flames, but he knew that the fire fulfilled many functions, one of them that of a cleaning. It cleaned the world below him of the death and destruction the Tji had brought and it made way for the survivors to battle anew; and this time he battle would be waged against nature, not some faceless, shapeless danger.
Someone seemed to join him, lay a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Brainstorm was the only one aboard the Watcher, the single Cybertronian ship orbiting Nebulos and keeping track of the development, be it good or bad. Then again, there was someone. His name was Arkana, a Nebulan, someone who had joined forces with him so many decades ago and had made him what had set him apart, what had made him proud: a Headmaster. The joining had been out of necessity to fight against The Hive, but even after the danger had been over, they had stayed together. All Headmasters had. The Targetmasters had separated, but the bond between the Headmasters and their Nebulan helpers had been stronger.
Brainstorm shivered at the thought. The bond had been so strong that it had killed Hardhead and nearly taken Chromedome and Highbrow's lives as well. The disease that had decimated the Nebulan population to tenth of what it had been had also found its way through the wounds the robots had sustained and contaminated the Headmaster Nebulans. Styler, Duros and Styler had died. Hardhead had gone insane and had disappeared; he was most likely dead now. It hurt Brainstorm to think of him because he, the supposed leader of their small quartett, had been unable to do anything. Brainstorm was the only one who had survived with his partner and it had let him feel guilty for a very long time and still did now and then. Arkana had long since died as well, his organic body aging and decaying like a normal Nebulan's, but his knowledge, and personality had joined in with Brainstorm. Brainstorm felt no different than before, even though he knew there was no one in his head anymore, but Arkana was there. His transformation had been altered as well, mainyl because he no longer had anyone to stear the 'head', but he was still a Headmaster. Arkana was with him.
Below him, nature reshaped and cleaned the planet, making it inhabitable for those who could resist the radiation, who had adapted. It would take more time, maybe millennia, for the world to revive, for the survivors to adapt completely, but Brainstorm had time. He would stay here, with Arkana, and wait. The Council had agreed that he could stay here. Now and then a ship came to visit, to keep him company, and sometimes Highbrow or Chromedome dropped by as well. They swapped stories, he listened to their adventures and they to his. It was good to revive the past and tell of the present, but when they left he didn't miss them. In the beginning he had. In the beginning he had felt sad and lonely, but the feeling had passed. Brainstorm wasn't alone. He had a whole world down there to keep him company, he had many lives to follow, and sometimes he would even go down and stay for a few days. Brainstorm took readings of the radiation levels, he gathered soil, air and water probes to analyze, and he secretly watched the natives. It was his duty and his only reason to live; the Arkana part of him disagreed whenever he had those thoughts, but he believed it to be the truth.
None of Arkana's old friends were alive any longer. Time and radiation had taken them from him. But he took an interest in all live. He sent back his findings to Cybertron, but he knew like everyone that Nebulos would remain off limits for the next millennia. It was just too dangerous for most organic life; only a few were immune.
Brainstorm leaned back and tore his optics away from the screen, sighing. How he wished sometimes that he could go back in time and change things. One second had decided the lives and fate of millions; one second had destroyed so much forever.

* * *

There had been no way around it and Shanygn and Nikaa had grudgingly taken a tour. Tourists from all over the world were gathering around a young woman in a khaki outfit. She had a name tag on her jacket, identifying her as 'Lisa' and was carrying a pointer. Though it was bothering to be in the middle of a guided tour, it also helped to gain a few more facts. Shanygn knew she had them all on her filo's hard drive, but it was easier to listen to someone telling you the most important facts. In case something struck her or Nikaa as even more important they could still have a peek into the filo.
"The famous Pyramids of Giza!" Lisa now called, catching the attention of her group. "This is the place where three pyramids are all neatly set in the desert sand and can be clearly seen from the city of Cairo. The one we are looking at now isn't the largest pyramid; the largest pyramid was built by the Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, a name you might recognize. It took approximately ten years to build, and was erected with over two million slabs of rock! Thousands of years ago the pyramids would have had a limestone casing over the sandstone that remains now. They would have shone a bright white in the sun. Only a very small part on the pyramid of Kahfre still has it's white rock on it. The reason why this is so today was that in ancient times people deconstructed the outer walls of the pyramids again to use the slabs to build their homes."
Nikaa looked up the side of the large pyramid, then his gaze traveled to the much larger specimen not too far away and which could be seen quite clearly from here. Their target. The tour would lead here eventually and then he and Shanygn would split.
"And, whenever you hear the word pyramid," Lisa went on, "you automatically think about the great Sphinx of Kahfre, still bearing the Pharaoh's face." The group walked after their guide as she went on. "This sphinx had a very interesting past. Throughout the centuries following its completion, sand piled up around it and buried the sphinx from the nose down, and it remained like this until well into the 1700's. When Napoleon traveled to Egypt with his armies and weapons, he was amazed at the great stone head that was sticking out of the ground. But that didn't matter, for only a little while later, the sphinx's nose was shot off by one of the French dignitaries cannons. The rest of the statue has long been dug out, but the nose was never replaced. Today, some people believe that there's a compartment inside the sphinx, which may hold ancient Egyptian treasure!"
Nikaa's eyes lit up at the mentioning of 'treasure'. Shanygn elbowed him sharply.
"Behave!" she hissed.
"I wasn't even...." he started, but her expression let him fall silent, sighing dramatically.
Shanygn smiled and listened to Lisa's further explanations with half an ear. Her eyes were always drawn to the Cheops pyramid. It was still early in the day and they would have all the time in the world to go and get lost in there. First she wanted to know what other places were around here which might be interesting or possible targets to be searched. The Sphinx might be, though she doubted it. Still....
Time passed quickly and the tour ended back where they had started. Shanygn gestured at Nikaa to follow her and they both walked back to where they had come from, back to the pyramids. They were just another tourist couple among many, armed with cameras and tour guides. No one stopped them; no one asked questions.

* * *

They watched the pyramids. Yunet had her eyes half closed, head slightly tilted as if she was listening to something. Her narrow features were tense and her lips moved as if she was talking, but no sound could be heard. Nabeh stayed at her side, keeping a watchful eye at the surroundings.
"They are waking," she finally said. "They are not yet awake, but soon they will be. I can feel them coming around."
"What shall we do?"
"We have to be there when they awaken. Let us visit their resting place." Yunet walked off, her brother in tow.

* * *

Cathy leaned her head back against the hard head rest of the dull gray fighter she sat in, her fingers itching to fly the plane instead of being just the backseat passenger. Actually, there was no one flying the jet, not even Matt Frasier who sat in the pilot's seat, and she knew that Dagger would never let anyone take control of his jet mode. He had grudgingly followed Midnight's orders to stay on Earth and shuttle the Interfaces back and forth. Dagger had been chosen because he was undetectable by radar and because it kept him out of trouble on Cybertron. Cathy's eyes were drawn to the landscape rushing past and she felt F/X with her, cheering her up. If the trail leading them to Africa panned out, she'd be back home soon.

Back up front, Matt studied the controls of the Sentinel jet, thinking, familiarizing himself with them. He didn't know why he did it, maybe to occupy his mind, but it was rather interesting to compare those controls with what he knew about fighter planes he had flown.
"Quit staring at me!" Dagger suddenly snapped.
Matt frowned. "Wow, who stepped on your fuselage this morning?"
"No one! Just stop staring at my controls like a hypnotized rabbit!"
"Yup, you got out of recharge with the wrong foot," Frasier muttered, pointedly letting his eyes linger on the read-out screen, mouth drawn into a faint, mocking smile.
Dagger gave an angry snarl and the screen winked out. Matt shook his head.
"That's childish."
"Childish?" the Sentinel echoed. "I'd call staring at my controls for hours childish! What do you think you can accomplish with it?"
"Pass the time since I'm not allowed to do much more?"
Dagger snarled again. "Stop it. You are not getting to fly me."
"Uh-huh, I'm far from it, buddy." Matt settled back and crossed his arms in front of his chest, eyes watching the sky.
Dagger was silent for a moment, then his suspicious sounding voice asked, "What do you mean with that?"
Matt raised one eyebrow. "Exactly what I said. I'm farthest from even thinking about flying this jet. Thanks anyway."
"Chickening out?"
He laughed softly. "No, being reasonable. I've a pilot's license and I'm a trained ex-military pilot, but I wouldn't touch your controls with titanium gloves on."
Dagger growled. "Shut up or I'll eject you!"
"Oh, big threat," Matt muttered.
Cathy leaned forward, her helmeted head hindering her a bit. "What's going on, guys?"
"Friendly chit-chat," Matt said with a smile on his sun-tanned features..
"Aha." She leaned back again. "Just wait with the death threats until I'm way out of reach, then you can start beating each other's head in, okay?"
Matt laughed. "Sure thing."
Dagger was silent and remained silent until they landed, and even after that. His optics glowered at the ex-Colonel as he and Cathy Lee left for the next rental station to get on their way. Then he simply retreated into the safety of a large cave several miles away.
Humans! Who needed them anyway?
But deep down inside a small, hurting voice whispered that he had enjoyed the few minutes of banter. Dagger rarely ventured out among other races, afraid what might happen if what Samantha was doing was successful. What if he managed to bond with an Interface partner again? No one and nothing could replace Three Morning Stars, not ever, least of all a human, and they were among the most dominant alien races on Cybertron. Dagger let Samantha do what she was doing because it felt good and because he knew she was only trying to help, but he was also scared. What if....? He shook his head. No, it would never happen. He would stay here until Frasier and Russell needed to be taken either somewhere else of back to Cybertron, then go back his usual routine of scouting through the Badlands on his own. There was no danger coming from this short exposure to the two organics. Cathy Lee Russell was already Interfaced with F/X and Dagger was still too scarred to be afraid that a jerk like Frasier might be the Interface he suddenly had to burden himself with.
He was safe.

* * *

They had trudged down the stone tunnels for what seemed like hours. Shanygn was in front, her strong torch light illuminating the almost endless corridor deep inside the pyramid. Now and then the walls were decorated with hieroglyphs hewn into stone or painted on it. Nikaa followed, eyes alight with interest, studying the ancient writing. Okay, so there was nothing to steal here and it wasn't exactly what this mission was about, but he liked the hieroglyphs. In a way they looked like ancient paintings he had found in the old temples on his homeworld. He traced one with his finger tips, a sad smile spreading over his lips as he thought of home. Then he pulled himself together and followed his team mate.
Shanygn had stopped at an intersection and was consulting an electronic map. The pyramid was a maze of tunnels, some of them ending in a dead end, others leading back to where they had been before. The humans had never really explored the ancient artifacts. Bureaucracy, as Nikaa understood, and scientists who were afraid that a deeper exploration of the pyramids would result in nullifying their theories and invalidating everything written in the past. He shrugged. He didn't really care because it meant most of the ancient tunnels were not open to the public and they could explore at their leisure. Getting in had required his talents, though getting through the lax security had been child's play.
"Okay, this way," Shanygn decided and they went left. After a while the tunnel sloped down and finally ended at another dead end, though this one looked different.
Nikaa's professional eye saw the differences already and he pushed past Shanygn, running his hand over the section of the wall. It looked like a seal, held in place by metal bolts. There were hieroglyphs scattered over the seal and he wished he knew the meaning. He hated to come so unprepared, though he wouldn't let anyone know. Then something struck him. Of course, he had a possible translator, though he doubted it would be a willing possible translator.
Hey, bird brain!>>
A snarl answered him and Nikaa grinned. What do you want?>> Gryph growled.
Do you have some kind of program to translate ancient glyphs?>>
Gryph rumbled something and went to check. Each Interface partner was linked to her or his human partner and they assisted in whatever problems occurred throughout the search. Gryph was the most reluctant assistant of them.
There is an old program, but there is no guarantee that it will work, mouse>>
I'll give you the glyphs, you try and translate them>>
Nikaa sent the pictures through the mindlink, then turned to Shanygn. "I'm trying to get those translated. If this is a seal, we need to know what it hides."
She nodded, running a scan of the wall. "There seems to be some kind of tunnel behind this seal. At least that's what I get in the readouts. It's definitely not just a wall."
Nikaa frowned and ran questing fingers along the edges of the seal. No one had ever gone beyond this wall, but why? Funding? More bureaucracy? Fear? Superstition? Probably all together and none at all. He shrugged. He had been in countless temples, each holding its own curse, but none had ever come true. He wasn't much of a religious person and it came in handy in his job.

*

He was almost aware. For some time now there had been a faint tingle along the outer edges of his consciousness, but he was too deeply asleep to make sense of them. Part of him puzzled over the signals coming in, recognizing them, but not as what.

*

The slight pressure along the edges of his link alerted him to Gryph's presence. Got something?>>
If the program is right, the hieroglyphs are a warning>>
What else?>> he sighed. Seals were used to hide stuff and to keep grave robbers from breaking through, warnings were painted on them. Anything specific?>>
No, but the writing is ancient>>
This whole place is ancient!>>
Gryph made a rude noise and cut the link. Nikaa smiled briefly, then turned to his team mate. "Okay, we got a warning here, but no specifics about what is behind the wall or what will happen if we break through. Want to go on?"
Shanygn grimaced. "Very dumb question, Nikaa. We are here to find a doorway and if something is sealed inside a truly ancient structure of which no one is sure how old it really is, whether or not it was really built by human kind, I want to know what is behind door number one."
Nikaa grinned. The so-called Great Pyramid was one of the most likeliest spots to hide the doorway structure since the resonance echoes Starscream had picked up through the centerway on Cybertron originated in this area of the continent. It was still a rather large place to search, but at least it narrowed it down from 'Earth' to 'African continent'; and since there were not that many structures of places a doorway could hide beneath for millennia or longer, the search teams had better chances of finding the ancient structure.
"Okay, then let's see if we can get this thing open without blowing it apart." He set to work.
Suddenly there was a low rumbling noise coming from behind him. Nikaa stopped and turned his head. The hieroglyphs around him shifted as he looked at them and deep inside an insistent alarm started to ring. His instincts screamed at him that he shouldn't proceed. The thief licked his dry lips and cast a look at Shanygn, whose blue eyes were wide with suppressed fear.
"Uhm...." Nikaa made and stepped away from the wall. "I think....."
Another rumble could be heard, like something very large – stone? -- moving against the rock. The two Interfaces exchanged a look and the decision they both came to was without question the same: run!
It was too late. Whatever they had triggered, it had already begun. First there was nothing, then a cloud of dust and debris billowed toward them with a speed that showed Nikaa that they were in trouble. Wind rushed past him, carrying millions of particles of debris, then came the shockwaves. The floor beneath him bucked and creaked ominously. Nikaa staggered and fell against the stone seal, which suddenly crumbled under his weight. He gave an exclamation of surprise as he fell, then the whole wall gave way. He rushed down what seemed to an old shaft, then slammed hard against an unyielding object. Gasping, he tried to get his bearings when the second shockwave hit. This time it was much stronger. Someone crashed into him and he suspected it was Shanygn. He was thrown off his precariously balanced position and fell again, finally coming to rest on a hard stone floor. But he was in no state to really notice that his rapid descent had been stopped. The world around him had blacked out.

*

The movements began again and the memories strengthened. It was as if some kind of dam was about to break, flooding his waking mind with what he had to know. Alongside his presence he felt another waking, felt how familiar this other presence was. He tried to pry the dam open and quicken the flood of memories, aware that he needed them.
Sand and sun.
Heat.
Light.
Duty.
Decision.
Darkness.
A strange, never before felt presence touched his waking mind. He let it, studying it, coming to recognize the stranger as family – distant family. He smiled and as the stranger retreated he kept the line open.
And the dam broke.

* * *

Yunet listened up. Something was happening or was about to happen. She could feel it ... sense it ...... Her eyes snapped open and she turned to her brother.
"What's going on?" he wanted to know.
She shook his head, indicating she didn't know yet, but, as one of the most psi-sensitive among them, knew something would happen soon -- whatever it was. Finally she gave a deep sigh, slumping slightly.
"It has happened."
Nabeh nodded as if he had already suspected. "Let's go and deal with it," he decided.
The two humans were just outside the Cheops pyramid. The stream of tourists was thinning and there were barely any tours anymore. Soon the entrance would be closed.
"We have to be there," Nabeh decided, but Yunet stretched out one hand, holding him back.
"No. We have to wait. Something has occurred."
"What?"
"I'm not sure what it is, but I feel something, another presence... or more than one. They are in the pyramid, with the Hidden Ones. We need to wait, Nabeh."
Her brother frowned, but he bowed to her decision. She was the Gifted one of the Keepers; he trusted her.

* * *

Shanygn slowly picked herself up, feeling slightly dizzy. Her head hurt, as did a lot of other parts of her body, and she felt an insistent pressure inside her head that had nothing to do with her fall. Well, in a way it had to do with the fall, but it was not associated with the bruise she palpated on her forehead.
[I'm fine, I'm fine!] she sent, holding her aching head. [Roddy, I'm okay!]
[What happened?]
[Looks like we... uhm, crashed] Shanygn looked around and discovered Nikaa not far away. As she checked him she found he was out cold, but there were no injuries she could see. [In case Gryph's near-by... tell her Nikaa's okay, just knocked out]
Rodimus sent a brief chuckle. [She is near-by and she is trying to appear indifferent to it all. But the yellow optics are a dead giveaway]
Shanygn smiled, then started to give the room they had landed in a closer look. It was large, very, very large. Rodimus would have a hard time standing upright, but someone of the size of Spike or Backdraft would fit perfectly. Shanygn frowned. The floor they had landed on was dark and polished, barely any sand on it except the one that had followed them down the chute. As she walked across the floor, the echoing accoustics told her that this chamber was larger than it appeared to be. It was rectangular and the high ceiling gave it a cathedral-like look. Giant faces of different deities had been delicately sculpted into the pillars supporting the ceiling. The tiled floor showed an elaborate mosaic..... and..... Shanygn gaped.
"The doorway!" she whispered.
"Huh?"
Shanygn flinched and shot Nikaa a dark look. "Don't do that!"
"Ouch," he muttered and rubbed his head as it pounded at her exclamation. Nikaa's dark eyes searched the room. "Nice." He took in the golden outline of several pictures. "Very nice!"
Shanygn pointed at the mosaic floor, smiling secretly as she saw the thief's nature break through. "That is even nicer."
He studied the intricate pattern and then met Shanygn's steady look, recognition in his eyes. "It shows a doorway, though it looks different than the one on Cybertron."
She nodded. "Bingo!"
The floor was kept in dark and light patterns, all flowing together in a triangular shape, covered in runes. The doorway stood on the top section, held in place by...what? It was clearly not the wrong way around they were looking because Shanygn knew the runes inside out and they were correct.
"We found it?" he asked, amazed.
Shanygn shrugged, pacing across the floor, looking for something significant, though if asked she wouldn't have an idea what was 'significant'. "I have no clue." [Roddy?]
But her Autobot partner was no help either.
"Okay, let's find something that might help us," she decided.

*

She woke.
She felt another presence, equally waking, and she knew it almost instinctively, greeting it.
* It has been a long time.
* Yes.
* Has he arrived?
*I don't know. But I felt...something.....
She opened her eyes and sensed more than saw the canopy slide back, revealing the well-known beige-colored ceiling. She sat up, aware that she was in no worse shape than when she had gone to sleep. Around her, the others woke.
* Someone is here, a new voice whispered. * I'll check.

*

Shanygn sighed in frustration and sat down on what looked like an upturned vase. The room was completely empty, except for the doorway pattern on the floor. There were paintings on the walls, showing various scenes out of ancient Egyptian life, but nothing groundbreaking, nothing even remotely related to a doorway. Nikaa was currently checking each of the paintings for hidden locks or pressure points.
[Nothing] she sent.
[Jeff and Steve are on the way to you. They are bringing more equipment] Rodimus told her. [Just stay put]
She smiled wryly. [I have no clue how to get out of this room anyway. I'm not going to climb up the chute!]
He laughed. [Be patient]

Nikaa was at his third picture, going over it with precision. He didn't care how well done it was, how much time the artist had put into his work; he needed to check it for hidden mechanisms. He ran his fingers along one line of a picture showing a large snake, then began to check the snake as such.
There was a click.
There was a scratching noise just barely audible.
Nikaa tensed, suddenly stock-still. He knew it hadn't been anything he had done because he hadn't pushed any hidden buttons.
Something slithered.
Nikaa slowly turned his head toward the noise. His eyes widened. His mind blanked briefly at what he saw. The picture on the wall had come to life....

*

Back on Cybertron the slender Sentinel called Gryph suddenly stiffened ever-so slightly and her emerald optics turned a more intense green. She felt her Interface partners surprise and rush of fear as he was faced by something he had never seen before. Used as he was to life forms larger than him and also life forms that looked a lot more vicious than they really were most of the time, this was different.
Nikaa?>>
A flood of different emotions, immediately clamped down again, answered her. What Gryph got was the image of a large, golden snake towering over her partner.
Nikaa!>>

*

Shanygn heard a noise, like a hidden doorway opening, and it echoed loudly in the room since everything was totally silent. She didn't need Rodimus' puzzled inquiry to know that Nikaa was in trouble. She saw it.
Large.
Blue and golden.
Definitely a snake.
"Oh...my...." she managed.
Nikaa stood with his back against a picture depicting just this snake, and the creature was towering above him. It wasn't as big as Fang and only half as imposing as he was, but it was still large and didn't look very peaceful. It was a cobra, mainly colored in gold and blue, and over 15 feet long! Now it turned its flat head and Shanygn discovered that the snake's flared hood was sectioned in blue, red and green, glinting as if it had been made of jewels. It studied the smaller woman with interest, the eyes almost hypnotic.
"Who are you?" Shanygn asked quietly, aware of Rodimus' growing alarm through the link.
The cobra hissed, then said something in a language she had never heard before.
"I don't understand you," Shanygn told it. "My name is Andrea Shanygn," she pointed at herself, "this is Nikaa." She gestured at her team mate who still hadn't moved. She wished she had brought a translating device along!
The snake made the same noises again, the tail twitching. Nikaa moved back against the wall and it hissed again.
"Uhm.... listen, I think this is all just a biiiiig mistake," the thief started. The snake barked a command and he fell silent. "Whatever you say...."
Something else moved and Shanygn felt the breath catch in her throat. What entered the room through a suddenly open wall was a jackal. It was pitch-black, a stylized collar around the slender neck. There was a golden stripe across its snout and they eyes, which had no pupils, were outlined with gold as well. The insides of the long, pointed ears were golden. It moved almost soundlessly, gazing around, its white eyes examining the two humanoids.
Nikaa caught her eyes and mouthed a question. Shanygn had no idea what to do. Those two animals had been depicted on various paintings she had seen before and she knew they represented ancient anthropomorphized animal deities of Egypt!
"Who are you?" the jackal then asked, voice clearly male with an audible accent in it.
Shanygn was stunned. "You speak our language?"
"It takes some getting used to, but we do. Who are you?"
"My name is Andrea Shanygn," she answered. "This is my friend Nikaa."
The jackal came closer. He was about as large as Ravage and now that she got a better look, she discovered that he was made of metal, the same kind of flowing metal Mel's body was made of! It was smooth and without any visible joints, like a skin stretched over muscle cables.
"Who are you?" the jackal repeated, the white eyes fixing hers.
Rodimus was frantic now, telling her to get out of there, but Shan knew she had no exit, except the chute. [Calm down. I'm okay]
"I come from Cybertron," she added. "Who are you?"
The jackal tilted its head. "My name is A'noophis. This is Hjutho."
"Hi," Shanygn said carefully and looked at the snake which hadn't moved much. It had curled up, ready to spring, its hood still outstretched in a gesture of warning. She almost expected it to rattle or hiss.
"How have you come here? Why did you come?" A'noophis now wanted to know.
"Ahm... well.... we crashed through a wall."
"You broke the seal."
Nikaa shot the jackal a dark look. "It more or less broke under us! Not the best mold."
"Nikaa....." Shanygn hissed through clenched teeth. It wouldn't do to let him lose his temper, one trait he shared with Interface partner.
"I know this might be a bit of a wild guess, but are you the Gatekeepers?" she then asked, trying to lead away from how they had broken into this chamber.
Hjutho hissed and suddenly there was a shift of proportions. Shanygn stared in utter amazement as the snake seemed to flow into a new form, this one two-legged, humanoid, the head framed by the snake's head like a helmet with broad, overlapping neck plates, the tail still present as it curled loosely around the legs. Now it looked like a human wearing the uraeus, the snake symbol on the crowns of Egyptian pharaohs, on his shoulders. The lower abdomen was covered by a stylized kilt, consisting mostly of a long piece of white metal covering the front between the legs and the kilt etched into the metal hips and thighs. It was hard to tell whether the snake was male or female.
"What do you know about the Gatekeeper?" the snake demanded. Problem solved: the voice was clearly female.
Shanygn staggered back as the Protogen-sized robot approached. The jackal transformed as well – though it was more of a morphing -- and was now a black, slender humanoid with a jackal's head.
"I.... I know what they are. I know about doorways," she answered, stumbling against one of the pillars.
Hjutho hissed again and the tail twitched. A'noophis held out one hand and stopped his fellow ...goddess...? "Please do not be frightened. We mean you no harm."
Rodimus' presence was almost unbearable and Shanygn forcefully shut him out. "Who are you?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same."
"We told you already," Nikaa now spoke up.
Hjutho growled slightly. "We know your names, but why have you broken into the sealed chamber?"
"We are looking for the doorway," Shanygn answered truthfully. "We know what it is, we know its purpose, and we wanted to know it secured from interference."
A'noophis looked at her, his eyes appearing ancient and almost gentle. "I think we should start from the beginning," he finally said.
"Very good idea," Nikaa muttered.
"And our friends should listen to your story as well," the jackal added.
"Friends?" Shanygn's eyes went wide as she took in three more humanoid figures now stepping into the hall. "Oh....."

* * *

Rodimus Prime cast a quick glance at Gryph, who stood as still as a statue, only the yellow pinpoints in her green optics showing her agitation. Whatever was going on in the pyramid, it was not yet what he would call a defused situation. No one had attacked Shanygn or Nikaa yet, but they were not safe either.
The mysterious robots..... who were they? What were they? Why were they on Earth?
He turned to the computer and called Midnight, then sent a request to Spook and Sphere.

* * *

Shanygn sat cross-legged on the mosaic floor, rubbing her aching head, sighing. What a story! What. A. Story!
[I wish we had a Veneran around to confirm this! I wish we had had one to give us a clue!]
Rodimus' sigh echoed in her head. [Me too. Ranora is trying, but she isn't exactly a walking library on facts and it embarrasses her to no end]
[I know. What now?]
[Wait]
[I wish they would come back and *talk* to us!] Shanygn lifted her head and watched Nikaa with narrowed eyes. [I wish I had a leash for him!]
The thief had helped out with her tales and explanations, but he hadn't been able to add much. She had nearly talked for three hours, trying to explain what had happened in the past, but it was so much and she was really, really bad at story-telling. Now Nikaa was prowling around the halls, giving the intricate pictures and carvings a closer look, and Shanygn didn't like the look he gave them at all.
[Gryph says she'll make sure he behaves, though checking his pockets might not be such a bad idea]
Shanygn chuckled, then became aware of the five figures coming back. A'noophis, more or less their leader, was in front. He was an imposing figure, especially since his dark coloring had almost the same effect as Midnight's organic skin: it sucked in light. With his Egyptian style collar and the half-humanoid appearance he was both stylish and dangerous, and like Midnight he was of a rather slender construction. Shanygn had no doubt that the five 'gods' were robots; unlike any robot she had ever seen – or at least until the accident had transformed Melissa into the hybrid she was now. A'noophis had a quiet and calm demeanor, a dark voice, and each movement spoke of a quiet authority.
Shanygn rose to her feet and Nikaa walked over to her, his behavior casual but he was very much on his toes. As they now stood in a half circle in front of them, Shanygn smiled secretly. In a way this was like the ancient Egyptians must have perceived the five aliens when they had first met them, their gods. They had been so vastly different and still slightly human.
"You told an interesting story," A'noophis now said.
"It's not a story," Shanygn answered. "It's the truth. You slept for a long time."
"We waited," M'uut told her. "But now we know no one will come to relief us of our duty."
Nikaa sighed slightly. "Well, at least no one assigned to this doorway." He gestured at the pattern on the floor. "The Veneran and their war put a hold to all of their projects and I think their descendants or those who are alive today have no more interest in the doorway system. If you can find them, that is."
M'uut nodded sadly. "So we have an eternal Duty."
"But no one can open the doorway, right? It's locked," Shanygn argued.
"Even so," A'noophis interjected. "We have been sworn to guard the doorway until a Gatekeeper would be assigned. We cannot leave it unprotected. If someone finds it...."
"If anyone on Earth finds it, they have no idea how to open it," Shanygn said. "Even we don't know how to accomplish it and we are using the system for decades now! It's safe."
"No, it is safe because we guard it," A'noophis told her with a fine smile.
"But you'll be locked down here again. Kinda like prisoners. The world outside has changed in the last ten thousand years."
"We know, but our Duty comes first."
The other Guardians nodded in agreement. Shanygn felt frustration rise inside her.
"We will remain here until a Gatekeeper has been assigned to the doorway, then we will be free of the Duty and can roam the universe," Biztha told them, her tail swishing softly. She was a silver-skinned female of her kind, her armor that of a large cat's. "It may be hard for you to accept, but we are like this; we are Duty-bound."
"Will you at least allow us to study the doorway?" Shanygn wanted to know.
"That has to be decided. We would like to talk to your... Council," A'noophis said. "If the Tjineran have truly left and the control is now in the hands of the ones you call Cybertronians, we need to talk."
"Agreed. They want to meet you too, but to accomplish that you'd have to come with us to Cybertron. None of them can show up on Earth without giving the doorway away."
Hjutho hissed softly. She clearly didn't like it. Slekat, who had been quiet throughout the last hours, moved to join his leader.
"I will go with them," he volunteered. His voice sounded somewhat rough and scratchy and he had a dangerous appearance, but Shanygn had long since learned never to go by outside appearances.
"And so will I," Biztha added. "The two of us can handle it."
[Steve and Jeff have arrived. They are outside the pyramid] Rodimus informed his partner. [They will enter with the tourists]
Shanygn met the eyes of the Guardians. "We can't leave right away. The human tourists will soon flood the tunnels, though two of my friends will be among them, and we have to wait until night fall."
A'noophis nodded. "That suits us. We still have a lot of questions and maybe you and your friends can answer them."
"My pleasure."

* * *

Dagger muttered to himself as he circumnavigated or blocked radar, flying toward Cairo as fast as he could dare. Like last time, Matt Frasier sat in the pilot's seat and Cathy Lee Russell was on the second seat. Frasier was actually sleeping! The flight would take about an hour with all the security measure he had to take, and the human had nodded off the moment they had been safely in the air! Dagger couldn't believe it. He had checked on him several times to see whether he was just pretending, maybe to irk the Sentinel, but Frasier was sound asleep. Dagger tried to ignore the anger he felt at the human's display of open defiance, because that was exactly what he was doing. He was annoying him to now end as well!
Losing altitude, Dagger started full cloaking and checked everything. He was still invisible to radar.
"Hold on," he said to his awake passenger as he suddenly had a nasty idea.
"Wha....?" Cathy started, then gave a gasp of surprise as Dagger started a roll. "Dagger!" she exclaimed, voice full of anger.
Matt blinked his eyes open, yawned and stretched as much as he could in the confines of the cockpit. "Oh, we have arrived," he commented.
Dagger was speechless, as was actually Cathy Lee. Matt yawned again and looked out of the window.
"Nice flight, just a bit bumpy in the end," he commented. "Bad weather front?"
Dagger refused to answer and started his descend. Matt smiled slightly, leaning back, enjoying the ride.

* * *

Steven Parker squinted up the large stone artifact, duly impressed by the size and the work that had been put into erecting it. He was used to everything being Cybertronian-sized, so the pyramid wasn't that impressive concerning height, but it had been built by humankind such a long time ago, without the technology Cybertron had at its disposal, so it was an incredible achievement.
"Steve?"
Jeff's voice got him out of his thoughts and he turned to his team mate. "Yeah?"
Jeff nodded at two dark-skinned humans not very far away. "Those two.... they keep watching us."
Steve gave the two a closer look. One was a woman, maybe in her thirties, dark-skinned, her black hair bound out of her face. She was dressed in pants and a blouse. The man wore what Steve had come to recognize as a kind of traditional garb for the Arab people living in this country and he was equally dark-skinned. A mustache adorned his upper lip. They looked like natives. As he turned to look their way, the two walked off.
"Let's worry about Shan and Nikaa first," he decided. "If they are still around, let's find out what they want afterwards."
The two Interfaces walked toward the pyramid and entered it. The last couple of tourists were taking part in a tour and Steve and Jeff soon found a way to slip out of the group and hide. Midnight had given them the route the others had taken and they knew exactly where to go.

Three hours later Steve decided it was safe to emerge. He had been in communication with Midnight, assuring him that they were safe, listening to what was going on and how Shanygn and Nikaa were faring. As he and Jeff now walked down the corridor that led to the broken seal, Steve couldn't shake the feeling that they were being followed. But no one was there.
"Here we are," Jeff said as they arrived at the section where the wall had caved in.
Steve looked down and was greeted by near-darkness. The chute had to be going down a very long way....
"Let's do it," he muttered and got out the grappling hooks.

* * *

Optimus Prime sat at the conference table, looking at his second-in-command with neutral optics. "A first contact situation," he finally said, five minutes after Rodimus had finished relaying what had happened.
The younger Prime nodded. "Currently everything is going well. The five Guardians are not hostile and except for a few unfriendly encounters with Hjutho, everyone else if quite interested in a contact to Cybertron."
"Are Midnight and Wild Card standing by?"
Rodimus nodded. "They have approached as far as they dare and Wild Card will Gate Midnight to the location. He said he can pinpoint the doorway chamber quite clearly and deliver them into the pyramid itself."
"We have to be careful," Optimus said slowly. "Very, very careful."
"We will be."
Prime steepled his fingers thoughtfully. "Have we found anything on the Guardians in the doorway computer?"
"No, nothing. Starscream told me there isn't a single word about Guardians of locked doorways, just like there is nothing about the Gatekeepers or Keys in there. Looks like everything is either technical stuff or maps."
"What about Spook?"
Rodimus shrugged. "He's very closed off all of a sudden. He won't tell whether or not he knows what the Guardians are." Prime frowned. He didn't like it. "Steve and the others are preparing to leave as soon as possible, which is as soon as Midnight and Wild Card have arrived."
"Good. Keep me informed." With that Optimus rose and left.
Rodimus carefully probed his link to Shanygn and got her reassurance in return. No problems, no worries. He hoped it would stay this way.

* * *

Steven Parker and Jefferson Winters had been formally introduced to the five aliens and both humans looked intrigued, but not the least bit frightened. It was a trait M'uut found intriguing in return. The Guardians had been told about the process of Interfacing, but it was new territory to them.
"Our respective partners will be Gating to this doorway chamber as soon as we can safely assume that no one can feel their arrival," Steve now explained. "Please don't be surprised."
"I heard of Gating," M'uut told him, fascination in her voice. "I knew someone who had the ability, but he rarely used it. You said the Sentinels are descendants of the ones we knew?"
All four Interfaces nodded.
"Fascinating."
Shanygn shot Steve a look. M'uut was like Perceptor in many ways and her thirst for knowledge was unquenchable.
Nikaa and Hjutho had been bickering and at each other's throat for the whole time the visitors had been in the pyramid and Shanygn couldn't help but compare this to the relationship he had with Gryph. For some reason the thief seemed to be able to pick out those who instinctively disliked him and then pester them. A'noophis had watched them with a wary frown at first, especially when Nikaa had started to eyes some stuff and tried to pocket it. Hjutho had snarled and hissed, immediately getting into a word fight.
"Don't worry," Shanygn had reassured the jackal-headed entity. "Nikaa is one-of-a-kind and even if he looks like a crook, he is an okay guy. He knows where the limits are and if he forgets for some reason, Gryph is there to remind him."
"His robot partner?"
She nodded. "She is a bit like Hjutho, just as temperamental and ill-tempered once-in-a-while, but you'd have a mortal enemy in her if you ever hurt Nikaa."
A'noophis nodded as if he had guessed it. "He likes to live dangerously."
Shanygn smiled. "Comes with the territory."
Suddenly there was a scraping noise from behind them and Steve and Jeff jumped to their feet. Shanygn turned slowly, Nikaa had ducked into a defensive stance. The rope Jeff and Steve had used to lower themselves into the chamber moved and a minute later two people appeared, both clad in capes the Arabs usually used. They stood below the chute and looked at the mixed group, no sign of fear or surprise in their faces. Shanygn heard a soft noise coming from A'noophis and shot him a look, but the Guardian just looked at the new-arrivals. Finally the two strangers came closer, both walking proud and erect. The woman looked at the five Guardians and Steve thought he saw a kind of recognition in her eyes, then it was gone.
"You are the two who watched us. Who are you?" he asked, forcefully restraining himself from drawing a weapon.
"My name is Nabeh Berai," the man introduced himself. "Keeper of the Hidden Ones. This is my sister Yunet." His eyes came to rest on the five aliens. "We are honored to be in your presence."
"Hidden Ones?" Shanygn echoed. "You mean them?" She pointed at the 'gods'.
Nabeh nodded. "Yes, we are the Keepers."
"So that's why you followed us," Jeff said. "You were keeping an eye on the pyramid."
Yunet nodded. "Our family has guarded the secret of your resting place since the beginning of time," she said, addressing the Guardians again. "Ever since you went into sleep we passed the duty on from one generation to the other, choosing those worthy to be called Keepers, and those worthy to protect them."
Jeff tried not to gape. Nabeh, seeing his expression, smiled slightly. A'noophis' jackal face creased into a frown.
"You are the descendants of the priests and guards who vowed to keep us and our location safe and a secret," he then said slowly.
"Yes, we are. Our ancestors gave the duty from generation to generation and we grew into a family clan. Each generation knows about the Hidden Ones and their sleeping places; each generation chooses the worthy ones to guard you and hide the knowledge of your existence from prying eyes. We are the Keepers."
"So you are the worthy ones of this generation," Shanygn concluded.
Nabeh nodded. "Yunet was chosen for of her Gift, I was chosen for her protection. There are more of us, but only two are needed to Watch. The others Protect."
"Gift?"
Yunet met the white eyes of the jackal-headed Guardian. A'noophis seemed to be fascinated by her. "I possess the power of knowledge of the Hidden Ones. I sensed their sleeping forms since my birth and I was aware of their waking," she explained, voice calm. "Each generation has a Gifted one. It is us who are always close and keep an eye on you."
"You had this job for over seven thousand years?" Jeff muttered, astounded.
"Each generation."
"Wow."
Nabeh smiled. "It is our duty."
A'noophis mirrored the smile. "I understand. I am grateful."
Yunet turned to the four Interfaces. "You woke the Hidden Ones?" she wanted to know.
"More or less. We sent a signal and they were apparently woken by it."
M'uut nodded. "Our chambers reacted to the doorway's signal."
"You will be leaving?" Nabeh asked matter-of-factly.
"No. Our own Duty is not yet done," A'noophis answered. "We were woken, but the one we have been waiting for all this time has not arrived. We have to stay here, I suppose." A smile crossed his features again.
"Yunet, Nabeh, maybe you can help us with a problem we are facing now," Steve addressed the two Keepers. "The Guardians, the Hidden Ones, will stay awake now that they have contact with us. The main problem is keeping the governments or anyone else from discovering what is truly beneath the pyramid."
Yunet smiled. "That is no big problem, Steven Parker. We have kept archeologists, anthropologists, whatever scientist you name, and the government from exploring the pyramids any further than they are now for centuries. The Keepers, our clan and family, is everywhere, in every important department or place. We have closed the pyramids effectively, except for tourists going through the so-called safe tunnels." Her smile widened. "We control the exploration of the pyramids in a way."
Jeff chuckled. "Good for you. So the lower levels of this pyramid will be safe from discovery."
The two Keepers nodded.
"One of us will always be close."
"It is appreciated," A'noophis told him seriously.
Yunet met his eyes again and her features softened briefly as if she heard or felt something no one else could.
"Slekat and Biztha will be leaving with us in about an hour," Steve now said. "How about you two stay here and get acquainted with the other Guardians? I hope you could be a kind of liaison for us to them. It is difficult for us to get in contact with the currently situation between Cybertron and Earth. It would be an incredible help."
"We would be honored," Nabeh replied and bowed slightly. "We will inform the others of the changed situation. Our resources are at your disposal, Steven Parker. The Keepers have never been involved in politics and we will never be; whatever happens between our planets, it is not important to us or the cause we live for."
"I can't tell you what a relief it is to hear this, Nabeh," Steve said sincerely. "Thank you."

*

On Cybertron, Rodimus was more than just a bit surprised. Shanygn was keeping the link open for him to see and hear almost everything she did, though having a 'video lock' was straining for both partners and it meant heightened concentration on his side and a lot more confusion. Half of his mind saw what someone else was seeing while he had to act in a totally different world. Because of it, the young Prime chose to simply drop in by audio.
[We'll be coming home soon] Shanygn now informed him.
Rodimus smiled. [Good. I'll tell the rescue team to stand by for evacuation]
[Okay. I'll be glad to get home]
He laughed softly. [Homesick?]
[In a way. I'm so used to Cybertron that being on this world, and secretly as well, is not what I'd call a holiday. And....]
[Hm?]
Shanygn sent a smile. [I actually miss you, Roddy]
Rodimus grinned broadly. [Well, I hope you do!]
She sent him a gentle kick, then cut down the link, though not completely, and went back to her own business at hand. Rodimus in turn went after his own and didn't have to wait long for his work to catch up with him. It wasn't as if West Central was ever a calm and quiet building: there was one small crisis or another on every level every hour. As he walked down the corridor to meet with Midnight and Optimus, he was witness to one.
As he entered the command center's ante room, he was greeted by a string of low curses from Silhouette. He walked over to where she had set up temporary residence, going over some files as it seemed, and looked over her shoulder.
"Problems?" he asked sweetly.
Silhouette gave him a look that, if looks could kill, would have rendered him pretty dead right on the spot.
"Problems?" she asked, her voice holding a dangerous tone. "I wouldn't call this a problem!" She pointed at an innocent piece of paper. "That's a catastrophe! They should teach those rookies grammar before they show them how to shoot!"
Rodimus glanced at the paper. It was a report from one of the younger officers of Counterstrike, those who were currently trained to fill up the ranks of this special security unit. He recognized the ID signature. The Autobot had been transferred to Counterstrike only several weeks ago. The decision to enlarge the ranks had come from the Council and Silhouette was currently dealing with the trainees. Rodimus guessed that Cyclonus was in for a rant and some deadly looks himself because he had conveniently loaded the burden of training the new recruits on her shoulders.
"That guy can't write one sentence without major grammatical hiccups!" Silhouette complained. "And guess who's stuck with reviewing all those reports because Mr. Leader-Sir thinks training rookies is beneath his status?!"
Rodimus frowned as if in deep thought. Silhouette merely grimaced and shoved him aside to resume her work, muttering under her breath.
"Hey, you are doing fine," he said softly, leaning briefly closer, smiling.
Sil tried a glare, then sighed and shrugged, managing a small smile.
"And he knows it."
"He better," she snarled. "Or I'll show him what Dinobot means in terms of close combat!"
Rodimus drew back abruptly and raised his hands. "Whoa! I'm unarmed and on your side!"
Silhouette smiled again and leaned closer. "And here I thought you might want to learn a few new moves."
Rodimus cleared his throat, glad that robots couldn't blush, and muttered something under his breath as he quickly made his way to the back-room office where he knew Midnight already was. Silhouette's soft laughter followed him.

* * *

Former Colonel Matt Frasier watched the five strange robots, intrigued and fascinated but not afraid. Like all humans who had been in frequent contact with Cybertronians the fear was one of the first things to go. You accepted that those life forms were much taller than you, but they were just aliens after all. When he and Cathy had arrived in Cairo, he had first checked out the situation, searching through his mind for possible friendly contacts from his former days as a Squad member. He might come up with a few names in case they needed help, but the Keepers had a network of informants and contacts in very important places, so it might be unnecessary to involve outsiders.
Looking around the ancient halls he whistled softly to himself. This chamber was much, much different from the doorway chamber on Cybertron and if he had understood correctly, it was a locked one.
"Matt?"
He turned and discovered Steven Parker. They had worked together on a critical mission once, saving dozens of humans and Autobots at a peace conference, and Frasier held a high respect for the Interface. After he had resigned and come to Cybertron, Matt had not thought he would meet him again quite so soon. He was running his own intelligence operations for West Central, but he was not really close to the leading circle. He reported to Rodimus Prime, okay, but his reports were rarely in person and he was mostly on his own. That he had been asked to take part in this mission had come as a surprise, mainly because he was not an Interface. Well, he was human and could blend in, and he was not about to betray the undercover mission to the EDC or worse.
"Yes?" he now asked.
"We'll be leaving in a few hours. I want you and Cathy to get back to Dagger and prepare for launch. Our time windows are tightly coordinated."
He nodded. "No problem."
"And Matt? Thanks for helping us with this."
"Huh, all I did was combing through ancient ruins and asking stupid questions."
Steve grinned. "Well, you did that pretty well...."
Matt grimaced as he saw the sparkle in the other man's eyes. "I take that as a compliment."
Cathy Lee Russell walked over to them and he smiled at her. He knew who she was... had been .... and it surprised him over and over again that she had turned out to be Interfaced with a Sentinel.
"We have a lift to Dagger's position," she told him. "One of Nabeh's friends is driving us."
"Nice change from having to walk all the time," he commented. "See you on Cybertron, Steve."
They left a few minutes later and about two hours after that they were where Dagger was hiding. The Sentinel was as grumpy as ever, not even greeting them, and as Matt dressed up in his flight suit, he wondered what was eating him. He had first taken it for anger over the mission he had been told to fly, but after the weeks they had spent hopping from one place to the next, he had realized this was something else, something that sat deeper. But what?
Maybe one day he might find out.

* * *

Shanygn and Steve had arrived back on Cybertron two hours ago and the others had followed. Wild Card had been unable to Gate all of them at once and the two Keepers had been taken to West Central after everyone else had been back. Slekat and Biztha had been led into the large complex, their eyes roaming over the unfamiliar structures, awed and maybe even slightly frightened. While Jeff and Wild Card had Gated back to Earth to stay with the two Keepers and the three remaining Guardians, Shanygn had taken a quick detour to the library to get the information she knew was needed: ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses.
"Okay, short introduction into Egyptian culture and how our Guardians fit in. A'noophis, known to the ancient humans as Anubis, God of Embalming, the Dead and tombs," Shanygn read through the accumulated facts as she and Rodimus walked down the corridor to the conference room. "Biztha – Bastet or Ubasti; portrayed as a cat. Goddess of happiness and contentment, and music. Biztha doesn't really look like a cat, more like a mixture of a panther and a tabby, but she represents this goddess. Slekat – Selket; scorpion. In Egyptian belief Selket was a female god, but Slekat is male. The goddess is depicted as binding up demons that would otherwise threaten Ra. M'uut is Mut, a vulture, and believed to be the mother of Khonsu, the moon god." Shanygn shrugged as Rodimus shot her an amused look. "Hjutho is called Uto in ancient writings, a cobra god. Not much known about her, at least I didn't find a lot in the database. There is another snake god called Apep, so maybe that's her as well."
"So all of them are Egyptian gods?" Rodimus asked, disbelief in his voice.
His Interface partner nodded. "In a way, yes. The five Guardians were seen as gods by the Egyptians and seemed to go over into their religion. Not only that, other gods were invented as well to fill the ranks. When I talked to A'noophis he explained that they spent as little time as possible among the humans, but that didn't stop them from developing a cult. All Guardians went into hiding beneath the pyramid and into stasis to stop their presence from influencing the evolving culture."
The young Prime looked at the old Egyptian wall paintings on the view screen of Shan's notebook. "Too late, I guess."
Shanygn nodded. "Exactly. Slekat and Biztha are very amiable and friendly Guardians. Hjutho is temperamental, A'noophis very calm and M'uut incredibly curious."
"What about those Keepers?"
"They are on our side. None of them is into politics. Yunet and Nabeh will be our link to the Guardians and the other Keepers if all of this works out."
"This sounds almost too good to be true," the young Prime muttered. "For the first time there are no problems... no crisis..."
Shanygn smiled. "Hey, we are entitled to a breather now and then."
He mirrored her smile. "True."

* * *

Optimus Prime looked down at the smaller robot, if it really was a robot, and greeted him. Slekat was about a Protogen's size, maybe one head taller, colored in a dark brown and black. He was humanoid in form, his head covered by a helmet stylized as a scorpion's head, complete with mandibles, and the scorpion's tail was still visible, attached to his backside. The scorpion pincers had been retracted over four-fingered hands. Biztha was as tall as her fellow guardian, but a lot more slender. She was colored in golden and white, a cat's head shaping her helmet and her five-fingered hands were adorned by talons. She had cat eyes even in robot mode. A kind of collar was painted around her neck. Both Guardians had no symbols, not even a marking.
"Slekat," Spook rumbled and slithered closer.
The Guardian's eyes widened. "You!" he whispered.
Biztha stared as well. "Spook!"
The ancient robot smiled. "I didn't know you still existed. I thought all Guardians had been decommissioned."
Biztha smiled slightly. "We still have a Duty."
"Waiting."
"Yes."
Optimus cast the large half-serpent a quizzical look and Spook smiled again. "I think I know now why the doorway is locked. We should talk about it somewhere else, though. It will take a while."
The Autobot leader nodded. "We set up a conference room already. If you'll just follow me....?"

* * *

Yunet Berai stood in the chamber that had been hidden behind the painted walls, the one that had been the sleeping place of the Hidden Ones for millennia. Five sarcophagi were lined up in a half circle, each one adorned with the animal sign of the Guardian resting in it. She walked over to the one with the jackal sign and closed her eyes. Yunet had been born in the sign of Anubis, she knew. Her parents had always told her. It had been taken with mixed feelings. Anubis was a strong and benevolent god, but he was also the god associated with death. Yunet had been taught all about her 'zodiac' and she had his sign around her neck, a dark blue and golden amulet. When her Gift had come through, many of the other clan members had seen her as the chosen one to be the Keeper. Yunet hadn't been very amused by it, but she had accepted her duty.
Something touched her and she tilted her head, automatically acknowledging the presence.
"You are truly Gifted," a dark voice said and she turned. She knew who it was behind her; she had felt him.
"As a child I thought it was a curse." Yunet looked up the dark, slender alien. "I was told it was a sign of my destiny; I saw it differently."
"Accepting one's Duty is always hard," the jackal-headed Guardian said. "We Guardians were created for one reason: keeping the doorway safe until a Gatekeeper relieves us of our duty."
"I wasn't created for this; I was born into the family. You can't just leave and go your own ways when you know just what is going on. It enthralls you, it captures you and it will never let you go. I saw friends go incredible lengths to preserve the secret, I saw them leave everything behind, sacrifice their existence to achive what had to be." Sadness wormed its way into the young woman's voice. "What happens to you when the Gatekeeper arrives?"
"We are reassigned to another locked doorway," A'noophis answered.
"And if there is none?"
"There is always one."
"If I understood the explanations of the others correctly, there are no other locked doorways or new ones." Yunet sought out the white eyes again. "What will you do then?"
"I don't know. Our Duty is not over and I can't think ahead of what is happening in the present. We will see." A'noophis shrugged. "It's futile to ponder a possible past if the present is still not over. We live day by day, we know why we are here, and we will do what has to be done.!
Yunet let her eyes wander around the room with the beautifully crafted sarcophagi. It was about half the size of the front hall, but it was made of the same polished stone. This was what she had been taught of; this was the reason why people like her existed and had existed for millennia. They had kept the secret, they had known the truth and had never told. She smiled all of a sudden. As a child she had listened to her grandfather's tales, had heard other Keepers relay the ancient stories, and she had sat wide-eyed, imagining herself back in the long-gone times of ancient Egypt. She had seen herself as one of the original priests, sworn to protect the Guardians, and she and her brother had role-played. Yunet had never bothered about her sign, about the jackal, and she had finally accepted the cursed Gift.
"I knew you were here," she said almost to herself. "Others had heard about it and knew; I felt you."
A'noophis came closer, a smile on his canine features. "And now you know for real."
Yunet nodded. "Yes. Soon the others will know as well, though."
"But your knowledge is unique. You were chosen as the Keeper, were you not?"
She met his fascinating eyes again. "Yes."
"And you were told you were born under the sign of Anubis. I recognize the amulet."
Yunet chuckled. "Yes." She grew serious again. "What is my Gift to you?"
"A tremendous help, I hope. You are receptive to our brainwaves. Some you may receive easier than others, but you can be our eyes and ears to the outside. We can't walk in the sun and at night we have to be careful. Being the Guardians of the locked doorway doesn't mean we are forced to remain in the doorway chamber, but we wouldn't go too far either. With your help we can learn and we can move in the darkness. We can change our size to approximately human size, but this process requires a lot of energy and neither of us is willing to risk it except in emergencies. We need you."
Yunet nodded. "I'm honored to be of service."
A'noophis' amusement flooded through her and she gasped at the unaccustomed feeling. "I apologize," he said immediately. "You have to be taught how to truly use the Gift. M'uut will show you."
She nodded, thankful. "I want to learn about you."
A'noophis smiled slightly. "You will."

* * *

The conference room was filled with Cybertronians, Interfaces and the two visiting Guardians. Optimus Prime and his second-in-command Rodimus were present, as were Midnight and Tornado. Their respective Interface partners sat close. Megatron was on board the Apocalypse and Cyclonus had not returned from a trip to Charr, so they weren't here, and neither was a Venerakkin representative. Sphere had joined them because of Ranora's presence inside her and Spook had curled up in one corner as well. Slekat and Biztha took the whole setting rather calmly and though they watched everything closely and with surprise or awe, they didn't seem overwhelmed.
"Guardians are assigned to locked doorways as temporary protectors," Slekat now explained to the present Council and associates. "Our Duty is to keep the structure safe until a Gatekeeper is assigned and takes over. Then we are relieved of this Duty and assigned another."
"I see," Optimus said thoughtfully. "The doorways were erected millions of years ago...."
Biztha nodded. "Guardians are assigned right after the structure is completed."
"And Earth was given a doorway at the same time the others were placed?" Rodimus wanted to know.
The Guardians nodded.
"Doorways were erected right after a planet had settled down, after the worst continental drift had stopped and a safe location had been decided on," Slekat explained. "Construction lasted for a while, then we Guardians were called upon."
Millions of years! Optimus stared at the two smaller robots. Millions of years! They had waited all that time for a Gatekeeper to come and relieve them of their Duty!
"You never wondered why no Gatekeeper came?" he asked aloud.
"No, we had our Duty. It wasn't our place to ... wonder."
"I see."
"But when the indigenous people of the planet grew and we were in danger of being exposed we had to hide," Biztha went on. "They saw us as their gods, which had never been the plan, but we used their religion to keep them away from the hiding place of the doorway."
"You erected the pyramid over it?" Rodimus wanted to know.
"In a way. The doorway had been built into the rocky ground, to be activated when the Gatekeeper arrived. We placed the pyramid structure over it when the first natives came across us." Slekat shrugged. "It was the only way. That they took us into their religion was a bit of a shock. We were simple Guardians, but our forms gave them gods to believe in, and they added more and more of their own."
Spook rumbled softly. "Normally doorways are hidden when the natives of a planet evolve this far. If they grow to a level we can safely see as acceptable to let them know that there is more outside than just a handful of stars, the Gatekeeper reveals himself. Some had problems with religious beliefs before."
Slekat nodded. "They made a cult of our presence. We had to go in hiding. M'uut programmed our stasis pods so that if the Gatekeeper activated the doorway we would wake."
"And because we pinged the doorway we woke you," Sphere said into the silence.
Biztha nodded. "Probably." Her cat eyes fixed the Council. "So the Tjineran are truly gone?"
"Yes, most of them," Prime answered. "A lot has happened in the time between the construction of the doorways and today."
And they started to explain. Rodimus watched as Biztha and Slekat's eyes widened in horror at the split of the Tjineran into the Tji and the Veneran, about their war, about the Tji's genocide run, about the destruction. Slekat looked at Sphere, a strange expression in his eyes.
"You carry a Tji?" he asked.
Sphere nodded. "Her name is Ranora. She is not the enemy."
The Guardian smiled. "We weren't part of the war and it is far from us to judge."
Sphere nodded again, thankful this time.
"What you told us is a lot to consider. So much has changed," Biztha now said.
"You have all the time you need to think about things," Optimus assured them. "We just want to know the Terran doorway safe from Earth interference and we want to know more about you and the locked structure."
"A'noophis has agreed to your presence inside the doorway room," Slekat told them. "He still has to know about the changed situation among the Tjineran and that there might never be a Gatekeeper for this doorway. We can never abandon our Duty, but we won't go back to sleep."
"We have a lot of questions and we would be happy to answer yours," Rodimus told them. "We have to choose who can stay on Earth with you since the political situation between our two planets is rather delicate. Shuttling is just as delicate. You have to understand that Earth isn't ruled under a unanimous governement. There have been several changes and the planet was divided into several alliances or treaty agreements, and some of the unified countries are not exactly at peace with each other. There are small wars, even civil wars, and few of the governments think of more than the problems at their front step. We have loose connections and unstable diplomatic agreements with the Maritime Pacific Alliance and the African Treaty members, but that's about it. If they find out about the doorway this might change dramatically to either openly hostile actions of diplomatic warfare."
"We understand and we won't involve ourselves in politics. Our Duty is above politics or alliances. Whoever you choose to stay with us, he will be welcome among the Guardians," Biztha answered. "The humans called Keepers will be our link to the outside world and their oath to keep us safe will guarantee that no one will disturb the lower chambers. We will be under protection."
"Good to know."
The meeting lasted another three hours until everyone decided to call it closed for today. Biztha and Slekat would return as soon as it was possible to Gate. For now they would both be guests in West Central, and Slekat had expressed his wish to learn more about this planet. Everyone left, except both Autobot leaders and Spook.
"Looks like we scored this time," the younger Prime said with a smile.
Optimus agreed with a nod. "Looks like it. I hope it won't turn nasty in the next few months or years. The doorway is too valuable to lose in a sea of politics. We can't use it, but it is an incredible discovery for studies. I want to send Perceptor and maybe Disaster to have a closer look at it and learn more about the Guardians. They are very different from our construction and close to Mel's hybrid form. Maybe it is a lead as to what happened to her or who changed her form."
Rodimus frowned slightly. "Maybe. We just have to cross our fingers and hope. I want this to be a unproblematic situation for once; just this once. We have enough to worry about without Earth breathing down our necks because of an ancient structure and five alien robots."
The Autobot leader chuckled, though there was no humor in his optics. "Only too true. Let's hope their own wars keep them busy. The Keepers will be a great help and with the Guardians' expertise we should be fine for now."
"As long as they guard the doorway, it is save," Spook said calmly. "Guardians were created for this sole purpose. It is their Duty."
Prime nodded. "I'm glad that we at least stay in contact with them. I don't think there will ever by a Gatekeeper for the Earth doorway, but with the Guardians we don't have to worry as much as without them."
Spook rumbled in agreement. "Getting in and out might be a bit difficult, but Wild Card and Midnight should be able to handle it. And Earth can't monitor the frequency the Guardians use."

* * *

The next weeks were spent secretly shuttling people and Cybertronians to Earth. The Cheops pyramid was closed off to the public for a week because of 'reconstruction and clean-up', though those involved knew this was just a cover-up. Whoever was within the ranks of those who could call the shots, he was pretty good at it. No one disturbed them and the five Guardians helped everyone to reconstruct the lower levels to accommodate them all. A communications device was installed, one that would insure that none of Earth's countless satellites would pick up the transmissions. Two levels were changed to accommodate the Keepers and one of the ancient tunnels was opened to give them free access. The Guardians had revealed maps that had a detailed display of all the tunnels beneath the pyramids, tunnels no one had ever found or heard of.
Hoist had undergone some changes, mainly taking off the Autobot symbols and a brown repaint, and he would serve as an Autobot liaison, at least in the broader sense of the word. Transformation was out of the question for him, at least most of the time, but he could handle it. Nabeh would register the car to his name and this way Hoist was directly in contact with the Keepers.
One of the Interfaces who had set up residence here was Nicholas Cavanaugh. The dark-haired engineer had almost begged to be part of the research team, do something other than the day-to-day routine on Cybertron or Mernan. Tornado had only grinned hiddenly and told Optimus to let him go. The chance to have a look at the Guardians' structure and finding out what hey were made of was a real challenge to Nick. And, he had pointed out, no one could get behind their workings faster than Cavanaugh. Prime had agreed. He knew Nick's talents. They had saved his life a long time ago and it had been this meeting that had introduced a young, highly-talented man to the Cybertronians and later to Tornado, his Interface partner.
Nick had roamed through all levels the Guardians had used and had opened up for future use, had taken a look at the dormant, locked doorway, but he had left this particular puzzle to Perceptor. He was itching to learn more about the Guardians. One look at them had given Nick a first idea where to look for what – especially since he knew Mel's hybrid construction inside out – and he would start with M'uut, who had volunteered. Walking into one of the many chambers below the pyramid. He wouldn't meet M'uut for another hour, so he might as well take a closer look at another fascinating piece of machinery he had discovered.
The room was as large as the chamber containing the sarcophagi but completely bare of anything except for five medium-sized crystal-like stones. All had different colors and they sat on small pedestals, each made out of a different kind of stone. The pedestals where exquisitely covered by carvings of various symbols and figures. As far as Nicholas could identify the stones they were amethyst -- sitting on a coal black pedestal, gold -- on a granite one, onyx -- on pumice stone, turquoise -- on something that looked like slate, and lapis lazuli – on a clear, transparent pedestal. The stones in themselves held a different symbol each. Nicholas wondered what it meant. Those weren't machines, just displays, but they had to hold some meaning.
"Good luck charms."
He turned and looked at A'noophis who had silently entered the room. Nicholas tried to shut down the part of his brain already trying to analyze the strange robot, but it was hard.
"Good luck charms?" he echoed.
A'noophis smile. "Yes. The priests who saw us to our sleep set those stones up. We don't know where they got them from, but we had to accept. They were gestures of their respect and maybe even of thankfulness." He shrugged. "We thought they looked nice."
Nick chuckled. "They do look nice. I thought they had some kind of mechanical function."
A'noophis frowned. "Well," he said slowly, "Slekat assures me they make good bowling balls."
Nicholas stared at him, then broke out laughing. A'noophis smirked.

* * *

In the large doorway chamber beneath the pyramid, Perceptor was studying the most fascinating specimen of a doorway he had ever seen. The structure was hidden beneath the ornamented floor, which they had broken open as carefully as possible, and it was about as large as the centerway on Cybertron. It lay embedded in the ground, a large circle closing around a triangular center piece. The outer circle was made of the same, gray quartz the other doorways were made of, the triangle of black crystalline stone. There was a faint echo of doorway energies within the structure, but it was dormant, he deduced. No doubt about it.
What was most fascinating were the runes though. On all doorways they were of the same origin, but these seemed different. They were runes, all right, but they seemed to come from a different base, a different language. He had called in Raven to help him with it because she understood everything conerning doorways best, and was currently watching her walk around the gigantic structe. Her yellow optics were narrowed into a frown.
"This is weird," she finally said.
"Define 'weird'."
She smiled and climbed out of the pit. "The runes are the same as on the other doorways, just like you said, but their meaning is strange. You see, the basic rule of the translation is the same, but their meaning differs. I've never seen them before."
"Can you translate them?"
"Not off-hand. I need the information inside the cube, I think. What I managed to make out is that this doorway was not intended to be activated like the others; it's different. The Tjineran put it here for a reason and maybe it has something to do with star constellations or whatever, but I don't believe it was ever to receive a normal Gatekeeper."
"So you theorize the Tjineran left the Guardians here for a purpose, never intend on relieving them of their duty?"
She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I want to get into the translation first. Maybe we can find out what the doorway was supposed to be and maybe we can even activate it without a Gatekeeper, but whatever happens, we have to be very, very careful. I think this is more than it seems."
Perceptor nodded, intrigued.

* * *

"So we have a locked doorway which we can't open. We have strange writings on the doorway rings as such and on the walls which neither Key can really translate fully and of which is nothing in the control cube of our centerway. We have five Guardians who are sworn to stay with the doorway until it has been assigned a Gatekeeper, which we know will never happen because there was never one constructed for it. And we have a possibly powerful weapon in this doorway because it is more than it seems."
Optimus Prime looked at his second-in-command who only nodded. Rodimus had been supervising everything concerning the Earth doorway in the last months and had compiled a short but still detailed report.
"Raven says she would refrain from trying to force the doorway into operation. Some of the functions she managed to understand are far beyond what any doorway she has ever encountered has, and she believes that if it opens, we can't be sure it opens to a place we want to go. Looks like whatever power it could channel would lead somewhere else completely."
"Somewhere.... where?"
Rodimus shrugged. "Beyond whatever we know."
Optimus Prime frowned. "We will keep this thing under tight security and locked until we know what it is."
"Raven filed a request to stay and continue her studies and I granted it. We need to know what this thing is. I also thought about getting in contact with the Venerakkin, finding a Veneran who might be willing to help or even one who has a clue as to what that thing is."
"Good luck," Optimus snorted. "First you have to find them, then you have to convince them to help."
The younger leader shrugged. "Number one can be achieved, though I have no idea how long it might take. Number two depends on Firefall."
"I won't keep you from it, Rodimus. The Veneran might be the only chance we have of finding out what this doorway really is without bumbling into another catastrophe."
Rodimus Prime laughed softly. "Don't we always?"
The older Prime grimaced. "Don't remind me."
But he knew it was true. In the past they had found out a lot on their own, tapping into secrets, unveiling them, learning about their origin and creation – but it had never come easy. It had always been a fight, one they had sometimes nearly lost. Now, if they could find a Veneran willing to help, they might just get to the bottom of this without a major crisis or problem hovering just above the horizon.
Maybe......

* * *

He studied the wall paintings, the frescos and the writing, and his eyes lingered on the almost life-like painting of a circular structure with a triangle in the middle. Everything was happening as had been foretold. Good.
"Do you believe, Snera?"
Snera, the young assistant, looked at his master, then at the wall paintings. "It is foretold, isn't it?"
"Yes, but do you believe?"
He studied the ancient prist, the watcher and keeper of knowledge of a universe they had once lived in as well. "I do," he then answered.
"Good. Because what was foretold has happened and it continues happening. They will severe the line and be free of us one day."
"The Lord is still fighting the prophecies," Snera reminded him.
K'va li Opnah smiled slightly. "He no longer has the power. His one attempt to get into this world failed and he lost too much energy to try again for some time."
"But if they open the breach..."
"Not if... they will. And we will do nothing but watch, remember that."
Snera nodded, looking at the wall again. It had been foretold and it would happen. Only the outcome was yet in the dark.
"Why is the victor not foretold?" he asked.
The priest shrugged. "Because it has not happened yet. We will be the first to know when the writings change." With that he turned, the rustle of his robes the only sound in the vast chamber.
Snera remained behind, staring at the walls.