I was driving home from my friend's house a few days ago when I saw Orion in the sky, and since I had transformers on the brain, I came up with this. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Or the constellation Orion.
Legend:
Talking
Thinking
Flashback
Jack had nearly been squished today. It wasn't really that uncommon anymore. Miko had run through the ground bridge after the 'bots again, and Jack had gone after her to try and make sure she didn't die. Unfortunately for them, they had run straight into Breakdown and Bulkhead duking it out, which was not good.
When they had been found by Optimus and Arcee, they had headed back to base, Miko squealing over the pictures she had gotten the whole way. After hearing Optimus encourage his team about the day, then begin to try and plan out where the next coordinates might be, Ratchet decided to scold Miko about running off.
The young japanese girl then dragged Jack into it to try and minimise her own scolding. She grumbled and interrupted Ratchet the whole time while Jack simply listened quietly, and when they were done, had discreetly left the main room in the silo, wandering along the huge corridors, pondering deep thoughts like school, Sierra, alien robots and death-by-squishing. Eventually, he came upon a stairway leading up to the roof of the silo, the top of the mesa. When he reached the top, he spun on his heels, staring in wonder at the stars, twinkling millions of miles away.
How many of those stars have been seen up close by cybertronians? He wondered.
He began to peer up at them, searching for constellations.
"See Jack?" The tall, raven haired man had his arm around the small boy, pointing up at the stars.
"That one there- Do you see it? It looks like a pan. Yeah? That one's called the Big Dipper. And down there, below it and a bit to the right is the North Star. The North Star is the brightest star in the sky. Sailors used to use stars to see where they were on the ocean, because there aren't any signposts in the sea"
The small boy looked up at the stars with wide eyes. "Whats that one called daddy?" He asked curiously, "It looks like a big man doing what that fast man did on TV, Usa- ussay- yoo-sayn bolt!"
The man grinned, the smile coming easily to his older face. "That constellation is called The Hunter, Jack. The ancient greeks used to believe that he was once a man called Orion. They promised him immortality, that he wouldn't die, so they made him into a constellation. See, thats his bow and arrow, pulled back ready to be released. Not doing a Usain Bolt move. Orion's belt is a well known constellation, three stars in the middle that look like his belt if you look at the whole image. They're easier to find than the whole picture, so most people find the belt, then see the surrounding stars that make up Orion."
Little Jack was staring at the constellation with wonder. "He was a real man? Just like you and me?" His dad nodded. "And now he's in the stars? Do you think I could go to the stars daddy?"
The man looked down at his son fondly, and ruffled his hair, "Maybe someday Jack. Maybe someday."
Jack smiled wryly. He did end up going to the stars after all. Albeit, he went to an alien planet to save the leader of a band of alien robots, but it was the same thing really.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice footsteps coming up behind him.
"Is everything alright, Jackson?"
He jumped at the deep voice of Optimus Prime, quickly turning to face him, "No, no everything's fine, I was just uh, looking at the stars."
The huge prime smiled at the boy's awkwardness, and sat down, dropping a leg down to hang over the mesa edge. "Do you see that star there? The very faint one, hiding behind that larger constellation? That is Cybertron. You can only see it on very, very clear nights when we are on earth." Jack searched for the star, and gazed at it in awe.
"What stars were you looking at so intently, Jack?" questioned Optimus. Jack smiled and easily pointed out Orion to the prime. "I was looking at that constellation. It . . . means a lot to me."
Optimus' optics carefully searched out the stars, connecting them up to see the hunter aiming his bow. "What is it's name?"
Jack smiled again.
"Orion"