The Dream of Stars, a transformers/beast wars fanfic

My Planet's Child

or,

The Dream of Stars

"When you leave this field, it will be as shining examples to the rest of our galaxy of what the human spirit can achieve, and as an embodiment to the motto of your institution: Duty. Honor. World. No longer shackled by the gravity well of our homeworld, you will explore the stars and the infinite reaches of space. You will serve as humanity's ambassadors to alien races and pursue the endless task and growing joy of understanding them. Like the classes preceding yours, you will forge a trail which the rest of Earth can follow, and all those who will reap the benefit of your dedication, courage, and strength thank you today."

The speaker, the elderly and retired head of what had been NASA, was not untalented in vocal delivery. Nevertheless, Rodimus Prime had to restrain himself from shifting with boredom as the carefully crafted phrases addressed to the graduating class of the Earth Defense Force Academy rolled across the crowd.

From near his left knee, the late afternoon sun glinted across auburn hair as Marissa Faireborne looked up and gave an almost amused look at him, somehow sensing his restlessness.

"Relax, the formalities are almost over," she soothed. She spoke quietly, knowing that his sensitive audios would catch her words, and not wanting to broadcast the fact that the leader of the Autobots - and special invitee to this ceremony - was getting fidgety.

"But then we have all the informalities to get through as well." Rodimus sent the soft complaint through what in his alternate mode was his left rear speaker, which was somewhere near his ankle. But as Marissa firmly kept her gaze on his face instead of carrying on a conversation with the young Prime's foot, she was able to catch the glint of humor in his optics as he laughed at himself for his impatience. An afternoon in a rather attractively designed outdoor stadium was, after all, an incredible improvement from the endless strategy meetings he had with Ultra Magnus and Kup.

Marissa started to reply, but was cut short by the shouted roar of approval from the crowd as the speaker ended the graduation speech with a rousing congratulations. The audience quieted itself as the serene form of the Superintendent of the EDC traded places on the stage with the beaming, elderly academician.

"For six years, you have prepared here. You have persevered through endless challenges to your bodies, minds, and hearts. You are trained for peace. You are trained for war. But most of all, you are prepared to give of the best of yourselves to the very last. I, and the rest of the world, could ask for no more, and no less. Ladies and gentlemen of the 2007 Class of the Earth Defense Force Academy... I pronounce you graduated! Welcome to the EDC!"

This time, Marissa joined in the roar of congratulations and approval from the crowd as the recently graduated cadets whooped in wild glee, tossing their formal white hats high into the sky. The two hundred newly commissioned officers who had survived six grueling years together embraced one another and pounded each other's backs, while parents, friends, former graduates, alien dignitaries, and the rest of the world let out a collective cheer.

Above Marissa, a pair of metal hands clapped loudly, adding a unique contribution to the celebrating clamor. At the sound of the ringing noise, the graduating cadets turned and pumped their fists in the air, shouting a salute to Autobots in general and Rodimus Prime in specific.

"See? I told you that you needed to be here!" Marissa shouted above the crowd. Her face beamed in a broad grin above her pristine white formal EDC uniform.

Prime's ankle spoke again. "Yeah, yeah... you'll be telling me I'm a hero or something next." But the glint of good humor in his optics had grown brighter, and with a smile the leader of the Autobots pumped his own fist in the air in a return salute to the cadets.

The informalities, as Rodimus had called them, were to take place on the wide park-like expanse that surrounded the academy proper, and so gradually the large crowd wandered out into the summer evening. The tall Autobot leader made several dozen obligatory greetings along the way to other dignitaries (although labeling himself in that same category still made him wince), some of which he knew by station and a few of which he had actually met before. Captain Faireborne greeted her own share of friends and superior officers as they walked, but somehow they stayed together despite the separate demands on their attention.

Eventually, the stadium was left behind the crowd, and the several thousand beings settled upon the lawn and among the trees for a stint of good partying. Gradually, as the sun settled on the western horizon, they spread out.

Idly, the Prime and the EDC Captain walked together through the grass. For once, Rodimus wasn't the focus of attention, and he found it rather a relief.

"Two hundred more graduates," he finally commented (not from his ankle), deciding it was time for a real conversation as opposed to all the surface greetings of the day. "Danno has his heart set on coming here someday."

"Well, if he turns out as determined and lucky as his parents, he just might," his companion replied in a carefully neutral tone. Surprised at the lack of enthusiasm, Rodimus looked down.

"Hey! I thought you liked him."

"I do!" Marissa protested defensively, shaking her auburn head. "But Rodimus, even though I'm in about the same boat, I have no illusions that I got into the Academy because of who my parents were or because I was well-liked. The cadets here were chosen from all over the world, and the competition to get in is ferocious. The class sizes do grow every year, but still - "

"All right! Enough!" Rodimus was mildly annoyed by her tirade. "I do know all that stuff, remember? I get a report on changes in the Academy every few months... right alongside the reports of whatever recent improvement Franklin Chase has made on Cybertronian technology." His voice changed from annoyed to rueful as he again considered the strangeness of a short-lived human actually improving upon millions of years worth of Autobot design.

"Professor Chip," Marissa reminisced, accepting the change in subject and grinning.

"You took classes with him, right?"

"He's one of the best teachers at the Academy," Marissa answered proudly, scanning the area and finding a distant figure sitting in a hoverchair on the opposite side of the lawn with a small knot of graduates clustered around him.

"And one of the first and best human friends the Autobots had." Rodimus sounded like he was quoting someone. "I remember when Optimus introduced him to a group of us that were newly arrived from Cybertron. We'd heard stories of you humans, but I think that it was listening to Chip and Perceptor carry on an argument that I couldn't follow that made me believe them."

Marissa grinned back mischievously. "Does this mean that you're considering the integration program again?"

Rodimus gave her a moderately annoyed look. "Again with this! Brainstorm's gotten to you with his theories, hasn't he?"

The human smirked, her eyes sparkling. "Actually, I got to him. Seriously, Rodimus, I think that the closer Autobots and humans work together, the more we'll all be able to accomplish."

"All right, all right - we'll schedule some trials of these ideas in a few weeks," Rodimus gave up, and Marissa crowed in triumph.

"I'll hold you to that. I want reports, mister!"

"I don't know... are you sure you have the security clearance for that sort of thing?" The Prime teased.

"I had better!"

The two of them wandered some more, Rodimus being very careful where he placed his feet, until they came across a trio of second year female cadets. They stood in loose semicircle in front of a ten-foot tall bronze statue of an early Earthen shuttle. A small audience paused as they hummed a soft note together, then began singing a lively space chantey, deftly weaving their voices together with no other accompaniment.

I was born on a dancing world, where day and darkness run
Do-si-do with the dusty moon, around a distant sun.
Which shyly skirts a wider waltz, by gravity's request
Around a swirling galaxy that knows no point of rest.

Oh, I come by it honestly if I am star-beguiled,
For if I am a rover, well, I am my planet's child.
The very iron in my blood has wandered wide and far--
Forged and flung from the fire's heart that fueled a foreign star.

His strides muffled by the soft grass below his feet, Rodimus paused and turned his head at the sound. He had always enjoyed the energy of human rock music with its pounding rhythms and electric sounds, but now this unadorned harmony caught at him. Slowly (and cautiously, for the humans walking so casually around his feet) he turned the rest of himself around, the lantern light picking out the flames painted on his chest as he moved.

Mars hangs low in the winter sky, a faint red spark to see,
That might yet hold some scrap of life; a wanderer like me;
A fractured portrait hinting how the solar system spawned;
And more than that--a stepping stone to all the worlds beyond.

The flushed faces of the singers spoke of more than the nerves brought on by singing in public. One of the young ladies had her eyes closed, as if she were envisioning the scene in the song, and longing entered the merry tune.

Pink and pearl the summer skies on Martian planetside,
Where clouds of ice and iron help to swing the seasons wide.
And in the winter morning with the sky all blue with night,
A freezing fog comes furling in to veil the valleys white.

Marissa had paused with her friend, and she observed him as he stood as utterly still as only a statue or a Transformer could. The Autobot's expression was one of frank curiosity as he listened.

Soon enough I'll soar away to sail the sunlit black,
Thirty months as earthlings count to travel out and back.
The calendar is counting down; the zero hour nears,
To add my own small circle to the clockwork of the spheres.

Light applause dusted the air as the trio finished, and the singers grinned at each other and bowed, then stepped toward others and slipped into conversation.

"Pretty, but that was a bit strange, don't you think?" Rodimus finally remarked as they continued their casual walk among the lantern-strewn trees.

"What do you mean?" Marissa responded, confused.

"A whole song dedicated to going to a planet that's in the same solar system, is all. I dunno, I guess I expected EDC cadets to have grander ambitions."

"Oh," Marissa responded thoughtfully, and after a moment, pinned her companion with a glance. "You Autobots don't remember a time before you had space-flight capabilities, do you?"

"Well, Kup might," Rodimus chuckled to himself, "but otherwise, yeah, we've always had the technology. I gather there was a point when living on Cybertron's moons was like living in the suburbs of your cities, and we had regular trade with other planets - like what we're trying to rebuild now. Obviously, you humans got interstellar flight designs from us."

"Obviously," the human answered dryly. "But Rodimus, my point is that the first spaceship from Earth to our Moon only happened fifteen years before the Mt. St. Hillary eruption. We've had centuries to dream about going to the stars, and most of us remember a time when it just wasn't possible. So yes, EDC cadets have grander ambitions, to see other stars and worlds, but they - we - don't take the ability of spaceflight for granted. At least not yet. We've dreamed about it for too long."

"So all the focus on spaceflight is due to a terminal case of 'the grass is greener'"? The Prime teased. "Really, I've seen quite a few of those other worlds, and you humans have a very nice little planet right here. No need to go looking for other ones."

Marissa gave him a dark look.

"Hey, just kidding! I never thought about it that way before," Rodimus replied. "I mean, Spike and Daniel never talk like that."

"The Witwicky's," Captain Fairbourne said with careful diction, "have been on so many adventures with you Autobots that they could start surfing alternate dimensions and be unimpressed."

Rodimus laughed, then looked to the side as a human in formal attire approached in a hoverchair.

"Good evening, Professor Chase," he greeted.

"Oh, just call me Chip." The bearded man grinned up at the Prime from his chair, his glasses having long since been made unnecessary by surgery. "Enjoying the evening, Rodimus Prime?"

"It's been... relaxing, and she - " Rodimus pointed a finger at Marissa " - has been seeing that I behave myself, so, yes."

"Rodimus!" Marissa glared at him at the inference that she was his babysitter.

"See?" The Prime nodded sagely, much to Chip's obvious amusement.

"I'm glad you came," Chip turned his hoverchair in the direction they had been wandering, and the trio started walking again. "It means a lot to all the cadets, both the ones graduating and the ones still in training."

"Well, considering that some of them might watch an Autobot's back one day, it's only prudent," Rodimus answered with a quiet smile that belied the cynical words.

"Captain Fairbourne!" a voice called from the group of Personages just ahead.

"Dad!" she called back, and grinning, she saluted the Superintendent, Dashiel Fairbourne.

"I've had enough of that for one day," the elder Fairbourne complained, and coming forward, drew his daughter into a brief hug. "Good to see you, Marissa. And you," the white-haired man continued, turning his intelligent gaze to the Autobot, "How are you today, Rodimus?"

"Keeping out of trouble, Dashiel," the Prime answered easily, dropping to one knee to offer a 'handshake', a gesture that some humans appreciated, including this one. He'd come to know Marissa's father fairly well over the last couple of years from correspondence of EDC business and mutual attendance at formal functions. And from Marissa's constant stories of his years in active duty, of course.

"I'd like you to meet some of our top graduates," the Superintendent invited after the 'handshake' and after he'd given and received a greeting from Professor Chase, and thus the 'informalities' began in earnest. Fortunately, Rodimus had the knack of differentiating human faces and was able to catch all the names. Some of the graduates he had met before while they were on detail at Autobot City or on other posts.

After another couple hours of mingling, Rodimus finally excused himself, and as he had brought her here, he offered Marissa a ride home. She accepted, and soon enough they had left the party behind them, which had been rapidly growing louder.

"I'm surprised you didn't want to stay for the rest of it," Rodimus commented as he smoothly took another curve.

"Hm?" The human had relaxed back into the comfortable seat and closed her eyes. "Ah. I must finally be getting old or something. Sleep sounds better than dancing until dawn."

"I'm going to tell Jazz you said that," Rodimus threatened, amused. "He'll never let you hear the end of it."

"You wouldn't," Marissa countered. "You like me too much."

"Hey, I gotta give someone a hard time."

"So I'm the lucky recipient?"

"For today, anyway."

Marissa chuckled softly. "For every day you see me, seems more like."

"Eh, you don't complain about it too much, at least. You should hear Magnus when he gets on a roll."

"I have," she answered, and they both broke down into snickers. The last time Magnus had gone 'on a roll' had involved a card game, a shipment of dirt for Cybertron, and half of said shipment mysteriously appearing - out of its crates - in the City Commander's personal quarters.

"Ah," the woman finally got control of herself. "Well, you lost the hand. You had no choice but to honor the stakes."

"Exactly my way of thinking. Although I still wish you had lost. I keep trying to visualize Dashiel's face after walking into his office and finding his desk painted pink."

"We'll just have to play again sometime, then," the human laughed.

"That we will. And it's a threat, not a promise."

"Uh huh."

"Really."

"No kidding."

"Exactly." He slowed as he reached the captain's residence, then smoothly came to a stop and opened his door for her.

"Good night, Rodimus." She got out and rested a hand briefly on his hood.

"Dream of stars, Marissa," he answered, and watched his friend walk to her door before making his own way home.

"My Planet's Child" copyright Echo's Children. Lyrics and tune available at their website, eschoschildren dot org.
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