Across Bounding Interstellar Waves
...
Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main,
For many a stormy wind shall blow
ere Jack comes home again.
~ Sailing, Sailing by Godfrey Marks
...
1 – The Crystal Fields – 1
It was so dark. He didn't know why, but it was.
Something in the back of his mind told him that it wasn't dark, he just couldn't see anything because they had been into his optics last, but he didn't trust his mind anymore. It was dangerous. Tainted. He could no more trust his mind then he could trust the guards to leave him alone.
His head snapped up at the thought, but of course he didn't see anything. So he stopped and listened for the tell tale signs of his restless, ruthless guards. They couldn't be allowed to catch him again. They would extinguish him permanently this time if they did.
Quiet surrounded him.
He remained frozen, unsure if this was just another trick on their part. They had been silent before. They had tricked him before. And the pain afterwards had been unbearable.
Only he had born it. He had lived with it and now look at him. He had escaped, although he couldn't remember how. He was free.
He was completely lost, but free.
Hesitantly, he took another step, still leery of his guards, but they never appeared. Dimly he heard the soft sound of powdered crystal under his feet. That was important because- because…
His mind failed him again. He shook it to try and clear it of the haze that had settled in after his last appointment with Shockwave – the one where he had taken his sight from him – but no matter what he'd done, he hadn't' been able to shake it off.
He wasn't sure how long he wandered over the shattered crystals. He could not see the place of the sun. His internal chronometer was busted. And he was already so weary that it was impossible to feel any worse.
He didn't know how long he walked, so he didn't know how long it was before he heard the snap.
It was a sharp, distinct sound. One that did not come from him. It came from somewhere else, off to his left. And if it didn't come from him, then the noise must have come from somebody else.
He froze once more amidst the crystals, knowing that at the moment he was standing in the middle of some large rubble by the echoes his footsteps had made moments before.
Once again silence greeted him. He had just about blamed the sound on his faulty processor when he heard another sound, one that was far more chilling.
It was the hum of a miniature ion cannon.
He tried to kick his hazy processor into motion, tried to remember how to think, but he just couldn't do it. All he could remember was that the first things they had taken were his weapons and his armor, leaving great holes in his frame where they had been.
But today must have been a good day because one thought was miraculously followed by another; if he couldn't fight then he needed to hide.
Relying on his auditory systems, he shifted a step to his right, deeper into the shadow of what he thought was a crystal pillar. He froze again when his passage disturbed a smaller set of crystals, sending them falling to the ground with a muffled clatter.
Unsure of what to do, he stood there, praying to whoever would hear him that whoever was out there hadn't heard the crystals fall.
A moment later he heard a voice.
"Did you hear that?"
The voice was hard, but feminine; a femme, he realized. That made him feel better, but he couldn't think of why it should.
A second voice – softer, but still just as firm – answered the first. "Yeah." He found he liked the second voice much more then the first. He thought he might recognize her.
"Circle around," the first femme ordered as the hum of the ion cannon he heard earlier grew louder. "See if you can't find who made it."
The second femme must have nodded, because he heard no verbal answer. However he did hear the distinctive snap-lock as she cocked what he knew to be a semi-automatic shotgun. He thought of moving deeper into cover, but didn't want to take the risk of causing any more noise.
He listened hard, and was rewarded with the subtle footsteps of one of the femmes coming closer to the spot where he had been standing before. She sounded small, but sure of herself.
He suddenly knew that if he was caught, and this femme didn't recognize him like he thought he recognized her, she would blast him first to the head, to throw him off balance, then to the chest, to finish he job.
He didn't know how he knew that, only that he did.
The footsteps came closer. They were almost right next to him now. If she just happened to turn slightly to her left-
He knew he had been found when he heard the femme emit an airless gasp, as if she was just as shocked to see him as he was horrified to hear her.
She didn't speak. She didn't move. She just breathed a prayerful, "Dear Primus…"
He still didn't move.
After a long moment, the femme spoke into her comm. "Hey Chromia, make your way over here. You're going to want to see this."
"What? What is it Arcee?" the lead femme asked anxiously back.
There was a moment of hesitation on Arcee's part before she answered, sounding blown away.
"It's Wheeljack."