"Where there's a curse on the door, there's treasure on the other side."
—Starscream, Cosmic Rust.
First the ghost planet, Rumble thought as he steered the anti-grav transport sled into the Victory's repair bay, and now this.
Even in the short time he'd been below decks, things had gone noticeably downhill. Astrotrain had curled on his side with his good wing tucked beneath him, his face hidden. His other wing, which was pointing toward the ceiling, now sported a large, rusted-out hole, and similar patches now covered most of his frame. His vents were coming in slow, drawn-out gasps, and Rumble didn't need medical training to tell that he was in bad shape.
Scrapper, Mixmaster and Bonecrusher, who'd been the first to work on Astrotrain when he and the small team of Decepticons had returned from their exploratory mission to the deserted Autobot planet, were doing only slightly better. Whatever this plague was, it was spreading fast.
"Hey, Hook!" Rumble shouted. "Got your stuff from the supply bay!"
The Decepticons' Head Engineer and sometime medic glanced up from the readouts he'd been examining. "Park it there," he said, waving to a corner of the room. "I'll get to it in just a..." he paused, optics narrowing behind his visor. "Rumble, that's the wrong stuff. That's estusium. I asked for estisiam."
"Say what?" Rumble frowned at his load. "What's the diff?"
Hook strode over and lifted one of the canisters in a gloved hand. "This one is a silicate-based lubricant for joints and cables. The one I asked for is…" he dropped his voice, darting a glance toward Astrotrain, "a powerful anti-corrosive." He set the cannister back on the pile and reached for a datapad. "I'll write it down for you," he said, entering a series of glyphs. "You really can't miss it, though. The estisiam vacuum tubes are sealed with an orange cap."
"Orange cap, got it." Rumble took the datapad, dropped it on the pile, and steered the sled back toward the doors. They burst open at his approach, and Rumble yelped in surprise as Starscream stormed through.
"Out of my way!" he ordered as he swept past, stomping over to Hook's supply room.
Rumble, sensing that things were about to get interesting, turned the sled and glided after him. He could hear the sound of storage compartments being yanked open inside the supply room, then rummaging sounds punctuated by angry muttering.
"Expert indeed!" he heard Starscream say. "I'll show him who's an expert!"
Starscream burst from the supply room a moment later, his arms now laden with scientific equipment. "Step aside, lackey!" he snapped to Hook, pushing him aside with a jab from one of his wings as he carried his burden to a work bench.
"Pardon me ever so much for asking," Hook said, in a tone that dropped the air temperature by several degrees, "but might you be so good as to explain what exactly you're doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Starscream grabbed a transparent container from the pile of equipment and strode over to Astrotrain. "I'm collecting a sample for analysis."
"You might want to wear gloves for that," Hook advised. "We have yet to determine the cause of the rust, but we have ascertained that it is highly contagious."
"You think I haven't noticed?" Starscream snapped. He seized Astrotrain by his damaged wing. "Now hold still!"
Astrotrain groaned, but made no other protest as Starscream began scraping bits of rusted metal into the container. The fragments made a brittle, pinging sound as they hit the glass, and Rumble flinched, remembering the hologram of the diseased Autobot they'd seen while they were on the ghost planet.
Just like us you soon will rust, he remembered the phantom proclaiming in its eerie, singsong voice. All shall be turned to dust!
It had sounded like a curse to Rumble, and he'd said as much. Astrotrain had agreed, but Megatron had called them superstitious fools, saying that the strange warning was an obvious trick to scare them off. Starscream had sided with Megatron for once, declaring that where there was a curse on the door there had to be treasure on the other side, and... here they all were. Well. Almost all of them.
"Say, where's Megatron?" Rumble asked, glancing around. "Haven't seen him since we landed."
"Hiding," Starscream replied in obvious disgust. "He's cowering in his quarters, hoping that an Autobot will rescue him." Having apparently collected the sample he needed, he snapped the container shut and carried it to one of the consoles in Hook's diagnostic area.
"An Autobot?" Hook said, his tone echoing the surprise Rumble felt.
"Megatron has ordered the Stunticons to go fetch Perceptor," Starscream spat as he activated the console. "He thinks we aren't—" he broke off as the monitor came to life, revealing a greenish-brown mass of… something. Rumble hoped it was just his imagination that it seemed to be moving. "What's this?"
"If you had bothered asking, I would have told you that we have already analyzed a sample of the rust." Hook folded his arms. "Obviously."
Starscream spun toward him, optics narrowing. "And what, pray tell, did your analysis reveal?"
"It appears to be an organism of some kind," Hook replied. "We cannot determine its exact nature, but it's clear that it consumes Cybertronian alloy at a rapid—"
"Cosmic Rust," Starscream interrupted. He turned to stare at the monitor again, and Rumble realized that the stuff was moving. It was throbbing and pulsing, as though it was alive. "It's a rare but deadly metallic plague," Starscream said. "Legend has it that it's wiped out entire robotic species. The only known cure is a derivative of tathionium, an extremely rare element. The chances against our finding any on Earth, or even within this solar system are…"
He trailed off, glancing at one of his hands. Rumble squinted, trying to see what he was looking at, but Starscream quickly tucked the hand out of sight.
"You got it too, don't you?" Rumble asked.
Starscream glanced at him, and Rumble caught the beginnings of what might have been fear behind his glare. Before he could say anything, however, the doors snapped open and Frenzy hobbled in, Ravage limping at his side. Both were covered in rust.
"Not you guys too!" Rumble jumped from his seat on the anti-grav sled and ran toward them, but Hook held out an arm to stop him.
"Wait, Rumble! If you go near them, you'll get infected too!"
Rumble stopped in his tracks, staring at Hook's arm. The green plating was covered with flecks of reddish brown. He took a step back, staring past Hook at his two siblings. "What about Soundwave?" he asked.
"'Wave's got it too," Frenzy confirmed. "He's gonna come in as soon as he's done coordinating the Stunticon mission."
"What about the other Cassettes?" Hook asked.
"Laser, Buzzy and Batty are out on recon," Frenzy replied. "'Wave told 'em to stay out until Perceptor finds a cure."
Starscream, who was now behind Rumble, let out an indignant squawk. "That two-bit microscope couldn't cure a common case of the cyber-sniffles, let alone—" he broke off. "Rumble, did you by any chance dock with Soundwave after we returned to base?"
"Yeah," Rumble said, glancing back. "Had to give my report, didn't I?"
"That explains how Frenzy, Ravage and Soundwave got infected," Starscream said as he took a step closer, his gaze fixed on Rumble. "What it doesn't explain is why you're not."
"I did a complete physical before clearing him for duty," Hook put in, his visored optics narrowing in a puzzled frown. "Apart from one small scratch where a fragment of the asteroid struck him, he appears to be in perfect autonomic condition."
"Does he, now?" Starscream took another step closer. A feverish light had entered his optics, and Rumble, not liking the looks of it, took a step back.
"Well," Rumble said loudly, "guess I better get those canisters back to the supply bay, and trade 'em in for the ones Hook wanted! See you in a—"
Starscream's arm shot out, catching Rumble by the scruff of his neck as he tried to scurry away. "Not so fast," he purred. "I think we may have identified a factor that warrants further investigation."
"Where are we going?" Rumble demanded a moment later, as Starscream dragged him along the corridor.
"To my lab. Where else?"
"Your lab? Let me go, now!" Rumble began to struggle in earnest, but Starscream, who was both bigger and stronger than he was, simply hauled him toward the nearest lift. It popped open at their approach, and the five Stunticons stepped out. Rumble, sensing his opportunity, shouted for help.
"What's going on?" Motormaster demanded.
"He's taking me to his lab! Against my will!" Rumble yelled.
"That's kidnapping!" Breakdown exclaimed. He took a step forward, then paused. "No, I mean mech-napping! I mean—let go of him right now!" He aimed his weapon at Starscream, who raised his own weapon in return. It was then that Rumble saw why he'd been hiding it behind his back. The plating was rusted through with holes, seemingly from the inside.
"I have Cosmic Rust," Starscream announced, "and it's catchy! Who wants some?"
Breakdown's face slackened with horror. "Not me," he said, darting aside as Starscream pushed toward the lift, driving Rumble ahead.
"Or me," Dead End agreed, dodging behind Motormaster's towering bulk.
"C'mon," Wildrider said. "We've got an Autobot scientist to collect."
There was a general murmur of agreement among the Stunticons as they hurried off down the corridor, darting nervous glances back at Starscream and his rusted arm. Starscream smirked, then shoved Rumble into the lift, keeping his rifle trained on him while he worked the controls with his good hand. Rumble's spark lurched as he felt the lift begin to descend toward the bowels of the ship.
"What are you gonna do to me?" he asked. He'd heard things about Starscream's lab, and none were good. Mysterious flashes of light had been seen coming from beneath its doors at odd hours, and there had been reports of strange noises, too. Theories about the lab's contents ranged from super-weapons to reanimated corpses, and everything in between. Rumble had never believed any of those rumors, but then again, he'd never really disbelieved in them, either.
"I'm going to figure out why you seem to be immune to Cosmic Rust."
"Yeah?" Rumble asked. "So what's wrong with figuring it out in the repair bay?"
"With that shoddy equipment?" Starscream snorted. "Hook's workshop might be fine for doing Motormaster's wheel alignments, but it's useless where it comes to real science."
Science, Rumble thought, his spark sinking in despair. "So you're going to do experiments on me."
"How else am I to determine the cause of your immunity?"
The lift stopped. The doors opened, and Starscream shoved him into the corridor directly outside his lab.
"If anything happens to me, you'll have Soundwave to deal with," Rumble said as Starscream steered him toward the heavily reinforced doors. They were held shut with a locking device engraved with a message threatening grievous bodily harm to anyone who dared trespass. Oddly, it reminded Rumble of the inscribed pillar they'd seen on the ghost planet, the one that had contained the holographic warning.
"Ooh, I'm shaking."
"You should be. He could kick your skinny aft into the middle of next orn!"
"I look forward to seeing him try," Starscream said. "Especially since he's apparently pinned his hopes on Megatron's plan of having the Autobot find a cure. By the time that happens, if it happens, I doubt there'll be enough left of him to kick anything other than the bucket!"
"You're one to talk," Rumble snapped. "Your arm looks like Swiss cheese!"
It was true. Starscream's arm was visibly deteriorating, and when he reached to tap the code into the panel that would unlock the doors, the tip of his finger crumbled away. He muttered an oath and twisted around, letting go of Rumble so that he could use his good hand instead—and that was when Rumble bolted for the lift. A blast of energy zipped past his shoulder, and he froze.
"Just in case you thought my rifles weren't working," Starscream said.
Rumble spun back. "If you shoot me, you'll never find your cure!"
Starscream considered this. "Possibly not," he agreed. "But if you don't help me, you'll always have to live with the fact that your creator and siblings died because of you."
"Because of me? How is this my fault? You heard what Hook said! I'm in perfect automatic condition!"
"Autonomic," Starscream corrected. He considered Rumble for a moment longer, then lowered his rifle and turned back toward the lab doors. "It's basic plague theory," he remarked as he entered the door code with his working hand. "Out of every population, there will be a certain percentage who are immune to a given disease. But they can still be carriers."
"Carriers?" Rumble echoed. The doors slid open, and he found himself craning for a glimpse inside, curious in spite of himself. Starscream's wings were blocking the view. "What are you talking about?"
Starscream glanced back. In the dimness of the corridor he was ghost-like, a pale winged shape with burning red optics. He smiled. "You were hit by a piece of the asteroid just like Megatron," he said. "You contracted the disease along with the rest of us."
"You mean I am sick?" Rumble glanced at his own hands, but they still looked normal.
"No. But when you docked into Soundwave, you passed the infection to him, and he, in turn, passed it to Ravage and Frenzy." Starscream held his arm up. A faint glow from within the lab threw the damaged limb into stark relief and Rumble realized, with a twist of horror, that he could actually see Starscream's skeletal structure beneath the plating. "This is what will happen to them, Rumble. You'll watch them crumble away into dust, and live the rest of your life wondering if you could have done something to prevent it." He dropped the arm back to his side. "But of course, the choice is up to you."
With that, Starscream turned and strode into the lab. Rumble glanced back at the lift, which was waiting to take him back to freedom, and sighed. Starscream might be an aft, but Rumble had worked with him long enough to know that he really did know what he was talking about where it came to science. "Wait!" he called, running toward the lab as the doors began to close. "Fine, I'll help if I can."
The doors snapped back open. "Excellent," Starscream said, beaming triumphantly, his dentae a slash of white against his dark features. "Welcome to my laboratory," he said, waving Rumble inside, "and thank you so much for volunteering. It's so rarely that I have a chance to entertain."
