Before the war, there was a cruise ship liner called the Divine Light. It was all white, all pretty and meant for the richest bots on Cybertron to go on and relax with their families. During the war, it refused to shut down, even when its sister ship, Novabreak, landed permanently on Cybertron's plates. On the Divine Light ship, there was first and second class levels.

First class was at the top, had a large pool to swim in, over three hundred rooms (in each room, there was a projector for movies and news, two large, plush berths, and a personal wash racks with a tub and a sink). First class was closer to the dining area, closer to the public wash racks that had showers, and they had their own spa room where there were oil baths, femmes and mechs waiting patiently with oil, polish, lubricants for creaky joints, and buffers. First class had unlimited access to High Grade, unlimited times they could summon a mech or femme to fetch anything. They also had the ability to comm for bought pleasures, femmes that would be booked for max three hours for the buyer's pleasure.

Second class was in the belly of the ship. Second class had smaller rooms, a single berth, no personal wash racks, limited access to High Grade, a smaller pool to swim in, less than two hundred rooms (often times families got to buddy up in rooms), and were further from the dining hall. They couldn't comm mechs and femmes to fetch them things, they were only allowed in the spa every other hour, and they could not order bought pleasures. Second class was often forgotten during drills, role call, and emergencies. That was always the case, and it would be the case the day a Seeker armada shot Divine Light out of the sky.

Lief was a sweetspark, even at a thousand years old. She was only ten feet tall, she was thin, but her Seeker wings were large and very beautiful. She stood out in the crowds alright, but she was second class. Her sire, Ionus Prime, did not make enough credits to afford first class, which was fine by Lief. She just wanted to swim and play with others like her. Her carrier, the once-great flier Firebomb, was less impressed by second class, but she made due, making new friends in the spa and spending more and more time with them. Lief was, like all Seekerlings after a certain age, responsible, honest, and trembling with mischief. She had just bid her sire goodbye, and she was running to the changing rooms. She stripped out of her normal armor, clipped specially designed plates over her chest, around her hips, and between her thighs before skipping towards the pool. Everyone knew her there.

Femmes sat along the edge of the pool with one to three sparklings while they wailed and poked at the water with their pedes and digits. Mechs splashed together, flirted with femmes, or held a sparkling in their arms. Lief felt safe with them, and she dove into the water.

Seekers were designed for flight, and while most Seekers don't especially enjoy getting wet, Lief did. She thought flying through space and air was the same as flying through water, and her wings rotated and flapped just the same as in the air, if not a little bit slower.

She swam through mechs' legs, splashed with femmes and mechs her age, and she was rescued more than once when the filter nearly caught her.

"Easy now," a mech purred as he set her on the side of the pool. "Breathe."

She gagged and coughed, letting him thump his servo hard between her wings. She shook him off and cycled a full intake, exhaling softly and smiling at her. "Thank you!"

"Anytime," he purred. "I hope they fix that. A baby is going to be sucked right in," he said, and he slid into the water, offering his servo to help her. "Where's your daddy?"

"My daddy is Ionus Prime, and he's around. Probably in another meeting, even though he doesn't want to be in one."

The mech smiled and opened his mouth to say something. That was when the explosion ripped through the side. The mech abandoned Lief, who was on the side of the pool and safe, in favor of the femmes and mechlings still floundering in the water. It would be his greatest regret, because before he could reach them, their families had already plucked the tiny things out of the water and were herding them out. He followed them, and while he looked behind him, he didn't see Lief.

She had been trampled, the tiny thing that she was. Nobody saw her, and nobody was in their right processor to look down after they stepped on a squirmy thing that felt so much like the body of a baby.

Divine Light was a special cruise ship, sentient. It sensed the danger, and before anyone could be swept away outside and into space, it had magnetised its floors, making it impossible for anyone or anything to fly out save the unfortunate menus and napkins and Energon cubes and water, which could all be replaced.

Ionus Prime looked for his baby, his mate clinging to his side when the ship landed safely on Cybertron. The Elites that were onboard ushered everyone they could find out, safely tucking them with families. There were no casualties...until an Elite found Lief's body.

"Oh...oh, no." The femme lifted the sparkling, searching her body for an identifying mark. She felt the sparkling in her own belly jump, and she touched it. "Easy, now..." She would only be on duty for a few more months before she would be seen as unfit, and she felt ready to purge at the sight of the baby in her arms. She reluctantly carried it out, stroking her dented-in helm, her once-pretty wings...the hardest part was finding a family for her, and when she did, she felt terrible.

Ionus was torn apart. He fell to his knees, clutching his child to his chest and crying into her armor. Firebomb wailed, petting her baby's helm and sobbing for her child's return.

"I'm sorry...I'm so so sorry," the Elite whispered. She bit her lip and looked around for the staff of the ship. She found the captain, but Ionus was already crossing the sea of passengers to get to him.

"Look what you did!" He thrusted his baby at the captain. "You could have prevented this!"

"How?" The captain stared at him, his own optics dim. He had lost his mate the same way, death by trampling. He looked down at the sparkling's body. "I am so...sorry."

The Prime fumed, drew back his servo to slap the captain, but a mech jumped in the way.

"Don't be mad at him! I could have saved her...I was right there, but I left her because I thought she was safe...I am so very sorry..."

Ionus' rage melted away and he staggered back, turning around and walking back to his mate. "I want this ship grounded!" He shouted back at the captain. "I don't want to see it in the air anymore!"

And it wasn't. For years, it was stationed on the Sea of Rust, floating in the murky water. Every so often, Ionus would visit. His mate left him, tried to carry another daughter with another mech, but she found out that Lief was her only chance at being a mother, and she died in her sleep. But Ionus lived long thanks to the Matrix, and he visited the Divine Light every year on the day he lost his only daughter. He mated two other times, but they all ended up leaving him. He spent more and more time on Divine Light, having short conversations with the ship.

"Tell me what Lief did the day she was killed."

"Searching passenger list for Lief. Found: One match. Lief, the daughter of Ionus Prime, was swimming when I was shot down. I did every safety protocol I was programmed to do. I sounded the alarm. I made everything metal stick to the floor. Lief died due to being trampled. Lief died at age thousand and a quarter moments after I sounded the alarm. I am sorry for your loss."

Ionus would then close his optics. "Is she here?"

"Scanning ship. Result: One spark signature. It is only you and I."

"Can you save a message for me?"

"Please save your message after the beep."

Ionus would take a moment to compose himself every single time. "Lief, this is your daddy speaking..." And he would leave a short message. "You give that to her when she says the word, okay?"

"Message saved. Password: Lief."

Fast forward to the present. Ionus died, the Matrix went to Zeta, the Prime title went to Sentinel, and Optimus came to power. He is Prime currently, Bearer of the Matrix. The war is over, and artifacts must be found and restored to preserve the past, in the words of the current Prime. Bots had tried working on it before, wanting to use it as a combat ship, but everyone who worked on it died mysteriously. Divine Light seemed to enjoy being grounded.

And when Divine Light was found again and brought back online, who could resist a little ghost hunt? More than a quarter of the crew and passengers and more than a couple dozen mechs died in it, and Jazz was a firm believer in ghosts due to many, many horror movies he watched with Prowl.

So Optimus, Jazz, Nemesis, Prowl, Arcee, and Bumblebee walked into the Divine Light, expecting nothing and receiving more than what they could possibly imagine.

Lief was dead, yes. As was the crew, the passengers, the workers. And while Divine Light had scanned the ship, it had scanned for spark signatures. Had it scanned, instead, for heat signatures, well...Ionus would have found not only was his daughter beside him, but countless other spirits were staring at him with hollow optics and gaping mouths as they swayed back and forth.

Optimus turned on his flash light, shone it around, then gave a thumbs-up that was returned. Jazz set up audio devices, Prowl put up sensors that picked up any form of energy and heat, and Nemesis had Divine Light talking again.

"So, Divine. What's your story?"

"I was built in the Silver Age. I was finished eons before the war. I was told to continue cruising during the war. Ionus Prime was in command when the first signs of civil war broke out, the first wave quenched and forgotten long before Sentinel Prime's demise. I was shot down. Several of my passengers died. I was told it was not my fault. I did as I was told. It wasn't my fault."

Optimus spoke up. "No one is saying it is your fault, Divine. Tell me. Can you see us?"

"Scanning ship for spark signatures. I have found you. I observe you."

"Keep tabs on us, huh?" Nemesis patted a wall, smiling up at a camera. "I see you watching us."

"Ha-ha," barked electronic laughter. It was genuine for the ship, and Nemesis smiled more. "I observe you observing me."

Jazz peeled a long strip of paint off a railing. "What is this pit here?"

"The pool for second class."

"What's the story about it?"

"Ionus' favorite place to talk to me."

Optimus hopped down into the pool area, splashing lightly into a fresh puddle of water. "Mm. All is well!"

While the others hopped down around him, Divine spoke. "It was drained after I was grounded. All the bodies were recovered, buried, but there is speculation that I have not fully been cleansed of the dead."

"Got some skeletons in the closet, eh?" Jazz walked over to the far corner, the darkest corner. There was a drip of Energon from the edge of the pool trickling down to the bottom. Jazz touched it. It was wet. He shuddered. "Divine?"

"Scanning Energon. Energon belongs to last worker, Bolt. Death: Impact to helm."

"What killed him?" Optimus moved to the Energon as well. It looked fresh.

"Unknown."

Nemesis stiffened. "Dudes, I'm getting scared now. Can we go?"

"Exits are located to the left and to the right. I have activated the lights on the floor to guide you."

"Shut them down, Divine," Optimus ordered. "It will just drain your power. Nothing here can hurt us."

Divine fell silent, and Nemesis whined softly, his whine echoing. He shone his flash light around, as if expecting Bolt to jump down, his helm dented in, his optics hollow black holes, his denta cracked and yellow with age...

"BOO!"

Nemesis screamed and flailed, but it was only Prowl indulging himself. He bore a straight face, though his optics shone with amusement. Nemesis screamed at him. "Don't do that!"

"Guys!" Optimus walked to them, silencing them. "Did you hear that?"

Everyone went silent, and Nemesis shrunk back into his brother when the sound echoed to them.

La, la, la la, laaaaah...

"Divine?" Jazz squeaked. "Did you develope a sense of humor? Divine!?"

"Scanning ship. No spark signature detected. Conclusion: Wind. I will investigate further if I hear it again."

Optimus nodded at the group of mechs, then turned to Arcee, who was kneeling by a puddle of Energon at the edge. "Arcee?"

"Mm?"

"We are going to set up base camp."

"WHAT?!" Nemesis and Jazz shrieked at once.

Optimus soothed them both. "Nothing here can hurt us, and you both said you wanted to get this ship completely checked out. We cannot do so in a single day, and I would rather not shut Divine down. It will take forever to reboot it again, and Primus knows if it will reboot."

Jazz settled down, but Nemesis was still on edge, looking around and whimpering. The group of bots fell asleep to the eerie singing.

La, la, la la, laaaah. La, la la la, la, la, laaaahlaaaaah...

So, I love the stories of hauntings on the Queen Mary, and my favorite is when this guy is walking around with a group of buddies, checking out the ship, and as he's walking by the pool, he feels a little hand grip his and he feels sad. Now, I think he returns and performs an EVP where he gets the recordings of a little girl saying she wanted her mommy and an angry "no" when he offered the little girl to call him her uncle. I think he learns that she drowned in the pool of the ship.

The Queen Mary had a similar fate as Divine, grounded and not used for much of anything, but the Queen Mary (AKA, the Gray Ghost) wasn't shot down. I actually would like to go there myself, but since I have not, and I only have what I know to go on (which is a lot, if you think about it), there's probably going to be mistakes.

I just really love the stories of the Queen Mary's hauntings. Don't you?