Maelstrom 6
Contact: Part 1
Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original Maelstrom Comics and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.
Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored!
It was pure coincidence that Jazz happened to be in the communications center when the odd transmission came through. Chromia was on duty monitoring the airwaves (something she had plenty of experience with from her time in the underground with Elita) and noticed an odd, coded message she didn't recognize. Unsure of what she had found, she asked Jazz if he recognized it.
Jazz was busy as always. He had only stopped in to transmit some of his routine work quickly so he could get on with his more covert duties, and he didn't really have time to check out random transmissions. It was more likely than not to be nothing - even Earth kids playing spy games, or something equally trivial.
He couldn't ignore a pretty lady though, and he paused to check it out with good grace. He nearly told her to ignore it when something made him pause and think. The repeating series of numbers seemed sort of familiar.....No! It couldn't be!
Months of working with Rodimus, the most annoying Prime in history, were all that let him keep up the appearance of cool. He said something dismissive about the codes to Chromia and WALKED out of the room. As soon as the door shut behind him he transformed and tore off full tilt for Optimus' quarters.
Optimus heard the excited knock on his door with resigned irritation. There was no rest for the weary around here, that was for sure.
The knock repeated and Elita grinned at her mate, "You'd better let him in. It's got to be important to have gotten HIS energon is such a boil." They could both see Jazz fairly climbing the walls of the hallway through the monitors.
Prime opened the door, and they both went through the ritual conversion check. The instant Jazz was done he blurted his news before Optimus could even drag him inside the soundproof doors.
"Op! Chromia just intercepted a coded transmission! It's in one of our old algorithms!"
"It's probably just an old echo Jazz. I don't see why you had to bother me with this anyway. Rodimus is on duty tonight! I'M trying to get the rest everyone keeps saying I need!"
"But Optimus! It's GOLDBUG'S code!" Jazz cried.
It wasn't often that Optimus changed his mind about anything so quickly.
They found an excuse to get Chromia out of the room and holed up in the communications center nervously. They were afraid this was a trick of some kind - maybe the Decepticons, maybe the Jabez. They were also afraid Rodimus might stumble upon them. If this wasn't a hoax, or even if it was, they had no idea how he would react to the news Goldbug might live. And if Goldbug DID live, who was he with?
Optimus keyed in his old response codes and waited, finding hope a painful burden. They waited.
Finally a response came through the audio channels. No visuals were transmitted. A male human voice came through to them quietly, as if even with the transmission scrambled he somehow feared to speak too loud.
"Cybertron, this is the Maelstrom. To whom am I speaking?"
"Maelstrom, this is Autobot Commander, Optimus Prime," Optimus said - his voice reflecting both his hope and his skepticism. They had already tried to trace the transmission, but it had been bounced back and forth between so many objects and transmitters that was impossible.
There was a brief pause at the other end. Then, "I have a message for you. One of your people is with us. He doesn't want to speak to you in person, so I really don't know why he wants to send you a message at all, but he wants you to know he's alive. He went by the name of Goldbug when he was with you."
"Went? Who is this? How do I know you're telling me the truth?" Optimus said, nerves making him defensive.
"You don't know I'm telling you the truth. You don't get to learn who I am. I've given the message. That is all. Maelstrom out."
"WAIT! Is Lancer with you?" Optimus cried desperately.
The pause on the other end was so long those listening thought the transmission was over with. Then a new voice with a decided hiss in it confronted them.
"Lancer? What know you of Lancer? Speak Robot! Why do you invoke the names of our dead?!"
"She isn't dead! Or at least, she wasn't a year ago! She brought another of our lost people home to us and left!" Optimus said.
"Man what are you doin'?" Jazz hissed. "That could be the Jabez you're talkin to!"
"It isn't," Optimus stated.
"How do you know?!" Jazz accused. He was fearful Optimus had just destroyed them all in a moment of reckless desperation.
"The Matrix! Now be quiet!" Optimus snapped. It was true. Or at least he hoped it was true. The Matrix had a way of guiding him even now that it was mostly empty. Maybe it was even the bits of Rodimus that knew these people from Lancer's memories, but the mysterious crystal encouraged him to trust. It was a horrifying risk, but one Optimus felt he had to take. Rodimus was dying, and try as he might to make his Autobots independent of him, the young Prime was currently indispensable to his people's survival.
"You lie!" the voice hissed.
"I'm not lying! Please! We have to find her!" Optimus said, letting his desperation fully show in his voice.
There was another long pause.
"Even if th' girl was alive," yet another human voice said, "What in th' hell would you want with her?"
"She is alive!" Optimus averred. "She said there was a teleport accident. She rescued my partner from a Jabez torture chamber, but they didn't make it back to your ship. They were marooned for months instead, but she brought him home! He's alive because of her, and we've been fighting to stop the slave trade ever since!"
"Hush fool! TK!" the hissing voice snapped again with an odd clack at the end. "If that is so, you risk your world by speaking of it!"
"And it still don't tell us what 'e wants with the girl, assuming this ain't some fairy story!"
"I need to find her," Optimus said sadly. "My partner needs her."
"Explain yourself Robot!"
"I...I'm not sure I can," Optimus said. "Do you believe in telepathic links?"
"My sibling is a telepath Robot. Lancer is...was.. not. You try our patience with these lies."
"I can't explain it!" Optimus cried. "Rodimus isn't a telepath either! But they linked somehow, and she's trying to break it. It's killing him, but she believes she might corrupt him with her demon! They've been holding a shield between them for almost a year now, and he's dying because of it!"
"Man, you've really done it now!" Jazz said in amazement.
"What choice do I have?" Optimus snapped, not even bothering to hide this argument from the listening strangers. "Should I just let Rodimus die by inches then? Chances are their friend is dying too! We're running out of time!"
"It certainly sounds like the girl," one of the human males mused.
"TK! We shall see! We will look into your story Robot! If it is true, we will contact you. If it isn't, you will pay for profaning the name of our friend!"
"Whatever you do please hurry!" Optimus said, but the transmission had been cut off. He flopped forward on the console. Elita patted his back reassuringly, making Jazz decidedly jealous. After all, HE was the one who was really panicking!
"And here I was thinking RODIMUS Prime was the crazy one!" Jazz grossed. "The cat's really out of the bag now! What if the Jabez intercepted that? What if anyone intercepted that? That wasn't on the new transmitters! Even the blasted 'Cons used to crack those old codes sometimes Optimus, and you just told anyone who was listening that Rodimus is dyin'!"
"Well then you'd better hope that Rodimus is right about no one caring about anything we do Jazz! I had to make a choice and I made it! They are our only link to Lancer! What would you have had me do? If Rodi dies....." Optimus' voice trailed off. Even if the Maelstrom crew came to trust them, even if they agreed to look for Lancer, even if they found Lancer in time, it was no guarantee Rodimus would live.
"It will be fine, Orion," Elita said. "You did the right thing."
"Yeah, Man," Jazz said apologetically. "I've just been hanging with Rodi and the Major General too much. Paranoia is contagious ya know."
"I know," Optimus said, trying to take comfort from their words. It wasn't easy. Rodimus grew worse by the day.
They had stopped hounding the young Prime about his mate scant weeks ago. It had taken several seizures immediately after Elita had mentioned Lancer by name to make it clear the name and the seizures went hand in hand. Optimus' more oblique style of questioning had caused seizures too, but usually with a delayed response, obscuring the connection. Unfortunately, giving Rodimus the reprieve he so craved only slowed things down.
Optimus felt that his young partner had reached a point of no return some time ago - maybe on the day he had suffered through such pain coming from Lancer's side - maybe even earlier than that. Perhaps Rodimus would have gotten ill even if he'd never been questioned about Lancer, but Optimus now saw that his own choice to confront Rodimus about his mate had hurried Rodi's illness along.
Now they could track the dwindling of their friend's strength day by day. The seizures happened more and more frequently even without the mention of Lancer's name, and even when he was functioning Rodimus seemed listless. Several of the Autobots who knew nothing of the Jabez, Lancer, or the link had asked if Rodimus had a paint job. They were noticing his color was faded even when he was awake. The mask of cheerful energy was decidedly faded too and people were talking, wondering why he was "depressed." It was perhaps the fact that Rodimus seemed unable to to summon the energy to appear fine that had the command staff most distraught. Rodimus held up his masks so religiously they knew nothing short of a mortal illness could cause him to let them falter.
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On the Maelstrom, Talon slammed both fists on a consol, causing Robert to glare at him reproachfully. Robert didn't get uptight about much but you didn't want to put a scratch on the ship in his presence.
"I don't believe this shit!" Talon roared. "And ta think, I was trai...taught to trust Autobots!"
"Robert," Pagan said, "are you certain there is no Conversion involved."
"No. Not really," Robert replied. "I scanned them and the readings are negative, but these are robots we are dealing with, not humans. I have no idea what the Jabez would do to Convert a Transformer. It might not be something our scanners would recognize. The big one that was talking to us is carrying a memory crystal but the readings on it are funny. It's not like configured like the ones on board at all - which may or may not mean he's been Converted. None of the others have one. Heck, for all I know, the Jabez don't need special Conversion chips...they might just have to reprogram them."
"The one you spoke to has not been Converted," Claudia said. "I could sense him from even here. He is genuinely fearful."
"That's Optimus Prime, Claudia," Talon said. "And if folk lore holds, he's to be trusted." The big man ended with a skeptical snort that informed them of his trust of folk lore.
"Do you think its possible Lancer might be alive?" Robert asked, just as Malice entered the room.
"WHAT?!" she cried.
"We gave the Autobots Shellshock's message Malice," Robert said. "They claim Lancer brought the other one back to them."
"Yeah, but they also claimed she has some kinda telepathic link with th' sucker," Talon said, "An we all know how the girl feels about mental contact of ANY stripe!"
"Such bonds are very rare, even among the Drazi. The youngling did have open channels though," Pagan mused, as if to herself, "And the paranoia the robot hinted at about the demon is quite in character with her wounds."
"PAGAN!" Talon cried, "You ain't startin' to buy this shit are you? This's prob'ly a trap an' they're using Lancer as bait!"
"The fear I sensed was genuine," Claudia toned musically.
"So?" Talon said. "Maybe Optimus hasn't been Converted but they've got something over 'is head that's making 'im sell us out! We've faced that before too!"
"We will know when we investigate," Pagan said grimly.
"We're going?!" Talon cried, "Even though we know it's likely to be a set up?"
"Can you turn your back on this place without knowing Talon?" Pagan asked.
Talon was silent.
"They will not know us. They can not trace the ship. I will teleport Kain and Claudia to the surface and they will test these claims of a link. Claudia...are you up to such a venture?"
"I will have to be, I want to know. Just be ready to teleport me quickly please," Claudia said softly, her voice betraying no reluctance even though they all knew in advance the journey would hurt her. Large numbers of people always overwhelmed her fragile shields which was why Claudia almost never stepped off the Maelstrom. Her condition made her an exile from her own world which she loved, and where she was loved and missed. An empath that couldn't shield herself was in constant danger of being overwhelmed, hurt, and even manipulated.
Claudia lived in near total isolation. It was a lonely and painful solution for a very social being. Amongst Claudia's people, weakened shields was considered worse trauma than losing a limb. The fact her wings had been torn off caused looks of sorrow and pity among her family, but her irreparable shields had induced hours of keening whistles- the sound of profound grief. The only condition considered more severe was the total loss of empathy. That fate had befallen Jordan instead.
"You think Kain will go?" Robert quiered incredulously.
"He will go," Pagan said with a toothy smile. "I will see to it."
"Must be nice havin' a personal slave," Talon said with an evil grin.
Pagan looked offended. "He is not my slave. I do for myself whenever possible, but he owes me a life-debt and so there are times I may make demands of him when there is something he can achieve that I can not. That is not slavery. That is reciprocation."
"OK OK! Sorry I said anythin', Scales!"
"You do not improve your standing with that... that nick-name Talon," Pagan said haughtily, but she smiled.
Getting down to the surface took less time than Optimus' wildest hopes could have imagined. Of course he didn't realize that the Maelstrom was in synchronous orbit right over Central. He also didn't know that while Rodimus had disruptor fields for mechanical teleporters being installed all over the place in the shape of everything from colorful lighting fixtures to electronic sculptures, there were no such defenses against organic teleportation.
One quick teleport from Pagan with a portable hologram field to disguise their appearance, and Kain, Claudia, Talon, and Pagan were in Central without going through the doors. They knew from Talon the appearance of the individual they were looking for, although no one questioned how the explosives expert knew in such detail.
It hardly mattered though. Claudia could have found Rodimus even if every Transformer had been identical.
The multitude of minds on Cybertron would have been harsh on her mental "ears" under the best of circumstances, but Rodi's emotional "voice" let out the continuous scream of anguish he could never express with his real voice. Less than two minutes on Cybertron's surface and Claudia was whimpering. They weren't even within eyesight of the gaudy robot yet and she had her shields up as strongly as she could, but she led the others straight for him through Central's confusing halls. Pagan and Talon exchanged glances. Claudia's nameless people didn't change facial expressions much - relying on empathy to communicate feeling made such things trivial and superfluous, but they could see her increasing pain and reluctance in her tense walk.
Still, bravely, she led them on.
When Rodimus unexpectedly came out of a room with another robot, Claudia flattened herself against the wall and shuddered convulsively. She made the low, moaning keen which was the start her brand of scream. Seeing she was about to call attention to them Talon helpfully clapped a hand over her mouth, taking care not to hurt her fragile frame.
"That's him," he told Kain.
Kain didn't stoop to responding to such an insultingly obvious statement. Instead, he preformed the distasteful duty of touching the robot's mind. Claudia shuddered again in Talon's grasp and then he felt her force herself to relax. She tapped his arm and nodded so he let her go. Kain and Claudia reached out for Rodimus in the same instant - each using their separate abilities to verify what Optimus had so outrageously claimed.
Touching Rodi's mind unshielded was like touching a live power cable for Claudia. Even though Talon was alert for another scream he was taken by surprise when she doubled over in anguish and let out an ear piercing whistle that echoed down the halls of central at frequencies nearly beyond the human range of hearing. The Autobots heard it though and looked around in confusion. Talon was glad they had opted for a full cloak that rendered them invisible instead of simply disguising them. Claudia passed out cold almost instantly, and Pagan gathered her up for immediate teleportation if the Autobots got too close.
Rodimus was the last to shrug it off. The others looked about for a few minutes but gave up quickly. The pink feminine looking robot with Rodimus (who Talon didn't recognize) seemed more concerned about Rodi's concern than the actual noise.
"What is it?" she whispered to him. Only the fact that the Maelstrom crew was standing, cloaked, almost at their feet let them hear her.
"I..I don't know Elita. I obviously don't like unexplained events around here, but it's more than that. That noise...sounded...familiar somehow. As if I'd heard it before," Rodimus said. Then he shook his head and stiffened, looking around in suspicious fear.
Kain looked at his sibling, and indicated a swift retreat. Rodimus had been on the verge of sensing the telepath's scan. Talon and Kain each took one of Pagan's arms and they teleported back to the bridge of the ship.
"Well?" Robert said.
"The link is confirmed," Kain said with obvious distaste. "There is an open channel to another mind in that robot. It had Lancer's feel to it, but I could not do a full scan. The robot is surprisingly sensitive, and he nearly detected me. There is a very poorly constructed shield damming the channel, but it is eroding the robot's life force rather than truly blocking anything. If it is not removed, the robot will die."
Having made this analysis, Kain left the bridge to perform cleansing rituals. He was not concerned with the robot's pain at all. Rather, he felt unclean for having touched the mind of another species - something he would have never done without the life-debt he owed Pagan. The fact that the robot's mind was in such poor health didn't help matters any.
To Kain's mental "eyes" Rodimus' mind was like a pestilence ridden, gangrenous body - soon to die of self-inflicted, infected wounds, and serving to solidify Kain's view that most other species were not only crazy, they were stupid. Only a complete fool would try to sever such a link, especially through such clumsy means. It was as though Rodimus and Lancer had tried to perform an amputation of their minds, and, having failed to make a clean cut, had left the remains attached and rotting.
Kain felt no sympathy for them. He was merely disgusted.
Predictably, Claudia sympathized only too much when the others finally got her to come around. They had taken her to her own ultra-shielded quarters to awaken.
She awoke with a scream that made all the others but Jordan flinch in pain. He merely flinched in sympathy.
"Oo! He is dying!" Claudia said, when they finally got something coherant out of her.
"Kain said as much," Pagan said. "I'm sorry we brought you. Kain could have done it on his own."
Claudia shook her head. "He could not tell you the robot loves Lancer though. I do not know why he would try to sever the link, but it is not to hurt Lancer. He is taking as much of the pain as he can into himself. There is such sadness in him! It overrides even the pain he feels from what the Jabez did to him and I have no doubts that he is the one Shellshock speaks of. We MUST help him!"
The others smiled. Claudia didn't need much more than the knowledge someone was hurting to want to help them. Once she felt someone's pain, she couldn't forget it until it was eased. The fact that she didn't know Rodimus didn't make a hair of difference.
"But what should we do?" Malice asked, having no experience at all with such things. She was thinking mostly of Lancer. The idea that her friend might be alive was only just starting to sink in.
"We must find Lancer of course," Pagan said. "Both Kain and Claudia confirm the bond. Such bonds are not meant to be broken, but it may be that this robot and Lancer do not know it. If the Optimus robot is correct, then it is Lancer's old fear which separates them. Claudia confirms the robot does not want it severed. Therefore, we seek the problem. Our Lancer. We should do that anyway. She is without the ship's protection in a universe of hunters and she is likely to be weakened and suffering just as the robot suffers."
"The girl can't really die of this, can she?" Talon asked.
"We will not let it happen, Talon," Pagan said.