I want to thank those people that left reviews on my first chapter. I appreciate knowing that people are enjoying my little tales. This is a fanfiction. I make no profit from it.
A Prime Opportunity, Chapter 2
Prime's helm swiveled around. There had been no reports of any incoming newcomers since the arrival of the Ark. Anticipating the Human bureaucracy's reaction to having a ship that size entering their atmosphere, He had instructed Prowl to tuck it into temporary orbit behind the moon. The Ark had attained substantial damage in its long journey from Cybertron. Once planet bound it would not move again. This was one of the reasons he and Ratchet were investigating Mars. Still, there was a slight chance an individual responding to his call had crashed here instead of on Earth.
"That is unexpected. Is it Cybertronian?"
Ratchet made a couple of adjustments to his scanner, then shook his helm.
"I can't tell. It is not very strong, and it is getting weaker as we speak."
Optimus nodded and recalibrated his optics, trying to see through the dust hazed atmosphere. It did no good. The medic, who was obviously doing the same thing, rumbled a low growl.
"Primus be damned dust! We are going to have to go and look. I would hate to lose one of ours just because we could not spare the time."
"Agreed." Optimus gave himself a shake, armor lifting with an odd shiver as he dislodged as much of the settling dust as possible. He was communicating with headquarters by the time he had completely shifted to his alt form.
"Prowl, Ratchet has picked up a weak energy signature. We are altering our route to investigate."
His Second in Command's response was almost immediate.
"Is it one of ours?"
The Hummer shifted, rocking impatiently on his wheels. The CMO's base coding was pushing him to be on the move, but he took the time to answer.
"That is slagging irrelevant Prowl… what ever it is, it's dying and needs our help!"
Both mech's revved their engines to clear the dust out of idling systems but waited, knowing their Tactician was going through all the relevant data he had available. Finally, he gave them the all clear.
"Acknowledged Ratchet... The chance of it being an errant Decipticon is low at only eleven point three three nine percent… but it is ORION leading the mission after all…. Please proceed with caution."
The semi's indignant sputter was drowned at by his friend's snickering as both shifted into gear to roll out.
Ratchet was in the lead and still snickering when they hit the first soft spot. The medic was very old and was as war worn as any front-line soldier. His time wrestling with death in the trenches had left him with little capacity for laughter. Still, it was not often that Prowl brought his very dry sense of humor out into the light. EVERYONE, except Optimus, knew that having the big mech on a mission pretty much guaranteed it to go sideways, no matter how innocuous the task. Their SiC could probably recite the percentages right down to the last memorized decimal point!
The Hummer's frame shuddered as his tires lost traction, spun, sank, then ploughed on through the soft sand as his four-wheel drive engaged. He tilted a mirror back, focusing on his friend just as the big semi's front end dropped, spinning wheels slinging sand everywhere as his massive frame buried itself in the soft spot, all the way up to his axles. Ratchet stopped and waited as Optimus transformed back to his root mode and pulled himself out of the hole. The old mech winced as he watched the sand pour off the other mech's armor as he shook himself and transformed back to vehicle mode. The third time this happened, Optimus buried himself so deep, Ratchet had to shift back to root mode and use his considerable strength to help pull the bigger mech to safety. The harsh, grating feel of the abrasive dust in his transformation seams and joints had the CMO swearing. He could not imagine how miserable his friend was feeling. Judging by the grinding sounds when he transformed, the Prime had to have the damned stuff all through him. Getting it cleaned out was going to be a bitch of a job. Checking his scanner, Ratchet put a servo on the other's dusty arm.
"Don't you transform again, you fragger… I don't want to even THINK about all the Primus forsaken places you've forced that slag in to. It's not that much farther. We can walk."
Optimus pinned him with a dirty look, opened all his intakes and vented out…hard. Both mech's were instantly ingulfed in a cloud of dust. Ratchet just tutted at him as he turned away… following the scanner's signal towards a steep incline that led down into a long low valley.
"eh…eh…eh…don't give me that look. It's not like you are the only mech who has a date with a Roomba when we get back! I am getting to old for this slag…should have made you bring Prowl instead of me."
"Probably…"
Ratchet's helm whipped around, both optics narrowed in outrage. Sure, it was no secret he was old, but the fragger did not have to AGREE with him…out loud! And that slagging battle mask did NOTHING to hide the fact that the Prime was smiling behind it. The big mech lifted both servos in surrender.
"I mean…. yes, I probably should have brought Prowl…his Praxian sensors are even more sensitive than your hand-held scanner." The mask slid back as the Prime's face became solemn. "But, can you imagine what this sand would do to his wings?"
Ratchet winced…as a matter of fact, he COULD imagine that. Those door wings were filled with delicate, very sensitive sensors and circuitry. Just the wind blowing the abrasive sand across them would be painful…not to mention cleaning it all out afterward would be a nightmare…for both of them. With a sigh the medic looked up. He hated to disappoint his friend.
"You know, this sand might become problematic to establishing a colony here."
Optimus nodded.
"Possibly…it may make things difficult, but it is not, as the human's say, a deal breaker. Have you noticed that since we entered this Valley the wind has died off? "
Ratchet stopped and looked around. Not only had the wind slowed substantially, but it carried a lot less of the biting sand.
"Heh…. you're right." He pointed a long digit towards a rocky outcrop. "That is probably why our friend over there, ended up in it."
"Friend? Is it one of ours after all?"
FRAG…it was not often that the medic was sorry for something that slipped past his lip plates. But the hope that filled his friend's blue optics made him want to eat his Pede. He put a servo out to slow his Prime's approach to a possible unknown.
"No…Primus no…sorry Optimus, I should have stated that better. It's not Cybertronian at all. I think it is one of the human's machines."
For cautions sake…after all this WAS Optimus…they split up and came around the outcrop from two sides. Both breathed a silent vent of relief when nothing jumped out or shot at them. Of course, even if it had jumped out…there was not much that the tiny machine they found could have done. Exchanging slightly sheepish glances…they both knelt in the sand to take a closer look at the primitive boxy little thing. Ratchet ran a low-level scan. He had found through unfortunate trial and error that most human tech fritzed out if he used his higher resolution ones. He clicked softly in disapproval at what he found.
"This things batteries are shot. It doesn't even have enough juice to boot up its processor so I can connect and run a diagnostic. Hmmm…. Maybe I can give it a little jump?"
Optimus watched as the medic muttered to himself, quick servos fixing a wire here and adjusting cables there. The Prime knew this was not a sentient construct but still he reached out and gently slipped a digit under one solar panel wing. He lifted and shifted, ignoring his friends hissed curse, so that it was sitting more level. It was quite evident that the tires on one side had bogged down in softer sand. The little thing had been stuck here for some time. Using one of his wrist intakes, the mech vented a stream of air to blow the remaining sand off the fragile solar panels. This revealed that the smooth, glassy surface needed to collect solar energy had become dulled and pitted. Even if its batteries had enough power to get it out into the dim sunlight, this one was doomed to starve. His CMO interrupted his train of thought.
"Optimus, you probably don't want to be touching that when I give it some spark…it might sting a bit."
The big mech hastily removed his digits from where they had been gently stroking. He had been on the receiving end of Ratchet's jumps more than once. For an old mech, he packed one pit of a punch…sting was an understatement. Once he had moved…the other mech shifted a couple of digits into prongs. A deep whine reverberated in the thin atmosphere as the medic cycled his spark up. He then slipped both prongs into the compartment that he had opened and released the charge. Sparks crackled and flew…and the little machine jerked, then screamed. Ratchet immediately cut the current, withdrawing and retracting his prongs. His servos hovered over his patient as Its frame trembled and the shutters protecting its camera lenses lifted, the whole assembly turning as if it was looking at them. Even as they watched though, the light faded from its optics and with a couple of soft chirps and click the shutters closed as it shut back down.
Optimus did not say a word as his friend pull his servos back, digits tightly fisted as he stood and turned away, armor plates pulled in so tight it looked painful. Those talented servos were shaking. Worse, there was no outraged swearing, just silence. It had been a very long time since the destruction of the nurseries on Cybertron. Both had been there for the aftermath of that heinous attack. They had no choice but to leave most of those small forms buried in the ash and rubble of that devastated place. Ratchet had worked frantically with the few found still clinging to life…but sparklings were notoriously fragile and only one youngling had survived. The old medic's spark had borne the brunt of the small lives he could not save. Even though they knew this was not a sparked being, the sounds this little one made were close enough to a sparkling in pain it had activated memory files best left long buried.
After a moment…the fisted servos relaxed. The medic turned.
"Its as I thought. Its batteries won't hold a charge. There is nothing I can do here."
It broke the Prime's spark to see his friend take all that pain and just push it down.
"Ratchet…?"
Fire flashed in those haunted optics as they narrowed in sudden anger.
"Don't Optimus…just… don't…."
Before he could answer, the big mech was interrupted by an incoming transmission.
"Optimus… telemetry shows that you have not moved in some time and that Ratchet's resuscitation protocols were activated. Do you need assistance?"
"We are fine, Prowl. We tracked down that energy signature. It came from a malfunctioning human construct. Ratchet tried to bring it back online so we could get some information but was unsuccessful."
"Ah…Understood." If the Praxian felt any disappointment that it had not been a Cybertronian, it could not be heard in his cool and collected words.
Optimus watched as his CMO moved the little machine back against the rocks so that it was better protected from the weather. He pretended not to notice when the mech finished blowing all the sand off it. There was a commotion in the background at headquarters and he could hear Prowl's long-suffering sigh before the SiC continued.
"I apologize… but the boy overheard us and wants to know if you can send a picture file of what you found. He may have some idea of what it is."
The Prime sent a still of how their find had looked in the brief moment it had been awake. He was more than a little surprised when it was Sam who crowed over the link,
"Holy CRAP Optimus…you found her! That's Oppy, the little Rover that could!"
At the confused silence… Sam continued.
"Listen. Opportunity was built to explore and take samples on Mars. She was looking for evidence of water or better yet…life. Her mission was supposed to only last for ninety days. She wasn't built for the long term."
Ratchet snorted… the contempt he had for most human tech quite evident in his voice.
"You can say that again Sam. This thing is beat to the pit. I am surprised it lasted ten days… let alone ninety."
There was something sad in the boy's voice when he softly answered.
"That's just it Ratchet. She taught us so much in the time she was there. Opportunity touched down on Mars over FOURTEEN years ago. They only lost contact with her when this last storm hit. She has been doing her job almost my entire life. She is a hero to a lot of people."
Optimus was again struck by humanities capacity to care when the boy whispered.
"Do me a favor Optimus… make sure she has a marker or something. Its bad enough she had to die up there in the dark and all alone. There needs to be something for her to be remembered by if we ever make it up to Mars."
A quick glance proved that Ratchet had heard the boy… the medic had turned away, back plates locked tight, servos fisted at his sides.
"I give my word that she will not be forgotten, Samuel. Please inform Prowl that we need a bridge."
Green energy started to spin as the Prime returned to kneel beside the little Rover. Ratchet turned and one of his brow ridges lifted as he watched his friend stroke a careful digit over the rover's solar panels.
"It isn't sparked Optimus…slag, by our standards it does not even classify as a drone."
That noble head tilted as the other flashed him a knowing look, blue eyes lingering on the servos still fisted at the medic's sides.
"I know old friend. That does not mean that she does not deserve better than to die alone, abandoned on a world not her own."
Ratchet's lip plates tightened as he realized what his friend was going to do. Then he gave himself a little shake, resettling his armor and nodded. A careful hand slid under Opportunity and lifted it to be gently cradled against the warm chest plates covering the Prime's spark as the big mech rose.
"Come little one. Your job is finished here, and you have done it well. I believe it is time for you to go home."
I had originally intended to end this here. BUT I do have some ideas that could extend this little tale as part of another larger one I am planning on writing. Let me Know if you feel this is a good place to end this…or if you would like to see Opportunity get a real chance at life!