Chapter 2 of 6

One year later to the day

Valentine's Day party preparations were in full swing. Aerial bots were attaching pink ribbons to door frames. Bluestreak and Tracks were putting huge paper hearts on the rec rooms walls. Jazz and Blaster were testing the new music equipment. Jazz had requested some new equipment a while ago and Prowl had finally given them the green light. Jazz and Blaster were aflutter and their enthusiasm had spread. This would be the best party ever, but so was every party if Jazz was to be believed.

"Do you have this band's new album? There were a couple of good songs on it", Blaster asked and watched Jazz expectantly.

"Of course", was the laughing answer, "Just a moment, I'll get it."

Jazz gently tapped the equipment and jumped down from the platform. He waved to Bluestreak who looked in his direction. Jazz walked through the rec room door and smiled happily. He almost skipped when he walked to his quarters while humming loudly. He got a lot of smiles from bots in the corridors. Last year's improvised Valentine's Day party had been a huge success and now they had decided to make it a tradition. Optimus Prime himself said that they should learn more about the human culture and what's a better way than to participate in their holidays. The Ark's human reinforcements were of course invited to the party.

The officer's corridor was silent and empty. He stopped at his door and punched his code. The door opened and Jazz walked inside. He headed straight to his music shelf, which was full of music chips. To everybody else his organization seemed chaotic, but Jazz knew where everything was. Jazz chose the right chip and turned back towards the door. His gaze hit his berth where there was a foreign thing. A datapad. Jazz froze. Someone had been in his quarters without his knowledge - again.

Jazz had a strong sense of déjà vu from last year. He had already forgotten the whole thing. He had never found out who had given him the love poem and he had acknowledged it as a harmless prank. Now however there was a new datapad on his berth. Jazz scanned the datapad out of habit and he diagnosed it as harmless. He onlined it, and as he had expected, he had a second love poem in his hands.

Jazz read the poem again and tried to get a clue about its sender. Nothing about the poem stood out. Jazz decided to ask his culture expert and pinged Mirage. He should already be back from patrol. Mirage acknowledged him quickly and Jazz sat down on his berth while he waited.

Jazz didn't have to wait long until Mirage pinged him outside his quarters. Jazz opened the door and Mirage came inside. Mirage looked at Jazz's normal chaos and quickly noticed the datapad Jazz was holding. Jazz handed the datapad over without saying a word. Mirage onlined it and read silently.

"Well?" Jazz said when Mirage had finished reading.

"The style is Mooncrystal's, but I don't know this poem. Odd. I though that I knew all of his work."

"Why would someone send me love poems?" Jazz said anxiously.

"Isn't it obvious. Someone likes you, but is too shy to tell you", Mirage answered lightly.

Jazz hit his helm on the wall.

"It's not that bad", Mirage said considerately. "Well, it can also be a prank."

"Argh", Jazz growled, "and that's suppose to be better, how exactly?"

"Have you checked the security feeds?" Mirage asked changing to professional mode.

"Not yet, but I don't think that the culprit will get caught that easily. Well, I guess I need to do it. I'll go and see Red Alert. Will you take this chip to Blaster. He's waiting for it."

"Sure", Mirage said and took the chip.

This time Jazz didn't smile while he walked. He try to wrap his helm around why someone would send him love poems. Was someone really in love with him? But if that was the case, then why hadn't he noticed anything since last year. Jazz thought about his interaction with the crew, but nobody stood out. If it was a prank, what was the prankster getting from it. Jazz was none the wiser when he arrived outside the security room.

Jazz knocked on the door and waited patiently while Red Alert checked it really was him. The security director took his job very seriously. Jazz was surprised when the door opened quickly. He realised the reason when he entered the room. Inferno was sitting in Red Alert's chair.

"Where is Red Alert?" Jazz asked because it was very rare that The security director wasn't at the monitors.

"Ratchet ordered a mandatory maintenance", Inferno answered.

"Ah. Mine was yesterday" Jazz said and sat in the extra chair.

"Lucky one. Mine is just ahead. But how can I help?"

"I want to check today's security feeds in the officer's corridor", Jazz explained and hoped that Inferno didn't want any details.

"Ok. You can use this terminal", Inferno said and stood up.

"Thanks", Jazz said and sat down. He checked the security feeds for the time frame between when he left his quarters in the morning and when he came back looking for the music chip. It was a three and half hours time frame. The result was negative. Nobody entered his room. But someone had been there. It meant that someone had tampered with the cameras or the security feed. Jazz checked the recordings and his hunch was correct. Somebody had tampered with the security feed at 10:46 in the morning. Jazz cursed.

"Problems?" Inferno asked.

"No", Jazz said. He didn't feel like explaining anything. "I'm ready. Thanks for helping."

"No problem", Inferno said and sat back down in front of the monitors.

Jazz left and moved towards the rec room. He had a party to prepare for. At the same time he would keep an optic on the crew. Closely.

A happy murmur could be heard all the way to the corridor. Jazz stopped at the rec room's door and let his gaze sweep the room. Nobody paid him any extra attention. Everything seemed to be normal. Jazz stepped in and let the enthusiastic atmosphere envelop him.