Starscream powered up slowly, and felt the wind shifting across his wings. It was cool, with just a hint of frost to come before morning. He folded his hands over the large white arm around his waist, and looked back. He could feel that shuttle was online through the cable that still connected them.
"How soon until the Autobots dispatch a search party?" Starscream asked.
"A day or two, I imagine. Your theoretical patrol on the other hand, will be over in two point six four hours," Skyfire reminded him.
"Yes..."
An amused sensation not unlike underwater bubbles brushed across Starscream's mind, and he flinched.
"-Afraid I'll try to hack your thoughts, Stars?" Skyfire asked, quietly.
"No. Your new Autobot -code- won't let you," Starscream replied, scornfully.
Skyfire ignored this, and ran the tip of his nose along the length of Starscream's delicate right aileron, placing a kiss where it met the gray wing's trailing edge.
Starscream leaned back into the caress, lips slightly parted.
"Why is it-" the jet hissed, "-that I can hate everything you ARE and still want this?"
"Polarity," Skyfire told him, after a moment's computation.
"Polarity?" Starscream repeated, dubiously.
"Yes. I'm everything you won't let yourself be, and vice-versa."
"Does that mean you'd rather be a fighter jet?" Starscream grinned.
"Hardly. ...But I do find you a useful source of perspective."
"Well, what have you learned?" Starscream asked, settling back.
"I want no part of the Decepticons as long as Megatron is in charge. ...That cannon is insane."
"What else?" Starscream asked, somewhat disturbed by the remark.
"I know this is harder for you than it is for me."
"-You mean getting away? That's just because you're seen as a scientist," Starscream said quickly, "Optimus Prime doesn't understand that he can just TELL scientists to build things, so he usually leaves them alone. ...Once the Autobots figure out you're also a flying BUS you'll have enough to do."
"Actually, what I meant was-" Skyfire began.
"No, you're cut off. If you'd rather talk shop than play with my wings, you can go right back to your Autobot friends," Starscream told him, firmly.
"Your wings are most interesting," Skyfire agreed, watching a subtle look of relief cross the other mech's face without calling him on it, "-but there's also the matter of your tiny little wheels..."
"HEY! LEGGO, YOU-!"
.
Somewhere in high Earth orbit, Skyfire powered down his boosters and fired a few judicious bursts with his navigational thrusters to counter the last of his momentum.
"Payload bay, this is Skyfire. Is everyone all right back there?"
Several Human voices answered him excitedly, but quickly dropped to just that of the mission commander.
"That's affirmative Skyfire, we are A-okay. Mission control, this is Asimov 1, how copy?"
"Asimov 1, this is Mission control. We read you loud and clear. You are officially the first NASA-Autobot space mission, and you are clear to proceed."
Cheering on both ends of the comm. this time.
"Payload, are you ready for the outer doors?" Skyfire asked.
"Stand by..."
"-Copy."
"Okay, we're all hooked into the UAV pod. Go ahead."
Skyfire opened his payload bay doors, and watched as the six Humans towed a space capsule out with them. It was a necessary precaution in case they became separated from Skyfire by accident or Decepticon attack, but they looked like a team of scavenger-bots at work, and it was funny as anything.
Over the next few hours, a new space station began to take shape.
.
"Going somewhere, Starscream?"
"Did you have a job for me, Megatron?"
"No, I've just learned not to leave you alone too long. It gives you the most... unhealthy ideas."
"You mean I notice how often the great and MIGHTY Decepticon army is ordered to flee in the face of even odds?" Starscream asked, slyly.
"You've NEVER comprehended strategy, and you lack even the wit to realize it," Megatron spat.
"-No! Don't destroy the little Autobots while we have the chance, I wanna watch them suffer-" Starscream mimicked.
Megatron struck him a short, vicious punch that put a long crack in the jet's canopy.
Starscream stumbled back, tripping over a small boulder and staring up at the larger mech, startled.
"...Remember your PLACE, Starscream," Megatron sneered, "or will I have to rip off your wings to remind you?"
.
Skyfire touched down inside Autobot headquarters, and transformed as soon as Bumblebee and Wheeljack had been unloaded from his payload bay. Ratchet seemed to be directing traffic, so Skyfire turned to him.
"How may I be of assistance?"
"Reach inside Wheeljack's lab, and get me the plasma welding torch," the red and white medic replied without looking up. "-And I'll need two sheets of Titanium alloy..."
Skyfire felt out of place in the busy medical bay once he returned with Ratchet's supplies, so he made his way out onto the rocky shelf at the foot of the Autobots' mountain.
Skyfire was used to seeing battle damage by now, but this time it had left him feeling drained and unsteady. Maybe it was because it was little Bee on Ratchet's table instead of one of the usual suspects, like Ironhide or Sideswipe. Skyfire didn't know any of the Autobots well, but he'd already picked up the general protective feeling towards Bumblebee and Spike. Ratchet -had- said he could repair the damage, but even so... Skyfire had caught the reflection of a blue-white glow in between the dented plates of Bumblebee's curved yellow armor, and his own spark winced just thinking about it.
.
Jazz watched Skyfire's approach in the last minutes before dawn, a wink of the sun glancing off the tip of one great white wing just before the shuttle descended into the mountain's shadow and touched down.
Skyfire cut his engines to minimum power, and taxied past Jazz on his way inside, blinking his fuselage lights in greeting.
"S'up, Rocket-man?" Jazz smiled back.
Skyfire transformed at the entrance to the Autobot base, and looked back at the long curtain of light edging down either side of the valley below. He sighed quietly through his vents, and turned to Jazz.
"It is so quiet up there..." he confided.
"You can -have- the quiet. Me, I'll take the Doobie Brothers," Jazz grinned, tapping one of his boxy helmet antennas.
"Goodnight, Jazz," Skyfire smiled back, walking inside.
.
"Good," Starscream said walking over purposefully, "-you came."
Skyfire went to take the jet in his arms, and got knocked back on his afterburners for his trouble.
"What was that for?" Skyfire asked, annoyed.
"DON'T stand me up again," Starscream warned, pointing a finger in his face.
Skyfire's optics flickered once. He pushed Starscream's pointing hand back down with measured but absolutely unstoppable strength, and folded the small blue hand in his own.
"I mean it, you glorified cargo jet-" Starscream persisted, "-YOU may have too much time on your hands, but I'M a high-ranking officer now, and-!"
Skyfire put two fingers to Starscream's lips, effectively gagging him.
"I apologize," he said simply, and lowered his fingers.
Starscream glared at him, and Skyfire detected the faint shimmer over Starscream's eyes that told him the jet had activated his heads-up display.
"Is that really what you want to do?" Skyfire asked.
Starscream targeted him, frowned at the Skyfire's apparent lack of response, then finally switched off the heads-up display with a rueful smile.
"-You could have been very wrong about that, shuttle."
"I know," Skyfire agreed, "-but I came anyway."
"Sky-" Starscream began, then broke off. He laced his clever blue fingers with Skyfire's large white ones, and studied the contrast they made.
.
"Skyfire!"
"I- -what-?"
Ironhide's stern red and gray face peered up at him with displeasure. On the screen behind him, the sky-spy's footage drifted past.
"What's it take to boot ya up, flyboy? Did you turn your audios down, or what?"
"No, uh..." Skyfire tried to remember deciding to begin his recharge cycle, and just...
Couldn't. The memory didn't exist in his databanks.
Ironhide saw his consternation, swore, and went straight to Teletran-1's keyboard.
"If somebody's accessed these files, we should be able t-" Ironhide read the computer's response, and relaxed. "-Huh. No commands given since 0023 this morning. THAT's a load off... But I'm -real- anxious to hear why you were rechargin' on watch."
"I... do not understand," Skyfire said, frowning, "-all I can remember is the beginning of my shutdown sequence, not deciding to activate it."
"When's the last time you recharged?" Ironhide asked, folding his arms.
"Yesterday."
"How 'bout your fuel tank?"
"It's at- -twenty-four percent, but that shouldn't be low enough to offline me..."
"Then you're goin' ta see Ratchet," Ironhide decided, "-an' he better find somethin' out of tune."
"Ratchet usually recharges until 0630," Skyfire observed.
"Yeeeah, an' since you're low on energon anyways, maybe you should take care o' that first."
"-Until around 0630," Skyfire deduced.
"Exactly. -And I've gotta warn you Skyfire, ol' Ratch was up diggin' deck sealant out of Mirage's left arm casing last night."
"Why would-?"
"Ah didn't ask, but I haven't seen the twins around since."
"...I see," Skyfire said, with an amused flicker of his optics.
.
-tbc-