Bumblebee – A Mech Out Of His Time.
Chapter Two – The Underground Chambers.
"Bee," said Sam, shaking himself out of the immobility that he seemed to have been experiencing since arriving who-knew-where-ever they were. "The robots down there – are they Cybertronians? Have others been stranded here at some time? Are you in danger?"
Bumblebee activated his scanners, and for a moment there was just a hum as Bumblebee slowly turned to scan the entire massive structure.
"I can detect no dangerous emissions, although there are some readings reminiscent of energon crystals, but none quite like I have ever registered before. Your history does not report the discovery of anything we would have recognised as energon, and we thought Earth had developed without it. There readings, however, suggest otherwise." He paused before speaking again. "The forms below only show some basic circuitry and processing ability, although they do not appear to have space for a Spark, or any higher functions. I would need to be closer, and have some of Ratchet's skills to be certain, but I believe that the mechanicals below would only have functioned as drones."
"What about that tunnel behind us?" Sam asked, indicating a barely-seen deeper darkness near the lowest point of the cave. "Anything dangerous down there?" Sam didn't like dark mysterious caves, for in many books and films they turned out to be the lair of something invariably dangerous, or the entrance to somewhere you later found out you didn't want to be. Sam wanted to know if this particular cave mouth led to either.
Bumblebee scanned for a moment and said "Nothing alive that is dangerous, but it is from somewhere beyond that some of the energon-like emissions seem to be originating."
"Are they dangerous to me? Or to you?" Sam asked.
"Normally, raw energon is dangerous to Cybertronians, and we are all given the waveforms to remember so we can avoid them," Bumblebee said. "But these emissions appear to be in a wavelength that suggests no danger to either of us, although I do suggest caution, as I have never seen a reading like this before."
"Well, okay, let's be cautious by all means, but it should be okay just to explore a bit, shouldn't it?" the human boy asked. "Just keep your sensors running, okay, and tell me if you sense danger?"
"Sure thing, Sam," said Bumblebee, stooping to allow the smaller human to scramble up into his hands.
Watching where he put his feet, and turning on a powerful light to aid visibility, the scout made his way over towards the mouth of the tunnel.
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"The readings are coming from directly ahead, round the next corner," Bumblebee said, about an hour after they had first set out to explore. They had had to climb and at times wade or swim, Bumblebee aiding Sam where he could, allowing him to ride on his neck or head when needed, and they had found many objects, ranging from small carvings and jewellery left in niches in one tunnel, to a large mechanical leg in another. It seemed now, however, that they were about to find what they had come to seek.
"Let me scan again, just to ensure they're not dangerous," Bumblebee said.
"Sure, but could you douse your lights?" Sam said, from his perch on Bumblebee's shoulder. "I think there may be some light ahead." Bumblebee didn't speak, but his lights dimmed and then went out even as the hum of his scanning beam continued uninterrupted.
Sam blinked, getting used to the absence of Bumblebee's light, but he had been correct, there was a glow from around the corner they were stood by.
"No, no dangerous emissions, but you are correct, some of them are in the visible spectrum, and I believe the illumination should be sufficient for us both to see unaided." Bumblebee advanced around the corner, and stopped on the edge of the cavern that opened in front of them.
The cavern's floor was littered with small clusters of white crystals, and in between some of these grew large ferns. Sprouting straight from the rock, the thick hexagonal columns of crystal grew out in all directions. There was a particularly large cluster near the centre of the cavern which drew Sam's eyes. Bumblebee scanned again.
"I think, Sam, that these crystals are a form of raw energon that is not dangerous to either of our forms. Perhaps something about the organic nature of your world makes it crystallise into a more stable form then on our own world. This may be the only deposit like it in your galaxy, or perhaps other organic worlds have the same stable energon crystals. The ferns appear to be harmless."
"That's assuming we are still on my world," Sam said uneasily. "That contraption of Wheeljack's could have transported us anywhere."
Bumblebee reached up to Sam. "Do you want a closer look?" he asked. "It's safe, and there is no way I can get into the cave any further without risking damage to either myself or some of the ferns and crystals, but there appears to be space enough for you, one area seems to resemble a path. It could be that wherever we are is inhabited, but the path does not seem to have been used that recently. I will keep my proximity sensors active, but I believe it is likely to be safe for you to explore."
Sam climbed onto Bumblebee's metal palm, and the Autobot scout lowered the human boy close to the path. Sam leaped off with an agility the Autobot still admired even after knowing Sam as long as he had. As Sam set off down the path, here and there touching crystals in wonder, or for balance, Bumblebee stood and activated proximity alarms, extending the field so it pierced ten feet down into both the tunnel they had come from, and the second, unexplored tunnel that extended into darkness and the unknown, opposite the one that they had entered.
Sam reached out to touch a crystal, and was surprised to find it was not dead cold, like stone, but more like plastic, slightly warmer than he expected. Reaching towards a smaller spar, he curled his hands around it and pulled, but it did not give way, it was stronger than he expected.
"These energon crystals seem to be denser than any I have come across before, it may be another factor in their stability," Bumblebee said. "I don't think you could break them with your human strength, Sam."
"Someone else had been here, though, and they must have found something they could cut it with," Sam said. "Look at this!" He ran his hand over a crystal stump, where the too-flat surface and sharp corners hinted at an unnatural crystal excision. A quick check at the sides of the caverns and in the ferns revealed wagons, both heavy and lighter weight, some containing some of the crystals that had been cut from their roots. Sam fell not far from one, tripping on an invisible obstacle, which upon closer examination seemed to be a mining tool. Bumblebee scanned to quickly reveal other tools concealed by the ferns to trap the unwary, and crates that Bumblebee scanned, but all they seemed to contain were fern spores. The wagons and the tools, however, all seemed to have something in common: they were all of great age, or so Bumblebee's scans, and Sam's observations, told them.
Bumblebee quickly did an extended scan, just to be on the safe side, but found nothing he had not already detected and concluded was the natural flora and fauna of the area. Then he scanned the cut surface Sam had found, detecting faint, very old energy signatures of what was probably some sort of energy tool used to cut the crystal from its root.
"Well, whoever they were, they haven't been back for a very long time, and I suspect that wherever we have ended up has been abandoned."
"But why?" Sam asked. "There's still all these crystals left that could be mined, if that's what they were doing, and they've left behind all those mechanisms in the big hall. And that points to the possibility of some catastrophe or danger that overtook them suddenly. But what was it, and could it still endanger us now?"
"I have detected some minor tremors since entering, Sam. It is possible that volcanism or tectonic activity affected the original architects and population who lived here. However, I am detecting no warning signs of any such event being imminent at the moment."
"Well, shall we go back and look at those machines we found earlier? The big leg we found on our way here must have once belonged to one," Sam said. Bumblebee nodded once, and put his hand down for Sam to clamber into.
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On the way, they stopped to examine not just the great leg, but some of the items contained in the niches. Two or three of the statues appeared to have a recurring theme: a figure sitting cross-legged with its hands held flat in front of its body. From the neck down, the figures were human, but set on the neck was the head of a dinosaur. Some had horns on their foreheads, and some did not, but all had a beaked mouth and a neck frill. Two were made of stone, one piece green and the other of pink and white marble, carved and polished, and the third was made of metal that Bumblebee said was gold, inlaid with precious stones. Sam put this last into his pocket, planning to look it up online when he got back home –assuming that they got home, he reminded himself - and see if anything like it had been discovered and documented.
When they reached the great leg, Bumblebee picked it up and manipulated it, finding it still mobile despite its age, and made of an alloy he did not recognise. He put it back down and they moved on, until they came to the cathedral-like cave with the pillars and structures.
The two things they were most interested in were the sunken courtyard containing machines, and the stairs up the wall that seemed to ascend to what appeared to be an entrance, or for them, an exit. A tall stalagmite had been fashioned into a tower, with steps carved in it leading to the top. At the top was a large faceted stone, whose light was currently shining on one side of the sunken courtyard, so there was no need to ascend to adjust the stone. Somebody had, it seemed, come before them, for they found footprints in the dust, not too recently, as they were themselves covered with a thin film of dust, but obviously whoever had been there had not been there for several weeks, at least, and except for the prints, there was no further sign that anybody else had been there.
Descending to the sunken area they found more footprints, and could discern three different sets, plus the tracks of something that was not human. There were also two odd-shaped gaps in the courtyard, where objects had obviously been, but were not there anymore.
Bumblebee and Sam moved over to some carts, which were laden with shaped crystals, pointed at the top, facets making it almost cylindrical, with a groove around the side. Bumblebee briefly scanned, and said "Yes, these are cut from the crystals we saw in the other cave."
"Hey, there's a space in the back of some of these robots that I think these would fit," Sam said, picking a crystal up.
"You might wish to expose it to the beam of light, energon needs energy to create power," Bumblebee said. Sam nodded, and walked with the crystal into the beam of refracted sunlight. The crystal noticeably brightened upon exposure to the light, and glowed as Sam bore it over to a robot that resembled a two-legged dinosaur, with a cockpit on its back. The human boy fitted the crystal into the robot, which was crouched. It shook a little, and the mechanical eyelids twitched, the legs flexed but then it was still. Sam waited a few more moments, then gingerly climbed into the seat. There were levers and controls in front of him, and Sam pulled back on the main central lever, and the dino-robot stood up.
Sam yelled a bit at the unfamiliar motion, then took hold of the two side-levers which, as he suspected, controlled the legs. Sam stayed in the mechanism for five minutes before pushing the main lever forwards and allowing the dino-mechanical construct to sink back to a crouch.
"Fun, but I think I prefer you, you're more stable," Sam said, dismounting and removing the crystal from its mounting.
"I should hope so!" Bumblebee said, but there was no rancour in his tone: he had by now gotten used to Sam, and took it as the compliment it was intended to be. Sam looked up to see Bumblebee taking several of the crystals and storing them in his arms and legs.
"They are energon. If they can power that, I can use them as fuel," Bumblebee replied when Sam raised his eyebrows at him. Sam nodded, handing the one he was holding to 'Bee, who stored it with the others.
"Shall we find out where that goes?" Sam asked, pointing up the stairs leading to the top of the conical roof.
"Certainly, Sam, but my scans suggest some of the footing may be treacherous, so I request that you travel on my shoulder," the scout said, stooping and putting out a hand. Sam, used to this mode of travel, scrambled up onto the hand and then clambered up the arm, wedging himself by Bumblebee's neck in his usual place. Bumblebee, once he was sure Sam was in a secure position, began to climb up the narrow stairway, his stride spanning about ten steps at a time.
There was one nasty moment not far from the top, when the rock beneath the mech gave way under his hands and feet, and as Bumblebee scrabbled for more handholds, Sam cried out in fear. For a worrying moment, Bumblebee managed to find just one handhold. Sam hung over the courtyard below, and shut his eyes to close out the sight of the tiny-looking courtyard, and the mechanisms below looking like toys as the Autobot swung precariously.
Bumblebee's questing hand then found another secure handhold, and Bumblebee was able to manoeuvre into a position where he could get his feet onto firm ground also. Although it slowed their progress, Sam did not complain when Bumblebee began testing every handhold for stability before transferring his weight to it.
Eventually, they emerged, Sam having to squint his eyes against the sunlight, from the hole at the top, to find the sun fairly low in the sky, suggesting it was afternoon. They emerged amongst overgrown ruins, and Sam's sharp eyes spotted more dinosaurian heads carved on and about the ruined buildings, as well as many spiral patterns, and other influences, some of which Sam vaguely recognised.
"'Bee, look at this," Sam said, running his hands over some glyphs. "These look Egyptian." He moved to some others. "And these look Greek, and these others, something else again, sort of like a hybrid of the two." He moved over to another wall, and ran his fingers over the raised frieze depicted, showing humans and machines and dinosaurs all living together. "I don't understand, we're forever being told that dinosaurs and humans didn't co-exist, that the dinosaurs died long before humans evolved. This suggests otherwise, but how? Even if some did survive till the present day, there can't be many left or they would have been found. Are we in some different dimension? What has Wheeljack done?"
His question was punctuated by the roar of something that sounded very big and very aggressive.
"What was that?" Sam asked. Before Bumblebee could reply, there was a similar, slightly louder roar from the same direction as the first.
"I don't know, Sam, but we had best be careful, and I suggest you find somewhere to conceal yourself, because whatever it is, it sounds like it's coming this way."