Blackout was lying in bed. She was supposed to be asleep, but instead she was lying awake thinking.

What was this mysterious cargo? Why did Shockwave feel the need to keep her calm? Why was he acting strangely whenever something happened? Why was Silverbolt here? And what was wrong with Quatrain? No mech should look that much like a femme.

Sometimes she wished she wasn't here. Just occasionally, she wished she was back at her repetitive, stress-free job putting bullets into ammunition clips. There, the only question was had she done enough to earn her Energon. Nothing to worry her there.

But this was so much more fun! Even though it was stressful and potentially dangerous, she was having the time of her life. The only time she'd enjoyed life this much was when she was back in the Academy...

No. She mustn't think about that. The Academy was bad. And she had been doing so well with her self-made forgetting regime...

There was a sudden bang and the whole ship shook violently. Several possibilities flashed through Blackout's head; the two most likely scenarios being a meteor strike or they were under attack, the latter being the most likely. She stumbled off her bed and yanked open the door.

Vivid red emergency lighting flooded the corridor. So far, Blackout couldn't see any damage, but if she didn't get to the control room soon, whoever was attacking them would soon be back.

She ran to the control room as fast as she could. She again saw no damage. Had the attackers had hit one of the engines?

But when she got there, all was revealed. It had been a meteor strike. Two out of four engines were damaged bit it appeared to be easily fixable. Blackout let out a sigh of relief.

"There she is!"

Shockwave, Quatrain, Lugnut, Vortex, Darkscream and (reluctantly) Silverbolt all ran into the room. Shockwave grabbed her head in his hands and peered into her optics.

"Shockwave, I'm fine!" she cried, trying to prise his hands away.

"Are you a trained medic? Didn't think so!" he said. He continued to examine her.

After another half-megacycle, he was satisfied she was fine. Vortex was using the damage report machine to assess the engines.

"Ah, it doesn't look too bad. I can fix it, but I need you all to come with me to help with the lifting." Vortex said.

"No!" Lugnut cried.

"Here we go again." Quatrain muttered.

"Megatron Directive number three-nine-four states that only the engineers are allowed near the engine."Lugnut said firmly.

"Nobody follows those anymore, Lugnut." Blackout said. "Come on everybody."

"NO! We must obey the mighty Megatron in all his Directives or we are not loyal Decepticons!" Lugnut roared.

"Lugnut, you're embarrassing me." Quatrain murmured.

"Lugnut, I need your help. I need everybody's help." Vortex insisted.

"Lugnut, if it makes you feel any better, I'll stay. I need to sort out my medical bay." Shockwave said. Bit Lugnut still wasn't listening. Then Blackout had an idea.

"Lugnut, if you don't help us fix the engines we will never get to Megatron." she said, choosing her next words carefully. "And if my memory is right, Megatron Directive two clearly states, 'Any crew member who compromises a mission in which Megatron is directly involved shall be classed as a traitor and treated as such.'"

Lugnut froze. Blackout could almost hear his tiny processor whirring as he considered what she had said.

"Fine." he grumbled.

"I'm still staying." Shockwave said, then added in a whisper to Blackout, "If I hear another Megatron Directive..."

Blackout smiled, and then followed Vortex and the others down to the main engine room.

The engines weren't badly damaged at all. The only major problem was the massive chunk of rock piercing the side of the ship.

"The ship's self repair system should take care of the hole." Vortex said. "We just need to get the meteor out."

"How come the self repair systems won't fix the engine?" Darkscream asked.

"Class D ship. Outer shell repair only." Vortex replied.

"What are we waiting for? We must get to Megatron!" Lugnut cried.

"We're waiting for Shockwave to finish scanning it. It could have...organic contamination." Blackout said. Everybody shuddered at the mention of organics. They all knew the stories. About how organics dripped toxic slime from their bodies. About how their soft, fleshy forms wriggled and wormed their way into your circuits while you slept...

"Shockwave-zzt-to Blackout."

Blackout opened up her internal comm. link.

"What's up?" she said.

"The meteor-zzt-is fine but-zzt-it's not doing-zzt-good things to communi-"

There was a sudden, painfully loud burst of static. Blackout immediately cut the link.

"We can move it." she said.

Despite its size, the meteor was relatively easy to dispose of. As the crew were making their way back to the control room, they were intercepted by Shockwave.

"As we seem to be following Megatron Directives today I thought I would draw your attention to Directive six-one-nine." he said almost gleefully.

"You cannot mean-" Lugnut began.

"'All crew members that come into contact with foreign material and space debris must go into quarantine.'" Shockwave read aloud from the Megatron Directive manual which, by law, all Decepticon ships must carry.

"But this ship only has one quarantine berth!" Vortex exclaimed. Silverbolt started to whimper. He clearly didn't like being stuck in a room with Lugnut. Blackout didn't blame him.

"Not my problem." Shockwave said. "You'll be fine. Off you go."

The six of them miserably trooped off.

1 DECACYCLE LATER

Vortex was lying on the floor with one arm strapped up. Quatrain had a broken nose. Darkscream's lip had split and Lug nut had slammed his own head into the wall. Twice. Only Silverbolt and Blackout had escaped unscathed. Blackout lacked the natural aggression levels of mechs and Silverbolt had cowered under the table every time things got hairy.

This was the problem with keeping mechs locked up together, Blackout mused. They all needed some alone time. What they did with it, she didn't care, but if there was one thing she'd learnt it was that the average mech needed at least two megacycles of spare time. And they hadn't been alone for a decacycle.

"Lugnut owes me a repair job." Vortex grumbled.

"That was your fault. You would not bow down and worship Megatron!" Lugnut cried.

"BOYS!" Blackout roared making Silverbolt jump. "One decacycle of being shut up in quarantine and you've all gone completely mad!"

At that point there was a soft thump from the viewing window.

"What was that?" Darkscream squeaked. Blackout peered into the viewing window. The room beyond was dark, but she could just see the outline of Shockwave.

"Shockwave? How long have you been there?" Darkscream asked. There was no reply. Then the lights in the viewing room came on.

Shockwave was sat hunched up in the far corner, clutching a sparkling's cuddly toy and repeatedly coating his left arm in layers of blue paint. He let out an insane howl.

"What the..." Blackout murmured.

"Transformeritis." Vortex whispered.

"There's a disease called that?" Darkscream asked.

"My friend caught it once. Shockwave looks like he's in the final stage. He'll die soon if we don't get up to communications and transmit a high frequency scrambling pulse." Vortex replied.

"How will that cure him?" Quatrain asked.

"The disease is transmitted through an open comm. link. But first we have to get out of quarantine." Vortex said. That was going to be impossible. That was the point of quarantine. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

"I think I know the code." Silverbolt whispered. Everybody looked at him. This was the first time any of them (apart from Darkscream) had heard him speak.

"You know the code!" Lugnut roared. Silverbolt leapt backwards, straight into Darkscream's arms.

"Shut up, Lugnut." Blackout ordered coldly. "Why didn't you say this before, Silverbolt?"

But Silverbolt was now staring into space and slowly rocking back and forth. Darkscream gently lowered him down into a sitting position. He wrapped his arms tightly around Silverbolt and held him close.

"It's okay. Shh." Darkscream whispered into Silverbolt's audio receptor.

"What's wrong with him?" Blackout asked.

"It's something that happens when he gets upset. He could be like this for ten cycles or ten megacycles. None of the medics I took him to could tell me what was wrong with him." Darkscream replied.

"Shockwave doesn't have ten megacycles." Vortex said, looking at the insane medic.

"How come he didn't do this when we were fighting?" Lugnut said. Silverbolt buried himself deeper into Darkscream's grasp at the sound of Lugnut's voice.

"Not everything winds him up. Just heights and now...Lugnut." Darkscream explained. Blackout crouched down beside Silverbolt.

"Silverbolt, I need you to open the door." she said softly but firmly. Silverbolt whimpered, his two-tone optics looking up at Lugnut in terror.

"Lugnut has been ordered not to hurt you." Blackout said in the same tone. Out of the corner of her optic she saw Quatrain push a very confused Lugnut as far away from Silverbolt as possible.

"See? He's gone." Blackout said. She and Darkscream helped Silverbolt to his feet. "Open the door?"

Silverbolt stumbled over to the keypad.

"I saw Shockwave punch a number in to get out." he explained in a whisper. Now Lugnut was out of sight, he seemed a lot more confident. He pushed numbers six, one and nine. The door slid open.

"Communications, everybody. Lugnut, stay her5e and make sure Shockwave doesn't do anything dangerous. And don't open his comm. link! I don't want this Transformeritis spreading." Blackout ordered. Everybody except Lugnut ran out of quarantine.

Quatrain had just finished downloading the scrambling pulse to a small speaker.

"Stupid antiquated technology. We'll have to go back down to quarantine and blast it at the poor darling." Quatrain said. Everybody groaned.

But when they got there Shockwave was gone. Lugnut was lying unconscious on the floor.

"Primus, how hard did he have to hit him?" Vortex exclaimed.

"He can't have gone far, not in his condition." Blackout said.

Suddenly there was a loud crash from the corridor beyond.

"That'll be him!" Vortex said. Quatrain stepped forward, holding the speaker out in front of him. Blackout peeked round the corner.

Shockwave's optics had gone a pale lilac colour and were both oozing silver Energon. Quatrain activated the speaker.

A horrible screeching noise filled the corridor. It was bearable for most of them but Shockwave screamed in agony and clamped his hands over his audio receptors. He collapsed, spasmed for a few nanocliks, then lay still. Blackout motioned for Quatrain to stop. She knelt beside the unconscious medic. Had they just killed the one robot she could worm the precious cargo out of?

Shockwave blinked feebly a couple of times. The last thing he remembered was locking the others up in quarantine...

He sat up. The harsh light made his optics sting.

"Where am I?" he asked to the empty room.

"Quarantine!" came a suspiciously chirpy voice. Shockwave turned to the viewing room. Sat there, grinning stupidly, was the rest of the crew.

"Oh, no." Shockwave said.