Chapter 3.

As he followed, Optimus took in the surroundings. It was chilled in this hanger, as caves were naturally apt to be. Everywhere around hung cords, lights and scaffolding- many of which were now scattered on the floor in various states of damage. The floor was damp with melted ice which had washed away the blood from the humans who had tried to keep their prisoner in his frozen state. Optimus suppressed an inner shudder at the thought of being frozen and alone on an alien world. Not that Megatron had probably been bothered about it other than to simply get angrier and angrier, but they had wanted to do the same to Bumblebee. Optimus shook his head, trying to not to hold a grudge about it. The ones who had wanted this done had not understood that they were living beings and more than the simple machines that they themselves had created, or worse the ones that they wrote about.

There were a greater number of robots featured in the human's fiction as aggressors than protectors. In fact almost all the sentient robots that weren't some sort of cyborg were usually regarded as being evil punishing monsters that wanted to destroy someone or the entire planet. A bot could easily assume that all humans would fear a sentient machine as a matter of instinct. However, he had found otherwise in Sam, Mikaela and now the soldiers. Even if they initially were frightened, they did learn to trust through example. Humans, he mused, were as dynamic as his own race. While they might not have developed as high a scientific ability as he and his kind had, their emotional potential was much the same, all the more reason to approach this particular authority figure about making a new home for the Autobots here.

Provided that today hadn't spoiled it all. He had a sinking feeling that someone would probably find it to be a wonderful movie about killer robots from outer space. Hopefully the leaders of this particular country at least would see not the destruction the Decepticons had caused but the help the Autobots offered.

Prime looked around for a suitable place to sit. He could crouch in front of the human but at the moment he didn't want to stress his servos any more than he had to. The pedestal where Megatron had been mounted for so many years seemed like as good a place as any to sit.

Without being asked, Keller climbed the stairs to the scaffolding and found a step that was blessedly dry and sat down to face the giant mech. He marveled at the creature's size and the amount of expression he could see in the layers of parts that made up the Autobot's face. He cleared his throat and addressed Prime, "So, now that your enemies have been scattered and beaten, what are your intentions for your soldiers and our world?"

--------

"What did Optimus hand you?" asked Maggie eagerly. She and Sam were practically prying open Bumblebee's hand trying to see what was inside.

He held his arm up, "Hey now! If you get down I'll show you!"

They backed up obediently as Mikaela watched them. The humans had made sort of armchair shapes out of some massive disused computer towers, the seats to which were bulky discarded laptops, boxes or wadded up blankets. She was already wearing some unknown person's thankfully clean fatigues- they all were. They looked like refugees.

It occurred to her that the Autobots, for all that they were massive warriors from space, really were refugees. They wanted to call this place home. She'd been frightened of them at first, unsure what these things could want and convinced that it couldn't possibly be good. But watching Bee crawl out from the wreckage, stubbornly refusing to give up even after he'd had his feet blown off had changed her feelings. The look of pain and frustration on that almost completely un-human face had connected with her and she'd come to trust them. How much had she changed in the last few days? What was her daddy going to say when he came home to find his little girl all grown up? The thought made her shrink into herself and wrap her arms around her knees.

Bumblebee opened his fist to reveal the tiny sliver of what was left of the precious allspark. It wasn't much by their standards, but it was long to the humans. It looked to be a little less than 12 inches in length and staggered like a splinter. They marveled at it as Sam stepped a bit closer. He didn't see the length of pole that stuck out from one of Bumblebee's leg nubs. He reached for the closest thing to steady himself and slammed into Bee's arm.

The little shard went up into the air as time slowed for an instant. Maggie threw herself forward, trying to catch the piece and crashed into her nest of blankets, the shard smacked into her hands with an electric crackle, making her arm up to her elbow numb. The shard then bounced out of her unresponsive hands and flew through the air to land on one of the giant old laptops.

All five eyed the laptop, which wasn't moving, warily. When it didn't do anything, Bee wasn't sure if he was glad that nothing popped out of the laptop or if he was distressed that it didn't and that meant that it couldn't help Jazz. Mikaela snorted and bent down past the laptop to reach the shard, which was now about a foot past it, nestled in the blankets. She laid completely flat to reach the shard, too comfortable and tired to get up and walk over to it. As she was level to the laptop on the floor, she noticed that an eye had opened on it and was watching her.

With a cry of horror, she snatched the shard, clutched it to her and went clattering backwards. The startled laptop burst into life, splitting out in all directions, and then scrambling into the air. Its black wings beat frantically to get away from the cacophony that the inhabitants of the room were making.

It flew around in a frightened circle, making hissing and clacking noises as Bee calmly sighted it and fired a low energy shot. He didn't want to use a full charge and risk hurting any of the humans if something fell. Without his legs he couldn't exactly scramble past them and take the brunt of any heavy pieces of ceiling falling. But he wasn't about to give the flying chattering laptop the chance to hurt anyone either.

\I heard fire, what's going on?\ Bee received the worried comm from Optimus.

\Uh... nothing. We're all fine... just a um, accidental discharge.\

\What's all that... squawking in there?\

\Nothing I can't handle,\ He hoped.

The shot managed to clip the wing of the weird robotic bird that had spawned. It spiraled down out of the air dramatically to lay in a disorganized looking sprawl on the ground. After a moment it righted itself and made panicked circles, trying desperately to get away from its attackers.

The humans, who were now hiding behind Bee, watched it warily. It stopped trying to fly after a moment, sort of half scuttling, half shuddering, trying to turn back into a laptop. Maggie popped out from behind Bee and began stalking toward the creature, cooing softly.

"Maggie!" hissed Glen, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"No idea. But I don't think it wants to hurt us, it's just... scared." She continued to coo at the creature who had stopped trying to get away and had settled itself back out into a complete bird again.

Bumblebee rubbed at his horns in confusion. It was basically, as far as he understood anyway, a new born with no programming. It would attack anything that it thought was going to hurt it- or it should have. But here it was just trying to get away.

Mikaela had joined Maggie and both of them were on their hand and knees crawling toward the strange bird-like creature, trying not to startle it. Maggie reached out her hand to touch it, but it hissed angrily. She sat back quickly and it scuttled backwards as well, equally startled.

"No no no, it's okay! Don't be scared!" said Mikaela, trying to reassure it.

Its beady blue eyes snapped onto Mikaela. It hissed a little. "Huuuuuurt."

Bee shook his head, "Okay it definitely should not do that."

Mikaela looked back over her shoulder, "What do you mean?"

He shrugged, "As far as I know anything that comes out of the allspark raw like that shouldn't immediately be able to talk or reason. It doesn't have any programming. It should just be-"

"Freaking out and attacking like my phone did," said Glen absently. He didn't take his eyes away from the black and blue laptop bird.

"Exactly," rumbled a response from behind them. Ratchet had brought himself back on-line at the start of the commotion. He wasn't the sort to shoot first and ask questions later and was very glad that Ironhide, who was the sort of bot to do just that, was an extremely deep sleeper. "Something strange about this one."

Mikaela felt something tickle her arm and she turned around to see the laptop was now cowering behind her. In comparison to the Autobots he was tiny, about the size of a medium sized dog. She looked at it, "It's okay. They won't hurt you."

Ratchet started to get up. This of course, startled the bird creature into action. His instinct was to get to higher ground in order to jump off and glide, and Mikaela's shoulder was the highest point near to him. He took an ungainly hop and landed on her forearm. She yelped in pain as the sharp claws pierced the thick army coat that she was wearing and tore at her skin. The bird, realizing he was hurting her, leaped off and scuttled backwards. Ratchet was pretty fast when the occasion called for it and he managed to get around the startled humans and Bee to get to the bird. He grabbed a thick metal crate and snapped it down on top of the bird-creature. He then grabbed a larger, much heavier crate and put it on top, effectively pinning the laptop.

Maggie and Sam ran to Mikaela's aide, trying to get the jacket off and stop the bleeding as she clutched at her arm. The medic grabbed the discarded jacket and expertly ripped it into long shreds. He then gently took her bleeding arm in his giant hand. With deft movements he delicately and quickly wrapped the arm with just enough pressure to staunch the bleeding and not cut off circulation entirely. He winked at the girl, "Just because I'm a bulky bot doesn't mean I haven't got nimble fingers. My scan indicates it's not deep enough to need stitches, just a nasty cut, it's a good thing these jackets are so thick. Hold it up and keep pressure on it for a little while."

Sam kicked at the crate with his foot, succeeding only in sending pain up his appendage. He hopped away while Bee leveled his gun at the offending creature.

"No don't!" Mikaela called, "He didn't mean to."

The forlorn creature inside moaned, "Sorry! Sorry! Me not mean to!"

"What in blazes is going on here?"

"Uh..." guilty gazes watched as Keller and Optimus returned from the other hanger.

"Well, the good news is the shard will work, and we only took minor damage," replied Ratchet.

Optimus leveled a look at his medic but addressed Keller instead, "I will deal with this, you had best continue on your way."

The Secretary of Defense nodded with a look of disbelief, "Very well. Glen, Maggie, let's head out."

"Now?"

"But-" the two chimed together.

"Come on, you're still my advisors and I'm going to need your help analyzing the virus that brought down the satellites. I've gotten a call that they need us back in Washington, ASAP. You can come back and visit when we're all done," He turned again to the leader of the Autobots and nodded, gave one last look at the suspicious box and continued out the door, practically dragging the two analysts away.

Optimus crouched next to the make shift kennel. "And exactly what is in here?"

"Something the allspark shard made."

"I ran into Bee and he dropped it, "said Sam sheepishly. He felt a lot like the times when he'd had to admit to his father that he'd done something incredibly stupid.

"I see."

Ratchet looked at the laptop, who was sticking his beak through one of openings in the box that served as a handle. "It hasn't tried to attack us or even shown any sort of weapons. It only cut Mikaela because I frightened it when I was getting up off the ground."

"Am sorrrry..." it said again.

Its speech startled Prime. At this point in its "life" it shouldn't be able to do much other than react to basic fight or flight parameters. The fact that it was talking, albeit in broken sentences, spoke volumes. Tentatively he tried to send a comm in Cybertronian. \Who are you?\

\??????\ was the reply.

Ratchet tried and got the same response. "It... doesn't know our language."

Mikaela tried to blow her bangs away from her face, "Maybe it only knows english because it's a laptop. "

They stared at her.

"No, think about it. Its hard drive is probably full of old files these guys have saved."

"Yeah, maybe its name is it's network name?" Sam offered.

There was a fluttering sound as the laptop beat its wings against it's prison. "YES! Me am... Me am... Me am Southwest Operating System #392!"

"That's kind of a mouthful to say," said Sam, shaking his head, "How about we shorten it to like, SOS or Ninety-two? Maybe just WEST, yeah that'd be kinda cool," He offered a hand out to the nose cheekily, "Hey, West, how's it hanging?"

The metallic beak pulled itself back into the crate with disgust.

"How about Swoop?" asked Mikaela quietly.

"Swooooooop. Me like. Me Swooooooop." said the beak, emerging from its kennel.

Sam gave her a blank look. Mikaela sighed, "It's an acronym, I mean it's sort of hacked up but SouthWest O(o)Perating Station #392."

The others nodded thoughtfully. Sam crossed his arms and looked grumpy, "I still like West better."

--------

Even though his internal chronometer said that the sun should be rising now, it was still dark inside the Sector 7 Dam's base. The hanger, which was normally filled with activity, was silent and dark in respect for the four giant robots and their human friends who slept inside. The rest of the base and the dam was being checked for damages and repaired as quickly as possible. The mess inside left from Megatron's abrupt departure and Frenzy's crazed antics could wait a day or so until the outside and more structurally integral parts of the dam were repaired.

\So how did your talk with the human, Keller, go?\ Ironhide's optics lit up as he came back on-line. In a rare show of thoughtfulness he refrained from speaking aloud and waking the still sleeping children. Sam had insisted on staying with Bumblebee and Mikaela had insisted on staying with Sam. The two were bundled together in the yellow camero's shadow, still deeply asleep.

\We will be allowed to stay and make our home here.\ Prime eyed his old friend carefully and tried to gauge the response coming. Ironhide was rarely sentimental, even about Cybertron. He'd spent most of his life fighting and of the rag tag band he was the only one that was a professional soldier. But he had voiced his disgust with the humans before, how would he feel about making this his permanent home?

To Prime's surprise, Ironhide nodded, \Good. This is... an acceptable planet. More hospitable than many we have been to and with a better caliber of natives than we're used to.\

Optimus wisely kept his thoughts to himself and continued on, \I have researched the area near Sam's home and found a place which might be suitable for us. It is... an abandoned steel mill.\

Ratchet raised his head from his hand where he'd been sleeping propped against the cage holding the laptop creature, coming fully on-line. The crate that had been previously on top had proved too wobbly, and while the creature didn't seem quite as adamant about getting away, no one wanted to chance having to search the whole enclosure for it. He listened to the conversation raptly.

The black mech snorted, \Ah, so it's a junk pile without the useful parts?\

\I have to agree, do we really want to live somewhere the humans have even abandoned?\ Ratchet didn't like the idea of trying to make a home out of such a place. Thoughts of half degraded chemicals, rotten cardboard boxes, mildewed files, and vermin filled his mind.

\It's not ideal in any sense of the word, but it is what is out there. We can always look around and see if there's something else that could be used, but I'm afraid the very nature of being what we are and who we are means that we have very little choice in where we stay.\

\True enough. We do sort of stick out I suppose,\ Ironhide chuckled.

\So, how long before we start a welcome home party?\ Bumblebee chimed in hopefully.

\I'd like us to spend a few days here recuperating before we make the trek there. Ideally I'd like Bumblebee functional or at least movable before we head out.\ There were six out buildings, each of them spacious and providing cover. If Optimus's long term plans panned out he wanted to be sure there was enough room for them all. \Only one building is habitable by humans, the rest have some dangerous chemical build up that will have to be cleared out in order for Sam or Mikaela to visit us.\

\One building? Are there more than one?\ Bumblebee's optics went round. He wasn't a scout for nothing. When not preoccupied with avoiding Decepticons, his favorite activity was to indulge his curiosity and explore the planets they visited. Had it not been for the war, Prime was sure that his friend would have become a well traveled explorer or scientist. Bumblebee took great pleasure in learning about new worlds and different cultures. Even though the majority of worlds they had visited were less than accommodating and sometimes actively aggressive, he always found time to marvel over its individual features and mourn the fact that he could not fully examine them.

\There are six buildings that still stand, roughly half of what was once there. They housed the human's facilities for fabricating the steel and the storage of it. The buildings are large enough for us to stand upright comfortably and enough cover for us no matter the time of day.\ Optimus paused, watching Bee's excitement build. He rolled his optics at the younger mech, \You can explore at your leisure, provided you have any time for leisure. We're going to have our work cut out for us making it habitable even for us. Not to mention secure against Decepticons and the occasional curious human.\

\And the Ark?\

\Ah,\ Optimus stumbled in his speech, how to proceed? \I was planning on having it land and hide on one of this system's planets, in case we needed it again… After I send a beacon.\

A chorus of surprised comms slammed into his receptors at once. Inwardly, Prime flinched. He had been expecting such a reaction. He waited until they were done voicing various protests or cautions about such action and then spoke, \Too long have we wandered. This is our home now and it is open to any other of our wayward Autobot brethren.\

\But... But the humans, the danger to them!\ sputtered Bumblebee.

\Starscream.\ stated Ironhide darkly.

\I know.\ Prime sighed and prepared to explain his full opinions on the situation, \There's a chance that with Megatron gone, Starscream will simply return to claim his place as Decepticon leader. It could take hundreds of human years for him to claim this title, depending on how many he must fight for it. Starscream may have been one of Megatron's Lieutenants, but he was not the only one. All that kept the other 'cons following him this entire time is that the majority of them believed that Megatron would return. Now that he is not...\

Ratchet chuckled, \He may go back to find them ready to pluck his wings off and toss him for scrap.\

\If Shockwave is still out there, you can bet on it,\ Bumblebee shuddered at the name of one of the most dreaded Decepticons still alive. He feared Shockwave almost as much as he feared Megatron. Starscream was powerful and cunning, but he was prone to fits of jealousy and delusions of grandeur. It tended to keep him busy juggling compliments and beatings so that he stayed in a position of absolute fear and respect. Shockwave, on the other hand, ran solely on logic. While all the denizens of Cybertron came on-line with basic programming and then developed from there, there were many that chose to develop just their logic. The Autobots had several such bots, including Prowl, one of Prime's lieutenants and leader of another team searching for the allspark. But while the sleek bot had chosen to continuously upgrade his logic, his emotional contents did not suffer without upgrade as well. He still felt emotion the same as any other bot but his logic was definitely the dominant side of his personality.

Shockwave did not have this balance. It was rumored that he had actually removed those parts of him that made his emotions possible. Even Soundwave, one of the other extremely logic driven Decepticons, still had emotions. He collected and seemingly protected the smaller bots to his own ends and had been known to, on rare occasion, lose his temper with them or other 'cons. Shockwave had never lost his temper. Instead he had simply destroyed any who did not follow his orders if he felt that was the best logical path.

Bumblebee gazed down at his new friends. While both had shown an incredible amount of bravery, he was still painfully aware of their kind's fragility. They didn't have armor so thick that a simple shot from a Decepticon gun, even at long range, wouldn't completely obliterate them. The guns that could actually damage the cons were in the hands of only the military, not the average person. How could they protect themselves if the Decepticons decided to follow the beacon to earth? Prime could feel the mech's despair, \Sending out a beacon to the other Autobots will not change the Decepticon's decision to come back for us. Starscream knows where we are, the Nemesis has the location in its nav-com. We must operate on vigilance and the idea that they will return someday.\

\But the temptation of the shard and of us being here?\ begged Bumblebee. He wanted to stay with Sam, but not at the risk of this planet. He didn't want to see the 'cons destroy another world.

Ironhide turned a sharp look at the camero, \Would you rather them come anyway and it be just us here? Or would your rather have them come and find the world bristling with Autobots ready to meet them head on? And maybe have a little peace and quiet in the meantime?\

Bumblebee looked at the weapon's expert. Ironhide was right. This world was in danger from the moment the allspark had crashed into it. With their incredibly long lifetimes it was inevitable that the Cybertronian searchers would eventually find their way to this tiny, backwards, young planet and its inhabitants. The humans stood a much better chance if the Autobots were here to help look after it, even if they did it from behind the scenes.

\Tonight I will climb to the top of the dam and send the message to the Ark myself\ Perhaps it was premature, but Prime wanted to get the beacon off as soon as possible. There were things that he could be patient for, but this was not one of them. If he didn't need to be in his robot mode to be able to send the clearest message to the Ark, he would have raced up to the top of the peaks to do it now in broad daylight. After four million years he could all the Autobots to return to a home where they could live together again. Four million years is a long time to go without seeing your friends and family, even for a sentient robot.

Chapter 3

The bin was not quiet. The workers were coming and going like clockwork, throwing damaged parts into the giant metal trailer for disposal. No one noticed that one of those parts was a double and that it began to squirm and move toward the top of the trailer every time no one was looking.

Twice in as many days Frenzy had received the pleasure of having his head separated from his body. Once by a wild human girl and a miniature chainsaw and once by his own fragging disks. The disk had cut right through his head, destroying much of it, but his spark was, amazingly, still intact. Of all the Decepticons that had left with Starscream, Frenzy had the highest repair skill. He was often able to take parts from other dead 'cons and repair himself with them, not having to wait for a proper medic or his own intrinsic regenerative properties to kick in. It wasn't like there were many Decepticon medics to begin with. By their very nature the Decepticons did not look after each other.

With effort he drug himself out of the bin and onto the ground, transforming into the last thing he'd scanned, the human girl's phone. He felt silly, laying here in a military base as a phone covered in rhinestone hearts, but there wasn't anything small enough to scan around that someone would not just throw back in the bin.

Frenzy's patience won out as one of the workers picked up the phone on his way back to the dam.

He brandished it to his fellows, asking if they knew who's it was. After some deliberating, one of them promised to return it to the building's lost and found, thinking that somehow someone had dropped it and it'd gotten thrown away. The man went to the building, watched the other workers, then darted over to his car, throwing the cellphone in. It was brand new. If some silly teenager was going to just drop it somewhere, she obviously wasn't ready for the responsibility of having it. The man at the pawn shop that he knew might be able to find someone who would appreciate a nice phone more. He knew that he would appreciate whatever money he could get for the phone, rhinestones and all.