Chapter 3

When Optimus Prime stepped out of the ground bridge to meet Starscream for the second time at his side was the red and white figure of the Autobot medic instead of the endlessly irritating loudmouth. The extreme satisfaction Starscream felt seeing his plan come together so seamlessly, and with so few snags, engendered a potent urge to bounce on his toes in glee. He resisted the impulse…just barely.

Once he'd handed over the coordinates for the first energon reserve matters moved quickly, with Starscream supplying a time and local for the meeting with the medic. He made certain to emphasize that if the Autobots did not make the meet they needn't bother scouting out the location again to look for him as he would be long gone. Starscream had several bolt holes scattered across the planet and would not return to this one once his business with the Autobots was concluded.

"Optimus," he hailed, using the familiar. "I hope you found the energon cache was of the quality and quantity I promised."

"Obviously," the medic grumbled, stepping further from the mouth of the vortex, a sturdy potable carry case in one hand. "We're here aren't we?"

Before he could take another step further toward Starscream Prime stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "A moment please, Ratchet, I'd like to take a look around before you get started."

Masking his irritation at the blatant distrust Starscream smiled and bowed low, sweeping an arm out in invitation. What the big blockhead thought Starscream would gain from staging an elaborate charade only to attack them once he'd given up the energon was anyone's guess. And he thought Megatron was paranoid.

"Please feel free. You'll find none of my weapons systems or defenses online, as promised."

While Prime prowled around the cave, scanning what little equipment and gear Starscream had scattered about, the medic stood impatiently across from him a frown fixed firmly on his face.

"I'm so glad you decided to come and offer your services," Starscream attempted to break the ice. "Ratchet, correct?"

Ratchet snorted. "I'm here because Optimus asked me to come."

"Asked or ordered? Not that it matters," Starscream continued quickly before the other had a chance to respond, "because you need that energon."

A grunt was his only reply.

He was hardly going to be put off by a bit of standoffishness. He was used to interacting with Soundwave for Primus' sake; one surly medic wasn't going to be much of a problem.

"And I supplied you with the energon," he reminded him, "with more in the future if you do your job. Think of it as house call if you wish."

"I never performed house calls back on Cybertron, hated them."

"Oh? Why was that?"

Ratchet looked to him pointedly. "I don't have the patience to coddle spoiled mechs who like to waste my precious time, making me gallivant all over the place."

Opening his mouth to respond Starscream was cut off by Prime's return.

"Everything looks alright. You can start your examination whenever you like, Ratchet."

At that Starscream cleared his throat. "Speaking of which. Seeing as you've established that there is no danger to either of you here, would it be too much trouble if Ratchet conducted his examination in the antechamber." Attempting to look sheepish he threw in a small shrug. "Privacy and all that."

Prime looked to the medic questioningly, leaving the decision up to him. Little did either of them know that Starscream's entire operation hinged on his response.

"Fine," Rather sighed. "Let's get this over with." He motioned to the smaller chamber off to the right, "after you my retiring flower."

"You realize you have the bedside manner of a fusion cannon, don't you?" Starscream threw over his shoulder as he preceded him.

"I thought we'd already established this," Ratchet pointed out as he surveyed the small room.

There was an exam berth set up in the corner, laying on an angle, as well as a crude white noise generator sitting nearby, already whirring. It would mask normal conversation from anyone outside the room but wouldn't prevent any loud noises from filtering out.

"True, but I'd thought you'd like to know that this is going in my report."

"There's a report involved is there?" Ratchet asked absently as he pulled over a small trolley with which he could set his tool case.

"Of course! I told Optimus I would provide you with the second energon stash only if you performed to my satisfaction, so be aware, I'm taking notes."

"Is this really how you want to talk to the mech who's going to be rooting around your processor in a few moments?"

Starscream could not help but grin. "Good point."

"Why don't you lie down so we can get started?"

Nodding his agreement Starscream made his way over to the berth and reclined onto its surface.

"How about you start by giving me an idea of what the problem is, that way I'll have a better idea of what relays to check when I do my scans."

Starscream stared at the rocky ceiling above them for a moment in contemplation. He'd thought a great deal about what symptoms he would tell the medic he was experiencing, and settled more or less on the truth.

"I've recently had an onset of old data bursts."

"How old?"

"Very," Starscream supplied dryly. "Pre-schism old."

Ratchet pursed his mouth in thought. "How long after you set out on your own did this start to happen?"

Starscream focused his gaze derisively at his companion. "I know what you're thinking and it's absurd."

Ratchet shrugged. "Seekers are communal. Your core programming hinges on collective links with wing mates, teams. While the aeries are long gone you were part of a unit until very recently."

"I am not going mad," Starscream asserted, then heaved a heavy sigh. "Just patch in with my maintenance port, you'll see what I mean, it's happening right now."

Ratchet straightened abruptly, making to grab a scanner from his case. "Visual hallucinations? Auditory?"

"Neither," Starscream retracted the hatch to the maintenance docks on the side of his chest. "Plug in and see for yourself, it's what I'm paying for, isn't it?"

Placing his scanner back in the case Ratchet carefully opened his own panel, unwinding his uplink cable.

"I suppose I should be grateful for that white noise generator; if Optimus caught that last line he might start to wonder."

Starscream chuckled, but his mirth was cut short as Ratchet's cable slid home and he stiffened as the connection established itself. It had been a long while since he allowed any medic such liberties. He could feel the other shift through his vitals, then move on to his signal analysis systems. It didn't take him long to come across what Starscream knew he would. He stilled, staring at Starscream in disbelief.

"That's a Cybertronian emergency beacon," he finally forced out.

"Is it now?"

"The signal is synced to you specifically."

"Really?"

"There's nothing wrong with you at all is there?"

"Depends on who you ask."

Ratchet bristled. "Starscream!"

"Not really, no."

Making to tear out the uplink cable the Autobot's hand was stayed by Starscream's own firm grip on his wrist.

Ratchet stared down at where the clawed hand clasped him firmly enough to halt any movement but not so hard as to hurt. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call for Optimus right now and have him rip that offending arm clean off."

"Curiosity."

"What?"

"You're not the least bit curious as to what you're doing here? About where that signal is coming from?"

Ratchet obviously thought about denying it, but only for a moment.

"A little bit," he confessed. "And that was two reasons."

Starscream found himself grinning again.

"If you call for Prime I won't tell you a thing," he said. "You won't get the extra energon and a fellow Cybertronian's life will be a great risk."

Ratchet slumped at that and relaxed enough that Starscream felt confident in releasing his wrist.

"What in the pit is going on?" Ratchet demanded.

"Yesterday I was suddenly bombarded by that emergency beacon. It originates from a mech called Skyfire."

"Never heard of him, and that signal doesn't have either Decepticon or Autobot encryption."

"That's because he isn't a Decepticon or an Autobot. He was a civilian scientist, a long range transport. I was assigned to work with him before the war for some deep space energon exploration. We worked well together," Starscream acknowledged wistfully, "staked out some good prospects."

"I'm sensing a 'but' here."

"But on one mission we ran in to some trouble. Skyfire crashed on the planet we were surveying, its atmosphere was quite unstable. I couldn't find him and his emergency beacon, keyed specifically to me, wasn't transmitting. I didn't have the fuel reserves to stage a prolonged search and was forced to return to Cybertron."

"Why didn't you return for him?" Ratchet demanded.

"Don't you think I tried?" Starscream spat. "I barely made it home, by the time I got back and recovered we'd been written off! The idiotic bureaucrats refused to assign me another long ranger, citing costs. They were cutting their losses! He was most likely dead anyway, they said, why else would the beacon have failed to activate? By then the social upheavals were beginning to pick up and once things blew up I really had more important things on my mind!"

"Until yesterday," Ratchet pointed out.

"Until yesterday. I never even realized this was the same planet; it'd been so long, by the time we returned its celestial markers had changed so much it just didn't register."

"Any guesses as to why the beacon activated now?"

"This is where things get complicated, and why I need your help. I think Skyfire must have crashed in one of the polar zones, or perhaps in the deep ocean, and gone into stasis lock. Powered down to such a degree his emergency beacon probably didn't have enough juice to sustain a signal."

Ratchet tapped a finger to his chin in contemplation. "Possible. The models built for space transport and long haul exploration were specifically designed to endure harsh conditions. If he put his systems to sleep before they sustained any major damage from working in the extreme cold he could have survived all this time."

"Exactly, and now it appears he's been 'thawed' so to speak. I managed to triangulate the signal back to its source. I did some recon, a high altitude fly by, and discovered a human compound isolated in the north eastern corner of this continent. I think he was discovered by those little maggots, hauled to their base, and now the beacon has finally kicked in. It's unlikely they even know its transmitting as it's not a broad band signal."

"We're allied with the humans here," Ratchet pointed out. "We haven't heard anything about a recently uncovered Cybertronian."

Starscream sneered. "Perhaps they don't want you to know. Do you really trust these meat sacks so much that you don't think they keep secrets from you? If they have a chance to dissect one of us, gain knowledge of our technology and physiology, you don't think they're going to leap at the chance. We've seen it before."

"That was M.E.C.H. I trust Agent Fowler; he didn't betray us to YOU after all."

"That's sweet. Sweet, but idiotic. Your Agent Fowler does not head his government, nor any of the countless petty governments plaguing this planet. Considering Megatron's purpose here the humans are undoubtedly developing weapons against us and whoever has Skyfire is human. I don't care of which persuasion."

"You really should be talking to Optimus about this," Ratchet reasoned, sounding slightly uncomfortable.

Starscream rolled his eyes.

"Again, idiotic. If Prime gets involved Megatron's gaze will unwaveringly turn our way. I cannot afford that. Plus the dolt would insist on talking to the humans, sounding them out first, which will only tip them off. If they realize we know they have Skyfire they might discover the signal. If they do that they might be able to disable it and then move him. If that happens we'll never be able to track him down again! Think for once in your life would you!"

"Hey, enough of that!" Ratchet snapped back. "If you didn't want our help then what's the point of this farce?"

"I don't want their help, I want YOUR help," Starscream explained slowly as if speaking to a bot with a sluggish processor.

"What?"

"I'm going to rescue Skyfire. He's survived a crash and prolonged stasis, not to mention whatever the humans are subjecting him to. I need a medic to accompany me. He most likely requires medical attention, might not be able to move without it."

"And you expect me to go off on some secret mission with you without telling Optimus?" Ratchet asked incredulous.

"Yes."

"You're wrong, you are mad."

"Need I remind you some much needed energon hangs in the balance here? I wasn't lying about that, I'll give you the location of the vein once we have Skyfire."

"Are you even listening to yourself?"

"Skyfire's life, an innocent civilian life, is most likely at risk. You're really willing to let the humans tear him apart because you're too stubborn to take some initiative."

Ratchet blinked, cycling air loudly. "You really care for this mech don't you?" he finally asked as if coming to some great realization.

"He was my partner," Starscream pointed out. "He needed me and I couldn't help him. I owe him."

Chuckling lowly to himself Ratchet shook his head. "Obviously I'm the one who needs his head examined."

"I knew you'd see it my way!" Starscream crowed, carefully detaching the uplink and handing it back to the medic.

"Wait a minute now," Ratchet interjected. "There's still one big problem."

"Oh?"

"How do you expect me to pull this off without informing Optimus?"

"Lie of course," Starscream replied as if the answer was obvious.

"Of course."

"Surely you won't have any trouble, he clearly trusts you."

Ratchet winced. "Don't remind me."

"Look, it's quite simple. You go out there and tell him that my repairs are more serious than originally estimated and that you need some extra equipment from your base. That way you can gather what you think you might need to treat Skyfire. Tell him the procedure will be long, tedious, and might take a day, perhaps another to observe my recovery. He really doesn't have to stay, you're confident you can manage, especially since I'll be under for the repairs."

"You've obviously thought about this," Ratchet observed wryly.

"Naturally," Starscream preened, transmitting a set of coordinates. He wouldn't be able to carry both his reluctant assistants to the site, and with time of the essence he just couldn't wait for their woefully inefficient ground based forms to get their afts where they needed to be.

"Okay, but what about possible resistance? I can hold my own, but I'm no heavy hitter."

"Let me worry about that, you just get the supplies and meet me sans dead weight."

Scowling at that, Ratchet gathered up his case. "I'm beginning to see why you spent so much time on the receiving end of Megatron's fist."

Starscream froze. "You really haven't," he said gravely. At Ratchet's startled look he waved a loose hand. "Get going."

TBC