Civilians
He that is not open to conviction, is not qualified for discussion. --Richard Whately
Chapter Four: Open to conviction
The technical challenges of restoring war torn Cybertron were only overcome by steady, meticulous effort. Each system had to be repaired, tested, and calibrated before it could be integrated with the whole. Frequently repairs on one area, most notably the power supply infrastructure, had to be halted while all of the peripheral systems were re-inspected and repaired following a catastrophic failure. The process could not be rushed. Maintaining patience and focus in the face of imminent disaster became a hallmark of the Autobot technicians.--The Prime Interregnum: Cybertron in Stasis, Cybertronia Datafile 137-2663
The struts in Codex's right ankle were indeed broken, creating a tangled mess of fragments that had eventually sawed a gash in her hydraulic line. The depressurized hydraulic system had caused the limp. Perceptor "tsked" absently at the damage as he switched off her pain sensors before draining the accumulated fluid and applying a patch to seal the ruptured hose.
"You should not re-pressurize this system until your self-repair seals that line properly," he said, moving on to disconnect and remove the broken shards of her ankle substructure. "It will be completely functional again in ten orns. Until that time, you are not to use that limb for locomotion. And no transforming. Do you understand?"
"No walking, no transforming," she said and smirked. "It's not like I have anywhere to go for a while, anyway. I can still work though, right?"
"At sedentary tasks, yes," Perceptor said.
The tough bottom surface of her foot was scored through, further evidence of her barely controlled slide down the access tunnel ladder. He would have to replace it as well as the broken internal struts. It was amazing how quickly the damage compounded itself in this type of injury. Thankfully, neither Codex nor Blaster had sustained any injuries from the Seekers' weapons. Structural damage was bad enough, but combat wounds could destroy whole systems; forcing a cascade of interlocking failures that would wipe a mech's memory core and extinguish his Spark. Only an extremely talented medic, like Ratchet, was quick and confident enough to halt such a process in time. Perceptor was a capable, even brilliant, technician but he did not possess the right temperament to be a combat medic. He worked his way meticulously through the repairs, cautiously avoiding the temporary patch on the weak hydraulic line.
"Well, I'm not permitted to go out with the teams anyway," Codex said after a moment's thought. "So I can use my time to catch up on indexing those records we found on the Nova Cronum lab's mainframe. Do we have a small maglev-sled I can use to get around?"
"I sent Blaster to go through the supplies and locate one," Perceptor replied.
"I thought he looked preoccupied with something when he left. I guess I wasn't paying too much attention," Codex said.
"Understandable. Your injury was not as severe as I had feared, but the pain alerts were putting a substantial strain on your processor. You really should recharge and go offline. It will jump start the repair process," Perceptor said as he removed the damaged portion of her foot with a laser cutter.
"And it will stop me distracting you while you work." she said.
"That as well," he replied.
"I assure you, I'm as ready for recharge as I've ever been, but I wanted to speak with you alone first. Confidentially," she said, with a meaningful look towards the closed door of the lab.
"I appear to be accumulating confidences of late," he said wryly.
"Perhaps the only disadvantage to being trustworthy," she said with a gentle smile. "In any case, I trust you realize that we face a serious crisis right now."
"Indeed I do."
"And you know that our leader is demoralized, and is generally unlikely to take strong action unless provoked," Codex said.
Perceptor hadn't realized that Codex disapproved of Elita-One's defensive stance. It must be the result of Blaster's influence. "I agree that our leader is disinclined to seek conflict at any time," he said.
"A lot can be done without fighting," Codex said. "I'm not saying we should be looking to fight. The word is going to get out that Megatron is still alive, if it hasn't already. Most of the Autobots here are going to assume, like I did, that Megatron's return is a clear sign of the Ark Autobots' deaths. Someone is going to have to find out for sure, and I don't think Elita is willing to do it."
"So, what does this have to do with you?" Perceptor asked, tightening the last new strut in place and gently testing each connection.
"With us. You said you think the Autobots are still alive. I know you don't believe in intuition, so what special evidence do you have to make you think so?" she asked.
"I simply applied logic to the limited facts we have," he said. "Megatron is functional somewhere and has been so long enough to accumulate and transport a substantial quantity of energon to Cybertron. This means he has the ability, and presumably the desire, to return here but for some reason he is unwilling to do so. As Alpha Trion elucidated to me earlier, Optimus Prime is the only Autobot capable of containing and directing Megatron's primary attention. If Megatron has not returned to Cybertron, then something more important must be keeping him where he is. That thing, logically, must be the continued resistance of Optimus Prime and at least some of his force."
"Why haven't they contacted us then?" Codex cried in exasperation. "That all sounds good, but why have the Decepticons been able to reestablish contact, and we haven't?"
"The Decepticons possess an asset the Autobots do not," he explained patiently. "Soundwave is one Cybertronian with sufficient skills and capabilities to broadcast from that distance. Blaster could also do it as well, but he would require a signal booster, the coordinates of the Autobots current location and the Ark's reception/transmission frequencies. We have the frequencies and I believe you have the coordinates."
"If we can assume that the Autobots and Decepticons are on the same planet," she said.
"I am certain that is also a logical conjecture," Perceptor said with a smile as he sealed up her leg. "Due to our current situation of détente, we no longer have control over any of the surface equipment, to include the communications hub at Polyhex. Therefore we have no access to the signal boosting equipment necessary to send or receive a transmission to a galactic target. The Ark Autobots may have been sending us messages for vorns, but without the tower, we will never known about them."
"So why did you oppose Blaster's plan to go up before?" she asked as he turned to put his tools away. He was surprised at her question.
"As I said at the time, I did not consider the risk to be equivalent to the potential value of the information you would have gathered. When Blaster proposed his plan we had no new evidence to consider. Now, of course, the situation is substantially different."
"Oh," she said quietly.
"You were rash, and you especially should know to be more cautious," he admonished her. "But what you did was brave. I expect that Elita-One will take increased precautions, given your information. I anticipate that she will pull everyone back to Iacon at some point. But she will not do it this orn. We have some time to devise and carry out an intelligence gathering mission before we are called back to Iacon."
"You weren't just joking about that?" she asked, sliding her legs around and sitting on the edge of the med berth.
"Certainly not," he said. "I agree that the time has come for decisive action. We are not fighters…"
"Blaster is," she broke in. "He's fast and strong. And he keeps calm. With a little combat training, he'll be really good."
"I'm not a fighter and neither are you," Perceptor countered. "And we're certainly not equipped to train him. Elita will not consider it until he's served his punishment, and we don't have that much time. So, for all practical purposes, we're not fighters."
"True," she mused.
"Therefore we must apply what talents we do possess to the problem," he said thoughtfully. "We have to think our way through this situation to avoid conflict. And we will not be proceeding until you are fully operational again."
"All right, I get the point," she groused, shifting back to recline again. "I'll go offline."
"Before you do, run a self-diagnostic and restore your pain receptors. I want to make sure I dealt with all of the damage," he said, casting a clinical eye over her supine form.
Her optics flickered briefly and she winced and twitched slightly as the diagnostic program tested her servos and relays. She lifted and flexed her newly repaired leg. After a few astroseconds she said, "Everything checks out. My hydraulic system is low, but I'll get more fluid after I come back online. You did a good job, Medic Perceptor."
"I'll be sure to have some hydraulic fluid here for you when you do. Rest now, Codex. The Autobots are functional. We'll find them," he said gently, laying his hand on the brow of her helm. He watched as her optics dimmed and her system cycled into deep recharge. Then he turned to his workstation and pulled up the plans of the recently repaired power grid. Cupping his chin in his hand, he began to make notes on a datapad as he scanned through the softly glowing images.
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When Codex came back online she was surprised to see Blaster sitting in Perceptor's place at the data station. There was no sign of the scientist, but he had remembered to leave her a container of hydraulic fluid as well as a sealed mug of energon on the long edge of the repair berth. Blaster turned and rose when he heard her shift and slide to sit up.
"How long was I offline?" she asked, snagging the containers and opening the energon first. She took a sip, savoring the glowing fluid as it evaporated in static tingles through her recharge system.
"Almost an entire orn," Blaster replied, stepping to the side of the berth. "I've only been online about a cycle myself."
"Where's Perceptor?" she asked.
"He took the sled I found to Steelblade. It had a faulty motivator, but Perce is sure there's one in the stores to replace it."
"If there is, he'll find it," she said, finishing off the energon and reaching for the container of hydraulic fluid. She opened a port on her hip and slotted the feed tube of the container in place. With a hiss and a gurgling sound, its contents were drawn into her system. She sat up straight and flexed her arms and shoulders to redistribute the fluid throughout her body.
"How're you feeling?" asked Blaster, with an anxious look.
"Stiff, but less sore, I'm off my feet for a few orns, though. Time to regroup, I guess," she replied.
"As much as you can regroup two Autobots," he said with a chuckle.
"Three, Blaster," she corrected. "Perceptor says he's going in with us on this."
Blaster frowned, brow creasing above his visor. "I don't trust him. He turned us in. He'll pretend to go along with our plans and then tell Elita-One everything."
"He won't do that, Blaster," Codex said.
"How do you know?" he asked sourly. "Percy loves things like they are. He likes hiding. He's scared."
"I'm scared," Codex said hotly. "And you should be too. Anyway, we turned ourselves in, remember? And you didn't tell Perceptor that your plan was a secret or that we were going to sneak out to do it when you told him all about it. He's very smart. Can you really blame him for putting the pieces together?"
"No," mutter Blaster sullenly.
"Right, so when Elita-One found out that we were missing and asked Perceptor if he knew where we went, should he have lied to her? To our Commander?" she asked, indignant.
"No," he admitted. Blaster looked down at her, crossing his arms and glowering behind his visor. He looked very stern. Was he trying to intimidate her? Well, it wasn't going to work.
"And now, knowing that Elita will most likely throw him in the brig with us when she finds out, he still offered to help. Perceptor may be picky and a bit tiresome, but he's not a liar. If he wasn't going to support us, he'd tell us, so stop slagging on him," she concluded loudly.
In the long moment of silence that followed her statement she looked down, suddenly intently focused on removing the canister from her hip. She hadn't meant to shout at Blaster, but Perceptor's calm logical confidence was more believable than the younger Autobot's bluster right now. They had done wrong. They had been punished, and worse, had hurt their Commander. They were planning to break the rules again, to expose themselves to attack or punishment and imprisonment by their own allies, all for proof.
She needed proof. She needed to know that their perseverance had been more than blind mechanical routine. The Ark had borne away the Spark of the Autobot cause. She would do anything to return it to them, to herself. Blaster needed to understand, to accept Perceptor as an ally in the search for evidence. They were only going to be able to do this together.
She looked up into Blaster's visored optics. "I shouldn't have shouted. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry I slagged on Perceptor. You're right. He wouldn't lie to us," he said, holding her gaze. "But I'm still not sure if he's up to this."
"Sneaking around is not his particular strength," she admitted. "But he's a quick learner."
"He's going to complicate things," Blaster said, shaking his head. "He's big and awkward like me, and he gets wrapped up in thinking too much."
"Maybe, but he can fix practically anything and he knows a lot more about the surface systems than either you or I do," she countered. "He was talking about coming up with a plan to use our talents to avoid fighting."
"That sounds like him," Blaster smirked.
"I don't think his plan could be any worse than ours was," she said.
"Let's hope not," he said ruefully, then suddenly. "I'm sorry you were damaged. I feel responsible."
"It was my own fault, trying to play the hero. I'm not built for dramatic escapes," she said, shaking her head at her own stupidity.
"I'd understand if you don't want to go," he said gently, moving close to lean in and look at her scraped and scuffed leg.
"Blaster," she said and then paused. Did he think she'd freak out again? Maybe he didn't want her to go. Would it be better to stay behind? Going up again would be scary enough, but staying down here, sensor blind to their condition, would be a million times worse. She couldn't remain behind. "I want to go with you."
He sagged slightly with relief and straightened back up. "I'm glad. I don't want to do this without you."
"Perceptor says I'll be back on my feet in ten, wait--nine now--orns. Long enough to lull everyone else into a false sense of security, don't you think?" she asked with a wicked grin.
"Codex, that's practically Decepticon thinking," Blaster teased. "You know we Autobots are always honest and forthright with one another."
"Blaster, my friend, you have definitely been living underground for too long," she said, laughing.
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The ten orns of Codex's recuperation passed quickly. Steelblade and the others at the Nova Cronum station had listened to Codex's formal account of their excursion and her and Blaster's guilty apology and accepted both more or less gracefully. The news of Megatron's confirmed survival and mysterious whereabouts was the primary topic of conversation. The Nova Cronum team quickly decided that, while they didn't particularly like the information, they were better off knowing what was going on with their enemies.
Each of the technicians mourned the assumed loss of the Ark in their own way. Steelblade was stoically grave, while Flange started working on plans for a memorial. Arcdriver became moody and withdrawn. Out of respect, Perceptor and Codex kept their private theories to themselves. Blaster wasn't sure what he felt. He hadn't known the Ark's crew, but he felt bad for his friends in their sorrow. He hoped for their sake, if nothing else, that Perceptor's theory proved to be true. He was even more determined to get back up to the surface and find out.
The coordinates retrieved by Codex were made common knowledge to all the Autobots, but a thorough search of the records revealed little about the mystery planet except that it was the rocky third planet of a system orbiting a distant mid-range star. A preliminary scientific expedition had been sent there before the war, but no account of their findings was on file; even the names of the team members had been lost, a not uncommon fate for information originally stored in the Cybertronian Archive. The Decepticons had raided and stripped it early in the war. Codex and her colleagues escaped with what fragments they could, but it would never again be what it once was.
Due to their punishment, Codex and Blaster were absent from a mass meeting on the third orn after their return. Perceptor attended, however, and returned with a sobering report. Elita-One had indeed decided to consolidate the Autobot forces at Iacon. She was granting them a generous thirty orns to conclude their work and stand down the repair stations. It was explained that this schedule could and would be stepped up if there was any news of Decepticon reinforcements. The combat teams had been put on high alert and stationed at listening posts near the surface. They were monitoring all the broadcasts they could intercept. In addition, Elita-One had ordered the last of the Autobot shuttles to be prepared for launch from Iacon's hidden shuttle bay. If the Decepticons did return in force, she would order the total evacuation of Cybertron.
"I never thought she'd be willing to just give up," said Blaster sadly as they sat together in Perceptor's lab to hear the news.
"How did she look, Perceptor?" Codex asked.
"Tired. Chromia and Firestar were keeping very close to her during the meeting and she did not stay to answer many questions. Powerglide, the warrior from the Altihex team…"
"The one Moonracer likes?" asked Codex.
"She does? I didn't realize," the scientist said in surprise. "Anyway, he asked if there was any news about the Ark and that essentially ended the meeting right there. Elita-One said there was no news about the Ark and then she exited the room. As soon as she left, everyone fell to arguing. From what I observed, the majority of Autobots have concluded that the Ark has been destroyed. They're willing to leave Cybertron and try to regroup at one of the colonies if Megatron returns. But there's a small contingent, (including Alpha Trion, I might add) who are determined to stay, even if it means defying a direct order to evacuate. The warriors came out and dispersed everyone after about a quarter-cycle of debate. I left then, but the talk was continuing, albeit more informally."
"Why didn't you tell them what you told me, Perceptor?" asked Codex. "Did you talk to Elita at all?"
"I am reluctant to share my hypothesis in light of such minimal evidence," Perceptor said. "Elita-One is facing enough challenges to her leadership right now, and my theory may prove to be false. Her current strategy presents the best scenario for survival. We need all the intelligence we can gather before we try to make a stand here."
"I agree we need good information," said Blaster, emphatically. "I guess this means you're throwing in with us, doesn't it Perceptor?"
"Indeed," the scientist confirmed. "Once Codex is fully functional again I am prepared to go."
"I'm glad," Codex said. "We will need to be twice as cautious now. Both the Autobots and Decepticons will be watching for trouble. We could get caught in something very bad if we're not careful."
"I am certain that a good plan will allow us to circumvent any difficulties that arise," said Perceptor pulling up a map on his data station screen. "I have modified your original route to take advantage of tunnels that are in better repair. We'll come up closer to the Communications Tower and in a different part of the sector. That should confuse any Decepticon who might be waiting for us to re-emerge from the transit station."
Blaster looked at the screen and smiled. "Perceptor, I'm glad you're on our team."
"Me too," said Codex. "I can't wait to get back and bring Elita-One some good news."
"She will still discipline us for it," Perceptor said solemnly, "Most likely with time in the brig."
"If this trip is anything like the last one," Blaster quipped. "I'll welcome the rest."
The three conspirators laughed as they turned together and studied the softly glowing map on the screen.
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Author's Note:
I apologize for the delay with this chapter. I had originally thought to just have a little interstitial chapter of dialogue here, but I needed to tie up some loose ends before we went on. It's a breathing space for everyone. The next chapter is moving along more quickly, so I should be able to get it posted pretty soon. Thanks for reading.
--Coraxonyx