Author's Note: Here I am; please don't hurt me! Sorry for leaving you in suspense, but I had exams to finish. I also had to wrangle the plot bunnies into the corral so I could sort out which belong to this chapter and which don't. They were not cooperating, so it wasn't easy, believe me.

This chapter also gives the answer to what the last, worst trouble will be. So please don't pop from curiousity.

Disclaimer: Only the characters of Ultra Rodimus, Lightfoot, and Falcon belong to me. Shadow belongs to a fellow author and is used with permission. Star Trek: Next Generation and the Transformers belong to really rich people.

Chase the Stars

Chapter 6: Training and Preparing

A day after Q's arrival (and departure), the Enterprise crew and the Autobots once again convened, this time in Captain Picard's ready room. The Autobots were standing or sitting along the wall. Ultra Rodimus sat on the couch, Lightfoot's head in his lap, stroking his pet's soft fur. Picard sat at his desk. The others had brought chairs, and most of them were gathered around the desk. The exception was Data, who had gotten into an animated discussion with Perceptor, involving a heap of tech specs, diagrams, and other bits of tech. The shop talk was flying hard and fast.

"Geeks," Springer muttered.

"If those two ever got near Perceptor's lab we'd never see them again," Magnus observed.

Shadow shifted position slightly, her wings rustling. "Why is it that no scientist or engineer can speak in plain English? Do they always have to use those big, long, fancy words that the rest of us can't understand?"

"Apparently," Hot Spot responded with a chuckle.

Ultra Rodimus rolled his eyes, then looked back at Picard. "Now you have seen me in my real form. Believe me now?"

"Somewhat," Picard answered. He tilted his head. "I could not help but notice that your outer skin looked thicker than I would expect of a robotic life form."

"You mean my exo-armor. It has to be thick. And very durable."

"You are warriors, then," Worf jumped in.

"We are, yes. Because we have to be. Most of us are actually scientists, explorers, and civilians by nature; very few of us were actually built for warfare. If we'd had a choice then none of us would have had to take up a weapon. Unfortunately, we had no such choice. The Decepticons began a war to seize control of our homeworld. We were driven almost to extinction and had no choice but to fight back."

Picard leaned forward. "And now?"

"All new Autobots are built for combat," Magnus replied. "Most of us are warriors. Perceptor, First Aid, Groove, and Sandstorm are the exceptions. The rest of us were built to fight, especially Ultra Rodimus. While he'd rather not fight if it can be avoided, he's among the most powerful warriors we have."

The starship captain rubbed his forehead. "When I was hoping for something to happen this is not what I had in mind," he muttered.

Ultra Rodimus's eyebrows went up. "You wished for something to happen? You know what they say: 'be careful what you wish for...'"

"Indeed. 'You might get it.'"

"If I recall correctly, the phrase 'may you live in interesting times' is considered a very potent curse." Ultra Rodimus tilted his head slightly, leaning back. "Now things are starting to make sense."

"How so?"

"You asked for trouble, and in my experience trouble seems to come in threes. First, we ended up on your ship. Second, Q showed up. That leaves one more opening."

Riker leaned forward. "What might it be?"

A silver eyebrow rose. "You're asking me? I'm new to this dimension; how am I supposed to know? It will most likely be something from this dimension, so it will be something none of us have ever seen. My advice would be to think of the worst thing you can and prepare for that."

There was a moment of silence as the humans and humanoids wracked their brains for ideas. Then Picard inhaled sharply, and all eyes turned to him.

Picard had gone white. He gripped the edge of his desk so hard his knuckles were white.

"Captain?" Troi touched his arm.

"Oh, no," Picard whispered, not even noticing her. "Not them. Please, let it not be them..."

Then he was up out of his chair and through the door onto the bridge. Ice ran down Riker's spine as he realized what Picard was thinking of.

"Care to enlighten us?" Ultra Rodimus asked, looking at them expectantly.

The crewmembers exchanged glances. Then Riker sighed and began to explain to the Autobots everything they knew about a race known as the Borg.

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Several hours later the Autobots (with the exception of Sandstorm, who was with Lightfoot in the quarters he, Ultra Rodimus, and Magnus shared) had taken over an empty cargo bay and turned it into a training arena. Magnus, the D.I., was overseeing the others as they sparred. Perceptor had set up energy fields to catch any stray laser blasts from the makeshift rifle range. The city commander, who knew everything his mate knew about the process of morphing from human to robot and back, was also in charge of teaching them how to morph. All of them had caught on quickly. Ultra Rodimus had taken on a different project.

He was teaching Shadow how to fly.

The Autobot leader had morphed to his robot form, shrank down to human size (a trick he'd mastered some time ago), and transformed to his thunderbird mode. Shadow was slowly getting the hang of it, or at least figuring out how to get her wings to do what she wanted. She had yet to get off the ground.

"Jussst take it easssy," he advised, the hooked beak of his bird form slurring the words. "Push yourrrssself too harrrd and yourrr wing musssclesss will hurrrt forrr daysss."

"You learned that the hard way, I take it," she grunted, trying to synchronize her wingbeats instead of flailing all over the place.

He nodded, watching carefully as she finally managed to get her wings to beat at the same time. She flapped harder and actually rose off the ground. At a height of five feet, however, her concentration slipped and she landed in a heap. Cursing, she climbed back to her feet.

By the time Ultra Rodimus decided she'd done enough for one day, she was managing to make short flights. Unfortunately, landing was still the tricky part, as was maneuvering. She had plenty of bruises from flying into things and crashing when she tried to land.

After another two hours of training, Magnus decided to quit for the day. The other Autobots dragged themselves back to their quarters to clean up, eat, and rest. Some, Ultra Rodimus and Magnus included, paused in the corridor outside the training arena to talk with Picard and some of his officers/security staff, who'd been watching the training. Ultra Rodimus counted heads and came up two short: Mirage and Shadow. He was about to comment on that when an angry screech from the arena interrupted him.

The conversation instantly stopped. Everyone turned back toward the doors. Shadow's angry yells could be clearly heard, as could the sound of Mirage howling in fear and a large number of thuds and crashes.

Ultra Rodimus sighed heavily, face in hand, and muttered something under his breath.

"What?" Picard looked at him.

"Mirage might be the best at scouting and infiltration, but when it comes to females he is utterly hopeless," was the response. Ultra Rodimus shook his head and pounded his fist twice on the closed door. "Let him live, Shadow!"

There was a moment of complete silence from inside. Then the door hissed open. Shadow, her spine as stiff as a pole, eyes blazing with rage, radiating the clear warning "touch and die" from every line of her body, stormed out. The raging thunderstorm hovering over her head was almost visible.

Autobots and Enterprise crewmembers scattered out of her way as she stalked down the corridor and out of sight. No one dared say a word until well after she was out of earshot.

The first person to come out of his stunned trance was Ultra Rodimus. He looked into the arena, then turned to the others. "First Aid, would you mind scraping what's left of Mirage off the floor and seeing what you can salvage?"

"On it." The medic walked past him and into the arena.

"Springer, Arcee."

"Here." The two stepped forward.

"When Mirage is relatively coherent again, you two have a talk with him."

"Why us?" Arcee asked.

"Because Springer successfully courted you, so he know the do's and don't's of dealing with females. You, being female, know what females look for in males, what they will and won't take, and what's really stupid to say to a female. So you two can give him a few pointers and hopefully keep him from getting himself scrapped next time."

They nodded, then went after First Aid. Ultra Rodimus took another look into the arena.

"There goes our repair budget," he muttered as he walked away.

Tbc...

And there's another one down. Next time: warning signs and dodging a pissed-off Shadow. Now send me some reviews and let me know what you think!