For The Race.

Chapter Seven.

Sam took one step, then another, and then another, wobbling as Ironhide held her hands and gently backed off, never pulling and never moving too fast for his unsteady charge.

Sam was in Ratchet's med bay, feeling refreshed after her recharge. Both she and Ironhide (who had been standing by the recharge booth when Sam awoke) agreed it was time that she learned how to walk in her new body.

"You're doing great, Sam." the big weapons specialist encouraged.

"It's embarrassing, it's like being a baby again." said Sam.

"No, Sam, it's not quite the same thing." Mikaela said from somewhere around Sam's chest level: Mikaela had been placed on Ratchet's main operating table, the floor deemed too unsafe for her while Sam was still so unsteady on her feet.

"Human babies have to develop muscle tone and then learn everything from scratch. You know the theory, you just need to get used to your new shape and size. On that subject, while we're here, you're going through not much more than many human women do when they get pregnant, which alters their centre of gravity, and they cope, so you will."

"Human women don't go from zero to nine months in the space of a few hours-whoops!" Sam said, fairly good naturedly, as she took a step and only Ironhide's hold on her hands kept her upright.

"This is ridiculous!" she said, less good-naturedly, as Ironhide pulled her up so she could regain her footing.

"Think of it as like riding a bike." Mikaela said. "It's all about balance!"

"Learning to do that took me weeks!" Sam retorted.

"It shouldn't take that long, some of it should come naturally to you, you're not on an unfeeling piece of metal unconnected to your body, your feet and legs are full of sensors." Ratchet, who was stood nearby, commented. "Try and imagine you're just walking like normal, you may be trying too hard."

Sam felt like saying something rude, but managed to hold her vocal processor in check: they were all just trying to help.

"Sam, just think, once you've got the hang of this, you can learn to transform, and then we can go out on the road together, to race each other. I can show you lots of neat driving tricks, and how to make the best of your alt-form." said Bumblebee, who was also stood in the med bay.

Sam had to admit that the idea of getting to that stage was good, but first she had to get there. Then she was beginning to overbalance again, but this time managed to regain her equilibrium with just a light pushing against Ironhide's hands.

"Well done! Seven steps before losing your balance that time, and you regained it with minimal help!" Ironhide said. "At some point it'll be as natural as it always was for you. Remember when Sideswipe brought you over to us after rescuing you from Starscream? You were managing it then, albeit stumbling and slipping, both because you had to, and because you weren't thinking about it."

Two hours later, Sam had to admit she had made progress. She was now walking beside Ironhide, who was holding just one of her hands. Her stumbling was reduced to a minimum, and she had only totally lost her balance once.

"Rest for a bit, then we'll get you walking between two bars to hold on to." said Ratchet. "In the meantime, Ironhide and I have been discussing some ideas to help you defend yourself better. Without altering your centre of gravity and mass too much, we think we can install two new pieces of weaponry; a weak electro-magnetic pulse generator, and sharp bladed weapons in your lower arms. Both would be used for close-range, if you were close to, or in contact with, your foes. For longer range defence, your cannons will help you keep enemies at bay, and Ironhide has ideas to increase the power of your cannons, and teach you how best to use them."

"We'll discuss that once you've had some fuel and a rest." Ironhide said. Sam nodded: she had no arguments about that. The sitting around was frustrating, but she was also frustrated at having to learn the art of walking again. Ironhide got her some fuel, showing her how to feed it into an intake valve on one side of her abdomen.

"Can't I just drink it through my mouth?" Sam asked. He was sure he'd seen them all intake fuel this way, at least once.

"Sure, if you want to waste some of the energy, and get inebriated in the process." said Ironhide with a grin. "I don't think it's do much for your balance and concentration, though. It's fun to take it that way, but we all fuel through the lower intake valve before doing anything involving using energy but needing co-ordination - like driving, or going into battle."

"Okay, point taken." said Sam. She giggled as she felt her abdominal tank getting full: it was an odd, tickling sensation. Ironhide stopped pouring it in.

"When it tickles, it means it's full. That's when you stop." Ironhide advised her, turning the lever to close the valve.

"Now, Sam, while you rest, I can offline you, and put in those extra weapons we were talking about. Is that okay by you?" asked Ratchet.

"Yeah, that's fine." Sam said, standing and walking over to Ratchet's main operating table: as he reached it, he swayed and grabbed on to it for balance.

"Hey, Sam, well done, you just walked five or six steps with no support at all till you got here!" said Mikaela, who was stood on the operating table. Ratchet gently lifted and put Mikaela down, and helped lift Sam up on to it: the table was mounted at Ratchet's waist level, and as Sam was smaller even than Bumblebee, that put the table level with her chest.

Sam lay back as Ratchet's practiced fingers located and pressed her offline button: everything went fuzzy and then she was aware no more.

Awareness returned, and apart from the fact that Mikaela was asleep on one of Ratchet's instrument shelves, and the shadows in the room had changed, Sam might otherwise have thought no time had passed at all. Except, that was…

Except that something in her body and arms felt different. She sat up, lifting her hands up. Her hands and arms didn't look any different, except maybe some slightly larger gaps at the wrist plate edges.

"Imagine you have knives in there." Ironhide told Sam. "Now imagine them coming out, and flex your wrists a bit. Sam did, and was astonished to see a half-meter-long, double-edged blade come out of each side of each of her wrists, one below the thumb, one from below the outer edge of her hand on the other side.

The blades were curved, the points almost parallel to her arms.

"The outer edges there can be used to slash, if you strike outwards or upwards, the inner edges can be used to pierce and gouge if you strike down and then pull in or down." Ironhide said. "Now, imagine them retracting." Sam did, and they did just that.

"That's how you use them." he explained. "Call on them in that way if you need them, put them away when you don't. I will instruct you in use of your EMP device now."

Ironhide moved forwards, grabbing Sam by the shoulders.

"Imagine you have lightning running through you and direct it in your mind at me." he said. Sam did so, and suddenly Ironhide crumpled to the ground. Ratchet moved over, ran a device over him, and pressed twice on Ironhide's online button. Ironhide looked up.

"It is not strong enough to kill most Cybertronians-but it will temporarily offline most of them for a time. Cybertronians are not as EMP sensitive as Earth mechanisms, but we all have a in-built EMP detector that automatically offlines the systems for a few minutes if an electro-magnetic pulse above a certain strength is detected, to prevent active systems taking damage." Ironhide explained. "It is a simple and non-lethal, but effective defence mechanism against close-contact, and should protect you from anything not shielded against such attacks."

"If it's so effective, why don't you all have these EMP devices?" asked Sam.

"If we did, the Decepticons would only build in shielding against them, and we would lose any advantage this gave to any of our soldiers." Ironhide explained. "If we use them sparingly, only for those who might really need their protection, it is not worth it to the Decepticons to provide all their soldiers with the shielding-which does slightly reduce speed, any extra armouring does. We always gave them to children who ended up with us, and to our femmes-Elita-One, Arcee, Moonracer, Firestar…" he sighed. "….and Chromia."

"Who's Chromia?" asked Sam, for there was something of regret and sorrow in Ironhide's tone.

"Chromia was a beautiful, lithe femme I befriended within the Autobot forces." Ironhide told Sam, his optics dimming with what Sam realised was grief. "She helped me get over the death of my first partner, the mech I told you about earlier."

"Chromia and I always said we'd raise a Sparkling or three when the war was over." he continued. "I haven't heard any news of her since we got separated, or of any of the others, for that matter. It is highly likely that they are all dead, or avoiding other Cybertronians for the reasons Ratchet explained to you earlier." He sighed again.

"Optimus must know how I feel about Chromia, but he keeps himself strong for us all. Elita-One - the leader of a team that hunted down Decepticons, the best team there was, and all the team members were femmes - was Optimus' Spark-mate, she saved his life once, almost died herself to do it. A bond forged that strong is rarely broken by anything less than the death of one or both partners. Optimus remains hopeful that she lives - he says he'd know if she died - and I'd like to hope that that is true, but the longer we go not hearing anything from them or about them, the less likely it is that they either live, or are in any fit state to come and find us." Then he seemed to straighten up.

"That is the past now, and we cannot focus on what is gone, we must focus on what can and will be. Ratchet has fixed you up some bars, come, walk and lean on me, let's see if we can't have you walking unassisted within the next twelve hours." Ironhide tried to get up, only succeeding on the third try. He smiled sadly at Sam. "See why that device is so useful against an unshielded opponent?" he asked. Sam nodded.

Ironhide grinned suddenly." If Chromia had some spare time, and if I was doing something non urgent, and she thought I was working too hard, she'd use her EMP device on me, and then, while I was helpless to resist - not that I would have tried to resist much anyway - she'd set about relaxing me in the most effective way imaginable. We got no Sparklings from those liaisons - she was careful to take precautions - but she knew just how to ease my troubles, and oh, Primus, she was good!" Sam smiled herself as she saw Ironhide's optics flare briefly at the obviously pleasant memories he was recalling.

Ironhide walked Sam over to the bars, and Sam was determined to try and walk within the time Ironhide had specified. Sam had seen the earlier despair in Ironhide's optics, and she wanted to give him some sort of hope.

If Ironhide was right, then Sam may be the only femme left alive.

If that was the case, she was the Autobot's last hope.