Sari and Optimus are having their meeting at the Mars base's Autobot Headquarters. It had been three months since the Cybertron trip with Chandra, and this was their first meeting since their return. Sari had been busy getting herself and Chandra moved into the Lunar Colony, and Optimus had been working on the security beacons.

Work with Nathan in New York City, commuting back and forth from the Lunar Colony had been a smooth transition.

"So, Sari! How did your relocation go?" asked Optimus.

"Everything went great, thanks! I've got a place just down the street from Adam and Mikaela, which is terrific – Julie's a wonderful babysitter in a pinch, and Angie's the best nanny!"

"Does Angie understand that Chandra's not your normal everyday baby? Especially after your visit with Dataminer."

"Oh, yes. She's been around Autobots since she was a girl. When I told her Chandra and I were technorganics, she knew exactly what that meant, and before I could say more, she wondered when Chandra would first try to transform!"

"Sari, that's wonderful! How about your ambassador duties?"

"Nathan's been very supportive. He's been up to the Lunar Colony to help me move in and get us settled. So far, so good," she smiled. "And you've been very busy with the security beacons. How has that been going?"

"Testing's all done on the first third, and work on the next section is about to begin," Optimus said. "As you know, it'll be a 33 stellar cycle project. We're changing out our team, and a new Prime is coming to help lead the crew."

"Anyone I know?"

"Quite possibly," Optimus tried hiding a wry smile.

"What's up with that grin?" she asked. "Who is it?"

"Well, let's just say that at our video conference she jokingly asked me how 'Micro' was doing."

Sari slapped her servos on the conference room table. "No…way!" She hadn't heard THAT name for herself since Autobot Boot Camp. After graduation, she decided to stay as "Sari Sumdac" and leave the name "Micro" behind – she never liked it anyway. There was only one other fembot in her platoon, so…

"Mirage?"

"Mirage Prime! She'll be leading a crew of five Autobots building the next set of beacons."

"Well! I've got to stop by! When are the new bots scheduled to arrive?"

"They'll be coming in on an Autobot starship in two deca-cycles. I'll be receiving them at the Martian entrepôt station, then after a two orbital cycle orientation, we'll board the beacon shuttle to the construction site."

"Mind if I tag along?"

"I think Mirage would be disappointed if you didn't," Optimus smiled.


Two weeks later, Sari arrived home after a long conference with the Cybertron/Earth task force. "Oh, it's so nice to be home and relax!" she said as she came through the door. Angie greeted her, "Welcome home, Miss Sumdac!"

"Thanks, Angie; it's good to be back! How's Chandra?"

"Oh, beautiful and precious as always," she said. "And so smart! It's hard to believe she's only three months old! When I talk with her, she looks at me like she understands what I'm saying! Just now, when I went to the crib and said 'Mommy's coming home' she turned, looked up at me and smiled!"

They went into the nursery, and Sari picked her up. Chandra's eyes met hers, smiled, and said "Ma ma!"

Angie's mouth dropped. "Did she just say 'Ma ma?' At three months?"

Sari was also surprised! "I heard it too!" she said. Turning back to Chandra, Sari said, "Hey, cutie! Did you say 'Ma ma'?"

"Ma ma!" Chandra repeated, and reaching out, grabbed Sari's finger.

"Wow! I've never heard a three month old say that!" said Angie. "We've got a prodigy on our hands, Miss Sumdac."

"You're my little prodigy, yes you are, aren't you!" said Sari, kissing her. Chandra giggled.


Sari and Optimus stood outside the Martian station by the landing site, waiting for the Autobot starship's arrival. She was talking with him about Chandra's rapid development. "Did you ever talk with your father about your development?" he asked.

"Not much, certainly not about the days when I was that little. But now that you mention it, I do remember talking with my dādī – after I got my language mod – and she told me she had never seen a baby develop as fast as me."

"Well then, it's the Cybertronian processor. Perhaps Angie should accompany you on your visits to Firestar for Chandra's regular technorganic checkups. She needs to be kept informed about her Cybertronian growth stages so she'll know what to expect."

"Good idea. I'll bring her with me at Chandra's next visit." They gazed up at the red Martian sky. Soon their optics detected the approach of a spacecraft. "Here comes the ship," said Sari. Its communications with the control tower came through on their helmets.

"Mars Entrepôt, this is starship Flash Frenzy, requesting landing privileges," said the ship's captain.

"Roger Flash Frenzy, proceed to landing site Delta Five," responded the control tower.

The starship approached, lowered its landing gear, and kicking up the Martian dust, began its descent to the site where Optimus and Sari were standing. Once it landed, the station operators came out and secured the ship, while technicians hooked up cables and hoses.

The bay door opened and the runway slid slowly out and down to the Martian surface. Optimus and Sari walked over and stood at the bottom to greet their Autobot guests. The first to come out was Mirage.

"Welcome to Mars," said Optimus. "I am Optimus Prime, and I think you know my partner."

"Thank you, Optimus!" She then turned to her old friend. "Hey there, Micro! Long time, no see!" Mirage said with a smile. "Just joking, I know you ditched that name after we graduated from boot camp. Good to see you, Sari! How've you been?"

"Doing great, Mirage, thanks! Optimus and I are keeping busy here. Last I heard, you were working over in the Salvvatan System."

"Oh, now THAT was an interesting assignment! I'll have to tell you and Optimus all about it later! Let me and my bots get our gear squared away and you and I can have a good reunion!"

"We've got quarters for you all here at the entrepôt station," said Optimus. "Let me show you around, and give you a chance to get settled."

"Sounds good, Optimus," said Mirage. And she and her bots grabbed their gear and followed Optimus and Sari into the station. The friends chatted on the way.

"So tell me, Sari, I hear you adopted a technorganic baby? What's her name?"

"Chandra. You heard about the adoption all the way out in the Salvvatan System?"

"Oh yeah! You are big news, Sari Sumdac! Bots find a stash of protoforms that have been hidden for stellar cycles under a crashed Decepticon starship? You know that's going to go all over the Autobot Commonwealth! And when I heard that you were involved, I had to learn all the details!"

"So, when I get some free time, can I give you a call? I'd love to come visit you and Chandra!"

"Oh, that'd be wonderful!" Sari replied. "We've got a place on the Lunar Colony. Come on by, and I can show you around."

"Sounds like a plan!"

They entered the station's residential area. "The conference room is down the hall. We'll meet there in one megacycle," said Optimus.

"Thanks, Optimus!" And Mirage Prime took her team to the residential area.

"So good to see Mirage again," said Sari.

"She and her crew did some invaluable work on Salvvatan VIII," said Optimus. "That planet is full of energon, and they were responsible for scouting out all of the richest deposits."

At the meeting, Mirage introduced her crew. "Optimus, Sari, I'd like you to meet Bumper, Clipper, Excellion, Hubcap, and Lightspeed."


Bumper

Bumper might look pretty unassuming, but he is a fiercely loyal and determined bot. He has suffered a lot in his life, but has borne it all to protect friends and allies.

Bumper was part of a science expedition that strayed too far outside the boundaries of the Autobot Commonwealth, and was shot down over the planet Bhul by native "freedom fighters". After hiding the survivors, Bumper returned to their ship's wreckage to scavenge some oil, only to be captured by their attackers.

Brutally tortured for many cycles, Bumper never gave up the location of his fellow Autobots. Mirage respects him deeply for this. He is a superb technician and scientist, and will be her second-in-command.

Clipper

Clipper was protoformed on Planet Micro. She has a close friend at home named Holi. Clipper is serious-minded and can sometimes be a bit bossy. She is highly intelligent, dedicated, and somewhat impatient with her larger mech associates – especially the unserious ones.

Being a Micromaster, Clipper is the same size as Sari. Mirage suspects that her small size might be the source of her bossiness, as a cover for insecurity. She will be responsible for taking the design specifications left by the previous crew and the engineers and converting them into specific project tasks for the crew to follow.

Excellion

A somewhat brooding loner from the planet Velocitron, Excellion may have won more respect from the Decepticons than from the Autobots by successfully infiltrating their base completely unseen on more than one occasion. Being a Velocitronian, he is incredibly fast! While the Autobots appreciate his efforts, his dour attitude tends to estrange him from his peers. Despite this, Mirage sees great potential in this young bot, and hopes to coach him to come out of his shell.

Excellion will take the project tasks developed by Clipper and work from them to assemble the various system components.

Hubcap

Everybody likes Hubcap. He's friendly, always has a clever joke or compliment ready, and is generally a nice, fun, affable bot to be around. On the other hand, bots who know him, know to be very wary.

Some bots call Hubcap a con artist, others think he just likes having fun. He doesn't seem to have made many enemies with his tricks and scams, so perhaps it's all harmless. Of all the bots on this team, he drives Clipper nuts!

During the Great War, Hubcap was stationed as a communications officer. He's got very good audio receptors, capable of picking up incredibly weak signals, which is why Mirage chose him for her team; he will be her communications specialist.

Lightspeed

Looking in from the outside, you'd think Lightspeed had it all: He's highly intelligent, strong, fast, and considered dashingly good-looking by Transformers standards. And if any of that mattered to him at all, he'd be golden.

Sadly, Lightspeed aches down to the core of his Spark for something more. He yearns to escape the bonds of gravity and fly free. Dreams of soaring among the stars and exploring the vast mysteries of space consume him, making him feel slow, trapped, and dissatisfied. He once considered working with Cosmos, but when he learned that Cosmos did all his work on Cybertron and never actually went anywhere, he changed his mind.

Mirage's challenge will be to keep him focused on the task at hand, reminding him of the project goals. She needs his data processing expertise as they build the beacon transfer processes and do the delicate work of setting up and properly aligning the matrix. Despite his tendency to get distracted, she has every confidence in his superior technical skills and ability to get the job done. He will be the primary systems analyst, working closely with Clipper and Hubcap.


Optimus gave the bots an overview of the system, and how it provides a defensive matrix that feeds into the control center on Farside Beacon One. "When fully implemented, it will be a protective array against unwanted intruders, whether sentient or astronomical."

"The development of these security beacons is a cooperative Cybertron/Earth effort, and the technology developed and perfected here will be used on our home planet as well. That is why we are swapping out the construction teams after each third is completed. The departing team has left for Cybertron and will be stationed on Moon Base Two to design a similar matrix for the Hadeed system."

After the meeting, Sari and Mirage had a chance to catch up. "So, the Salvvatan assignment was an interesting one?" Sari asked.

"Very," said Mirage. Bumper, Clipper and I worked as a team up there. You should have seen some of the energon deposits we found! As high as Omega Supreme! We shared Orvus Base with the Throttlebots during our stay, but their work is highly classified, so we were cordoned off in a separate sector. Bumper knew one or two of them from way back, so we had a chance to socialize every now and then – good, friendly bots."

"Speaking of Clipper, it's nice to see a Micromaster on your team," said Sari. "I haven't yet had the chance to visit Micro. Maybe she can tell me a little bit about her home planet."

"Yeah, I caught her doing a double-take look at you when we first got off the ship," said Mirage, smiling. "She probably wondered if you were another Micromaster. I suspect she has a little bit of a size complex, and sometimes it expresses itself as bossiness. She's an excellent tech, and really knows her stuff. By all means, go pay her a visit and ask about her home planet – I'll bet she'd enjoy talking with you."

Sari stopped by Clipper's room after the meeting. "Hey, Clipper? May I come in?"

"Oh, hi, Sari, sure! Come on in! Nice to meet you – you work with Optimus Prime?"

"Yes, he's my partner here in this system. He oversees the Autobot/Human combined forces guarding the Terran, Lunar, and Martian defensive systems, and I'm the Earth/Cybertron Ambassador and Cyber-Ninja assigned to protect this sector."

"I see from your insignia you're a member of the Cybertron Elite Guard! Are you a Micromaster also?"

"No, I'm a Technorganic. I was a sparkling protoform on Earth. My alt form is an Earth human. Right now I live on the Lunar Colony. I've always wanted to visit Micro. Perhaps someday you can show me your home planet."

"I'd love to, Sari! When I get some free time, Holi and I – Holi's my mech friend – can show you the sights."

"I'd like that very much! What does Holi do?"

"He's a member of the Rescue Patrol Team," she said, sitting down at her workstation. She pulled up a photo of Holi. "Here he is."

"Good looking bot!" Sari said admiringly. "Oh, I'm familiar with the Rescue Patrol; they do great work! I look forward to meeting him."

"So, did you like the Salvvatan assignment?" she asked Clipper.

"It was a good assignment, being out there," Clipper said. "Mirage Prime's a great leader, and Bumper's an excellent scientist. We found lots of energon deposits. While there we stayed on Orvus Base, which is very high tech! The only problem I had staying there, was dodging the guzzlers," she sighed.

"Guzzlers?" Sari had a quizzical look on her face.

"Sorry," Clipper replied. "It's a Micromaster term, for normal-size Transformers. The ones on Orvus Base had a tendency to not look where they were stepping, if you know what I mean."

"Ha!" Sari laughed. "I know exactly what you mean! Whenever I'm on Cybertron, I have to keep an optic up. I've become quite good at dodging clumsy steps. Luckily, my best friend is a small Autobot named Bumblebee – although, you're going to laugh at this – my next best friend is a giant bot named Bulkhead," she smiled.

"Now, that's a contrast, Sari!" smiled Clipper.

"One thing we always have to do at Farside Beacon One is train new bot arrivals to watch out for the human crew."

Bumper came to Clipper's door. "Excuse me, Clipper, but – oh, hello, Sari! Please forgive the interruption."

"No problem, Bumper," said Sari. "We were just chatting."

"Thank you, ma'am," he said to Sari. "Clipper, Mirage would like for you and me to go over the last crew's technical specs."

"Will do," said Clipper, and turned to Sari. "Work calls," she smiled, and got up to follow Bumper to the work area.

"No worries," Sari replied. "I'll go find my partner. "It was very nice talking with you, Clipper."

"Same here, Sari. Perhaps I can visit the Lunar Colony sometime!" and waving, she headed down the hallway.

Sari caught up with Optimus, sitting chatting with Mirage. "So, did you have a chance to talk with Clipper?" asked Mirage.

"I did! We exchanged mutual invites to our homes, and – shared stories about jumping out of the way of big bot pedes," she winked.

"I think it's hard for Clipper, being the only Micromaster around in so many missions," Mirage said.

"Well, if my being nearby in this sector helps, glad to be of service!" Sari smiled. "As for Clipper, she and Bumper went to go examine some technical specs."

"Oh, good. I'm hoping to hit the ground running," said Mirage. "This defensive matrix is an excellent design, Optimus!"

"It was a cooperative effort by Mainframe and an Earth company, Sumdac Interplanetary Systems," replied Optimus.

"Sumdac Interplanetary Systems, eh? Seems I've heard that name 'Sumdac' somewhere before," quipped Mirage, turning to Sari with a grin.

"My father started it," Sari smiled.

"Gotta be a good one, then," Mirage replied.

Sari and Mirage had a good reunion, and some new bots will begin work on the next third of the security beacons. As time permits, there will be new visitors to the Sumdac residence on the Lunar Colony, and Sari and Chandra will someday get a chance to visit the planet Micro! Thanks for reading.