Title: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Chapter: 09 - Supernova
Warnings: gen, suspense, action, a bit mystery/horror, possible disturbing images
Continuity: G1 [part of ultharkitty's Dysfunction AU, post season three]
Characters: Vortex, Blast Off, Brawl
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Sadly, nothing is mine.
Beta: ultharkitty, thanks for putting up with me all the time. :)
Summary: Vortex, Blast Off and Brawl are on a mission to get an alien energy source from an abandoned space station.
Note: And here the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Have fun with the last part. :)
"Talking"
'Comm-link'
…till the sun is in the sky.
Part 9 - Supernova
"Ready?" Blast Off asked blankly, mainly to conceal that he wasn't as he looked at his team mates. Brawl had explained to him how he had to set up the timer, and the shuttle was now floating next to the other two mechs beneath the hole in the ceiling, holding the bomb in both hands. It was a bulky construction, and he truly hoped that Brawl did a good enough job that it would blow up the space station.
Brawl winced slightly at the question, but nodded whereas Vortex was utterly still.
The weightlessness and Blast Off's overall inability to read body language was the reason he didn't perceive Vortex' reluctance to carry out the plan. Only the rigid rotor blades could have been an indication, but Blast Off thought it was due to the upcoming fight and the 'copter being poorly armed.
The tank would go first, followed quickly by Vortex, and when all the bigger tentacles were kept busy by the two mechs, Blast Off would come up and set the bomb once he received the signal from one of his team mates.
Everything would have to happen quickly, because they wouldn't have much time to escape. Blast Off calculated a route and sent it to his team mates.
"Remember: don't look directly at the star." Blast Off had already said that, but he guessed it was better to repeat it.
Brawl vented air one last time, deeply and heavily, before he nodded again and powered up his thrusters.
Fortunately, Blast Off had also shared a few lines of program code which made it easier for them to manoeuvre in the weightless surroundings; and so the tank flew up, controlled and without uncoordinated movements.
Brawl was quickly out of sight, and when the first shot of the tank's cannon barrel could be heard, Vortex also vanished through the hole.
Blast Off waited, staying behind alone, forced to listen to the gunfire and weird hissing. The walls began to vibrate once more, and it could even be felt three floors beneath the room.
He was uncomfortable.
Blast Off was usually the one who watched them fighting from far away, and who stepped in when it was necessary. He wasn't used to seeing nothing, and just to waiting.
'Hey Thrusters!' It was Vortex, the commlink full of static, probably because of the high activity of the alien tendrils. 'Get you large aft up here!'
Blast Off's engine growled. They should have made up a code word that would have prevented the 'copter from using that insult, he thought, but chose not to care about it.
Activating his thrusters, he followed his team mates to the hall with the energy source. Changing his sight settings in time, the sudden luminosity still hurt his optical sensors, and he was blind for the slightest of moments.
When his vision came back, he saw Brawl floating in alt-mode - which looked pretty odd - and Vortex fighting back a thick tendril which tried to catch him.
'Get going!' Brawl yelled through the comm, sounding rather stressed, and only an instant later, he fired his rear-mounted sonic cannons. The concentrated sound boomed through the room, and the glassy organics burst into fragments which floated in the room like mirror shards.
Blast Off froze for a moment when the unreal alien construct shattered and was destroyed. But then the hissing became louder, and the vibrations of the walls turned into a constant thrumming noise, and the shuttle was reminded what he was supposed to do.
Directing more power to his thrusters, he flew to the star, covering the distance quickly. Dodging tentacles and evading attacks, he also tried not to look directly at it, but it was hard, his curiosity and fascination for the star stronger than his caution.
The brightness burnt at his optics, and he could barely make out any clear movements on its surface; only bigger whirls and flares or bursts of plasma, while the radiation increased exponentially. His core temperature and the pressure within his energon lines began to rise.
It was at that moment when he became absolutely sure that he'd never be able to get this dying - artificial - celestial body to Chaar.
Beneath the star, the thicker ends of the tentacles moved frantically, reacting to the attacks from his team mates, and hardly noticing him.
Blast Off manoeuvred himself until he was behind the star, and the events on the other side of the room where concealed by the glowing orb. And it was neither the unexpected strong heat nor the unnerving radiation which strained his systems which shocked him; it was the unbelievable thing he saw in front of him.
The tendrils weren't stuck to the floor, as he had first thought, and they didn't emerge from beneath the ground. Floating behind the orb, Blast Off saw the tentacles digging into the star, or coming out of it, he couldn't be sure, and he wasn't certain if he truly wanted to know. The tendrils throbbed and pulsated in the tact of the small sun, and even from them Blast Off could detect radiation.
For a moment he was stunned, but eventually he regained his composure and deposited the bomb. He set the timer to five kliks. It was all calculated, five kliks would be enough for their escape from the space station, to reach the nearby planet's orbit and to evade the explosion.
Five kliks would be enough, Blast Off thought, and activated the bomb's timer.
His finger lost contact with the button, the first astrosecond counting down as he was hit.
Something punched into his abdomen with an incalculable force. His systems glitched, and he was hardly aware that he was being dragged through the room until his back was slammed against the opposite wall.
He had time to take a last look at the celestial body before his optical sensors flickered and shut down. Something dug into him, absorbing energy and warmth and leaving him freezing and weak. Thin tendrils crept into his abdominal plating, and from the wall he felt them seeping through his shoulder armour, and upper arms, and even through the plating of his legs.
There was no warning in Blast Off's HUD, because his HUD didn't work. He wasn't shivering, even though it felt like he should. Right then, he almost panicked and didn't even remember that they had to leave.
A loud, aggressive sound destroyed the prison of his own thoughts within the cold and the immobility, and the energy returned along with the warmth.
Blast Off's optics snapped online, seeing the tentacle's fringed end wavering around. The other part still stuck at him, and disgustedly, he ripped it off. His optics wandered to where Brawl and Vortex where fighting, and the 'copter glanced at him, tilting his head, in his hand an energon cube.
Blast Off nodded in acknowledgement and freed himself from the smaller streaks of the wall.
'Let's go!' he said via commlink, and Brawl's answer was a disappointed sigh as the tank destroyed another tendril with his gun. Then he left the room quickly through the hole.
Vortex didn't say anything and just followed the tank, shooting at tentacles while doing so.
Blast Off was the last one to leave, again dodging the alien thing's attacks. He couldn't afford to waste more energy.
4.64 kliks.
They reached the storage room, Vortex and Brawl flying in front of Blast Off, and this time, the tentacles followed, probing into the colder space. The walls shuddered, metal creaked, and the hissing became a hostile whine.
Entering a corridor which led away from the room, the shuttle noticed the door closing behind them.
His systems were still gitching, but fortunately it was only a few scanners and stabilizing programs, and ones which weren't that important while moving through weightlessness at a higher speed. Only the cold and lifeless feeling still lingering in his lines, making him uneasy, together with the image of the tentacles digging into the star - or emerging from it.
They flew around a corner, and Brawl stopped short.
"Frag!" he cursed, and Blast Off saw the reason. The next hallway was too small for them, at least to small to fly through it. But it was something which Blast Off had calculated on.
Wordlessly, he powered up his cannons, ignoring Vortex' confused look, and fired through the wall.
The hole revealed a big hoist shaft, and stunning cold. The temperature around 34 K mingled with the warmer hallway air, and Brawl and Vortex exchanged looks.
4.27 kliks.
"I don't think…" Vortex began, but Blast Off didn't leave any time for complaints. He grabbed Brawl's cannon barrel, and Vortex' upper arm, powering up his thrusters when he entered the shaft, dragging his team mates behind him.
'Holy sl-ag…" Brawl gasped through the commlink, and Blast Off guessed that his vocaliser was already glitching due to the intense chill.
The shuttle flew fast, the walls around him shuddering, lights flickering on and off. His scanners still glitched, and so he didn't know about the condition of his team mates, but he knew that he had about 1.5 kliks until the cold would cause their processors to stop working.
3.88 kliks.
Blast Off eventually reached the end of the shaft; it was closed by a large hatch, and once more he had to shoot to open the way.
Behind the door, there was a huge hangar. The gates to space were open, and the vacuum sucked them into the room.
Within the whirling, frenzy of movement, Blast Off managed to bring Vortex and Brawl near him, and he transformed around them. The masshifting set in, and despite the welcome weightlessness, the shift of mass centre, the change of sensory input and optical perception confused him for a fraction of an astrosecond.
3.52 kliks.
Blast Off's alt-mode thrusters activated with a burst and a rumbling which conducted through his plating. He didn't turn on his internal gravity, but directed the heat of his engines into his cargo hold and cockpit.
The shuttle kept an optic on his stiff and frozen team mates, and on the surroundings which all of a sudden began to move.
Cranes swung in Blast Off's direction, and he narrowly avoided a collision with a large metal arm. Within the vacuum of the hangar, there was no sound, but the quivering of metal was unmistakable.
It was also impossible not to notice the hangar gates slowly closing.
3.19 kliks.
Lights within the large hall went on and flooded out the darkness, only to be drowned by the vast gloom outside, which seemed much more welcoming than the unreal cold light within the station.
Blast Off shuddered. He didn't want to shoot again, it would drain even more of his energy, and so he powered his thrusters to their highest setting.
3.03 kliks.
Blast Off sped through the gates of the space station, emerging in the dangerous emptiness of space, his home. In front of him the dark side of the planet hovered, a giant black sphere, casting its shadow over Blast Off and giving him a point on which to focus.
His thrusters still worked at their highest setting, and the heat burnt inside, while on their outer walls the freezing temperature of absolute zero cooled his metal.
2.46 kliks.
At a velocity of about 25 thousand miles per hour, Blast Off reached the planet's medium high orbit. He maintained the propulsion of his thrusters as he floated over the dead wasteland and rough surface, until eventually the solar system's sun came into view.
Blast Off was too preoccupied with observing his team mates' status and the time left until the explosion to realise how stunning that fast sunrise was. The first heat and radiation hit his plating and he prepared to relax at the familiar sensation.
0.34 kliks.
He had almost rounded the planet, the view at the space station was gone and Blast Off looked into the bright sun ahead, and at the planet's blue moon.
Vortex and Brawl twitched, and groaned, as their systems finally rebooted and the frozen energon thawed.
Blast Off tensed, counting down the last astroseconds, attempting to prepare himself.
0.01 kliks.
Blast Off left the planet's orbit, heading towards its moon.
Behind him, mostly hidden behind the planet, came a bright light. It grew, and changed from pale blue to intense white. An amorphous entity of lightning and brightness, it was moving, changing, becoming bigger, and Blast Off felt the first waves of burning, intense radiation of unknown strength. It seeped under his plating and it hurt. His optic sensors protested with an immense ache and nearly glitched, but Blast Off couldn't look away.
The dying star pulsed as the light destroyed the dark side of the planet, and Blast Off felt the eruption in the magnetic field of the celestial body. His systems where overwhelmed by the sudden change of the field, and its instability, and it was the first time in his life that he lost orientation in space.
Senseless and lost, Blast Off tried to hold the course to the moon, his thrusters still working.
He reached 48,000 mph without noticing. His alt-mode shuddered when the radiation of the star in front of him heated his plating, and the radiation from the dying star behind him flared intensely, as though emitting every last bit of life within these few moments.
Blast Off flew towards the living sun, with a supernova at his back.
It took kliks, or even breems, until Blast Off was able to think clearly again; the explosion had subsided and left a glittering nebula - a beautiful remnant.
The outburst of the supernova had been stronger and had more of an effect on him than he had ever thought possible, but then, how could he have known? He hadn't met anyone who had experienced this state of a star's life from this close. It made him proud, and sad.
Now, he realised, they'd just killed a star…
"Thrusters?" It was Vortex who spoke, and Blast Off tensed, but it wasn't noticable in between the shivers and shudders which still ran all over his aching alt-mode.
Brawl and Vortex were able to move again and now sat in the cockpit, leaving the pilot's seat untaken. They watched the moon and the planet vanishing in one of the side windows.
"You know I hate when you don't tell me about your plans!" Vortex continued when Blast Off didn't answer, and the shuttle didn't know what he meant.
"Yeah, that was kinda really mean, you know?" Brawl interrupted, and it confused Blast Off even more. He didn't bother to ask, though, and he didn't need to, because Vortex started anew.
"Yeah, it was! At first you always tell us not to go to the… what had he said?"
"Colder areas."
"Ah, yeah, not to go to the colder areas, and then you fraggin' drag us through it and we freeze and almost die!"
Blast Off huffed, but his onboard speakers only generated a staticky screech. He thought that Vortex shouldn't complain. Knowing the 'copter, Blast Off guessed, that he probably had liked it, and if not for the sensations, than definitely for the new experience. For Brawl, though, Blast Off would most likely feel sorry if he was capable of doing so.
"And I missed the explosion…" Brawl muttered, after a moment of silence.
Blast Off sighed, and this time, his speakers did work. The tingling ache running over his systems settled bit by bit.
Without speaking, he activated his display setting and his front window became a big screen. It flickered for a moment, before the memory file was shown, and Blast Off regretfully relived the moment of the dying star.
Vortex kept quiet, but he was probably grinning as his rotor blades began to quiver.
Brawl's visor lit up, and he jumped off his seat, sending himself floating.
"Woah, whoa, whoa," he yelled excitedly, and grabbed for the armrest, manoeuvring back into the seat.
Eventually, Blast Off stopped the memory, and the nimbus stayed there unmoving.
"Awww, show me again, please!"
"No." It was the first real word Blast Off spoke after the escape, and Brawl's shoulders slumped.
"You're mean…"
"I am," the shuttle said. He wasn't in the mood for long conversations. He was tired.
"I'm going to go into standby mode to save energy. I'll keep my scanners and everything essential on, so that I'll online if anything happens. I have to keep the gravity offline, but I recommend you: don't do anything stupid, and do not touch anything."
Brawl flinched at the tone, but nodded, and Vortex didn't react at all.
Well, this was still better than arguing with the 'copter, Blast Off thought, and decided not to react either.
Then, he sighed again.
Reluctantly, he pinged both his team mates for a data transfer and sent them the memory file of the supernova.
The tank wiggled happily on his seat while Vortex giggled quietly. Blast Off ignored them both.
"In one of my side containers in the cargo hold is some energon," he said, shutting down the first systems, and didn't wait for a reaction from his team mates.
"Goodnight."
