Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. If you can change that, feel free to give me a call.

Chapter 9

The Autobots and humans of NEST were once again gathered around their briefing tables. Starscream's information, if accurate, meant that they had a lot of planning to do in very little time. Specifically, they had to find a way to return to Cybertron with converted Energon before Megatron completed his doomsday device.

Sam and Mikaela were present at the proceedings, but Alexis was noticeably absent. She had elected to stay outside the hanger with Starscream, both to keep an eye on him and ensure no Autobots gave him trouble. Thankfully, the matter at hand seemed more important than past rivalries with the former Decepticon.

"What's the plan?" Major William Lennox asked. Even though he was used to reaching joint decisions with the Autobot leader, this time it was all up to Optimus.

The Autobot rubbed his nose, knowing a difficult task awaited him. There were many options of action available, but some were not logistically feasible. They could abandon Cybertron, as they had already done once before, and simply stay on Earth to defend the humans, or they could return in order to end the stalemate with the Decepticons. There was one major disadvantage with each plan, and Optimus pushed his circuits to the limit in order to determine the best compromise. Of course, he continually hit the same road block.

"The best plan would be to send as many Autobots as possible back to Cybertron with energon. Some will remain here in case Megatron decides to strike in our absence."

Several soldiers gulped when Optimus said 'in our absence'. None of them liked the thought of having to face Decepticons without the Autobot leader by their side.

"How will you get there?" Lennox asked.

"I do not know. Although we began construction on a ship when asked to leave your planet, we have not completed enough of it to traverse through space."

"You could just borrow a shuttle from NASA," Sam offered.

"Unfortunately, our size is a hindrance there," Ratchet said. "Your human space craft could hardly transport a single Autobot, let alone all the fuel needed for the trip. Even if we attached our ship's engines to one of your shuttles, it is unlikely to work."

"Hold that thought," Simmons said, jumping up from his seat. Everyone groaned; no doubt they were all about to get another Sector 7 history lesson.

The former secret agent ran to his small office (nothing more than a glorified cubicle in reality) and began pulling out boxes. Most of his collection remained hidden beneath his mother's butcher shop, but he had made certain to grab the most important documents in his move to the Autobot base. One such document was firmly clenched in his hand as he ran back to the briefing tables.

"How much of your ship is done?"

"Only the engines. We have been unable to secure the all necessary ores to form a large enough hull," Ratchet answered.

"That's good, that's good," Simmons said.

"How is that good?" Sam asked. Simmons smacked him in the face with a manila folder.

"That's why it's good."

Sam opened up the file and began looking at the pictures inside. After a few moments of studying them, he turned them upside-down to see if he would have any more luck identifying them. Simmons snatched them back in a huff.

"Amateur," he muttered. "These are Sector 7 space explorers." He handed out some of the photos to Optimus and Lennox. "We call them Ghost II, III, IV, and V."

Everyone huddled together to get a look at the images. Although it was hard to make out all the details, it appeared that there were four monstrous ships sitting in an underground hanger.

"What are these from?" Lennox asked.

"Back in the sixties, we managed to reverse engineer a ship from NBE-1. After it was successfully launched, construction began on four more for deep space exploration. Unfortunately, Ghost I was lost, and the rest of the project was scrapped because no one dared to send another crew up into God knows what. So these poor suckers just waited around, grounded forever."

"Are they intact?" Ratchet asked.

"Mostly," Simmons shrugged. "A few pieces missing here, a few salvaged there. With your tech I'm sure you can hobble something together."

"Where are these located?"

"Well, they're not exactly available," Simmons stuttered. "I don't even know where they are. When Sector 7 shut down, all our facilities and contraband were, well, confiscated. I think."

"Can you find them?" Lennox asked.

"Gee, I don't know. I thought you guys took them."

Lennox rubbed his face in frustration. Just when he'd started to think that Simmons was competent, he pulled something like this.

"Does it look like we have four giant spaceships lying around?" Epps asked in irritation.

"Calm down, calm down," Optimus interjected. "If these ships still exist, we will find them. Ratchet, will you be able to combine our engines with these hulls?"

Ratchet examined one of the photos Simmons had provided. "It looks simply enough. And several Autobots should be able to fit in each vessel, along with our energon cargo."

"Even if you can fix them up," Simmons continued gently, knowing he had reached the end of Lennox's patience, "you might have some trouble working them."

"Why is that?" Optimus asked, sounding tired with the human.

"The controls were built by humans…for humans. You're going to need a human crew for each of the ships." Simmons looked around at the suddenly silent room. "I for one would be more than happy to take one up."

"We will see about that," Ratchet said. "I suggest we find the vessels first before we determine any crews."

"Agreed," Optimus nodded.

A/N: This is a lot shorter than the last one, but the next chapter will be up soon. There will be some fun in the next one, I promise.