Chapter 10
Not getting a good night's sleep was nothing new to Elaine. In fact, she honestly couldn't remember when she had last gotten a decent rest. After a few hours of tossing and turning during more than one bizarre nightmare, she had just settled for staring at the cold metal walls, attempting to plan her next move. Try as she might, she couldn't come up with anything useful or logical. It was as if she couldn't properly think after being uprooted from her home.
Not knowing where Starscream and the seekers were, or how they were being treated was very disconcerting to the young woman. Security reasons, she understood. Granted, said fliers had committed numerous atrocities against the Autobot faction and Cybertronian neutrals, so the newly arrived humans could definitely grasp why the Autobot Leader was being so careful with them. Fair was fair, after all, but said thoughts didn't help her shake off that nagging feeling that left her unable to sit still.
Elaine walked toward the door to their quarters, hoping to slip out and investigate their surroundings while her companions slept. She was curious to see what they were up against, if they were indeed up against anything. Her movements didn't go unnoticed though.
"Where the hell do you think you're going by yourself?" Serah's voice harshly grated. "Hoping to get stepped on already? Shouldn't you call one of our guides on that fancy panel in the wall?"
"Well, since the room was unlocked, I thought I'd go out and see what was going on." Elaine tried to keep her voice down. "I figured you and Titan could watch Alexis while I gathered some more information."
"Elaine..." The redhead sighed. "We're not soldiers. We're civilians. We don't fight, or gather intel, or try to fix things. These 'bots aren't going to hurt us. The government knows about them. If we spontaneously went missing, I'm sure people would ask questions, so I don't think we have anything to worry about in terms of being in harm's way."
"I get what you're saying, and yeah, we are probably fine here. But this isn't just about us, Serah." She paused, as if trying to word things right. "Where's Starscream? And is he okay, or have they done something to all three of them? There is a war that has been going on for centuries that we know nothing about. For all we know, they could've been executed, or thrown into prison to await some sort of trial. Say what you want to, but I don't know the Prime or any of his soldiers. For some reason, one that I can't put my finger on or explain to you, I'd rather find out for myself whether our guys are okay or not. Would you rely on word of mouth if it were one of your friend's in the same spot? And to answer your reasoning, we are three humans, but we live in the middle of absolutely nowhere and we are, by no means, well-known. Would anyone really notice if we went missing? I think not."
As reluctant as the stubborn red haired woman was to agree with her friend, Elaine had some excellent points. And no, there would be no waiting around if it were one of them in the seeker's situation. Personally, she didn't care too much about what happened to the seekers, but telling Elaine not to pursue something she cared about was like hitting your head against a brick wall; it was painful and didn't yield any promising results. After a long, drawn out breath, Serah gave in.
"Fine. But when you end up on the bottom of someone's giant metal foot, it's your own damn problem. I'm not your parent and I'll be damned if I'm going to watch after you all the time. Just...be careful, alright? I'd hate to lose you after all the time and effort I've invested into being your friend."
Elaine grinned and opened up the door, giving one last look to her closest friend.
"That's touching, Serah. I didn't know you cared so much."
With those parting words, she stepped out and let the large door close behind her.
Red Alert, being ever paranoid and overly nosy, was alerted the exact moment the doors opened on the new arrivals' quarters. He quickly commed Optimus, who was too irritable to deal with the Security Director at the present moment. The Prime forwarded the information to one of the appointed available guides. He received a response from Skyfire, informing him that the oversized shuttle was on his way to intercept the young woman, who had gone exploring without notifying anyone. Why Skyfire had taken such an interest in the entire situation was beyond him, but he suspected it had to do with his past with Starscream. He wasn't going to pry or argue against the much needed assistance. Instead, the mech turned his attention to the raging CMO standing in his office, waving a wrench around in one hand and gesturing wildly with the other.
"Their frames have all been weakened from starvation, Optimus!" Ratchet roared. "Their condition is deplorable! They've been running low on fuel for some time now. All three of them show internal injuries that were so sloppily repaired, I'm going to have to redo all of them! Whoever worked on them was a Grade-A slagging glitch-head!"
"That does sound awful, Ratchet. I didn't realize they had been energon-deprived for so long. What do you think our next step should be in handling their condition?"
"They'll have to go on fortified energon for a while so their frames absorb the alloys they'll need." The CMO sighed. "I'll have to start working on redoing all the necessary repairs. I've already repaired the patch on Thundercracker. It appears as though they welded his wound with some sort of human farming equipment, of all fragging things...After their frames have been strengthened enough, they can resume taking regular energon. The rest is up to their self-repair systems to handle, which will get better and more responsive with time."
"Did you disable their weaponry?" Optimus asked.
"Yes, and no. Starscream's null rays were a nightmare to disable. Every time we disabled them, he'd override the codes and they'd be functioning again. After a while, I was able to disable them with the help of Wheeljack, but it was a slagging pain in the aft and that stubborn aft of a flier was less than cooperative. Skywarp's warping capabilities have been disabled via an 'armband'. An alarm will sound if he takes it off, and a scrambler has been installed in their temporary quarters so he can't just teleport out of there. Thundercracker's unique ability is so hardwired that we can't disable it. There's no way to do so without causing damage to him, but I doubt he'll try anything. He seems to be the most reasonable mech out of the three."
Optimus seemed satisfied with his Medical Officer's handling of the three ex-Con's and sent the CMO on his way after filing a report. The large mech turned back to his console, preparing to accept a status report from Elita in approximately one Earth hour. It would be interesting to see if word of the seeker's supposed offlining had reached Cybertron yet and what kind of impact the news had if it did end up there. A thought plagued his processors though after listening to his CMO's words. Cybertronian Seekers were strong fighters by nature. The condition the elite trine was in was horrible, but they still were a force to be reckoned with in the air. It meant that the entire time as of late when the Autobot Army had been fighting against Starscream and his trine, they'd been fighting weakened seekers. When those seekers recovered, how much stronger would they be?
Skyfire walked through the corridors of the Ark with ease, mechs stepping out of his way to avoid getting knocked over by the large shuttle. Being such a huge mech, albeit with such a gentle disposition, no one wanted to get on his bad side...if he even had a bad side, that is.
After rounding a couple more corners and carefully scanning the floors to make sure he didn't hurt anyone small enough to be caught beneath his massive feet, he finally stopped when he saw the woman he was searching for. Unfortunately, said human was already involved in an altercation with Cliffjumper. Bumblebee apparently wasn't kidding when he described her as 'unfriendly' and 'confrontational'. Combine that with Cliffjumper's stellar social skills, and there was obviously going to be a problem.
It took a few minutes to break up the would-be fight and convince Cliffjumper to leave, but in the end, Elaine was perched in his palm, looking up at him with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. The first question to escape her lips wasn't one he expected to hear from anyone.
"I was told, and not very nicely, by that red asshat that you were Starscream's friend. Is he okay?"
"Yes, he's doing well. He and his trine are in the MedBay undergoing treatment. They were in rough shape. I'm surprised; Starscream's never been one to just take a beating like that." Skyfire answered.
Elaine grew calm at the sound of his voice; he seemed genuine and she didn't get any bad vibes from him.
"Can I see him?" She inquired. "I won't cause any trouble. I just want to make sure he's okay. Skywarp was nervous when he got here too. I need to check on them."
"Ratchet's not going to like this, but….yeah, I'll take you there."
It was about 20 minutes later in an empty MedBay room, with a very irate Ratchet standing by their side, that Elaine was finally able to see that, yes, the trine was alright. The damage done to them before the AutoBots had taken them in, however, was horrible. As the woman looked at the slices and wounds on their frames and listened to the medic describe exactly how they had gotten them and how serious their conditions really were, she spoke up with a response that left him nearly speechless.
"Megatron is a fucking monster. I don't think I've ever hated anyone so much as I hate him right now." She looked right into the CMO's optics. "I'm a fantastic mechanic; I've been putting things back together since I could hold a wrench. Teach me how to help fix your kind so I can be of use to you. I can reach places you can't. I can be of assistance if I know what I'm doing."
"That sounds more like a demand than a request." Ratchet grunted. He was impressed with her conviction, and yes, he could use a small pair of hands, but he also had no idea why a young woman would want to invite such drama and conflict into her life.
"It is a demand. And I think you'll find that once I really want something, I usually get it."
Elaine, after years of drifting through life and just existing, not really living, had found something she was passionate about. That same fire she used to have in her eyes years ago was ablaze once again. She looked at Starscream, who was trying to maintain his proud, unaffected visage and failing to do so and gave him what was meant to be a reassuring nod. She could've sworn, though she'd never tell a soul, that there was a fondness in his red optics for the words she had just uttered. It made her dedication for what she was about to swear herself to even stronger.