Taking Liberties.
Chapter Nine.
Thundercracker was dispatched to let Soundwave in after being instructed by Starscream to tell the other Decepticon that he would get a full explanation when he got to the cargo hold. Skywarp held Sam again, the human almost falling asleep in the Seeker's hands, while Starscream still held the sparkling-Megatron, who was now so deep in recharge it was unlikely that he would awaken any time soon. The tension in the ship was almost palpable, even before Starscream led the tall blue and silver mech into the hold.
Sam was mesmerised by the effortless economy of movement that seemed to be a natural feature of Soundwave. As the latter smoothly and gracefully moved into the bay, his red optics, set in a long and imposing silver face, caught Sam's eyes. As Sam stared, he found himself unable to look away, the optics seeming to see into Sam's innermost thoughts. He could feel the Essence, too, felt it open up to the presence he could feel in his mind, and he followed its lead, allowing the intruding mind to look through the past hour's events.
It was the big Decepticon himself that broke the contact, his side-opening mandibles twitching once before he moved his optics away from Sam to look at Megatron, curled up in the arms of Starscream, face buried against his chest next to the Seeker's cockpit, optics fully shuttered. Soundwave reached out with one hand, brushing it lightly down the sparkling's knobbled back before inclining his head towards Sam in a nod.
"Soundwave understands," the big Decepticon said in a calm, deep voice. "Megatron lives but cannot lead. Essence wishes peace."
"How…how do you know that?" Sam asked, then added as an afterthought "Sir." Soundwave's bearing was so regal that leaving off the last wouldn't have felt right to Sam.
"That's Soundwave, Sam, he can read minds," Starscream told the human. Soundwave himself took no notice of this little exchange, but crouched by one of the still-occupied cocoons, gazing at the occupant for a moment before standing again and crossing back over to look at Sam again.
"Hatchlings change things. Energy is plentiful. Young lives should be treasured. Seekers will care for Megatron. Sam's idea for a colony with trade links is logical. Soundwave will start research." With that, the large mech left the same way he had come, and all anyone could hear for a few seconds was air whooshing out of vents in relief.
"Well, that went better than I was expecting," Dirge, one of the Coneheads said. "He took it quite well."
Starscream moved over towards one of the recharge units with the recumbent Megatron. "Well, now that all the excitement is over, this sparkling needs to recharge, and we need to check the rest of the hatchlings. If any more have emerged, they'll need to be looked after." He carefully lay Megatron down next to the other two as Skywarp moved over as well.
"I think Sam needs to rest, too." Skywarp said, gently lowering his hands to deposit Sam next to Megatron. The human made no protest as he had finally succumbed to the exhaustion that Megatron's appearance had temporarily banished.
"Are you sure he'll be okay in there? The recharge process won't harm him?" Starscream asked.
"While we travelled between candidate suns, he talked," Skywarp told his wingleader. "He mentioned he's been in with Bumblebee while he's been recharging, so I'm sure he'll be just fine." Sam shifted slightly as Skywarp lowered the lid, then lay still. "He'll be safe enough in there while we check the rest of those hatchlings, and we're likely to be back before he wakes."
Nodding in agreement, Starscream moved over to the others. Five minutes later, the six Seekers all had a section of ship to check assigned to them, and they went out to carry out their task.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Sam awoke feeling much refreshed, but clasped by a pair of metal arms against a metal chest. By turning his head and angling his eyes up a bit, he could see that the chest that his back was held against belonged to the sparkling Megatron. Sam had to admit that he was not being held too tight, and neither were the sharp points of the sparkling's fingers digging into him, but acting as Megatron's teddy bear equivalent felt a little ignominious.
Wriggling slightly only made the sleeping mech tighten his grip slightly, had his arms been free he might have been able to lever himself out but his arms were pinned against his own chest by Megatron's own arms. Waking the sparkling seemed a bit too drastic, and he huffed slightly as he considered his options. His train of thought was derailed as he heard an amused chuckle from outside the recharge unit.
"Who's there?" he asked nervously, aware that he was horribly vulnerable like this.
"It's okay, Sam, it's me, Skywarp."
"Could you give me a hand here to get out?" he asked. "He doesn't seem to want to let go. He's not hurting me but it's a little restrictive."
"Oh, but Sam, you look so cute like that. I should take a holo and share it with your parents and mate."
"Don't you dare," Sam said in mild horror, well believing that the Seeker might just do that in revenge for being overridden.
Skywarp's response was another chuckle as he lifted the clear canopy of the unit, reaching in carefully to pick both of them up.
"He'll be recharged enough by now anyway, he'll be wanting a feed soon. Come, we'll make a last warp to Earth. We'll take you back to the Autobots, they'll have something for those we'll be bringing with us, we have eleven hatchlings, I'll be taking the others down two at a time, I'll need you to augment my warping again."
As the sparkling awoke, Skywarp deftly pulled its arms from Sam enough so that the human could get out of the silver mech's embrace. Megatron whimpered, reaching for Sam again, but Skywarp wiggled his fingers in its face. It watched these instinctively, attention off Sam, which allowed him to climb up Skywarp's arm to wedge himself in his usual position.
"Dirge, Thrust, are you ready?" Skywarp asked. The two named Coneheads approached, each bearing two hatchlings. The other Seekers pressed themselves up against Skywarp, who grabbed onto one with one arm, and looped his leg round one of the other's legs to keep them together.
"That doesn't look very secure," Sam observed.
"It doesn't have to last long, only while we warp, once we appear in the air we'll be flying under our own power," Dirge said.
"I guess that makes sense," Sam observed, and flipped down the panel on Skywarp's helm. "Everybody ready?"
They all affirmed that they were, and the remaining three Seekers, also draped in hatchlings, watched as Skywarp, Dirge, Thrust, and Sam vanished with a pop of displaced air.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Autobot Base.
It was Mirage, manning the observation point in the control room, who spotted the cluster of figures that abruptly appeared in the sky and separated into three. The Autobots had expected the arrival of three Seekers since Thundercracker and Skywarp had left earlier. They had told the Autobots that they had received a communication from Skywarp and that Sam was safe and well and with him on a ship hidden on one of Saturn's moons. They promised not to harm Sam unless Skywarp had been harmed, and left. Now, it seemed, they were returning.
"Seekers spotted, three of them, incoming," he stated. He switched to energy scanners and had to blink twice.
"Scans detect one human life-sign and…" he blinked again, "nine Spark-signatures!"
"Ratchet, Ironhide, Bumblebee and I will go out to meet them," Optimus stated. He commed for the three as he headed for the door, Ratchet joined him in the corridor, Bumblebee came running up as they got to the door, and Ironhide joined them from the gatehouse after opening the gates and dropping the force-field so they could go out.
The three Seekers all landed nearby, and Ratchet's sharp medical optics were the first to register the hatchlings clinging to the Coneheads, and he moved forwards, hands out to take one of them from their Seeker bearers. By the time everyone else had moved forwards to give similar help, Ratchet had tipped the one he was holding on to its back, despite its clicks of protest at such treatment, and was scanning it.
"Healthy enough, and early-framed," he said, noting the body configuration. "Where did you get these?"
"Up on the ship that the Primes arrived on," Skywarp explained. "They were stored to provide workers to erect the Harvester. There are thousands of them up there, Ratchet, and now that Sam has arranged the harvest of a blue-white sun, they can survive up there for several more millennia if need be, although Soundwave is looking for a world suitable for colonisation."
Ratchet blinked in confusion. "Can you perhaps start from the beginning, Skywarp, and miss nothing out, because although I'm certain you make sense to someone in the know, at the moment I'm just confused."
"Perhaps we can go to my office or the medical bay and discuss this over some energon?" Optimus suggested.
"Not right now, there are three more Seekers and another seven hatchlings up there waiting for us," Skywarp said, and Sam nodded.
"I need to go back with him, to augment his warping," the human explained. Skywarp suddenly realised he was still holding the sparkling-Megatron. He gave a mischievous grin.
"Here, you look after your brother. He may be a little hungry," he said as he plopped the sparkling into Optimus' free arm. Optimus looked a little surprised as he caught it in his arm and scrutinised its features with a look comprised of bafflement and surprise.
By the time he thought to ask Skywarp for an explanation, he had launched himself back into the air.
"I am very much looking forwards to that explanation." he said in bewilderment as he gazed at the mini-Megatron. The sparkling gazed up curiously, than began to wriggle and click.
"Well, while we're waiting, we can feed him, and these others," Ratchet said. "Come on, I have some medical-grade energon in the medbay they should be able to use."
He turned to go back in the Base, the others following him.