Lifesource.
Chapter Eleven.
"Sam, would you like to see what our world has done for us while you are here?" Starscream asked. "I can carry you, and trap oxygen in my force-field so you can breathe, just as you can breathe in the Dome, and could breathe when we first brought you to Cybertron, under a force-field we erected with air you can breathe created and pumped in."
"Yeah, okay, I guess so," Sam said. The Seeker stooped to pick Sam up and put his force-field in place, then walked towards the doors. Sam noticed that Starscream's field seemed to merge with the one around the Dome, and then as he walked away, it pulled away like a bubble around them. Sam guessed it made sense for the Cybertronians to set their personal fields at the same frequencies to facilitate entering and exiting the Dome without having to lower the larger field and lose some of the air they had obviously made and pumped in.
Once free of the Dome's air-enclosing energy, Starscream briefly crouched before jumping into the air and taking wing, cradling Sam carefully and safely in his double-thumbed hands. As the Seeker flew up, Sam could see that many of the debris and broken structures he had seen upon waking were gone, in fact, with a few exceptions, the only structures left were the Dome itself and a few buildings in the Dome's general vicinity. It looked as if the very land the city had stood on had overturned itself and engulfed the structures.
In fact, as Sam recalled the quakes they had all felt earlier, he realised that perhaps that indeed was the case. Perhaps the planet itself was readying itself for the Autobots and Decepticons' return, clearing up the debris and rubble from the time of the war, readying the land for those who had left to rebuild now that some of them had returned, and that more would likely follow. He let out a whistle of appreciation, and said "It must be great to have a planet that will alter the landscape if need be."
"It isn't such a great thing that we can hurt and even kill it," Starscream replied. "Most great positives in life have an equally great negative." Sam nodded, and for a time restricted his comments to observations and exclamations about some of the sights he saw while Starscream flew around and over the altered landscape with him.
"I notice that the Dome has remained intact, and I guess as we are there, it's understandable, it doesn't want to hurt or damage us, and we need somewhere to stay, but I notice some other buildings have been left standing. Do you have any ideas why it would leave those?" Sam asked.
"I notice, Sam, that the damage to the buildings it has left is superficial and repairable, and my theory is that it does not want us to have to build totally from the beginning, not while there are still places we can use. We can repair those buildings, move people in, and then start rebuilding, while our people at least have another place to stay." He paused. "However I notice that apart from the Dome, many of the Iacon landmark buildings have been engulfed and removed from the planet's surface, including the Senate Tower, and I know that was still mainly intact when we left. I also think that certain buildings have been removed, even if repairable, because they are a reminder of the cause of the war, and such structures are just as distasteful to the planet as they are to many of us."
"I guess so," Sam said as he watched the slightly rumpled landscape beneath them shifting as it settled after some of the recent land movements. "Wipe away solid reminders of the past, as your memories are long enough, I guess."
"Our memories should have been long enough after the other conflicts and Dark Ages too," Starscream said "so I may back our memories up with a monument or memorial of some kind, and hope that my great grand-descendants, and everyone else's, take heed."
"Maybe I could ask the planet to raise its own reminder," Sam mused, "One that might have more meaning than one created by Cybertronian hands? Or one that may work better in conjunction with yours than one monument alone would."
"That might work, too, perhaps with a plaque on both explaining what they are, and diagrams too, in case the language changes," Starscream said. "I hope it works, we have had a Dark Age, several massacres, and two wars, and still have not learned. I am thinking, if the AllSpark and the Planet permit, perhaps the Planet can speak to Sensitives too, let them know if things are looking bad from Cybertron's point of view, perhaps it can give us early warnings before it's too late. That might work better than any monument, no-one can doubt it if several Sensitives, - especially if their career is to talk to and monitor our world - give the same warning."
"Yeah, that might work better than a monument that after a couple of millennia might be seen as out of touch or not relevant," Sam said, knowing what Starscream was talking about, as his guardian Bumblebee was a Sensitive, who could communicate with the AllSpark. There was a 'nudge' from the AllSpark within him, a 'nudge' Sam knew meant it wanted him to be aware of something, and he briefly recalled his earlier conversation with Starscream, when he had first been taken to the Great Dome.
"I remember earlier, you said you heard the AllSpark scream, but as you were a low-status Decepticon, you were never tested," Sam said.
"Yes, what of it?" Starscream said.
"Well, when we go back to the Dome, how about you and I both try to contact the Planet together, perhaps you can be the first Planet Speaker and Listener?"
"But I don't know if I am a Sensitive!" Starscream objected. "What if I try and fail?"
"Nobody has to know what we're doing, and I don't know if the Planet will agree anyway, but we can at least try," Sam said. "The worst that will happen is nothing, and if so, we can ask 'Bee to try later and see if he succeeds. If you are Sensitive and Cybertron won't talk to you, the AllSpark should, and you'll know you are Sensitive, even if the Planet doesn't say hi. If you're Sensitive and Cybertron chooses to talk to you, it could start that Sensitive Planet-Speaker post you spoke of, and you could be the first."
"But if I'm not, and nothing happens, everybody will see my failure," Starscream lamented.
"If you're that worried, then try to contact the AllSpark through me," Sam said. "It's been trying to get my attention about you every time the Sensitive subject turns up, and I think it's time we trusted it." He looked up at the agitated Seeker. "Why not land and give talking to the AllSpark a try? If it doesn't work, we fly back, ask Bumblebee, a known Sensitive to try, and nobody needs to know if I – and the AllSpark - are wrong, and you're not Sensitive. But I don't think we're wrong, and you have nothing to lose if you try right here, right now, with no other Cybertronians to witness what happens."
"Okay, I will try, perhaps it will stop both of us wondering," Starscream said, and flew about in a wide circle before selecting an area that he thought was stable enough before briefly hovering, then firing his jets on and off so he landed smoothly on his spreading parrot-like feet.
Sam asked Starscream to cup his hands in a way that he could comfortably curl up in, like he did with Bumblebee, and said "If you feel the need or the desire to sing, then sing."
Curling on his side, Sam closed his eyes and in his head 'reached' for the AllSpark. He hoped he had not misinterpreted the Essence, but he didn't think he had.
Before he dropped into warm, comforting nothingness, he thought he heard the Seeker's voice raised in song.
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 oOo
When Sam roused, he found that Starscream was once again flying, and he was sprawled face-up in the Seeker's hands. When he moved and groaned, Starscream cocked an eye at him, keeping the other on where he was going.
"You were right!" the Seeker said, his voice reflecting his wonder and his joy. "I am a Sensitive, and the Essence too says I should offer myself as Cybertron's first representative."
"So where are we going now?" Sam asked, huddling against the cold created by the wind of Starscream's passage. The Seeker noticed the movement, deduced the reason for it, and cradled Sam close enough to his chest that Sam could feel the heat of Starscream's Spark keeping him from getting too cold.
"Well, I'm taking a long flight, as it's the first I've had in several days, but we will end up at the Dome, where, after you've rested, we can try as you suggested, contacting the Planet, and find out if it will allow me to be its first spokesmech, until others who can and are up to the task join me."
"That's great!" Sam said with honest feeling. "If we can get that done and confirmed before us humans leave, I think that the Planet has accepted you will do something for the trust issues, am I right?"
"I believe you are," Starscream said, and Sam noticed that some of the Seeker cockiness, missing when they discussed Starscream's potential Sensitivity, was back, as the Seeker took a deep breath. "Even the old stories speak of the AllSpark 'Looking into the mechs Sparks and seeing that they would speak the truth.' I hope that the AllSpark has sensed that willingness in me, and it will convey that to the Planet."
"I think that had it not, the AllSpark would have told you so," Sam replied. Starscream nodded, then made an abrupt turn.
"I believe you, after all, you house the Essence," the Seeker replied, and began to lose altitude as he circled round. Sam, who was about to cry out in alarm, stilled his cry as he saw the Dome below, and saw the Seeker angle towards a flat expanse that was the nearest thing to a runway in the currently-barren expanse.
"The air in the field will expire soon, and I would prefer to renew the air in my personal field so you do not expire with it," the Seeker said, and Sam thought he heard a supressed laugh. 'Well I'll be damned, that Seeker does have a sense of humour after all!' he thought briefly. As the mech landed, he walked towards the Dome, his personal field once again merging with the main one, and although it could have been his imagination, Sam fancied he could breathe easier.
Starscream, once inside the Dome, dissolved the field and took Sam over to the dais. "AllSpark Sam has an idea, but we are not to divulge it until we have attemped it. Although we think it is likely to be successful, we do not wish to risk disappointment, so we will inform you what we were trying to do only once we have attempted it."
Sam nodded, recognising Starscream's own nerves in his pronouncement, so when Starscream crouched down and whispered 'What now?' Sam was not surprised.
"Hold me around the body so my knees connect with the dais, but my hands do not," he whispered just as quietly. "Lower me so that when your hands touch the dais, so do mine, and then let the AllSpark and the Planet do their stuff."
The Seeker did so, placing one long hand around Sam's middle, keeping his hands off the dais. When Sam said "Now!" Starscream put one hand on the dais as he let Sam's hands touch it too. Those outside saw the bodies held rigid by blue light, but the human and the Seeker did not notice, for they were elsewhere.
Sam felt the floating not-quite-there sensation and belatedly wondered if he should have warned the Seeker. He mentally reached for Starscream's mind but found it happy and calm.
"We fly here!" Starscream said joyously, and Sam at first thought to correct him but abruptly changed his mind. He himself felt like he was floating and might fly apart at a breeze. Who was he to say that this might not be a world where Seekers felt at home? Instead he 'felt' himself drifting closer to Starscream, and then the world spoke to them both.
"Why are you here, and why do you bring another?" it asked.
"I return to make a request which may benefit both you and those of you who are grand-descendants and uncles and aunts and cousins," Sam said boldly.
"Then state it," the Planet said. "I will consider your request and I shall decide whether it is as good as you suggest it may be."
Opening his mind to the Planet, Sam explained mentally why he thought having a Sensitive who would convey the Planet's opinions to it's people would be a good idea.
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 oOo
Sam came to lying on the floor of the dais, yet despite being stiff, cold, tired and hungry he could not help but smile.
It was the Seeker who said in a voice ringing with hope, "The Planet has agreed that it will speak with chosen Sensitives to express any ideas or concerns it will have!"
Only Sam, Mikaela, Bumblebee, and Miles immediately noticed that Starscream's armour had new silver and blue spirals that glistened in the light like a badge of office.