Chapter 13

A quarter of a cycle later…

"Hatchet…you impaired drone-bot…where are you?"

Several meta-breems pass.

"Hatch…Physician? Are you there? Physi…Ratchet, can you hear me? What's happening?"

"I am here. We are preparing to leave soon."

"Not that you need to worry. You just sit tight," came the gruff voice the Autobot Weapons Specialist.

"Thank-you …Ironhide," a snarky smile passing over her face plates. "Would it be possible to obtain more coffee…strong?"

"I'll have it dispensed directly to your rooms' service center, as usual."

"Thank-you. Primus go with you all." She whispered and the line clicked off.

"That was strange." Ratchet commented casually to Ironhide.

"Certainly was different. You're looking lost in thought doc-bot, what do you suppose she's up to now?"

Ratchet only shook his head, remembering the fierce argument he had with Spindle when she first arrived in the med center. He then quickly moved his fingers over a computer panel and tapped in an order for more coffee to Spindles quarters. Then gathering up extra tools and sub-spacing them he and Ironhide left the med-center to board the waiting C-17.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Spindle sat on her recharge berth sipping the strong, hot coffee Ratchet had supplied her with. She could just make out the weakening signals of Prime and the others as they were transported to the States. Only Wheeljack, First Aid and the newly arrived Paradron Medic, Sylph, registered in her processor. Perhaps she should speak with First Aid, the medic knew more about her inner workings than anyone else on the base. She would love to converse with them, but had nothing she felt would be interesting to anyone and remained quiet. After all there were more than one-hundred more books to read in the next several hours and the further readings of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis would enthrall her for that whole time.

Somewhere during her third reading of "The Two Towers" she heard a new alarm. There was a firm knock at the door to her room and it was quickly opened from the outside. Major Lennox stood there, nanite module cradled gingerly in his arms, an anxious look on his face.

"Prime wanted you to accompany us on the next mission; seems it will be sooner than he expected."

"This," he held out the module to her, "I'm told, is yours. Guess its part of your equipment now. We leave in 15 minutes; Epps will show you where to get the rest of the gear."

"Gear? What gear, why would I need 'gear'?" she asked insolently.

"You're part of MY team now. And I need to you to at least look like you belong to us. Epps will have what you need" He turned on his heels leaving the door open.

Spindle worked the module into the receptacle in her back, above and behind her right hip joint. Instantly the nanites slathered themselves over her Cybertronian frame as she stepped out of the room and followed the quickly retreating human.

The main hanger and connected work places were a muddle of humans running, computing, talking, shouting, collecting weapons and gear. None stood still, even if sitting. The call was serious and so was the response.

Chief Epps caught Spindles glance and motioned her behind a row of lockers.

"Here, put these on." He whispered breathlessly, holding out a set of Army BDU's. "We don't want Galloway to see you."

"No need." She replied. "Army or Air Force?"

"Huh?" a look of bewilderment then one of comprehension slid over his face, "uh, Army."

"Alright," she said, and began to scan the uniform in Epps hands. That done, she rearranged the nanites covering her frame and in seconds she was wearing the uniform of an Army Warrant officer.

"Chief Warrant Officer, huh?"

"I fit the requirements, seems only fair."

"You sure you want 'Spindle' on the name tag?"

"It's my designation, of course I could write in Cybertronian," which she proceeded to do.

"Right, that won't call attention to you. Actually, we don't wear name tags in fire-fight situations."

The offending tag disappeared.

"Wish I could dress that fast." Epps commented as he picked up weapons for both himself and the newly humanized member of this current mission. "This way," Epps directed with a wave of his hand as he headed toward one of the two C-17 Globemasters that the rest of the team were boarding. Spindle followed quickly and fell in line with the others. She enjoyed the deference paid to her when they realize her "rank" and she smiled graciously with each greeting and salutation. This was fun, more fun that the time when she had scanned the image of a dead British princess and walked around London for a day. She caught slag for that. At least this time she had been asked to imitate a human and she had withheld her desire for greater rank in check.

These two humans; Epps and Lennox; she approved of their no nonsense approach to her presence. She saw how they were able to slide effortlessly between giving orders to their troops and coordinating with the Autobots. Her time on Earth had taught that size and longevity were nothing compared to strength of character, willingness to sacrifice and downright stubbornness. These humans were truly the stuff legends were made of. Even in their short lives they managed to make every day seem full and productive. They, at least, hadn't completely devastated their entire world and made it near to impossible to continue as a species.

Spindle turned to follow Epps to the plane and stumbled from fatigue. "Slag, I should have recharged." Now she could only shake her processor awake and get on the flight. There should be some kind of power center on the plane she hoped and resumed her slow jog to the waiting aircraft.

The flight was noisy for a being that was used to silent running engines. She had dampened her audio pick-up and settled in for the long flight to the U.S. Epps came and settled in next to her.

"Any news from the front?" He asked earnestly.

"No."

Epps looked a bit closer the "human" he sat beside. Even in the dim light he could not help but notice her drawn features and the dark circles under her eyes.

"You okay Spindle? Can I get you anything?"

"I…I need a recharge boost. I put regular recharging off for too long. Is there an open power outlet or something like that which I may use?" she asked quietly; her voice sounding faint and faraway.

"Ummm, what about one of the overhead lights? I could remove the bulb…"

"That's fine", she whispered.

Epps took a quick look around and decided that the best way to do something in secret is to do it in the open, as if it was supposed to happen. He removed the screws holding the plastic cover and took out the small light bulb, leaving the socket empty.

"Done." Suddenly he saw a thin filament snake its was up the interior of the fuselage and into the now empty socket.

"Ahhhhh, yes…thank-you Chief." And she closed her eyes and fell silent.

"Damn," he quipped with a smirk, "must have been some party." Chief Epps took one more look around and saw that no one had paid any attention to his manipulations. He settled into his seat, wrapped his arms around his chest and closed his eyes. Sleep would pass the time and allow him to gather the strength he would need for whatever faced them on this upcoming mission.

********************************************************Chapter 13 posted 9 June, 2010