summary: fits, starts, problems and progress. daniel settles into his new job.
disclaimer: if i owned either transformers or stargate, then anything i wrote about them wouldn't be fanfiction and i wouldn't be writing disclaimers. Song credit at the end.
warnings: insert the obligatory, and by now very boring, "transformer swearing" warning here
Replacement: Roads -- Settling In
Daniel still hadn't quite recovered from the shake to his world view and so couldn't exactly explain how he and his suitcases ended up inside the semi-truck -- the alien semi-truck -- with Sergeant Epps instead of with Sam and Bumblebee. Bumblebee the alien yellow Camero. Named Bumblebee. He realized he still didn't know the semi-truck's name.
"Ah...I'm sorry, because I'm sure I should have asked this before climbing inside... you, but, well... I'm Daniel Jackson."
In the driver's seat, not driving, Epps laughed. He was comfortable enough with the alien to sprawl in the chair and across the steering wheel. Daniel was slightly afraid to shift in his seat or touch the dash; he didn't know how much the alien truck could feel of him or what the personal space boundaries were.
"You do not need to apologize Doctor Daniel Jackson. I was the one who neglected to introduce myself. My name is Optimus Prime." The voice was still bigger than anything a human could produce and had an odd metallic vibration that made it even less human. Daniel might have expected it to come through the radio speakers, instead the alien's voice filled the -- his cab and echoed around the small space.
"Um...what do you usually say when you meet someone for the first time?"
The truck -- Optimus Prime made a low hum. It might have sounded like the hum the scorpion -- Scorponok had made earlier, except not. Frowning, Daniel tried to figure out the difference. The physical aspects of linguistics had never interested him as much as the cultural aspects, but the introductory class in college had had a section on how humans made the sounds that formed speech. He knew the mechanics of the voiced and voiceless pairs, clicks, glottal stops and more. Probably none of it applied to alien robots, but there was a physical component to the sounds that made Optimus Prime's and Scorponok's near identical hums different.
Daniel made a mental to pursue it later when Optimus Prime answered without him having pinned down the difference. "Apologies. It's been a long time since I've had to recall the niceties of meeting a stranger of my own kind and of equal rank. Usually we just exchanged sensor profiles and IFF tags."
"I don't think I have the equipment to do that." He wasn't sure what Optimus Prime's rank was, but if it had been such a long time since he'd met someone as an equal, it was probably high -- in Daniel's experience and studies the lower ranks were exponentially more common than the higher ones. And he wondered whether it said something about his culture or about him personally that he wanted to meet Daniel as an equal in rank.
"No." There was a heavier vibration underlaying the word, that with a human would have been suppressed laughter underneath the spoken word. It made Optimus Prime's voice sound amused. He wondered if that was a vocal mannerism he'd picked up on Earth or whether it would indicate something else to another of his kind. It was even possible it was both -- a vocal mannerism native to his kind that had been adapted for when interacting with humans. Daniel didn't feel like he could assume anything. "I am not offended. I am pleased to meet you."
He started to respond, repeating the greeting --
"Hey, Doc, on that note, I got a present for you." Epps reached into one of his many cargo pockets and pulled out several of items and handed them over -- a cell phone, a set of keys, and a stack of papers. He examined the cell phone first, flipping it open to browse through the numbers already stored in the phonebook. Captain William Lennox, Sergeant Robert Epps, others with military ranks attached, Thomas Banacheck, and Reggie Simmons. Some that had names but no visible numbers: SecDef, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, and Ratchet.
No doubt this phone had a disgusting amount of security and encryption on it. The hidden numbers all but confirmed it. 'SecDef' was obviously Secretary of Defense Keller. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were Autobots -- interesting names, what were the intended connotations? -- so 'Ironhide' and 'Ratchet' probably were too... also interesting names... but if so, there was something missing.
"Scorponok's name isn't in here. Is he not sentient?" Daniel had no doubts he'd been alive, but he obviously wasn't the same as Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Epps had introduced him as though he was sentient, and Daniel had thought he was, but it could have been an erroneous conclusion. Was the scorpion some sort of pet?
Optimus Prime's engine subtly changed pitch and everything seemed to tense. "Scorponok is sentient. He is simply not able to tap into your phone systems."
If all the Autobots except Scorponok could tap into the phone systems just with whatever was standard equipment for them, then probably Scorponok didn't have the ability to transmit at all. And with what Optimus Prime had said about transmitting IFF tags as an essential part of getting to know a person... Was that an accidental handicap? Or deliberate on someone's part? Either way... Daniel dropped the subject.
"Hmm..." He looked at Epps, then toward the dashboard, made another mental note to find out standards, expectations, and taboos of eye contact and how that related to their vehicle forms, then back to Epps. "Where are we going?"
The pitch of the engine changed again and everything lost its tension.
"You're apartment," was Optimus Prime's response.
He could feel his eyes go wide and Epps howled with laughter. He didn't have an apartment. He'd been kicked out of his last one in Portland. That was one of the reasons he was here.
"The information we'd been given said that you did not have a place to stay. Bumblebee and Sergeant Epps found a place for you. Was that inappropriate?"
888
The apartment was small and sparsely furnished -- a studio with a bed and a coffee table. The kitchenette looked older than some dead languages, but the microwave was new and someone had stocked the freezer with a variety of TV dinners. A package of paper cups sat on the counter next to the sink. He wouldn't starve until he'd had a chance to go shopping.
He'd lived in worse.
He'd expected to be living in worse -- a motel room until he could do some apartment hunting, or military quarters were the best options he'd expected. There was one positive thing about aliens who apparently didn't know that most people did their own apartment searching and who insisted on taking care of at least the minimum anyone attached to them would need. He'd gotten that much from Optimus Prime through his surprise.
Air Force Tech. Sergeants who were willing to humor the robots just to laugh at the look on the newbie's face were good too.
More tired than his physical activities could account for, Daniel went to sleep. His dreams were disjointed and when he woke up he couldn't remember more about them except a snippet of one of the hecklers at his lecture running away from an antique yellow Camaro with no driver. He shook his head and tried to figure out what had woken him.
His new phone beeped again. Flipping it open, there was a text message: "If you need anything else for your apartment, call Cpt. Lennox or Ironhide - they've been volunteered to help you."
It was unsigned, but the caller ID was Optimus Prime's. He adjusted his glasses and smiled a bit. It was also completely spelled correctly and with proper grammar. That itself was an argument against the author being human. And "been volunteered" -- Captain Lennox could have been ordered to help by any of his superiors, but who gave orders among the Autobots? Did they consider each other equal to each other or was there a hierarchy? What might a hierarchy be based off of? Human hierarchies were usually based off of some combination of age, family, wealth, religion, and occupation, but an alien hierarchy might be completely different.
He needed to start writing down everything he needed to ask about and start formulating questions before he started forgetting.
He pulled his notebooks out of one of his suitcases and was disgusted with himself to find that he currently didn't own any blank ones, and since he used both sides of the paper there wasn't any blank space in the full notebooks. He searched his loose papers and found them similarly filled or to be official printouts he really shouldn't write on the back of, especially things he couldn't show anyone else.
He didn't think the papers Epps had handed him would be any different, but it was too late to call someone to give him a ride to the nearest store -- there was no question of going to the store himself; he didn't even know where the nearest store was -- so he went through them. He needed to anyway and there was an off chance that there would be something he could write on the back of.
Four sets of military car insurance papers, each for a different vehicle -- a Peterbilt 379 semi-truck, a 2009 Chevrolet Camaro, a GMC Topkick C4500 pickup truck, and a Hummer H2 with search and rescue markings. There was also a military exemption form for he, Daniel Jackson, to operate a specific Peterbilt 379 that had military registered license plates. One officially worded paragraph that said that this was the equivalent of a Non-Commercial Class A license for this specific vehicle. A post-it note said to arrange with Captain Lennox to have his picture taken for his new license. There were copies of the contract he'd signed (which listed his ludicrus salary, he'd forgotten about that) and the non-disclosure agreement. A letter from the Secretary of Defense. A credit card to a government account that had been set up for his living expenses, also with a post-it note with the account's current balance since it had been used for the security deposit and first month's rent for the apartment. A user's guide for his phone. Last there were copies of the California Driver's Handbook, the Nevada Driver's Handbook, and the California Commercial Driver's Handbook. Together they weighed more than some of his college textbooks.
All of it very important. Nothing he could write notes on the back of.
Except the post-it notes. Daniel flipped one over and started listing what he needed for his apartment -- a desk, a chair, some bookshelves, pens, pencils, notebooks. On the back of the other he started listing titles and authors of books he needed to review since it had been a long time since he'd done anything not related to Egypt.
His phone beeped again. Another text message. Why the texting rather than just calling? This time the caller ID indicated Ratchet. He hadn't met Ratchet yet. Maybe they considered his having a cell phone -- the closest a human could come to having electronic communications equipment -- with his number as having exchanged information. It was possible Autobots considered the physical introduction non-essential...
"My research indicates that adult humans without either work or social engagements usually sleep at this hour. Is there something wrong?" Right. 'Exchanging sensor profiles' implied sensors other than visual. He'd probably just have to get used to that.
Confused he checked the time. It'd been only seven-thirty when he'd settled down to read the government papers. Two in the morning. He'd lost track of time.
"No. I am going to bed soon." He texted back, making sure it was spelled correctly. Not that he usually didn't. He'd been the only person he'd known about who proof-read e-mails before sending them to his friends.
He added an almost microscopically printed (he was running out of room on the post-it note) note to look up some books on automotive repair and find the tech specs for the four vehicle models.
Then went to bed. Despite the few hours of sleep he'd had earlier, it had been a long day. And tomorrow was going to be just as long.
888
The impression Daniel had gotten of Captain Lennox through Sam was a fairly accurate one. The captain was friendly and open-minded. And he definitely hadn't gotten any impression of being looked down on because he was a civilian. It was hard to tell what the Autobot, Ironhide, was like, because the truck refused to speak the entire time. Lennox said he was just grumpy because he hadn't been included in the initial introduction because Prime still didn't want him and Scorponok within shooting range of each other.
That had led to an explanation of just why Ironhide didn't like Scorponok, the full story of the alien attack in Qatar, Mission City, Scorponok's apparent defection and what Lennox knew about Decepticon drones. It was a series of topics that more than filled the time driving to an office supply store, a big one that sold desks, chairs, and bookshelves, then the grocery store, then back to the apartment and the time it took Lennox to help him put the new furniture together.
This also explained that Optimus Prime was in charge and that this group was essentially a military team.
It was nearly five o'clock when Sam came by to invite them to someplace called "the lookout" for a formal meet and greet with the rest of the Autobots. Since he was slightly more comfortable with Lennox and Ironhide than he was with making Sam's girlfriend riding in Bumblebee's almost non-existant back seat, Daniel rode in the Topkick's passenger seat.
"The lookout" seemed to be the kids' name for the hill/cliff where Daniel had met Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and Scorponok. Optimus Prime could be seen as a semi-truck silhouetted against the setting sun, waiting for them, as they drove up.
Something hit them a screech. Ironhide's brakes squealed with an inarticulate yell. Whatever had hit them clambered all over the truck making lower metal on metal shrieks like someone keying a car's paint. Ironhide's doors popped open. "Out," a deep voice growled. Daniel did not argue.
The truck was transforming before the humans were more than four feet away. Watching, Daniel couldn't have been able to describe the process. Parts moved and shifted and twisted like the world's most complicated Rubiks cube, until finally Daniel looked up at a black, vaguely humanoid shape, much bigger than Bumblebee. With a scorpion shape hanging from one fist by the tail.
There was a sound a bit like a airplane engine, except much higher pitched. Daniel did not need any experience with alien robots to figure out that the glowing cannon thing on the robot's arm making that noise was a weapon.
"Ironhide..." Optimus Prime's voice.
"Did you see what the slagging little 'Con...?"
"Yes, Ironhide. It was not an attack and you are not allowed to shoot him for it."
Ironhide made a sound like rocks being rubbed against each other, and the airplane-engine-whine didn't abate.
Optimus Prime made a similar rocks-rubbing-together noise. "Eventually we're going to need someone to survey this entire continent..." ...are you volunteering? was implied. It was probably the most subtle threat of punishment, Daniel had ever heard.
The weapon shut off. Then Scorponok did something Daniel couldn't quite see, but whatever it was made Ironhide hiss out "Slagging little glitch!" and practically throw him to the ground.
"Prime --"
"If you don't want him biting you, don't hold him by the tail."
Ironhide just growled. He stomped off a little ways to look over the cliff at the town of Tranquility.
"I fought the law and the law won. I fought the law and the law won." came from the speakers of the car that had been behind Ironhide.
Ironhide shifted and let out a series of static filled clicks and tones. Whatever he'd said, Bumblebee laughed and Optimus Prime made that rocks-grinding-together noise again.
Daniel and Lennox turned to the yellow Camaro and the two teenagers getting out. Daniel had almost forgotten the three of them were there. As soon as Sam and Mikaela -- as she'd been introduced -- were clear, Bumblebee also transformed. He then sat on the ground near a tree and the teens climbed up on his leg.
"So much for holding off on the transformations until everyone was here, huh Optimus?"
Scorponok made a static-chitter from the ground next to Optimus Prime, who said, "So it would seem," in a tone that pretty accurately imitated a human's exasperated and resigned sigh. With a set of clicks, Scorponok scuttled a little bit away from the semi and Optimus Prime also transformed into his bi-pedal form.
The leader of the Autobots towered above them, taller than Ironhide by a good margin. Daniel noted that neither Ironhide or Bumblebee changed positions as their leader stood up. No snapping to attention, nothing resembling a salute. So were the regulations regarding respect looser than humans' military, or was respect shown in a different way that Daniel wasn't equipped to observe...
The brief whoop! of a siren announced the arrival of a fourth vehicle. It was a hummer with search and rescue markings as expected. Somehow Daniel had not expected lime green though. The hummer wasted no time pulling up and transforming into a bi-pedal form about the same size as Ironhide.
"My Medical Officer, Ratchet," was the simple introduction from Optimus Prime.
"I trust you took no damage from shortening your recharge cycle last night."
"No. It was fine. I'd just lost track of time."
Ratchet was staring at him intently. Until a small rock bounced off a plate of his armor and he turned a snarl on Sam.
"No scanning." The teen sounded like he was reprimanding a dog.
Snarling again, the medic took a step toward the human and in doing so caught some amused movement from Bumblebee. He let out a set of static-tones that sent the yellow Autobot from just looking amused to full human-sounding laughter. Ratchet stomped over to where Ironhide still looked down the cliff.
Daniel looked around, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now. Everyone seemed content to go about what they wanted to do and leave him to figure out his place on his own. Ratchet and Ironhide were still over at the cliff. He would have thought they were both sulking, but they were looking at then away from each other, occasionally shifting or gesturing, so they were more likely having a private conversation. Over near Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaela and Lennox were setting up the picnic while the yellow Autobot watched them and either helped or teased them. Optimus Prime's eyes had gone dark and he was leaning against a tree.
Except Scorponok, who also didn't seem to know what to do. Shrugging, Daniel walked over to him. He was as good a place to start as any. This was the wrong environment to start asking questions anyway. But as he approached the scorpion, everything tensed, almost literally filling the air with static. Ratchet and Optimus Prime didn't noticalbly shift, but Ironhide and Bumblebee openly watching Scorponok. And Bumblebee had moved out of his sitting position into a kneeling one that still allowed him to help/hinder setting up the picnic, but looked like it was easier to stand up quickly from.
Right, Scorponok had been an enemy. And from what Lennox had said about the Decepticon attack in Qatar, Scorponok had hurt and killed humans before. Probably the much larger Autobots felt that if push came to shove, they could defend themselves from him, but were more obviously wary about a human's proximity.
He decided to ignore the tension, to pretend he hadn't noticed, and walked up to the scorpion.
"Captain Lennox says they managed to establish a yes and no format for talking with you. Would you make the 'yes' sound for me?"
Chirr.
He paid very close attention to the sound. Memorizing it so that he could not only recognize it if he heard it again, but be able to distinguish it from sounds that may sound similar. It sounded a bit like the contentment-hum he'd made yesterday -- possibly the same mechanics used to make the two sounds -- only louder and a bit harsher. Slightly easier for a human to percieve -- the contentment hum had barely been on the edge of human sound perception, where this was firmly in the median. "And the one meaning 'no', please."
Scrape-buzz.
Similarly he memorized that one, noticing that it had come from a different area of Scorponok's body than the hum. "Do you have one for when you don't know the answer?"
Scrape-buzz -- was the immediate response. Then he chirred to indicate 'yes' and after a pause made a harsh whirr-ing sound that cut off abruptly. If Daniel had had any doubts about Scorponok's sentience, that little progression of ideas would have killed them right there.
System established, Daniel settled on the ground to try and get to know this person who looked so unlike anything humans generally considered people. He knew that of all of them, this one would have the hardest time convincing humans that he was a full person.
He also noticed that no matter what the Scorponok answered, there was always a hint of that contented hum overlaying the conversation, right up until Sam and Mikaela called him over to the picnic and Daniel moved on to talking to Bumblebee.
888
Daniel shuffled once again through his notes. The letter from Keller had asked that he find out how they were viewing him as an anthropologist. That had actually been relatively easy to answer. It had been almost simply a matter of asking. Granted their answers had required some interpretation, but they'd been aware of that aspect of their own culture -- especially Bumblebee. The Autobot spy had a good and almost objective view of certain parts of his own culture, most likely stemming from his profession.
So, specific request-upon-his-continued-employment-may-rest dealt with, he just needed to polish the report a bit then submit it, he'd started where he'd been taught to start when dealing with a new unknown culture -- family units and lineages.
And promptly run into a brick wall.
Well several brick walls, but only one was really giving him a lot of trouble. Not because it was a difficult concept, but because it was so -- utterly -- completely alien that it had upended the very foundation of how he'd been taught to work: the Autobots had no concept of being biologically related to each other.
So no parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents. No lineages along which wealth and power were passed.
It was damn frustrating. What in hell was he supposed to do now?
His phone beeped that he had a text message. He'd gotten so many that he was glad that the phone and the phone plan were government issue. Of all of them, only Bumblebee used the abbreviations, misspellings, and slang accepted as part of texting. When asked why that was so, Daniel had been told that it was because Bumblebee was special ops and a communications specialist, which had taken him back to their views on anthropology. This one was from Optimus: "If you are not too busy for a drive, I have something to discuss." Belatedly, Daniel noticed the distinctive rumble of the big semi's engine outside.
He grabbed the insurance papers, the keys and his new military issue driver's license and headed down.
Scorponok was perched over the truck's third set of wheels, which was probably why Prime almost never came into Tranquility in full daytime. Daniel greeted the drone with a stroke down the length of his tail and got a contented chirr in return. From that first meeting on, the drone had solicited Daniel's attention and company, proving that he didn't have the violence towards humans the Autobots feared he might. Scorpnok was using him, he knew, but in this he couldn't really bring himself to care. As Sam, Mikaela and Lennox had gotten used to Daniel's interaction with the scorpion, they'd started allowing themselves to be approached, and as he interacted with all of them, the Autobots were slowly losing a smidgen of their fear that he'd attack them.
Optimus opened the driver's side door and Daniel climbed in. He inserted the proper key, but allowed the Autobot to start his engine entirely on his own.
"So what did you want to discuss?"
"Ratchet and I need to continue our first hand surveys and mapping very soon."
The overwhelming aspect of an Autobot's voice coming from everywhere didn't unnerve Daniel as much as when he'd first heard it. He settled into his seat more (he'd also learned that other than a human's body heat, they didn't feel all that much of a human inside them, using scanners to tell what the the human was doing or where he was looking rather than a tactile sense) and tried to figure out what that meant. Optimus had a tendency to state problems and make his threats in a somewhat tangental manner. If he hadn't been the only one of the four with that quirk, Daniel might have speculated that their culture and language might be a bit similar to Japanese.
After a moment Optimus elaborated a little bit. "We've all done research on the requirements of your profession, Doctor Jackson, and all come to the conclusion that an anthropologist cannot gather accurate information if he cannot interact with members of the culture he's studying."
Yes, that was basic. Works published by other anthropologists could give someone a starting point, and doing as much pre-study as possible ensured you yourself didn't publish redundant information, but you couldn't get new information without talking and interacting with the group you're studying. And in Daniel's case, published works didn't even exist, making book research less than useless. What did that have to -- oh.
First hand surveying meant they wouldn't be in the area. Bumblebee and Ironhide were with Sam and Captain Lennox, respectively, and while Daniel hadn't figured out why Prime was reluctant to order them anywhere (except as a threat of punishment), that reluctance extended to ordering them to leaving their charges even to spend a day with Daniel. When he wanted to talk to Bumblebee, he usually went over to Sam's high school and talked to him while he and Mikaela were in class. Captain Lennox was willing to spend his time reading while he interviewed Ironhide, but only if he wasn't busy with something else. And if Lennox was busy, Ironhide wouldn't come.
"So what can we do?"
Optimus hummed that same sound as when he'd first ridden in his cab, which Daniel thought was a considering noise. Thinking about his answer before he voiced it. This time Daniel was able to pinpoint the physical aspect that made it different than Scorponok's hums, despite their similarity: Optimus's hesitation noise hum was produced by his vocalizer which worked a bit like the speaker system on a stereo -- though was entirely separate system than his truck stereo -- and Scorponok's contented hum was produced by one of the small engines in his body.
"When I transcanned this form, I unintentionally choose one that had a small living space for the human driver."
Daniel knew that. It had been somewhat hard to miss, situated behind the driver's and passenger's seats, but he'd never thoroughly examined it. After Bumblebee had demonstrated the transcanning process, scanning a new vehicle to change his alternate form then reverting back to a Camaro using the schematics stored in his memory, Daniel had figured that the living space had just been part of the vehicle Optimus had scanned and would never serve a purpose for the Autobot. Bringing it up now sounded... "Was that an invitation to accompany you?"
"Yes," was Prime's answer.
888
Arranging to live in a sentient alien truck for a week or two was not as simple as it sounded.
A call to Agent Banachek confirmed that everything except personal belongings counted as travel expenses, so at least Daniel didn't have to deal with a strict budget. And since it was travel expenses and not living expenses, he didn't have to move out of the apartment.
Next though, Daniel had to figure out how this would work. Optimus didn't expect to have to do any emergency transformations, but he didn't want to get into the habit of allowing himself to be hindered by a human's belongings inside him. At the same time though, he knew that Daniel couldn't travel with him with just the clothes he was wearing. He'd need blankets for the bed at the very least.
Finally they worked out that Daniel could use a sleeping bag, which he would roll up every day and store in a footlocker Optimus would carry next to Scorponok. If he needed to transform, the footlocker would just be dropped on the ground. The footlocker would also contain his extra clothes, books, and toiletries. Captain Lennox was a great help in picking out the things he didn't have -- the footlocker and sleeping bag -- and in packing, which was probably why Daniel ended up taking a week's worth of army fatigues. Of course the Air Force captain had rationalized it by saying that a military driver's license would be more believable if he was dressed like military. For the day, Daniel would carry his briefcase with the insurance papers, his notes, some water, tissues and antihistamines for his allergies, and a book or two to read during the downtime.
Sam agreed to collect his mail for him -- not that he had a lot, he hadn't been living there long enough for his new address to make the rounds to junk mailers -- but he couldn't drop it in his apartment. That was okay though, because it wasn't like Sam wouldn't know when he and Optimus were back in Tranquility and couldn't meet up with them. And Daniel made sure his first report to Keller was submitted. It was a bit rushed and he probably could have done better given more time, but there was nothing wrong with the information and it needed to be sent before he left.
Daniel worried about balancing and paying off his finances -- and taxes in a month or two. Optimus agreed that for the moment they'd stay in the western US so Daniel could pick up his mail from Sam regularly. Sergeant Epps offered to help him transfer all that stuff to an online format as soon as he had a computer, so that he wouldn't have to worry about that in the future. But that would have to wait until his second or third, probably even fourth, paycheck, as his first one was already going to paying for clothes, books, a footlocker, and a sleeping bag.
Optimus worried about food for Daniel, but Daniel had already asked Agent Banachek about that when he'd been asking about what exactly counted as a living expense and what as a travel expense and been assured that food bought on the road counted as a travel expense. Optimus also worried that Scorponok's presence might make his passenger uncomfortable, but though Daniel knew about Scorponk's history as a former Decepticon, that knowledge was abstract. He didn't even have any encounters with other Decepticons to help anchor the knowledge the way Sam did. So, no, Daniel was perfectly fine with sleeping less than five feet a way from the drone. (Which bewildered all the humans who did have a personal experience with Decepticons, even Will Lennox who was inexplicably on the best terms with the drone.)
But then finally, finally, everything had been settled or worked out. The last thing Daniel did before leaving was throw out the few perishables in his fridge he'd collected since moving in.
888
The first thing he noticed about traveling with Optimus Prime was that he was quiet, didn't talk, but played the radio fairly loudly. The second thing he noticed was that playing the radio was for Scorponok more than for himself -- whenever they exited the range of a radio station, Optimus would scan through the clear stations until Scorponok tapped twice against the back of the cab and stop there. The third thing he noticed, was that Scorponok wasn't really sure what kind of music he liked, but knew what he didn't like.
Quiet was for the most part fine with Daniel. Now that time with the Autobots didn't have to be scheduled around their activities and those of the humans they'd adopted, he didn't want to force interaction. And he definitely didn't want to annoy his driver. So he took the quiet time to study cars. He had a feeling he'd need the knowledge in the future.
Optimus was fussy about where they stopped for Daniel to eat, and flat out refused to stop for fast food. They argued about it a bit. Not that Daniel wanted fast food, really, but that Optimus would use his scanners to determine the approximate nutritional value of the food and then confer with Ratchet over whether the place was fit for human consumption. They managed to agree on a Marie Calendar's, as long as Daniel didn't order anything with bacon in it or get desert.
Daniel didn't tell him that he didn't eat pork or that he'd never had that much of a sweet tooth.
That first night, it finally occurred to him that he was sleeping inside someone. He kept waking from only half-remembered dreams of haven been eaten and living inside the creature's mouth, like Geppetto in the Disney Pinochio movie. The dreams didn't keep him from going back to sleep, especially since Optimus continued to play the radio for Scorponok, albeit at a volume that wouldn't disturb his human passenger. Daniel could hear it though when he woke, and that chased away the nightmare. But because of the bad night, he was still cranky the next morning, and when the same argument started over where to have breakfast as dinner, Daniel was more than ready to tell Ratchet where he could shove his nutritional suggestions -- especially when on the medic's opinion, Optimus tried to veto coffee.
Faintly heard sounds like static-edged laughter led Daniel to the conclusion that Scorponok was finding this hilarious.
Daniel did get his coffee though.
"Were you talking to the others yesterday while driving?"
A tick of silence. "Yes. I did not intend to seem like I was ignoring you."
"That's aright, I was just wondering. Is there any way I could listen in today."
"Yes. If you like you could also participate."
So today, the voices of the Autobots were added to the music from the radio. Bumblebee thought it terribly funny that Daniel had managed to convince Prime to ignore Ratchet's suggestions. Ironhide was teasing Prime about backing down from someone smaller than his foot. Bumblebee lived up to his name with a quick sting about a car seat and Captain Lennox's daughter, and Ironhide was yelling threats and forgetting he was supposed to stick with English when they both moved off the public channel to argue privately.
Thus is was all day. The topics jumped from simply updating each other on location and status, to what their humans were doing at the moment, to discussions of how weird they found certain human things, to teasing each other about their current pastimes (Bumblebee had discovered Google Whacking and thought it a mildly entertaining use of idle processing power -- especially when he could share the results and try and lock up the others' logic functions). And Daniel asked questions. It wasn't lost on him that now that he was further away from almost all of them than he'd been since he was hired, he now had even more opportunity to ask questions and observe how they interacted with each other.
And this time when the subject of dinner came up, Daniel was able to tell Ratchet how much he suggestions weren't appreciated himself. To much laughing by the two uninvolved Autobots. Apparently his traveling with Optimus was turning into the Autobot equivalent of a reality show.
The utter awareness that he was sleeping inside someone hadn't abated, but no nightmares woke him. In fact, during the drifting time between sleep and waking that morning, he idly thought that in some way living on a thin bunk in in a sleeping bag was more familiar than the apartment bed had been. More comfortable. Then he woke up fully and remembered he was inside an alien robot, and got weirded out all over again.
Still having no luck in figuring out how Autobots organized social groupings, today Daniel's questions focused on trying to figure out relevant aspects of how they translated their language to english. What he got was that although there were patterns just as in any language, sometimes the words used to translate had been chosen arbitrarily. Frustrating, but not unexpected.
Waking the next day, nightmares and creepiness (and allergies, but he'd been trying to ignore those anyway) were set aside in a flash of inspiration on the family issue.
"Are the four of you a complete social unit?"
Complete silence. Then Bumblebee, "Like the Lennoxes?" all innocence, and, if previous experience held, trying to turn the line of questioning into a way to insult Ironhide.
Ironhide growled. "Ain't any of us are sparklings," he said firmly and probably not entirely to Daniel. Thankfully the language questions from yesterday meant Daniel knew that 'sparkling' meant 'transformer considered young'. He still had no idea how 'young' was defined since at the same time they'd said that transformers don't go through a physical maturation process, and that there was not set time period defined as a transformer's 'sparkling-hood'.
"Of course not one of you slaggers considers he might mean like Captain Lennox's team," broke in Ratchet before Ironhide and Bumblebee started snarling at each other, "which is what we started as."
That perked Daniel's interest. This group had been militarily organized. He'd known that but it sounded like they didn't think they were anymore. "Started as?"
"When the teams were organized to look for the Allspark, we were a complete team, and none of us left behind more than our home." Optimus clarified. "We had no ties outside of each other."
"We weren't exactly tied to each other at the time either." -- Ratchet.
Now this was sounding promising. They weren't describing anything that resembled a human family, but in the absense of biological lineages... "Tied?"
"Friendship units." Bumblebee elaborated. "And that wasn't exactly true, Ratchet. Jazz and Ironhide were so close that when I was transfered, at first I thought they'd been gestalt-bonded. Though obviously they weren't part of a gestalt."
And Ironhide broke in, "And don't think I don't remember that you and Prime were almost attached at the hip."
"That's different," Ratchet protested while Optimus laughed, "Optimus and I were two of the last non-war-builds anywhere and the only ones stationed in" there was hiss of static and warbling tones as he pronounced the name in his native language. "There were things about that none of you sparklings could understand."
"I noticed you didn't deny Bumblebee's point about Ironhide and Jazz."
"What's to deny? Those two were hellions."
"I was not!" Ironhide protested and was met with a chorus of "Yes, you were." from both Ratchet and Optimus. Ratchet continued with, "you slagger."
Hmm... "So how were Jazz and Ironhide 'tied' together? Bumblebee mentioned gestalt-bonded..."
"Well I might have thought they were twins, but Ironhide's a warrior model and Jazz was a spy a bit smaller than I am and twins don't function well with such different shells."
"We weren't," Ironhide huffed, "We just knew each other well and accepted the parts we didn't know or didn't understand. We weren't bonded. Our sparks were entirely our own."
After that the topic wandered and Daniel couldn't get any of them to elaborate more. That was alright. He added the conversation to his notes and wrote his own comments. Then busied himself with coming up with a better line of questioning now that he had a starting point.
That night when they stopped for the night, Daniel asked Scorponok if Decepticons were similar to Autobots. Scorponok answered with "yes -- no -- I don't know". With him unable to elaborate, Daniel dropped it and asked him about human music instead.
888
A little over a week and a half later, Daniel was back in his apartment, organizing his notes and trying to wrap his head around how transformer families were constructed. It was closer to how peer groups were constructed in post-industrial cities among humans than human families -- proximity allows compatible personalities the opportunity to connect into friendships and somehow that builds into full social groups they felt were synonymous with families. He'd also gotten that a small group in enforced and isolated proximity either all bonded into a family or killed each other. But it wasn't that simple (it never was, even with humans). There were exceptions, adoptions, 'bots that had been built to work as a family but not as brothers, something they called "twins" but how that worked Daniel couldn't figure out, and gestalts which were sort of half way between built family groups and twins, but still more than either. And he had no clue what they meant by "bonded", much less "gestalt-bonded".
Well, he'd have a few days for some in-person interviews before he and Prime headed out again. When they'd gotten back to Tranquility, Optimus had said that Ratchet was also headed back and that he wanted to do some sort of health scans. Then Captain Lennox had met with them at Sam's house and said he wanted to talk with Prime privately, so Ironhide was sulking in the parking lot beneath Daniel's apartment.
Notes organized, he headed down. Might as well take advantage of having a pickup truck (and a captive audience) while he could -- he needed to some books, then some electronic parts from a Radio Shack or something. He wanted to find out how hard it was to build some simple electronics during his and Optimus's next surveying trip. By then, Sam and Mikaela should be out of school, and he wanted to talk to them.
fini
notes: long i know. i'd apologize, but it's not my fault. just as i'd resigned myself to daniel being a scenery character, a plot device and little more, he comes and dumps every detail, both weird and mundane, of starting life with the autobots into my brain. he insisted that if he was going to deal with the weirdness of giant alien robots, he was going to make me suffer with him. i tried to tell him that the autobots were downright normal in comparison to what he has to deal with in his original universe and he should be thanking me -- especially because i'm not into killing and resurrecting my characters. but he still wouldn't leave me alone.
i actually read a pdf of the california commercial driver's handbook to figure out what needed to be done for daniel to "drive" prime around because, while all the other autobots have cars that fall under a normal license, you need a special one to operate a big truck like prime (and that's a federal law, not a state one). it was one of the more tedious things i've ever had to do in pursuit of this story, worse than morse code translations. finally i went with declaring the four of them "military" vehicles and giving him a military exemption license, mostly because it was the simplest solution and can be applied to almost anyone who has to "drive" an autobot (barring emergencies, which are exemptions in and of themselves).
timing -- starts directly after "introductions" and ends directly before "conversation 5"
i re-edited the last piece a bit. the only significant change is the title, which is not "divergence" instead of "first steps." and also i forgot to say this at the end of "turning point" and i really should have -- dirge, ramjet, and thrust are F-22 Raptors like starscream. thrust has been modified for VTOL--which is a cybertonian design not a human one so it doesn't mess up the raptors profile. blitzwing's alts are the russian MiG-31 and russian T-90 tank.
song credit:
"I Fought the Law" Mary's Danish, off the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie soundtrack