Fandom: Transformers G1
Pairing:
Rating:
Codes: Het
Summary:

Wanderer's Home acr 2 pt 34: Diversionary Tactics

Ratchet didn't so much as glance up from his work on Starscream's stasis-locked form when the alarm sounded. His only concession to the emergency was to ping Teletraan-1 for the details and alter the surgery plans to compensate for the Autobots who would need his attention in roughly three joor. He could easily have the Seeker stable and back in cold storage by then.

Time passed, the work went well. He closed Starscream up, satisfied that his CPU was no longer directly linked to his weapon systems. The fourth of scours of such surgeries.

"Thanks for fixing him," a dark, malicious voice laughed behind him.

Ratchet twisted, driving forward to land his infamous right hook against the larger bot's jaw, only to come face to face with Skywarp's arm cannon.

"And they say I'm the dumb one," Skywarp sneered at him.

"What do you want?" Ratchet growled, his optics flicking towards the med bay entrance even as he realized a response would be slow to come between the battle raging in LA and the missing bots.

"My Air Commander," Skywarp shrugged and moved Ratchet away from his patient with a wave of his cannon. "Why the old slag heap wants the traitor back is beyond me, but I'm not crazy enough to ask."

Ratchet complied with the unspoken demands, slowly shifting away from the surgery table as he tried to calculate the best way to survive this. He watched as Skywarp sauntered to his stasis-locked leader and picked him up. The awkwardness of the dead weight forced him off balance and took his cannon off Ratchet, but before the medic could do anything but realize it, both Seekers were gone.

"Frag," he cursed under his breath and commed Prowl in the control room. "The invader was Skywarp. He's got Starscream. They're gone now."

"Understood," the tactician's voice held just the faintest trace of irritation.

Melinda steeled herself for another round of explaining the lifecycle of humans to her master's guests. She should have expected this, she knew, the first time Ezara had a menstrual cycle. The woman was too impulsive and her guards only challenged physical threats.

She was even sure who it was, given the personalities involved. Optimus would never be careless once he knew what precautions to take, though he would submit to Ezara's will if she wanted it. But Jazz ... he was careful, despite his happy go lucky display, yet the chemistry between them was like thermite; stable until set off by the presence of the other. Then it was damn near uncontrollable; they'll either kill or fuck each other senseless, and they didn't seem to care which it was.

She glanced around the room and noted that they were in their usual positions; Optimus had a fine scotch and was sitting on one of the large leather chairs. Jazz was curled up with Ezara on the love seat with something that smelled decidedly over-sweet and looked like blood in her glass while his was soda and something. Skjöldur and Whippoorwill were on duty, as always, standing at opposite sides of the room and making their usual effort to appear to be part of the setting.

"What did you wish to discuss?" Optimus' deep, smooth voice was calming in it's strength and command. In five months she had learned each of them, and she understood fully why even the under-socialized firebrand of a killer that was Ezara bowed to his will uncontested.

"Another issue with biological life that I believe you're about to have to deal with," Melinda explained. "Ezara came to me with some concerns recently, and I believe the issue is that she's pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Optimus rolled the word around his mind, trying to link it to something.

Ezara was faster, a hint of excitement in her voice. "Carrying a youngling, a pre-protoform."

"Tezita do that?" Jazz asked, looking at her with a bit of surprise that was shortly smothered by a searing kiss.

Melinda cleared her throat, hoping to stop it before they began to grope each other. By then it was a lost cause.

"Mmm, sort of," Ezara answered the question as she focused on the room again. "Not quite like this, but the old way of creating a youngling used part of your body to build its foundation form. It explains a lot too," she paused and pulled Jazz a little closer, though her eyes lingered on Optimus. "Can you still feel them?" she asked softly.

"Can we focus on the original topic?" Optimus asked, looking over at Melinda. "What is she in for, what can we expect?"

"Hormonal fluctuations, severe mood swings, strange food cravings, weight gain," she paused considering who she was speaking of. "Your center of balance will continue to shift as the fetus grows. We should have you begin seeing a, OB/GYN; a doctor specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, the female reproductive system and pregnancy."

"One who can take weird," Ezara added uneasily, her frame tensing sharply. "I'm not just a pregnant human. My Tezitan reproductive programming and spark-instincts are getting stronger."

"How 'weird' do you expect that will make things?" Melinda asked her, watching her press against Jazz a bit more.

Ezara gave it a bit of thought. "If she doesn't ask too much, sticks to the physical, probably not much. I'm still a Beast Spark, even in this frame. The protective drive is ... beyond intense until it's born. Half the time it doesn't make any sense if I think about it."

"Instincts are like that," Jazz gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Unfortunately, there is more than the physical that will be involved," Melinda pointed out. "Your health is more than simply mechanics now... we'll see who we can find though. I have a couple of candidates who might be good."

Ezara nodded, shifting uneasily. "What do human newborns need? It'd be good ta have that on hand. Bonding with a youngling is never a sure thing."

"What type of bonding do you have in mind?" Melinda asked her.

"Umm, urrr," she struggled to put something she only vaguely knew about into words. "Newborns need care, right?" she asked instead.

"Yes, a great deal of it," she nodded patiently.

"Well, Beast Sparks like me have a hard time bonding with our young. They usually have to be cared for by others," Ezara tried to explain it. The memories of what Lyzen did were clear. The mechanics and reasoning behind it were not on the best of days. "Lyzen spent a lot of time making sure the younglings had a caretaker that wouldn't turn on them."

"I'd have thought it would be easier to happen than with others," Melinda mused. "It is possible to hire somebody who can care for them - especially these days, more and more mothers are working parents, who don't have the time to care for their newborns. Though you'll be in bed for some time after giving birth, in the best of situations."

That didn't settle well with Ezara at all and she didn't hide it.

"How did your species evolve if you can't fight or escape..." she abruptly stopped herself. "Social bonds," she answered herself. "It would be best to hope I have maternal coding, but assume it won't activate. The odds are against it. What else should I know about being a pregnant human?"

"You've already encountered the early side effects, though it could also enhance your libido for a while. Hormonal imbalances could lead to some very strange mood swings, and food cravings, even for how you normally compare to ordinary humans," she explained. "Nausea... the main thing is that it will take about nine months."

"How do ya tell how far along it is?" Jazz asked as his mind turned over the potentially deadly information he'd already received, including the miniscule odds that a Decepticon sim would include an active pregnancy sub-routine.

"You count from her first missed menstrual cycle and add nine months. It's inexact at best," she explained. "This does mean we'll need a full legal name for both parents, even if the birth certificate is the only place they appear." She glanced between Jazz and Optimus. "Who will be listed as the father?"

"Won't it be obvious when it's born?" Ezara cocked her head.

"Umm, no," Melinda shook her head. "There are paternity tests, but they take a long time. It would be best to pick the most likely agreeable candidate."

"That'd be me," Jazz spoke up before Optimus could even process that the question was being asked.

Melinda flicked a look at Ezara, who nodded in agreement.

"It would be good to know, just to be sure, but Jazz is most likely," Ezara added, stroking his dark brown hair almost possessively. "So any instincts I should try to curtail for the next few months?"

"Eating meat raw and fighting are the primary ones," Melinda explained. "Rough sex should be avoided, anything that can harm you as a human... The Ob/Gyn can explain better, but those are the basics."

Ezara nodded, as did Jazz.

It was his comprehension that made Melinda relax slightly; if he understood Ezara would comply, for the most part.

"Okay, that done," Ezara took control of the room, her gaze on Optimus. "Can you feel them?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Of course, whenever I changed, it would have been part of the components that were altered. What about you?" He asked her.

"No," she shook her head slightly. "It's ... just me. I wasn't expecting much, but Mitrix ... this is what she does. She shouldn't be quiet. Singer's a much better caretaker. She shouldn't be quiet either."

"Is it possible that they're busy working on trying to find a way to fix this?" He asked her gently, intuitively aware from his visits to her mindscape that the others being absent was a Very Bad Thing for everything around her.

Ezara shook her head. "Even if they aren't talking to me, I can feel them if I try. At the very least Stormfire's existence. He's never busy."

"Is this why you've been having the difficulties we've been noticing?" He asked as gently as he could.

She seemed to think about it, then nodded faintly. "Probably. My social programming has never been very advanced."

"It's just going to get worse then, won't it?" Jazz looked up at her, his mind working double-time to separate out what was Ezara and what was imposed on her. The results were anything but comforting.

"Pretty much," she sighed and leaned back. "Early arena days, maybe before that."

"How animalistic were you, before then?" Melinda asked, considering what might happen.

Ezara dug around her memories before answering. "At best, it was a simple survival of the fittest - by strength or wits. At worst, pre-language."

"Is there any way you can think of to slow the process? At least until you've given birth?"

Her gaze drifted down to Jazz, trying to process her own behavior patterns with limited success.

"Ah'm not sure about slow it, but ah know how to control'r," Jazz spoke up, his voice quiet. "It just won't be pretty."

"Are you willing to give any details?" Melinda asked him.

"He makes sure I know my place as secondary to him," Ezara spoke up. "Basic pack rank. It taps into the handful of truly unshakable core programs for a Beast Spark. Within capabilities, subordinate members will do anything they can for their leader. As long as Jazz can remain the leader, he can do a lot to keep me from lashing out."

"I thought Optimus was your leader," Melinda gave the largely quiet older mech an uneasy look.

"I am, but Ezara is not an Autobot," he said easily. "Her rank among the Lydrom is equal to my own among the Autobots."

"It's an SpecOp thing," Jazz added. "Among the Lydrom, the head of Intelligence is the final arbiter of life and death. I have the same position, so especially when it comes to instinct-driven reactions, I have the advantages of that conditioning."

"I could speak with Thomas, about developing a 'safe room' for you," Melinda offered. "One where, if things were getting too bad for you, you couldn't hurt yourself or anything else."

Jazz whispered something in her ear, and her uncertain scowl disappeared, though she was still thoughtful as she nodded. "A den would be good," she acknowledged. "I'd probably start trying to build one anyway. Just wouldn't be in the house."

"I'll do that," Melinda nodded. "Perhaps you and Jazz can help design it?"

"Sure thing," he grinned. "I've had a very thorough tour of her head and spark."

"So it was a distraction," Ironhide grumbled as the current ranking officers of the Ark, plus Noitefel, finished updating each other on the events of the past few joor. "Just what kind of condition will Starscream be in when they wake'm up?"

"Functional, though he'll feel off balance. They may not even realize how far I got in undoing the Forge's rewiring of him," Ratchet summarized.

"Would I be correct in extrapolating that his combat abilities are impaired, though not enough he would notice immediately?" Noitefel asked.

"That is my understanding," Prowl inclined his head slightly.

"Yap," Ratchet nodded.

"So," Whiplash locked his optics on the SIC and current CO. "Am I authorized to pick him up, if we come across him?"

"He'd better be," Ratchet said, earning a scowl from Prowl before he nodded.

"Yes. Starscream, at this point, is in a very delicate condition. But bring him in in one piece. With as little violence as possible," Prowl warned him. "We don't know what condition his mind is in."

"Confused would be my bet," Whiplash tried not to snicker. "Should recovering him be a priority, after our own?"

"Yes," Prowl nodded. "The next opportunity we have. I'm sorry to say it may come before the recovery attempt. How is the search progressing?"

"Very well, at least in terms of marking locations they are not," Whiplash said with a small scowl. "We've managed to break the first five layers of encryption on Soundwave's files, though there is no clue yet as to where they are. Mirage has confirmed that COBRA is not involved to their knowledge."

"A good thing, though it means we're running out of place to look without doing house-to-house searches ... I assume we've checked Dr. Arkeville's known lairs?" Prowl asked, glancing between Ironhide and the others who'd been more involved in the search.

"Nothing there," Ironhide nearly growled, only to stop and look at Whiplash with a scowl laced with curiosity. The Intel officer had frozen, his expression as tightly blank as anything Prowl could pull off.

Prowl glanced at Ratchet, who motioned everyone to just wait.

Less than a klik later Whiplash refocused to the room.

"What was that?" Red Alert demanded nervously.

"That was a very old secure comm link protocol with a tight data burst," the Intel commander explained briefly. "Coordinates, security info, base schematics." He focused on Prowl. "This is either from one of my deep-cover agents, or faked as such. I can take a team to confirm, but I doubt the three of us can pull all five out on our own."

"Coordinates?" Prowl asked, turning to his console and bringing up his data on available resources even as he entered the location Whiplash gave him. "If you're right, I want us in place to retrieve them as quickly as possible. You'll have to confirm first, of course, but we can begin bringing people in, recharging, and moving to the locale."

"We can be ready to go within the joor," Whiplash said. "Myself, Mirage and Tread Bolt on the inside, with Bumblebee as backup and comm link outside."

"Prepare for it then," Prowl nodded. "Give us what information you can before you go; I'll want to start on preliminary planning. We can change the details in the field, once you've confirmed the intel."

"Will do," the small black mech nodded and stood to leave, already pinging his agents to coordinate their mission.

"I'll get my field kit and First Aid ready," Ratchet said as he stood to leave as well.

"How can he get a transmission I don't?" Red Alert tried to still his overwrought processor.

"Intel to Intel," Noitefel told him. "The system is designed to prevent the 'Cons from picking it up from inside their base. Your systems don't stand a chance."

"And since they have to get past Soundwave, nobody's going to hold it against you," Prowl added, reviewing the files Whiplash had left. "Send out a recall notice; I want every able fighter charged and ready for a fight, depending on how this goes. Ironhide - want to handle a distraction of your own this time?" He asked the veteran warrior.

"Yes," he nodded. "We have enough warriors, especially if the new ones arrive in fighting shape."

"Good. As soon as they arrive, and Whiplash confirms the intel, I want you to launch a full-scale assault on the Nemesis," Prowl said grimly. "Do what damage you can, and if Starscream's there try and capture him. Don't take any chances though - this is a feint. An attack on the Nemesis should lure most of the 'Cons away, particularly Megatron. The rest of us will move in and retrieve Optimus and the others."

"We'll be ready," Ironhide nodded. "Who will be on the retrieval team?"

"Myself, Ratchet, Trailbreaker and Whiplash's team..." Prowl thought for a moment, considering the logistics. "You take the Aerialbots, Protectobots, Dinobots and Caurun with you; we'll take the Twins, Hoist and Huffer with Prime's trailer, in case we need the cargo capacity to get them out."

"The Guard will be going with the rescue team," Noitefel spoke up, his voice firm though his optics went to Prowl to confirm their earlier agreement.

"Agreed," the other tactician nodded. "The other newcomers should remain at the Ark with Blaster, Perceptor and Wheeljack."

"Skyfire?" Noitefel looked at Prowl as both of them silently considered the best use for the shuttle.

"This is officially creepy," Ironhide murmured to Red Alert.

"Standby between the two units - whoever ID's Starscream first, alert him," Prowl said, looking between Noitefel and Ironhide. "His best use will be trying to bring him in, on multiple levels."

Ironhide nodded. "You know, it might not be a bad idea to have Tread Bolt join Skyfire once Prime's been found. The file Ultra Magnus forwarded did say he's a top-notch combat flier. It'd be good to have someone capable of actually taking Screamer down by force if need be."

"Negative," Prowl said, shaking his head. "We'll need the air support at our location," he explained. "You'll have the Aerialbots and Caurun with you, who'll be able to help in a pinch if necessary. We can't risk trying to evacuate the others without having a competent flyer with us. No offense to Sideswipe, but his jetpack doesn't exactly count against possible Seekers."

Ironhide grunted acceptance.

"Then I think we have the plan until more intel comes in," Noitefel suggested.