Optimus worked quietly at the main bridge console, he had sat down in an attempt to prevent further injury and not to frag up Ratchet's temporary patchwork. He cast a sidelong glance at his unlikely companion. Barricade appeared outwardly calm, controlled, which was odd in itself. Gone was his notable snark and distinctive sneer, he merely responded when Optimus instructed him to adjust the computer controls and occasionally he would twitch, glance around the room suspiciously before forcing him to stare blankly at the console.

Prowl had given him a quiet heads-up on Barricade's (what he could only call a) condition. He had confirmed Prime's own suspicions that Barricade had indeed been a combat controller. He dreaded to think how many mechs had been under his direct control. He was uncomfortably aware that Ironhide had been one of those of mechs. Something he put aside for a later discussion with his weapons specialist. Right now, Optimus felt himself pretty much clueless in how to handle this unexpected situation.

"Taking a picture will last longer." Barricade muttered, his optics never leaving the console.

Optimus shifted uncomfortably, he hadn't even realized he'd been staring. "I was wondering, as you seem rather... uncomfortable after what happened with Soundwave and Rumble. Ummm..."

'Be nice, tactful, best not to rile him while he seems to be on your side.'

"What does it do to you, when you have to take control of another mech? I mean is it painful for you... for them?"

"Why? You looking for a change of career?"

Well at least his abrasive sense of humour was intact, Optimus thought dryly. "No. Just you know, if you're in any discomfort... I can get Ratchet to..."

"Save it Autobot." Barricade growled. "Don't want or need your charity." His optics narrowed. None of your business, Autoboob.

Optimus turned back to his console, deflated. 'Outstanding, alienated with one sentence. And not even a coherent one at that. Excellent.' Optimus rolled his optics at his own inability to approach such a personal topic. He was rarely caught in such instances where it was necessary. It wasn't that he was an unapproachable leader just that the title alone gave him a certain distance. His mechs would never trouble him with personal issues, they would consider it the height of disrespect due to stellar cycles of ingrained programming spanning from before the war, back to a time when Cybertron was a class dominated civilization.

"It doesn't hurt."

Optimus was surprised at the interruption. He glanced at Barricade who was scowling, probably regretting even sharing that tiny bit of information.

"Can be painful for the mech being controlled, especially if they resist or are hacked. Like what Solar panels kindly did to me, Prowl oh and you." Barricade met Optimus's gaze and sneered. "Doesn't make you a resident expert, so don't plan on writing your autobiography. Ironhide's got you way beat on that."

Optimus's optics widened, he REALLY wasn't used to that brand of cutting sarcasm. Deciding the best tactic was to ignore it, he changed the subject. "Well I am sure you're glad the humans dropped in when they did then." He said innocently, oblivious to the dark look crossing Barricade's features.

"Ecstatic." Barricade muttered his scowl deepening. His optics snapped up to Prime as his comm. buzzed.

Out of courtesy Optimus activated the speaker on his comm. Prowl's voice came through clear and direct. Barricade cursed inwardly upon hearing that the humans had proven useful yet again. There was just no end to his humiliation; did they have to keep rubbing his face in it?

"'Bout time the fleshlings made themselves more useful than fashion accessories."

Optimus raised an orbital ridge at him in vague amusement. "They did save you from Soundwave, Barricade."

"What? Do they want a fraggin' medal? Had it covered." He turned back to his console, inputting the commands to bypass the incessant firewalls as Optimus had instructed. "Right where I wanted him," he muttered ignoring Prime's bemused gaze.

The console flashed and the bridge suddenly lit up in an array of bleeps and lights. The cracked forward viewer blinked and the mountain wall came into focus, blurry but visible all the same. Optimus turned to him his optics narrowed with a hidden smile.

"How's your piloting?" Optimus asked, his smirk widening at Barricade's surprise.

*****

Blackout hated to admit he hated small spaces. He wasn't really very fond of hating anything. That was more of a Bonecrusher thing, really. Between Bonecrusher and Brawl, the hating thing was pretty well covered. But he wasn't very cool in the small confines of the Autobot pod. It didn't help that the Autobots put everything in different places. He ran through the list of items he might have to find real fast several times: hailing freqs, defense shields, booster jets, attitudinal adjusters. And hoped that was good enough.

He was picking his way through an asteroid field, trying to concentrate on dodging the larger pieces, more worried than he wanted to admit that one of the chunks of stone would damage his comm array, leaving him more or less commless. Which would suck no matter who he ran into first.

He wasn't fond of the idea of running into Autobots much more than he was of making it back to the orbital platform. But he had to do this right or else Barricade would…slaughter him.

Blackout didn't like that he was chosen, even though he got along with just about everyone. He kept checking the farscans for any contact, hoping he'd get just enough notice to prepare himself.

"Wow," a voice cut over the ship's hailing comm. "Aren't you a lost little 'bot?"

"Thundercracker?" The proximity alarms fired, the large jet appearing from behind an asteroid.

"Blackout?" A pause. "I probably don't want to know why you're in an Autobot pod, do I?"

"Don't really want to talk about it."

"My idiot trinemate in trouble?"

Uhhhhh. "Kind of."

"Hunh. Kind of. And you're here in a pod. Heading back to the station. You bailing on him?" Thundercracker's voice got sharp, and the pod registered a target lock.

"No! He sent me to get help. We're stuck on a fragging moon."

"We?"

"Starscream and Barricade. Soundwave too." Well, he'd find out sooner or later.

"I take it that S&D went horribly awry."

Blackout grimaced, even though he knew the jet couldn't see him. "You have no idea."

"Been there." The blue jet appeared on his view screen, shifting to his robot mode to hover. "What help do you need?"

"Some catalyzer thingie for the Autobot ship." Blackout relaxed a bit.

"Starscream…can't fly?"

"Damaged. He, uhhh, lost an eye too." He hesitated. "And we gotta cooperate with Autobots, too."

"Frag, that really redefines 'horribly awry'." Thundercracker grinned. "Right. You want a catalyzer. We can do that."

"And…uh, someone who might be able to jerryrig Autobot tech to install it."

"Hook'd be best, but…slag. He's a pain to work with." The blue jet turned. "Follow my vector in: we'll get you in undiscovered."

Blackout boosted the weak thrusters on the pod to follow Thundercracker. Maybe this wouldn't be that hard.

"Why is Hook a pain?" He'd heard so much bad about all of his fellow 'cons that he consciously ignored all of it. Still, if this was going to be a problem, he should know. Barricade would probably not only know, but have a great strategy to get around Hook's issues. He missed Barricade. And hoped he was okay. "Uh, he gonna rat us out to Megatron?"

Thundercracker snorted over comm. "Not likely. Problem with Hook is 'jerryrig' isn't in his vocabulary as anything other than an ultimate cuss word. He'll fix the damn thing forever."

"Oh." Frag, Blackout really didn't want to be stuck on that moon much longer. Barricade was looking…squirrelly when he left and Starscream…well, he must be about crazy from the strain of being surrounded by so many Autobots and not able to slap any of them. Not that Blackout thought himself a stellar example of cooperation. The Autobots creeped him out, hard. That medic, no way. The one that Barricade said had freaked because they were flirting with him? Weird. Ironhide was one big mess of unstable. The only 'bot he almost tolerated was Bingbangboom. "Think we should get him?"

"He's the best. The rest of that stuff, we can sort out later." A hum over the comm line as Thundercracker kicked on his reverse thrusters to shed speed, coming in for a light landing to the open hangar. Blackout did a less elegant job of it with the alien controls of the pod, which ended up skidding against the deck flooring, tearing up some plating, and coming to rest, finally, against the far bulkhead. Blackout crawled out of the pod, turning to give it one last kick, his capacitor racing. Fragging thing! From now on, copter did his own flying.

****

Starscream and Sideswipe were ushered from the hull plating by Ratchet, who looked angrier than usual. He muttered under his breath, leading them some distance away before turning and staring back at the ship. Starscream stole a glance at Sideswipe who caught his optic and shrugged looking as confused as he was.

"We're ready now, in position. You're clear for maneuvers." Ratchet suddenly spoke out loud, startling them both. "Primus help us having a 'con at the helm."

Starscream's one functioning optic stared at Ratchet. "Barricade is piloting the ship?"

"It looks that way yeah."

Considering Barricade's current potentially unstable condition this did not fill him with a sense of comfort. //Barricade, how is the situation?//

//Can't really talk, playing chauffeur and got Prowl whispering sweet nothings in my audio.//

//While I am sure that is only appealing for you, why are you piloting the ship?//

//Prime time is too focused on getting the main computer up and running. Prowl had only just decided to grace us with his insanely cheerful presence. He's navigating.//

//I see... are you...?//

//Can manage, jet. Don't need you joining the ranks of the skeptical right now. Already had to listen to cannons for brains tearing 'let's be friends' a new audio for asking me to take point.//

//Just keep it intact, I am certain you can do a better job than the inept Autobot that crashed it in the first place.//

//Brimming with fluffy warmth and love over here. Right got to fly, loverbot here is giving me the optic.//

Starscream smirked discreetly his comm falling silent. The three mechs watched as the small thrusters fired up. A low rumbling filled their audios and the ground began to shake as the ship slowly pulled away from the mountain side. Ratchet hissed and cursed as the screeching sounds of ripping metal scarred the air. The ship shuddered and trembled in the low g, debris, dust and hull plating spinning off into the almost non-existent atmosphere. With a loud scream of strained thrusters the Ark finally broke free and began to steer away from the mountain. Optics remained fixed on the ship, navigating its way slowly back along the path it had carved upon landing. It whined and hissed before slowly lowering to the uneven rocky ground. With a sudden crack the engines stalled and the ship dropped the meter or so to the surface of the moon. The small audience grabbed onto each other for balance against the quaking ground.

"Oh for spark's sake!" Ratchet bellowed racing off towards the ship followed closely by Sideswipe. Starscream was about to follow when a familiar voice stopped him cold.

"Haven't seen such fragged flying since our academy days."

Starscream turned slowly. He glared at his trine mate. "Thundercracker, what are you doing here?"

Thundercracker's lip components curved in a knowing smirk. "A little bird told me you were in trouble. Thought I'd come for the after show. Glad to see I haven't missed anything."