CHAPTER 5

Energy and Energon


The first sleep Starscream had since he lost his memories - real sleep, not simply losing consciousness due to stasis or attacks to the head and what not - was not pleasant. He fell into recharge some ten minutes after laying down and went to the world of darkness. After an uncertain amount of time, he had a nightmare.

He was standing in the middle of a desert in the middle of the night, surrounded by mesas but otherwise empty.

Except he wasn't alone.

Looking straight ahead, he noticed a figure in the far distance about a kilometer away, a mere silhouette, but large and looming. Somehow, Starscream knew that this figure would kill him if it spotted him.

Just after thinking that, the figure turned and stared at Starscream with its menacingly glowing red eyes. Barely a second later, it set into running towards him.

Starscream immediately turned and started running himself. He found his body having become incredibly heavy, making him run very slowly, and the heavy weight made him quickly exhausted.

But he couldn't stop running. The creature would kill him if it caught up to him. But even when putting all his strength into his legs, he barely moved more than a couple of meters every second. Looking back, his persuader was catching up to him, moving much more quickly and effortlessly than him, despite having started out with being more than a kilometer away.

Starscream turned his head back forward, searching desperately for a place to hide or escape to. But there was no escape. There was no hiding place. All he could do was keep running, getting slower and slower as his energy levels dropped more and more.

A few seconds later, Starscream turned his head back again to see how far the monster had come. He only just managed to turn all the way back before he was knocked down by the figure, falling onto his back.

Looking up, Starscream stared with terror at the monster looming above him. It was bipedal, somewhat boxy, with something situated on its right arm. It was entirely black like a silhouette, making it impossible to make out detail. The only part he could really make out were its eyes. They were small, red, glowing and menacingly, with the gleam of a killer, staring down at the helpless Seeker.

Starscream opened his mouth to scream, but no sound escaped.

The monster lifted its right arm.

A bright white light with a violet tint appeared from the protrusion on the arm, aimed at Starscream's head.

There was a sound.

A bright flash.

Starscream sat up with a start and let out a shriek.

He let out fast vents as he looked around in the darkness.

He was in the command center. In the medbay, where he had fallen asleep.

"Ugh...what was that...?" Starscream grumbled to himself as he put a servo to his chest, while trying to slow his venting.

"I suppose you were having a nightmare," a gruff voice sounded.

Starscream flinched by the voice and looked around. His gaze fell on a small bot leaning against the wall by the entrance to the rocky tunnel. The bot was solid red and had horns similar to several other Autobots he had met during the day.

"A nightmare?" Starscream repeated. "What's that?"

"A bad dream," the bot explained, not sounding particularly pleased. "When you sleep, your processor sometimes shows you your biggest fears, in the form of nightmares."

"My biggest fears," Starscream repeated with dread. "It felt so real."

"Dreams do that," the bot said. "Especially nightmares. Not very uncommon these days, with the war going on and everything."

There was silence for a while, while Starscream regained control of his venting. "What's your name?" he asked the bot. "I don't think I got your name."

"Cliffjumper," the bot replied. "My friends call me Cliff. So don't call me Cliff."

Starscream frowned a bit, but didn't comment further. "Why is it so dark in here now?" he asked instead.

"Lights are out for the night," Cliffjumper replied. "The others are asleep. I'm on nightwatch tonight. Keeping lookout in case something happens."

"Like an attack?"

"Exactly like an attack."

Starscream hummed. "How long was I out?"

"Time's a little past one in the morning, so probably only about four hours. Go back to sleep, you need it."

Starscream laid back down on his back. "I don't know if I want to go back to sleep. What if the nightmare returns?"

"I'll wake you if you have another one. Go back to sleep."

Starscream hesitated for a little over a minute before he shifted so he was lying on his side, facing against the wall, letting his wings have more space. They felt a bit stiff. Perhaps lying on his back wasn't a good way to sleep.

"Are you still there, Cliffjumper?" Starscream asked after two minutes of staring at the dark wall, trying to relax.

"I'm still here," Cliffjumper's voice sounded. "I'm not going anywhere. So go back to sleep."

Despite the darkness, Cliffjumper could make out the gentle flapping of Starscream's wings in response. Starscream didn't engage further in conversation. The wings flapped gently on occasion, having space enough for it. It took about twenty minutes before the wings stopped flapping and Starscream had fallen back asleep.


Starscream didn't stir for the rest of the night, staying asleep until eight in the morning. Despite having fallen asleep at nine in the evening the previous day, the nightmare intervention cut down his energy levels, leaving him with only about seven hours worth of rest. Just enough to cut it.

When Starscream woke, the command center was no longer covered in darkness, but instead lit up like it had been the evening before. He heard muffled voices talking in the background, optics still closed. Despite having regained consciousness, he was still tired and kept his optics closed, just to gain a bit more rest. His wings flapped gently behind him, though without him really intending to. They seemed to have a mind of their own, those wings.

Their movement did not go unnoticed.

"Are you awake?" Ratchet's voice sounded behind the Seeker.

Starscream opened his optics into slits, slightly startled by the loud voice. He groaned and stretched his legs out over the table he was lying on, arching his back and making a cracking sound. Tension left his frame as the crack sounded, and he let out a sigh of relief.

Starscream shifted and sat up, legs hanging off the table. He stretched his arms out and felt the stiffness leaving his frame. After stretching, he rubbed his optics to wake them up as well, before focusing on Ratchet standing before him, waiting for him to finish.

"Good morning, Starscream," Ratchet greeted stone-faced.

"Good morning, Ratchet," Starscream replied, still rubbing an optic and then paused. "That's a greeting, right?"

"It is, good to know you still remember that much," Ratchet replied and took out his tools. "Now, let's have a look at you. Slept well?"

"Somewhat," Starscream replied as Ratchet started running a scanner across his frame. "I had a... nightmare, though, I think it was called. Still tired."

Ratchet hummed. "Sorry to hear that," Ratchet replied and brought out a small hammer to check Starscream's reflexes. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Starscream contemplated for a moment, while his leg bounced at the touch by the hammer. More focused on what Ratchet was doing, he took a while before remembering the question. "I'm not sure how to explain it," he replied after ten seconds. "I don't really remember it very well."

Which of course wasn't true. He remembered it very well. But he didn't want them to know what he had seen. For he wasn't very sure what it had been. But he didn't want them to know his fears or weaknesses, despite the possibility that they knew both better than he did at the moment.

"Fine," Ratchet simply replied and put the hammer away, shining a light into Starscream's optics, which followed it and narrowed. "Well, you seem to be recovering well, despite your injuries, so you should be able to leave the medbay soon. Then we'll get you a real berth to sleep on. Should help with the nightmares."

"I hope so," Starscream replied quietly. "Will I be able to leave the medbay today?"

"Possibly," Ratchet replied. "I'd wait a few more hours though. Your internal injuries seem to have healed quite a lot throughout the night, in fact I may even go as far as to say they've completely healed. But you should still rest for at least two more hours just to be sure. There still seems to be a lot of scars left on your armor though. They may heal in time, maybe they won't. They're just superficial though, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Having finished checking Starscream over, Ratchet stood up and put his tools away.

"Do I still have to keep these cables on?" Starscream asked, hoping he didn't.

Ratchet hummed and contemplated for a moment. "Yes," he replied. "I want to make sure the med-grade heals your wounds completely, both on the inside and on the outside."

Starscream raised an orbital ridge. "Med-grade?" he repeated. "What's that?"

"Med-grade is a form of Energon," Ratchet explained. "Specifically, it's been modified to be used as a medicine, to heal. It is used on wounded or sick bots. Like you, at the moment."

Starscream hummed. "How many kinds of Energon are there?" he asked.

"There are at least four ways you can modify Energon. There's med-grade which you already know about. Then there's low-grade, which is a fairly harmless and stable form of Energon, but doesn't provide much energy. There's mid-grade, which is the general kind of Energon we fuel on, gives a good amount of energy and generally stable but still more unstable than low-grade. And finally, there's high-grade, which provides lots of energy but is also pretty unstable compared to the other two kinds. Unstable meaning it is susceptible to lower temperatures than the mid-grade and low-grade, and if it comes into contact with high enough temperature, it will explode."

Starscream widened his optics in surprise. "Energon explodes? Why do we fuel on it then?"

"Because it is what we're made of, it's what keeps us going, so we have to fuel on it. Though there are two kinds of Energon we can fuel on, Natural Blue or Artificial Pink. Both are unstable in raw or refined form, but Artifical Pink tends to be easier to acquire."

"Why's that?"

"Natural Blue Energon is found as crystals, but they are scarce on this planet as well as on Cybertron. When they come in contact with heat they explode and turn into clouds. At some point these clouds will condensate into rain, and this liquid Energon will then gather in puddles or seep into crevices in the ground and stay underground. Eventually the puddles will crystallize and make new Energon crystals, but this process takes years, and gathering the Energon up from the puddles is extremely difficult and time consuming, and time is something we don't have enough of these days.

As such, we resort to creating Energon artificially, by using special cubes to absorb natural raw energy from the environment, such as heat, gas, friction, wind, water and radiation. This raw energy is then converted into a liquid pink Energon, ready to be used. If this Energon explodes or is expended through venting and ammo, it doesn't turn into clouds like Natural Blue, instead it returns to the form of energy it was originally found in. So the energy doesn't disappear, but instead turns into something else, and once it has met its use, it is returned to the environment. The Absorption Cubes are difficult to make, but hard to break so once they are made, Energon is easy to acquire and spend. The Energon we consume changes the color of the Energon flowing in our frames, so we may have blue or pink Energon depending on our fuel, or sometimes the color is a mix of the two if one regularly fuels on both."

Starscream listened intrigued to Ratchet's explanation on Energon. "How often do we have to refuel?" he asked as Ratchet finished his explanation.

"It depends on the individual bot's situation," Ratchet replied. "During wartime, Energon is expended quickly on ammo and healing wounds, so refueling is needed at least once a week, in active periods more than that. During peacetime, Energon was only expended through venting and whatever one's abilities allowed them to do their jobs, so bots could go without Energon well over a week. Growing Sparklings need to refuel at least twice every day, since the Energon goes to working on their frames."

Starscream perked at that. "Sparklings? What are those?"

"Young Transformers who haven't started transforming yet. Sparklings are created through Forging or interfacing, though Forging is the more normal way of doing it." Before Starscream could ask, Ratchet continued: "Forging is when Sparks appear from hot spots on Cybertron, summoned by the supercomputer Vector Sigma. These Sparks are then harvested and they start to develop Sentio Metallico to shape their bodies. After a few hours, the Sentio Metallico becomes a functional Protoform capable of movement but relatively helpless. Most Protoforms are fully developed with a functioning frame and capable of transforming within three weeks, but sometimes they grow slower and may take months or even years to be fully developed and grown up. In this case we call them Sparklings."

Starscream hummed at the information given. "So what's interfacing?" he asked, noting Ratchet hadn't explained that.

Ratchet hesitated before answering. "It's an action between two bots who like each other very much. Very, very much. It's not something you just do with anyone, though. It's reserved for someone special."

"Someone special?" Starscream asked curiously. "How do I know if someone's special?"

"You will feel it in your Spark," Ratchet explained, the best he could. "You will feel a need to be with that someone, you miss them every time you're apart, and when you are together, you are either very happy or very nervous."

"Happy or nervous?" Starscream repeated confused. "That doesn't make sense at all."

"Maybe you'll find out eventually, maybe you won't," Ratchet replied. "Only you will know when you have found someone special. And you won't doubt it when it happens. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go somewhere else."

Starscream was about to stop the medic, but Ratchet had already left the medbay. Starscream sat back alone and thought about the information he had been given.