We are finally caught up to where I first redid everything.
I like how this chapter is going and I had some fun writing it.
Transformers © to Hasbro!
OCs © to me!
Chapter 5: Feorlicu
"Are you sure you picked the right word?"
"Remix, which one us is a professor of Medieval literature?"
"Which one of us has downloaded all the information on the Anglo Saxon language into their head?"
Aalis set down her tablet before glancing up at the giggling Autobot. "Silent, Suster(1)."
"You know I'm right, Suster." Remix laughed. "'Beginning' can be translated in many ways. Make sure you have the right word for the context."
Aalis nodded. "I know. Again, I'm a professor. I literally stare at this language every day and I have studied it for years."
"I know."
The human closed down the program on her tablet and sighed. "Ok, I'm done… just done."
Remix leaned back against a large tree. "Wanna hear some more Cybertronian history?"
"Yes, please."
"Do you remember what we last discussed?"
"Yep, the primes."
"Do you remember their names."
"Do you doubt my annoying sponge-like brain. Of course I remember!" She took a bite of what was left of her lunch. "Prima, Vector Prime, Logos Prime, Solus Prime, Micronus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Nexus Prime, Onyx Prime, Amalgamous Prime, Quintus Prime, Liege Maximo, Megatronus, and Solomus."
Remix giggled. "Yep! They drove off Unicron and the Quintessons. After that came the golden age, which was a time of peace and prosperity, for some. The lower castes were subjected to cruel treatment by the upper castes and the enforcers. Many Cybertronians left the planet and headed to colonies to get away from the caste system. Then the colonies began getting infected with the Rust Plague which infected and corrodes any metal it came in contact with. It destroyed cities, ships, and Cybertronians. To stop the plague, the council had all the space bridges to the colonies destroyed to keep the plague from Cybertron. After that, bots couldn't leave to escape the caste system and that led to the Great War(2)."
The femme vented. Memories from those times were always hard. She remembered the times with her creators and the bombing that changed everything.
She jumped slightly as a hand touched her leg. "Remix?"
"I'm alright, Suster." Remix lifted the human into her servo. "You're off this weekend, right?"
"I've gotten all my grading done, so yes. Why?"
Remix reached into her subspace and pulled out a small meter. "The refugee group sent me a notification. There's an energon drop for me about a day's drive from here. You would have to stay out of sight when I picked it up, but would you like to come with?"
"Yes!"
"Don't get too excited. Remember, you won't get to see the actual pickup."
Aalis laughed a little. "I know, but it's exciting still."
"Alright then!"
Aalis ran inside and stuffed a tee-shirt and a few other items into a backpack before running back out. Remix waited out front, already in her alt form. Aalis jumped in, buckling up as the "Persona 5" soundtrack began to blast through the vehicle.
Who am I?
Am I not unique?
Maybe I'm not here at all
Look, the fakers
Blinding us with lies
The breakers of us all
The two sang as loud as they could as they sped around the mountain bends. The two, sisters from different worlds, spent the day driving along through the mountain roads. Best way to avoid the cops.
Oh, it's useless
What could it mean that we're here?
Can we make a difference?
If we don't break outta here?
During the night, Aalis slept.
Remix drove, making sure that her human friend was safe in the back.
During the night, slower music played to keep the femme occupied but also to make certain that Aalis didn't wake up.
Wake up, get up, get out there
Raise your voice against liars
Feed your anger like fire
Why does nobody want change?
When awake, they talked, discussing human history and Cybertronian history. Aalis drew on her tablet for some of the time, working on her manga of "Beowulf".
Eventually, they pulled up in a small mountain town. Remix dropped the human off on the tiny main street before driving away. Aalis stepped into an antique shop, humming music under her breath as she wondered what her friend was doing.
Just imagine you're out there
Swatting lies in the making
Can't move fast without breaking
If you hold on life won't change
Remix sang the song under her breath as she entered a forest clearing. A mech and femme stood beside a small box. Waiting.
"Hello." Remix transformed, clasping her servos behind her back. "I'm here for my energon ration."
The mech looked up. "Remix?"
"Yes."
He slid the box to her with his pede. "Here."
Remix picked up the box with a smile. "Thank you!" Her smile fell slightly. "Um, any news on the war?"
"It is still going on." The femme vented. "And it has gotten so much worse. Cybertron is in ruins. There is so much destruction and death there."
"Oh."
The mech glanced at the femme's Autobot insignia. "You chose a side?"
"Kinda. I never actually joined. I was going to, but they were attacked and an Autobot named Lifeline put me on a refugee ship to save me. Those in charge wouldn't really let me go find another Autobot; they said I was too young." Remix's grip tightened around the crate of energon.
"That was smart of them. The greatest war crime is the inclusion of younglings into the conflict. And the Autobots are just as guilty of this as the Decepticons. Honestly, if you can take off that insignia, I would. It was a mistake."
Remix flinched at the harsh tone. "Th-thank you. For the energon and advice." She transformed, the box ending up in the back with the back seats laid down.
She turned around and drove back as quickly as possible. Her processors raced. She didn't know how to think of the Autobots. They saved her and were nice, but others didn't think so. Remix couldn't fabricate a larger picture of the Autobots because no one would let her near them because she was a youngling.
She hated being treated like just an immature youngling!
She pulled into the small town where Aalis waited at the end of the main street, a bag in her arms. The girl smiled as she slipped into the driver's seat.
"How'd it go?"
"Ugh, rude and patronizing bots." Remix vented. "Treating me like a fragging sparkling! Oops… sorry for the language."
Aalis patted the steering wheel. "Sorry, Suster."
"It's fine…"
The human pulled out an old book from her bag."I bought a book, a classic! Human stories always cheer you up."
"Yeah… what book?"
"It's by Jules Verne," the girl leaned back as the bot began driving, "called, Journey to the Center of the Earth."
"Ooooh!"
"'I dressed myself rapidly- and then taking the precaution to please my uncle, of wrapping myself in one of the coverlets, I rushed out of the grotto.'(3)" Aalis closed the book slightly. "Sooo, what do you think?"
"I think the uncle is weird." Remix laughed. "But the book it interesting. There is no way that is actually how the center of the earth is, but the concept is very interesting. Isn't this the author that literally invented the submarine for his book?"
Aalis nodded. "That's right. In my opinion, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Buroughs were some of the greatest and most iconic science fiction authors of all time(4)."
"I want to hear more of these stories. What did the other two write?"
"H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine and the original alien-invasion book, War of the Worlds."
Remix sat in silence. "Alien-invasion? You mean the concept of little green men probing humans and stealing cows?"
"Well," the human chuckled, "that's what it has devolved to. In that story, they invade and kill people, but it's not some big hero story. It's very interesting. Edgar Rice Buroughs wrote a space story too. The John Carter of Mars series. It's a fun one where a guy ends up on mars, meets martians and has a good life there and becomes a hero."
Remix laughed. "I still find it so funny that you humans are slightly obsessed with aliens and abductions. And here you are, sitting inside of an alien."
"Just don't abduct me and we're good."
Both of them laughed.
"Aalis, I need to pull over and get an energon cube. I'm sure you wouldn't mind stretching your legs too."
"Yes, please."
The bot pulled off the road into a quiet mountain clearing. She waited until the human stepped out and pulled the energon cubes out of the back. Remix transformed, stretching. "Oh! That feels good!"
Aalis sat down in the cool grass under the new moon and the stars, pulling a package of crackers out of her purse. "It's almost midnight." She yawned. "Thank you coffee."
Remix grabbed a cube, sipping the blue liquid from the box as they sat side-by-side under the stars. "Did you get any other books?"
"Yep. The first John Carter book and War of the Worlds." She held up her phone. "And I recently downloaded the entire collection of Shakespeare. I've got a degree and specialty in Old English, but Middle English is not my area of expertise."
The femme glanced down at her 'sister' and smiled. "Any alien abduction stories in this 'Shakespeare'?"
"No." Aalis nearly spit out her crackers, laughing at the mental image of Shakespeare with space aliens. "But there is magic and fantasy." She laughed again, jumping to her feet. "How dareth thee aliens invade our landeth!? Wherefore didst thee abduct our cater-cousins!? What has't thee done to those folks!?"
The human collapsed into a long bout of laughter.
"You know, Suster, you are weird."
"I know!" The human continued to laugh, wiping tears from her eyes as she tried to stop laughing. Eventually, the cybertronian laughed as well, still not understanding why her friend was laughing, but she was happy that Aalis was happy.
The two sat laughing for some time before they finally calmed down. "When we finish the other books, will you read some of this Shakespeare?"
"Sure!"
Remix stretched, standing up and looking at the sky. "We better get going."
"Yeah, I agr-"
Aalis gasped as a current rushed through her body. She froze, her visions slowly fading out as her body collapsed.
"AALIS!?"
A small canister slammed into the femme's leg, sending an electric current shooting up her body. Remix screamed as her systems began to shut down, and she too collapsed.
"Oh! What a treat! A human, an Autobot, and energon!"A creature lumbered into the clearing, an electric rifle in its hand. It wheezed out a laugh as it pressed a button on the band on its arm.
A ship lowered down from the sky, landing in the clearing. As the back opened up, the creature's thick fingers closed around the back of Aalis' shirt as it dragged her into the opening cargo bay.
A few minutes later, it came back out dragging two long chains. One it hooked to the energon crate. The other it hooked around Remix's chassis.
The creature went back, pressing a button. A winch drew the chains and their baggage with them, into the ship.
The cargo bay closed up.
The ship took off.
Leaving behind nothing. Nothing to suggest that anyone had ever been there. Nothing but a wrapper for a pack of peanut butter crackers.
"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
― H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
Can you tell I like old sci-fi books and video games?
Please review!
Footnotes:
(1) Suster is the Anglo Saxon word for 'sister'.
(2) From the aligned continuity.
(3) This is the very end of Chapter 26 in Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.
(4) These are some of my favorite authors of all times, and I agree with this statement.
1 Chronicles 16:11
"Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him."