Soundwave's Greatest Hits, Volume Six.
Chapter Fourteen.
The sound of the proximity alarm going off was what woke the two humans and the Autobot the following morning. Mikaela jumped to her feet, but as Bumblebee got to his own feet and Sam sat up, Bumblebee's optics lit on Soundwave. He relaxed just a smidgeon, as Sam said "It's okay, it's just Soundwave, and he told me yesterday he intends you no harm, 'Kaela."
"Um, yeah, okay, I'll take your word for it," she said. She flushed red as she recalled her uncharitable thoughts about the Decepticons that night, and the awkwardness she'd felt over being in the same room as the silver Cassette she had decapitated the first night she had met him.
Soundwave's face turned to look at her and she felt as if that red visor was looking deep into her soul.
"Situation-combat, weapons-limited, reaction-understood. No-aggression-harboured; treaty-desired."
Mikaela turned to Sam as Soundwave turned his head to watch Ravage trot in.
"How did he"- she said.
"Soundwave reads minds," Sam said.
"Oh God," she whispered, well aware what he had probably seen, and wondering how deep and how much of her mind he could read. She had already noticed the wording Soundwave had used and noted what was unspoken; the possibility of a treaty and her ties to Sam were all that stood between him taking action against her for what she had done to Frenzy. Soundwave understood why she had done what she had done, but that did not mean he had forgiven her.
She looked back up to find Soundwave's gaze upon her, and shivered as he spoke.
"Affirmative." Then "Surface-thoughts-loud."
"I think he means you are mentally shouting," Sam said to her."Whatever you were just thinking, he heard. What's up, Kayla? You've gone rather pale" Sam said.
"I was remembering how we, um, 'met' Frenzy, and Soundwave and I have reached an understanding about where I stand with him," she said. "I'm not his favourite person, but you and the treaty are more important than punishing me. If things go pear-shaped, and you die, I'm screwed." She paused. "I think I should go back now, Sam, I don't want to overstay my welcome."
Soundwave's optics dimmed, then flickered, and Mikaela flinched. For a moment, her fave went slack, and then Soundwave said "Barricade-approaches." He nodded towards Mikaela. There was an awkward silence from the two humans, before Mikaela bent to kiss Sam, and then picked up her purse and walked out of the room. Soundwave then focused his optics on Bumblebee, whose own optics flickered, then steadied.
Sam breathed out, the weight of responsibility weighing heavily on his shoulders. Oddly enough, knowing this treaty was needed to save many Cybertronian and human lives didn't seem to put him under too much pressure, but once Mikaela herself was confirmed as one of those lives, it made the burden harder to bear. There was a saying about it, Sam knew, about one person's death being a tragedy but thousands dead was a statistic. He had never understood it quite as much as he did at that moment.
"Query," Soundwave said, and Sam roused from his thoughts to find Soundwave crouched down behind him.
"Then ask," Sam said.
"Mikaela-important-why?" he asked.
"She's my um, prospective bonded," Sam said. "She's fought beside me, she's a friend, and sometimes she has better ideas than me, or can help me work ideas out. She's fun to be around, and yeah, she can be a pain, she wants me and 'Bee to drive her to shops and stuff, and gives me unwanted fashion advice, so yeah, she has her flaws, we all do." He paused again. "I guess it can be summed up as 'positives outweigh negatives', really," Sam said. He paused, and then spoke again.
"Query, Soundwave. Mikaela, can she redeem herself? To you, I mean?"
"Clarification-unnecessary;-context-clear," Soundwave said. "Query;-possible. Method;-unclear." Sam took the first part of Soundwave's comment as meaning he hadn't needed to explain who Mikaela needed to redeem herself to, as the comment was about Mikaela and Soundwave. It sort of made sense, Soundwave could read it in his thoughts. He wondered if that explained Soundwave's speech patterns, which took economy of words to a different level than humans generally attained.
Sam saw Soundwave's hands come down to floor level, palms up and fingers straight, and stepped up, smiling as he was reminded communication could be quite clear even if it wasn't verbal.
"Medic-requests-scan," Soundwave explained as he stood. Sam just nodded, and grabbing his clothing and laser scalpel, allowed Soundwave to carry him through, and Bumblebee, who had remained silent the whole time, followed them through.
He was scanned by Dr Syn, who pronounced him to be healing well, and a few moments later, Barricade returned, bearing a breakfast burger and drink.
"Your femme suggested you'd like this," Barricade said handing over the brown paper bag pinched delicately between two claws.
"She isn't wrong," Sam said happily, taking the bag, grabbing the burger inside and taking a bite, closing his eyes in exaggerated bliss as he chewed. "Bless Mikaela for thinking of me, and thank you, Barricade, for getting this," Sam said, opening his eyes and reaching over to pat the black and white Decepticon on one arm. He took another bite, suppressing a moan of pleasure as his taste buds registered the taste and his stomach rumbled, preparing to digest. The burger was gone in a few more bites, and the drink quickly followed.
Once his hunger had been thus sated, Sam dressed quickly and went through with Soundwave, and Bumblebee as an audience. He read out the changes he had made, and explained his reasoning for the changes. To Sam's surprise, Soundwave coached him on his intonation, cadence, and vocal tone, explaining that in communication, this could be as important as the words' content. Sam thought that made sense: polite as opposed to confrontational would be good, as would deference to some generals or other higher ranking humans or Cybertronians without accidentally coming across as condescending or sarcastic instead.
"Gratitude expressed," Sam said to Soundwave, using the deferential but respectful tone Soundwave had coached him in, just to try out the "less words more meaning in tone" method, as he had mentally catalogued it.
"Gratitude-unnecessary;negotiations-benefit," Soundwave said.
"True," Sam replied.
"Swiftstrike-rest, healing-ongoing," Soundwave suggested.
"I'm not an invalid," Sam complained, falling back to his usual speech pattern.
"No-one's saying you are, but you are recovering from being shot, and even for healthy individuals, a break helps sharpen concentration," Bumblebee said. "Come on, Sam, take a break from the work, we'll chat in your room."
Sam allowed Bumblebee to carry him through to his area, and Bumblebee put him down.
"I've been informed by Cliffjumper over com that it seems Grimlock is going to arrive sometime around the time of the presentation and ongoing negotiations, Sam, and you may run into him. It may be prudent to learn some extra Autobot etiquette and forms of address, as Grimlock does not have a good history regarding his interactions with indigenous species similar to humans in the past."
"Why not?" Sam asked, a worried look crossing his face.
"Grimlock and others like him respect strength above almost everything else," Bumblebee explained "and Grimlock is big enough, heavy enough, and ornery enough to give even Optimus a difficult time if they have a disagreement, which has occurred before now. A human, by comparison, is weak, and Grimlock, at best, ignores the weak. If you come to his notice, or seem to obstruct or disrespect him, he will not ignore you. The best options would be to appeal to his ego, or if the situation warrants it, surrender to him as a prisoner. I find it hard to believe the latter will be necessary, but it is better to know more than you need than not enough," Bumblebee clarified.
"Grimlock, as the leader of his group, does like to be addressed as "King" So if you must address him, 'King' would appeal to his ego, and show you see him as above you. Grimlock is not one to use his strength against a weaker opponent without what he sees as provocation, in fact he has a sense of justice that makes using strength unfairly against a weaker opponent offensive to him, which is why he fights on the Autobot side."
"So, Grimlock wouldn't fight a smaller Decepticon because they're not evenly matched?" Sam said, surprised.
"No, Sam, he would, because Decepticons are enemies, although if one yielded or surrendered, I believe he would not destroy them. However, small Decepticons are not necessarily weaker Decepticons, it means their strength is in something other than brute force, something Grimlock understands very well. He is sometimes seen as being of very low intelligence due to his size and his broken speech pattern, but he understands the dynamics of battle, power, and tactics well enough."
"Broken speech pattern? Can you clarify?" Sam asked.
"Where you might imagine Grimlock might say "I am Grimlock, and I am the king," he's more likely to phrase it "Me Grimlock King" which still gets his point across without as many words, and without having to devote as much time to sentence structure, which Grimlock would see as a waste of time. As far as he's concerned, if he gets his point across, that's what matters. He might come across as being stupid, but it's more that he can't be bothered to speak in a way that might be seen as 'properly'. He doesn't need to learn the local language perfectly, and would not, as long as he can make himself understood."
"That doesn't seem very diplomatic," Sam observed.
"Grimlock doesn't do diplomacy, Sam, he does things by shock and awe, sound and fury. He's something of a blunt instrument, but when that's what is needed, he is the best. If he's on your side, you'd have no one better watching your back, and those of your allies, but to get him on your side is an issue of it's own.
"So, if all goes well, I'll be beneath his notice, if things go pear-shaped I should flatter him about his position and appeal to his sense of honour, by denigrating my own abilities," Sam said, "but what happens if that doesn't work?"
Bumblebee crossed his wrists and lifted the crossed wrists to his neck level. "You do this, Sam, and shout that you surrender," Bumblebee replied. "Prostrating yourself on the floor face down with wrists crossed over your head is another well-known variant. This is the visual sign of total surrender, which is universal amongst both Autobots and Decepticons, and Grimlock should abide by that. He might pick you up and carry you to a cell or another Autobot, but should not attempt to harm you unless you attempt to attack or escape, so I advise you in that situation to stay as still as possible."
"Should, that suggests it's not guaranteed, so worst case scenario, if the surrendering doesn't work?" Sam said "As you said, better to know too much than not enough."
"Grimlock should respond to surrendering, Sam, but if he doesn't, run and hide, find one of us to call for help, and try and get away would be my advice," Bumblebee said.
"Right, I'll keep that in mind," Sam said.
Hound came over later that day, and Sam practiced with him and Soundwave, matching his phrasing to the images, and using the intonation and inflections suggested by Soundwave, and even he had to admit the effect was good. Hound left, saying he would put the final flourishes and effects on the images for the presentation, and offered Sam and Bumblebee to come with him. As there was only one more free day before the presentation, that would only have involved Sam being brought back for the presentation. So Sam declined, although Bumblebee agreed to return, as he was on the Autobot side, and should be seen more at the Autobot Base than the Decepticon Base. Sam was now well enough to not need Bumblebee's presence, either physically or for moral support.
When they had gone, Sam wondered what they would do now, and Sam was about to ask Soundwave when Soundwave answered. Sam was used to it, but it could still be unnerving whenever Soundwave's mind reading slipped Sam's mind.
"Swiftstrike-learned-Cybertronian-gestures. Lessons-continue-tonight,"
By that, Sam found out that there was way more to Cybertronian gestures, at least in the Decepticon side of things, than submission and surrender, and many variations on them all.
He learned the surrender position arose from a non-violence gesture, which was the raising of crossed hands to the waist. The crossed hands at the neck denoted surrendering, and the raising the crossed wrists to above the head equated to not resisting no matter what the provocation.
He rehearsed the equals-to-equals bow, the lower ranking to higher ranking gestures, bodily and limb positions, and hand movements, and by extension, the opposite. He learned also how to slight another without it being sufficient cause to duel, and also learned what gestures would cause great offence, in order to avoid them. He learned how, in the Decepticon ranks on Cybertron, an outnumbered subordinate would bow to show great respect to the winged Seekers to avoid causing offence, and in some cases, secure some protection against others, if the Seeker was impressed with their manners. He learned how ignoring or not reacting to another, or even not looking at and acknowledging them could be taken as deliberate insult, and how to avoid the situation arising in the first place. Sam doubted he would need most of these, but he figured too much knowledge in this situation would not be a dangerous thing, and he found some of the gestures, and the history behind them curiously interesting.
"Linguistic-economy-advantageous; human-verbal-communication-slow, swift-conveyance-of-intent-essential-if-situation-deteriorates," Soundwave told him. At Sam's blank look, Soundwave quickly improved on the lessons he had given Sam earlier, about intonation, tone and cadence, explaining that where Cybertronians could comm large amounts of information in a second, as Sam could not do so, he wanted Sam to be able to convey pertinent information before he got attacked if a situation deteriorated rapidly.
"Misunderstanding-occurs, swift-communication-necessary-before-conflict-occurs," he explained. "Less-words,-more-intent, more-precision-desirable."
"Like Soundwave?" Sam asked.
"Affirmative," Soundwave replied. "Words-tone-cadence-intonation-convey-data-together-reducing-overall-word-volume. Swiftstrike-will-learn?"
Sam had to admit that with the last three words, Soundwave's intonations, with the rising tone at the end, made what might otherwise be seen as an order into a question. He smiled.
"Affirmative," he replied.
He spent the next hour or two learning how to use less words but convey more intent. Soundwave encouraged him to exaggerate his vocal tone for queries, to more crisply sound his vowels, to use a firm tone as well as say "affirmative" or "negative" so his intent and meaning could not be misinterpreted. At times he felt daft with the amount of exaggeration he had to put into his tone, but Soundwave's approval assured him his words and phrases had not sounded as overemphasised as he felt they did when he pronounced them
"Soundwave, why 'Affirmative' and 'negative' when 'yes' and 'no' are shorter?" he asked.
"'Affirmative'; 'Negative'; Meaning-unequivocal," Soundwave replied. Sam decided next time he got online that he would look up the meaning of 'unequivocal' wondering if Soundwave realised humans didn't immediately learn words the way he assumed Cybertronians did.
"'Unequivocal: meaning-unambiguous; no-doubt." Sam blushed, recalling again Soundwave's mind reading ability.
"Understood,' he said, embarrassed, and worried that Soundwave would think him stupid.
"Tone,-words-must-communicate-same-data. Confidence-reinforces-both," Soundwave told Sam. "Learning-lifelong-experience, knowledge-increase-positive,-shame-unnecessary."
"Understood," Sam said, feeling relieved. "Continue?" he asked. He was feeling tired, but didn't know how much more Soundwave felt he needed to learn. He didn't want to miss out on something Soundwave felt was important.
"Negative," Soundwave said. "Swiftstrike-fatigued;-retention-requires-alertness."
"Swiftstrike wishes to learn," he said, trying to fight the tiredness he felt.
Soundwave paused, and when he spoke next, it was obvious he had looked on the Internet and was quoting.
"Even-Rome-was-not-built-in-a-day," he replied, and Sam realised how very odd even this short phrase sounded coming from Soundwave. "Basics-learned; essentials-adequate. More-learning-after-presentation-tomorrow. Swiftstrike-requires-recharge."
"Tomorrow?" Sam queried, not realising how fast time had passed. "Long day ahead, time to sleep?" he said.
"Affirmative," Soundwave answered. He put his hands down to the floor. "Swiftstrike-return." This time the intonation in his voice made his words a polite suggestion and not a question. Sam nodded, and stepped up, actually somewhat relieved.
"Airbed, pillows, requested," he replied. "Location? Swiftstrike's area."
"Affirmative," Soundwave replied, standing, holding Sam close to his chest and moving off.
He took Sam's air bed and pillows in one hand from Sam's area in the Med bay, recalling the other Cassettes into his chest before putting Sam's air bed and pillows in. Sam briefly wondered where the others would be, as he never recalled seeing any of the others in with him when he woke up or went in. Soundwave didn't reply, but lifted Sam up so he could get into the compartment before closing it. It was light enough for Sam to change into his PJ's, which he had stuffed in the attached sleeping bag. Of the Cassetticons there was still no sign, although they had to be in there somewhere. He put his daytime clothes and the laser scalpel carefully to one side, and cuddled down into the sleeping bag. He would have thought nerves about the upcoming presentation would have made him too nervous to sleep, but as he yawned and realised how sleepy he actually felt once he was lying down, he guessed he was more tired than he realised, and allowed his eyelids to close.
It wasn't long at all before before Sam was fast asleep.