Chapter 14 - Weirdness, Wires and Rodents
(RPOV)
A week after her arrival, Mikaela was wandering around the workspace. She'd finished the menu, as she called it and was puttering around, rapidly completing the make-work projects.
Of course he himself couldn't figure out the damned problem with this servo.
"Kae, go eat or... something," Ratchet groused.
Not that she was distracting or anything, it was just fun to watch her pretend to give in to being bullied. After watching her refuse to be bullied by Optimus, Ratchet could safely say she was pretending to give in. She glanced at him and grinned.
"Oh come on Ratch, I'm practically out of my make-work jobs now, I eat lunch and I won't have anything to do to work off the calories!" she protested mildly.
"So take a nap," Ratchet grumbled.
"Blasphemy!" she cried out with wide, innocent eyes.
"Blasphemy? So the Judaeo Christian god taking Sundays off to rest is a bad thing?" Ratchet stated blandly. This servo could wait, he couldn't resist a good argument.
"He deserves it after all the intelligent design he managed to come up with!" Mikaela said with a smirk, crossing her arms.
"And evolution had nothing to do with why you're standing in front of me?" Ratchet shot back at her.
"What's all this with the evil-lution talk?" Kae grinned, "everybody knows that the world is four thousand years old and that the first man and woman were Adam and Eve."
"Carbon dating puts the dinosaurs well before human existence," Ratchet stated with a frown, she couldn't possibly believe...
"Carbon dating is a flawed science," Mikaela snorted, "the good lord put those skeletons there to test our faith."
"If that's the case, how the scrap do you explain me?" Ratchet demanded, grinning down at his assistant in spite of himself.
"According to the bible you're a demon, here to tempt us away from the good word." Kae shot back at him with a broad grin.
"The devil may quote scripture to his own ends," Ratchet smirked. Let's see her top-
"Oh shit they've found me out," Mikaela said with a snort, crouching down and giving herself devil horns. Ratchet leaned back on his bench stool and laughed.
And it was an absolutely incredible feeling, he laughed freely at the Femme's joke. It was such a simple thing, and he'd walked right into that one.
Ironhide was grinning at him, and that was such a good thing. His oldest friend had stuck with him through thick and thin. Ratchet had been giving him the pit over the last few vorn, he'd have to make that up to him.
"Ah well," Mikaela continued as he chuckled. "At least it's warm in hell."
"You're cold in the tropics of your planet," Ratchet snorted, "of course your body temperature is normal, and your nerves still-" He cut himself off, turned to the servo he'd been grinding his processors over and snorted, opening one section and running a systems diagnostic. It wasn't damaged, it just thought it was. Relativity. "Only you would pull that off," he looked down at a smirking Mikaela, "now go eat food."
"Love you too Ratch," Kae grinned up at him before she turned toward the mess.
Ratchet flew through the rest of his tasks for the day, then glanced up to watch his assistant as a handful of the soldiers, Jacobs in the lead, half-dragged her to the workout space. She was laughing as the soldiers began showing off. Ratchet onlined his holoform and walked toward them curiously. They'd begun arguing, trying to get Kae to do something.
"Oh go on!" Jacobs laughed.
"Okay fine!" Mikaela finally laughed. "On one condition."
"What's that?" the marine asked in amusement. Mikaela promptly plopped down in his place on the bench and reached up for the weights.
Three feet above her hands.
"You bastards are taller than me. Little help?" she asked sweetly as the soldiers laughed. Jacobs pulled the bar down to her hands and she took the weight over.
"No, Kae you don't wrap your legs around the bench!" Jacobs immediately stated.
"Jacobs, I gotta wrap my legs around the bench," Mikaela laughed, pulling an enormous amount of weight off the ground.
"Why the hell would you need to do that? It's bad form," Jacobs stated firmly.
"Because you've got how much on there again?" Mikaela asked sweetly.
"Er... it's at one sixty," Chance called out, looking at a pin. She pulled the weights up again and Ratchet looked at the muscles she was using.
Damn near all of them. Sneaky.
"That still don't really explain it," Jacobs rumbled with a frown.
Kae did something absolutely hilarious then, she extended her arms as far up as she could, shouted "Fingers!" and unwound her legs, crossing them mid-air as the weight pulled her three feet higher than the bench.
"I only weigh one-twenty," she said mildly, doing chinups on the wobbly one-point bar as the soldiers laughed at her. Ratchet chuckled and walked toward his assistant, watching with crossed arms as she caught the bench with her calves and held herself steady, using her entire body to pull the weight down, uncoiling quickly and plopping herself down on the bench again, her legs wrapped around it and she began using more of her upper body to pull the weight.
"Brute force," Ratchet called out with a low laugh.
"If it isn't working, you aren't using enough." Mikaela grunted, bringing the bar down to her waist.
"Precisely what is pulling more weight than you weigh going to do?" he asked with wry amusement.
"It makes doing-" She frowned and slowly slid upward, putting the weights down carefully. She jumped down and walked to the horizontal bars.
"Sorry, it makes doing this easier," she grinned, jumping up to the lower bar and pulling herself up with barely any effort. Her muscles just synced themselves to do it, every single one of them working against gravity.
Slowly, achingly slowly she pushed herself up into a handstand on the bar.
"That was slow," Jacobs rumbled in an impressed tone. "Now how fast can you do it?"
Mikaela laughed and launched herself around the bar, landing neatly on the higher one and bending around, standing on one foot in the crane stance.
"So much more fun," she grinned, leaping lightly to the lower bar and down to the ground again. She didn't so much as teeter, she puffed a low breath. "Man, getting out of shape though." she frowned at the bars.
Ratchet scanned her again and shook his head.
"You are well above the average fitness level, and several points above what a healthy female should be at," Ratchet told her calmly.
"Yeah, but I used to be able to do that without so much as raising my heartbeat," Mikaela snorted. "It's a standard saying, I'm a female, so I'm going to have to work twice as hard to prove I'm half as good as Jacobs there."
"Sad, but true," Chance shrugged, "of course now you realize I'm going to have to work twice as hard to prove I'm half as good as you are, Kae," he added with a grin. Mikaela burst out laughing along with the rest of the soldiers. Ratchet grinned.
(WPOV)
Will strolled down the housing corridor at four-thirty, lightly rapping on the doors to the morning runner's rooms. He paused at Mikaela's door and shrugged, knocking gently, she'd mentioned she was getting out of shape yesterday.
"Mikaela?" he called out quietly. No answer.
He knocked a bit harder, the door swung open.
"Oh shit, sorry Mikaela I..." he glanced in the room. Empty. "Mikaela?" he shouted.
"Major?" Jacobs' deep voice asked curiously, "what's wrong?"
"Have you seen Mikaela?" Lennox asked worriedly. Several frowns crossed the faces of the men standing in the corridor.
He took off running toward the hangar, calling to the first bot he saw.
"Bee! Bumblebee! Did Mikaela come in here?"
The bot was immediately on alert, shaking his head in the negative and standing straighter. Optimus and Ratchet were transforming the next second, striding quickly toward the hangar doors.
"There is an energon reading three miles from here," Optimus rumbled. Three running steps and a Peterbilt semi was roaring down the airstrip, Ratchet and Ironhide close behind. Bee stayed still long enough for Will to jump into the passenger seat, taking off almost before the door was closed.
Ratchet had his holoform active and opening the hanger door by the time Bee came to a screeching halt, transforming almost before Lennox had gotten out.
"It's okay, but you're not going to believe this," Ratchet stated in a heavy, muted tone as the door slowly opened. Will ran through the normal door and froze.
"Oh hey Lennox, you ever have a song stuck in your head and it's like the worst song ever but you can't help but whistle it or sing it and it's like it repeats itself repeats itself repeats itself repeats itself repeats itself, Optimus Ratchet Ironhide Bumblebee," Mikaela said, grinning at the intruders. Her movements were jerky, mechanical as she looked back and forth at Will and the Auto-bots.
"What. The hell." Will said, absolutely gobsmacked.
"Lennox you look like you're about to freak out, don't freak out don't freak out easy fix, puzzle – code in my head, now it's on the floor," she gestured about and began walking toward one of the walls that the symbols had crept up about as far as she could reach. "Now here's the part that I can't quite figure-"
There was a crash as Lennox observed an incredibly frightening spectacle.
Optimus dropped to his knees.
Mikaela flashed around at the noise, crouching into a frightened, defensive stance and looking around wildly, gesturing for quiet.
Ironhide had his cannons out for a second, listening for a disturbance before holstering them again.
"Okay what were you going to say?" Mikaela asked in a normal voice again.
"Steady Optimus," Ratchet rumbled quietly as the towering mech reached forward to collect the young woman.
"Height! Yes! Brilliant!" she crowed, producing another piece of chalk – at least it was just chalk. "Wall!" she moved quickly toward one of the sets of symbols, almost walking off of his hand.
"Optimus!" Ratchet called out worriedly.
"Ratchet, what do I do?" Optimus held the girl cupped in his hands.
"I think it'll be best to just let her get it all out," Ironhide announced, "If she understands it she can put it on a back processor and move on with something else."
"Ratch?" Optimus looked up worriedly.
"Ironhide's probably right, I can ferry her about on the walls," Ratchet stated calmly.
"I'll do it," Optimus murmured quietly, standing and carrying her toward one of the walls, she immediately began writing again and within minutes they had a system. She knelt and he lowered her toward the ground, she stood on her toes and he lifted her. Leaning from side to side and he moved his hand in that direction.
Will glanced up and began to worry that she'd need to use the ceiling as well until an entirely different kind of voice rang out in the silence.
"Optimus?" Mikaela asked softly.
"Kae?" he rumbled quietly. She stood silently, staring at three walls and a floor full of chalk symbols and drawings.
"I'm going insane, aren't I?" Mikaela asked quietly. She sat down in Optimus' palm and curled her knees up to her chin.
The mech turned and walked toward the hangar doors, looking at his medical officer in desperation.
"No..." Ratchet stated musingly, "No, you're just overloaded."
"That's not conducive of sanity," Mikaela murmured quietly, her voice echoing in the empty hanger.
"You mentioned on the plane that writing it down helped you to understand it?" Ratchet pressed calmly.
"Well... sort of, it's weird, I look at the symbols and I can't... well I can sort of read them," the girl uncurled her limbs and looked around at the walls. "But there are parts that I still don't understand, and the ridiculous part is that as I was drawing them, each symbol that I completed seemed to shatter in front of my eyes into a thousand more except that one!" she glared at a repetitive symbol throughout the walls.
"You drew it too quickly," Optimus rumbled softly, "it needs more of a curve."
"You can read it!?" Mikaela half shouted, spinning around to stare at Optimus hopefully.
"The language of the Primes?" Optimus rumbled, looking down at her with what could only be amusement, "I might."
Mikaela seemed to freeze for a moment, frowning. She sank down onto her knees again, her ankles crossed and her hands palm up on her thighs. Looking directly at Optimus she opened her mouth and ejected the most bizzarre string of clicks and clear, deep tones Will had ever heard.
"Steady Optimus!" Ironhide called out again as the mech held out his free hand to steady himself against the wall.
"Yes he could teach you," Ratchet added, looking at the girl, "but a request like that traditionally came from the Prime caste-"
"Not..." Optimus whispered, he trailed off.
"Optimus?" Ratchet murmured curiously.
"Not according to the history," Optimus rumbled softly, looking around the walls.
"Well at least take a minute to get your processors synced, you'll crush your prospective pupil if you fall on her." Ratchet laughed.
"What's going on?" Will finally figured he could ask.
"Long story," Ratchet chuckled, "Our glorious leader just got the shock of the century, it's taking him a minute to process."
"I was never taught to teach," the Mech finally stated quietly.
"Well could you at least show me what's wrong with that symbol?" Mikaela asked softly, looking up from his hand pleadingly.
Optimus blinked down at her and set up a holo of two symbols side by side. Will couldn't see any difference. Mikaela just seemed to stare at them for a second before slapping her forehead.
"I'm such a fragging glitch," she groaned, walking off Optimus' hand before he could react. She kept walking on the thin air, darting from one symbol to the next, correcting them. She stood... floated... back and pointed at one of the sections.
"Finally! Telekinesis is made possible by the application of – holy shit I'm in the air!" she promptly dropped three feet before Optimus lunged forward to catch her.
The silence was deafening.
"'Holy shit I'm in the air!' Doesn't work," Bumblebee played the soundbytes suddenly, hopping up and down for a second. The next minute Ratchet and Ironhide were leaning against each other with a loud crash, howling with laughter. Will fought to not do the same, that sounded more like Mikaela.
"What am I to do with you?" Optimus murmured down to the girl lying flat in his palm.
"Hopefully? Helping me figure out how to not need saving every ten minutes," Mikaela replied rather breathlessly, sending the mechs to laughing again.
"Major, I would request that you do not erase these for a little while." Optimus rumbled, looking down at the broadly grinning man.
"Yeah alright," Lennox chuckled, "I wasn't looking forward to cleaning this place up anyway, I'll let you guys handle it." he turned and walked out the door, jogging back toward the main hangar would have to count as the morning run today.
(MPOV)
"So what do I do now?" I asked quietly. Optimus stood silently, cradling me in his palm as he looked around at the mass of information on the walls.
"We learn," Optimus murmured, he walked to the middle of the floor where a hub of empty space sat. He turned and pointed to the first symbol I'd drawn. "That, is space."
I sat in his palm for a minute before standing. I ran barefoot up his arm and tucked myself into a rather comfortable spot on his shoulder. The balance here was so much better.
"Is this alright?" I asked worriedly. Optimus turned his head somewhat and gave a small smile.
"That is just fine. How much can you read so far?"
"Space, time, dimensions, energon," I said calmly, parroting back the symbols he'd pointed out. "Prime, Femme, units of measurement..." I frowned, continuing onto symbols he had not yet read. "Primus, Mico? That's latin, spark... All-Spark?" I looked up at Optimus curiously.
He smiled and pointed.
"In the beginning, there was Mico..." he rumbled softly, pointing to each circle as he read them to me. I curled up on his shoulder and listened, loving the sound of his voice as he read, history, mathematics... as he read I understood, every symbol gracefully splitting into my mind. Visions of beautiful places formed beneath those glyphs. I curled a bit more into his shoulder, listening and watching in fascination.
(WPOV)
Galloway was walking into the hangar with an entourage today, Will resisted rolling his eyes at the director's antics. What a tool.
"Miss Banes!" Director Galloway shouted. Okay that was new.
"Behind the Hummer!" Mikaela shouted.
The entourage walked over to her immediately as she continued stripping an engine down.
"While you are here, Miss Banes," Galloway stated calmly, "be forewarned that you are expected to make a report on anything the auto-bot's tell you. Most specifically weapons technology."
Will groaned softly, that was a brilliant way to get Optimus upset, trying to get a civilian to spy on guests was just bad form.
Today was going to suck.
The next sound fairly shattered the status-quo.
"No," Mikaela stated calmly. Will, the entourage, several soldiers and Ratchet stared at her in shock as Galloway began going red in the face.
"And before you go off on precisely why I should be spying on the Auto-bots I will tell you precisely why I am refusing." Mikaela stated in a firm tone, looking up at the entourage. "But first a little trivia question, if you can tell me what happened on November first, nineteen-ninety-six, I will tell you why I will not betray Optimus' trust and tell you any of the technology they have refused to share with human kind.
"If you wish, I will write reports for you, but be forewarned I will be taking both Optimus Prime, and Major Lennox's advisements on the content of those reports. Was there anything else?" she asked politely.
Galloway stared at her, mouthing wordlessly before taking a deep breath and ranting at her for about an hour. Will watched, completely impressed as Mikaela worked patiently on her project, listening to Galloway and occasionally taking notes.
The man finally seemed to calm down somewhat and finished by telling Mikaela the message he had from the president before he exited the hangar again. Will casually watched Mikaela as she watched the entourage out of the corner of her eye.
The sound of the chopper taking off and leaving filled the area before her hands ever stilled on her project.
"Mikaela!" Will called out, walking toward the girl. She stood bolt upright and held a finger to her lips. She waved a hand at Ratchet and caught his optics, tugging on her ear before staring firmly at her workbench. Ratchet frowned and scanned the bench.
"A listening device, how rude," Ratchet grumbled, "Kae, there aren't any explosives on it, could you shut it down?"
"Yes Sir," Mikaela stated in a polite tone. She promptly reached under the work bench and pulled out a tiny microphone. She patiently pulled the batteries out of it before looking at Ratchet. Will watched her mouth 'any more?'
Ratchet looked around, evidently scanning the area.
"Nope, that's the only one, good catch Kae," he rumbled with a snort.
"Okay, go ahead Will," Mikaela grinned at him.
"That's a seriously bad move Kae," Will told her flatly. "Galloway's going to put you on his hit list if you're not careful."
"There's two ways we can play it now," Mikaela stated with a shrug, "Optimus, did you hear everything?" she added, looking at the Peterbilt as the big man transformed and strode carefully to the mechanic's corner.
"I did," Optimus rumbled in a flat tone.
"How do you intend to play?" Will asked worriedly.
"Two options," Mikaela shrugged, "either we leave it at that and if he insists that I write reports I'll bug you two to help me make sure there's nothing he can use in them or..." she grinned and pulled a pad of paper toward herself, quickly jotting down a letter.
"What's that?" Will asked with a frown as she tore the sheet off and handed it to him. He read it, then re-read it. He whistled and leaned against the bench.
"Major?" Optimus rumbled curiously.
"I wouldn't even do this letter justice reading it aloud," Will murmured, "Kae, this is political-espionage artwork."
"Why thank you, Major," Mikaela grinned. "Which means you've already worked out the implications, yes?"
"What does it say, Major," Optimus rumbled somewhat irritably, Will grinned and held the sheet of paper up for Optimus to read.
'Director Galloway,
I apologize for my rudeness, however, these unfortunately strange times call for bizarre actions. I
fear you must be made aware that the Auto-bots have an incredible sense of hearing. There is no
doubt that my supervisor, Ratchet, not two hundred feet away could easily have heard you. As
you know, he reports directly to Optimus.
Nevertheless, I shall endeavour to pass onto you what information I can.
With any luck, this missive will reach you unaltered.
Yours faithfully,
M'
Optimus stared at the letter for a long moment, before turning to stare at Mikaela.
"It's your guys' call," Mikaela shrugged, grinning. "But there's definitely potential, if you feed him tidbits, information that he can barely use, but is obviously the work of an eighteen year old girl attempting to get close to Optimus? We could have him walking around here being smug and secretive instead of hostile."
Will stared at the girl for a long moment before he burst out laughing.
"I like it, there's a shit ton that could go wrong though, we'd need one hell of a lot of backup plans, but god help me, I like it." Will snorted.
"Those are easy," Mikaela grinned, "if he goes to you, Will, claiming that I'm better than you because 'the civilian girl knows where her loyalties lie,' you say: 'who do you think fielded those letters for her?'" Mikaela shot him a shit-eating grin.
"And if he outs you as the mole?" Optimus rumbled with a frown.
"Then you guys either out me as your double agent, which could go bad fast..." Mikaela frowned. "No, it would probably be better if you kicked me off base. If that happens I'll go off grid, if you still need to find me we'll figure something out... although, if we play it right I could very well wind up applying for a job with Galloway, at which point 'double' no longer applies. Either way, whatever reports I send to that man I want you two helping me make sure the content doesn't come back to bite us in the ass."
Mikaela patiently tossed a used oil filter into the correct barrel and leaned against the Hummer she'd been servicing.
"Well then first off, we need to properly clear the air, whose orders are you going to take?" Will asked the girl mildly.
"You're beating about the bush, Major," Mikaela grinned at him. "What you really want to ask is where my loyalties lie."
"Well... not that rudely," Will stated, looking at the girl with new respect.
"My loyalties lie first and foremost to Optimus," Mikaela stated firmly, looking up at the big man. "I'll gladly take your orders, Major, up to the point that they are contrary to what the Auto-bots would approve of. Which I rather doubt you'd order anyway," she added with a wry grin. "Unless I'm very much mistaken, you lot have already become a tight knit unit. You're a soldier Will, and a damned good one, you don't leave your men behind. You're alive, which means you're smart. And a smart man knows who his real allies are."
"Christ sake Kae, you've been here what, two weeks and you've already figured that out?" Will asked in a stunned tone. He looked up at Optimus. "We gotta keep this one, she's way the hell too smart to let her wind up in someone else's camp."
"Agreed, although I would prefer to destroy that letter, as a civilian, Mikaela should not have to answer to Director Galloway. Kae is here for her protection and as an assistant to Ratchet." Optimus rumbled firmly.
"True," Will nodded, he handed Kae the letter back. She grinned and looked at Ironhide as the bot transformed.
"Hey Ironhide!" she shouted with a broad grin.
"Mikaela?" the bot looked down at her curiously.
"Target practice?" she grinned, balling the letter around a few rusty bolts and copper wire. She sprinted to the hangar doors.
And that was a bizarre sight, tiny girl, twenty foot mech in a gunslinger stance.
"Pull!" Ironhide bellowed gleefully, Mikaela pulled back and threw the ball with force, a good distance too. Ironhide drew a small cannon at speed and blasted the ball into nothing as Mikaela cheered.
The iron and copper flared red and green for a moment as it burned into nothing. Makeshift fireworks. Awesome.
Ironhide was laughing as he walked out of the hangar doors past Kae, Will grinned, that in itself was awesome, getting Ironhide to laugh. It was a good day on patrol if Ironhide was laughing, damn but that bot had some stories.
"And the point of that was?" Ratchet asked with a snort as Kae wandered back to her project.
"Not everything needs a point," Mikaela laughed. "But you have to admit, watching Ironhide blast stuff is way the hell more amusing than a friggen paper shredder."
"That and Ironhide definitely gets cheerful when he gets to blow shit up," Will added with a snort. "Can see where he's coming from though, a bit of constructive destruction is great stress relief. Later." Will grinned, jogging toward the waiting squad.
Today was going to be a good day.