To my dear readers and reviewers: Truly, from the depths of my heart I apologize for the time delays on my updates. My only excuse? A singular muse returned to me some days ago, and while I appreciate the depths of the story that has begun to bloom in my mind, and draws my fingers to my keyboard with vigour, I can only hope that the story which has begun to emerge in my databanks can quickly be jotted down, and that Kae returns to my mind once more.
At last postcard, she was out playing in Saturn's rings. Don't ask me why, the dust always gets stuck to her armour, Sunstreaker has decided that she does it simply to annoy the slag out of him, and Sideswipe has become unbearable with his pranking as a result. Subspace relays state that she'll return relatively soon, however in the meantime the existence of some thirteen chapters which have been written is my only backup until Kae returns to my mind. It has been a month now, and in that month I've barely scraped the thirteenth chapter together.
Anyway, now that I've blathered on a little while, how about an overdue chapter?
Chapter 162 – The Symposium
(BPOV)
Bumblebee onlined his holoform, grinning as his sister and her mate did the same. They weren't Primes at the moment, they were his sister and brother-in-bonding. Optimus had an arm across his shoulders the next moment, grinning as they wandered around the human's showcasing of their cultures and scientific advancements. The scents of the human's fuel wafted around the area, and Bee was adamant that he was going to try every one of them.
His sister had laughed at him for that. Bee didn't mind, he loved it when his sister laughed.
However in this second, her face turned up into the air and a broad grin crossed her face. Bee watched in shock as her hand flashed out to catch his.
"First fuel test!" she sang, fairly dragging them both toward the food stands. Evidently, she'd caught scent of a good one, one she remembered from her human heritage.
"Mikaela?" Optimus rumbled in amusement behind him.
"Mini donuts!" Kae sang, dragging Bee behind herself until she spotted the sign with the same words. In moments she was in line, collecting a couple of bags and paying the man. A hand reached into the bag and pulled out a tiny morsel of fuel, which promptly got popped into Optimus' surprised mouth.
Kae grinned and offered Bee the bag.
"They're tiny!" Bumblebee laughed, eying the little morsel now held captive in his fingers.
"Yep!" Mikaela laughed. "Okay, now I'm good to wander through the stands!"
"For good reason," Optimus rumbled with a snort, delicately snagging one of the bags. Bee stared at the little morsel in his fingers, and back at his Prime. "They are much like the energon goodies the nomads sold."
Bee promptly popped the little fuel-morsel in his mouth and grinned, snagging the other bag from his sister, no wonder she had purchased three.
(SePOV)
Sentinel settled into his chair and lightly guided the neurals to conceal him there, four breem before his first seminar was to begin. He relaxed and smiled, enjoying the quiet burble of the energon falls on the wall beside him. His pupil smiled at him as she settled beside him, not concealing herself yet.
They'd decided on that. She was going to greet the humans first, and explain the mindspace.
No words were spoken between them as two breem passed, Archangel idly brought the holo-projectors online, scattering the proper number of seats throughout the central. Then finally, the humans began filing in, singly and in groups, gaping around themselves and at Kae as she slowly, gracefully rose.
"Ladies, Gentlemen, Doctors, Professors, learned humans," she began with a smile. "Welcome. Please, hasten to your seats and pay no mind to your places or the probability of how well you will be able to see from any position: we have ensured that every place will see every diagram to fullest advantage."
"How do you figure that?" one of the humans called out, glaring at her slightly.
"That will be explained momentarily," Mikaela chuckled gently, gesturing the humans toward the seats.
Regardless, the human that had called out chose the seat directly in the middle of the cluster.
Sentinel took the opportunity to put names and photographs of their faces, to the human's faces: identifying each student as they settled into their places. Finally, the last seat was filled, and faces looked toward the doors, evidently looking for him to enter.
"If I may have your attention," Mikaela began calmly, looking around at the humans. Faces turned to look at her curiously. "Before the seminar is to begin, there are a few items that must be explained. First, the seats you have taken are all in fact holoformatic, each controlled by a holo-projector. Please make yourselves comfortable, they are capable of a multitude of adjustments. There will not, in fact, be any diagrams in the physical world in front of you, your minds will be telepathically connected into another dimension that we Cybertronians deem the mindspace. Nothing will harm you, and each information stream will be carefully buffered to ensure that. There will be no drugs, intoxicants or alien substances introduced to your bodies, nothing will be physically introduced to your systems. No bodily or brain probes." she added with a small smile. "To begin, simply close your eyes, should you at any time feel overly disoriented or uncomfortable, simply open your eyes and the telepathic connection will cease. If you wish to rejoin us in the mindspace, return to your seat and close your eyes. Any questions?"
Amid numerous shaking heads, Kae returned to her seat beside Sentinel and connected to the system, running yet another diagnostic before bringing the mindspace fully online.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please close your eyes," Mikaela murmured with a small smile. Sentinel idly entered the mindspace and had to suppress a laugh at the humans' minds appearing, cautiously touching their faces and looking around. The mindspace was currently formed precisely as the central was.
Kae's human form walked to the centre of the circle and raised her hand, horizontal over the floor.
"A final test," Mikaela announced calmly, a tree growing up toward her hand. "Can everyone see the tree? Please raise your hand if you can."
All five hundred minds raised hands, and Sentinel smiled.
"Excellent." Mikaela smiled at the assemblage. "Then without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Sentinel Prime."
She walked back to her place and sat as Sentinel rose, striding to the middle of the circle with his human form. He looked around at the humans quietly applauding him and allowed himself a smile.
They were applauding, and he hadn't even started yet.
"Throughout my travels, throughout this universe and upon your beautiful planet it is rare to find minds such as yours. There are many sentient creatures in this universe, yet I have found few who wish to understand, who look outside themselves and look to mathematics, to physics to try to explain their surroundings. When I first arrived I believed your race ignorant, I believed you incapable of comprehending the higher mathematics and was proven wrong. I then believed you so far behind the universal standard out of laziness, and was proven wrong once more. Instead, rather, you are young, fragile, your bodies lasting such a very short time that I realized; many of your sciences, rather than focusing on mathematics, focused on survival. Focused so much on survival that you have by definition exceeded our own life's sciences."
Sentinel morphed his appearance back into his true, bi-pedal mechanical form, scaling it to the size he was in the physical dimension as compared to the humans.
"Today, I offer you the advancements of physics and mathematics that have made up my life's work. Advancements that I taught to my first class, five millennia ago. But you are not here to listen to the ramblings of an old bot, you are here to learn. So with that established ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the mindspace."
Sentinel raised his arms, enjoying the dramatic moment as he expanded the mindspace in front of the humans, showing them the universe as it was in that moment, the exquisite, violent celestial dance that had been long before he had onlined, and would remain long after his spark returned to the well.
(MPOV)
The humans sat, gasps of awe resounding throughout the space as they gazed into the universe.
::. Apparently, I still have it.:: Sentinel sent to me smugly. It was all I could do to not burst out giggling. The few non-mathematic humans that were attending – mostly reporters – were very obviously remaining fully entertained by the light-show.
I couldn't help but feel somewhat awestruck myself, as the mathematical equations he spoke finally made sense. The manner that they were put into practice, putting it all in perspective. Midway through his lecture, Sentinel broke off, looking around himself.
"Surely at least one of your number has questions by now," he stated in amusement.
"You allow questions throughout your lecture!?" one of the men demanded incredulously.
"Ask your questions, while they are still fresh in your mind," Sentinel nodded firmly, looking around. "Do not wait for me to finish, or to catch a breath, I need no air to speak."
Immediately, he was peppered with them. Even going so far as to answer the reporter's questions pertaining nothing to his seminar.
Once the first wave finished however, he continued to speak, the seminar becoming a fully interactive debate over numbers that left my processors swimming.
However I managed to log my questions, to ask later.
After eight hours in the mindspace, the humans looked rather shocked when Sentinel informed them that that was it for the day.
"But..." one of them started in consternation.
"You will note on your timepieces, once you have exited the mindspace that we have been here for eight hours," Sentinel announced in amusement. "I am quite capable of continuing for another two of your days, however your bodies require rest, nourishment. I shall not bid you goodbye, for those of you who wish to continue, I will continue this line of thought tomorrow at nine on the clock in the evening of your time. For now, open your eyes, allow your minds to digest, care for your bodies. A final note, for those who choose to rejoin us tomorrow evening I have a challenge for you. Given the information I have provided, posit the full makeup of a neutron star, and the result of it's implosion. Take your time when you return to your bodies, you have been inactive for several of your hours, and entering the mindspace takes quite some time to grow used to. Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you good evening."
I grinned as he flashed out of the mindspace and back to his body, sitting patiently.
I remained, ensuring all of the humans left the mindspace safely before exiting myself, shutting the systems down and observing the humans as they rose, looking at their watches in astonishment.
A rapid scan showed a few of them having low blood-sugar, where they had been fine in the mindspace, they were now dizzy, disoriented.
In moments my holoform was online, collecting the bottles of juice I'd stocked up on and gently handing them out to those who needed it.
That got a few grateful looks. I smiled as the humans shook themselves out of the awestruck stupor, leaving singly, or in pairs. A few were searching for Sentinel, obviously to shake his hand.
I sent him the knowledge of their intents, and smiled as he unconcealed his place in the central, rising and stretching before settling back into place as easily a dozen humans grouped around him.
For efficiency sake, he onlined his holoform among them, his hands being grasped, and words of thanks and praise being sung around him.
He certainly looked like he was enjoying that.
I smiled and hung back until the humans answered the call of their stomachs before reaching out and laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Having fun?" I teased him gently. Sentinel turned and caught me in a hug, pressing a kiss to my forehead and surprising the daylights out of me.
"I am so very glad, that I did not truly betray you," he rumbled with a broad grin, winding an arm across my shoulders and guiding me from the central.
"So am I, imagine that," I lilted cheerfully, smiling as my Optimus met us at the doors.
(JaPOV)
Jazz wandered around the I-NERD. Spying.
He'd already catalogued the numerous ways he could sabotage the convention, now he was watching for other people doing the same.
What could he say, it was habit.
Flare's holoform was on his' arm. Which was positively excellent. Not only was her presence an excellent excuse to wander and continue wandering, but come on. Flare's holoform was on his arm, her body proper parked beside his.
They were flirting with each other, the both of them keeping a sharp eye out for trouble.
Jazz was just praying that she was flirting in honest.
You never knew with these femmes sometimes, sometimes they were doing it simply to keep in practice. She'd been evading his berth like a pro, he wasn't entirely certain why.
It made him try all the harder.
He quickly stopped that process, however, when movement caught the corner of his optic.
A shadow, flitting away from the main event.
The humans' 'bathrooms' were the other way.
Flare's expression was all business as she followed him.
No words were spoken, no words sent. They knew what needed to be done.
But as fast as they were, as swift, silent, stealthy.
By the time they got there, the shadow was gone.