Chapter 8 - "Space Oddity"

by David Bowie

0-0-0-0-0

Author's note: I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the follows and favourites, it makes me smile every time I get an email for them. Hope you guys have been enjoying, let me know what you think! And now, on to the next chapter!

I let out the breath I'd been holding as I couldn't see any sign of a certain orange and white autobot and stepped out of Bumblebee. Miko and Bulkhead were standing there smiling and I gave them a small wave.

"Hey again."

The punk girl strode towards me and punched me in the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?" I pouted.

"That was for ditching us and letting the Doc-bot get to you."

"Can you blame me? Ow!." I rubbed my arm where she hit me a second time and mumbled out a quiet "dang". She slung her arm around my shoulders and we walked up to the lounge area.

"You're forgiven. Now, kick back and get ready to have your mind blown!" As she pushed me down onto the couch, I threw her guardian a questioning look. Bulkhead just chuckled and gave me a nod so I decided to let her continue. "The Autobots... are going... to space!"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, Ratchet's been messing around at the computers trying to find the 'cons space-bridge."

I'm sure I looked like a startled fish as I gaped at her. "You're serious. A space-bridge? Why- why are they looking for their space-bridge?... Are they going home?"

"No, unfortunately." I stiffened and turned my head. Ratchet was trudging over with Optimus beside him. My old guardian resumed his regular place by the console and frowned down at me. "I thought you weren't coming back." I shifted on the couch and, at a look from Miko, I cleared my throat. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint but you thought wrong." I could hear Miko, Bulkhead and Bumblebee snicker at my comment but I kept my focus on Ratchet. He seemed momentarily baffled but he quickly shook it off with a grumble and went to work.

0-0-0-0-0

We were about to go for a walk around base when Ratchet called out that he'd found the space bridge's location. I stood by Bumblebee's foot and listened intently as the others went back and forth about how they were going to get there.

"Surely there has to be something else we can do to get you guys there." I piped in after Ratchet revealed that the ground-bridge could potentially jettison them into the distant corners of space.

"Since Megatron is most likely already in transit, I'm afraid we must take that risk. Reaching the space-bridge first is our only means of stopping him."

I stared despondently at the ground-bridge but my thoughts were interrupted as Arcee drove in with a familiar face.

"Hey, guess who's back?"

When Jack and I met each others gaze we smiled.

"Couldn't stay away either, huh?" He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck at my statement.

"Autobots, prepare for departure."

There was no time for a proper reunion though. The two newcomers were confused at the Prime's words. "Where to?"

"The final frontier."

"Space?" Jack asked incredulously. "I thought they didn't have a way to get there."

"They don't, not really." Raf answered and the three of them turned to their guardians to wish them luck. I glanced up at Ratchet. He wasn't going with them but I felt like I should say something.

"Ratch-"

"Optimus, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans I will never forgive you." My shoulders dropped with my expression.

I knew this was a bad idea.

I didn't have time to dwell on whether coming back was a mistake or not as the ground-bridge came to life and the other Autobots raced through. The kids and I legged it up the stairs to stand by the computers. There was a collective sigh of relief when their voices came through on the comms saying that they'd made it safely.

"Without the dish, Megatron would be unable to aim the Space-Bridge at Cybertron."

"Don't the Decepticons know where their own planet is?"

"Naturally." Ratchet snarked at Raf. "But Cybertron is many lightyears away. To reach their target, their aim must be astronomically precise."

"If Megatron went to the trouble of rendezvousing with his Space Bridge, he must have an alternate targeting system. A remote one."

Ratchet scoffed. "From what I know of Earth's technology, I doubt there exists a single radio-telescope dish on this planet powerful enough to pinpoint Cybertron."

I noticed Raf furiously typing away at the computer behind us before he spoke up. "What about a whole bunch of linked radio-telescope dishes? Like the giant size-array in Texas?" A contemplative look crossed my face.

"Their combined power might just be enough to do the job."

"Zip, ip, ip ip, ip! This is not child's play!"

"Good thinking, Raf." I had to cover my mouth at Ratchet's face lest he see me grinning (and failing miserably at holding it back). "Ratchet, have Agent Fowler alert the array staff to the security hazard."

Unfortunately for us though, Fowler was still out of it after his encounter with the Decepticons yesterday. "You, soldier! You're out of uniform! Put on some pants!" And he flopped back on the gurney unconscious once more. Poor guy...

"That may be a challenge."

I shifted to go check on the agent when Raf started talking.

"I can't get past the array's firewalls. They're too thick!"

I placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down. "It's alright, Raf, just focus."

Ratchet wasn't as confident in the young boy's abilities though. "You actually think you could keep the Decepticons out?"

"Maybe... if I could get in."

"W-wait, Raf, what if we could get you all the way in? Like 'inside-the-building' in?"

0-0-0-0-0

The four of us had snuck around the corridors of the size-array complex, ducking our heads into the rooms that we passed and keeping an eye out for any of the workers. Only the sounds of our footsteps echoed over the tiled floor and the lack of people was starting to creep me out. I cracked open a door to my right and quietly called out to the others. The room was empty save for a lone computer and a bunch of wires. Perfect.

Raf quickly got to work whilst I positioned myself just inside the doorway, eyes scanning from one end of the corridor to the other.

The screech of a chair rang behind me with Miko's voice following. "Man, security sure is lax in this place."

My lips pursed. "Maybe it's one of those automated places? No people, just cameras and wireless connections." A brief glance over my shoulder showed her shrugging non-committedly.

"I'm in." "Yes!" "But so are the Decepticons."

"What?!" Jack pressed.

"No!"

"How can you tell?"

"Schematics," Raf replied to Miko's question, "with the same alien math we saw on their ship."

"Oh great." I lamented as I gripped my arms. Just what we needed.

"But this time, I can download it."

My eyes flicked behind me again and tried to make something out of the mish-mash of shapes on the screen.

"It's gotta be the Space Bridge." Miko chimed in.

"The Decepticons are syncing it to the dishes, but I can sync to them."

"What do you mean, sync to them?" I asked; everything up until that made sense.

"It means that if they try to sync to the dishes, I can override them and un-sync it." I let out a noise of understanding, peeking back out at the hallway, before Jack questioned if they'd know what we were doing. "Even if the Decepticons see that I'm in the system, they'll have no idea I'm in the house." Keys started clunking furiously.

I readjusted myself against the door frame. "How do you even know how to do all of... this? How do you understand it all?"

"I've been learning for a few years now and... I don't know, I guess it just comes to me a lot easier." His words were nervous, almost worried at the thought of what I might say in return. Who knew how many times this kid had probably been bullied for his intelligence. I tilted my head back and gave him a warm smile.

"Well thank God you do. You're one smart kid, you should be proud of yourself."

He grinned sheepishly but was distracted by the computer beeping. The three spheres merged into one and he frowned. "They're locked on to Cybertron- but not for long."

With Raf's tapping being the only sound once more, it made it easier for me to hear when a faint sound reverberated from outside. Turning back, I inched into the middle of the hallway, peering down the left wing. Nothing. The strange sound whirred behind me but before I even got a chance to spin around, something coiled around my ankle and yanked it out from under me. A scream shocked its way out as I flailed, hair falling into my eyes as the floor got further away from me and then all too soon came rushing at me. It knocked the wind out of me and pain seared from my skull down my face. Desperation filled me as my fingers grasped for purchase while whatever it was dragged me backwards.

"Carmen!"

Then my world went sideways.

I felt the grip on my ankle release as I ascended, and thankfully landed on something a lot softer than the tiles. I looked down. Oh, Jack and Miko. I scrambled onto my knees - my head was pounding - and my eyes widened at the sight of a large, black and purple, metal tentacle of all things hovering over the computer genius.

"Raf! Look ou-" Coughs racked through my wheezing words.

He grabbed the flash drive and dove out of the way but my heart didn't have time to relax as Miko ran at the thing with an axe. It just threw her back to us and then brandished the axe in its claw. I pulled Raf behind me as Jack whirled on Miko.

"An axe?! You handed it an axe?!"

"Not good..."

The tentacle raised up, ready to strike. My grip tightened on Raf's arm as I thought of Lily and my Dad and everyone I was about to leave behind. It swung down-

And retracted out the door. I let out a loud, shaky breath and looked between the others stunned. We all had the same thought as we bolted out the door and followed the thing down the hallway and through a set of doors that had just clanged shut. I don't think any of us were expecting what was on the other side. A towering, steel-blue and purple Decepticon without a face stared back at us from where he was perched up on the broken ceiling. I'd seen the Decepticon troopers before from a distance but to see a Decepticon so close, to have had a brush with death because of him made my spine shudder and a cold feeling seeped into my bones.

It shifted into a jet, reminiscent of those drones the air-force used, and took off.

"Why's he leaving?"

Miko's question was soon answered as Raf moved over to where the axe she had tried to defend us with was embedded into a thick cable on the floor.

"He cut the hardline. The dishes are locked on to Cybertron... for good."

No...

"We failed."

I turned my gaze to look at Jack and shook my head before stopping. Oookay, no head shaking, head shaking very bad right now. "We did the bes' we could. An' that's wha' matters." Why do I sound so nasally? Ah, ow, shit, my whole face hurts.

I opened my eyes (when had I closed them?) And saw the other three looking at me: two pale-faced and the other…

"Woah, dude, look at your face! It's totally busted." Tactful as ever, Miko was. She reached out to poke at my nose and I reeled back with a yelp. Both of our eyes widened and I felt my breath hitching.

"Oh my god, is i' brok'n? Please don' tell me i''s brok'n- I don' wanta ge' it reset! Oh god, tha' would be so painful, I don' want tha', oh my god, oh god it's broken isn' it, it-" A hand grasped mine firmly and I followed it to meet Raf's gaze. He took a big, exaggerated breath in and, taking the hint, I copied. In… and out. In… and out, you can do this. After a few more goes, I gave a strained smile and squeezed back in thanks.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Jack move closer. "You should probably try and tilt your head back a bit, try and stop the bleeding. At least, that's what they do in movies."

I did as such and let go of Raf's hand to fish my phone out of my back pocket and dialed the number for base that Ratchet had made us put into our phones before we left. I handed it to Jack. Ratchet's voice filtered through the tiny speakers.

/:What happened?:/

I huffed sadly at his words. Even after we'd just gone to try and help, he couldn't be nice. "There was a 'con at the building, he attacked us and cut the lines. We could really use that bridge back now."

Without another word, a portal opened in front of us and we all staggered through.