"Easy there, don't push it. There's no rush," came a voice.
He felt himself sit up, and wince as his helm was ringing with pain. He slowly opened his optics and saw a bunch of things pop up on his HUD, mostly tutorials and explanations of what all the various gauges and indicators meant.
"Wow," he said. "There's uh, a lot of things on here."
The voice beside him chuckled. "Do you know how to dismiss them?" he asked.
"No, I do not. Do you?"
"Yes," said the voice, with some amusement. "You move your optics to the upper right corner and think of mentally pushing the little X you see there. That will get rid of them so that you can see."
He did just that. "Oh!" he said. "That worked. Thank you." He methodically worked through all of the windows on his screen and slowly the room came into focus. He was also able to see the mech attached the voice. He had a white face with a red visor, framed by a black helm. He was also purple and green. Not the best color scheme, he thought distantly.
"Where am I?" he asked, his optics sweeping around the room. There were a lot of berths, a lot of medical and repair equipment, lights blinking in and out. He understood the names of all these things but had no association as to what they were for.
"You are in a repair bay. You were in an accident and damaged. What is the last thing you remember?" said the mech.
He thought about the question for a moment. "I… remember asking you how to dismiss the notifications."
A slight huff of the vents. "Yes, and before that."
"You told me there was no rush."
"Anything before that," the mech said, sounding a little irritated.
He thought hard about it but couldn't find anything. He felt his face frown. "No, I'm sorry, there's nothing there."
The mech sighed and nodded. "My name is Hook. Do you know your name?"
"Oh, yes, I'm… hmm. That's odd. Why don't I know my name?"
"You were in an accident, and you lost your memories. Your name is Starscream." The mech was watching him carefully.
Starscream, he mouthed. "Oh. Right. The accident you mentioned. I was damaged."
Hook watched him carefully with almost a smirk on this faceplate. "Are you experiencing any pain, Starscream?" It almost felt like he was being… patronized? Of course, he didn't really know either way.
Starscream thought about it and nodded. "Yes, my helm does hurt quite a bit, actually. Is that why I have memory loss, Hook?"
Hook nodded. "Yes, that is why. We'll get you a pain patch for that." Starscream watched with rapt attention as Hook pulled a drawer out from a cabinet next to the berth and found a pain patch. He coated the back in adhesive nanite gel and applied it to the cortical node at the base of Starscream's neck. Hook noticed Starscream watching his every move with curiosity and smiled. "You've always been an inquisitive mech, haven't you?"
"Afraid I wouldn't know, Hook!" Starscream smiled and tilted his head as the pain dulled.
Hook almost started laughing. "Fair enough. Alright, I'm going to need to take you to... Megatron. Our leader. You will need to be respectful. Do you understand what that means?"
Starscream nodded slowly, looking surprised. "Have I been… disrespectful to you Hook?"
"No… but you might want to add some 'sirs' at the end of your statements, just to be safe."
"Understood, sir."
Hook smiled again and stood, indicating that Starscream should follow him. He walked down the hallways following a few steps behind his friend Hook. Other mechs almost froze where they were when they saw the pair walking by but Starscream just thought to smile and wave and keep walking behind Hook. The mechs almost looked stricken and didn't say anything back.
When they arrived, Starscream noticed there was a big grey silver mech sitting in a throne chair. He didn't look happy, Starscream thought.
"Lord Megatron, the procedure was successful," Hook said. Starscream felt contemplative at the word "procedure" but didn't say anything.
The silver mech watched them carefully. "Any complications?"
Hook glanced sideways at Starscream but shook his head. "No, my lord. He does not remember anything. Do you Starscream?"
Starscream almost jumped at being directly addressed. "N-no, sir."
Megatron watched them for another moment, and Starscream flicked his optics between Hook and Megatron. Was this normal? This kind of palpable tension and long dramatic pauses? Finally, Megatron said, "Hook, you are dismissed."
"Yes, milord."
His only friend in the world turned and left without giving him a second glance. He watched the receding back with some sadness.
"Are you sure this isn't a farce?" Megatron said abruptly, standing from his large chair and advancing on Starscream. Starscream looked at Megatron quizzically, wondering how best to reply to that question.
"Affirmative, Lord Megatron. Memory loss is genuine," came a monotonous voice from the shadows. Starscream then noticed a dark blue mech with a red visor and mouthplate looking at him from the corner. Ah. That was whom Megatron was addressing.
That was kind of rude, wasn't it?
"Oh, uh, hello. Didn't see you there…" Starscream said indicating the new mech.
"Mechs often don't see Soundwave," Megatron said as if that explained everything. He was looking at the blue mech with amusement. Starscream felt a small throb of pain in his helm from trying to process the situation.
"Ah, Soundwave. Pleasure to meet you… sir."
Megatron's optics snapped back to Starscream, and he felt himself startled at the look Megatron was giving him. The silver mech was eyeing him carefully as if he had said something offensive. Starscream searched the faceplate of this "leader," feeling very out of place, tired, and confused. He decided to take a small risk because clearly these mechs weren't going to spell it out for him.
"Milord," he said carefully, trying out the new honorific. It felt oddly familiar on his glossa. "I-I have questions."
"You do?" Megatron replied, his arms crossing in front of his chassis.
Starscream felt like his processor kept trying to access references on how to interpret the mech's behavior, but nothing came up. So far, the only mechs he knew in the universe were Hook, Megatron, and Soundwave, and he had barely known them for a cycle. He was completely lost. "If I… may," he said finally.
Megatron waved a servo in front of him. "Please. I will answer if I can."
Starscream swallowed, not sure why he felt nervous. "I suppose I would like to know… who I am? Sir… my lord."
The silver mech nodded and looked like he was weighing his next words carefully. "Before the accident you were a warrior. A soldier."
"Hmm. Are you sure?"
"…why do you ask?"
Starscream crossed his own arms in front of his chassis, mirroring the posture of the silver mech. "I don't feel any like I could fight anyone. I can't even… fathom it, sir."
"Hmm. Yes, your accident significantly changed you. So. You are a flier. Even more specifically, you are known as a seeker," Megatron said pointing to the wings on Starscream's back.
In truth, he had felt them, but had not really understood the significance before Megatron filled in the blanks for him. He twitched his wings experimentally. "Hmm. That tracks," he said nodding.
Megatron sighed. "Seekers were originally energon seekers, combing the universe looking for energy or fuel sources for our kind: Cybertronians from the planet Cybertron. But now that you are recovered and… changed, I'm not sure what to do with you. Is there anything you want to do?"
Starscream stood there dumbly for what felt like many, many kliks. That was a lot of information in a simple couple of sentences, but it did seem to line up with his internal lexicon and reference material. But also, he was being asked what he wanted to do, and in truth he didn't even know what the options would be, and he didn't want to sound foolish. "I would like to be of use? I know I can't be a warrior anymore, but there are other things I could do… perhaps? I'm afraid my experience is lacking in… everything. I don't seem to know anything, milord."
Megatron watched him as he spoke, scrutinizing every word. "There are certain things the accident did not take from you. Reaction times, frame memory, proclivity to inventing and science. Even without the knowledge you amassed over your former life, these things might come naturally to you." Megatron paused again and gave him one last searching look, then turned around and walked back to his throne. "Why don't we talk about this after some time? I'm sure things are confusing for you and maybe in time things will become clearer."
There was a long pause as Starscream just stared at Megatron.
"Are you alright?" Megatron asked, with a hint of something bordering on concern.
"Yes," Starscream rasped out, and then he swallowed thickly. "I have uhm- I have some processes that running that are making me… feel odd. Sir."
"Odd?" Megatron said.
Starscream took a big invent. "I don't want to be rude, but it appears I have feelings that I should be wary of trusting everyone. But I have no reason not to trust anyone. So, I am… concerned, sir."
Megatron's optics glittered in the dim throne room. Starscream couldn't be sure it was amusement, anger, or some other emotion he had yet to experience. His social programs were basic at best and were not helpful in interpreting this enigmatic mech. "Hmm. It is good to have healthy skepticism," Megatron said wistfully. "You are a member of the Decepticons: the name of my army. We are at war with the Autobots. Trust does not come easily to our ranks. By our very nature we have had to struggle for what is ours," Megatron said thoughtfully. "But. There are some mechs you can trust implicitly." He turned and nodded to Soundwave.
Two new mechs came through the door behind him. Starscream noticed they too had wings and looked very similar to him. Or so he thought. He had yet to see what he fully looked like yet. The black one looked like he was trying to hold himself back with something close to excitement. The blue one looked more reserved.
"These are your trinemates: Thundercracker and Skywarp. They will look after you for now. We will chat again soon."
"Thank you, sir."
Megatron gave him one final inscrutable look. "As long as you are here, you will be protected," he said cryptically. He then then waved a servo. "You're dismissed."
Starscream nodded and then turned around mouthing the word "trinemates" before following the other two mechs out of the room.