Ch. 224

"This place- it is far more generous than the kennel!" Predaking mused, carefully stalking about one of the two open rooms Ratchet had described to Starscream earlier.

The medic looked up from a data log he was starting with Knockout and blinked, "Hm? Oh, yes- wait, a kennel?" he shook his helm, "Ah, it may be bigger than the accommodations you were given, but this is not what we were hoping to give you in terms of housing..."

Optimus smiled from across the room as he and Starscream inspected a tall stack of storage crates, "We are simply here to catalogue the room and assess what it may have been used for, Predaking. Should one of the other rooms be larger than this, as we suspect and hope, we would be happy to impart it to you."

Predaking's wide smile, something Starscream was becoming far more fond of than the snarling scowls he had remembered from before, brightened and the great mech shuddered excitedly, "For me? All on my own? But what of Starscream?" he seemed to pout, "Are his accommodations not with me? Where does he reside?"

Knockout snickered and glanced over to see the seeker glare in his direction, "Looks like someone's angling to become your roommate, Screamer."

Starscream's wings flicked lightly, "Predaking needs to have his own space to call his own. Shared space time will be... not in my room, but anywhere else."

Knockout chuckled some more and narrowly avoided a nudge from Ratchet.

"Alright, enough distractions, you two," Ratchet scolded, "We need to find signs of what this room may have been used for. While storage appears likely at face value, there could be compartments we can't see or data stored in the wall consoles that we've not accessed yet."

Predaking shambled his way back over to Optimus and Starscream, his wings aflutter, "We are hunting for clues?"

"Mm, yes, we are," the seeker hummed, "This place was not ours to begin with. It would be nice to know what its previous inhabitants used it for and perhaps for how long."

The Predacon nodded, "And I must find them for you?"

Starscream blinked, "Oh, no, not if you don't want to. You seemed eager to see me again but I didn't want to dismiss that. I'm sorry if this is boring or you feel you need to-"

"I can find you things in here!" the great mech announced, "Just as I was seeking you, I will find the clues on the wind!"

The red and white mech scratched his helm in confusion, "You... you were smelling for me?"

Predaking laughed his great laugh and knelt down, "The ship!" he smiled, "The smell of the ship! It came from beneath wet ground, I could smell it on the wind! Hm..." he frowned lightly, "But the other Predacons distracted me, the ship became lost to me. I found the same smell on the wind, far away."

Knockout gawked from across the room and let a couple of stacked crates fall on Ratchet in his diverted attention, "Sweet Primus, you were smelling where we found the ship?!"

"Which would explain," Optimus concluded, "why we found you where we did. If you were given only a few more days, you would have been where it was unearthed."

Predaking gave a large nod, "The disturbance was distinct! Carried on the wind! But in here..." he slowly pulled in a large intake and held it before releasing slowly, "Nothing has graced this vessel in presence for a long time. Things have settled. But some of it... hmm... is less settled than others."

Starscream stepped forward to pat Predaking's servo, "You don't have to help us with this. I can spend some time with you in a while and we can catch up."

The Predacon frowned, "You do not wish me to be here?"

The seeker's wings flared out, "Not at all! I don't want you to feel obligated to do so much when you've been traveling on your own! Especially given the circumstances!" he backed away to push an empty work table to the side, but kept his gaze on the towering mech, "The last I saw of you, you were fighting off Darksteel and Skylynx and you had everything else to worry about. Don't you need to rest?"

Predaking shook his helm with that big smile of his, "How could I rest? There was so much I saw! Do you remember, my friend, the nights we recharged on the deck?"

Knockout took his servos off another stack of containers but Ratchet caught them with a scowl, "You two had to recharge outside? Gross! Terrible for your back struts!"

Starscream laughed nervously, "Ah, yes, I do..."

"The moisture!" Predaking said excitedly, "The moisture that would accumulate upon my wings and the deck! I saw it fall in greater masses than what would cover us in the nights! And it made such a sound, a great symphony as loud as my calls! The smell-" he stood quickly as his chassis shuddered, "It was all so invigorating! All of it together!"

The seeker smiled gently, "Seems you'll enjoy stormier weather then," he mused, "Rain is plentiful in certain areas of this world."

The great mech's yellow optics widened and his voice became a whisper, "Rain," he exhaled softly before kneeling down again, "Yes! I enjoyed it immensely! And other things! There was so much!"

Optimus smiled as he pushed aside a detached computer console, "We will have to supply you with a means of putting it all within reach for you, Predaking. Perhaps Ratchet and Knockout can create a datapad large enough for your sole use?"

The medic waved at the Prime from across the room, "It wouldn't be anytime soon, but yes, mhm, sure..." he suddenly looked up from his own device, "Wait, how big?"

Starscream shook his helm, "No, don't waste your time," he slid himself between the empty workable and a desk to a far wall, "Predaking, you can do us a favor and gain access to information at the same time. Here, take a look," he tapped his claws into a wall console and smiled when the screen lit up, "These are basic for now. I understand Soundwave has been the sole operator of the ship's controls... and has little time to manage much else."

"Oh, when the ship suddenly takes its second nosedive," Ratchet huffed, wagging a digit, "you'll realize where Soundwave needs to be like we did after the first!"

Starscream's wings went flat and he shuddered, "Well, point taken..." he looked back up at Predaking's wonder filled optics, "Anyway... you're full of questions? This has answers if you want to look for them. And if you find anything interesting you'd like to share, I'd be happy to hear you read it to me."

The Predacon watched the red and white mech's blue claws delicately tap at different keys and he hummed before doing the same, "What shall I ask it first?"

"Anything you want!" Starscream backed away enthusiastically, moving back to Optimus and the many stacks of containers they still had to go through, "We'll be organizing these and seeing what's useful for now..."

Predaking hummed as he continued to familiarize himself with the console's controls, "Hm... and what have been in the units so far?"

Knockout pouted, "Old tools, old junk, nothing pretty and archaic dust particles that don't deserve to be airborne only to settle again!" the red mech stopped digging through a mostly empty container to shuffle off dust that had marred his servos, "I feel soiled!"

"Don't be such a drama bot," Ratchet frowned, "And these tools may be old but at least they're well made and they work!" Knockout gave him a look and the white mech huffed, "Well, they could work, if we knew what they were intended for..."

Optimus watched Starscream roll his optics then look up at him, the seeker seeming surprised, "Are you alright?" the Prime asked, "I did not mean to unsettle you."

The smaller mech shrugged, "Oh, um, no, I'm fine... I suppose it's nice to be in the middle of a mundane task for once..." he grew quiet, "... Better when I'm not center of attention..."

Optimus nodded and the pair pried off the top of a container, marveling at the contents inside and the delicate nature with which they had been placed.

"Ah, now these are something," Starscream hummed, "Datapads that haven't been charged, have been exposed to some amount of moisture and have been rendered," he lifted one with the intent of powering it on, but dropped it back into the crate when it failed to show any signs of life, "scrap metal."

Ratchet typed into his own datapad with a sigh, "Well at least pretend they could still work!" he grumbled, "Could be the cure for this incessant ache in my helm in there..."

Starscream snickered quietly at the remark and began mentally counting the datapads for the inventory log, "Predaking, you're awfully quiet. Nothing good to read?"

The Predacon stayed silent and his claws continued to tap softly. The seeker thought nothing of it until he great mech's voice suddenly answered back.

"Our newest member does not yet realize what he is in store for. Perceptor was wrong to question my methods and my latest subject will prove that. When it is finally stable, I will prove that evolution can be forced."

Ratchet's optics widened and he rushed over, "W-what are you looking at?! What were you looking for?!"

The smaller mech scrolled though the logs as Predaking shrugged, "I was simply looking for an explanation for the rain. But the screen, it stopped me and gave me a small box to type into that looked different from what you had shown me, Starscream."

The seeker made his way to the Predacon's side, "What did you tell the box?"

"I described the rain," Predaking looked worried, "I typed in everything I felt and heard and saw, but... the only thing that appeared were these words 'cause for the rain'. It did not give me information about rain..."

Ratchet continued to scroll and his optics only grew bigger, "Th-these... this is- 'rain' was a key word!"

Knockout gave up messing with the dust on his servos, "Key word to what?"

The medic dropped his datapad so he could type faster, "Logs, scientific and ship related. It all seems to lead back to the same kind of documentation," he pointed at the top of the screen, to a folder, "something labeled 'Cause for the Rain'. It appears to be a collected file of the reason... or what seems to be one of the reasons, why Brainstorm had this ship in the first place."

"And what was the reason for this file?" Optimus inquired.

Ratchet backed away as an old video file popped up and began to play, the feed grainy and barely visible as a staticky voice cut through, "Why, this will mark my greatest achievement," the voice said cheerfully, "in disproving all of those who disregarded my research. It is a sign of what is to come, a, well, a coming of a great storm... a cause for the rain..."