Sparks
Official Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers.
Author's Note: Nice, over 100 reviews. Thank you, everyone - even those of you just reading and not reviewing! Any type of appreciation of my writing, with or without feedback, is nice. Now I'd best let you all get on with the chapter...while I go fortify my private fortress so I don't get stampeded for the next chapter...
- Chapter Nine: Unnatural Fixations and the Escaping Test Subject -
Optimus was standing on the side of one of the mountains overlooking the Hoover Dam, brooding as he looked down at it. Alexandra was inside, he knew, as were Ratchet and Wheeljack, helping Doctor Adair try to determine how Alexandra could appear inside the Autobots virtual communications environment. Technically speaking, according to his own orders, Optimus wasn't even supposed to be in this state, let alone this close to the dam - but if he didn't tell them, nobody would know where he was, even his fellow Autobots.
Not that this soothed him any - he was troubled by the test results that Adair was coming up with already. They showed a high amount of Allspark radiation present in Alexandra, far more than should have been safe for a human, or for any humans to be around her. Adair had panicked when she'd first seen the amount of radiation, and put Alexandra in a containment room, but it was only a few days before she realized that while Alexandra contained a large amount of this radiation, she - like the Autobots - was not actually radioactive. What's more, the radioactivity didn't seem to be damaging Alexandra - Ratchet had explained to the other Autobots that exposure to high amounts (or even constant exposure to small amounts) of radioactivity usually caused humans to develop cancerous growths, and/or sores and burns, which would inevitably kill them. Alexandra had no signs of either.
Currently, Wheeljack was completing a test to determine how long the radiation had been inside Alexandra. Optimus didn't really think the test was necessary - he'd all but decided that the answer was almost sixteen months. Since she'd met him. There was hardly any other explanation. All Optimus could do now was wait to be told he was responsible for this change in Alexandra. It...bothered him, despite the lack in obvious negative side effects for Alexandra. Perhaps it was that all the other Autobots had found human companions, but the test would prove that, simply because he was so large and had had to choose a form of equal size, he would have so stay away from that sort of friendship with a human. Or perhaps it was just the attachment he already had to Alexandra, and the thought of losing it - for while the radiation wasn't causing any side affects now, Optimus was not about to risk it causing problems later.
"Optimus." Ratchet's voice over his communications system brought Optimus out of his thoughts.
"Yes?" he asked, and there was a moment of silence from the medic. Then Optimus blinked as he saw Ratchet's distinctive head appear over the dam, locking onto him easily. He had forgotten the medic's uncanny ability to know when other Transformers were near.
"You're not supposed to be here - but since you are, you might as well come in and hear this." Ratchet said disapprovingly. Optimus said nothing, just beginning his climb down the side of the mountain and carefully making his way to the exposed side of the dam, where there was an entrance big enough for Autobots to enter. He entered to the disapproving looks of not only his medic, but Doctor Adair, and he ignored them both, his optics finding Alexandra almost immediately. She was sitting in a chair, chewing something, and smiled half-heartedly at Optimus. She looked better than when he'd last seen her, though - Ratchet said that she'd started sleeping again once she was assured the Autobots would stay out of the virtual environment. Wheeljack was blissfully ignorant to it all.
"Alright, now that we're all here, even if some of us aren't supposed to be -" Doctor Adair said pointedly, and Optimus gave her a flat look, which she ignored as thoroughly as he'd ignored the disapproving looks earlier. "Wheeljack?"
"You two first met when, exactly?" the scientist asked, looking expectantly between Alexandra and Optimus.
"Fifteen months, 23 days ago." Alexandra replied around whatever she was chewing, before Optimus could say anything. Optimus gave her a curious look, not expecting her to have remembered so precisely. She shrugged. "My dad's truck died that day. The date kind of stuck in my mind." Optimus nodded briefly.
"Right, well, according to the test, the Allspark radiation has only been present in Alexandra's system for fourteen months, give or take a week." Wheeljack said. Optimus and Alexandra both stared as the scientist for a moment.
"So what, it's not there because I spent so much time around Optimus?" Alexandra asked finally.
"It could be it just took that long to take hold in you, but that seems unlikely. Did anything unusual happen a month and a half after you two met each other?" Wheeljack asked.
"You mean besides my supposedly normal truck turning into a freaking giant alien robot?" Alexandra asked dryly.
"His first transformation around you?" Adair asked curiously, and Alexandra nodded.
"Though I wasn't all that near him at the time. Too busy sliding along the ground getting scraped up." she said, and Adair blinked. "I jumped out." Adair gave her an odd look. "Barricade was coming straight at us?" Adair continued to give Alexandra an odd look. "Never mind." the trucker huffed, and Optimus held back a smile, while the other two Autobots just nodded in understanding.
"So that was his first transformation around you...but that can't have been the cause." Adair said, turning to Wheeljack. "I've had the opportunity to examine Sergeant Epps and Sam Witwicky, and both of them have been around transforming Autobots and Decepticons. Neither of them have the Allspark radiation in them - though I really would have expected Sam too, after he held the Allspark to Megatron's chest like that." Optimus rumbled his agreement - he had expected Sam would experience some side affect from that, but the boy was fine. Instead it was Alex, who hadn't even known about Autobots and Decepticons when the Allspark was destroyed, who had the radiation in her.
"Perhaps something happened in the battle?" Ratchet suggested.
"Yes. Barricade and Bumblebee trashed the trailer I'd been pulling." Alexandra said sourly.
"Bumblebee? Wait, how many Autobots and Decepticons were there?" Adair asked, clearly confused.
"There was only Bumblebee, Barricade, Thundercracker, and myself." Optimus replied for Alexandra.
"Alright, four..." Adair mused. "Did anything odd happen during the battle?" Alexandra and Optimus exchanged glances.
"My trailer got squashed?" Alexandra suggested after a moment.
"You are unnaturally fixated on that event." Optimus felt the need to point out.
"Well I even warned...them..." Alexandra trailed off, understanding seeming to dawn on her face. Then something truly odd happened - Alexandra's eyes, normally a warm brown in colour, flared to a bright blue, and Optimus was hearing her voice over the Autobots communications network. "Bumblebee, didn't Barricade fall on me during that first battle where I met you?" Bumblebee didn't even have time to reply before Alexandra's eyes returned her their normal colour and she jerked backwards on her chair, falling over. Though the communications network hadn't been noisy to start with, it became completely silent, as did the room where Optimus, Wheeljack, Ratchet, Alexandra and Doctor Adair stood. Alexandra, lying on the floor, was the one to break the silence in the room. "Holy crap." she said faintly.
"What just happened?" Adair asked intently.
"Uh." Alexandra slowly managed to get to her feet, but left the chair she'd been sitting on lying on the floor as she stared up at Optimus. "Did I just...do what I thought I did?"
"Yes." Optimus replied, just as the silence on the communications network was broken by Sunstreaker, demanding to know how Alexandra had managed to speak over their audio channel. Optimus, Wheeljack, and Ratchet left Alexandra to explain to Adair what had just occurred, while they explained to the Autobots.
"Optimus, Alexandra was correct. Barricade did fall on her during the battle." Bumblebee said once they'd finished explaining what they knew. "I was surprised she wasn't crushed, but most of Barricade's frontal armor was gone or damaged by that point, so I assumed that she'd been lucky enough to be standing in a spot where some space in Barricade's inner workings allowed her to remain untouched."
"Interesting." Optimus said, returning his attention to Adair and Alexandra, the former of which was trying to drag Alexandra off for some more tests. Alexandra was standing firm, though, waiting for the Autobots to finish their conversations. "Bumblebee says you are correct." Optimus supplied.
"I thought so - I was a little fuzzy on it, though. I thought I was being electrocuted at the time." Alexandra said with a frown, and as one, Autobots and humans stilled. "That can't -" Alexandra cut herself off and looked at Optimus dumbly.
"Bumblebee," the leader of the Autobots asked slowly over the communications network, "Was Barricade's spark exposed during the battle?" There was a moment.
"It was exposed at some part in the battle after I ripped off his frontal armor - I'm not sure exactly when." Bumblebee replied.
"Is it possible that it was exposed when he fell on Alexandra, and that the space she was standing in was the space where the cavity containing Barricade's spark fell?" Optimus asked. There was utter silence across the communications network.
"Yes." Bumblebee finally replied, and Optimus turned his optics to Adair.
"I think we may have determined where the radiation came from." he said.
---
Alex was lying in the infirmary, willing herself to sleep. After the discovery that afternoon - and her unexplained conscious access to the Autobots communications network - Emily had decided that it was time to take some readings on her while it was happening. Based on her previous tests, and with the source of the radiation in Alex discovered, Emily had concluded that Alex was not actually in any danger being around Autobots - there might be danger when she connected to the network, however, and so Emily had arranged this test. Optimus and Bumblebee would enter the virtual communication environment tonight, and Alex was supposed to join them and have a nice long chat so Emily could take her readings - unless, of course, she found something dangerous. Ratchet was standing by to alert Optimus and Bumblebee if that happened, so they could pull out, while Wheeljack was...well, he'd made off with every test result Adair could give him and locked himself in the large room he'd appropriated as a lab.
Unfortunately, things were not going according to plan, as Alex was too nervous and worked-up to sleep. Emily didn't want to put any drugs in her system, since that might change the readings, so now they were all waiting for Alex to fall asleep naturally...which didn't help in the slightest. Irritated, Alex eventually got up and ripped off all the sensors Emily had put on her. The doctor immediately emerged from the next room, where she'd been monitoring.
"Alex, what are you doing?" she asked in surprise.
"My mind is overly active, and my body's not especially tired, so I can't sleep. I'm going to attempt to solve that by going for a run, thereby tiring out my body and enabling to sleep even with my mind whirling around this way." Alex replied.
"Oh. There's a gym a few levels up." Emily said.
"I remember." Alex said, and then grinned. "But I figured I'd just scare the night staff." Emily gave her a light glare, but said nothing as Alex set off.
Alex was not used to running - her exercise usually consisted of carrying heavy boxes or loosening stiff bolts. Job-related exercise, in other words. So she found herself cramping and out of breath quickly, but she simply slowed to a brisk walk and kept on going, stopping by the dam's mess hall to get some water periodically. As she ran, or walked, Alex thought, not just about the current situation, but about her life since her dad's truck had finally broken down. She couldn't help but think how like a science fiction story her life had become, and that it should have seemed much odder to her, should have unsettled her more. It didn't, though. She wondered if it was just one long, continuous case of mild shock, or if she, and humans, were really as adaptable as all those science fiction writers claimed. She wondered what Optimus' opinion would be on that subject - and then shook her head, realizing what she'd just been considering. It was another sign of how used to the Autobots, to Optimus, she'd become.
Alex ran and walked around the base for over an hour - one or times giving in and running at the cleaning staff and yelling that the sky was falling, which usually earned her surprised looks followed by rude gestures. When she returned to the infirmary, she was thoroughly tired, but stayed awake while Emily re-attached the sensors, only to fall asleep the instant the doctor left the room. The 'dream' began almost immediately - Optimus and Bumblebee had probably been waiting. Alex didn't even hesitate this time before walking over to them, and they looked down at her in mild surprise as she apparently entered their field of view.
"Hi guys." Alex said non-chalantly, waving.
"Hello Alexandra." Optimus said with a nod of his head.
"Sam wants to know if you can teach him how to do this." Bumblebee said by way of greeting. Alex snorted.
"Considering that he'd have to have Barricade, or presumably any of the Autobots or Decepticons, fall on him in order to be able to learn - no." she said. "Plus, does he really want to go through all the tests I've just gone through? I haven't seen the sun since I first stepped inside this damn dam." The two Autobots looked disconcerted at the homonyms, but seemed to get the meaning.
"I don't think he would. I'll have to point that out to him." Bumblebee said.
"Yes, please do. I don't want him badgering me to show him how to get radiated and then mysteriously develop the ability to talk to you guys through virtual communications networks." Alex said.
"And apparently vocal, as well." Optimus pointed out.
"Thank you so much for reminding me of that - I don't even know how I did it." Alex said with a groan. "All I know was that I was about to ask Optimus to ask you about Barricade falling on me, Bumblebee, and then I was just...asking you directly, and somehow knew that you could hear me."
"Odd. That would imply that you were receiving the signals the network constantly exchanges to let us know who's still listening to it." Optimus said with a frown.
"And that her brain could then process those signals." Bumblebee added.
"Wha?" Alex asked cluelessly. Bumblebee and Optimus then proceeded to explain to Alex, in detail, how their communications network worked. Alex wasn't really interested, but they were trying hard to put it in terms she could understand, and she did need to stay here awhile so that Emily could get her readings. Finally, however, the two Autobots finished their explanation, and they went on to other topics, exchanging news about the other Autobots before Optimus suddenly straightened.
"Ratchet says that Emily has all the data she needs, and that we are to leave you to get some real rest now." he said after a moment.
"Oh, ok." Alex said, and a moment later, the environment dissolved around her, and she was enveloped in the peaceful oblivion of sleep.
---
Optimus was silent as Doctor Adair excitedly explained to him, Ratchet and Alexandra what she'd found the night before, when Alexandra had entered the virtual environment with Optimus and Bumblebee. Wheeljack was absent, still locked in his lab and not replying to questions via the communications network, so most of the medical terms the two medics used Optimus had to look up, not knowing them off-hand. From what the Autobot leader could tell, though, the doctor was saying that entering the environment did not have an adverse affect on Alexandra - in fact, it had the opposite effect, actually healing her body and boosting it to a healthier state. Adair said she wouldn't have even found out about the healing factor if Alexandra hadn't strained a few muscles during her run before going to sleep, a happy coincidence she thanked Alexandra for, before continuing with more medical jargon, though Ratchet was clearly the only one listening. Alexandra was pretending she was listening, but she kept glancing up at Optimus - it didn't take a super-intelligent robot to figure out that she wanted to talk to him.
Considering that, it didn't take much for Optimus to have an idle thought about trying to contact Alexandra privately over the communications network, instead of having her contact the Autobot first. The idle thought grew into a more solid plan as Optimus realized that Ratchet and Adair were going to be talking for awhile, and he couldn't exactly leave. It took him a quarter of an hour to decide to try it, then another half an hour to convince himself that if Adair was currently going on about how the virtual environment had been so beneficial to Alexandra, the vocal one surely couldn't hurt.
"Alexandra." Optimus knew he'd succeeded when he saw her jump slightly, and then when she looked up at him, her eyes were glowing blue again. Curious, that was - it the only visible physical evidence of the spark radiation, except to specialized Autobot sensors.
"Do you understand anything they're saying?" Alexandra asked, and Optimus blinked, having forgotten she didn't have his access to the World Wide Web, and thus was probably unable to interpret what the two doctors were saying.
"They're saying you'll be fine." he summarized. "The spark energy was helpful, not harmful, according to Doctor Adair's tests."
"Oh, ok, nice to know, not like I needed to or anything, I'm only the person with the damn spark radiation in me." Alexandra said sarcastically. Optimus smiled slightly.
"I'm sure Adair would have explained later if you had asked." he said.
"Yeah, after everyone else knew." Alexandra said, and then shook her head. "How are we even doing this?"
"As Bumblebee and I told you last night, there are three forms of non-verbal communication between Autobots and Decepticons - the virtual environment, the group network, and this, the private channels." Optimus said patiently, knowing she hadn't really been paying attention the night before. She hadn't asked them to stop, though, so Optimus and Bumblebee had kept going.
"Oh, right." Alexandra sounded somewhat embarrassed, and Optimus smiled slightly. There was a pause. "So I take it this means I won't have to go buy another truck?" Alexandra's voice was curiously flat as she asked the question.
"No. My only concern was that continuing to be around my spark might cause you harm." Optimus said. "Since we have determined the spark radiation inside you did not come from me, and that it is not causing you harm, I see no reason for you to find another truck."
"Good." Alexandra said emphatically. "Now that that's out of the way – do you think you could maybe tell me what's going on the next time you turf me out of your cab and into the hands of the military?"
"You could have asked anytime and I would have told you." Optimus said, surprised at the anger Alexandra's mental voice. She snorted, mentally and out loud.
"You know better than anyone how much sleep I was getting, Optimus – and oh, while I'm on the topic, thanks for telling me that you'd ordered the other Autobots to stay out of the virtual environment after the first night." Alexandra seemed to be getting worked up into a full-fledged rant, but was stopped by Doctor Adair, who had heard Alexandra's snort and come to investigate.
"What exactly do you think you are you doing, Miss Morgan?" the doctor said dangerously as she stood over Alexandra menacingly. The blue light in Alexandra's eyes vanished instantly as she looked up at the doctor with wide eyes.
"It was Optimus!" Alexandra said after a moment, pointing to the Autobot leader. He gave her a look, and she just arched an eyebrow in return once Adair turned her glare to Optimus.
"Just because I cannot see any immediate effects doesn't mean there might not be some cumulative ones." Adair scolded. "Alex doesn't exactly have any control over this at the moment, so her night time visits can't be helped, but during the day, I expect you two to rely on verbal communication!"
"Of course, doctor. I was merely attempting to discover if we could contact Alexandra, even as she could contact us." Optimus replied respectfully.
"Oh. And you can?" Adair asked curiously, instantly interested.
"Evidently." Optimus replied.
"Interesting. I wonder how the interfacing between our communications programs and her brain is managed?" Ratchet mused, bringing his face close to Alexandra, as if he might be able to see it happening. Alexandra stared back at him without blinking, until he finally moved.
"Perhaps we should -" Adair was cut off by Alexandra.
"No! No more tests! I've been in this dam for two weeks, undergoing more tests than I thought existed!" she said firmly. "Now that we've established that I'm not dying or mutating or whatever, I am going to get back to work! I'll stop in every once and awhile so you can do some check-ups, but for now, I'm leaving." Adair blinked.
"But we still need to check for cumulative effects, and I'm sure you would like to try and learn how to control this -" Adair was cut off by Alexandra raising a hand in the doctor's direction, a gesture Optimus still hadn't quite figured out the meaning of, despite knowing that it usually resulted in the recipient shutting up.
"If you haven't detected cumulative effects so far, you're not going to unless I stay here awhile, and I do need to get back to work eventually. I'll stop in every month or so as my routes allow for you to take readings." Alexandra said. "As for learning how to control it, I have a feeling the Autobots will be more help than you with that, and oh look, the truck I need to do my job just happens to be an Autobot!" Adair frowned at Alexandra, but after a moment, gave in with a sigh.
"Oh alright." she said. "I suppose I have sort of been holding you here as a test subject."
"Sort of." Alexandra said plaintively, sounding truly pathetic as she continued, "I haven't even seen the sun since I got here!" Adair rolled her eyes.
"Alright, get out of here already." the doctor said with amusement, making shooing motions. Alexandra grinned, snapping off a sloppy salute to the doctor, who grumbled something about smartasses, before Alexandra turned to Optimus. "I'm going to get my things, I'll meet you up top." Optimus nodded, and Alexandra whirled and left.
"Make sure she gets back here every month, Optimus. At least for now." Ratchet said once she was gone.
"Of course, Ratchet." Optimus replied, and the medic nodded, staring thoughtfully off in the direction Alexandra had gone. Optimus said goodbye to Doctor Adair, then left the dam and headed up the side of the mountain to the road, where he transformed into his truck form and waited for Alexandra.