Disclaimer: I do not own "Transformers" in any way, shape, or form. They are the property of Hasbro, Michael Bay, and all the other masters of the craft. I am just a humble college student and make no money from this.

The Moonlessnight: Just a quick shout of thanks to Epona Harper for yet more inspiration. You are a genius Harper! Thank you. Now, more for my use than anyone else's, here is a brief chronology of events thus far:

Chapters 1-3 -- the first night

Chapters 4-7 -- day 1

Chapters 8-9 -- day 2

Chapters 10-11 -- day 3

Current Chapter -- Night of day 3 and the entirety of day 4

There we go. …By the code this promises to be a long story! We are entering chapter 12 and it has not even been a week yet. Here's to hoping these guys go to some far-flung corners of the nation. The travel time will whittle out the remaining time a little faster. Come to think of it, Sam might even need more time off before I get him back to Tranquility. – thinks it over –

Now that I have things laid out like that, it's no wonder Sam is still traumatized…. It's only been a week since his first encounter with the Transformers. Geeze. Now I feel sorry for thinking he was such an emo in the last chapter. Just goes to show these characters know their world better than I do. Now that this is all straight in my head, on with the story...

Rust

"Just tell me this is not the place for the ARC and I'll be fine," Sam muttered, his voice sounding strained and thin. Noting this, Ratchet decided to take action, silently plying his craft and watching his scanners with a vague sense of disquiet as Optimus stepped forward to speak to the youth.

"I can say without doubt that we will never build in such a place, Sam," Prime answered.

Ratchet felt the tension leave the boy's body as he sagged against his fingers. "Good," Sam murmured, eyes drifting closed. "Good."

Watching the readings on his heads-up display dip slightly, Ratchet was not surprised when the human slipped sideways in his hand, sleep quickly overtaking him. Ignoring the cries of concern from the other Autobots, the medic concentrated on his scans a moment longer before kneeling to carefully place his patient on the ground. "Be quiet, blast you! I finally got him to sleep."

"You did that?" Bumblebee's tones bespoke worry and disbelief. "How, Ratchet? I didn't see you move, let alone do anything to Sam."

Chuckling as he studied the form of the sleeping human, Ratchet actually smiled. "I used a modified carrier wave to stimulate the proper area of his hypothalamus, the portion of his processor responsible for regulating his internal systems."

"That's what that was," Ironhide scoffed, watching with mild curiosity as Ratchet retrieved two pairs of Cybertronian tweezers from storage. "I thought your communications system had gone on the fritz."

Performing the delicate task of unlacing Sam's shoe, Ratchet muttered a response, "It is actually. Had we been in a populated area, humans for at least 300 meters would have found themselves in premature stasis; I need to make some minor adjustments to the narrow bands when I can get a joor to myself." Successfully removing the shoe, Ratchet set to work on peeling off the boy's sock. This, understandably, took a great deal of time.

Through it all, he kept a sharp optic on the numbers scrolling across his vision, intent on keeping his patient unconscious while he worked. Despite his best efforts, Sam whimpered in his sleep when Ratchet finally reached bare skin, tweezers brushing against dark purple bruising. Pausing to avoid waking Sam, Ratchet took the time to fish a tiny roll of bandages from a compartment near his wrist. Eyeing the paper thin material, he sighed. "By the code, this is going to be a long night."

Brown eyes blinked slowly, struggling to focus through a thick fog of sleep. The muted gray surroundings did not help the fact, encouraging those eyes to slide shut once more. However, a frustrated yell stopped them from plunging their owner back into the land of dreams. "Blast it all Prime, I said no! Do you know what these chemicals do to…. Save that thought for a moment. I believe my patient is waking up."

A flicker of movement near Sam's head caught his attention, and Sam bolted to full alertness with a sharp gasp. His eyes locked on the unfamiliar form that circled to crouch over him. Unearthly blue eyes sparkled as they gazed back, shimmering iridescence held behind silver-rimmed glasses.

Sam blinked. The glasses were lowered. Sam blinked again, entranced. The blue eyed man smiled, brushing ebony locks back from his clean shaven face. "Less intimidating this way, Sam?"

Reaching a hand tentatively towards the man, Sam smiled when his hand passed straight through the man's broad shoulder. The area around the teen's hand flickered like an old television rolling static and sent a tingling sensation up his arm. With a laugh, he withdrew his hand, smiling up at the blue eyes. "Holograms, Ratchet? Why didn't Bumblebee tell me you guys could do that?"

The hologram shrugged, "No reason to, I suppose. How are you feeling?"

Sam settled back onto the gurney; he sighed and stared up at the low gray ceiling of Ratchet's interior. "Better than I've felt in ages except for…." Sam flexed his bandaged foot and winced at the dull ache the movement produced. "Yeah…let's just say you don't need to tell me I won't be walking on that for a while. Thanks for fixing me up, Ratchet."

Holo-Ratchet nodded, folding well toned arms across his chest. "Just don't forget that pain the next time you decide to disregard my words, Sam. Now," the hologram pointed to a rack along the wall behind the boy, "One of my last drivers had the foresight to stock a set of crutches. They are, unfortunately, a little tall for your frame, but they will suffice. Take those and please get out of my cab before Bumblebee's constant questions overload my audio receptors."

The back doors opened then to a cacophony of sounds like no human ear had heard before. Cybertronian words, spoken none too softly, echoed from cavern walls to resound in the ear at unbelievable decibels. Wondering belatedly if Ratchet's cab was soundproof, Sam covered his ears and yelled as loud as he could. "Bee if you don't shut up right now, I'm going to be deaf for the rest of my life!"

To his credit, Bumblebee immediately fell silent and knelt to peer into the Ratchet's cab. "Sam?"

Cautiously lifting his hands, Sam yelled past the ringing in his ears, "Yeah, it's me."

To Sam's surprise, Bumblebee reached in to grab him, barely giving him enough time to snatch the crutches from their hooks. Feeling like a hamster plucked unexpectedly from its cage, Sam instinctively hunched his shoulders to look as small as possible. Failing to notice the human's discomfort, the young mech cradled him close to his spark and virtually purred. "I'm glad you're back online Sam. I have to admit, you had me worried."

Stifling a yawn, the teen raised an eyebrow, "With Ratchet taking care of me? Why were you worried, Bee?" Sam surprised himself by yawning again, arching his back in a cat-like stretch this time.

Optimus answered, watching Sam through narrowed optics, "You were unconscious for nearly a day Sam. A slight miscalculation on Ratchet's part, I'm afraid."

Whirring gears behind him alerted Sam to Ratchet's transformation to mech mode just before he was plucked from Bumblebee's hands. "Yes, well. I had not realized sedating him in that manner would result in such an overly long recharge cycle, but he seems to have recovered from his flu if nothing else. Now, where were we, Prime?"

A Cybertronian debate began after that, Sam held protectively in Ratchet's hand and the other mech's soon swept up into whatever it was they were discussing.

Glaring through another yawn and wondering just what Ratchet had done to him to make him feel so jet-lagged, Sam tried to stay awake by attempting to figure out where they were. The mystery only deepened when he realized there was no sky overhead. The only light came from the various lights on the Autobots themselves. When Ironhide turned to address some question Optimus had asked, the light moved with him and Sam was left to gasp in awe. The light caught and refracted in a crystalline splendor. This reflected light, in turn, refracted from other points to create an artificial aurora in the center of the room. All too quickly, Ironhide moved again and the effect faded back to the darkness from which it came.

"I don't care how cliché it sounds, that was the ultimate Kodak moment," Sam said, still staring into the shadows where the last of the lights had disappeared.

Pausing at the declaration from the human, Optimus cocked his head to one side. His optics flickering as his blinked in confusion, "That was the ultimate what?"

"Sam liked the lights," Bumblebee stated, sounding for the entire world like an older brother marveling at the simplicity of a younger sibling.

Ignoring the implications of Bee's tone, Sam tapped Ratchet's palm to get the mech's attention. "Just where are we, Ratchet?"

"Underground," the short reply came before Ratchet continued to babble in Cybertronian once again.

Sam rolled his eyes and tapped the medic's palm again, "I know we're underground, but just where underground is the question."

Now it was Ratchet's turn to look annoyed, and the teen had only a second to cringe before the medic launched into an apparently frustrated recap of the Cybertronian conversation. "We are in the Pit so far as I am concerned! What your government implies by sending us to places like this is enough to fritz one's emotional circuitry. First that slag-pit you called a junkyard," Sam cringed at the mention of the junkyard but Ratchet kept talking, "and now a fragging salt mine. Do they know the negative effects of salt deposits on a mech's body?"

"Wait, I know this one," Sam said, gently massaging his temples. "Um… My chemistry teacher explained it once…. Salt encourages metal to rust, doesn't it?"

Nodding vigorously, Ratchet conceded the fact. "Yes, it most certainly does, Sam. When introduced to metal surfaces for any extended period of time, sodium chloride causes that metal to corrode in a process you humans call 'oxidation' or 'rusting'. Those of us in the Autobot field of medicine call it something else: an infection. It is a potentially deadly one at that."

Perplexed at how rust could be deadly, Sam raised his hand. "I hate to sound like an idiot, but just how exactly does that work?"

Ratchet sighed, bringing his free hand up to rub at his optics in a very human expression of exasperation. "On the surface, rust is little more than an irritant to be sanded away. A rash if you prefer. However, if salt were introduced to the delicate innards of a mech and went undetected," Ratchet actually shuddered, "I have seen cases that would seize your pump in your chest and make your energon run cold. Mechs going mad, destroying everything around them even as their own innards decayed. Coolant lines clogged with salt crystals, choking limbs of needed fluids. Processors damaged in ways too minute to fix and yet, so horribly mangled that the mech loses his cognitive abilities." Ratchet trailed off, optics dimmed almost to darkness.

The medic stood like that for several minutes, Sam and the other Transformers staring in silence before he shook himself awake. "Optimus, I would not build a base here if Primus himself told me to."

Suddenly conscious of the walls of salt around them, the other Autobots nodded their agreement. Transforming after a quick glance at the bottom of his feet, Bumblebee swung open his driver's side door. "With your leave Optimus, I request permission to take Sam and get the slag out of here."

Not even bothering to correct the Camaro's choice of words, Optimus nodded. "Agreed. Autobots, let's roll out!"

Practically thrown into Bee's front seat, Sam winced and buckled in. He scarcely had the belt in place before the cave gave way to the open sky and open road.

The Moonlessnight: And there you have it. This took me a little while because I had to do some background research on a couple of things, but I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Yes, I realize Ratchet practically ruled this chapter but he's been the loudest voice in this scenario ever since Harper suggested it. What can I say? When that snarky old medic yells like this, even I listen.

Next up is "Gremlins". Hopefully this next chapter will be done by Sunday. If not, look for it the following Sunday. I'll try to keep writing just as much as school allows. More than that when I can manage it or have a bad case of inspiration induced insomnia.

Feel free to suggest more locations. I have three out of five planned, but the others are blanks so far. Yeah. Until the next update!

Note: I just noticed while posting this that Ratchet gave Sam those crutches, but never let him use them. Afraid the kid will rust or something, Ratch? -snickers and ducks a flying spanner- I'll take that as a yes. -grins-