On the Value of Pets.

Chapter 3-Sunday Night to Monday morning.

Mikaela put her hands over her face so he would not see her crying. Her captor was not interested in her tears however. The doors swished open and he pushed her in.

"Excuse me, I found this fleshling in the river, does anyone want it?"

"Unicron-spawned son of a glitch! How dare you interfere!"

The Med-bay, definitely. A large brown robot, with red optics, naturally, was bending over a huge one on a table who was definitely a flier, she could see his wings on his shoulders. He turned his head and spoke to her."Ha! You were there at Mission City, weren't you? One of the oness that cossht us the AllSpark! You could be a useful bargaining chip."

"Please, I can clean exhausts, I can file, I can weld-" She did not want anyone put under an obligation for her, especially Sam.

"That would be good," said the Medic with a smile "are you any good with a wire brush? I might be able to stop using this probe and these tweezers then!"

"Yes, I can do that." She 'd had to brush rust off before." With your permission, Lord Starscream," said the Doctor

"Go on, then."

The medic handed her a human sized wire brush. So they had tools too, stolen probably like the fuel. She went up the exhaust pipe and started brushing the debris, earth, and char-grime out.

"And be careful, or I might just forget you're up there and put my engines on!"

"No!" she moaned and flattened herself against the side "I will!"

'Maybe I could take up some of Megatron's ideas to please his supporters,' thought Starscream, 'the idea of a pet human makes sense, at least you know where they are, and the sensation of being brushed clean is very satisfying, she is warm, not slimy' - Mikaela had dried off by now- 'Hm, what was it Megatron had said in one of the rare data bursts of that last battle when he asked-

"What was it like, Lord Megatron, when the ice was melting and you felt the humans crawling inside you?"

"Disgusting! But it tickled - and they could get places you normally could not reach," (he had seemed faintly appreciative of it, charged perhaps by their ministrations) "Of course, they also did things I did NOT like!" his rage had come back, and they had returned to the battle -And that was why Starscream was taking revenge. And if he could make a pet of one of these AllSpark stealers he would have done something Megatron did not manage to do!

Ah! it felt better to be brushed out.

Mikaela was careful. She knew the threat was not an idle one.

"All right, I will allow you to be my pet," he said when she came back and returned the brush, "you can do things like this every day.

I will not allow you in my room though. You can stay here. With Dr Syn. He'll look after you." He laughed, not totally cruelly, but lewdly.

"Thanks," she said, pretending not to notice, "Can I use the bathroom?"

"Drains and sluice room are beyond that door," Dr Syn pointed out, "we have no human conveniences. Well, possibly one."

She used it and washed her hands, and face briefly with a hose as it was a bit grimy, and changed into a pair of overalls she found there.

When she came back the larger Decepticon and her captor had left the room, only the doctor was there.

"Keep your nose clean and do what they say, and you can sleep in here on my recharging pallet, the wires aren't dangerous, it's safest and warmest for you."

"Thanks. Why do you do this?"

"I 'm a craftsmech, and I came into the Decepticons as the only way I could practise my trade, and branch out into treating fliers. I don't just patch'em up, and send them back into battle unless I have to, I take a pride in my work, they only go back if they're fit to fight or fly, and they can take it. If you're interested, when I transform I'm a Citroën Synergie MPV. Just so you'll recognise me if you go into battle in town with us . The other medic is Headfixer, he's in Frenzy's line of work, processor programming, hacking, code, psychiatry. His alt's a Toyota Celica, but we both have guns.'

"I wouldn't expect anything less of a Decepticon."

She surprised herself by saying the name with less hatred than usual. Maybe it was because she was at their base, and this was the first time she'd been treated almost nicely by one.

"There's clean water in the sluice room, we get human clothes off washing lines the 'cons steal for fun, and we get human food in in case we can't get fuel, we can get energy from almost anything. Not that we like everything, especially not slimy things." He got her some bread, cheese, fruit and candy bars. There was also a corncob, but she explained that would need cooking.

"No problem," he said warming it up with his micro laser. He even found some butter, hard in a stick but it worked.

"I eat them without that but I know that's how humans like it," he said. "We raided a refrigerated truck and the stuff had to be put in my cold store, a lot of it's stuff that's too slimy for the rest of them.

Do you like ice cream?"

"Yes."

He got out a kilo tub from the cold store

"I can't eat all that!"

"Try some-" He gave her a spoon and she did "and I'll put the rest back. "Can you use one of these?" He showed her a can opener.

"Yes."

"We need cans opening. As long as you open one for me, you can have one."

She opened him a can of corned beef- it seemed least slimy - and she ate one of spinach.

Then they shared some Hershey bars, where he carefully cut the paper away with his micro laser.

"I'll show you how to file claws on digits and pedes tomorrow," he said, "how much robot work have you done?

"I can repair fuel lines and coolant lines if I have to, Ratchet was a bit reluctant to teach me everything but he did for a lot, but usually I do welding, washing, waxing, servicing and panel beating."

"You're a little treasure, aren't you, they must be sad to lose you."

She put her head in her hands, thinking of them all. "Yes. Yes." She was not going to cry.

"Now, no tears in my Med-bay, I'll get you some tissue." He got her a toilet roll, a pillow, a towel, a sheet and a blanket. "There's even spare clothes, we steal to annoy people sometimes. Go through to the sleeping room and get some recharge time. You can cry on your own pillow all you like, just not on mine. Don't worry though, I recognise humans have secretions, and I won't blame you for accidents, feelings or negative thoughts- it makes sense to respect all the different alien life in my Med-bay, and it's scientifically logical. I'm looking after you for Starscream and if I get called out, you might get called out too: otherwise Headfixer'll look after you, one of us is always on duty, and I'll see you tomorrow. A red light is always left on in the Med bay, so you can see your way to the sluice room."

"Just one more thing before we recharge," she called "Is there anything I shouldn't say?"

"This room is soundproofed, I've had it made so, and the sleeping room, but as long as you don' t show any particular favour to Megatron…"

"That big lunk who attacked Jazz, and threatened Sam, and hit Optimus and everyone! That evil, cruel, ugly great monster, I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole! Oh sorry!"

"Starscream would approve, but don't let everyone hear you say so, I have a 10 foot probe here," said the doctor, understandng but horrified. "You can learn to use it as they don't like organic things on their insides. Megatron was not always like that, I'm sorry I did not usually serve near him. The war started as a freedom fight against injustice, then he took over, then took off after the Allspark -some day we'll have to have a proper talk about it, if you'll be happy to listen."

"I will," she said, going to retire and taking her bed things with her.

There was a possibility she could escape by swimming out through

the drains in the sluice room, there was a rusty grill on one, and perhaps she could get into the normal sewage system and back to the Autobots and Sam. She crept out while the doctor was recharging and the other one seemed not to notice, as did a large purple-blue con who was lubricating as she'd seen Bumblebee do in the sluice room. Mikaela crept past him to the toilet and when she came out he'd gone. She had seen pictures of sewers and could stand wading in any amount of gunge, it would be like being washed down in bath water she thought, and she was a reasonably good swimmer, if she didn't make it she could come back: she washed herself all over, the sluice room had hot water too and some of the anti-yucky oily-hands gunk they had at her Dad's garage: she could go back to bed and no-one would be any the wiser.

At least that was the theory. There was a rusty grid on the drain and she lifted it and went down, swimming, but water and oil, particularly waste oil, is very hard to swim through. It came over her head soon and the pipe narrowed with another grid that was harder to move. What could she do now? Could she get back in time? There was a booming in her head, a tightness in her chest and someone seemed to be calling her name on a radio….

OOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Bumblebee called Ratchet and Optimus in a three-way call that night.

"Have we got a wheelchair at the base, Ratchet?"

"Yes, I think the army left us one, why?"

"Sam wants to come in with me."

"Already? I thought he was just home."

"Yes, but there isn't a lot he can do beyond just surviving, which is embarrassing for him because he needs help for everything, where- as before he could do it all alone-going to the bathroom, eating drinking, moving. Apart from that though, he can't play games with Miles, he needs two hands, he can just type on a computer, which he likes, but needs it a lot for communicating, and I'm afraid I told him about the code-"

"Bumblebee!" said Optimus angrily.

"He's ok," said Ratchet in a conciliating voice, "I understand why."

"So do I," said Optimus regretfully, "I only sought to protect him. He wants to help find Mikaela, and who are we to stop him? Bumblebee, you're fine. I trust your judgement."

"When you're communicating all the time you run out of things to say and I had to tell him we were doing something about finding Mikaela. There might be something he can do. He's very frustrated and stressed. Is it all right if we bring him in tomorrow?"

"If that's all right with his parents and his school," said Optimus.

"I'm just about to talk to them, but I think they'll agree. He'll be off school for at least a week, Mrs Witwicky says."

"And what do you mean by "we?" asked Ratchet.

"Miles wants to come, he helps Sam, it's easier than just with me," said Bumblebee.

"Will you be bringing the pets?" said Ratchet grouchily, cycling air through his vents.

"Possibly, they won't get properly walked and fed and washed if we don't as the parents work, but they won't be any trouble really…"

"Ok, I guess we'll cope." said Ratchet, reconciling himself to a disrupted Med-bay for a bit.

"And when we went to collect the dogs Mason slobbered all over Miles and me and Mojo was given over in a little vet's carrying case and he was worrying a little turquoise earring that looked like Mikaela's! He must've picked it up when he got out at the accident! It's a clue! We at least have a clue!" said Bumblee excitedly.