Now we get to see a little of what they are going to do now that they've found Nemesis. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Gregg.

Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Jack and Arcee were the last to arrive in the control room as they had not arrived back yet when Ratchet had commed everyone about finding Nemesis. Once they got there, they could see everyone looking anxiously at the screen, and then all the attention turned to them. Jack climbed off Arcee and she transformed into robot mode. He climbed up on the main level for humans.

"So we found 'em?" he asked.

"Raf and I were able to detect the specific energon heat pattern emission on the Nemesis which can't be hidden by their cloaking field," Ratchet told them, nodding at Raf. "As you know, any cloaking field has some weakness, and usually it can't mask all of the energon signature. The difficulty is finding the specific micro-pattern of the energon signature that can't be hidden. Rafael created an algorithm that allowed us to bundle sections of energon signal leakage and scan a much broader pattern at any given time. We found Nemesis using that algorithm."

"So now we go bust Prime out of there, right?" Fowler said, eager to have this nightmare over with.

"We?" Bulkhead chuckled. "I still say you have pretty big bearings for a human."

"TMI, Bulk," Miko shook her head, not wanting to imagine bearings or anything else on Agent Fowler, even though he was a pretty good guy.

"We still don't know how to make him Optimus again," Jack pointed out.

"Jack's right," Arcee told them. "Even if we got him out of there, do you really think we could hold him against his will? We need to know we can get his memories back before we fight our way onto Nemesis and get him back."

"That's not my only concern," Ratchet interrupted. "The longer we take finding the solution and getting him away from Megatron, the more likely that Megatron will find a way to override his internal security pattern systems."

"What's that?" Raf asked, ever curious about something he'd never heard of.

"Every Cybertronian has a security pattern system that prevents programming override of an individuals basic personality matrices," Ratchet explained. "They are incredibly complex systems with deep, layered encryption coding. Ordinarily I would say it would be impossible to break through such a system. But Megatron will devote an inordinate amount of time attempting to do so in order to make Orion Pax be someone who would have a natural inclination to become a Decepticon."

"I thought your spark was like a soul," Jack mused. "They could actually change a persons spark?"

"No," Ratchet replied. "The Spark is only one half of the soul as you put it. The programming and experiences are what develop the Spark and personality. Change the programming and the Spark follows. To my knowledge no one has ever succeeded in initiating such a change, but theoretically it is possible."

"That won't stop Megatron," Bulkhead growled. "Dirty 'Con!" he yelled as he slammed his fist down on an empty table, thus avoiding the ever present Bulkhead I NEEDED that from Ratchet.

"Look, we think we're on to something," Jack told the rest. "Me and Arcee are going to work on it and see if we can find what we need to know. I think we're really close."

Bumblebee gave a series of noises.

"Jack and I can handle it, Bee, but thanks," Arcee assured the young Scout. She looked at Ratchet. "Keep an eye on Nemesis. Also, compare the previous scans and reports on the ship so we can get a deck by deck schematic. I want to think about where Optimus likely is, and a good strategy to get in and out quickly."

"I should have something by tomorrow morning," Ratchet assured her.

"Let's get to work, Jack," Arcee told him, not wanting to work on it right then after such a nice time away from it all, but knowing that they didn't have a choice. "Raf, Miko, spend some time with your families tonight. You're going to be busy tomorrow."

They watched Jack and Arcee walk out of the control room. They didn't envy those two the responsibilities they had, or the work they had to do just in order to make it possible to get Optimus to be Optimus again. Bulkhead turned to Ratchet.

"You got plenty of patch kits ready?" he asked. "I think we're gonna need them before this one's over with." He saw the suddenly very worried, and frightened look on Miko's face. He knew she was holding in a lot of worry over him, and it warmed his spark, but he couldn't ignore reality. "Sorry, Miko. I may be a Wrecker, but this is Megatron we're talking about."

Miko nodded, trying to suck it in and deal with the reality that Bulkhead could come back seriously injured, or not come back at all. "Just do your best, Bulk," she tried to be positive. "Remember I promised Wheel Jack I'd look out for ya. I don't wanna be the one telling him you're toast."

Bulkhead knew what she was saying behind the bravado, and he was glad. She was genuinely his best friend, and the last thing he wanted was to be worried about her for any reason. He'd just have to make sure that if he ran into Megatron that he gave that former Gladiator a taste of what an angry as Hell Wrecker could do. It wasn't pretty.

"Come on, Miko," he told her. "I'll go with you to your parents and host family."

Miko smiled as she settled into his hand and then onto his shoulder, her usual perch. "Thanks, Bulk," she told him. "But it's our family. You're family, too."

Bulkhead didn't say anything, but felt good while he walked them out of the control room.

"I should be able to handle this myself now, Rafael," Ratchet told the young computer genius. "Go on and be with your family."

"Let me know if I can help some more," Raf told him, looking up at him seriously.

"I will," Ratchet assured him. He looked at Bumblebee. "You go with Raf, Bumblebee. And remember to get in some time in stasis recharge."

Bumblebee assured him he would and look at Raf, then picked up his best friend.

"Yeah, you can come with me to my parents, Bee," Raf grinned. "Like Miko said. You're family, too."

Ratchet turned back to his work, all the while listening as Bumblebee beeped and whistled in the distance, talking with Raf. He hoped all turned out okay in the end.

A/N: I wanted to make this scene stand on it's own as it sets up what is happening not only with the mission, but also the closeness of the characters. I hope you enjoyed it. Gregg.