Static
Chapter Three
The next few days were hell. Every morning, at a ridiculously early time, the Sparkling would wake and begin crying; this would be loud enough to wake the entire Ark and even the heaviest of sleepers, the Dinobots! After three weeks every bot in the Ark wasn't recharging well, especially Optimus Prime. Whenever the Sparkling woke and began to cry, Optimus was forced out of his peaceful recharge to feed and calm her down. On the most extreme of occasions, he had to even let the Sparkling sleep with him just because she would get too cold by herself in her own recharge crib! It was just getting out of hand.
"Optimus! You've got to see this!" yelled Ratchet and Ironhide from the corridor. Optimus sighed, rubbed his optics and left for the rec. room.
"What is it Ratchet, Ironhide?" asked Prime wearily.
"Look at Teletraan 1!" the exclaimed simultaneously. Teletraan 1's screen was filled with static.
"What the? What is going on here?" spluttered the Prime.
"We don't know, none of us do," the CMO explained, "one moment Teletraan 1 is fine and functioning. The next…"
"Yeah Prime," interrupted Ironhide, "we'd just relieved you of Sparkling duty and set her down on Teletraan's panels 'coz she was squirming 'round in Ratch's arms. Then we just went to get her some Energon from the storeroom when a loud buzzing came from the rec. room."
"Then we ran back in and Teletraan 1 was like this." Finished Ratchet. Optimus was stumped; this had NEVER happened before. His logics circuits were desperately trying to link what Teletraan 1's static had to do with the Sparkling, it was giving him a processor-ache. But when he thought about it properly, it all added up. The Sparkling had been sat on Teletraan 1!
"Prime, with all due respect, are you mad?" cried Ratchet, "its simply impossible that a SPARKLING could make an extremely powerful computer such as Teletraan 1 go static. It must be something else like a freak weather thing or maybe somebot tripped over a wire or –"
"Just think about it Ratchet. I mean, in your lifetime, you must've seen a Sparkling do something out-of-the-ordinary."
"Maybe. But the odds of it happening again are simply astronomical!"
"But it is possible, right?" Optimus pressed.
"Yes, I suppose so. But –"
"Thank you Ratchet. That is all I need to know."
"Prime! Hey Prime!" A voice from behind Optimus made him jump. It was Wheeljack running full-pelt at Optimus.
"Oh no, Wheeljack…SLOW DOWN!" yelled the Prime with as much authority as he could muster; he was so drained on recharge lately. "And if it's another invention gone wrong, no offence, but I don't want to know." The inventor skidded to a tense stop at Optimus' feet.
"No, no its not an experiment or an invention," Wheeljack hesitated, "it's a thing concerning the Sparkling…and you."