Scientific Method.
Chapter Two: Deprivation.
Barricade did as he was commanded, taking Sam to a small, damp and smelly cell and putting his hands in two metal cuffs attached to chains, removing Sam's watch to facilitate this. The cuffs and chains looked like a recent addition, Sam noticed, before Barricade hit him hard enough to knock him over before closing the door on the human, returning a few moments later with a bucket full of water. Without even looking at Sam, Barricade put in the bucket and shut the door again, and Sam heard the lock engage.
He waited a further five minutes, shivering and holding his shredded T-shirt to his chest, before daring to try moving in the almost total darkness. He shivered again, this time from the cold, for the summer was almost gone and fall was moving in to replace it. Carefully he moved forwards on his hands and knees, fingertip-touching his surroundings as far as either his walls or the chains would allow. His questing digits found the bucket of water, but apart from that he discovered nothing more than slimy, moist walls and occasional areas of damp on the floor.
Sam felt about the floor for a bit more, and settled on the driest patch of the uneven surface that he could reach, almost at the limit of the stretch of his chains, and curled up on it. He no longer had a watch on him and no way of measuring time in the darkness of the cell, not knowing whether five minutes or five hours had passed. He wondered what the Decepticons planned to do to him and when. Shivering, the scratches across his cheat a stinging reminder of the anger directed against him, Sam lay curled on the floor, waiting for Starscream or Barricade to return.
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Starscream finished a few calculations, looking up from his work, and checked the time against his internal chronometer. Several hours had passed, and he decided now might be a good time to go and see how the squishy boy was reacting to his confinement. Ordinarily in such circumstances he would send Barricade, but for his purposes, Starscream himself needed to be the one the boy had the most exposure to.
He went out and headed to the cell, sending a com to open the lock and pulled the door open. Sam was curled up, his eyes cracking open, he had obviously just roused from a doze or a sleep. Some of the water was gone, and the cell smelled somewhat worse than it usually did. A quick glance at the far corner told him that the human boy had used it to dispose of bodily wastes. For now he ignored it as he focused his gaze on the human, who was getting to his feet.
"Stand up straight, squishy," Starscream said, and Sam hurried to do as he was told. "So, you can obey orders then," he murmured. Sam opened his mouth as if to respond, then thought better of it, instead giving a small nod before looking down at his feet, his head bowed. Starscream was pleased to see it, the boy obviously felt intimidated, which is exactly what Starscream had intended.
"Look at me when I speak to you," he snapped, managing to sound annoyed even though he was not. Sam looked up, and Starscream had to stop himself from smiling as he saw the fear and apprehension in the human's eyes, everything seemed to be going to plan. He took a light swipe at Sam with his claws. As the human jumped back in pain, a flash of defiance leaped in his eyes as he cried "What was that for?"
"Silence!" Starscream snapped, emphasizing the order with another swipe, and Sam fell back against the back wall, his arms crossed over his chest, oozing blood from the slashes Starscream had inflicted. The fear was back in his eyes as he cringed back.
"When you address me, you call me 'sir.' You speak only when I allow it. You do not back-talk to me, and you do not question my actions, or you will be punished," he stated. "Do you understand?"
Sam slowly nodded.
"You may speak to say so." Starscream said.
"Yes, Sir, I understand." Sam replied shakily.
"You should also understand that escape for you is not an option, This cell is secure, the door lock is secure. There is, of course, the possibility that somebody may make a mistake leading to your escape, but one way or another, you will suffer for it. If you are caught, you will be killed, slowly and painfully."
"I-I won't try to escape, Sir!" Sam stammered. Apparently ignoring him, Starscream continued to speak.
"Neither should you hope for or rely on being rescued by the army or the Autobots. If they fail, you will be killed. Of course you may escape and be kept in a safe place by the Autobots, but you cannot hide forever, and neither can your parents, or your friend Miles, or your mate Mikaela."
"No - they have nothing to do with this, please Sir!" Sam pleaded.
"Silence!" The Seeker slashed Sam again and glared at him before continuing. "If you are rescued, or succeed in any escape attempt, they will suffer." Starscream said. "Just keep this in mind, we know their movements, and how and where to find them. Consider yourself warned. If you behave, they will stay safe. Now, I will return with some cleaning instruments and you will clean up that disgusting mess in the corner," Starscream said, changing the subject suddenly. "Filthy little fleshy creature, it stinks!"
"Yes Sir," Sam said, still half-lying cowering against the wall. Starscream turned to leave, then turned back as Sam spoke again.
"Sir, if I had a bucket and a cloth to put over it, it would be easier to deal with and less smelly." As Starscream took a step towards Sam, the boy raised his arms again and tensed for a blow.
The blow never came, for Starscream felt there was no need, the boy was learning fast.
"I will think about it, but I want you to think about this: I have been lenient this time, but if you speak out of turn again, you will be punished. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, Sir, quite clear," Sam said in a subdued tone.
Starscream left without a further word and went back to his hangar. He found some rags he had no further use for and wetted them.
Walking back to Sam's cell, he threw them in.
"Clean up that mess, I'll have them dealt with the next time I come to see you."
"Yes Sir," Sam said, moving to pick up the rags and stretching to the limits of his chains to clean up. Starscream watched him for a time then left again.
He returned again four hours later, bringing with him a new bucket of water plus an empty one: he didn't want to have to deal with the inevitable by-products of organic existence any more than he had to. He changed Sam's bucket of water and gave him the empty bucket after using a black trash bag to pick up the soiled cloths and their smelly contents. He left but returned a few moments later with a couple of slices of cold toast Barricade had brought back from the police canteen.
"Here," he said, throwing them in, for he didn't want the human to starve. Sam picked them up and began to nibble at one.
"Thank you, Sir," he said. Starscream nodded curtly and walked back out. The boy was coming along nicely. A few more days in the cell and he might be able to take him out of the cell and advance to the next stage.
As Starscream reached the door frame, he paused and turned his head to look at Sam again.
"When I return, we will discuss your upcoming trial," he said. As Sam's eyes widened, Starscream flashed his optics to get his attention.
"You have not, I take it, forgotten the reason you were brought here? None of us have. You will in this trial be given an opportunity to defend yourself, so I would, were I you, begin thinking about what you will say."
With that the Seeker walked out and closed the door, leaving Sam once again on his own with his thoughts in the dark.
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Sam shivered and waited a few minutes, than moved forwards to take the water bucket over to the one provided for his waste. He poured about half of the water into the empty bucket, and then used it to clean himself up, first washing his face and then his arms and body. It was still clean as he had not used the bucket yet, no point in fouling his drinking water to keep himself clean.
He went back to his drier patch of floor where he had put the other bit of toast and picked it up. He was hungry, but he decided not to eat it. Who would know when he would next be given something to eat? Instead he kept hold of it and began to think about what Starscream had said: how he would defend himself at his trial.
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Starscream decided to wait six hours before he went back to Sam, giving the human time to sleep, but not fully, and disrupting his sleep patterns by waking him in the early hours of the morning, serving to disorient the boy.
Indeed, as Starscream entered his sensors indicated that the boy was sleeping. Starscream reached out one finger to prod the boy hard.
"Huh, wha?" he cried, then hurriedly sat up as he remembered where he was and why.
"So, have you given any thoughts to your defense for the trial?" Starscream asked.
"All I can do is tell it as I saw it," Sam said, then belatedly, "Sir." Starscream let the slip go, the boy was already frightened enough not to need reminding of what Starscream was capable of, and the trial itself would dispel any lingering doubts.
"You understand that there can be no altering of the facts?" Starscream asked. "You did kill Megatron and you did destroy the AllSpark in the process?"
"Yes Sir." Sam said.
"So, how do you plan to defend yourself?" the Seeker asked.
"Um - I was fighting for my life. I didn't know what the AllSpark was to you, and when I did it, I was acting on instinct, not thought. As such, it was not my intention to do either, Sir."
"I see," Starscream said, not telling Sam that he thought it was a well thought-out defence statement. "I hope my mechs will accept it, for your sake."
"You're not mad at me, sir?" Sam asked.
"About the AllSpark I am, but about Megatron I am not quite so annoyed," Starscream told Sam. "After all, his death cleared the way to my acquisition of the leadership of the Decepticons. However, my personal feelings are not at issue, whereas your guilt is in little or no doubt. I will leave you for now, I have work to do."
He backed out and shut the door, having privately decided to leave Sam for at least twelve to sixteen hours before visiting him again. He had water, and a day or so's fasting did not harm humans, Starscream had discovered. Leaving Sam in the dark and alone for some time would only make him more malleable, more exposed for what the Seeker planned next. What Starscream would do in the days following would only serve to reinforce the message this treatment and deprivation served to convey: that Sam was the lesser being in a vastly unequal power balance that he could not get out of, and that he lived or not only because Starscream willed it.
The waiting was frustrating for the Seeker, but rushing things risked skewing the experiment or potentially causing its failure. The next stage, too, would take time to implement and carry out, and in situations like this, the Starscream could exercise a little patience.
He went back to his hangar feeling pleased with the progress he had made.