Chapter One: Unusual Finds
It was nine in the evening, and all was quiet and well in the Ark. This was nothing unusual, since lulls like this were common after a Decepticon attack, and they had been beaten quite soundly in the last battle. It would be a while before Megatron and his cohorts made another attempt at taking over a power plant or some other source of energy. Ratchet had announced earlier that day that the last batch of casualties were finally ready to move back into their own quarters after he had pronounced them fit enough to do so, and hence most of the Ark's residents were either recharging or relaxing.
Most, of course, except for Red Alert, who was currently sitting at his console in the Command Center, ever-vigilant for any potential threat that might come from outside or inside the Ark. Save for a few brief hours every day to refuel and recharge or to answer a summons from his superior officers or Ratchet, he rarely left his station at all. It wasn't that he didn't trust the others, of course. He just felt better if he was the one seeing to the duty of ensuring the Ark's security.
After all, as Security Director, it was what they had hired him to do in the first place. He doubted if they would appreciate any slackness in the fulfillment of his duty – though Inferno did tell him to relax from time to time…
It's the real authentic
Leave ya'll dented
Forget what you heard if I said it I meant it
Did it for real when ya'll pretend it
Back for more I'm starting the war to end it… (1)
Red Alert sighed quietly, and glanced to the side at the Communications Hub, where Blaster was plugged into the console, listening for any incoming communication signals from fellow Autobots or from any number of the countries they had friendly relations with. Of course, that was what Blaster was supposed to be doing; instead, he was currently listening to more human music, tapping into one of the near-limitless radio signals from all over the world.
Still, Red Alert had come to view the music as a necessary evil; after all, it was probably the only thing that kept Blaster at the console for any length of time, and since he was the best at what he did Red Alert decided to simply put up with and ignore his vagaries, particularly when he started playing his "Pick of the Day" over and over again.
He reminded himself that it was high time he thanked Spike and Carly for giving him those New Age meditation CDs. They had helped him a lot when he had been too keyed-up and worried to recharge properly, or when he simply wanted to drown out Blaster's choice of listening pleasure with something that was a bit more relaxing.
A beeping sound on the console alerted him to an incoming message. He checked its origin, and frowned. The President of Egypt? That was a first. Although the Autobots had cultivated cordial relations with many of Earth's countries, Egypt was not exactly one of those that they dealt with on a regular basis.
"Do I get that, Red?" Blaster asked then, finger poised over the button that would put the video feed through.
"Wait." Red Alert ran the feed through several security checks, and confirmed that it was authentic and not some Decepticon trick. He glanced at Blaster, and gave him the go-ahead.
Blaster made a movement that was the Cybertronian equivalent of a human roll of the eyes. "'Bout time," he muttered as he pressed the button. The large screen that stood between their consoles flickered to life, showing the face of a middle-aged man with distinctly Middle Eastern features, seated behind a rather large desk that was dappled by morning sunlight. Red Alert remembered his name: Suleiman Khalil.
President Khalil's smile was pleasant, relaxed, and though it was supposed to put them all at ease, Red Alert's processors kept on telling him that he wouldn't be contacting them unless it was an emergency. He hadn't bothered to before, after all. "Good evening, Autobots."
"Good evening to you too, Mr. President- Or should that be good morning?" Blaster greeted cheerfully, grinning right back. "Anything we can help you with?"
"It isn't the Aswan Dam, is it?" Red Alert blurted out. He had long since identified the Aswan Dam as a very tempting target for Decepticons, and though Prowl had told him that it was a tactically unsound move on the part of the Decepticons to choose targets outside of North and South America, Red Alert knew that one could never be too cautious.
President Khalil laughed, and shook his head. "Ah, no, no, nothing like that, thank Allah. I can assure you now that this is no emergency call. Rather, it is something that I felt must be brought your attention." He sobered up a little bit after that. "Might I speak to Optimus Prime? There is someone who wishes to speak with him."
Red Alert frowned. "So it isn't you who wants to talk to him, Mr. President?"
"Not directly, no, since I am not an expert on the matter in question. I am merely here because it is of great importance, both to my country and to you, so I believe."
"I…see. Who is this person…?"
"Dr. Naila Saab. She is an archaeologist working on a project at the Wadi El Natrun – the head of the project, to be precise." An amused smile crossed President Khalil's face. "She is completely trustworthy, if that is what you wish to know. She will be speaking to us over an encrypted video feed directly from the site, since she cannot afford to leave matters there unattended for very long."
Red Alert did a quick background check on this Dr. Naila Saab, and felt some of his concerns eased. She was a rising star in the field of Egyptology, specializing in the pre-dynastic and Old Kingdom eras, with a clean public record. Satisfied with what he had found, he glanced at Blaster, who flicked a couple of switches and paged Optimus, requesting his presence in the Command Center because the President of Egypt wanted to speak with him.
It did not take them too long to arrive. Moments later the doors to the Command Center hissed open, granting entrance to Optimus Prime, along with Jazz, Prowl, and Ironhide. Red Alert and Blaster moved aside, leaving space enough for the Autobot Commander and his most trusted officers.
"Good morning, President Khalil," Optimus greeted the President with a nod of his head, one which the President returned. "Is everything all right in Egypt?"
"Indeed, it is," the President replied, smiling. "I hope that you are well after that most recent skirmish with the Decepticons."
"Well and all accounted for, Mr. President." Optimus made a gesture towards the others. "I was told that there was something you wished to discuss with me. I hope you do not mind that I have brought my officers with me."
"That is all right. In fact, I think that it might be better to have many opinions, especially where this matter is concerned."
"And what matter might that be?"
"I shall get to that in a moment – or rather, Dr. Saab will." President Khalil pressed a button on a small console near his elbow, and the screen split into two: one half occupied by the face of the President, and the other showing a woman in her thirties, her head wrapped in a colorful scarf. "Optimus Prime, I would like to introduce Dr. Naila Saab, currently heading the excavation project at the Wadi El Natrun."
Dr. Saab nodded her head. "It is an honor, Optimus Prime." He voice was a little low, but quite feminine, her Arabic-accented English pleasant to the audios.
Introductions and pleasantries were exchanged, and Optimus Prime took the discussion directly to the matter at hand. "Dr. Saab, President Khalil said that there was something important you wished to tell us? I must admit, it's unusual for a human archaeologist to wish to speak to us."
Dr. Saab smiled. "Please, call me Naila, and yes, I understand how unusual your position must be right now. I assure you that, when my crew made the discovery, we were not expecting it either."
"Really? What sort of discovery?"
"Evidence that those of your kind were known to humans earlier in Earth's history than anyone previously imagined."
That assured her of their attention. Red Alert wondered: how early was "early?" As far as they knew it was barely two decades since they had first encountered humans. Others might have come earlier than they had, like Skyfire and the Insecticons, but the former had been frozen underneath the Arctic ice until the Autobots had pulled him out of it, while the latter had arrived at a time when there were no humans yet, and even when humans evolved they had stayed away from them except to raid them for whatever they could consume as fuel.
"How early are we talking about here?" Optimus inquired.
Naila checked her papers. "Based on the data, I should say during the early years of the Old Kingdom to somewhere before that, within the area of the late fourth millennium BCE or early third millennium BCE. That would mean…roughly six thousand years ago."
Stunned silence settled on everyone in the Command Center, no one moving a servo. And Red Alert knew that they were thinking more or less the same thing: what Naila said was impossible. Any Cybertronians who had made it to Earth arrived before humans had even evolved, and hadn't had contact with them even when they did. The Ark, on the other hand, had crash-landed on Earth four million years ago, and the first contact happened only in the 1980s, when a volcanic eruption brought Teletraan-1 back online, and reactivated everyone on the Ark – regardless of their allegiance.
However, Naila was talking about the existence of contact between humans and Cybertronians six thousand years ago – well before Teletraan-1 was brought back online. How could humans have been aware of them before the 1980s? Was it possible that other Cybertronians had arrived here and made contact with humans, and they had been none the wiser?
Naila frowned slightly. "Judging from your silence, may I safely assume that you were not aware of this?"
"…No." Optimus replied soon after. "But what makes you say that? What sort of evidence have you found?"
"If you will permit me, I shall send you the photographs right now." Naila leaned forward, tapped a few keys, and seconds later they received a few files from her. Red Alert opened them (after running them through a few virus scans, just to be sure), and loaded them on a secondary screen so that everyone could see.
What the images showed was the last thing they expected.
"I don't believe it," Jazz murmured. "They look like us, 'cept all that's missing is an insignia somewhere on 'em to show whether they're Autobots or Decepticons."
Three gigantic statues loomed in the photograph, their shadows stretching upwards behind them and giving them a far more ominous appearance than one might have expected from statues. All three looked like Cybertronians.
While they stared, Naila offered them some explanations regarding the find: "We found these statues in a series of caverns connected to an Old Kingdom temple complex in the Wadi El Natrun. The caverns themselves are older than the temple complex, but since the temple and the statues more or less date to the same time period, we can assume that they were made at roughly the same time that the temple was in use. It implies that contact between Transformers and humans were already well-established by the third millennium BCE, perhaps even earlier."
Optimus nodded. "And that is why you wished to contact us: to verify if these statues are authentic."
"Yes. I did not want to believe it myself, despite all the data to support their authenticity. I thought that the only way I could confirm it for certain was to speak with you." She paused. "Do you know them, perhaps?"
"No, we don't, but I will say that they bear a striking resemblance to those of our kind."
"I see. But why do you seem so troubled?"
Optimus focused on Naila. "We're very surprised because the only time any of us made contact with humans was some twenty years ago, in the 1980s. We had been certain that no one else had done such a thing – until now." He gestured to the pictures.
Naila's face took on a thoughtful cast. "So you know nothing of this." It was more a statement than a question.
"I'm sad to say that we can offer you no information on this matter." Optimus paused, and then added: "If you will permit, Naila, Mr. President, I would like to send a small team of my subordinates there to help in the investigations. We would like to know more about this, if we can."
Naila's face bloomed into a smile. "I would be grateful for whatever help you could provide. We have largely stayed away from the caverns because we do not feel ready to investigate that area yet, but with your aid we might be able to find answers more quickly."
President Khalil nodded in approval. "I will make all the necessary arrangements; all you need to do is tell me how many will be coming, and when."
"I will contact you as soon as I've made a decision," Optimus promised. Farewells were exchanged, and then both the President and Naila cut off their respective video feeds.
"That's the strangest thing Ah've seen in a long, long while," Ironhide muttered then, his optics still focused on the photos as Blaster scrolled through them. "Prahmus, those things sure do look like us, don' they?"
Prowl turned to Optimus. "This does not make sense," he said, his frown indicating to Red Alert that his logic circuits could not completely grasp what they had just found out. "We were certain that any Cybertronians who had made it to Earth before us had never come into contact with humans. Had that been the case, then we would have surely heard about it by now."
Optimus nodded. "I was thinking the same thing, which is why I want to send a small group there to help with the investigations. If those statues do represent Cybertronians, as I think they do, then our team will be able to help Naila's in understanding any clues they might find." He focused his optics on his second-in-command. "Do you have any recommendations on whom we should send?"
"Skids," Prowl replied without hesitation. "He has much knowledge of human and Cybertronian history and anthropology, so he is the best choice for this venture. I also recommend that Jazz accompany him, to keep Skids on-track and to help negotiate with the humans. And finally, I think that Sideswipe should come with them."
"Why Sideswipe?" Optimus asked curiously, though there was the faintest hint of amusement in his voice.
"First, I prefer we err on the side of caution, and since there is the chance the Decepticons know about this as well, it would be good to have a warrior like Sideswipe on hand to protect our team and the humans. Also, I think that a few days out in the desert working alongside humans is suitable punishment after his last project," Prowl deadpanned.
Red Alert remembered that, and he shuddered. A few days before the last Decepticon attack, Sideswipe decided to alleviate his boredom by capturing a few squirrels, and dropping them into the recharge berths of certain mechs – Sunstreaker, Red Alert, and Prowl being only three of them. Of course, none of them had taken it very well: Red Alert remembered how nightmarish it had been to come out of recharge to the feel of something small, furry, and unknown crawling under his chassis. He'd mercifully shorted himself out before he could go any further, and when he came back online it was to the sound of Ratchet giving Sideswipe a thorough chewing out even as he repaired the damage done to him by Sunstreaker. Apparently, Sideswipe's twin hadn't taken very kindly to the little "gift."
Optimus chuckled this time, and nodded. "It sounds like a good team." He glanced at Jazz. "Are you alright with this mission?"
"I'm rarin' to go, Prime," replied the Special Ops Commander, already grinning in anticipation. "Never been to Egypt before, though I always thought it'd be nice to drop by and check it out one day. And don't ya worry; I'll keep ol' Skids and 'Swipe in their place while we're there."
"Good." Optimus nodded at his officers. "Ironhide, Prowl, go and see to the necessary arrangements. I'll send Jazz after you once we've finished talking to the Egyptian President."
Nods of acquiescence were given, and Ironhide and Prowl left the Command Center, while Optimus turned to Blaster, and said: "Blaster, try to get President Khalil on the line for me. We need to talk."
NOTES:
(1) Lyrics are from the song "Second to None" by Styles of Beyond feat. Mike Shinoda. It was featured in the Transformers: Live Action movie; it's the sound byte Bumblebee plays when Optimus Prime explains his purpose as a guardian to Sam and Mikaela.