chapter twenty

Galloway stood calmly in front of the Secretary of Defense, shoulders pulled back and chin held high. Behind him stood Grisko, Amais, and Kanya, at attention with their hands close to their weapons. Such a display of force might have intimidated the Secretary, if that SecDef hadn't been Keller. Keller, after having dealt with giant alien robots that wanted to wipe out all of humanity, really didn't find a couple of soldiers all that intimidating. At least, not Grisko and his band.

The soldiers that truly unnerved him were the ones that were currently AWOL, and that included a few civilians who he knew could fight.

"You mean to tell me," Keller bit out, "that you let the Autobots escape from the base? The entire point of that base was to keep the Autobots out of our hair when we needed them gone! Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be to take them down now?" He wanted to hit the calm man in front of him, but he didn't dare. Grisko may not have intimidated him, but Keller wasn't stupid, either. Even if Grisko and Amais didn't do anything, Kanya would kill him. He could see it in her eyes.

"Not only are the Autobots gone, sir," Galloway said serenely, "but their human allies as well."

"I'm aware of that!"

"Are you also aware that Lennox's team willingly defected to the Autobots' side?" Galloway asked, a slight edge in his voice that Keller wasn't completely sure he heard. "Ember told me she overheard Bale talking to Prime about spark bonds. Do you know what a spark bond does?"

Keller blinked slowly. There was no point in denying the truth. "I don't even know what a spark bond is."

"Neither did Bale, apparently. Spark bonds bring together two compatible Autobots and seal them together by their sparks – their souls, Keller. Apparently, an Autobot can do something similar with another species – say a human." A small smile appeared on his face. "Some of them refer to it as adopting."

Keller took a few seconds to process that. The closest he could come to in human terms was – "That's repulsive!" he said, recoiling at the thought. "Tell me you didn't allow this!"

"We did." Galloway said calmly. "See, we have a theory, and if we're right, the Autobots just gave us the means to kill them off once and for all." And with the Autobots gone, the Decepticons would leave Earth in peace. Or so was the theory. Keller wasn't quite convinced of that fact, but Galloway was, and in the President's eyes, that's all that mattered. So Keller kept his mouth shut for now. He did agree with them on one point – the Autobots were entirely too powerful to allow them to remain completely independent of the American government.

"So when is this potential weakness being exploited?" he asked.

Galloway smiled. "Right now."

/-----/

Mirage watched from his Formula-1 alt form as the humans gathered around their chosen Autobots. Something wasn't quite right, he knew. Optimus was acting strange, but with everyone in their various terrestrial alt modes there really was no way to find out for sure, or just how strange Prime was being. Mirage decided to keep his mouth shut for the moment and listen in. Sooner or later, the issue would come up. Surely someone else would recognize it.

Lennox climbed from the cab, her weapon slung over one shoulder as she surveyed the group. After a brief head count, she asked, "Where's Stringer?"

"With me." Ratchet replied calmly. Lennox nodded and flashed a 'just checking' smile at the medic. It wasn't entirely convincing. He had sensed that slight moment of panic when Lennox couldn't see Stringer, but he let it slide for now. They had bigger things to worry about. He turned his focus to the human woman now bonded to him. "Mikaela's vitals are now back within normal limits."

"Ah, that's good. And now all we need is the kid to cry." There was a slight tone of stress in her voice. Lennox took in Sam and James, both looking rather strained themselves. She turned her focus to Stringer.

"Just what happened?"

"Mikaela went into labor." It was Maggie who answered the question. By now Maggie's hair was starting to show a little grey, but the woman was just as vibrant and carefree as she had always been. Beside her stood Glenn, nowhere near as stressed now as he was when he was at the base. Probably because right now, the Autobots were safely tucked away in car forms and easily dismissed as being normal. Maggie looked a little worried. At Lennox's look, she elaborated, "The kid's three months early. My cousin was a premie, and even though she's perfectly healthy now, she still had problems right after she was born. We're worried about the kid."

Lennox nodded. "So what's the diagnosis, Ratch?"

Ratchet grunted at the nickname. "She seems to be perfectly healthy. She just won't cry."

"I'll feel better when she does." Stringer muttered under her breath.

Ratchet ignored that one for a moment. "Stringer, take her and have Optimus scan her."

The Autobot leader seemed to jerk in surprise. "Why?"

"Just do it."

Optimus knew better than to argue when Ratchet used that tone. Stringer crawled out of the back of the Hummer, a small bundle in her hand. All Optimus could really see of the infant girl was a tuft of dark brown hair and vibrant, electric blue eyes that seemed to glow. Like optics, Optimus realized with a sinking feeling. Quickly, he scanned the girl. Then he scanned her again, more slowly. The result came back the same. "Primus." he murmured.

Sam turned his focus from Mikaela to Optimus. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong." Optimus said, still sounding slightly stunned. "She is a perfectly healthy child."

"Then what's wrong?"

"She –" Optimus hesitated. Somehow, he doubted Sam would take badly to the news he was about to deliver. "Sam, she's the AllSpark."

Sam sighed. "Bumblebee figured as much." he admitted. "We wanted you to make sure. But – Optimus, Galloway knows too. Or at least, he suspects. He wanted Rachel once she was born." He cut himself off. He really didn't want to admit what Galloway had offered him in exchange for his daughter. He definitely didn't want to admit that he had been tempted. He wasn't sure how Bumblebee would react.

His eyes flickered over to the yellow Camaro, and Lennox nodded. "Sam." He looked up at her. "Galloway isn't taking Rachel, or Bumblebee. He's not taking anyone. I promise you that." There was a dark note in her voice that had Sing, Epps, and O'Connell watching her suddenly. They knew that tone, but no one said anything. That was a discussion for another time and place. Cliffjumper interrupted.

"Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that the entire hope of our race is in that fleshling?" he demanded. "That's ridiculous. Optimus, the scans must be wrong!"

"Optimus doesn't make mistakes like that." Mirage said calmly, speaking up for the first time. "There must be more to these humans than we first thought."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Sing said sarcastically.

"Their humans!" Cliffjumper exploded. "What do they have to do with us? Why do we have to protect them when they aren't even like us?! If anything, we should be hunting them down for what they did to Bumblebee! Not adopting them like animals!"

Before anyone could stop her, Lennox walked over and stood in front of Cliffjumper. In his alt form, the mech soldier wasn't nearly as impressive as he could have been. Ironhide's engine revved, but she ignored him for the moment. Hopefully Optimus wouldn't be too terribly pissed with what she was about to do.

"You think we're worthless?" she said quietly. Her eyes burned in anger. "Need I remind you that it was a human kid who killed Megatron? But that's not really the problem, is it? You don't hate us because we're worthless. You hate us because we aren't like you. We don't look like you, don't think like you, and so we scare the crap out of you. You're the only one who seems to think like this so far. That's actually a credit to your species. Wanna know how many humans hate what we don't understand?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Every freaking one of us, save a small handful."

"You think I care?" Cliffjumper hissed.

Lennox grinned humorlessly. "Do some research. Surely you know how to surf the web. Look up what humans put each other through simply because we're different. To be perfectly honest, I'm more terrified of what the government is going to do to us when they catch us – what they will do to Rachel most of all – than anything that you might think of. Humans are mean, cruel, and downright ugly when we have to be."

There was a long moment of silence. Cliffjumper seemed to be seeking aid from the other Autobots, but they weren't too keen on giving it. He finally spoke. "Is that information or a threat?"

"Information. The threat is this – if civilians can be that cruel because of an imagined threat, just think of what a handful of trained soldiers can do when one of their own is threatened." Lennox turned away from the small Autobot, bitterness twisting her stomach. She really didn't want to have to do that. She wanted to get along with all of Prime's soldiers and keep life reasonably stress-free. But she would not have anyone threaten her soldiers like that.

She made it back to Ironhide and climbed into the bed of the truck, casting an apologetic look at Optimus. "What can I say?" she murmured. "I'm a protective little glitch."

At that, Optimus chuckled. "I understand. But we'll talk about that later." he said gently. "Right now, we need a plan of action."

/---/

AN: Hopefully I didn't get Cliffjumper's personality too off. I haven't seen much of the G1 cartoons, but he strikes me as the type to shoot his mouth off without actually thinking about it first.

Next up – tension, an explanation for Lennox's paranoia, and actual battle! This story has a life of its own! It was only supposed to be ten chapters!