For The Race – Prime Protector.
Chapter Fourteen.
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to whichever of my Muses decided to include this twist to the story! When I started the last chapter, this was not in the plan!
Ten minutes had passed, and Sam, crouched silently in a corner of the room she had first been given, still couldn't think of a safe place to go. Well, in that case, she might just have to get out first and then work out where to go. Opening the door she walked out – to see Optimus and Ratchet waiting outside.
She tried to dodge around them, but Optimus spread his arms to stop her. Trying to duck under them produced no effect either. Recalling that she was armed, she fisted her hands and went to strike the Prime, who managed to catch first one wrist then the other, and without warning he carried her into the room.
"Lock the door," he told Ratchet, who flinched, but did as he was told.
Sam had been about to set off her EMP device, but with nobody to help her and nowhere to hide she realised all it would do would leave her vulnerable, so she decided against it at about the same time as Optimus lowered her to the ground, let her wrists go and retreated to a corner. "I mean you no harm, Sam, but it is best we know where you are for your own safety," he said.
Sam also scuttled to a corner, cringing back in it, her optics wide and scared. Optimus wanted nothing more than to go to Sam and comfort her, but knew all this would do in her current state would be to scare her further. No, all he could do was watch and wait for Bumblebee to bring Mikaela to speak with Sam, in the hope that she could help resolve the situation. They had Sam safely contained, so she wouldn't dash off out of the Base and risk being caught by the Decepticons, anything else would have to wait.
He didn't see any harm in trying to talk to her, he might be lucky enough to get something through to Sam.
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'Bumblebee, have you found Mikaela yet? Have you explained what happened yet?' Ratchet asked.
'Yes, and just telling her,' the scout replied.
'Can you start back now? We've got Sam locked in her room, but the sooner you get back, the sooner Mikaela can talk to Sam.'
'Already on the way. Um...Mikaela wants to talk to you, Ratch,' Bumblebee said. His tone was wary.
'Okay, switching to vocal mode, put her through,' Ratchet said.
"Ratchet, you aft-headed, glitch-ridden, rust-for-processors piece of scrap!" she shouted once she was connected. Wincing, he dialled the volume right down, even as he heard Bumblebee say "Mikaela!" in a shocked tone of voice.
"Hey, hold on Mikaela, there's no need for that language!" Ratchet said.
"Oh, isn't there? What would you be saying if it were Ironhide who'd said something stupid, like you have, to a new femme who's still getting to grips with being alone in a base full of mechs?"
Ratchet thought a moment. Yes, what he would have called Ironhide in this position would have been just as bad he admitted, in fact worse, as he had deliberately avoided teaching Mikaela some of the coarser examples of Cybertronian language, some of the Lower Kaon Valley dialect words for example. "Okay, point taken," he grumbled.
"Ratchet, why did you say all that to Sam?" she asked, a little calmer now. "You yourself pointed out she might get scared when she first changed, remember?"
"I didn't think, opened my vocal processor before my cognitive processors, I'm not used to watching what I say around people, it's been many millennia since I was in the diplomatic services. As a medic, I'm used to pretty much speaking my mind, and most of the Cybertronan femmes I've known would have got mad, not scared." He sighed. "I just didn't think."
Mikaela sighed in response. "Well, I guess it doesn't do any good to yell at each other," she said "but I'm on the way, so hopefully we can soon get this sorted out."
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"Sam, I promise I'm not going to hurt you. Have I ever broken my word to you?" Optimus said.
At first he thought Sam was too scared or too upset to answer, but a few moments later she lifted her head, and although she did not meet his optics, she did shake her head in response. Well, it was progress.
"Then why did you run, Sam?" asked the Prime. "I know that Ratchet let his vocal processor run away with him, but he could have phrased that far better, and put it in context."
"Because I don't want the rest of my life to be reduced to just having and rearing sparklings!" she said. "Ratchet told me that the AllSpark changed me to make sure the race continues, and I really don't want your race – well, our race – to die out, but I don't want to be the only one responsible either!"
"Sam, your life is yours, what you do, and when – and yes if – you have sparklings must be your own choice, and we will have to live with that choice, whatever that may be. As I told you, forcing another is taboo in our culture."
"Something the Decepticons have managed to forget or ignore," Sam pointed out. "You and they are the same race and the same gender. What's to stop you and the other Autobots, in a year, ten years, a hundred years, from doing likewise?"
"Sam, I can promise you that I, at least, will never turn to forcing anybody. As a Prime, as a protector, I have sometimes had to deal with the consequences, I have sometimes had to deal out justice to those who have taken another who was unwilling, be they mech or femme. It is part of my duties, my responsibilities. If anybody here on the Base tries to force you, I will be duty bound to do justice, whatever that may entail. Anyone who wishes to serve under me must be willing to follow my rules, and observing that taboo is one of them."
Sam's optics travelled up as Optimus spoke not just to Sam, but seemingly to the room at whole, his deep voice ringing with sincerity and feeling. Her optics met his, and once again she was startled by the intensity and beauty of those glowing visual receptors. She could, too, see the Prime's sincerity, and this surprised her. Humans, it was true described the eyes as 'the windows to the soul' but she was surprised to find that mechanical optics could be as expressive and emotive as organic, human eyes.
In that moment, she knew that the Prime spoke the truth, and a warm feeling of trust and love for him warmed and spread in her chest, and she began to uncurl, ready to throw herself into his arms and ask him to hold her and protect her-
Then a small but sharp knock on the door brought both back to their surroundings, and the moment was gone as both broke the gaze and looked at the source of the noise.
"Sam? It's me, Mikaela, can you let me in?" Optimus looked briefly at Sam, who nodded assent, and Optimus unlocked the door and opened it, all with one com.
Mikaela walked in, took in their positions, moved to the middle of the room, standing between the pair, and turned to Optimus.
"What are you doing in here, you big lummox! You're the biggest mech on the Base, you lock her in here with you and then wonder why she's scared? Geddout, scat, shoo!" She extended her arm, one forefinger pointing at the door. Optimus rose to comply, but Sam shook her head.
"No, Mikaela, let him stay. I think he has as much a right to participate in this as I, and it'll save you running back and forth between us as message-girl." Mikaela looked at Sam, then back to Optimus, who nodded, and then back to Sam, and relaxed.
"Okay, Sam, I've heard Ratchet's side of this and I'd like to hear yours. How about you tell me what happened from your point of view?"
"Indeed," Optimus said. "I too have not heard all of your side of this, and I am, as the humans might say, all audios."
"All ears," corrected Mikaela, "though you've done a good job of changing it to reflect your differences."
"Whatever," Optimus said, surprising Mikaela with his use of the term -the flippant expression did not sound quite right coming from Optimus - "but I still would like to hear what happened."
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The explanation soon morphed into a discussion that showed exactly how clueless Optimus was about human relationships (although he'd picked up some very peculiar ideas from the Internet) and how equally, if not more clueless about the Cybertronian equivalent Sam was. At first, Mikaela tried to provoke discussion on both sides, hoping that each could tell the other what the other needed to know, but it soon became too confusing, and she became concerned that something might get missed. She called a halt to the discussion, and asked Optimus to com Ratchet (who had left once Mikaela had gone in.)
Ratchet got there fairly quickly, and she invited him in.
"Sam, would you feel comfortable if Ratchet were to share the room with you for a bit?" she asked. "Just long enough to explain to you what you need to know about?"
She turned to Ratchet. "Look, remember Sam knows almost zip about being Cybertronian, and about Cybertronian family and relationships. Look, tell him whatever you'd tell whatever your equivalent of a teenager is, who's becoming old enough to ask and old enough to need to know about sex, interface, whatever you want to call it."
She levelled a finger at Ratchet. "I don't just mean the medical and mechanics of it, I mean the emotions and feelings involved as well, and any further taboos. Tell her everything, even if it seems obvious. Don't be scared to give her the idiot's guide, I'd rather you tell her stuff she knows than that she miss out on something she needs to know."
She then turned to Optimus.
"We are going to your room. Sam used to be a human and you need to be aware of what prejudices, taboos and cultural pressures Sam has grown up with, plus about human sex, the mechanics, the feelings, the relationships, and the dos- and- don'ts. I'll give you the Department Of The Bleeding Obvious version too, so hopefully you can understand why Sam's a bit skittish."
She sighed as Optimus nodded meekly and picked her up to take her to his room.
She allowed herself a rueful grin. She would never, ever have thought she'd be giving the extended version of The Talk to a life-form who's existence exceeded the age of the Earth itself.