For The Race – Prime Protector.
Chapter Sixteen.
A/N: Once again thanks for ideas and inspiration from Hummergrey for parts of this chapter.
Mikaela moved her head, wondered where she was, and then, as she saw hot blue optics gazing into her own, remembered. She smiled and stretched lazily, and had to admit that Optimus was very, very good. Very gentle, very skilled, very careful, and with a little advice from her, she was sure he'd be able to take the right pace and the right tone with Sam. Her smile spread into a wide grin as she reflected that if Cybertronian femmes were anything like human women, Sam was going to find the way she'd experience sex as a femme would be very different – and possibly more pleasant - than as a man.
She sat up, put her hand to her head and said "Okay, I think I've got a few tips I can give you about Sam, but before I tell you them, do you have any more questions?" She really wanted to ask if they could do that again some time, but decided there was time enough for that. Right now, Sam was who mattered. She wondered if she'd be able to get to him to tell him that if his sensations were anything like hers, he'd have nothing to fear from the Prime.
"Yes, I do, I have eighteen more questions to ask and three things you mentioned that I want to query," he replied. Mikaela sighed, shutting her eyes briefly, massaging her temples as a headache threatened. It was time to get back to work.
"Okay," she said, "ask away..."
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Three hours after entering the medbay, Sam was glad when the tone of Ratchet's voice changed, indicating that the intimate Cybertonian anatomy lesson she was currently undergoing was about to end. Among all things Sam had never imagined Cybertronians and humans might have in common, labelled anatomy diagrams were among them. She now knew far more about the physical properties, functionality and appearances of interface equipment, both mech and femme, then she had ever wanted to know. She was looking forwards to slipping off and getting the subject matter at hand out of her mind and replacing it with something more enjoyable and less embarrassing. Sam had to admit that what Ratchet had told her was instructive, but some of the rest was just way too much information.
As Ratchet pointed at the last item on the 3-D cutaway holo of the femme's array, Sam dutifully repeated the name, and then stood, ready to leave, a thank-you on her lips.
"Wait, Sam, take these," he said giving her two objects she couldn't even guess at the function of. One looked like a thick cylinder the length of her arm, the other resembled...
As she suddenly guessed just what these were, Ratchet confirmed her worst suspicions.
"These are some of the self-stimulation devices Prime told me he had mentioned to you." He pointed to the cylinder. "That is an example of the one I give to the mechs if they want it, just so you know what it is, whereas the other is a prototype of an equivalent device for femmes, in case you want to try it." He seemed not to notice her attempts to push the items back at him, but just said "You seem to be in a hurry, so you'd better go. Keep them as long as you like, and have fun!"
"Could I have...like a sheet...or a tarpaulin...you know, to wrap them up in?" At the medic's raised metal eyebrows she said "To make them easier to carry?" The was no way she was going to walk down the corridor with the sex toys exposed for all the Base to see, but she doubted Ratchet would understand her embarrassment. Thankfully, he didn't query her request any further, but found her a large sheet of material to wrap about them. Once that was done, she got out of the medbay as quickly as she could, hurried down the corridors, replying hurriedly to greetings from a few mechs she met, and shot into her room. Dumping the items in the corner, she busied herself with thinking of questions she could field to the Prime.
He was thankful that when Mikaela found him, she was so involved with telling him about how the talk with Optimus had gone, and suggestions that she had for Sam, that the wrapped bundle in the corner remained unnoticed and unquestioned.
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Sam had come up with a few questions of her own that only Optimus could answer, but at first she didn't get a chance.
Although the Decepticons seemed to have run out of ways to try and get at her, they were soon spotted sneaking around the environs of Nellis, something that made the human generals nervous. Four times Optimus was asked to take out some of his mechs and challenge them, but after the fourth time it seemed the Decepticons got the message and stayed away. However, two new flyers were observed leaving with the Command Trine, one very large and one considerably smaller.
Once that had been sorted out (and the reams of associated paperwork had been signed, checked, countersigned and sent off) a report came in of two new Autobot arrivals who were landing just that night. Because of the increased Decepticon activity, and because the initial protoform was the most vulnerable form of a Cybertronian, Optimus again set out with a team of mechs to deal with any trouble – such as Starscream or Barricade - the new arrivals might meet. Thankfully they met no such trouble, and when Optimus and his team returned, they introduced Sam to the new arrivals, who were called First Aid and Bluestreak.
As First Aid's name suggested, he was, like Ratchet, a medic, and once the introductions had been made Ratchet almost dragged him off for a tour around the medbay and to be brought up to speed on current events. Sam had been hoping to talk to Optimus after that, but as Optimus wanted to debrief Bluestreak first, she headed off to practice her aim in Ironhide's armoury with her shoulder cannons for lack of anything else to do.
It was in there that she met Bumblebee, who was doing the same thing, and for a short time they practiced together, vying to see who could hit the target most accurately. Once they had finished there, Sam didn't want to leave Bumblebee, so accompanied him to the rec room. Bumblebee politely got Sam an energon and sat by her on the sofa, but was soon drawn away into an animated discussion on the use of holograms in battle with Cliffjumper and Hound.
Sam didn't really have time to get lonely, or a chance to creep off for a talk with Optimus, because just as she was deciding she'd stayed long enough to be polite, Blustreak, obviously through with his debrief from Optimus and his medical check with Ratchet, came in the door. His optics darted around the room, found Sam, and settled on her. The big grey mech wandered in, got himself an energon, sat next to Sam, and began engaging her in conversation.
Sam soon found out two things: Bluestreak had a tragic tale to tell involving how he had come to join the Autobots, and that he could talk about it for hours. Sam listened, partly to be polite and partly because she felt sorry for Bluestreak, but her mind began wandering even as she listened to his story and patted him comfortingly from time to time.
Bumblebee managed to extricate himself from his debate long enough to see that Sam was being monopolised, and swiftly moved in, politely telling Bluestreak that Sam was tired, and reminding the big mech that he might want to take some recharge himself before steering Sam out to her own room.
Sam spent five minutes there before deciding that she didn't need recharge as much as she needed to talk, and headed out towards Optimus' room.
She commed as was polite to announce her presence, and received Optimus' answering comm almost immediately, and went in as invited. The Prime was stood, pouring two cubes of energon, gesturing for her to sit on a chair opposite his desk, pushing one cube over to her side before seating himself in his own chair, taking a mouthful of energon, and then regarding her with a steady gaze over the lip of his cube.
"It seems there was much I needed to consider about you that I was not aware of, Sam," Optimus said.
"Yeah, I guess, and stuff I wished I'd known about being Cybertronian that I'd known earlier," Sam replied. "But I guess you were all so occupied with telling me what you thought I should know that you missed out stuff I'd have liked to."
It was a long speech for Sam, and a silence fell after it, Sam wondering if she'd gone too far as it began to become uncomfortable. Optimus gave a nod, putting down his energon just as Sam was about to apologise, and said "Do you have anything else to ask that I can answer for you?"
"Actually yes, I have," Sam told Optimus, glad that he had raised the subject because she hadn't known how to. Something Ratchet had said and briefly explained had caught her attention, but it wasn't something she was about to ask the medic. "Ratchet stated that Cybertronians can be taught about interface, usually by an older individual chosen by the Creators or by the person themselves, but he didn't elaborate. Can you explain more about that? How far does the teaching go? Is it merely verbal or is it hands-on? What does it involve? How is the request made?" Once again, Sam was glad that being mechanical now made her unable to blush.
Optimus didn't answer right away, instead he indicated the energon he'd obviously drawn for Sam, and stood, taking a few measured steps first one way and then changing direction and walking the other way. Sam had noticed this tendency of Optimus' and guessed he was just one of those sorts of people, okay, mechs, that thought better while moving around than while sitting. She sat patiently, giving him time, but determined to say something if he didn't reply soon.
It was a few minutes later that Optimus turned from pacing to sit back in his chair, taking another mouthful of energon as his optics caught and held Sam's own. Sam herself took a few nervous gulps of the glowing liquid in the cube she held as she waited for him to speak, which he soon did.
"Sam, it is believed in our society that any form of interface, be it brief and casual or long and intimate, should be pleasurable for both individuals," Optimus said. As the big mech settled himself in his chair, leaned forwards, and rested his forearms on the table, Sam recognised Optimus' lecturing pose and resigned herself for a long and complicated response. Then again, she had asked, and she'd rather she got too much information than not enough. That had caused the problems last time!
"The most intimate form, involving the interface equipment, the valve in the femme and the rod in the mech, can be particularly unpleasant for both parties if undertaken in a rushed or inexperienced manner. There are rumours that some inexperienced mechs and femmes, who tried it and found it unpleasant for that reason chose not to try it again as a result," Optimus continued. "It is considered particularly important, therefore, that a mech or femme's first intimate interface is as pleasant as it can be made to be, so that they know it can be pleasurable if done properly. That way, even if subsequent experiences are less pleasurable, the mech or femme is aware that it can and should be enjoyable, and thus is not put off."
The Prime sighed, took a mouthful of energon, leaned back and sighed. "On Cybertron, teaching was undertaken by somebody with a certain amount of experience in interface. There were people who taught for a living who could be employed to teach a member of a family who wished to learn, while other families might employ the services of a pleasure-bot or older friend. As a last resort, the Creators of the mech or femme could undertake the teaching, although it was not encouraged, for a number of different reasons."
"Incest?" Sam squeaked, feeling a small shudder run down her at the thought of her father or mother trying to teach her, practically, about sex. "And dare I ask just what a pleasure-bot is?" She knew what it sounded like, but she didn't want to risk misunderstanding anything of this conversation.
"As Ratchet would doubtless explain to you, in detail if you wished, incest does not exist either as a concept or as a taboo in our culture." Optimus said. Sam shook her head: that wasn't what she wanted. "Our Sparks cannot become inbred as human biological material can, and Creator-Creation interface is not taboo, but merely disapproved of in general. Cybertronians are supposed to expand their experiences, and a Creator acting as a teacher does nothing to further this and also means the Creator can be considered to have too much influence in their Creation's life."
Sam nodded: the idea still creeped her out, but it wasn't something she'd ever have to worry about: even if somehow her parents became Cybertronian, their own taboos would stop them even thinking of it, so she decided not to worry about it. "And pleasure-bots?" she reminded him.
"Humans have equivalents, they are known as sex workers, prostitutes, gigolos, escorts, practitioners of the oldest profession, and other terms that I believe are less polite." Optimus said.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Whores, prozzies, ho's, and soforth." He looked back at Optimus. "So your people entrusted their nearest and dearest to prostitutes?" he asked.
"Some did, Sam. You must remember that interface, even the intimate form on our world, does not have the same connotations it can on your world. It is not seen as something shameful or dirty, or only to be performed between bonded couples. We do not carry diseases as you know it: yes, some mechs and femmes may carry Trojans or processor viruses, but none would be spread by interface fluid or the act of interface, not unless data was also exchanged, and most of us have self-updating anti-virus programming. Yes, some mechs and femmes did install programmes to infect others, but these were mainly activated if someone was, as rarely happened, forced. However, it is not something you would likely to have to worry about, at least not from any of us. But I digress. Being a pleasure-bot on Cybertron was seen as being as respectable a profession as a soldier, or an AllSpark Guardian, or even a medic, historian, or data-processor."
"So, teachers of interface were either trained individuals, pleasure-bots, or family friends?" Sam asked.
"Or sometimes respected members of the community." Optimus said. "Almost anybody could be used to teach about interface, provided they had enough experience, and the one to be taught is agreeable to being taught at that time and by that person."
"What about you?" Sam asked. "Would someone be allowed to ask you to teach, either them or someone under their care?"
Optimus nodded. "Yes, I can and I have. In this time of war, it has become increasingly common for a unit leader or commander to undertake the responsibility of teaching young mechs and femmes who wish it, and as a Prime, it also was asked of me much in peacetime. However, although someone can ask on behalf of another, that other must be the one who wants it. It must be at a time of their choosing, and with whom they choose." He leaned forwards again, resting his arms on the table again, and Sam took the opportunity to lean forward and take one of those hands in both of her own.
"I want to be taught, Optimus, and I want it to be by you," Sam said, looking Optimus in the optics, hoping he could see the sincerity of her request.
"Sam, are you sure?" Optimus asked. Sam nodded.
"Yes, Optimus. I don't know what might happen or how I might react in the future, but I trust you and don't want any more misunderstandings. It's the not knowing that I find the most frightening, but if you teach me I'll know, won't I? I want to be taught by you, Optimus, and I'd like you to teach me now if you have the time."
Optimus nodded, remembering to turn off all his comms, internal and external. This would need to be handled carefully, and he didn't want any interruptions. He carefully stood, Sam still holding one of his hands, his almost-full cube of energon in the other, and walked around the desk next to her.
"Then if you are certain, Sam, shall we go to my berth? I believe it will be more comfortable than the desk."
Sam gave a laugh as she turned towards Optimus' recharge room.
A/N: The next chapter ended up almost twice as long as this one. The options I have are to either find somewhere to split it into two (unequally-sized) chapters, or to post it as one large chapter. The choice is yours, post your preference in a review or a PM. Do you want one long chapter, or should I split it into two shorter ones?