Midas Touch.
Chapter Five.
On the way, the Porsche scanned some humans, and, with Bumblebee's advice, managed to composite an acceptable holoform to be her 'driver.' Sam had received a phone call from his father while this was happening, raging about having his Porsche stolen off his own drive while out with the almost-neighbours. Sam had had to tell his Dad the truth to stop him reporting it as stolen. Once Sam had explained, there was a long silence at the end of the line, so long that Sam thought his phone had developed a fault, before his father spoke again, in a rather stunned voice.
"So, my car is actually a woman and has stolen herself? Okay, that's okay, but I'd still like to meet it - that is, her - if that's okay by her and your alien friend Optimus. If so, could Bumblebee be sent to pick me up and bring me to her so I can talk to her?" Ron sighed. "I sound like I've gone as mad as my grandfather." he said.
"Oh, C'mon Dad, I've told you what happened to great-grandfather." Sam said. "He was as sane as you or I."
"Sometimes I wonder about that, too." said Ron. Sam smiled in spite of himself.
"No, not mad, Dad, but it looks like meeting giant alien robots has become a sort of family tradition. Maybe it's something in the Witwicky genes."
"It's something in something of ours, but I'll be darned if I know what." Ron said. "Don't worry about the toaster or microwave either, Sam, I'll explain things to your mother and buy her the next models up, that'll keep her happy. Just make sure you're all right, Ok? See you later, Sam."
"Yeah, sure thing, Dad." Sam said. "I'll tell the Porsche you were asking after her."
""You do that, Sam, and tell her that she must do what she feels is right for her, not what she thinks everyone expects her to do. She's welcome to come back if she wants, in fact I'd feel honoured if she did, but that doesn't mean she has to." Ron said as he rang off.
All things considered, Sam thought, his Dad had taken it much better than he thought he would. Perhaps it was the shock.
On the other hand, Sam began to wonder if his father was now seeing the Porsche as the daughter he'd always wanted, but Judy had been advised never to have. First, Judy had had to have one of her fallopian tubes removed when her first pregnancy had turned out to be ectopic, and then Judy's narrow hips had almost been the death of both her and Sam, only an emergency C-section had saved them, but she had been advised that between her narrow hips and the scarring from the emergency Caesarean, that to have another child would be inadvisable.
Even that had not stopped them trying, but later investigation, when Judy had failed to get pregnant again, had revealed that her remaining tube had become blocked, probably due to an infection that was so mild that Judy had not even realised she'd been unwell. After some discussion, Judy and Ron had decided against expensive in-vitro treatment that might not even work, and concentrate on the healthy son they had rather than yearn after something that might not ever be.
Sam himself had never regretted not having an annoying younger sibling, but he knew that both his Mom and Dad would have loved another child, even another boy although a girl would have made them even happier. That was what Mojo was all about, he was Ron and Judy's surrogate child, although when Sam's mother insisted on giving Mojo 'bling', he wished they'd chosen a girl dog instead of a boy one.
Bumblebee and the Porsche reached the Autobot base, and Bumblebee had obviously told Optimus and Ratchet that they were coming, because they were there in the courtyard to greet them. Sam climbed out of Bumblebee, picking up the toaster and microwave and backing off, as Bumblebee transformed. Bumblebee must have told the Porsche she could, because she started hers a few seconds after Bumblebee began his. Sam could see that his two small charges were part in awe and part in fear of Optimus and Ratchet.
Optimus, too had realized, and dropped to a crouch so as not to loom over them, spreading his hands to show he had no weapons powered up. He then spoke, but Sam saw the telltale dimming of his optics that suggested that he was databursting as well, to welcome them to the base.
"Welcome to the Autobot base. I am Optimus Prime, and the other over there is designated Ratchet. You will be looked after with us. You are quite safe here. We are all your friends." Optimus told them.
Ratchet carried out a discreet scan of the three newcomers as Optimus gave his welcome. As Optimus stood again, Sam put down the toaster and microwave.
"Sam, could you come with the other three to the medical bay for a check-over please?" Ratchet asked him.
"Sure Ratchet, but can I have a word with Optimus first?" Sam asked. Ratchet nodded, and Optimus crouched again to hear what Sam had to say.
"Dad has said that the Porsche must make her own decisions about what to do with her life, but has requested to be allowed to talk to her." Sam said. "If so, he asked if you can send Bumblebee to bring him here?"
Optimus nodded.
"I see no harm in letting them talk. It may do some good." Optimus said. He looked at Bumblebee.
"Bumblebee, would you bring Sam's father, Ronald Archibald Witwicky, here to the Base to speak to the new femme?"
"Yes, of course." Bumblebee said. He transformed back into car form, and purred out of the Base.
Ratchet beckoned, and started towards the Base main building entrance. Sam saw the three watching him, beckoned to them, and then turned to follow Ratchet. A quick check confirmed that the three were following.
Once in the medical bay, Ratchet carefully and thoroughly scanned the new AllSpark babies, and then gave them the data he felt they needed - about Cybertron and the Cybertronian race, the war, the two main factions, the planet Earth, the English language, and information about humans – via a direct hookup, mass transferring data from his processors to theirs. Then he called Mirage to look after them and give them a Base orientation tour.
As Sam watched their retreating backs, Ratchet said "The femme will be taken to your father when he arrives. For now, she's in good hands. Now, Sam, I need to scan you again, because this should not be happening."
Ratchet carefully lifted Sam onto his table, and scanned him as he had a week ago. His mobile brow plates rose in surprise.
"The levels of AllSpark energy in your body are higher than they were last week, but certainly not high enough to cause the sort of discharge you experienced last week." Ratchet said. "I haven't had time to build the collection units, only to design them. This should not be happening. Wait there." He went away, only to return with a slim laptop carefully pinched between his index finger and thumb: Sam recognized it as one of the latest models, one of those with lots of battery and processor power, but slim and light and easy to carry. Ratchet saw Sam looking at it.
"The Military gave it to me to help type up notes, not stopping to realize that just one my fingertips is capable of pressing all the keys at once. I could use my holoform, but what's the point as my processors store everything I see and hear, and the desktop computer they have donated converts spoken word into text." He put it down next to Sam.
"No, don't touch it till I say 'go,' I want to scan you as you touch it." He said, as Sam reached out towards it. Then he nodded. "Okay, Sam, go!" he said.
Sam reached down, placing the flat of his hand on the top of the laptop. He felt tingling, and felt the laptop tremble beneath his touch, and then, as he pulled his hand back, the laptop sprang into robot form, looking up at him with scared-looking blue optics. He opened his mouth, wanting to tell it not to be frightened, that no-one here would hurt it, but what came out sounded more like a dial-up connection tone than a human voice, and Sam's throat felt raw afterwards. However, it seemed to have the desired effect, as the laptop stopped looking scared, sidled over to Sam, and began nuzzling against his leg.
Ratchet's optics widened.
"Human throats are not designed to make those sounds, but you managed it well, and under the circumstances, your accent is very good." Ratchet said, staring at Sam in disbelief. "It's an archaic version, not one that Bumblebee would know, so I don't think you've been leaning Ancient Cybertronian off him on the sly, and you've certainly not been leaning it from me. However, as a student of the spoken and written ancient language, I can confirm that that is exactly what you just spoke. Wait here, Sam." Ratchet told him, going out and returning a few minutes later with a small tray balanced on his hand: on it were two white pills and a glass of what appeared to be water. He lowered it to Sam's level.
"Take the pills, they are pain pills. The human throat, as I just pointed out, is not designed to speak any form of Cybertronian, ancient or otherwise. My scans indicate that your throat lining is inflamed: these will help."
"It feels inflamed, I hope they help." Sam croaked. He put the pills in his mouth and knocked them back with the water in one gulp, and pulled a face: they were certainly not Tylenol, both they and the water had a funny taste. However, whatever Ratchet had put in the water immediately seemed to help: a soothing coolness eased the raw feeling of his throat.
"Thanks, Ratchet, whatever that was, it helped." He said.
"My tests showed no risk of unwanted interactions of the anesthetic solution and the pain pills." Said Ratchet. "The solution should ease the pain in your throat long enough for the pain pills to begin working. They are something I made for human use." He turned back to Sam, and the laptop, which was still nuzzling his leg.
"Sam, my scans showed that as you touched the laptop, there was a discharge of what appears to be AllSpark energy, from your skin to it, which is what brought it to life. It is more controlled than the incident that occurred last week, but it does look as if you will be constantly discharging to a certain extent, and looks like becoming an ongoing incident. I must get working on making the collection devices." He grumbled. "For once, I wish Wheeljack was here."
"What, to blow them up for you? You'd be chasing him out of the medical bay, waving the biggest wrench you could find, within a few hours!" Bumblebee said as he walked in.
"Sam." He said, ignoring Ratchet's scowl as he walked over. "Your father has began talking to his former car, and I think they're gonna get on really well." He looked down at the laptop by Sam's feet. "Who's that, Sam?"
"Newest new arrival. I'd like to call it Lapbot, if that's okay?" Sam said, asking Ratchet. "Once you've given it the all-clear and taught it what it needs to know, could I take it home? It seems to have taken a liking to me, and Bumblebee would have someone to talk to when I go to sleep, and he could help with its education." He looked up at Ratchet with wide pleading brown eyes. "Please?"
"Yes to both, on condition that it wants to." Ratchet said. "However, Sam, I would prefer it if you stayed on Base while I build the collection units, so we are close if anything else untoward happens, and you won't draw undue human attention if incidents happen here. Once I build you effective energy collection cells, you can use them to discharge morning and night, and otherwise lead a normal life."
Sam was cuddling one of Bumblebee's fingers, trying not to show how frightened this whole thing was making him, Bumblebee cupped his other hand over Sam's shoulders and back, trying to comfort his frightened human charge. Then Sam gasped.
Ratchet gasped too: he was still scanning Sam when the scan registered a sudden upswing in the amount of AllSpark energy being generated in the human boy's fragile body.