Claustrophobia.
Chapter Five.
When Ratchet and Starscream were gently woken by touches to their faces and shoulders, they found themselves looking into the optics of Starscream's two Seeker-brothers. After leaving Ironhide around the back to reboot in his own time, they had come back to attend to their original reason for being here.
"How is he?" Thundercracker asked the medic. The optics of both he and his younger wing-mate were wide with concern. "Will he fly again?"
Ratchet grunted, collecting his thoughts after his too-brief recharge.
"Yes, his wings are sound, and once I have repaired his thrusters and tailfins and buffed his fuselage smooth again, he should be able to fly as well as before this incident."
"Physically yes, I understand that almost all physical injuries can be mended, but what about his mind?" The blue Seeker looked at Ratchet imploringly. "We dare not risk flying with him if his mental distress has left him unbalanced."
"I have reason to believe that Starscream will eventually recover from the effects of his incarceration in a cave." Ratchet said. "There have been several encouraging signs that with the right care and attention he can be – excuse me!" This last was uttered as Ratchet moved to grab at Starscream's arm as the latter tried to stand and looked ready to try and take off.
Thundercracker and Skywarp joined him, moving either side of Starscream and stroking his arms and face. Starscream fixed his gaze on the sky, and whimpered.
"He needs the sky now. We can take him, it will quiet him." Thundercracker said to Ratchet. "You had no way of getting him there, but as we are now here, it would be cruel to continue to deny him that which he has been denied for too long already. We do not wish the recovery you have started to be destroyed by further deprivation when we can help him achieve a measure of what he yearns for."
Ratchet nodded – it made sense. Although Starscream was now out of the cave, he had still not been able to fly and that in itself, over a long enough period of time, was enough to tip Seekers irrevocably over the edge. Ratchet did not want to lose Starscream when he was so close to healing him. Broken bodies could generally be healed. Broken minds were not so easy to fix.
Mirage, drop the force-field entirely. He commed to the slender mech still manning the gate. To Thundercracker he said "Please bring him back. He still needs work done."
"We will. For a grounder, you have coped well with his condition. To continue treating him we would need an outside setup like you have improvised, but we cannot be as visible to this country's military."
As the force-field flickered out entirely, each Seeker took a secure grip on Starscream's waist and one arm each and took off vertically, with Ratchet watching. Starscream at first whimpered and twitched, but hen he quieted and allowed his bearers to rise and then fly away with him.
As they quickly dwindled to become mere dots in the sky, Ratchet wasn't sure if he'd just been insulted or complimented.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Half an hour later they returned, landing as gracefully and precisely as they had taken off. Ratchet could immediately see that the flight had done Starscream much good. He did not protest, nor stare at the sky as his wing-brothers led him back to the berth. He rolled onto his side, his posture relaxed, and did not even try to resist as Ratchet put his processors back into a recharge loop.
"When he is ready to fly under his own power, call me." said Skywarp, databursting his comm. to Ratchet. "He may need us. Please ensure the force-field is down before you do so, I will bring both of us." Ratchet nodded, his processors already thinking through how to repair Starscream's battered thrusters.
"Then we will see you later, medic." Thundercracker said. He and Skywarp once again took off, and once they were suitably far enough away. Mirage put the force-field back on at full power.
At that point, Ironhide came back around the corner, looking a little groggy. "I'll take back over now Mirage, sorry to call yer through when yer meant to be off duty."
"You are going nowhere except straight into recharge, Ironhide!" said Ratchet, noticing how exhausted yet relaxed the Weapons specialist seemed to be. "Now." He ordered. "Just what the frag have you been up to that you've got so exhausted?"
"That's a long story, Ratchet." Said Mirage. He turned to Ironhide. "It's okay, you go recharge, I'll pull the rest of your shift, you can repay the favour another time," he said with a smile.
"The story can wait till I'm less busy, I have work to do. Thank you Mirage, and I mean it, Ironhide, recharge now!" Ratchet said.
"I'm goin', I'm goin'!" the big mech said, turning towards the base entrance. "Thanks, Mirage, I owe yuh one."
Once he was certain that Ironhide was doing as Ratchet had ordered, he turned back to his work on Starscream's thrusters as Mirage headed back to the gate. Now, where was that metal de-stressing tool…?
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
As he finished up repairing Starscream's left tailfin, Ratchet realised that by taking Starscream up, the other two had done him a great favour. This time, Starscream did not start coming out of the recharge loop early, he didn't seem to need to use Ratchet as a teddy-mech, and whereas earlier he had twitched and cried out when recharging, now he was as still and quiet as a sparkling with a full tank resting on a warm chest.
Reaching into his subspace, he took out the special polish and cloth, and began to buff the Seeker's fuselage.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Two hours later, Ratchet had to admit he had done all he could to make Starscream airworthy again. His wings and tail fins were straight, his fuselage as smooth as Ratchet could get it, he smelt pleasantly of polish, and he looked as good physically as Ratchet had ever seen him.
He commed Cliffjumper to bring out the vat of jet fuel, two cubes of low-grade energon, and the refuelling stylus. He took Starscream's processors out of the recharge loop, and then gently touched Starscream's face and shoulders as he had seen the other two Seekers do earlier to wake the flier. Of course, he could refuel Starscream while he was still recharging, but he figured Starscream would prefer to be awake and feel the refuelling going on.
He sat up so suddenly that he almost knocked Ratchet over, who grabbed hold to steady himself.
"I'm calling your wingbrothers now, I'm having fuel brought out so you can fill your tanks, some energon to enjoy, and then I think they might want you to fly with them" he said as he first databurst to Mirage to lower the force-field and then commed Skywarp as he had said he would.
"Fly?" said Starscream, sounding both eager and nervous. "Under my own power? Can I?"
Ratchet swore inwardly as he tried to smile encouragingly. "I've done the best I can, and you look airworthy to me." he said.
"How would you know, you're not a flyer." Starscream said, and Ratchet didn't know how to answer that one.
"Well, here, refuel anyway." he said.
He had just given the stylus to Starscream so he could control his own refuelling when a loud bang shattered the silence as Skywarp, his arms wrapped about Thundercracker, appeared from seemingly nowhere in the courtyard, dropping the five feet or so to the ground from where they had appeared. Ratchet realised that Skywarp had used his special ability to get there, a procedure that was likely to be hideously fuel-hungry. The two disentangled themselves and then came over to where Starscream was sat, and stroked his upper arms encouragingly.
"You look wonderful, Air Commander," said Thundercracker, sliding a hand down Starscream's chassis appreciatively. Skywarp too seemed unable to tear his optics from Starscream's shiny form.
"I do?" he asked, as Skywarp joined Thundercracker in stroking the other Seeker.
"Oh, yes!" purred Skywarp, nuzzling at Starscream's neck.
"Then-shall we fly?" moaned Starscream pleadingly, dropping the stylus, which Ratchet quickly caught with one hand. His other hand grabbed Starscream's wrist.
"Not without going through pre-flight checks! I'm not letting you out only for you to crash because I missed something!" Ratchet said. As three pairs of red optics turned to look at him, Ratchet wondered if he's gone too far. Surely the Seekers did pre-flight checks? All the fliers he had known had done it as part of their routine, although Ratchet had to admit the fliers he'd known could be counted on the digits of one hand.
"He's right, Starscream." said Thundercracker, with grudging respect. "We always check before we go up, you know that, and you're flying for the first time in orns. Run the checks, then we'll go up."
As Starscream nodded and his optics dimmed, Ratchet held the stylus out.
"You two may as well refuel, the fuel is here and don't tell me you couldn't use it." he said. Neither of the Seekers even put up a token fight, but eagerly filled their tanks with the available fuel. Coming Cliffjumper to bring some more energon, Ratchet handed one of the two cubes he was holding to Starscream, and the other to Skywarp while Thundercracker filled up. As Cliffjumper brought the spare cubes up and Thundercracker passed over the fuelling rod to Skywarp, Ratchet gave him a cube of energon.
"This is good!" said Skywarp as he finished the cube, dropping the empty back into Cliffjumper's hands. "Who's your brewmaster?"
"Well, that would be me." Ratchet admitted with a smile. "it's amazing what uses you can put medical equipment to."
"So, you are a mech of many talents!" said Thundercracker, running his glossa around his derma to catch spare drops. "Would there by chance be a cube waiting for us each when we bring Starscream back from the flight, in a few hours time?"
"I should think that would be likely." Ratchet said.
Thundercracker nodded as Skywarp gave ratchet the fuelling tool back, and then they both joined Starscream in pre-flight checks. After all three reported that all checks were done, and all systems ready, the three took off. At first, Thundercracker and Skywarp took hold of Starscream's arms, helping stabilise him and support him minimally, but as the red and white Seeker's confidence grew, he pulled slightly away from the two, slightly ahead but still flanked by them should he falter or fall.
Cliffjumper cheered and Ratchet pumped his fist up and down in encouragement until they were out of sight. Then Ratchet turned to Cliffjumper.
"Wake me in two hours, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to rest." he said. "Make sure the energon they requested is available."
As the red mech nodded and headed back into the base, Ratchet rolled onto the berth and allowed himself to slip into recharge.