Shockwave stood at his console and heard the space bridge activating. There were no scheduled arrivals, so he primed all of his weaponry, training it on whoever decided to be foolish and try to come through.
The base was set to high-alert, a low blaring of the klaxons beginning to sound. Shockwave thought about alerting one of the other bases, seeking back-up, but something told him that it would be prudent to wait until he had more information.
The mech materialized, and he saw a bedraggled Starscream, standing weakly on the platform. He looked like he was about to fall over.
"Starscream," he greeted.
"Shockwave," Starscream replied quietly. "You are next on the list to take care of me, it seems."
Shockwave regarded him for another few moments before he saw Starscream's knees wobble, and he began to fall. Shockwave deactivated the alarms and weaponry with a flick of his wrist and surged forward to catch him. He put Starscream's arm over his shoulder and helped him down from the platform.
"Are you injured?"
Starscream swallowed. "I'm not sure exactly. I was arguing with Thundercracker and Skywarp and something… changed. I don't feel right."
Starscream's plating was hot to the touch. He gently guided Starscream down from the platform and started to walk him down through the console room to his lab. "What were you arguing about?"
Starscream grimaced, which Shockwave couldn't tell was from physical pain or emotional turmoil. "They wanted to send me here, alone, and I didn't want to go."
Many things fell into place then. Thundercracker and Skywarp had managed to reunite with Starscream again but had determined that things were not safe for him on Earth anymore and had sent him to Shockwave's care. He considered this and the possible repercussions of this news, guiding the weak seeker along the corridor.
They reached the lab, and he set Starscream down on a chair before pulling out more diodes and scanning equipment. He noticed Starscream was just looking at the ground with dull optics, and he tried to think of a safe topic of conversation that might distract him from his mood.
"Have you fueled lately? Perhaps I could get you some while the scanners get to work."
Starscream's jaw clenched. "Thank you, Shockwave, but I do not require fueling."
Hmm. Shockwave went back to setting up the scanners to look for coding changes and handed some of the connections from the computer to Starscream for a hardline connection. Starscream accepted the wires but looked confused about why they were being handed to him, as he clearly didn't know what to do with them.
Shockwave pointed to the medical ports on his arm, and Starscream still looked helpless.
Shockwave stepped forward and reached out his servo to run it along Starscream's arm, looking for the medical release. He found it, pressed it, and his plating pulled back, revealing some ports. Starscream examined them in wonder, apparently not realizing they were there.
It was almost amusing to see Starscream's sparkling-like wonder of everything new.
"You can plug these into any of the ports," Shockwave said. "This will start a medical scan and compare your coding to the last scan I did of you."
Starscream examined the wire again and then plugged it into his port, shivering a little at the sensation. "That feels weird. Tingly."
Shockwave nodded. "Usually, there is a delay for the information transfer until your firewalls can be brought down, but… well, you don't have any."
Starscream nodded as if this were normal and not distressing. A mech's firewalls were the first defense against hacking and reformatting from external sources. Shockwave could not imagine leaving the medbay without them in place, but Starscream didn't recognize the problem with the vulnerability. Starscream went back to looking at the medical ports with curiosity.
Shockwave turned his attention to the scans, looking over the initial data. Nothing seemed different so far; the pacification program was nearly identical to what it was before. "Does Megatron know you are here?" he tried to ask as nonchalantly as possible.
Starscream met his gaze. "No. Skywarp and Thundercracker fixed the situation so that only they and Ramjet know. The Decepticons think I am with the Autobots, the Autobots think I am with Skyfire, and Skyfire thinks I am with the Decepticons," he quoted. He seemed upset, maybe.
Was it upset? Or was it more like irritated? Shockwave knew the nuance was important
Regardless. Starscream was not happy. Even Shockwave could see that.
The scanners beeped that they had found a coding change. Shockwave looked closer at it, expanding it open on the console to look deeper into how it interacted with the rest of Starscream's code. It was small, but it was interesting; it appeared that Starscream had damaged some property under the Autobot's care. Even this change, though, shouldn't have triggered such a weakening reaction- but then there was another beep. Two minor changes were interesting, but they did not really explain-
Then a huge cascade of beeping erupted from the console. Starscream's code was completely red as the scanner moved through it, and it actually looked like the code was still changing. It was morphing before his very optic and was completely unstable, finding new variables and constants and writing itself based on some kind of hidden ruleset that Shockwave could not figure out. Shockwave slowly looked up from the console to Starscream, and his optic softened.
"This is going to require more testing," he said, transferring the code to a datapad. "There are far too many additional coding changes for me to understand the underlying issue of your discomfort," Shockwave said, walking over and kneeling down before Starscream to show him the datapad. Starscream took the datapad with slightly shaking servos and looked at it as Shockwave pointed to aspects of the code. "Here and here. The changes are highlighted here in red. Can you see the difference?"
Starscream's wide, terrified optics met his for a moment, and he nodded. "This is the door thing," he said quietly.
"Yes, it appears you can no longer use access panels to open doors, as the program has determined you cannot be trusted to use them. There are other changes. There are more prominent entries for 'master' and 'master's associate,' which are currently blank and fulfilled by any mech you encounter- what, are you alright?"
Starscream's expression had blanched, staring back at Shockwave with wide optics. "Master?" he asked quietly. "What do you-"
His voice out as he exvented harshly, and he reached up to hold his helm in his servos. "Shockwave, can you help with the pain? I can't think straight," Starscream replied, wincing.
Shockwave took back the datapad and typed away at it with one servo. "Apologies, I did not realize you were hurting. I'm going to attempt to stabilize your code from changing so quickly, and then… I will have to look for pain patches. I'm not sure I have them."
Starscream looked disappointed, or upset, or distressed; Shockwave wasn't sure. Still, he nodded, trying to steel himself for the next steps. Shockwave thought he was trying to put on a brave face, and he really didn't need to. Shockwave would think no less of him.
Shockwave typed away and managed to find the mechanism propelling the code to evolve, and he was able to isolate it. He would like to have taken time to work on this in a staging environment rather than working on Starscream's live code, but Shockwave did not want Starscream to suffer needlessly.
Which was… new. He'd have to evaluate that later.
He isolated the mechanism, and Starscream slumped in his chair, looking worn out. He closed his optics in relief. "That helped," Starscream said sleepily.
"Unfortunately, it is only a short-term stopgap. There will be too many errors created if I leave it in this frozen state for too long, but I will work on it as quickly as possible."
Starscream nodded, his helm falling forward before he caught it. He looked like he was going to fall into recharge in the chair.
"Do you require recharge?" Shockwave asked, putting the datapad on the table nearby. Starscream didn't answer verbally, just nodded weakly. He reached forward, wrapping his arms around Shockwave's neck, leaning on him heavily.
Shockwave froze at the familiarity and held him back in reflex. Did Starscream misidentify Shockwave as a trinemate? He was clearly asking to be assisted, and- oh- he was leaning against him and was- he asking to be held? Shockwave leaned back, and Starscream moved into his arms, resting his weight in Shockwave's hold. His fans were slowing, and his wings were slicking down his back.
Shockwave stared down at him for a moment, his processor stalling. He trusted Shockwave implicitly. Shockwave had forgotten what that was like.
He carried Starscream down the corridor to a guest room for when officers from the Earth campaign came to visit. Starscream was already asleep in his arms and barely stirred when Shockwave gently put him down in the berth.
Shockwave returned to the laboratory, bringing up a monitor with a security camera to keep his optic on his enigmatic patient as he began to delve deeper into the code. He was recharging heavily on the berth, curled up into a ball on his side, blissfully unaware that his coding was only barely contained by the temporary measure Shockwave had installed. Once it was released, it would careen out of control to some kind of next-level state; but what or when that was, he didn't know.
He brought up the communications console and sent a message.
"Acid Storm."
"General Shockwave," came the voice from the green seeker on the screen. "How can I assist you, sir?"
"I require a resupply of pain blockers for my medical kits here at the central base. Please send the resupply via drone."
Acid Storm nodded and typed away at his console, presumably checking the inventory of the Left Wing base at Darkmount. His mouth turned into a frown. "Sir, I apologize, but it appears we are also out of pain blockers, patches, or mild analgesics. I believe the Broken Wing still has some, however."
"You mean the Right Wing, commander?"
Acid Storm realized his mistake. Shockwave didn't entertain the unofficial colloquial names the seekers liked to call themselves. Acid Storm nodded. "Yes, sir, apologies. Commander Tachyon can assist you."
Shockwave nodded. "Shockwave out."
Shockwave kept going over the code while attempting to call the Right Wing base. There were so many strange things about this code; it referenced variables that didn't exist or had no documentation. Its tangled logic was often recursive and incomplete, and the notes commented out were cryptic at best. Shockwave wasn't even sure this was a complete instance of the pacification from the old days before the war; he had learned that the Autobots had compiled this code together from the depths of Teletraan's fragmented knowledge. It might be missing important pieces of itself that would make it more stable. Or, maybe it required an external program as well to control it?
His call never connected to the Right Wing. He frowned and sent a short-wave ping to them and received an automated response back informing him that the Right Wing's communication relay was down. If he wanted to get the pain blockers quickly, he would have to go there himself.
But he couldn't leave Starscream alone. They would have to go together.
He wondered how much the Right Wing base knew about Starscream's condition. They were nicknamed the Broken Wing for a reason; they had mostly incomplete trines, mechs of various cognitive functionality, and dubious effectiveness in the army at large. It was likely they hadn't received any news about Starscream for some time. If he and Starscream were to visit, it was also likely that no word would get back to Megatron, keeping Starscream's whereabouts still secret.
This base might have other supplies that he would need for Starscream. Shockwave led a very minimalistic lifestyle, but he remembered Starscream enjoying some material comforts. He wasn't sure how long he would have Starscream staying with him, but it was likely going to be a long time.
His plan set, he went back to pouring over the code and exploring its mysteries.