A/N: Chapters won't be coming out as fast as I'd like them to, but I'm going to try my best to keep them coming. Please be patient with me.
Summary: We find out a little more about what the Seekers are searching for but we still don't know why. Jazz is still on a mission and Rachel has a little conversation with Jetfire and Wheeljack about Cybertronian science and ethnocentrism. Could the theory that Jetfire talks about be true?? Could there be more than one and does it mean what we think it means??
As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and reviews are given much love. I could really use some good news right now, so if you like what you're reading, please let me know.
Story Arc 6
Chapter 4 – The First Artifact
Hook made a few final adjustments on the dark blue mech; it wasn't as perfect as he would have liked, but it would have to do until he got better materials from Cybertron. The upgrades to the mech's CPU and processors would be sufficient enough to fool even Megatron himself, but that test would come after he returned from Cybertron with the supplies that Hook and the others needed. The engineer checked the control device he installed before shutting the access panel and smirking at his genius. The programming codes and altered memories he added into Soundwave's processors were brilliant by his standards; the mech wouldn't even realize that he wasn't in control of his systems anymore. Hook brushed his hands quickly and brought Soundwave out of stasis lock.
The blood red visor flickered with light and the dark blue mech sat up slowly, looking at the rocky surroundings and the highly aggravated engineer that stood next to him tapping his foot. "Explain current situation."
Hook sighed in annoyance, "Once again you have not listened to what I said about letting your internal repair systems finish their work. I'm almost tempted to call Megatron and inform him that you are not fit for this mission."
Soundwave looked at the engineer, "Mission to gather supplies for repairs."
Excellent. Hook smirked, "It's good to see that your processors are still working. Maybe this trip won't be a complete waste." He turned and started to walk down the slightly worn trail that led to the Space Bridge, stopping when he did not hear Soundwave follow. "Are you coming or are you malfunctioning again?"
The Communications Officer stood up and walked over to Hook, "Unable to make contact with Nemesis."
Hook lifted a hand to rub at his temples, "Lets just get to the slagging bridge and back to Cybertron. Once there and with decent supplies, I'll check your comsystems."
Soundwave nodded and pulled the data pad from his subspace with the requisitions list for supplies, that Hook had stashed there of course, and read it over. Something was not right, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what seemed wrong. The last thing he remembered clearly was being attacked by that Autobot in the city and that, checking his chronometer, was a month ago. But then the programming that Hook installed kicked in, and Soundwave falsely remembered that the Autobots had won the fight after destroying the horde and sending all of them back to Nemesis badly wounded. Most of the supplies had been used to repair Megatron, but the injuries to the others were not completed due to a lack of materials. Everything that could be spared on Nemesis was used to create the Horde and there had not been time for a restock before the fight. It seemed the Seekers, Constructicons and himself were still in need of serious repairs and Megatron had sent him with the engineer to garner those supplies.
He stowed the data pad into subspace and followed Hook down the path to the Space Bridge now certain about his mission.
--
I sat in Jetfire's cockpit with my wireless Teletraan 1, looking up information on where we were going and for the radiation signals that the Veritech fighter had found.
"Teotihuacán, 'the place where men become gods' or 'place of those who have the road of the gods', was the name given to the city centuries after it had fallen that reflected the creation myths that took place there. The early history of Teotihuacán and its founders is still a highly debated topic among archaeologists. For many years it was believed to be built by the Toltec, 'great craftsmen', due to Aztec writings, but Teotihuacán predates the Toltec civilization, ruling them out as the city's founders." I held the screen up to the blinking light in Jetfire's cockpit that he spoke through. "It's pretty close to Mexico City, twenty-four miles. Are we going to be okay exploring there?"
"The scanner will take us directly to the source of the signal. It should not take long to remove it to a safer location." Something in Jetfire's voice told me that it wasn't going to be as easy as he made it sound.
I set the wireless back down in my lap. "So tell me about harmonic radiation."
"I am assuming you read about it being primordial radionuclides that decay quickly into the metalloids…"
I nodded quickly. "The highly radioactive metalloids. Yeah, but other than the reference to the elements and a paragraph about the scientific debate on whether it's real or not… It's obvious now that it is real if you found something. You mentioned an item and a scanner and I'm assuming that it has something to do with it. What I don't understand is how it was missed by the archaeological expeditions and why it's so important that we need to move it before the crazy Seeker finds it."
"He wasn't always 'crazy'. Eccentric and unconventional, yes. But not like he is now, concerned with war and power. That is not the Starscream I know and remember." Jetfire corrected me softly and I cringed at my complete lack of sensitivity of the situation. Open mouth. Insert foot.
"I'm sorry, Jetfire. I sometimes forget that you were friends with him."
"It's all right, Rachel. Unfortunately, you have only been exposed to the power hungry Starscream."
I gave a small smile. "You know… when I was captured by him and the other Seekers, he told me he was once a scientist, and he seemed very sad."
"He was one of the best and brightest to ever come from the Academy. Why he stopped with his work and joined the Decepticons, I'll never know." The Veritech fighter sounded just as sad as Starscream had been when he told me.
Time to change the subject. "So… uhm, why is this item so important?"
"Well, it is important for a few reasons. There have been items with similar radiation signals like this found in numerous star systems, usually in or near the ruins of great cities. The Cybertronian archaeologists that have studied the items believe that they were left behind by some ancient space-faring race. If I remember correctly, each artifact was found with multiple scripts on them besides Cybertronian. Some had star charts, some had descriptions of alien technology, and one was found with a text about how the civilization was doomed."
I frowned, "Then why is there one here? The ruins we're going to are ancient to humans, but they aren't to you." I looked at the wireless Teletraan 1. "Earth is a relatively young planet compared to Cybertron. Earliest buildings at the ruins were built a little more that two millennia ago."
"True, but I believe this item, unlike the other one, was brought here."
I scanned over the information I had looked up about the city. "Hmm, aliens visiting pre-Colombian cities. I guess some of the mythology about 'gods' could be about aliens."
Jetfire chuckled, "Interesting hypothesis."
"But you think it was brought here? Why?" I looked at the blinking light.
"Because there was only one signature here when I first came to explore." The gentle scientist paused before continuing. "Now there are three sources of the radiation, the original source, this one, and one that Starscream has."
"So we're making more that one trip?" Wheeljack came over to talk with us.
"Hopefully not. The original signal would be difficult and dangerous to get to, but," Jetfire gave a frustrated sigh. "We definitely can't have Starscream getting his hands on that."
"So what's the difference between the signals?"
"I believe the one at the ruins is an artifact. The other one…" Jetfire paused before answering my question, "Is an Allspark."
"Are you serious?" Wheeljack's vocal processors flickered excitedly. "The Allspark is here?"
"It's not the Allspark, it's an Allspark. The one specific to Earth."
The engineer's optics were wide in surprise, "There is more than one?"
I listened to the two scientists talk over my head as I quickly ran a search over Teletraan 1's databases for 'Allspark'. The amount of information that came up made my head swim, but very little of it was scientific. The 'Allspark' was what Primus used to create life on Cybertron. Supposedly before the universe was born, Primus and the Unmaker fought for control over the Allspark; one wanted to use it to create life, the other wanted to use it to destroy any chance for life… It was an artifact from the Cybertron creation story, and according to Jetfire, there was one of these artifacts from Primus here on Earth.
Now I was very well aware that mechs had a fairly strong belief in Primus, who was in essence like the Judeo-Christian god, but to seriously believe that the 'Allspark' used for the creation of Cybertron actually existed… It was like believing that the 'holy grail' of the Arthurian legends actually existed or that the Shroud of Turin actually had the face of god on it.
I rubbed my forehead in an attempt to focus back on the conversation, but there was a strange feeling of disappointment that I tried to squelch. I guess after seeing and experiencing life with the Autobots and their advanced technology and science I had come to expect more pragmatic beliefs. I can accept another's belief system, but I'm not a religious person and I prefer to base my decisions on empirical observations. Yet, Jetfire said the radiation signature that this artifact gave off was indicative of an item from a creation myth. He's a brilliant mind and I really had no reason to doubt what he said. Maybe it really is this 'Allspark' from Cybertron. Maybe I was about to have my faith in science shaken. Or maybe I was going to witness someone else' belief system shaken.
"You've actually seen an Allspark, Jets?" Wonder filled Wheeljack's optics and made his vocal processor flash animatedly.
"Yes." You could hear the smile in Jetfire's voice, "My mentor was called in to help decipher the runes on one brought back from an archaeological expedition. One day he took me to see it and witness all the work being done to unlock it's secrets. He even read to me what he had already translated on it."
I had to interrupt, "So you really believe that this 'Allspark' from a Cybertronian creation myth exists and that there is one of them on Earth?"
"Yes, and there are probably more scattered throughout the universe. My mentor and the group he was working with believed that there was an Allspark for every star system where life existed." Jetfire mused aloud. "It was an exciting find and the Academy was buzzing about actually having an alien Allspark on Cybertron to study."
I tapped my fingers on the wireless Teletraan 1, weighing my words carefully. "But if the Allspark gives off harmonizing radiation and is thought to exist where life is found, then why were the scientists from the Science Academy saying that it can only be created in a laboratory setting? Is the Allspark that was brought back for study gone?"
"It was probably destroyed at the beginning of the war when the Academies were bombed."
I looked between the flashing light and Wheeljack. "So all the work on it was destroyed as well? Someone had to have survived with notes or experience from it."
"There might be still, but from what I understand, the destruction to Iacon at the start of the war devastated the Academy. Many great minds were lost in the bombings." The light on Jetfire's console flickered wistfully.
Things didn't make sense to me. "But…" I pointed to Wheeljack. "You said earlier that you were taught that harmonizing radiation was a myth, and Jetfire said the Academy was excited to have an Allspark to study, but the blurb in the archives says it pretty much doesn't exist. So why did it go from myth to fact to myth? And if the artifacts also gave off the radiation why isn't that mentioned in the archive, surely the information gathered about all those archaeological finds didn't go missing?"
Jetfire chuckled. "I haven't been back to Cybertron in seven million years, Rachel, so I can't really answer that. But I can guess why the Academy somehow 'lost' the archaeological information and why the archives say nothing about it. There is the ethnocentric belief that Primus used the Allspark to create life on Cybertron, and only on Cybertron. There were many at the Academy who fought against the idea that what had been brought back was an Allspark and that there was proof of more than one."
I shook my head sadly; it seemed humans weren't the only beings that believed they were truly unique in the universe. "So how did they reconcile with there being aliens and ancient civilizations?"
"The Unmaker created aliens to test the faith of Cybertronians." Wheeljack snickered. "My fuel pump nearly seized when I first heard that."
I was going to ask another question when my ears started to pop and I could feel Jetfire descending in altitude. "We're here."
--
The early evening air was thick with humidity, rain and peppered with thunder as we started to walk across a small grassy plain to the ruins of the city. Luckily for us, the rain was thick enough to have chased away any straggling tourists, but the ground was so soft and muddy from said rain that giant mech footprints were being left in the ground. Optimus suggested that they walk in single file to cut down on the damage left behind, and I got to be carried up above the waterlogged terrain on Wheeljack's shoulder.
I scrubbed the rain from the wireless Teletraan 1's screen with my sleeve and tried to determine the layout of the ruins from a Mexican Heritage website about Teotihuacán. "That's the Avenue of the Dead and it connects all three of the pyramids. The one to the left is the Pyramid of the Moon, the one in the middle is the Pyramid of the Sun, it's one of the largest pyramids in the Americas, and to the right is the Ciudadela, that's where the Pyramid of Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Serpent is."
Jetfire pointed of to the left, "Scanner indicates that the artifact is in the Pyramid of the Moon."
"In the temple?" I held a hand up trying to shield my eyes in the dimming rain as we approached it.
"It's just under the cover stones." Jetfire and Wheeljack carefully made their way up the sides of the ziggurat-shaped temple; amazingly the stones did not crumble or break under their feet.
I was set down gently on one of the tiers as the two scientists went over readings from the scanner and plotted how to lift the stones without damaging the temple. Walking over to the massive staircase that led to the top of the pyramid, I noticed there were hieroglyphs and pictograms on the steps and walls. I reached out and ran my wet fingers over their rough surfaces, amazed at the amount of detail that was carved into the stone and how well it had survived two thousand years.
Thinking that Jetfire would be interested in studying the hieroglyphs later, I opened up the wireless Teletraan 1 and started to scan along the staircase. This city had to have been absolutely beautiful when it was first built and people lived here. I traveled along one of the walls still scanning the glyphs as I went when something odd caught my eye. I stopped and took a closer look, running my fingers over the surface of the stone. "Jetfire!"
"Yes, Rachel?"
"There is Cybertronian script carved into the stone here."
There was a set of icy blue optics next to me and I pointed to the wet script. "I can't read what it says."
He followed the script with his finger, "'At the end of time…the greatest twelve must come together and fight…the keys lie within and the guide awaits those who seek…if they should fail…the stars shall spin fast and the great eye of chaos will open and turn all lands into ash… the twelve must prevail over chaos.' Hmmm."
Optimus Prime yelled from below, "Jetfire! Wheeljack! We have incoming!"
--
The black and purple F-15's body crackled with the hot white electricity from the lightning strike. Skywarp laughed and barrel rolled for Starscream, getting just close enough for the electrical current still sparkling over his frame to arc to his wingmate's. "TAG!" He bellowed loudly and teleported away.
The red Seeker cursed up a storm as the electricity played over his wings, "Slag you, 'Warp! When I get my hands on you-"
"You what? Huh?" The black and purple Seeker reappeared above and behind the Air Commander. "Hmm? I'm waitin'. You'll what? Screech at me?"
"You better sleep with one optic open."
Skywarp started to laugh when he was hit by another strike of lightning. There was a low and malicious chuckle that came over the Seeker comlink. "O Starscream…"
Air brakes effectively took the red Seeker out of range for Skywarp to pass on the latest strike. "I don't understand your fascination with lightning, 'Warp."
Skywarp teleported himself upside down right above Starscream and giggled, "It feels good."
"Only you would think that."
The pair streaked through the clouds like that, bodies inches from each other, speeds matched and every movement mirrored perfectly; a synchronous aerial ballet through the stormy twilight skies.
Skywarp was just waiting for another lightning strike to hit. He wondered if the electricity would arc back and forth between them, or if Starscream would get mad enough to attack him. "How much farther?"
The red Seeker checked the scanner just as the ocean below them ended and verdant green fields blotted out the landscape, "We're almost-" A sensor started to chirp rapidly. "Slag! The Autobots are here!"
Skywarp ended the aerial ballet as Vulcan cannons were brought quickly out of subspace and there was the electric hum of the null rays powering up. "I told you that it was a bad idea going to him!"
"Shut up!" Starscream hissed over the radio.
They exited the clouds over a huge city, the lightning now reflecting off the rain on their wings as they transformed and dropped to the soggy grass. "Try to get them away from the artifact. We don't want to damage it with stray fire."
"We wouldn't have this problem, 'Screamer if you hadn't-"
"I said shut up!" The red Seeker snarled at his wingmate.
With weapons raised, the two Seekers stalked up to the six Autobots. Starscream's optics roamed over the group before landing on Jetfire. His lips pulled back in a disgusted sneer, "I should have known I couldn't trust you to not get involved, Jetfire. You must enjoy blundering into dangerous situations that you know nothing about."
Icy blue optics gazed at the Seeker as thunder rumbled through the valley, "I'd wager I know more than you believe I do, Starscream."
"That is a bet you would lose!" The Air Commander spat back at the white Veritech. "And you Prime… I said we didn't need your help. Collect your precious Autobots and go home."
The Autobot leader crossed his arms over his glossy chest plate, the rain making the line of Autobots glisten in the pale light from their optics. "We're not leaving, Starscream."
The Vulcan cannons rumbled and Skywarp glared at the group, "You have no choice, Prime. It belongs to us!"
"Relics of this nature need to be studied at the Academy, Starscream." Jetfire still stood on the top tier of the temple, his arms out slightly at his sides. "You should know that."
"The Academy would have no idea what they were looking at!" The null ray came up and Starscream aimed directly at the gentle scientist. "Now stand aside, Jetfire."
"Starscream…I cannot let you have this artifact."
"And what are you going to do with it? Hmm? Lock it up in the Autobot base? Stand aside and let us have what is rightfully ours." Lightning forked behind the Seekers giving them a demonic silhouette pierced by their red optics.
The icy blue optics looked at the red Seeker thoughtfully, "How is it rightfully yours?"
"It belongs to the Seekers, you glitching idiot!" Skywarp's cannons took aim on the Veritech. "Back away from it, now."
"Don't shoot at him while he's in front of it!" Starscream snarled over their comlink.
"I know that!" The black and purple Seeker snarled back.
Jetfire looked back and forth between the two, "How does it belong to the Seekers?"
"That is none of your business, Jetfire! Now step aside!"
The Veritech raised an optic ridge as he regarded Starscream, "You're unusually verbose this evening. If this artifact is that important to you, than why haven't you shot at us to get at it?"
Starscream scowled, his blood red optics narrowing. "What good is it to me if it gets destroyed in the fight?"
"What do you need it for?"
"How many times do I have to say this? It's none of your business!"
Jetfire crossed his massive arms over his cockpit and tapped his foot lightly on the edge of the pyramid, small rivulets of water flowing down his body splattered with the movement. "Well, I'm not budging, so you better do something other than yell and posture."
"Just hit him with the null ray, 'Screamer. I'll take out the rest." Skywarp growled.
Starscream locked optics with Jetfire, one glowering in fury, the other smirking slightly.
"Come on! Just shoot him and get it over with!"
The red Seeker shook with rage. If it had been anything else…
He roared ferociously, throwing his arms into the air and stalking towards the Autobots, his optics on fire as he glared at Jetfire. Weapons were raised at him as he neared the base of the pyramid, but he just pushed his way through the mechs. If the annoying Autobots were going to be like this… "Get out of my way, Autobot-scum!"
Anti-gravs were activated once he was clear of the mechs on the ground and he floated to the top of the temple, cutting a graceful arc through the rain. He stopped in front of Jetfire and continued their staring contest, his lip components curling back in a disfiguring snarl. "Just stay out of my way."
The gentle scientist nodded to the Seeker with a grin and let him pass.
Skywarp's anti-gravs activated and he jumped over the line of Autobots, ignoring them taking aim at him. He landed almost soundlessly on the temple and crossed his arms over his cockpit, glaring at the two Autobots who, as far as he was concerned, intruded on his domain. Once he was sure they were very aware of his displeasure, he grinned at the young woman who had taken refuge behind Jetfire, "Hey femme."
Rachel stared at him strangely a moment, "Uh, hi."
The black and purple Seeker smirked and turned his attention to Starscream, who had knelt down and was reading over the hieroglyphics silently. He glanced at the hieroglyphics; all three of them were able to decipher the Cybertronian glyphs. He'd seen enough of them by now to be able to read the ancient dialect, but Thundercracker was the best at the writing stuff, he was the one who had most of the scripts translated. Unfortunately, most of it seemed to be inane babbling. Skywarp was more interested in what was on the artifact. So far they had found useful stuff that Starscream could make work easily, and he was always looking forwards to finding another artifact that would give him more toys to play with.
Skywarp grinned maliciously at the two Autobots; it was a rather nice feeling that he knew what was going on and they were clueless. Lightning interlaced electrical fingers of plasma across the night sky and the black and purple Seeker barely suppressed a snicker as he wondered if the Auto-dolts could handle getting struck by lightning while standing on the temple.
Jetfire careful turned and knelt down by Starscream; his optics split watching for what the red Seeker was reading and for his facial expressions. "I take it you know this Cybertronian dialect?"
Narrow red optics met the icy blue ones, "Of course I know the dialect!"
"Why is it so important to the Seekers?"
"Hmmph!" Starscream's attention went back to the glyphs. "It just is."
Jetfire pointed out part of the inscription, "'The keys lie within and the guide awaits those who seek.' Does that mean anything to you?"
"If it did, do you think I would tell you?" Starscream didn't even bother to look at him. He stood up suddenly and looked at Wheeljack, "Did you try to open it yet?"
The engineer shrugged noncommittally.
The red Seeker looked down at Jetfire, "Well, did you?"
"Not yet."
He gave a martyred sigh. "Then back up."
Thunder and lightning raced across the sky as Starscream traced over the script with his fingers before finding what he was looking for. He touched an inset glyph near the staircase and there was a loud rumble that mimicked the thunder and the pyramid started to shake. Cracks appeared in the ancient stonework and crumbling pieces started to fall off the top tiers. Jetfire lifted the young woman up off the disintegrating temple tiers and lifted his feet when the piece he stood on started to shift.
As the temple shook off the final remnants of the stone, a milky white pyramid-shaped crystal appeared. It seemed to be lit from the inside; an eerie white glow seeped out from the crystal, turning the falling rain a thin pale gray color. The strange glow played across the four mechs features giving them a hollow and haunted look and their armor a dead gray color. The builders of the temple had somehow built the temple around the massive semi-transparent white crystal and then covered the giant pyramid with a stone plaster that kept every detail of the pictograms and scripts. It was held in place and centered at the base with four statues of elaborately carved feathered birds, their beaks holding each of the pyramid's points. The two sets of blue optics were wide in fascination as they drank in the beauty of the crystal, while the blood red sets looked on with a knowing smirk.
Starscream pulled a data pad and a handheld sensor out of subspace and started to work, scanning and taking notes about the crystal. Jetfire watched the Seeker noting what drew his attention the most and using his own internal scanners to try and determine exactly what Starscream was the most interested in. The crystal was covered in glyphs: the pictographs, the Cybertronian script and the script that Jetfire's mentor had read from. The gentle scientist wondered if Starscream knew what it said, but he didn't ask.
There was one facet of the pyramid face that wasn't covered with the scripts. Instead, it depicted what looked to be a rather large and oddly shaped star-chart that connected multiple star systems. Jetfire got up and took a closer look at it, his optics following the angles that were mapped out and connecting the systems. There were 144 total and he could easily spot Earth's and Cybertron's systems on the chart plus a few others he had visited, but the way they were mapped out was peculiar. The artifact had transparent layers to it, but the star systems were mapped out on a flat plane, as if the author of the chart had purposely flattened space. The chart also had all 144 systems converge on one specific point in the absolute center. It seemed rather odd to Jetfire that the creator of the artifact went to so much trouble to cover the surface with layers of glyphs and pictograms and then distort the star chart. It was puzzling to say the least, but Jetfire didn't have the time to study every aspect in as much detail as he wanted to. He sent a message to Wheeljack and the others to record everything they could, especially the glyphs and pictograms. The recorded data would have to do for now.
Jetfire set Rachel down, "Please continue to scan the scripts, Rachel." She nodded and started to scan the pictograms on the tier at the base of the amazing crystal. He watched over her shoulder, pointing out certain symbols and peering into the tiny computer she was using. She would respond softly, following his directions and scanning what he would point out.
Starscream scowled to look over at the two; it was bad enough that Jetfire and the Autobots were there, but that the gentle scientist was enlisting the help of that femme was too much for the Seeker. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
Jetfire stood up and looked at Starscream with a faint smile, "Taking notes. It's been a long time since I was able to examine one of these artifacts up close."
Two sets of narrow red optics focused on the gentle scientist, "You didn't say you studied one."
The Veritech looked back and forth between the two annoyed Seekers. "You didn't ask, Starscream."
The Seeker growled and Jetfire went back to pointing things out to the young woman. Getting fed up, Starscream stomped over to them and leaned down to get a look at what Jetfire was instructing her to do. To her credit, the femme backed away from him and moved closer to Jetfire. The Seeker smirked, "Show me what you are doing."
She looked nervously up at the Air Commander and then up at Jetfire, who nodded to her. "It's okay, Rachel. Show him."
She turned the tiny screen towards Starscream and pointed to some of the carved pictograms that she had scanned. "Archaeologists… Human archaeologists have been able to decipher some of the glyphs used… So I was running a Boolean search to see if any of these matched…"
"And?" Starscream prompted her to get on with it.
She glared at the Seeker and pointed at the wall. "That series is about the horizon points that the temples line up with… That one means 'to bring'… This one means the pyramid… And that one represents the feathered serpent… And that one is a date…"
Starscream snorted loudly, "How very enlightening." He stood up and looked at Jetfire, but the gentle scientist was still looking at the pictograms.
Jetfire tilted his head to one side, "What points on the horizon do the temples line up with?"
Rachel typed something into the tiny computer, "It's a point that the sun sets on twice a year… Hmm, August 12 and April 29. Wait, that's…" She typed something else and then pointed to a glyph on the wall. "This one would be August 12 on a solar calendar, but it's a specific date, not a once a year date."
"Is it a dedication date for the completion of the temple? Many cultures do that and celebrate the date as a holy day."
"No, that's not it…" She read along the screen with her fingers for a minute. "Huh. Okay, the glyph for the feathered serpent? They marked the date feathered serpent arrived… And that it brought them a gift." She looked up at Jetfire. "August 12, 3114 BCE was when the feathered serpent brought them the crystal."
"So the temple was built one thousand years after the artifact was brought to Earth."
Lightning filled the sky with bright white lace before slamming into a nearby tree. The young woman yelped in fear and cowered against the Veritech's leg. Jetfire calmed her down and the red Seeker just snickered. The humans were useful for humor and it was slightly interesting that they had protected the artifact by building a temple for it.
A shaken Rachel held her wireless computer up and pointed to the screen. "Yeah, but here's the really strange thing. Nowadays, we use a calendar that counts up, but their calendar system counts down. Its call the 'long count calendar', and it's still counting down."
"What does it count down to?"
She turned the wireless computer around, "December 21, 2012." She looked up at Jetfire, "Didn't it mention something about the end of time in the script?"
"Yes. 'At the end of time, the greatest twelve must come together and fight, the keys lie within and the guide awaits those who seek, if they should fail the stars shall spin fast and the great eye of chaos will open and turn all lands into ash, the twelve must prevail over chaos.'"
"Well, according to this that will happen on December 21, 2012. But," She looked up into icy blue optics. "People world-wide have been going on for awhile about this 'doomsday calendar' of pre-Columbian civilizations and how the world will end in 2012. And if you add in all these odd new-age believers and you get a bunch of strange made up mysticism…junk."
Jetfire turned to look at the Seeker, "So the supposed end of the Earth is what you were wanting to find out? I find that slightly disappointing for all the trouble and arguing, yet I don't see how this relates to the Seekers at all."
Lightning forked through the sky, silhouetting Starscream so that only his blood red optics shone in the dark. "You wouldn't. I don't see why you are still here. Obviously your involvement has been a hassle and your troubles fruitless."
"Why don't you explain it to me then, Starscream. You never know, I might be able to help you." Jetfire's ever calm voice brushed quietly through the storm.
"You can't help us and we don't want your help, Jetfire." The Air Commander crossed his arms over his cockpit and glared. "Now that your curiosity has been sated, you and the rest of the Autobot can leave."
"Actually, my curiosity is just getting warmed up." The Veritech looked at Starscream as another bolt of lightning forked through the night sky. "Why is this so important to you and what are you carrying that emits the harmonic radiation signature?"
Skywarp's optics slid between the two mech as he opened the Seeker's comlink, "How does he know about the data pad?"
Starscream frowned at Jetfire as he answered Skywarp back. "He doesn't. He must have a scanner as well." The red Seeker tried to look as annoyed as possible and convey that annoyance in his glare to the Veritech. "What I carry is my business and I've already told you repeatedly that this is none of your concern. Now will you take the hint and your Autobot friends and clear out?"
The storm above roiled and threw a massive bolt of white-hot plasma down upon the giant crystal's apex. The electricity crackled along its surface as it traveled over glyphs on its way down to the base of the temple. There was some yelling and some of the group jumped clear of the pyramid as it arced, but Skywarp took a direct hit from one of the stray bolts directly to his chest. The black and purple Seeker was knocked clear off the temple and hit the soggy grass below with a dull thud. Before the rest of the bolt had diffused, Starscream was at his side and checking him over for damage.
"You glitching idiot. What did you do, stick your hand out to catch it? You and your fascination with the stupid lightning!"
Skywarp's optics fluttered opened, "That one was a little too intense." He sat up with a slight groan and he gave his wingmate a lopsided grin. "Aw, did I worry widdle 'Screamer? Nice to know you care."
Ratchet and the others had run over to where Skywarp had fallen when the red Seeker yanked his wingmate up onto his feet with a growl, "We'll come back later when there aren't so many meddling Autobots around."
"Are you all right?"
"He's fine and we're leaving." Starscream glared at Jetfire again. "Study the slagging thing if you must, but you won't find anything useful from it."
"You do realize that we will move it, Starscream."
The Air Commander snorted loudly, "I'm afraid you'll find that one of this size won't budge easily."
The two Seekers jumped into the air and circled over the top of the crystal pyramid before transforming. Skywarp looked at the Autobots, "Are you sure they can't move it?"
"Doesn't matter. I've scanned the entire top and I put a tracer on it. Anyways, it goes much deeper than what you can see, and even if they had every Autobot here on Earth trying to move it, it will be difficult to free from the base and get it back to their headquarters."
"Did we get anything good from it?"
Starscream sighed. He had hoped an artifact this big would have something useful on it. "No technology on this one, but it did have an odd star chart."
--
The Autobots stood in the rain and watched as the Seekers disappeared into the clouds.
Wheeljack's vocal processors flashed in curiosity, "Well, what do you make of that?"
Jetfire shook his head and looked at the giant crystal, realizing that moving it to a safer location was not a reasonable option at the moment. He turned to look at the others, "I'm not sure, but I do have more questions than I have answers."
--
Starscream cringed as he messed up the lab. Things that were not in neat and pristine order always grated on the Air Commander's nerves. He even regretted giving Skywarp directions on making the lab look like he had been working constantly. But with their running about after the radiation signals and building the new scanners the lab wasn't nearly as dirty as it should have looked if he had been working solely on Megatron.
"So you want me to give the place a 'lived in' look?" The black and purple Seeker smirked mischievously.
A martyred sigh escaped Starscream's lips, "Yes, but don't go overboard. Megatron won't believe that I've been in here and working if the place is a complete disaster."
Skywarp glanced around the lab casually, "So… what would you neurotically keep organized and what would you leave mucked up to fix later?"
The red Seeker pointed to the worktable with the metal and wire scraps from his recalibration of the scanners and then to the floor, "Start with those. You have a head start on dumping the slag on the floor, anyways."
"Too bad you sent TC out already," Skywarp took great pleasure in flicking the rest of the scraps about the room. "All we'd need is for him to boom once in here and it would send the stuff flying."
"It would also destroy the computers and all of the monitors, you glitchmouse."
"HEY!" A large piece of scrap metal hit the back of Starscream's helmet as his wingmate retaliated for the name-calling. The Air Commander stifled a chuckle and grinned as he dropped metal shavings on the floor.
Skywarp glared at his wingmate. "What are you so happy about, anyways? You're about to bring Megatron back online."
Starscream turned and looked at the black and purple Seeker, "Last few moments of freedom."
An optic ridge rose on the mischievous Seeker's face, "Why don't we just leave him offline?"
The Air Commander had asked himself that question over a million times while he worked on the warlord's injuries. He frowned; that nagging feeling that something was amiss wriggled its way into his head every time he'd convince himself that their 'glorious leader' should be sent to the scrap heap. And as much as he wanted to melt the bastard down, that stupid glitching feeling would rear its ugly head. No, he had to reactivate Megatron.
"I have to," Starscream shook his head. "Call it a Seeker hunch."
Skywarp muttered and mocked his wingmate, "Call it a hunch." He then 'casually' dropped a tool on the floor and 'accidentally' kicked it under the table. "Hey 'Screamer? How come your hunches didn't work on finding the data pad sooner or the other signals, huh?" His answer came swiftly and he yelped as he barely teleported away in time to avoid a blast from the null ray.
Starscream scowled at Skywarp and then at the blast pattern on the wall. That definitely gave the lab that 'lived in' feel. He sighed. "Inexperience, and leave it at that."
Another tool hit the floor and the red Seeker turned to glare at his wingmate. Purple hands went up into the air defensively even though the mischievous Seeker smirked. Starscream sighed and said tool went skittering across the floor somewhere while Skywarp looked at the ceiling nonchalantly.
"Let's just get this over with." Starscream pulled a stack of data pads out of subspace and set them on the nearest bench and out of the way of Skywarp's attention. He unhooked the cabling that kept the warlord on what amounted to mech life support and slowly brought him out of stasis lock. The two Seekers then genuflected and placed their right hands over their sparks, ready and waiting for Megatron to awaken.
Blood red optics flickered to life and Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, checked his internal chronometer, "Starscream." His malevolent voice made the temperature of the room drop dramatically. "Why have I been offline for so long?"
"Your wounds were far more complex than I had expected. It took…" The Air Commander cringed as he was forced to say it, "It took longer for me to repair your wounds as I am not familiar with non-Seeker anatomy."
Megatron arose and looked around the lab. There were old schematics on one monitor and numerous tools left haphazardly on one table. He narrowed his optics, "I see you didn't bother to keep up appearances."
The urge to mouth off at the warlord was so tempting, but Starscream bit his tongue and opted for a more gentile approach to Megatron. He gave a martyred sigh as stood up and gathered the data pads, holding the stack out to the warlord. "Energon stores are at triple capacity. Repairs to Nemesis were satisfactorily completed one Earth week ago. There has been little resistance from the Autobots since the battle, it seems they are not as interested in stopping our raids. And I have sent Thundercracker back to Cybertron with requisitions to Shockwave to obtain us a competent medical team and a new gestalt along with an extensive list to restock some of our depleted materials. Thundercracker took two thousand energon cubes with him and he is under orders to recruit the best of the War Academy to flesh out our ranks."
Megatron looked at the Seeker peculiarly. Starscream was up to something. As a precaution, the warlord ran a systems check against the 'repairs' Starscream reportedly did, but found nothing out of place. He took the data pads and threw a bone to the Air Commander, "You have done… well, Starscream."
--
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