Episode 5
Chapter 1
I stirred slightly in my sleep, not opening my optics. I felt cold. I reached out blindly for Optimus, but my fingers only came into contact with cold, long abandoned sheets.
I opened my optics and sat up, looking around tiredly. Optimus wasn't there. I got out of the bed. My head was throbbing painfully. I pilled a face and took off my helmet, rubbing the back of my head. I hated sleeping in that helmet. It was painful. I pulled out the clips that kept my long black hair tied up under the helmet, allowing it to fall down to my waist.
Now that I didn't have to worry about any severe headaches I left the room. The ship was silent and dark. Everyone was asleep.
I noticed a faint blue light through the crack of the door at the bottom of the stairs into the Main Control Room, which was ajar. I pushed it open nervously.
Optimus was sitting in the darkness, in front of one of the control panels, the blue light from the screen illuminating his face. He looked tired and stressed.
"Optimus?" I asked uncertainly.
He looked up and held a hand out to me. I went over and he pulled me onto his lap, pushing his mouth against mine in a kiss. I curled up on his lap, snuggling up to his chest.
"What are you doing?" I asked him curiously.
"Jazz and I have a mission to plan." Optimus sighed. "Sentinel thinks he's found a major Decepticon base. He wants us to check it out, see if it is what he thinks it is."
"Where is it?" I asked him, twisting around so I could see the screen, which was showing a birds-eye image of the place. It looked icy.
"Cybertron. Somewhere in Rogue territory. I don't know. Jazz wants to teleport right into the coordinates Sentinel provided, but I don't want to get that close without knowing what we're dealing with."
I tilted my head as I looked at the screen.
"Bad idea to get too close to that." I commented.
"Why?"
"I know that place. It's a deathtrap. That's probably why no one's noticed the Decepticons – no one dares go there."
Optimus was nodding.
"Have you been there?"
I glanced at him.
"Optimus, it's a deathtrap." I repeated. "So, yeah. I've been there a lot."
I felt Optimus shift uncomfortably beneath me.
"That's what I was afraid of." He was silent for a moment, like there was something he had to say, but was reluctant to say it. "Would you be able to guide us through safely?" he asked finally, sighing.
"Yes."
Optimus hesitated again.
"Will you?"
I frowned. I could see how much reluctance there was in that question. One of Sentinel's favourite rules was that the mission always comes first. Optimus loves me, and I could tell from the way he acted when he was around me, and the way he held me so protectively, he wanted to keep me safe. That protectiveness, and his longing to keep me safe, was warring with his need to make a success of this mission, and being a good leader. He needed to keep everyone safe, not just me. If that meant taking me to what could be the most dangerous place on Cybertron, it was a risk he had no choice but to take. If we were able to take out this base, it could give us a huge advantage in this war, maybe granting us a full defeat of the Decepticons. To do that, Optimus and Jazz would have to be able to get to the base in the first place. If they died on the way there, we had no chance.
I didn't have the longing to keep myself alive that Optimus seemed to have.
"Yeah, sure." I made my tone bored, wondering how he would react. He gave me an irritated look, seeing right through it.
In truth I was excited. Optimus wanted me to be around him. He trusted me. He respected my abilities enough to know I would be of help on this mission. This really important mission.
Well, he clearly saw that I had some abilities.
I didn't.
"You cannot be serious." Jazz glared at Optimus, choosing to just ignore me completely. Okay. I was fine with that. "There is no way I'm going on this mission if she's coming with us as well."
The other Autobots were watching the argument uncertainly, clearly not sure what to do.
"Jazz, you volunteered for this mission." Optimus reminded the smaller Autobot. "So you clearly want to go."
"Yes." Jazz replied, "I do want to go. So, since I'm going, she's not."
"Clara can get us through safely." Optimus told him, "We have no idea what we're up against otherwise."
Jazz fell silent for a few minutes, weighing the advantages of going, against the disadvantages of having me there as well. After a few minutes he growled and stalked off, which was a clear sign that he hadn't been able to come up with a good argument to counter Optimus.
When everyone was gone Optimus pulled me into his arms.
"Sorry about that." He told me.
"It's all right. It's not your fault."
"I really don't understand why Jazz has taken such an aversion to you."
I shrugged slightly in his arms.
"I'll try talking to him later." I suggested.
I felt Optimus tilt his head.
"Um ... yeah, be careful with that."
At that moment we heard Ironhide coming back downstairs.
"Let me know if you need anything." I told Optimus. He gave me an amused look as I pulled away from him and went over to the stairs, darting past Ironhide as he opened the door.
Jazz was in his room when I got there. I knocked on the door uncertainly.
"Who is it?" he called from inside, his voice muffled by the wall between us. From his surprised tone I guess he didn't get visitors very often.
"It's me." I called back.
"What do you want, Clara?"
He was curious, despite himself.
"I just want to talk." I replied, "Can I come in please?"
There was a moment's silence as Jazz considered it, then the door opened.
He didn't even wait for me to say anything.
"Look, if this is about you coming on the mission with Optimus and me then you can just fuck off."
I blinked, and I could feel my anger rising. That was just uncalled for. It had been Optimus' decision to bring me on the mission, and I didn't feel I deserved to be on the receiving end of Jazz's attack.
"Well, I'm sorry, Jazz, if I'm not quite the perfect warrior for you to work with. It's Optimus' orders. Deal with it."
I have no idea where that came from, and I was shocked. I wasn't a violent person. If someone attacked me, I would just lay back and let them get on with it. I'd never actually attacked them back. Except when I argued with my dad and Kaitlynn, but that was different.
Jazz seemed to be just as shocked as I was. At least, he didn't know what to say in response. He just sat there, staring at me, his optics full of anger. But that anger was starting to recede.
"Look, Jazz." I sat down in a chair opposite him, watching his reactions carefully. Before my dad had decided I was a maniac, I had been the Rogue first lieutenant. I'd had to learn how to judge how other Cybertronians were reacting to things my father or I said. Of course, that had been about trading territories and business deals, but it still worked for things like this. "What have I done to make you hate me so?"
Jazz glanced up at me and tilted his head, thinking about the question.
"Well, I just really don't like Rogues." He said after a minute, shrugging.
I frowned.
"Is that all?" I asked him, shocked. "You're discriminating against my race?"
"No." Jazz said finally. "Ironhide would kill me if that was the case. He doesn't like that."
"So what is it?" I asked. I was curious now.
Jazz thought again, then shrugged.
"I don't know how to put it."
"Well how would you describe it?"
"It's like, a natural reaction. I just don't like ... you."
"Well, what's wrong with me?" I was a little hurt by that.
Jazz blinked and looked at me.
"I think it's just how everyone else seems to like you so much. You've only been an Autobot for just over a month and you're first lieutenant and everything. Optimus seems to be playing favourites."
It was my turn to blink. I hadn't really thought about it like that. I'd been too caught up with Annalease's death and feeling miserable, I hadn't really thought about how hard it would be for the other Autobots, some of whom had probably been working for years to advance through the ranks. They'd be wondering why I was so special that I got through so quickly, why they'd gone to all the bother. I didn't feel special.
"You're suddenly quiet." Jazz commented suddenly, jerking me out of my thoughts.
"I didn't ask for any of this." I said quietly. "I don't want to be hated." Jazz hesitated as I looked up at him. "I'm sorry for everything. Please can we start again?"
Jazz frowned.
"Yeah, I guess so." He replied, "I'm sorry too. I didn't have to treat you like that. I could've got my point across easily without it. I guess I just got carried away."
I smiled lightly, glad that we didn't have to be rivals anymore. I hadn't even told Optimus my worst fear, but having Jazz on my side now made that fear seem just that little bit further away.
I went around to see the other Autobots in their rooms before I went back downstairs to see Optimus again. It only occurred to me then that I had never even gone to the bother of talking to Sideswipe or Bumblebee or Roxy at all since I had met them. It was nice to start trying to get to know them a little bit. I think Optimus was just relieved that I had got away from Jazz unharmed.
Since there was preparing to be done on both ends for this mission, I gave Optimus and Jazz the coordinates for the information centre just outside the plains we would be travelling through, and then went to the centre myself. I had to sort out any problems with the time difference between the two planets, and make sure there weren't any huge storms coming our way. We were lucky. The next really big storm was a couple of months away.
Anyway.
I'd been there for a couple of days when Optimus and Jazz finally got there. And they brought some unexpected friends with them.
"CLARA!" Andi yelled as she ran into the room, closely followed by Alex and Gracee. "We didn't know you'd woken up!"
I frowned at the sight of them. A couple of members of staff were giving them funny looks. I couldn't blame them. Our race had never had anything to do with a race as small and peculiar looking as humans before.
"What are you doing here?" I asked them; angry that I hadn't even been told they were coming. Surely Optimus or Jazz could've at least given me the heads up.
"Thank you for that very nice 'hello', Clara." Andi said sweetly. Maybe those kinds of tactics worked with her parents, but they certainly didn't work with me.
"Don't even try it." I told her.
"I wanted to bring them." Jazz told me with a shrug. "Sorry I didn't tell you first. It's no big deal."
"Send them home, Jazz." I told him, sitting down on one of the tables.
"What? Why?"
"Send them home, or they'll end up dead."
"Is that a threat?"
"No, it's a fact."
"It's still a threat."
"No it's not. I'm not gonna hurt them, but if they come with us the environment will kill them off before they even take a couple of steps out of this building."
Jazz blinked. The human sparklings were looking uneasy.
"Are you sure they don't stand a chance?" Jazz asked quietly.
In response I glanced at one of the members of staff, who was standing behind me.
"I'm no expert on this place, Jazz, but..."
The femme took the hint and knelt down a little way from the sparklings, just as Optimus came in. He tilted his head as the three sparklings went over to her, allowing her to look at them, prodding and poking.
"There's no time to run full scans." The femme said, "So I can't give you any accurate answers." She glanced at me questioningly. I shook my head slightly, and she nodded.
"As an approximate guess, I'd say they'd last a couple of days out there. Maybe a week if they wrap up warmly enough."
She nodded to the three of us respectfully and retreated, going back to join her colleagues.
"So are they coming, or not?" Jazz asked me. He was angry, so he was starting to get snappish.
I sighed.
"All right, they can come."
"I don't think this mission will be over in less than a week." Optimus muttered to me.
"A couple of days out there, a couple of days back." I replied. "There are shelters out there. It's not safe to go out at night."
"What about the storms during the day?" The femme asked me.
I tilted my head while I thought about it.
"Cybertronians are safe from the storms so long as they stick to about half a mile away. With the sparklings I'd stay two miles, just to be safe. Speaking of which." I turned to the staff members. "Can I download the Storm Detectors from the computer to this?" I held out a small screen for them to see.
One of the males snorted.
"Clara, the Storm Detectors are seriously advanced technology. You can't download them onto those little home made devices of yours."
"If it was possible, would you let me?"
"Well, yes."
"Thank you."
"But I don't see how you could do it."
I pressed a couple of buttons on the screen, angling it towards the computers.
"Just like that."
The femme that had helped us out frowned as she looked at the computer screen.
"How did you do that?" she asked me.
I shrugged, bringing up the Storm Detector on the small screen in my hand.
"I can do it, I can never explain how I did it afterwards."
At that moment another member of staff came through from another room of the centre.
"If you're going to leave, this is the best time you're going to get. You don't want to get caught up in one of those storms."
Optimus nodded.
"Is everything prepared?" he asked me.
"Apart from the Storm Detectors and the time difference and maps and stuff like that there was really nothing to prepare." I replied as I followed him out of the room, Jazz following with the sparklings. "We're walking."
"What was that back there?" Jazz asked me curiously.
"That was nothing." I replied.
"What, you're some sort of technical ... genius ... and you think it's nothing?"
I smiled slightly.
"I wouldn't call myself a technical genius, Jazz."
"Do you usually do stuff like that?"
"I'm a mechanic. My whole life revolves around stuff like that."
Jazz nodded, impressed.
"So is that sort of stuff you've just done like, advanced to you?"
I gave him an insulted look.
"You think that was advanced? You should see my room back home."
"Can I?"
"Maybe later."
"How much later?"
"Depends on what happens. How things play out."
"All right, Clara," Optimus called suddenly from in front of us, where he was waiting by the exit. "Which way?"
I went over to him, looking out. It was just as I remembered it, which wasn't surprising since it never changes.
Just the white ground, until it reached the white sky. You couldn't even tell where the ground ended and the sky began. It was a navigator's worst nightmare.
I looked down at the screen in my hand, and then nodded in the direction we should be going in.
"That way." I told him. "Follow me."