Duty and Deceit
Chapter 2
Acting
An orn had come and gone, but Skyquake still hadn't found a post for her. She had practically failed his examination; she was raised a neutral, she hadn't been taught to be a Decepticon.
Skyquake tried to put her in the med-bay, she annoyed the medics and had little to no interest in becoming one herself: after all, what vengeance could a doctor bring on the Autobots? After that he tried her in mining, but she wasn't big enough to effectively use the equipment. Scouting and the front lines were both out, Skyquake had told her that she was both too small -to which she had objected greatly- and she didn't have the military training or necessary skills.
Finally, she got assigned to Soundwave's department: Communications and Intel. Soundwave was kind of creepy, but once she adjusted to his silent type of communication, the little femme found herself enjoying her job.
Bothered by Skyquake's obvious lack of confidence in her strength and combat skills, she had decided to give the big mech a visit. He was most likely right; her creators didn't teach her much past emergency self-defense. Maybe she'd be able to change that with a little help. Besides that, she was a bit lonely, though she'd never admit it.
Drones didn't make for good company.
Optimus Prime's voice echoed in Terabyte's mind as she walked the empty corridors leading to the brig, Soundwave's last order before her dismissal.
"… Become an Autobot."
"Sir... I have had very little experience with the Autobots. I have seen their destruction, the lifeless chassis of mechs they've slaughtered. I doubt that acting on what I know of the Autobots would encourage their trust." Terabyte had replied, her tone tinged with bitterness.
"The Autobots can help you. We believe in peace for all..." He was still using the Prime's voice.
Repressing a derisive snort, Terabyte had nodded and left after Soundwave dismissed her. She took her usual shift, organizing various files, scanning the human's news channels for anything that would help in finding the Autobot base, and making sure the drones were all following orders and ship's systems were running at optimum efficiency.
Now the moment that she had been dreading throughout the rotation. Terabyte stood at the door to the brig with her repair kit and the prisoner's rations safely stored in subspace. She stared at the door for nearly a breem.
Shaking her helm, the two-wheeler opened the door. Orders were orders. Orders must be followed or the system would collapse and the cause would fail. If the cause failed, then Cybertron would have been destroyed for nothing.
"You come to kill me now that I'm all fixed again? 'Cause I was fine with just being fixed and fed, y'know?" Cliffjumper asked, tone buoyant and carefree as usual.
"I'm not here to kill you." Terabyte said flatly. She put down the field and walked in, Energon extended. "Look... How long 'till your team comes in after you?"
Cliffjumper took the offered energon, drinking it slowly, savoring the taste. He didn't seem to have even noticed her question.
She sat down on the berth, keeping the distance between them obviously distant, yet close enough to be considered hesitant friendliness.
"I'm not here to kill you," she repeated more softly. "I'm not here to interrogate or torture you either. I just wanted to know."
"Why? What's a stinking 'Con care if my friends send a rescue?" He glared at the small, black and Prussian blue two-wheeler. The carefree tone was instantly replaced with seriousness.
'There's nothing wrong with how I smell!' Terabyte thought defensively. Out loud she said, voice lowered so that he would hear, but suspect that she hadn't meant him to, "Maybe this 'stinking 'Con' is sick of being bad..."
Terabyte turned her back to him slightly with her helm tilted down to enhance the effect of having been hurt by his distrust.
The urge to gag was almost overpowering. Did the Autobots really expect their femmes to act this weak all the time? Apparently, according both to Soundwave's intel. and Cliffjumper's reaction.
The mech looked extremely unsure of what to do. From the corner of her optic she could see him repeatedly raise his hand as if to comfort her before awkwardly dropping it back down.
'Okay... Enough is enough. A line has to be drawn somewhere. I don't want to overplay my part and get stuck with it. No comforting. Time to lay off on the weak femme performance for a bit.' Straightening, and giving herself a small shake, she turned back towards him, helm held high again.
"So. Do you know when they'll come for you?"
"I don't know exactly, but knowing Arcee, they should be here anytime now. After all, they're probably getting pounded without me around."
"Excellent. That gives me a little time to finish the last of your repairs." Terabyte figured it was best to let him judge just what she was saying 'excellent' to.
With that, she pulled her med-kit out of subspace and ran a quick scan over him. Cosmetic damage was all that was left. She vented a deep gust of cool air through her systems. Cosmetic it may be, there sure was a lot of work to do. Terabyte thought wistfully about the last time she recharged properly. Must have been several rotations by now, though she couldn't remember exactly. She'd missed her last refuel too.
As soon as she finished Terabyte made her way to her quarters. Getting recharge took priority over fuel levels. Especially if the Autobot's rescue was going to be happening soon, she needed to be ready and fully alert.
Terabyte paused in the corridor, her room just around the corner. She laid her small, delicate looking hand on the door she'd stopped in front of. The room behind that door was empty and had never been lived in, she knew, but she also knew whose quarters they were meant to be.
The huge jet was supposed to be stationed on this dirt-ball, but Terabyte knew that he was likely in stasis, and even if he weren't, Skyquake would never leave his post unless so ordered by Megatron himself. She sure could use a friend right about now though.
"You don't have time to get sentimental, Terabyte. Go get some recharge, you need it." She scolded herself quietly. Shooting one last glance at his door, Terabyte moved on to her own quarters. She was asleep the moment her helm hit the berth, the soft golden yellow glow of her proto-lights illuminating the dark room.
About five joors into her shift, Terabyte noticed something on one of her passive deep-space scans. Curiosity making her forget about the report she was typing up, she examined the scan results thoroughly. The computer had concluded that while there appeared to be a faint transmission, it was highly probable that it was simply space static interfering with the systems.
Just to be on the safe side - the small femme rarely paid attention to the computer's analyses anyway – Terabyte spent another joor clarifying the transmission and cross-referencing the particular frequency with the Nemesis' records.
Shock rolled over her and she simply stared disbelievingly at her discovery for several klicks. As soon as she snapped out of her state of stupor, she opened a comm. link with Soundwave, sending an urgent ping through as standard procedure.
/?/ Soundwave's response appeared on her HUD almost instantly.
/Sir, I believe you might wish to see this personally. I detected a minor disturbance in the deep-space scans you had me run. Upon further examination, it was determined to be a transmission. I have cleared out most of the interference, enough to get an unclear voice pattern. I've already cross-referenced it with our records; it is from Lord Megatron./ Terabyte reported, her tone not quite hiding her pride, not to mention amazement, at her finding.
Far sooner than she'd expected, Soundwave stormed into the communications lab radiating almost... excitement? He was at her terminal in nanoseconds, shoving her aside in the process.
Terabyte stumbled several steps backward from the sheer strength of the mech, then a couple more in a failed attempt to regain her balance before falling hard on her aft.
"Thanks a lot. So glad I could help, sir. Your appreciation is duly noted." She muttered sarcastically, carefully keeping her voice all but inaudible to those present.
"Excellent." The single word played back in a record of her own voice, serving to remind her that Soundwave saw and heard all. Terabyte gave a miniscule nod. It was a good thing; her commander was keeping track of her mission. She tried to ignore the part of her processor that wondered just how many other 'secrets' Soundwave knew.
Just as quickly as he had come, the purple head of communications was gone. Terabyte stood up and returned to her console. If she was required further, she would be informed. Terabyte did however finish clearing up the transmission for organization's sake.
Not very long after Soundwave's departure, an order was issued ship-wide. All personnel were to report to the ship's throne room in two breems. Anyone not present would be severely punished. Ordered by the Great Leader of the Decepticons himself.
Terabyte froze momentarily before rushing out the door, transforming into her Cybertronian alt-mode, and speeding down the now-flooded corridors. For once, her size gave her a significant advantage and she was able to slip between and around the other 'Cons with relative ease. In just over a breem, Terabyte had reached the doors to the throne room.
The throne room was not used all that often, generally the bridge was used. However, with Megatron coming back, the circumstances had apparently been deemed worthy of its use. Already the area – seeing as it was an unenclosed space on what could be called the roof of the Nemesis, the word 'room' hardly fit- was filled with the troops.
Some had hurried out of excitement for the cause and the return of their true leader, but most had simply come out of fear of punishment, as was evident in their postures and expressions, not to mention the loud murmurings and whispers.
The sound of the space bridge being powered up in front of them brought silence to everyone present. The portal opened, the greenish blue lights swirling majestically within the metal ring. All eyes watched it, waiting for whatever would come through.
Terabyte watched as a narrow bridge, somewhat resembling a human ship's plank, was extended outward towards the portal's opening. A figure appeared, walking slowly forward from the heart of the portal. As the figure neared, the mech's features became sharper and more distinguished, silver armor flashing in the light.
Before Megatron spoke, Terabyte noticed that he had brought a huge chunk of some strange purple crystal with him. The crystal glowed ominously, something about it bothered her, but she couldn't place exactly what. As she peered at it more closely, the Decepticon leader's voice boomed, almost seeming to come from everywhere around her, unfortunately distracting her from the scan she was about to perform on the mysterious crystal.
"Decepticons! I have returned!"
'Obviously.' Terabyte thought, 'It's not like the whole army just rushed up here to witness your grand arrival.'
The Nemesis shook as it descended to hover over the mountain chasm that the largest energon deposit yet discovered was situated in. Terabyte watched as the miners went about their work, cutting and transporting the raw energon crystals to the refinery. She straightened and, venting a draft of cool air through her systems, steeled herself to approach Megatron and the Air Commander, who at the moment seemed to be boasting his progress.
Terabyte glanced at the restrained Autobot at her side. He was looking around the chasm, watching as she had been just recently, the mining drones' work. The mech whistled long and low.
"Impressive. Can't believe we didn't detect this. The 'Cons have hit the jackpot!"
"Shh!" Terabyte hissed, "I can't help your friends get you out of here if you don't shut up! Lot of good you'll do them if you get yourself offlined before they show up. You're supposed to be a subdued captive, remember?"
Now close enough to pick up what Megatron and Starscream were saying, Terabyte listened carefully, standing at a respectful distance, choosing to wait for her presence to be noticed rather than interrupting the Lord Protector's conversation.
"…army you have surely gathered during your three years in space?" Starscream was saying his voice filled with sarcasm and mock respect. Terabyte wondered why Megatron had allowed the whiny, power-hungry fool to remain second in command for so long. She could think of no logical reason; Starscream was more trouble than he'd ever be worth.
"My army will come, but my time away has yielded a more… intriguing… means of materializing them. The solid form of the matter the ancient texts refer to as," Megatron paused as if for the dramatic effect, "the Blood of Unicron."
Terabyte stifled a gasp, her processor running through everything she knew of the substance. Many believed the crystal to have dark, possibly magical, powers. Powers that were never meant to be used. The Dark Energon as it was often also called had been used long ago to poison the core of Cybertron, until the Prime - Orion Pax at the time - purged it. The substance also was known to have countless negative side-effects to anything infected by it.
"Unicron the destroyer? But it is said that his blood is the anti-spark." Starscream's voice held a small amount of genuine concern.
"Plucked from cosmic shores, gaze upon Dark Energon." The Lord Protector murmured.
"Legend tells that it has the power to revive the dead."
She stared at the crystal. The amount of power that it would give the Decepticons was astonishing. Her optics sharpened eagerly. It could end the war!
"No..." Cliffjumper seemed to have come to a similar conclusion. His cocky stance had faded entirely.
At the sound of his voice, Megatron turned his gaze to Terabyte and the restrained Autobot beside her. Terabyte stiffened, saluting the warlord automatically.
"What is the meaning of this?" He demanded.
"My lord. Commander Soundwave suggested that I bring this Autobot's existence to your knowledge, sir." She paused, glancing at Megatron warily. When he remained silent and made no move against her she continued. "I also came to inform you that he will give you a detailed report at 1430."
"For what purpose have you brought your prisoner here?" He sounded slightly suspicious.
Terabyte swallowed nervously. The warlord did not yet know of her mission, that was the purpose of the briefing in a breem. "Um… Sir, with all due respect to your Lordship, it is 1420 now. I assure you, my lord, I will be sure to include that information in my daily report."
"Very well. Your actions will, however, be closely monitored until then."
With the subtle threat hanging in the air, he turned away to examine the rest of the mine, Starscream at his heels.