Hello! :) It's been a while... and will be, as the exams are coming near, we are full of tests and they have a negative effect on my muse. And I decided to split this chapter in two, it proved to be too long. This is the first part, the other I will post in 2-3 days. Or later... depends on the amount of study. I thank you for your patience and thank you to those who are supporting this story! :) You all make me really happy! And sorry for my English... as always.
IV.
Starscream sighed deeply and relaxed into his friend's touch. His temperature had gone lower a bit now that they finally stopped for a good night's rest, enough for him to feel like he could go into a peaceful recharge. Especially after a massage like this.
"It was really clever of you to bring along this stuff." the Seeker said and earned a chuckle from the space shuttle.
"Better safe than sorry." Skyfire replied, "Remember that planet Virida? That had metal-oxidizing microbes, so I thought they could have evolved elsewhere, too."
"True. We have counted twenty species that oxidize either iron or manganese here. Do you think there could be more?"
Skyfire hummed and put an arm around Starscream's front, absently pulling him closer to himself. The Seeker's wings trembled a little upon contact with the other's strong frame and he could almost feel Skyfire's chest vibrate with the sound of his voice when he answered, "It is quite possible. This planet's biosphere has already proven to be very diverse. It's a living miracle. Who would've thought carbon-based organics could come in so many forms?"
Starscream looked up from his chest to see the shuttle's sparkling blue optics and smiled, "It fascinates you, doesn't it?"
"Definitely." Skyfire laughed softly, the Vosian cant floated from his lips like melodies of a song, "It's a pity we have to go back to Cybertron tomorrow. I'd like to return to this planet. I want the two of us to be the first to map and describe it."
Starscream smirked, "This is our planet now. We were the first here, and there's no intelligent life form. We have claimed this world and we'll make it our colony. We just have to make sure these bacteria won't harm us."
Skyfire turned to the west to watch the goldening sunset. The last rays of the Sun reflected off his white plates and made him look regal and mighty like a heavenly fire god. It made Starscream shiver in happiness that this divine power was his, his protection, his anchor, his intended and he pressed himself even closer to the massive frame.
"That will be our next project after exploring this planet fully. Describing bacteria that could harm us." Skyfire smiled and moved his big fingers down the glass of Starscream's cockpit, "Though these microbes seem harmless. This solution will protect us."
The Seeker smiled a little, his olfactory sensors could still pick up its scent on Skyfire's frame. After he was done with him, Skyfire helped him apply it to himself on places he couldn't reach, that resulted in the massage that helped Starscream finally relax under the blossoming tree they chose as a resting place.
Skyfire sighed and looked down at his friend, "I think we should recharge. We've got a trip to the north pole next cycle before we have to leave to Cybertron."
Starscream sat up and turned around. He wore a cheeky smile on his faceplate and pushed his hand to Skyfire's chest, trailing his fingers down to his waist and watched how it made the space shuttle shiver and his optics dim.
"We have plenty of time until morning." he purred, "No one will see or hear us. Everything is ours here."
Skyfire smiled down at his young partner and cupped his beautiful dark face in his large hands, gently pulling him to a kiss. He laid the smaller flier down on the ground and continued kissing him, he felt Starscream smile against his lips and heard him whisper one last word before bliss enveloped them like night the sunlight,
"Ours."
"Aww, isn't he cute when he makes those little whimpers?"
"Skywarp..." he heard a deep voice from his other side and its owner sighed tiredly, "we should wake him."
"Don't, TC!" it was his other trinemate, now he recognised that voice, "He's just about to overload, it must be such a nice dream."
Overload?... WHAT?!
Starscream's optics snapped online and the masked faces of his trinemates materialized in front of him. He already saw that Skywarp was grinning like crazy while Thundercracker looked both apologetic and relieved to finally see him awake. Starscream sat bolt upright before all his systems could have rebooted properly; the room started spinning wildly and his tank lurched, he retched before he could stop himself.
"No, not you, too!" he heard an irritated Hook and a bucket was shoved in his lap. Starscream clasped a hand over his mouth, but fortunately, the moment was over soon and he took deep vents to steady his systems. His cooling fans were whirring erratically and he just became aware of the burning sensation, the pain that throbbed in his entire frame.
A flux. It was just a memory flux...
Starscream looked around the repair bay. He saw Soundwave was already there with Rumble, he sat on the berth with his cassette curled up in his lap. The mini-mech was awake and sipping slowly from a small cube of low-grade, but what terrified Starscream was a huge spot that almost covered Rumble's entire left side on his waist; it was whitish or transparent with a defined line, its center was already a light brown and darkening to the outside. He was using his left arm and Starscream could only imagine what his right arm, where he found the first sign of rust on him, must have looked like.
He turned to the other side where Astrotrain and Megatron lay. Scavenger was kneeling next to Astrotrain's berth and was cleaning up energon the triple-changer must have purged; the big Decepticon looked both embarrassed and dazed with fever, Scrapper was standing on his other side, trying to lower his temperature with ice packs, he had already inserted an IV into his medical port. The rust-like substance seemed to have grown on him, too, but before Starscream could have studied him further, a hacking cough tore his attention to Megatron.
For a moment, it sounded like the Gunformer was choking, but it soon came to an end and left the leader gasping for air. Starscream was sure the infection reached his vents and was turning his filters to rust slowly and painfully.
After seeing all this and feeling all the heat and pain in his own body, Starscream didn't even dare look down upon himself.
"W-What happened...?" Starscream asked after a while, wincing at how sore his vocals felt, "How did you get here?"
Skywarp immediately replied, "You know, we walked down here, got these overall-things on us and came in to stand guard next to your berth while you were sunk in your nasty little fantasy world."
"Skywarp!" Thundercracker snapped at him, shutting up his purple trinemate.
"Thank you." Starscream whispered and buried his face in his palm, "I mean, why are you here? You have duties."
"We wanted to see you." Thundercracker replied, his voice was unusually quiet, "How are you?"
Starscream sighed, "I'm just... tired." he lied. He hardly had any recharge all night cycle and he felt like the Cassetticon twins were pounding on his head with their piledrivers. It was just now, in the morning that he dared leave Rumble's side long enough to fall into a much needed recharge.
He remembered that night with Skyfire and wished with all his spark that he hadn't. That was the last night they spent together, the next day they visited the Arctic to get a sample from those cryophilic snow algae that could grow even in cold like that - it was then that the storm separated them, buried Skyfire in ice so deep that no one could find him for millions of years. The Seeker didn't want to relive that and yet...
They wanted to describe all these bacteria that could cause potential harm to Cybertronians, after they finished mapping the Earth. That was to be their next big project, after all, one of their favourite specialties were organic microbes. Skyfire always said how much the Science Academy would approve, the credit would have been theirs for all the discoveries and reports and even the medics could have used them to work on solutions for infections. But all was forgotten in Starscream's frantic search for his partner, his best friend and intended bondmate, in his devastation upon Skyfire's loss and then the first outbreaks of the rebellion - Megatron's offer and his acceptance to leave science to be a Decepticon soldier.
Yet, the flux must have been triggered by something. That solution they used to prevent infection from those Terrestrial iron bacteria... what was it...?
The microbes!
"What time is it?!" he exclaimed, not even bothering to check his own chronometer.
"One joor until mid-day." Thundercracker answered him.
"You overslept, Screamer." Skywarp added, and at that moment, Rumble spoke up for the first time in a raspy, tired voice,
"Because he was helpin' me all night while I puked my guts out."
Soundwave winced under his mask at the crude human words, but he glanced up in surprise at the second-in-command. He would've never thought the Seeker still remembered his promise, or that he'd be willing to help the cassette when he himself was getting worse, too. Their gazes met with Starscream and Soundwave nodded to him in thanks, pulling his tremblings creation closer to himself.
Starscream meanwhile climbed down from the berth and gritted his dentas when sharp pain shot up from his leg. That was when he looked down on himself; the brown spot on his thigh grew significantly and there was one on his abdominal plating and one more on his right shoulder. He pressed his lips thightly together and shut his optics when he felt coolant gather in them.
"Star..." Thundercracker put a hand on his wing, meant to calm him down, but it sent another wave of pain through his sensory net.
"I must check on the cultures." Starscream waved him off and started limping towards his little personal lab. His pelvic joint squeaked and burnt, for the moment the Seeker felt like his leg would give out under him, but still no one could stop him.
Starscream picked up the dishes from the incubator. Two of them, the ones he filled with elements of their metals were almost full, while the two he made for standard terrestrial iron bacteria had hardly any cultures.
"They're not like the ones we studied with Skyfire." he murmured, knowing that his trinemates followed him, "These only thrive on our metals. On living metal."
"Starscream, please, refuel first. You're shaking."
The air commander ignored the blue Seeker and downloaded the records from the cameras of the incubator. Even those he put in heat survived and thrived. No cold nor warmth killed them. Neither did radiation or lack of air - though it seemed they grew quicker now that they were in an oxygen-rich atmosphere.
"There sure is a way to eliminate them." Starscream mumbled to himself, "They are organic in nature. I'll start sequencing their genome."
"But, Screamer-"
"It won't take long!" Starscream snapped, "We wrote a program for this with Skyfire, I just have to install it on the computer. Everything will be ready in less than two joors."
He sat down to work on the computer; he finished the program in a few klicks and he set it to work immediately. He felt someone push an ice pack to the back of his neck and Starscream sighed. It was a welcome relief from the fever and he leant back to the touch. He saw Thundercracker above him and sent a small, grateful smile to his wingmate.
"Could you clean these out, please?" the red Seeker gave his elder trinemate the two almost empty dishes and he prepared new ones to make plates.
"You want to grow more?" Skywarp asked, surprised.
"Of course." Starscream took a deep vent, "I need to find out what kills them and I need more than one sample for that."
Megatron's painful cough interrupted them and Starscream felt his spark quiver. The Gunformer didn't sound this bad during the night, though he didn't pay much attention then - still, every cough sent shivers down Starscream's backstrut. Skywarp caressed the tip of his wing to soothe him and the trine leader took a wavering breath.
"Your flux..." he heard the younger Seeker and looked up at Skywarp, "Was it about him?"
He didn't have to say who. Starscream nodded slowly, "About... our last night."
He shook his head as Thundercracker returned and took his place by his right wing, "We used a solution... to prevent infection from native microbes. Something that killed them off, but did not harm us."
Thundercracker put his hand on Starscream's wing, making the air commander wince again, "Some kind of alcohol or peroxide?"
"I thought about that." Starscream murmured, he was taking deep vents that sent tiny tremors through his frame, "But those would corrode us further... not to mention our protoformal systems. And these microbes... they adapt too quickly..."
Adaption...
"Starscream," Hook came up behind them with a cube of energon in his hand, "you need to refuel. Don't you feel sick?"
Starscream shook his head, still deep in thought and took the cube from the Constructicon. "Come back to your berth," Hook continued, "we need to lower your temperature. I'll give you painkiller."
The Seeker let himself be escorted back to his berth, all the while sipping slowly from the low-grade, he grimaced at the taste. The computer was working and he'd be further along once he knew what made up those microbes and he would start applying chemicals to see what could kill them off - he wanted to try to remake the solution they used with Skyfire. Starscream was sure this flux was some kind of message, if only he remembered what exactly made up that solution...
But just Skyfire knew that... and the knowledge was lost with him...
However...
Starscream hissed when Hook injected the nanites into his medical port on his arm. Thundercracker and Skywarp still stood by his sides and Starscream reached out his hands to them. Each took a hand and the air commander let himself be comforted by their touches and the reassurance they sent through the trine bond. They wouldn't leave him alone, and Starscream relaxed a bit.
"You have to go now." he said, though he was a bit reluctant to let go of their hands, "Report back to me in the evening, and... don't worry. I'll be alright here."
"Can't we stay a little longer?" Skywarp whined.
"No." Hook shook his head, "Blitzwing has already been waiting for half a joor now to come in to Astrotrain. Go now."
"And don't you teleport!" Starscream turned to the purple Seeker, releasing his hand, "Wash down thoroughly after you left. Thundercracker, you know you are in charge of the Seekers while I'm ill."
Thundercracker, his Right Wing just nodded, raised Starscream's hand to his face and grabbed Skywarp's arm to leave the repair bay. Starscream got up from the berth, ignoring the dizzy spell that overtook his processor for a moment and walked over to Rumble and Soundwave, sitting down. He put a hand on the Cassetticon's back now out of habit.
"Is everything alright in the Base?" the air commander asked Soundwave and the tape decker nodded.
"Affirmative. Thank you... for taking care of Rumble."
Starscream nodded, "Who's at the monitors now?"
"Frenzy. I sent a troop to forage for energon, arrival approximately in one joor." Soundwave stopped for a moment before he continued, "Frenzy requested a visit to see Rumble."
"Of course." Starscream shrugged, "He can come whenever he wants. Just make sure someone is always at the monitors." he took a deep vent, "The computers are working on sequencing the microbes' genome. Once I see that, I'll be able to come up with something that can destroy their essential genes and can be applied to us. Unless other methods fail... I won't give up, Soundwave."
The stoic mech just starred at him for a while before he spoke, "Starscream... your condition is deteriorating. Assistance is recommended-"
"I'm alright." Starscream waved him away, "You just make sure the Base is running. That's your main priority. And... you just deal with Rumble, and don't worry about him. We take care of him."
Soundwave did not say anything. No, he would never stop worrying about his creation, and about the other cassettess, too, not to mention his fellow officers - that combined with the responsibility of running the Base left him more scared than he would admit. What he wanted most was to stay with Rumble all day and night and oversee everything that was done to him; but he already had to leave to supervise the energon storage and make reports.
He felt Rumble fidget in his lap and let go of the mini-con. Rumble's colours looked dimmer and he rested his right arm in his lap - Starscream could see now how much it was covered in the rusty substance. Rumble hunched over in pain, clutching his mid-section and groaned weakly.
"You okay?" Starscream asked him, frowning. He knew from the night's experience that the rusting converter on his tank made him constantly nauseous, and they could do nothing to change it.
"Jus'... need ta go to the wash racks." Rumble mumbled and pushed himself to the edge of the berth. Soundwave helped him climb down and Starscream got up, too, to go back to check on the cultures.
They heard a splatter first and Starscream whirled around just in time to see Rumble look down on his legs with a horrified expression and Soundwave picked him up immediately; the next moment, they were gone in the nearest wash racks.
"What happened?" asked Scrapper from Astrotrain's berth.
"Nothing." Starscream mumbled and pulled out the curtain that separated Rumble's berth from the others.
"Starscream-" he heard Megatron speak and the Seeker turned around angrily.
"Nothing!" he had to take deep vents to calm his overheating systems and overcome the sudden dizziness. Hook hurried over to Starscream and steadied him.
"What is it?" he whispered and the air commander pointed down on the small puddle on the floor.
"He leaked." he answered, "But it's... something is wrong. It's not just transmission fluid..."
"No," Hook said grimly, "processed energon, coolant and oil. Starscream, something is broken in him. It's eating him away..."
"All of us." Starscream swayed, offlining his optics and continued to vent deeply, his voice sounded fainter when he continued, "Call the Insecticons."
With that, fever and fatigue overcame him and he crumbled to the ground. Hook caught him just in time and together with Scavenger they hauled the unconscious Seeker back on his berth, one stuck an IV into his medical port while the other fetched ice packs to cool him down.
Just as they attended to Starscream, Megatron grabbed Scrapper's arm from behind. The Constructicon jumped in fear and spun around to the Gunformer. Megatron's optics were bright with fever and, through forced intakes, he growled to the gestalt leader,
"Call Shockwave. Now."