Transformers Galaxy Force: Thunder Storm
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers
Part 19.5: True Born
Chapter 170
"So, this ship is the Black Pearl?" Rodimus asked. Uranium had locked herself and Storm Gunner in the med bay of the ancient Cyber-class frigate until his wife's condition stabilized. Until then, Emission, Galactus, and Tsunami helped bring Rodimus up to date on everything that was going on. In the confusion during their escape, Emission had managed to break Galactus free, and had brought him here, the ship that Tsunami called home.
"Technically, it's called the Midnight Pearl," Tsunami replied. "Black Pearl was a joke among the original crew that stuck."
"And you've been hiding in it, and keeping it hidden, for a few centuries," Rodimus finished, making sure he understood everything. "I don't blame you. Must be nice having a home like this."
"Sometimes. I still have to keep up with repairs, which can get boring," Tsunami chuckled.
"So how come you're here, Soushireikan?" Rodimus asked. "Why did you break out of prison?"
"Why did you run?" Galactus countered.
"Because staying with my family is the right thing to do," Rodimus answered. "Dreadlock has no right to try and rip us apart."
"Apparently, Super Starscream holds you in high regard now," Emission explained. "When he heard about the verdict, the only way to prevent him from declaring war on the Alliance – or what's left of it – was for Galactus to become a fugitive like the rest of us."
Further discussion was broken off as Uranium entered the room. Rodimus instantly turned towards her in his chair, as they had been waiting in the ship's Conference Room. "Is she all right?" he asked, feeling breathless. We're not too late, are we?
"She's asleep," the female medic replied, "But... we may have to abort the sparkling."
Seconds of silence passed, broken as Rodimus lost it. The table would have flown across the room along with his chair if Galactus hadn't reacted fast and held it down. "NO!" Rodimus bellowed, shaking in rage as energy crackled in his hands. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! YOU ARE NOT KILLING OUR SON!"
"Rodimus! CALM DOWN!" Galactus yelled. The Terraformer didn't, but he did lower his hands, dispersing the threatening energy from his palms. "Explain yourself, Uranium."
"It's called Dead Circuit Syndrome," Uranium answered. "It's one of the reasons why First Gunner asked me to leave the Sky Dome to try and find you. We should thank Primus that Emission found me first and correctly predicted that you two would find the need to come back to Earth. First Gunner never told you or your sparkmate about it because he never thought you would have to deal with it, and so it isn't taken into account in your Terraformer Theory. The exponential rate of development that your sparkling has been going through, however, changes the status quo."
A cold feeling of dread quickly replaced the rage he had been feeling earlier. Rodimus had no idea what Dead Circuit Syndrome was, but he didn't like the sound of it. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "Please continue."
"Don't be sorry for wanting to save your sparkling," Uranium comforted him before launching her explanation. "Unlike Humans, Transformers don't carry the bodies of their unborn inside themselves. Because of this, femmes can prolong their pregnancies, effectively putting their due date on hold until a proper protoform can be built. But this only works for a matter of time. Too long, and the unborn sparkling becomes what we call a Dead Spark. The sparkling itself dies, leaving behind a parasitic memory matrix that feeds off the mother's life force until she dies. This is what Dead Circuit Syndrome is. In human terms, it is a dead fetus that the mother's body continues to pump life and nutrients into until the mother dies from oxygen deprivation, malnutrition, immune system deficiency, etc. Normally, it would take weeks after the needed due date has passed before Dead Circuit Syndrome sets in."
"But with how fast our son has been developing, we only have a few days," Rodimus said, finally understanding. The dread he was feeling was causing him to sway on his feet. Emission quickly grabbed his chair as Uranium dropped the next verbal bomb.
"36 hours at best," she said. "After that you'll have nothing but a Dead Spark killing your sparkmate one circuit at a time, but at the same exponential rate, which means she'll probably die hours, if not minutes after that." Emission swore under her breath, causing the others to look at her in surprise as she rarely swore like that.
Rodimus gripped the sides of his head with his hands, straining his processor to find some sort of solution. "Storm Gunner's still half Human," he stated. "Can't our son at least maintain a Human form?"
"I already thought of that. No womb, Transformer or Human, could possibly be large enough to healthfully spawn a sparkling the size of a Human 8-year old," Uranium answered. "If we had an Incubation Stasis Chamber, it could be possible, but we don't. Those things take up the size of a football field for a reason. That's why I suggested the abortion. The shock of leaving Storm Gunner's carrying chamber could cause your son's spark to spawn his Human form to survive, but since this is the true-born Terraformer that we're talking about, I have no idea how successful it will be."
Damned, and damned again, Rodimus thought bitterly. If it wasn't for the fact that we're on the run, we would have had all the resources of Seibertron to back us up, including a stash of ready-made emergency protoforms. Now it seems that everything that can go wrong is going wrong, and at the wrong time to boot. It's not that building a protoform is hard. It's just time consuming. The fastest it's ever been done is 52 hours. Were it not for that time constraint, we would have had a chance. After all, even the Rumbles are practically unmodified protoforms...
His thoughts froze as his eyes lit up, "That's IT! RUMBLES!" Now he was the one they were looking at strangely. "Soushireikan! The Rumble I built when we went to Gigalonia! I've never used it since I became a Terraformer! It's still in storage..."
"And it just might work!" Galactus smiled catching on. "How long can you stall Storm Gunner's delivery, Uranium?"
"I can safely guarantee 24 hours," she answered. "After that, we're risking Dead Circuit Syndrome and I'll have to abort the spark in order to give either of them a chance to survive."
"But how are we going to get it?" Tsunami asked.
"Us?" Rodimus asked. He had been planning to go alone, so as not to implicate his friends.
"Do you honestly think we'll let you go alone, Tou-san?" Emission asked rhetorically. "We're all in this together."
"Count me in too," Galactus said. "We're your team now, Rodimus Convoy-sempai."
The implication was not lost on Rodimus. Galactus was literally trusting him as leader equal to himself, a leader Galactus would now follow since he was no longer the Soushireikan of the Cybertron Army. "We'll Warp to Earthfall," Rodimus said, a determined look on his face. "If Nemesis Convoy can Warp into the Sky Dome, then I can Warp us Earthfall."
The four of them: Rodimus, Galactus, Tsunami, and Emission grouped together. Uranium shook her head, "I hope you know what you're doing."
"Just tell Storm Gunner I love her, and to hang on as long as she can," Rodimus said. Uranium nodded her consent, turning to head back to the med bay. Closing his eyes, Rodimus focused all his willpower on the task at hand. This was his first time Warping a decent sized strike group. In more than one ways, he only had one shot.
And he was determined to make it count.
