Waking up and not remembering falling asleep, Alexis' head buzzed. No, not her head, her ears. There were strange sounds and as the clipping and distortion faded back, it soon resembled speech. Alexis opened her eyes. That was when she remembered where she had been and what she had been doing. That was when she recalled nothing really, just a faint recollection of sharp bewilderment followed by the feeling of falling away into a pit of nothingness.
Sitting up, she followed the focus of her human counterparts, turning her direction to where Sunstreaker stood not far away. The sounds began again, the buzz building in her ear canals until they popped. That was when the sounds became not just the sound of speech but actual English.
Sunstreaker spoke, "Slag, Gruffous. You have everything confused. You always did have a hard time keeping track of my brother and me, but you would think you would get it right as far as which one of us owes you money. And, as far as I recall, that debt was paid off mega-cycles ago."
The figure that Sunstreaker was talking to was large and quiet. By appearances, he looked to be a Cybertronian except for the scale like skin that dominated his upper shoulders and back of hands. His eyes were more organic than electronic and held an attentive awareness that hinted at an acute mental sharpness of his surroundings and those around him. Stretching back in the large backed chair he was seated in, Alexis saw that his arms were even larger than they had appeared at first. He was not only large but obviously strong.
"You are in error," the large Cybertronian said. His voice was diminutive but somehow it managed to carry itself through the small room. "You still owe us 764,420 creds." He narrowed his eyes, pursed his mouth and leisurely eased back into speech. "And while my mechs may have grabbed the wrong Bot, under the contract you signed, you are responsible for each other's debt. So Sideswipe's debt, is your debt."
"No, no... I would have never..."
With a wave of Gruffous' hand, a holographic screen bounded up between the two. Whatever it was confirmed what the other was saying, for Sunstreaker crossed his hands over his chassis and visibly sulked.
"I don't have that kind of currency, and you know it."
Gruffous cracked a smile. He stood up and approached the Autobot.
"I didn't expect you to. Which is why you will pay it off doing what you are best at."
"I haven't done that in..."
"By the reports I have received from several altercations that you were involved in, you still do that and then some. You will fight for me now. Or, I can take your debt from those specially made turbo engines of yours. Slag, even your chassis would be worth a nice little sum. Is that Zlrindum alloy I detect?" He tapped a large finger against Sunstreaker, impressed by the sound his metal chest made. "You never did spare any expense when it came to equipping yourself."
"Hey," Sunstreaker shrugged it off. "The things femmes are willing to pay for when they think they got you hooked." He frowned and looked around. "I can't do this now. I have..." He pointed to the humans, ready for an excuse and easing into it with no difficulties. "...human charges of mine. If anything happened to them under my watch..."
"Then it's a good thing they were brought with you. You were always one for needed incentives," Gruffous said, the smile turning into a calculating frown.
"If I do this..."
"When you do this..." the scaly Cybertronian corrected.
"Do I get the same perks, the same benefits as last time?"
The frown shifted into a half-smile. "You know how it goes. Do we have an arrangement? Or should I start dismantling you and find out how much your organics are worth?"
"We have a deal. As long as you throw in my old quarters."
"Done," Gruffous said eagerly, his voice lighter now that he got what he wanted. He sat back down, but not before pointing at the humans. "Now take those squishies and start earning some creds. Your first match will begin shortly."
Implanted with a linguistic translator didn't make the transition from the Autobot ship to the fighting barge much easier. Everything was strange: the smells, the sounds, the twisted corridors and the food that made her eyes water and her stomach churn.
A long week had passed. Sunstreaker, beyond his supposed reluctance to do what the large Cybertronian wanted, seemed to be in his element. Alexis had not gone to one of his matches, but supposedly they were among the most violent and brutal. That came as no surprise. But the opulent quarters they were provided was.
Stuck with the Autobot, the six humans were shuffled onto the smaller side. They each had their own room with many rooms left over. They were provided for, but not because of Sunstreaker, but because they quickly learned to make do with what they had or could find.
"I'm not doing that," Alexis spoke up.
The job title that was used was bad enough, but when the outfits were brought in, seeing them cemented her decision. Whoever designed the women's outfits would have made a comic book artist proud. Of course, the ones that were for the men were loose and comfortable looking. Only the woman's provided clothes looked as if floating paint that would have molded to one's body as a second skin.
"It will be easy," Jessie said, a rambunctious teenager whose prettiness was overshadowed by her wilfulness that she showed off more than her beauty. Funny enough, she didn't act that way when Sunstreaker was around. And Alexis was sure the stubbornness was a front that the girl worked dutifully hard on to maintain. "And these outfits are so cute!"
Alexis cringed and looked at the brunette with incredulity. The other two women agreed. The three were already touching the thin silky garments with enthusiasm. The two males of the group, Artie and Clarence, watched the women. The men looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
It wasn't until the three women and two men were lined up with one another that Alexis realized they all had something in common. They were all beautiful people. She huffed, because it figured that Sunstreaker would pick such humans for his group. Looking at them, Alexis felt out of place and somewhat glad that she was.
The only reason she even went along to survey the planet was because her brother had been in pain, something that could come on him out of the blue, an after effect to the medicine he had been put on from when he had been hospitalized as a teenager.
Alexis didn't care how depressed, miserable or just screwed up she ever got, no one would ever convince her to go on drugs. Not after what she saw they did to her brother, not after watching him withdrawal while they were forced to hide and continually travel so as not be caught by the Decepticons. She remembered her brother's anger and uncommon cruelty, his frustration, and fits of hopelessness as he coped without the meds that he still desperately craved. A time of hell in itself that had been escalated further by the danger of being caught. And for some terrible days and nights there stretching over the first long months, Alexis didn't know if Josh would ever recover or she could take any more of it. But he slowly did get better, and he hadn't had a setback in so long, she had almost allowed herself to forget.
Stuck inside those memories, she almost didn't see the one-piece outfit flying toward her.
"Look, Alexis. They are going to pay well for human attendants. We don't have to do much, just, you know, feed these fighters egos, clean them up after a fight..." Clarence paused, a wistful expression lining his smooth chocolate-brown face. "And unlike you, I have seen some of these fighters. The women are built and beautiful, and we will be paid to look after such creatures. I think I am in heaven."
"I am not going to be anyone's attendant," Alexis said, ejecting the word out of her mouth with a sharp breath and managing to make everyone turn and look at her as if she was not only crazy but selfish. But they could think whatever they wanted. She still wasn't going to do it.
"Fine, but you can explain to Sunstreaker why you don't want to help him get out of debt, and try to explain to yourself why you are so unwilling to do such a simple little thing that will help us get home quicker." Jessie motioned with her head. "Come on guys, let's change and get our first assignments."
They did just that. Several moments later, Alexis found herself alone.
She rarely saw the others anymore, which left Alexis alone more often than not. And nobody outside the barge could come to them. Special clearance or lots of money was needed for that privilege. Not even the Autobots were allowed to interfere.
Alexis took some time to walk around the dome that was larger than any space ship she had ever seen. She was allowed to contact her brother, but not communicate directly with him. Security was tight and everything monitored. And since the fighting barge was constantly moving, locating it was obviously a problem for anyone who wanted to try.
She spent most of her days walking around and taking everything in. The more she walked around, the more daunted she became. She was a fish out of her pond, and forced into an ocean. Given her tablet back, Alexis was at least allowed to read books she had stored there and some games, and then some movies and music when the sounds on the other side of her quarters became too much. Thank God she had her bluetooth headphones, for that helped with drowning the noise out.
She didn't know what Sunstreaker did during his downtime, but he wasn't against bringing his activities back with him. Already, in a week and a half, she had counted seven different females, and while she had been fascinated at seeing the female version of the Cybertronians, she found the way they acted around Sunstreaker to not only be nauseating, but something she had to avoid. One could only take so much of that sort of display.
Stuck most of the time on her side, Alexis would ease out when she knew he had a fight scheduled. She didn't mind being by herself, but she was always one that had to keep busy. That was the way her mind was formed. And she needed an outlet from her brain and the companion of constant voices that were her thoughts.
"You're injured. Let me help," Alexis had offered one unfortunate time.
He didn't bother to look at her, and made it look like an effort for him to speak to her. "And what exactly do you think a speck like you is going to be able to do?" Sunstreaker flicked the leaking Energon off his arm, painting the white wall beside him a speckled light blue. "The medic is already on his way, so stop staring at me, human, and go do something useful." He scoffed. "Oh, wait, I forgot, that is beyond your capabilities."
Suffice to say, she didn't say anything to him after that. But since then, Alexis felt trapped in her circumstances and couldn't figure a way out, a mind frame that ate away at her. It wasn't as if she didn't want to contribute, she just didn't know how. And the longer she stayed with Sunstreaker, whether she saw him or not, made her nervous, more uncomfortable than she had already been with him and quickly working toward a feeling of worthlessness, an idea that he tried to maintain by his degrading side glances and effectively chosen words.
Another long day had passed. Alexis had just finished reading one of her mystery novels and had dozed off when the vibration of a bang collided against the side of her wall. Slightly startled, she got off the mat she slept on and made her way outside into the hallway.
The corridor was dark, but the continual vibrations that now traveled under her feet made her push forward. Light peeked through the darkness. When her sleepy eyes focused, she saw the light was coming from Sunstreaker, who was leaning heavily against a femme who was moaning and gripping to the Autobot firmly. The female was glowing too, bright lights coming from both the Cybertronians chests that tried to blind.
Staring, because she understood and truly didn't want to, Alexis was locked where she was, forced to watch the unwatchable. Two other bright lights came on. They traveled and dipped down and highlighted Alexis. Sunstreaker stared at her, and she couldn't help but stare back. It was when he began to chuckle, when he pushed the female hard against the nearby wall, chest meeting and lights building brighter that Alexis managed to find the muscles in her legs that allowed her to get herself out of there and quickly.
She wasn't going back. That was certainly understood. And as Alexis watched what she had always believed as endless activity wind down and drift away as the last fight ended, she walked through the mostly empty corridors of the barge.
After the vision of what she saw finally unburned from beneath her eyelids, she made her way to a bulletin board. It was where Sunstreaker had found the availability of the Attendants position and where she hoped to find her answer as well.
But nothing. It didn't help that she couldn't read anything that was there. She walked some more. But as an hour passed and then another, she found a panicky sort of nervousness wind itself into her conscious thoughts.
She had nowhere to go. She was going to starve and die on an alien fight arena, far from home and her family. Yes, she could be as morose as the best of them, could find depression like a long-lost enemy and companion. Praying, because that always seemed to at least calm her mind, she pleaded for an answer, for something that she could do.
But prayers, she knew, could seemingly go unanswered. How long had she prayed to find her parents? To at least know what had happened to them? How long had she prayed for her brother's pain to be taken away, for him to get better? For so many years. And just when she thought he was doing better, wham... the numbing pain was back. And just when she started to believe humanity had a chance, smack, her planet was made uninhabitable, their chance at regaining anything taken away as they were left with the indignity of never being able to try.
She didn't understand God. Didn't know why the more she prayed, the more questions came. But she didn't have to understand him to believe in all that he offered and all that he was, all that he had done. And she had too many unexplained events happen in her and her family's life, good events that could only be accountable in one way.
Tucked away on a bench, she watched the minimal activity wander by her. She watched the many aliens, watched them walk, or roll or even seem to skip. They fluctuated in size, colors and genders. Some were so totally foreign that looking at them was as if seeing the black spots on your eyes when looking at the sun for too long.
Alexis continued to watch and marvel. A large alien walked passed her, carrying a case along with further armfuls of stuff. Something fell loose from the tight grip, clanking right in front of Alexis' bench. The person didn't even notice. She got up and carefully picked up the object and went after the owner.
Following after, she was surprised such a large person could move so quickly. Finally, when the multi-armed alien disappeared into what looked like an open garage, she slowly wandered inside.
"You dropped this." Alexis found the person, seeing it was a woman, by the elegant light orange eyes and the curvy hips, she held the small object out.
The woman said something, a garble of speech that meant her speech implant was learning. When the words were repeated again, Alexis understood perfectly.
"That's clumsy of me, and most generous of you to return it to me." She leaned forward and took the object from Alexis and placed it on a worktable. Her voice was rough but pleasant. "I would have never noticed. I am so far behind tonight." She used one of her hands to point at a small pile of what Alexis now saw were weapons and tools. "And if I lost this Rivlion wrench, I would have had to pay for it. Yes, most clumsy of me. Tell me, white one. How did you know to grip it on the underside as you were? Most would have picked it up by the top point."
"I don't know, that just seemed how to hold it."
"What are you, white one?"
Alexis smiled. "I'm a human."
The woman nodded her head, mimicking Alexis' smile with one of her own. "I'm a Rhiflo, human. Are all your species so limited?" She pointed at Alexis' two arms. "How do you get anything done?"
Alexis was still having a hard time not staring at the woman. She was at least seven feet tall, and even if she didn't have three pairs of arms, the thick brownish green skin and muscular build would have thrown her off. The only normal part of the woman was her black hair that was pulled tightly back into a metal holder behind her head.
Forcing herself to keep eye contact, she spoke distractedly. "By not being aware of our limitations?"
The Rhiflo laughed loudly at that, her thick skin rippling under the enthusiastic gesture.
"And what are you doing all alone at this time of the cycle?"
"Looking for answers."
The Rhiflo started separating the weapons and tools into piles before scanning them from a small rod she pulled from a pouch that hung from her thick waist. "Aren't we all, white one. I am Trilna, mother of seventeen and provider of her three unworthy mates," she puffed up her chest and Alexis noticed then that her many arms wasn't the only thing she had in multiples.
"I am Alexis, mother to no one and not bound by unworthy mates or lovers," Alexis said, having fun with the exchange. "It's really Alexandra," she added. "It means defender of mankind," Alexis offered, immediately saddened after having said such a thing.
"Mine means one who eats more than enough," Trilna said proudly.
At that, Alexis managed to chuckle away her sadness. Watching Trilna work, the two talked until the barge became busy with activity again. By then, some answers were found and prayers answered.