Chapter 28

"Ravens and their assortment of odd friends"

Khidai-Viis was built on a collection of island rocks jutting out of the sea, elegant platforms of ancient stone and new age plasteel interlocking in the open spaces between and coming together to create a veritable paradise for the native Tai. The weather was nice, the sights were incredible, and the city itself - it was beautiful. Mosaics lined the streets, antique wooden trams trundled down between almost entirely pedestrianized roads, the buildings were a mix of high glass towers and squat, red-tiled villas. White was the dominant colour, with soft mahogany-browns and brick-reds tying for a close second. The place's spaceport was more developed than the rest of the capital, but not in a bothersome way; it was the epitome of what a spaceport should have been - clean and sharp. There were gardens in the city beyond, home to vegetation tropical and boreal both, which made some sense, given that they were very close to the planet's northern pole. Not that it particularly looked like it when near ground-level, what with the sun beating down on them and everything cast in a warm summer light.

The shuttle dropped them off at a secured sector of the spaceport, safely cordoned off from the rest of the city. Hovertransports were already by the open-air dock, waiting for them. Ikitri said, "Straight on. No deviation."

With all the armed Myods and Tai present both inside the shuttle and out, Hawkmoon doubted anyone was of mind to even consider otherwise. She and the others - including the doddering little Dartwings, nervously packed together - marched along behind the Marooner-Captain, boarded the nearest transport and grasped the convenient handholds lining the walls. There weren't any seats, and even if there had been, the Tai didn't strike her as the kind of people to design their furniture with Seekers in mind. Once everyone was inside the transports lifted off and quickly glided through the city. Hawkmoon entertained herself with peering out the closest viewport and studying the citizenry outside.

The majority were Tai, as was to be expected, but there were other species - and no small amount either. They intermingled, too. There were Myods in more civilian-esqu pressure-suits, Iurphins wearing saddle-like jackets packed with pockets for all their little tools and knick-knacks, frilled blue-and-yellow Meex lizard-bears, slender chitin-shelled Eecharik, and she even spied what looked like a masked Ferrelum in an advanced atmospheric-insulator energy-field speaking with a pair of Tai beneath the shaded canopy of a restaurant's out-door dining area.

"You've got something good here," Hawkmoon murmured to Ikitri beside her. The Captain glanced at her in surprise.

"Yes," he softly replied, more kindly than before, "we do."

They arrived some ways beyond where the city stopped and the Imperial Palace began. There was a massive park-sized plaza in between, with a couple of prospective tourists both Tai and offworlders about and having a look at the colossal walls and energized dome-shield all around the paradisiacal fortress. A hexagonal fragment of the shield and two massive white gates opened up for the transports, with other mechanisms unfolded out of the ground on either side of the paved road to scan the hovercraft thoroughly, even as they moved. There were automated turrets, security-sensors and the occasional guard within - almost always a Tai sharpshooter or bladesman, with the occasional Myod cannon-bearer squeezed in to round out the roster.

The transports slowed to a stop at a courtyard - one of many - and patiently allowed them all to disembark before zooming off. Hawkmoon rejoined with the other Seekers and watched as Jehennes was marched past by Kirtir and the Myod guards to the entrance of the palace - or at least a part of it. The Imperial Palace had looked more like a collection of colossal buildings from orbit, seven of them, with each pair situated on a different tier rising up. The final one was the largest of the lot and situated the highest (and the farthest from Khidai-Viis), but they weren't there. Yet, at least. No, where the transports had left them was the second tier, maybe. It still looked impressive.

Everything was so big. Each building was near as large as the Institution on Vos, if a little shorter, and they were easily just as grand. The architecture was all ivory marble tastefully veined with black, with the tier they were at carved into an almost gothic fashion. The building in front of the was resplendent with banners and flags flowing down the monumental walls, and only a few looked to have been woven by Tai claws. They were always silken and colourful - whereas the others were, for a majority, more tame and bore stranger, more alien symbols and artwork that simply didn't correspond with what she'd seen so far from the natives.

"The Embassy," Ikitri breathed out. He was glancing her way. "The only one on Tai Prime."

"But there are others, is what you're saying?" Hawkmoon asked. "Just like this?"

"Not quite like this, no, but they fill the same function."

"And what's that?"

"To house the Curia Imedia," Ikitri replied. "The Hall of Speech - where the Star-Court sits and listens and passes judgement."

"On us soon enough, right?" Hawkmoon bitterly mused.

Ikitri hummed. "We'll see. But you'll have to wait your turn. Come - the auditorium awaits. The Jehennes' trial will begin shortly."

"Doesn't feel right," Hawkmoon muttered. "What he did wasn't... wasn't that wrong to do. Not if it's against the Hive."

"So you say," Ikitri chirped with disinterest, already walking on. "I think the Star-Court will see it a different way."

They dropped off the Dartwings and Sandstorm, Swiftsear and Quell somewhere along the way - at Hawkmoon's request, of course. Ikitri had only begrudgingly given in, and only after she'd reminded him how poor a state Sandstorm and Swiftsear were in. Plus, the Dartwings were very, very ill-at-ease with being marched all around - and she was under the impression that Ikitri had mistakenly identified them as Seeker children rather than a totally different kind of Cybertronian-frame.

She didn't bother to correct him.

The auditorium, when they finally arrived, was mostly vacant. Mostly. There were a couple of Tai officials and alien dignitaries, but they were otherwise free to the front rows. Ikitri led them inside to the brace of in-built marble benches, and motioned for the pair of accompanying Myods to remain by the door - tending to Hawkmoon and the other Seekers alone. Brave, or maybe their good behaviour aboard the Prosperity Burns was enough to convince him they really did come in peace. Or maybe it was the presence of the Verunlix from the ship following them inside, keeping at a distance but still too close for Hawkmoon's liking. The crystal-encased vulpine just... unnerved her something fierce. There was something distinctly wrong about it - about all of them.

Beyond the glass screen of the auditorium, where they could peer down at the massive table surrounded by eleven pedestals (each housing a seat personalized for whatever species was represented), the Star-Court gathered. There was a Verunlix there, too, with a larger crystalline orb than the one with them, from the Propserity Burns. The shadow within was bigger and more animated too, moving much more frequently, twisting this way and that like a many-tailed snake. Along with the orb, which an imperial herald helpfully introduced to auditorium and whoever else was listening abroad as Auger Seven-One, there were four other representatives physically present - the Tai Arch-Ardmiral Virutes, the Myod High Tribunal Iizuun, the Anax (arch-chieftain) Thren'dos of the Meex and the Uui Scribe-Primary Counts Too Much - and the rest were filled in for by live holograms. Of those elsewhere, there was the Marquess-Potentate Iix'ii'xii of the Eecharik, the Iurphinnian Hearth-Tender Elbetos, the Ferrelum Director-Elected Ophanamanos, and three other figures of the final three species Hawkmoon hadn't yet previously covered in Nacelle's datamining attempt.

One was a pink-and-blue scaled reptilian humanoid in a pressure-suit about half her size, the next a half-dead alien animal coated in a conscious and unified colony of tick-like bloodsucking parasites (injecting their own will into their host's many nerve centres to wield it like a living puppet), and the final member was something so large all that the hologram showed was its face - an armoured, plated creature of obsidian bone and smoke-dark shell, with six burning pits for eyes running up in three individual pairs. The reptile was the Basileus Vortragosh of the Ameursh, the parasite colony was the Consecrated Voice of the Alluvion Understanding, and the giant thing was simply proclaimed as 'the Khargrive'. Its people were called the Tenerjiin.

About as varied an extraterrestrial collective as Hawkmoon expected, give or take a few surprises. Sometimes aliens were just plain weird.

"So now they're judging Jehennes?" Cyberwarp curiously asked.

"No," Ikitri replied, "now they're sentencing him."

"But they don't know if-"

"The murder of a sun is a serious charge," Ikitri went on, voice low. "And he put his orders on paper - to ensure he would be punished alone."

"... There's more to this you're not telling us," Hawkmoon observed.

Ikitri barely glanced at her. "Yes."

"Well, are you? Going to tell us?"

"It's not my place to do so."

A doorway, colossal, opened up at one end of the chamber ahead. Jehennes was marched inside by a pair of sword-bearing Tai, and presented at the other end of the table from the Arch-Admiral.

"What have you done?" Virutes asked, softer than Hawkmoon was expecting.

"I was shielding the Protectorate," Jehennes defiantly retorted.

It really wasn't a trial. Only a few seconds in and Hawkmoon had already picked up that much. They'd already decided what was to happen to him; this was just for show. And, to a few, perhaps to clear a few things up before they went all the way - get some things off their chests.

"You killed a sun." Virutes stood up. He was a drab creature, all browns and tans - like dark wood and warm sand. His wing-feathers were heavy with knots of flamboyant ribbons and he wore a short-sleeved robe of luxurious red silk. "You knew what would happen to you - and you did it anyways."

"The Imojelum system was tied to the Star-Web. If I left it for them, the Foe could have navigated through the Web, forced open the Raven Bridge and-"

"The Foe doesn't possess the means to do so," Basileus Vortragosh pointed out.

Jehennes looked at the reptile with disdain. "I watched them open portals and field a battlefleet within mere moments. We cannot presume to know what the Foe is capable of."

"They are changed," a rumbling, cacophonous voice agreed. The Khargrive. "They scrabble at buried powers."

"We are not here to discuss the Foe," Virutes tiredly announced, "but the destruction of the Imojelum sun. Never again will the Imojel look upon their home star. Never will they have their own shining fief to call their own in the Star-Web. It was not yours to take away, Jehennes."

Jehennes bowed his head with shame. "Taluka was already destroyed. The Foe danced upon the graves of the Imojel's world. They pounded it into cataclysm, cracked it open. There were more signatures on the edge of the system before we left - more ships come to take and destroy. They are the Foe - enemies of conscious, multicellular life. I was under the presumption that my vaunted station demanded I fend such forces away from the heart of the Protectorate. That I was doing my duty."

"Jehennes!" Virutes shouted sharply. The Arch-Admiral paused and winced, closing all four of his eyes. "I can't save you from this. You realize that, yes? Your life is already spent. I cannot save you."

Jehennes lifted his head. "I know. I acted alone."

"There was your error," the Ferrelum named Ophanamanos solemnly intoned. "To act alone is to hear no one's council but your own - to run the risk of being mistaken."

"I was not mistaken," Jehennes defiantly retorted.

"That," the Eecharik Marquess-Potentate chittered in flawed Tai, "remains to be seen."

"But not by you," the Meex chief Thren'dos growled.

Jehennes straightened up. "I fought them. I lost."

"You did," the Iurphin Hearth-Tender ruefully noted.

"The Foe will seek to press us again. Soon. Whatever you do with me - remember that I, with all my fleet and all my experience, lost Taluka entirely. The Imojel have been crippled for it; they may not have a large enough population left to ensure genetic diversity. The Foe will come for the rest of us. Do not let it happen again. Please." Jehennes glanced to the side, to the auditorium - in Hawkmoon's general direction, and he spared her a stiff nod of acknowledgement. He turned back, sighed, and bowed down. "What will you do with me, Virutes?"

"Nothing," Virutes breathed out, almost trembling. "We can do nothing."

"Nothing? But-"

"The Sun will decide your fate. You are to be transported to the stellar-ring upon the third planetary rotation of this month and enter the primary chamber of the solar-array alone."

Jehennes's head shot up. He stared at the Arch-Admiral. With something approaching dread. "Then... then I die."

"You die," Virutes reluctantly agreed. "Jehennes'marus Y'ghelenx, the Emperor has proclaimed you a perpetrator of the highest sacrilege. The Religious Freedoms Act prevents you from being tried on this basis - but from now until your end, you are hereby excommunicated from Tai Prime, and you never again will you be permitted to bask in the sun's light until it has passed its judgement. You-"

"The Seeing-Thing will eat you," the Verunlix Auger Seven-One rasped, voice cutting through the air, through the glass of the auditorium and beyond - its words rattling around in Hawkmoon's audials long after it had spoken. It sounded neither masculine nor feminine, and as far from human as anything could get, farther even than the myriad other aliens in the room. "It will ingest your ashes - and those ashes will loop forevermore. Weregild for the strangled unborn."

"... I understand." Jehennes grimaced - muscles around the base of his beak tightening. "I am sorry for... for failing you. For failing the Imojel and their star. The Foe defeated me - because I underestimated them."

"Save your apologies for your ash-eater," Thren'dos huffed. His great eyeless skull swung about, fangs bared at all. "Are we finished with this corpse?"

"Yes," Virutes whispered, "we're finished."

"It has been an honour, Arch-Admiral," Jehennes told him, sounding almost desperate for a response - to be heard.

Virutes turned away and refused to respond. He stared at the wall as the Tai sword-bearers strong-armed Jehennes out of the chamber.

"What just happened?" Northwind asked aloud. Hawkmoon only realized then that she and Cyberwarp were the only ones with the language files fit to translate Tai. She pinged him and sent a copy over. "Wait, they're... oh. What? But... Oh. Ah. So... Oh, what the frag?"

"Quiet," Ikitri snapped.

Northwind flinched.

::Look over your memory banks later,:: Hawkmoon told him. ::Or do your recollecting in silence, please. Either or works::

::Sorry.::

There was a curious chitter from within the chamber ahead - not aimed at them, thankfully. The Star-Court probably couldn't hear them anyways.

"Are we adjourned?" the Consecrated Voice hissed from a hundred separate throats. It was almost as disturbing as the Verunlix - and certainly moreso in a physical sense. "Or are we to speak of the Foe once more? This voice is concerned."

"Taluka is lost," the Eecharik Iix'ii'xii mused. Her hologram was spectacularly detailed - showing her four upper arms folding together over her thorax, while her six lower limbs curled up under where she sat. Her massive abdomen and its sharpened stinger occasionally twitched, like a single mass of muscle packed beneath a yellow-striped exoskeleton. Her face was like that of a monstrous spider - all fangs and mandibles, and topped with almost too many eyes to count. "Unexpected. The Imojelum system is close to cometary-based arcology-holdings belonging to some of my vassal-mothers."

"Reinforcements: en route," the Myod High Tribunal promised her, warbling through a voice-modulator. "Eecharik: plan of action - retreat?"

"Some of the mothers are in the midst of laying new nests. To move them now would be... dangerous for their health."

"Defense fleet: summoned. Myodic supercarriers: guard Eecharik birthworlds."

"Thank you." Iix'ii'xii inclined her head. High Tribunal Iizuun returned the gesture with a flick of a stinger-tentacle.

"There is another matter, yes, now we're in session" Virutes stiffly announced. "Cybertronians."

Ikitri stood; Hawkmoon too. She gestured for Northwind to join her and the rest to stay where they were. Ikitri noticed, gave her a hard look, and dryly said, "You're very presumptuous."

"Yep."

"You two!" Ikitri twirled to face the Myods by the exit. The molluscs snapped to attention. "Watch over the rest of the mechanoforms. They are not permitted to leave."

The nearest Myod rumbled an affirmative.

"Wait, we're going now?" Northwind asked.

"You and I are," Hawkmoon confirmed. "Everyone else - behave."

Skydive rolled his optics, Nacelle frowned and Cyberwarp shot her a hesitant smile - one that was probably supposed to be supportive, but ended up looking really confused.

To say their admission into the Star-Court's Hall of Speech went smoothly would have been a lie. Ikitri led them inside, right up to the screen of a near-transparent energy shield, and presented the both of them then and there for the Star-Court. The Meex chieftain instantly protested about them being there purely on the basis that they were machines. The Eecharik Marquess-Potentate chittered with eager interest, mandibles agape. The Khargrive rumbled something about 'metal-mercenaries' and the Iurphin splayed out its facial tentacles in what was maybe a welcoming smile - or a troubled grimace.

"One, two," the Uui Counts Too Much warbled through a melodic vocal-synth, pointing first at her and then at Northwind with a tentacle capped with a mechanical prosthetic. "But there are more. Twelve more."

Hawkmoon stared at the shelled jellyfish-thing - and it did not disappoint, with its half-translucent purple-pink-blue skin, chitin-packed back and many pale limbs trailing below it. Five black eyes, too, at its front. It was cute. Adorable. Amazing.

She wanted one.

Chief Thren'dos swung his head around. "You were told about this?"

Counts Too Much slowly swiveled around to face the frilled ursine. "I account for the Marooner Fleet's expenditures. The fleet allocated resources for 'fourteen flight-enabled self-aware mechanoforms of Taishibethi-like bearing'. I was unaware they were Cybertronian in truth, but it matters little."

"Admiral Jehennes found these Cybertronians in the Imojelum system," Virutes explained. "One of them, I have been told, seems to possess valuable information pertaining to the Foe. Some of what it revealed-"

"She," Hawkmoon corrected, raising her voice to reach all around the ivory table. It was a nice place, all considered. A little too bright, though. Too clean. Not enough personality.

"You are the one, then?" Virutes asked, nonplussed.

"I am. The designation's Hawkmoon. I'm a Seeker."

"Indeed. Some of what she, Hawkmoon, shared with the Jehennes' First Registrar-Deacon Kirtir has corroborated with shadow-mined data gathered by the Verunlixi only a few days past - particularly towards the..." Virutes hesitated. "The leadership of the Foe's armies."

"We should cast them out," Thren'dos snarled. "These machines have no place among the living."

"I don't think we're here to decide that," Iix'ii'xii mused. She glanced at Virutes. "You've already made your decision, Tai, haven't you?"

"These Cybertronians are now tactical informants and military aides. For all intents and purposes, Admiral Jehennes and the Imojel of Taluka sacrificed their lives and freedom to ferry that advantage our way. My Marooner-Fleets will not toss them away either - not for the sake of a prejudice long past its time."

"A prejudice they honed," Thren'dos pointed out. "We all know Cybertron's stance on organic life."

"Secondhand reports," Virutes countered. "And - yes, perhaps there's some merit in those same reports, but the Foe takes precedence. As you well know. The Emperor decreed as much."

"About the Foe?" Ophanamanos asked, clacking his own massive turtle-like beak. "Or the Cybertronians?"

"Both," Virutes barked back. He fixed his four fathomlessly dark eyes on Hawkmoon, then on Northwind, and said, "The Emperor wants them intact. She wants them sympathetic towards our plight. She wants to know everything they have to offer. Now, then - what were you suggesting again, noble Anax?"

"Nothing of substance," the scaled beast sullenly responded, hissing out through massive clenched fangs and flaring his nostrils. His frills trembled and flushed blue with copper-rich blood, the leathery crests expanding up from the back of his head and the sides of his neck.

"And what of you, 'Seekers'?" Virutes continued.

"Oh, I'll give you everything you need," Hawkmoon told him - all of them - but next gestured to Northwind, "but only as soon as I get your word that my formation will be treated well while they're here and permitted to leave whenever they want."

"Where to?" The Iurphin Elbetos politely inquired.

"Cybertron."

"So you can bring an exterminator-fleet this way?" Thren'dos gnashed out through gnarled teeth.

"So Cybertron can be prepared for when the Hive finish with you," Hawkmoon shot back.

"... The Hive?" Iix'ii'xii curiously asked.

"Your Foe," Hawkmoon explained. "It's what they call themselves."

"No, it is not," the Khargrive rumbled. "They are Krill. They know themselves only as Krill - little lifeforms, short-lived prey-things."

"You obviously haven't met them in while."

"Those mortal years pass by; what do we care?"

"They just smashed a planet to death," Hawkmoon retorted, growing annoyed. "You should care plenty."

"You don't expect us to prevail against the Foe?" Ophanamanos inquired. "You've seen the Tai's fleet - and that is but a fraction of their strength."

"It's not enough," Hawkmoon told them. "It won't ever be enough. Oryx-"

"Arch-Fiend," Auger Seven-One cut in, pressing its shadowy vulpine face against the side of its glass cage. "Unholy King. Prophet of the Worm."

Hawkmoon frowned. "You already know about Him?"

"In dreams of torment. In fell war-cries, resonating with the waves."

"Then why am I here, if you already know so much?"

For a split-second, the Verunlix's face flashed up - a skeletal grin bared beneath the crystalline surface. "Curiosity." Auger Seven-One rotated to face Virutes. "Give them what they desire. The star-child sees no reason to deny them."

"The Emperor?" Virutes questioned, surprised. Shock and murmuring rippled down either side of the table. Even the Khargrive blinked involuntarily - but slowly, digesting the news gradually.

"It is demanded."

"So can my people leave or not?" Hawkmoon urgently pressed. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to make demands of flighty politicians - particularly politicians representing entire star systems and alien races - but then, she wasn't always inclined towards careful consideration. As long as the job got done, who cared how it was done?

Well, it depended on the context. In this case, she just wanted to get the talking part over and done with, because it... was... exhausting.

Plus, the Verunlix was staring at her in a weird way again.

"Marooner-Captain," Virutes called out, hesitating. Ikitri snapped to attention. "Speak to us of the Cybertronians."

"Sir?"

"Are they with us or the Foe, I think your admiral means," Iix'ii'xii drily explained.

Ikitri spared Hawkmoon a brief glance. "With us."

"And you know this because-"

"The Prosperity Burns was boarded by hostiles over Taluka. The Cybertronians were present - and they assisted in diffusing the situation."

"Diffusing?" Ophanamanos questioned.

"Killed all the Hive-things we could reach and threw their ship out the hangar," Northwind bluntly told them, his optics narrowed and filled with suspicion.

::Steady,:: Hawkmoon urged.

::I don't like like these creatures.::

::Then just leave it to me. I've got this.:: Hawkmoon nudged him back a step. "The Hive are no more our friends than they are yours."

"Prey-things have no friends," the Khargrive rumbled, sounding more like an avalanche than a person.

"Well, yeah, but they're not prey anymore, are they?" Hawkmoon shot back. "They're hunting you now."

::Leave it you, huh?:: Northwind asked incredulously.

::Shut up, I'm only being diplomatically snarky.::

"So it appears," the Khargrive mused with a guttural cough.

"Hostile scoutships: reported in three stellar-sectors," the Myod High Tribunal groaned. "Cybertronian aid: verdict?"

"I want to see where this is going," Iix'ii'xii clicked. She turned to Virutes. "And I would be glad to take them in. Your navy will have all the intel you need, I promise. We rarely get to play host to any nest-guests anymore."

"The mechanoforms are in Imperial custody," Virutes reminded her. "They are not to be harmed."

"We wouldn't harm them. Not even a scratch." She raised her uppermost hands for emphasis, curling her claws into her palms.

"All the same."

Iix'ii'xii chittered with annoyance and muttered, "Such a bore."

The High Tribunal bristled and the Meex Anax snorted with dark amusement, while the rest ignored the slight and carried on. The Uui perked up, tilting its shelled back. "You will stay, informant, yes? What do Cybertronians need? Not food, no no. Gas? Beautiful atmospheric gases? Or fuel - much raw fuel, I think."

"Energon," Hawkmoon replied, softening her voice - because Traveler above, how could anyone ever be mad at sapient jellyfish-calculators? Stress be damned, it was just too nice. "That's why we came this way - searching for energon. Cybertron is in urgent need of new fuel sources."

"And you thought to mine our worlds?" the Basileus Vortragosh asked pointedly.

Hawkmoon turned to face the short reptile-man and shot him a cooled look. "We were led to believe that whatever lived in your local star group had died out."

"So instead you schemed to dig up graves."

"To ensure another world doesn't become the same, yep." Hawkmoon folded her arms. "Okay, you've heard my conditions, you've got my offer, your Emperor-or-whatsit is keeping you from making a bad decision, so at this point we're just talking to talk. Give me what I want - an oath of safe-conduct for my people - and I'll give you everything I know about the Hive."

"But… you don't believe we'll win," Ophanamos pointed out. "Why help at all, if you believe we'll fall?"

Hawkmoon shrugged. "Because maybe - maybe - we can buy enough time for some of your people to evacuate and get away, as long as we play our cards right. And possibly nip a few Hive commanders along the way. Nothing wrong with knocking a couple of gods down a few notches, right?"

Silence, deafening.

"She doesn't know what she's saying," Ikitri quickly filled in. "She's unaware-"

"The metal-medium rings true," Auger Seven-One mused. "Benefactors of dire purpose ride forth on drowning tides."

The Khargrive growled deeply, sonorously - almost shaking the very chamber around them, even through a mere hologram. "Then the Arch-Fiend is truly reborn."

"Re-ignited," Auger Seven-One corrected with a hiss. "The Sinner is gone."

"I am aware, orb. But His dream, His mission - it rises all over again, clasped in new claws."

"It is better young claws than old talons."

The Khargrive's six eyes glittered dangerously. "Speak carefully, orb. It is not we who exiled ourselves to glassworked-portholes to… run away. And it is not you who will bolster the Tai with warriors in the days to come."

"We would... appreciate any assistance you can offer," Virutes stiffly thanked.

"Woe! Repentance forgotten," Auger Seven-One cried out, smiling in a sly fashion.

Hawkmoon made a sound comparable, to a degree, with that of throat being cleared. "So?"

"Departure is permitted, welcomed," the Verunlix told her, cutting off Virutes before he could even begin. "The star-child's blessings unto ye who leave her graces in peace, but - woe, woe, woe be those who lead the ways of sorrow to hearth and home."

Hawkmoon blinked; that was a foreboding warning if she'd ever heard one. "You mean...? Frag."

::Moon?:: Northwind hesitantly questioned. ::Something wrong?::

::I don't...:: She stifled a frustrated sigh; her spark was full of old regrets and new stresses both, and it was steadily driving her insane. ::I think we were just given our safe conduct, but... Okay, look, this could be complicated-::

::What do you mean?::

::But I'm going to make sure you all get home, safe.:: Hawkmoon stubbornly continued. ::I promise. Just give me a little time; I'll work around it.:: She looked around the chamber, at each set of alien faces. "Are we done, then?"

Virutes hesitated and glanced Auger Seven-One's way, as if expecting the Verunlix to come out with something else. The fox encased within the orb just smiled deviously and paced around the interior of its crystalline confines. "That is all," the Arch-Admiral finally declared. "Marooner-Captain, quarters have been prepared in the eastern habitation wing of the Scarlet sub-Palace. You may escort the mechanoforms there."

Ikitri bowed his head. "By your will, admiral, and yours, o noble court."

"I do hope we will speak again," Iix'ii'xii chirped to Hawkmoon, her spider-eyes glittering with anticipation. Nowhere near Verunlix-levels of weirdness, but for a bug that was near twice her size, a little wariness was probably the wisest course of action. "Perhaps in a less... antagonistic setting."

Hawkmoon raised an optical ridge. "We'll see."

She'd only just returned to the auditorium when Cyberwarp clasped her pauldron and pressed her helm against Hawkmoon's own. "That was pretty cool."

Hawkmoon hummed and smiled. "Thank you."

"On their part, I mean."

"Oh." Her smile fell.

"I don't know why they didn't get mad at you two," Cyberwarp continued. "Nacelle should have been the one to go out there. He's great with people."

"I am," Nacelle acknowledged. "Yeah, 'Moon, that was pretty painful."

"Worked, didn't it?" Hawkmoon challenged, smiling again - because frag it, they were getting something close to what they wanted, finally.

"Fine, yeah, 'spose. 'Wind? You okay?"

Northwind shrugged. "Not enjoying any of this very much."

"He's fine," Skydive cut in. "Just being grumpy."

"Oh, don't we know it," Nacelle quipped, shooting Hawkmoon a pointed look. He turned to Ikitri and switched to the Tai language. "So, what happens-"

::They're gone!::

Hawkmoon blinked. The others similarly flinched; the transmission had crossed into the formation-wide channel. ::Quell?::

::Sandstorm and Swift are gone!:: Quell cried out. ::I was just trying to help the Dartwings adapt to the planet's gravity, left the room for less than a breem. I'm- Wait. Uh... there's a Tai here, says they were taken to the Palace.::

::But... we're in the Palace?::

::Uh... no, wait, the... Helioarian Palatium. The Tai's telling me that - that our Myods were ordered to take them away. On order of the Emperor. Hawk-::

"Is something the matter?" Ikitri asked, glancing between them.

"Where's the Helioarian Palatium?" Northwind sharply asked, faceplates grim.

"That's..." Ikitri narrowed all four eyes. "The seat of the Emperor. Why?"

"Your people just took our wounded there."

"But that's... I wasn't informed. This has nothing to do with me, I swear."

"Can we get them back?" Nacelle inquired, alarmed.

Ikitri gave them a blank look. "The Emperor must have her reasons to-"

"Can we get to them, at least?" Hawkmoon asked.

"Entry into the Helioarian Palatium is prohibited for all save those the Emperor specifically summons."

"So no, is what you're saying."

"I am Marooner-Captain only; the Imperial Palace is not my domain to-"

"Anything happens to them, and you'll lose your chance at this." Hawkmoon tapped the side of her helm for emphasis. "Tell your superiors that. Make sure it gets to your Emperor."

"Hawkmoon-"

"Anything happens to my people, I'll leave yours to face the Hive alone."

Ikitri gave her a piercing, cross look. "The Emperor's requests are not to be refused, but she would not have your wounded transported to her holdings without reason."

"Yeah, that's what we're upset about."

"The Emperor-"

"Stop talking about your Emperor and give us an actual answer!" They were drawing looks from the other in the auditorium - Myod guards and political spectators both.

Ikitri outwardly kept his cool, but Hawkmoon didn't miss how his claws tapped against the hilt of one of his folded swords. "If you were to be executed or otherwise dealt grave pain, then the order would have passed to the Star-Court to see it through. The Emperor does not make a habit of harming those in her custody, I can assure you. She is fair."

"Then what happens next?" Cyberwarp worriedly asked.

"I was ordered to lead you to your new quarters. There is a habitation wing within the Palace's grounds, for guests such as yourselves. I must ask that you don't leave those quarters either - not without an armed escort."

Northwind looked ready to argue further, Nacelle to plead some more, and Cyberwarp and Skydive just looked plain bewildered. Hawkmoon sighed, pinged them to keep them from acting out, and said, "Fine. But can you make an inquiry, please? Neither of them are... they're not in a good way."

"Of course." Ikitri bowed his head - with genuine understanding and honest sympathy. The snarky bastard was beginning to make himself borderline likeable. Hawkmoon wasn't sure if she was onboard with it. "Now please - come this way."

They were given a couple of suites to themselves. Three in total - one for each trine. Hawkmoon remained outside in the hall adjoining the rooms, to make sure both Northwind's trine and the Dartwings got settled in first. No one was particularly happy; Ampitude even muttered "frag". She'd never heard the little mecha swear before, and it sounded totally alien coming from them. The forced absence of Sandstorm and Swiftsear - and their inability to change that fact - was fresh on all their minds, and left them all a touch irritable where matters concerning the Tai were brought up. Left them almost worried senseless.

All that said, the rooms they were given were nice. Not entirely unlike the dormitories Hawkmoon and her own trine had been assigned in the Vosian Institution on Cybertron, if more lavish. The furniture was either carved of beautiful wood or entrancing marble, and most of it was covered over in veils of colourful silk and delicate cushions. The washroom contained what Hawkmoon could only describe as a massive birdbath with steps leading up and into the heated water, a separate shower chamber, and other facilities obviously purpose-built for other organic functions - which Hawkmoon found a little amusing. Nothing she needed to emulate anymore, thank the Traveler. Or... ever, actually. Not in her memory as a Cybertronian or Exo.

Alas, there was no television. Well, there was, but it took them a while to find the remote, and the buttons were all stamped with Tai glyphs, and then when they finally managed to turn it on, oh Traveler above, the selection menu... Nacelle eventually got so fed up that he tossed the remote back down onto the couch beside him and declared, "I give up."

So yeah, watching the local TV was a no-go.

Cyberwarp patted his pauldron comfortingly, moved on, indicated with her helm to one of the adjourning bedrooms to Hawkmoon and pinged her with a, ::Would like to talk, if that's alright.::

Was there anything more foreboding than someone saying that they'd 'like to talk'? Hawkmoon didn't think so. Still agreed anyways - because below it all, below the stress and anger and plain hopelessness, she still felt a little guilty too. She followed Cyberwarp in, tapped the terminal inside to close the door behind her as Cyberwarp sat on the bed at the other end, and sighed, "Yeah?"

Cyberwarp made a point of looking around the room, then the bed. She gingerly placed a servo into the middle of the mattress and lightly pressed. The sheets of silk hanging from the frame of the bed, be they pinks, purples or reds, they all draped over Cyberwarp's wings - which visibly relaxed beneath the whisper-soft sensation. "Is this... was this anything like how you used to live? When you were..."

"Not a Cybertronian?" Hawkmoon finished. "Somewhat. This is a little... much, though. Never so richly."

"Oh?"

"Spent more time in the field. I... I was a scout. I lived in the wilds. I caught most of my nights in ditches and tree hollows or even the ruins of broken buildings. I was..." Hawkmoon grimaced and looked away. "I was what some Cybertronians would call a 'dirty little organic animal'."

"I wouldn't."

"Maybe not, but others would."

"Northwind-"

"I didn't mean Northwind. He's impatient, but he's not an aft. I know he means well."

"Then who did you mean?" Cyberwarp cautiously went on.

Hawkmoon shrugged. "A little bit Sandstorm and Vale, back when we arrived near Taluka. Mostly Cybertron in general. Pretty sure that Meex guy wasn't entirely wrong; our-... sorry, your kind aren't hugely concerned with the matters of organic life."

"It's still our people," Cyberwarp told her, firmly. "You don't need to correct yourself there."

"... Is it?" Hawkmoon sat beside her and looked down at her servos. "I didn't mean to make all this a mess. Or to do this to you."

"You've already apologized for it."

"It's not enough. I know I'd be furious if someone did it to me. I like to know what I'm getting into. I didn't extend that courtesy to you. Not exactly."

"I don't mind aliens," Cyberwarp weakly offered. She vented a deep sigh and looked away. "It's... strange. Whatever this is."

"I still can't believe either of you believe me."

"Do we have a choice? What you showed us... Nothing on Cybertron can recreate that."

"I suppose."

"But... I'm... Okay, I am a little nervous - because you said a mech died? And they-"

"Used a 'cortical patch' on me, yeah. They offlined themselves after." Hawkmoon grimaced. "Because the person who... the femme who used to be here, she did something wrong."

"What?"

"Stole... look, now that's dangerous. I don't know if I should."

Cyberwarp nudged her pauldron. "No more secrets. Please."

"Fine. Stole a Vosian prototype weapon," Hawkmoon admitted. "A frame-mod, lodged in my chassis. I can use it to read and... and mess with active space-bridge technology."

"... Oh."

"Yep."

"What about ground-bridges?" Cyberwarp asked.

"Probably the same. Similar tech, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then yes, most likely."

A silence stretched out between them. One of Cyberwarp's servos slid into Hawkmoon's own, lacing their digits together. She tightened her grip.

"That... that Tai died..." Cyberwarp whispered.

"Jehennes?" Hawkmoon guessed.

"I mean... yeah, him too. He's dying because he did what he thought was right - to protect his people. I don't understand it, the star-killing business, but... I can understand his reasoning, however warped."

"But there's... another...?"

Cyberwarp dipped her helm. "On the hangar aboard that Tai ship, when... when those Hive attacked. I tried to help that Tai, remember?"

"I remember," Hawkmoon said softly. "You took up their sword."

"Yeah."

"What's wrong?"

"They died." Cyberwarp's wings went rigid behind her. "I've seen things die before, but never a person - not in front of me. And that... they were a person. Alien, not Cybertronian, but it was a person. I know that. I can't un-know that. So... maybe that's why some Cybertronians don't think much of organic life - because they're afraid of acknowledging that other people are dying all the time."

"Nah, it's a superiority-thing," Hawkmoon argued.

"You think?"

"Well, yeah. Everyone's got that instinct to one-up on someone else - someone they don't have to look in the eye. Vos does it with everyone else. Cybertron as a whole does it with organic life. Pit, some of those aliens we just met? That big thing, the Khargrive? Didn't think much of the Hive, did he? Or she, they, whatever."

"That's not a nice way to think of it."

"It's what the universe is full of. It's a mean, cold, dark place - and that utopia we all hope for, it'll never happen, because we all get a little mean, and a little cold, and a little dark simply because we carry a part of the universe with us everywhere we go."

"Yeah," Cyberwarp sighed. "Definitely not nice."

"I'm probably just depressed," Hawkmoon admitted. "Haven't been enjoying this trip so far. Been finding out all the wrong things."

Cyberwarp leaned against her. "What I was trying to say was... I know these aliens are people. I see them like that. Fully-functioning people. And once I know that, I can't-"

"Un-know that, yeah."

"But it applies to you, too. You helped as well, by just being you. Being a person - doesn't matter what kind. I've always seen you as a person, so… still you are an alien, yeah?"

"Oh, I don't know," Hawkmoon drawled. "Am I?"

"Shut up, you are." Cyberwarp poked her with her elbow-joint. "Look, alien or no - you are what you are. And right now, you're... you."

"Amazing. I am amazed."

Cyberwarp groaned. "Shut up."

"I am me, thank you for noticing. It's a little hard to get that sort of recognition 'round here."

"'Moon!"

Hawkmoon grinned. "I get it, I get what you're saying."

"So..." Cyberwarp turned, kissed Hawkmoon's cheek, and said, "There. That's what I mean. That I like you. Secrets or not, surprises or no, I still really like you"

"You are so sweet. How'd I ever get with you?" Hawkmoon turned her helm and returned the kiss. "My dashing good looks, probably."

"Maybe."

"And my awesome charm."

"Eh, that's pushing it."

Hawkmoon reached up and traced the sides of Cyberwarp's faceplates with her servos - being very careful to not use the tips of her talons. "But still. What I did wasn't fair. And I feel awful for it."

"I know," Cyberarp murmured. "I know. But that's not why you should be beating yourself up."

"Yeah, you're right - I've made plenty of other terrible mistakes."

"That's... not what I meant," Cyberwarp looked annoyed.

Hawkmoon smiled. "You should've taken a psychology module. You're good at it."

"Maybe I'll pick one up when we get back home."

"'Warp..." Hawkmoon's smile fell. "I'm not going back to Cybertron."

Cyberwarp paused - then nodded, having apparently decided something. "Then neither am I."

"What? No. You're going back."

"Not if you aren't."

"But why-..." Hawkmoon sighed. "Look, if this is a something-like-love thing-"

"It's a loyalty thing, actually," Cyberwarp interrupted, optics flashing dangerously.

"No, you can't. You can't fight off the Hive."

"Neither can you. Not alone. You're not immortal, 'Moon."

But I used to be, Hawkmoon almost said. "Please."

"This isn't just about you, either. What I said? These Tai are people. I'm not comfortable with leaving them to die. I'm not happy with it. So - I'm staying."

"You being here or not won't make a difference. Not in the grand scheme of things."

"What, and you will?" Cyberwarp challenged.

Hawkmoon shrugged. "Maybe not, but I just don't care anymore."

"That's another reason why I need to stay. You might not value your life so much, but I do. Someone's got to keep you from making bad decisions."

"'Warp-"

"None of us can go home anyways," Cybewarp continued. "Not right now. Northwind said so - said that you told him that."

"I did, but..." Hawkmoon vented. "Look, we'll talk about this later."

"Please, yes."

"Fine, right, I'll go-" she made to stand, but Cyberwarp caught hold of her pauldron. "'Warp?"

Cyberwarp kissed her again. An unspoken plea to stay.

It was pretty convincing, as arguments went.

AN: I'm sat here writing this in a lovely dark evening where the rain's hitting the roof, there's a warm fire on, I'm swaddled beneath a cozy blanket, there's a napping cat purring on my legs, and a bottle of awesome cider on the stool beside me. I think this is what they call 'bliss'.

Huge thanks to Nomad Blue for editing!