'Bout time, huh?
Well, here it is :) Enjoy!
About two weeks had gone by without incident, save for a few things being dropped or the twins being themselves. The new ship was coming along nicely. Most of the hull was finished. Wheeljack and Perceptor were in the process of programming and installing computers all over it from tail to nose. They still hadn't allowed anyone inside, making others curious as to what they were up to in there.
A large hangar had been erected to accommodate the project, making the hangar large even compared to some of them on Cybertron. It hid the ship from eyes that didn't need to see it. The last thing they needed was humans talking about a giant ship on Earth that didn't belong there.
It was majestic, although incomplete. They hadn't endeavored to build a ship of this magnitude for many millennia. It resembled what the humans called an SR-71 Blackbird, except it was white – blindingly white in fact. There was an embossed Autobot Emblem on the nose of the ship. He still couldn't get over the sheer size of it and wondered for a second where they had come up with the all of the alloy to create it. It was huge, even by their own standards.
The seeker reached up and touched the symbol. This would take them to Primus. This would take them home.
"Soundwave, have you checked anyone else's mind for that silent memory?" Starscream asked as he saw said mech setting down a barrel of refined Energon he had already produced for whoever had been assigned to working on the panels that day.
"I haven't, yet, no," the telepath replied, "I considered trying, but the way things are going, we may have to tie them down. Half of them either don't believe or do not want to believe that everything we have been telling is for real."
"Hn… I know what you mean," Starscream admitted, leaning up against the wall closest to him and folding his arms, "perhaps we have them all go to Ratchet's med bay and demand we do it. Time is running out, you know."
"I'm well aware of it. The last they knew, my telepathy could kill them, I don't think they will be very… willing to try it now," Soundwave told him. "We don't want to scare them too badly."
"What do you mean could? You mean still can." Starscream chuffed, giving Soundwave the side-eye. "You aren't telling them everything, are you?"
"Would you?" Soundwave retorted, knowing full well what the answer would be.
"Probably not," Starscream agreed, glancing up in thought to watch Ironhide walk across the hangar with a part. "Do they not realize there is a change in you?"
"It's been a little while. They reply to it as if it's a fluke or I hit my head,"
"They're all in denial. They don't want to believe this is all real."
"Some are beginning to come around," Soundwave nodded, "Slowly…"
"When we all sit down for the meeting, which will be shortly after the ship is complete; we will have to convince them – somehow."
"That won't be an easy task, Starscream."
Starscream sighed, thinking how true that was, "Don't remind me,"
Optimus walked toward them, curiously watching the two, "Is everything alright?" he asked, genuinely concerned. He had noticed the Ancients retreating to their quarters more often and had sought them out to make sure everyone was okay.
"Everything is fine." Starscream pushed himself off of the wall. "We were just talking about memory extractions,"
Soundwave spoke up, "Starscream had come to ask me if I had gone through anyone else's mind in search for the silent memory, and after some consideration, I feel I would scare them more than anything,"
"We need to find out – for sure – as soon as possible." Starscream grumbled, annoyed of their misplaced fear.
"What do you mean?" Optimus asked, "Is that danger you spoke of getting nearer?"
Starscream wrinkled his nose plates, "Vector was attacked," he said more to Soundwave than to Optimus.
"Attacked?!" Optimus hissed, "By whom?"
"Not by who… more like a what." Starscream corrected, "Since he is so in tune with the universe, he can feel when it is disrupted,"
"What do you mean?"
"Unicron was imprisoned in an alternate universe, but the rift between dimensions has been affected. Come to think of it, I'm surprised Skywarp hasn't felt it."
Optimus' optic ridges shot up in surprise. "Is Skywarp one of you, too?"
"No, no," Starscream smiled to himself at the thought, "But he is in tune with rifts, seeing as he teleports. I should ask him."
Soundwave nodded in agreement, listening to the Seeker.
"So where can we find the others?" Optimus inquired.
"Well, Maccadam is out there somewhere," Starscream sighed, looking up as if the ceiling would have the answer. "We can mark him off the list. He's probably guarding the bar, but Vector hasn't mentioned him,"
"Can I have a list of the names of all we may or may not be looking for?" Optimus asked. Starscream nodded. He didn't feel any need to hide who was who from him – save The Fallen. He could know that The Fallen was one of them, but not who it was. Not until him and the others figured out how the slag he was going to be revived.
There was a suddenly loud sound that came from the ship. Soundwave, Optimus and Starscream startled jumping back from it. A hard wind came from underneath it and dust and debris flew everywhere. Next, an explosive, pulsing heat came from under the ship. The sound then turned into a rumble and started to shake the entire hangar. The six anti-gravity engines under the ship itself whined until they hit a note which made everyone in the room cover their audio receptors. They watched apprehensively as the ship started to move – more specifically, lift off the ground.
It continued to lift until the landing gear it was setting on lifted and then began tucking away. As the heat and wind dissipated, the whine turned into a low drone and then became a soft hum. There was a loud clanging noise as the landing gear covers moved over the landing gear, creating a solid surface.
Starscream pulled his hands from his audio receptors and hissed, glaring at the ship, "What the frag?!"
Soundwave, seeing the ship starting to drift their way, reached over and put his hand up to it, stopping it. It was easier than he thought it would be. He shook his head, wondering why Wheeljack hadn't tied the ship down before engaging the anti-gravity system. "Grab those tethers," Soundwave instructed, pointing to a pile of straps and chains. He stood still, making sure the ship stayed put as well.
Starscream looked around, seeing straps laying on the ground. Picking one up, he looked at the hull, searching for hooks. When he found them, he began clamping the tethers to the hooks, ensuring the ship wouldn't float away.
"Hey!" Wheeljack slid out onto the steps of the ship and stood there, looking around with a pleased expression on his face.
"You didn't think to warn us first?" Starscream nearly screeched, pulling the tethers to the wall where he connected them. "Scared the pit right out of us,"
"I think I got the computer up and running," Wheeljack said, watching Starscream and then looked to Optimus.
"Do you want to see it?" The engineer was practically bouncing as he looked at all of them hopefully.
"It won't explode while we are in space, will it?"
Wheeljack heard Rumble's voice from somewhere between the hulls of the ship and glanced at the ship itself, knowing it was working on the electrical systems, "You're joking, right?" he deadpanned. "It can't go into space yet, the hull isn't finished."
Optimus shook his head as Wheeljack waved for them to follow. The mechs disappeared into the main bay doors. It was the first time he had stepped foot onto the nearly three-thousand-foot-long ship, having been banned like everyone else from going inside. He was interested to see it.
When Optimus stepped onto the bridge, he was very impressed. The three windows in front were very large, about fifteen foot tall and ten foot wide, giving them room to look around the front of the ship. There were computer consoles to the left and to the right and in front of the captain's seat were two other smaller stations.
"I know it doesn't look like much, but…"
Optimus had heard the Engineer; however, his optics were on the smaller – human-sized consoles near the main consoles. He wondered for a moment why until he was interrupted by Wheeljack. Looking up at him.
"Watch this," Wheeljack said as he held up a finger, he pressed a button and the computers came to life, all of their monitors flickering and went full on, each monitor centering on its own job functions. Some were diagnostics, some weapons, some hull and armor, others were control systems.
"Teletraan One, bring me visuals of Earth's Moon onto the main window," Wheeljack commanded. A few seconds later, the window flickered between solid and transparent for a short moment before the moon was on the middle window. Next to the celestial rock, information about the moon started to come up, telling then how far, its circumference and other pertinent information.
"Satellite of Earth, Luna, first window,"
"It is voice commanded?" Optimus asked.
"Yes," Wheeljack said, "I call it Teletraan One. It has the computing power of one of us, actually, however, given it does not have a spark, it has no sentience," he pointed to the console to the front left of his leader, "That console controls the main engines." His finger moved to the other, "That one controls the weapons systems and that one controls the shields that will be installed – and yes, this monster will have all of our technology including the humans', fine-tuned."
Optimus nodded as he watched the computer showing twin cannons on the weapon monitor, showing the specifics to the cannons and then showed several different turrets and each specifics on the weapons that were already installed and that would be installed. The Autobot leader looked to the left side console on the wall, "What does this one do?"
"Diagnostics. One can run this entire ship from there also if something requires extra assistance. It has all of the main information to each bay and area, including down to each quarters of the others," the leader was very impressed.
"The other side deals with parts of the hull also and will also have information ready, but the best thing about it, is the computer itself runs the entire ship."
"Is that why it started hovering?" Optimus asked.
"Actually yes, as soon as I turned it on, it started up the anti-gravity system, which was automatic. See, this ship will never sit on the ground, only hover. There are six large chains that hold the ship still." Wheeljack supplied, turning slightly when he heard the sound of footsteps behind them, apparently someone else was interested as well. He went on to explain the rest, "These consoles are more to keep an optic on things. You tell the computer what to do, and it will do it. It will be online from here on out. One of the nice things about it is that it can pick up signals from as far as the planet Neptune, so we can tell if there is danger before it gets to us,"
"But won't the radio waves from other planets and stars interrupt it?"
"Not at all, it can distinguish between a natural radio wave and a deliberate one, sir,"
"What will we be using for the engines?" Optimus heard 'wow' from somewhere behind himself but kept his attention on the miracle that had been built in this gigantic hangar.
"Well, those will be more complicated. I haven't onlined the propulsion engines systems yet, but it will be four high powered specially fueled Energon Cyrogenic systems for space maneuvers. Each one has the propulsion power equal to ten Cybertronian shuttles, but it will not harm the ship itself or anyone that are within twenty feet of the thrusters, given the amount of power that it puts out."
"How are you going to do this?"
"Well, after extensive talks with Soundwave over there," he pointed to said Mech that was walking to the main window, "we both came up with a way to make an engine that runs on specially refined energon alone. And the best part is when the energon is de-charged by use, it doesn't dissipate, but goes back through the system that has its own built refiner and circulates the energon, so technically, this ship will never run out of fuel,"
"Ingenious Wheeljack, truly ingenious!" Optimus gasped, "What speeds can it obtain?"
"Going over the schematics of the power output, we estimate that it can get speeds up to at least two and a half light seconds per earth day while in the gravity wells of stars, making it the fastest and most efficient Cybertronian Starship ever created. It handles like a dream, in case you're wondering. I have also installed a space bridge console on it, so it can open a space bridge whenever we are out of the gravity wells."
"You built one into the ship?" Optimus asked. It had never been done before. Those that had tried in the past ended up blowing the ships up as there wasn't enough throughput on initiation, or if it did initiate, the power back-flowed into the bridge itself.
"After many, many calculations and testing, we succeeded where others had failed." Wheeljack said with excitement. "That's what we have been doing in here and why we wouldn't allow anyone inside. The containment system was small enough not to blow up our base, but big enough it would have killed anyone near it."
Optimus replied, eyeing the controls while he listened, "I see,"
"All of that built on this planet. Sometimes I wonder where you come up with all of this, Wheeljack," Sunstreaker's voice suddenly cut in as he stepped up next to the pair.
"I'm a genius," Wheeljack said cheekily.
"I get weapon systems!" Sunstreaker turned, his brother bouncing to the weapons console.
Optimus put his hand to his forehead, "Ironhide will fight you to the death for that one, Sideswipe,"
Sideswipe ran his hands over the controls in excitement, "I accept that challenge."
"Welcome to The Ark, boys," Wheeljack said proudly as he held his hands out.
White is so much better than yellow...