Ganturis was a giant, twice as big as earth, with an atmosphere that would corrode her from the inside out. Scarlett stood on the edge of the Arks platform, staring out at the massive planet. She felt a sense of dread penetrate her suit staring at it, as if it were watching her back.
"And there's no life on the planet?" She couldn't imagine the size of living creatures on a planet so large.
Optimus stood next to her, his frame shadowing what light came from within the ship. "Yes," his own optics stared out into the void, as if he were pondering something far different than their mission on hand.
Scarlett turned her head, focusing her attention on the space-bridge. It was as massive as Ganturis. She could see where time had taken its toll on it, even from where she stood. Pieces floated helplessly around it, broken off from years of neglect.
"It will work," his voice broke over her worrying thoughts, as if he could read them. "We have all we need in the ark for the minor repairs it will need. Ganturis will have the rest."
She turned her attention back to him, looking up through the glass of her helmet until her eyes met his optics. "How can you be so sure?"
He smiled that soft confident smile she was growing used to seeing. "Our technology was made to last. My own existence is proof to that." his expression softened to a soft worry. "Are you sure you are ready for this, Scarlett? I can go myself to Ganturis."
She shook her head. "I'm ready, Optimus. I want to do this." she smiled back, though she could feel the pull of her cheeks at how it hurt her today. Maybe it was the lack of gravity. "I can help."
He bowed his head in response. "Ganturis will have a gravity similar to something between Earth's and its moon. Are the weights in your suit okay for you?"
She looked down at the weights that had been retrofitted to her legs. They were crude and felt clunky against her body. "I haven't tried them yet." Scarlett turned off the magnet to her boots, letting the weights do their job. She could feel her body lifting ever so off the platform, but not enough that she was floating helplessly. "They're good, they should work in the gravity well enough."
Optimus turned back toward the Ark. "Then we will head down." His fist pressed the button to the ramp and she moved back with it, watching as Ganturis disappeared behind the steel barricade. The ship jerked as it was thrusted from its stop and Optimus directed Telane to maneuver them down.
She sat in one of the small chairs that had been bolted to the floor for humans. The rumble of the ship shook even through her suit. This mission. This planet. It was all so surreal, as if she were dreaming and would wake once again in her bed on the station. She would hear her cohort laughing about something stupid around the table and she would wander out into the dim light of the hallway.
Optimus shifted as the ship took a downturn through the atmosphere. She felt the pushback waving through the ship and her body. They were entering the planet's space, occupying only a small percentage of its actual size. She imagined they were mites compared to the life that resided outside the safety of the Ark. At least she would be. Optimus might be more a small rodent.
She felt the ship clunk softly to the ground. Through the helmet she could hear the ship power down with clicks and whirrs. Optimus turned to face her, his optics waiting patiently for her attention. She turned her eyes to him and stood up, bowing her head to once again let him know she was ready for this adventure - that she had asked for.
The door to the Ark opened and she gasped.
The world outside was far more than she could have imagined standing above it. Trees towered her and Optimus, making them nothing compared to the life here. Stepping out onto the platform she could feel the gravity that he had spoken about. It wasn't earth, but it wasn't the moons. It was as if she could hover if she released her weights, yet somehow be grounded in a new kind of way.
Her weights kept her down enough that her feet could prod her through the territory with ease. In the gravity she could hardly feel their pull on her. Instead it was as if they had been a part of her suit all along. Her feet barely touched the ground, her body a deer prancing through the forest with ease. "It's beautiful. . ." her body turned, taking in the full beauty. They were surrounded by trees and bushes of all kinds and sizes. Some of the lower greenery rose to her height and yet in the gravity she felt she could climb over it easily, a little bug skittering through its natural landscape.
"I read many records about this planet," Optimus' voice crackled through her comm link. "They could not capture this planet's beauty as well as seeing it for yourself."
Scarlett couldn't feel his movement as she could on the Ark. He was beside her, his shadow the only thing to tell her that he was nearby. Glancing up at him she could see his optics studying the land, as fascinated as she was. "It was described as a towering forest, making our own sizes miniscule in comparison. I had often wondered what that would feel like, to be among a nature that warped my own view of my size."
"Be careful Optimus," Scarlett wandered forward toward a colorful flower. "Your inner librarian is coming out."
She heard chuckling in her ear and turned to see him staring off at something different than she, but a smile on his face. He didn't respond, but instead walked in a different direction than her, toward a tree that harbored a different flower than the one she went to. She stopped at the bush that was taller than her, as wide as a small house back on earth. The flower protruded from it, a head attached to a snaking stem. It's trumpet like petals coaxed her forward to touch them, feel their softness, study them.
She wasn't a botanist, that job had been reserved for her mother. But through her she had learned countless things about nature. This was far from the plants of earth, but she wanted to know about it. She wanted her mother here to study it, to ponder it, to tell her its living secrets that flowed through its veins. "You're so beautiful."
Her hand reached out, wanting to feel the softness that the petals promised. They looked as if there were fur lining them, an animal in disguise to catch its prey.
The thought crossed her mind and she reeled her hand back. "You said this planet wasn't supposed to have sentient life, right?" She turned her attention to Optimus who was standing next to another tree that harbored a different flower than the first.
"Yes. It was recorded that the only living on this planet was the nature. No animals nor sentient creatures were known to be here."
Scarlett turned back toward her flower and reached out again. Even through her gloves she could feel how soft it was. She wished she could rip them off and feel it with her own skin. "You're so beautiful." her voice was a whisper, low enough to not be caught by the link between her and Optimus. "I wonder what you are called." she giggled. "I guess you wouldn't have a name. I think I'll call you Magna Ameliana, after my mother."
She breathed in, wondering if the flower had a smell. She imagined it smelled like honey on a warm summer's day. "But we have a mission," she whispered to herself again. "I have to leave you."
She moved, a foot gliding toward Optimus. Her other though, stayed. Fear gripped her as something snagged around her leg, keeping her stuck where she had stood moments ago. Snapping her attention to her foot she saw the vine of the flower snaked around her calf, a stem reaching upward toward her thigh. "Oh no." her heart seized in her chest, fear and dread shooting through her veins. "Optimus!"
Scarlett yanked at her foot, but with each movement the vine tightened. "Optimus, help!" Her hand reached down, tugging at the fine, trying to unwrap it from her leg. Through her gloves she could feel its stick. Not a sap but tiny spines slowly moving as one entity up her leg to leverage better hold.
She couldn't hear Optimus, but she could see his shadow falling over her as he rushed to her rescue.
"The plant, it's got a hold of me! I can't-" a scream bellowed from her chest as another vine lashed out from the bush, grabbing her arm that tried to wrestle her leg free. She could see from the corner of her eye a weapon attached to Optimus' forearm, ready to unleash a terror on the plant. It seemed to notice as well and the slow maneuver up her body stopped. She breathed, maybe it could feel fear, knew its end was coming.
Then a tug. Her body jerked. She felt like a fish being pulled out of water. This was the plant's home, she was an invader. The jerk came again and she toppled to the ground, but the fall was barely noticeable in the gravity.
She heard Optimus yell something as he swung a sword down. The plant tugged again and she watched as his arms came down nearly on top of her. He stopped before the blade could penetrate her suit, killing her in moments. For a moment there was peace and Optimus redirected the sword attached to his forearm at the plant.
A screech filled the air. Her head turned back to see where it was coming from, but she could see nothing but the beautiful flower and bushes that hid something behind it. Optimus swung down again and her eyes clenched shut, fear gripping her at the thought that he could accidentally slice her this time if the plant jerked her again.
But this time there was no tug or jerk. There was a pull. She was sliding with ease across the ground, her ears hearing the rustle of nature as she was yanked through it at a pace she could have never run. A scream filled the air, this one from herself. Her eyes wanted to stay closed but she forced them open, trying to watch where she was going. Trying to get a calculation of what was at the other end of this thing.
Optimus was chasing her, his strides massive, but not fast enough for the pace that she was being pulled at. She felt sick but shoved whatever she had in her stomach down. She couldn't deal with that being her suit right now - the smell, the feeling as it drained down her limbs.
Optimus transformed, his mode as a truck moving at a far faster pace than his run. She watched him slowly catch up to her.
The vine yanked her in a new direction and her head snapped to the side, muscles crying out in pain as she hit something hard. A tree she presumed. Or maybe it was something different if there was actual life on this planet. Maybe they were small after all and the presence of giant sentient beings had scared them. But her. . . She was probably a good size snack.
The vine jerked her into a new direction again and she braced for impact as she saw her body move toward a tree. The vine slid her to the side, her body evading the tree by millimeters.
Looking back up, she watched Optimus following at a slight distance. It seemed no matter how fast he went the vine was faster. If she made it out alive she would have to nag Optimus to change the records about there being no sentient life on this planet.
The screech bellowed through her head again. Louder this time. Whatever it came from was getting closer to her. Or she to it.
Her head tilted again, her heart sinking at the sight of Optimus further behind now. This gravity was not as light to him as it was to her, but it clearly had some effect. She struggled again, trying to fight her way out of the vine's grasp. "Come on. Come on!" With each pull it fought her, the grip tightening, the vine slipping up her body even more. Her free leg swung around, her foot knocking into the vine wrapped around her thigh.
A screech resounded even closer now. She kicked again, the noise following after. Whatever was on the other end did not like this. Her foot repeated the motion as quickly as she could, pushing as much force as she could into each kick. "Let. Me. Go!"
From the vine gripping her leg another one grew, wrapping itself around her other leg. It sewed her legs together, stopping her protest. She glanced again, Optimus still following at the same pace. The vine wrapped around her waist, pinning her caught arm to her side. She struggled, knowing it was useless, hoping it would do something. Another vine crawled from the base of the others, seeking her free arm. It was done with her antics and would put an end to it all.
She flailed out her free arm, keeping the vine from catching it. It snaked around her chest, searching for whatever it could to pin her tighter into its grasp. She felt its tiny claws through her suit crawling up toward her arm and she clenched her eyes shut, a scream erupting from her throat. The vine wrapped itself around her arm, its strength far more than hers, and jerked it back to her side, coiling around her body to pin it. She was trapped, her body in a cocoon of green vines that would soon probably be digesting her.
She could hear it creeping around her helmet and the light that broke through the trees soon became darkness. Her breathing stalled, her heart rolling in her chest. The air in her suit was becoming hot, or anxiety had defended her senses to reality. Was this the new life she had signed up for now? Had she not thought it through the potential consequences of jaunting off to random planets? She had always wanted adventure but had never weighed the costs of their reality. Her first planet from earth and she was going to be some sentient plants dinner.
Her body raised, her head knocking against the ground as the vines wound her upward. Her eyes sought any pocket where they had not wound around her helmet, but everything had become a pitch black. She sucked in a deep slow breath until her lungs begged for mercy, and then she held it for as long as she could. Air seeped out of her mouth in hissing streaks, her ears open for anything other than the sound of nature taking her over.
"Scarlett," Optimus' voice was a cool breeze over her burning skin. "Are you there?"
She nodded, well aware he couldn't hear her, but too scared to speak. She didn't want to risk the vine doing anything more than it already had.
"If you can hear me, I am keeping up with the vine. I will not let it harm you."
His words were meant to comfort her, but she couldn't believe them. All that kept running through her mind was what it was going to do to her. That and how she had survived a blast in the middle of space only to be eaten by nature on a planet so far from home.
"I am sorry to have dragged you into this." She could hear the apology in his voice, the regret. She knew the numbers of humans who had died in the war. She had pondered at the memorials if the Autobots felt guilt over the casualties their fight had brought humanity. She could hear it now in his voice. She was to be another death under his hand. His protection. Her heart bled for him.
Scarlett released her breath, feeling her body. Her shoulders were pressed into the shoulder pads of her suit. She was upside down, her hair falling upward and pooling at the top of the helmet. Her body was compressed, narrow as a bullet ready to be sprung from its lock. They had arrived to wherever the vine had been taking her and she would most likely find her end soon enough.
But Optimus had been close behind when she'd last seen him. He couldn't be far off. Not unless the vine had taken her far enough into the trees that he wouldn't be able to see her. He could very well continue on, thinking he was chasing a vine, all the while she was hanging for dear life, her blood rushing to her head as the vine contemplated on what to do with her.
Would she be its appetizer, main course, or dessert? If it caught Optimus would he even be edible? Or would it take his life and make him into its own personal lawn decoration?
Scarlett groaned, feeling the pressure that hanging upside down caused. Being an astronaut meant training for every possible scenario, this being one. Well, not this, but something akin in ways of station mishaps. She could bear it for as long as she was able, but humans were not made to live their life upside down. She sucked in a deep breath, feeling the pressure of her organs bearing down on her lungs.
Silence fell over her, the vines stopped, movement ceasing completely. She wondered how high up she was. Did these vines live in the trees or was that simply where they strung their prey? And what other prey would reside on a planet that was supposed to not have any life other than vegetation?
She breathed again, forcing the air into her lungs, trying to feel her blood flowing through her body. She wanted to be calm, but that didn't seem the option right now. But it would help if she had a clear mind that wasn't frantically searching for answers.
"Ganturians," Optimus' voice broke through her comm link.
Scarlett perked, her mind suddenly shifting as her ears listened to his voice. It was stoic, as if he were back on the battle ground.
"We have come in peace and mean you no harm. My kind left important artifacts on this planet in hopes to restore our space bridge just outside of your planet's atmosphere. My friend and I did not mean to startle nor invade your land. We were told through our records that this planet did not harbor life. I beg you to let my friend go for she is not here to harm you. She is a human scientist who is helping me find something lost to my race. We urge you to understand."
His voice was soothing and she wondered if this was what made so many Cybertronians willing to fight with him. She surely would have if he asked her to in that tone.
"We only ask that we are able to retrieve our artifacts and the energon reserves left on your planet. When we have acquired them we will leave and never come back to this planet." She listened for a pleading in his voice, but there was none. There was only confidence, as if he knew his words would work. Then again, she often watched her brother do the same, even when he didn't believe in himself. It was the mere facade of confidence that often won those listening over.
A jerk brought her back into the moment. Another one and she realized her body was being lowered to the ground. She counted the seconds, wanting to see when she was out how far up she might have been recounting them. The vines let her down with a gentle press, her body sinking into the soft turf of Ganturis. Her body shook the feeling of vines retreating.
Light finally penetrated through her helmet. They were deep within the forest, light seeping through dense pockets in the trees above. Trees that towered even taller than the ones they stood near just outside the grove. Her body fell into a jello state as the vines slithered off her and she laid there, watching out for where they were going. They slithered toward an alcove where others must have been waiting for them to come back.
Optimus' shadow covered the slits of light that she relished. He kneeled to one knee and offered her a digit to help her up. She accepted, pressing all her weight onto it as he raised her to her feet. She felt as if she were hovering again and that somehow everything was alright. "How did you know that would work?"
He looked over his shoulder at a tall standing conglomeration of vines in his near image. Save for the green tendrils slithering and the stiff stance. But they captured his blue optics perfectly. "I do not believe this life here was sentient before our arrival." He stood and the mock vines shifted into his exact stance.
"They're mimicking you?"
"They are not sentient like you and I." he turned to face them and she gave the Optimus vines her full attention. "But I believe that our energon that we left here merged with them and gave them a sort of life of their own."
"You spoke to them as if they were sentient."
"I cannot say for sure if they are or not."
"They let me down when you were done."
"That in itself is not proof. They could have responded to a voice that was soft and not threatening. Much like your animals on earth."
She hadn't realized they'd been walking toward the vines until their feet were at his copycats threshold. Before her vines compiled upon each other, like snakes fighting over a last meal. Piece by piece she watched a mirror image of herself come to life, bright blue eyes staring back at her. Scarlett stepped forward, the vine mimic doing the same. "That is amazing." her hand raised and the vines followed suit, her hand pressing into her own that was unlike her own. There were no spines on these vines, but instead she could tell there was a softness to them. How she wished she could rip off her suit and truly take in their beauty.
She stared into her images eyes. They were glowing beautifully, as blue and vibrant as the ones Optimus had. They did not blink when she blinked, nor move like her own. They stared straight out, a stream of light reflecting off her helmet. "What are you?"
A quieter version of the shriek from before erupted from the mouth of the creature. Scarlett jumped, her body stumbling back at the noise. The creature didn't follow, instead it leaped toward her in a state of almost shock. She shielded herself from it, her feet tripping over the soft vines of the forests basin. She felt her body falling, but it never hit the ground. Her eyes had clenched shut but she could feel something wrapped around her wrist. Peaking her eyes open she saw her reflection had caught her and was pulling her back to her feet.
Letting out a short breath, she bowed her head to it in thanks. It bowed back, its feet stepping backwards as if it knew it had scared her. "This is amazing."
"Yes." Optimus looked down to her, his own reflection doing the same. "But the question stands on if our energon my ancestors hid here is still there, or if this new life used it all to create itself."
"If there's any left, they're sure to know."
Optimus stared back at his reflection. She watched his arm transform into the blade that had tried to free her from the vine that took her. It sliced through his other arm and she seethed at the sound of metal against metal. But he showed now reaction. She frowned. War had taken its toll, even in the way he felt pain. She wondered if he noticed anything at all anymore.
Dots of energon dripped from his arm, the vine somehow, in its own way, lighting up at seeing he was made of it too. He pointed to the energon, "Where?"
His reflection looked up at him, its head tilting to the side. Its eyes turned toward her own reflection and she felt, in their own way, they were conversing with each other. Then their forms dropped, only mounds that glowed a faint blue left on the ground before them. The two slithered toward each other and compounded into one and then it paused. She felt as if it were staring at them both, waiting for a reaction from them.
"I believe it wants us to follow it."
She gulped. "Seems the only explanation to that behavior."
Optimus stepped forward and she followed suit. The mound retreated back but stopped, rolling up a little to half the height of Optimus before dropping again - as if it were sighing. It split into two, rolled around each other, and then combined again into its larger mound.
"What does it want?" she stepped toward the vines. They jerked again and split, forcing back together with a loud whop that seemed to shake through the trees of the forest.
"It wants us to follow its lead." Optimus leant down, a servo leaned on the ground for her to get onto it. "It wants us to merge."
"Ya, no." she stepped back, her eyes flipping between Optimus and the mound.
"I understand your fears, Scarlett. But this creature clearly wants us to follow its lead in every way. If we want to find the energon, we will have to respect it."
She looked at the mound and felt the creeping of its nonexistent eyes watching her. Her body shook inside the suit. This gravity was far better than earths, but she wouldn't be without injuries if she were to fall off of his servo. She couldn't risk it.
But this creature, whatever it was, seemed to make it clear that it would not bulge until they followed its directions. Taking in a shaky breath, she climbed onto his servo with a caution that she felt she had to let go of.
His servos curled ever so around her and she gripped onto them, peeking her head out between the gaps. "I will not drop you, Scarlett, you have my promise."
She swallowed to wet her dry throat and nodded. "I'll try to trust you on that." The mound below her seemed to jump with a sense of excitement and finally moved forward. It moved quickly through the forest, but kept its pace less than before, allowing Optimus to keep up with it this time. She watched as the scenery changed from tall dense trees to an open grove of florals that gave her a sense of majesty.
This planet was beyond compare. She wished she could be taking pictures and sending them back to earth. How her cohort would have freaked as seeing something so amazing. . .
The word darkened in her chest at the thought of her crew again. They would have loved this and she was the only one alive to witness it.
"Are you alright, Scarlett?"
Her head perked at Optimus' voice. "Oh, I'm-" she felt a tear slowly carve down her cheek. Her fingers pressed into her helmet, as if they could wipe them away. "I'm fine." she sniffled, trying to keep the rest of the tears at bay. "It's just so beautiful."
"It is magnificent. Earths nature had fascinated me, but this is something new that I have not witnessed anywhere else. The records truly did not do this planet justice."
"I bet." she stood to her feet, her eyes wandering the whole grove before they erupted back into a darkened forest. "How far do you think it's leading us?"
The vine stopped right before them and molded itself back into the form of Optimus.
"I guess that answers that," she murmured to herself. Before them leafed vines fell from a canopy above, as if it were hiding something precious behind. She couldn't see anything from behind except for a faint glow of blue.
"I believe we are here."
The vines turned its back on them and spread an arm out, separating the hanging vines from each other.
A gasp slipped past her lips at the sight of gigantic crystals jutting from the ground, flowers dancing around them all in a beautiful display of opposing natures. The sharp and the soft become one.
Optimus followed his reflection inside and she was suddenly filled with a soft warmth from the glow of the crystals. Her eyes couldn't take in the whole scenery. It spread so far that she imagined it went on for miles. Their size pale that of the bushes that she first encountered on the planet. Much of it grew even taller than Optimus, towering over him, creating deep rich glows of blue in every crevice of the cove that the vines lead them to.
She pressed her body further though his digits, wanting a better look at it all. No matter where her head turned the cove went on in all directions. Or maybe it was a trick of the light. The sun above mixed with the glow of the crystals. Her head turned to Optimus, words barely escaping her lips. "Is this-"
His head nodded, her words cut off, unable to finish her thought. "Energon."