Seismic Exchange

An alien landmark on the surface of the Chuvash plains, the central tower of the Brave Maximus stands 3842 feet tall. The giant space station/city was built in the Dominator Sector of the Cybertronian Empire, and refitted millions of years later by the Autobots to serve as a defence satellite for their homeworld of Cybertron. It was home to the 24 Autobots branded as criminals by Star Saber. That is, until two humans wound up in the thick of things.

“I wasn’t expecting you humans to be so, um….” Sideburn couldn’t really think of the right word.

“Squidgy?” laughed Jennifer as she poked a finger into David’s beergut.

“Oi!” he replied with mock hurt, grabbing her arm.

“…Weird.” Sideburn finished his sentence.

“I guess we can come across that way, sometimes,” said Jennifer. “I mean, most alien races tend to say that about us.”

Sideburn stopped in his tracks. “How many have you been in contact with?”

David laughed. “Oh, don’t mind her. I think all the excitement’s gone to her head.” He craned his neck to make eye contact with the Autobot. “You guys are our first contact.”

Sideburn knelt down on one knee. “I’m just sorry our leader was less than welcoming.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said you weren’t happy about this,” Ultra Magnus told Fire Convoy.

Fire Convoy paced around his sparsely decorated quarters. “It just makes my pistons fire to think of those organics here. What do you possibly see in them?”

“Star Saber really did a number on you, didn’t he? Why has he made you so hateful, so speciesist?”

“It’s just what he’s always believed, that the Transformers are destined to become the Master Race.”

“And do you believe that?”

“Well—”

Ultra Magnus didn’t let him finish. “A Quintesson once told me a story of so-called Master Races, of the Fahl, the Vok and the Masters. Believe me, the Transformers are a hell of a long way off.”

“Yes, yes, I know all about the Evopeak. It is Star Saber’s ambition to reach it, to reach the Omega Point.”

“Tell me then, Fire Convoy, what is your ambition?”

The large red Autobot lowered his head and thought for a second. “To make sure he doesn’t. To kick his Imperial hide right back to Alpha Point.”

“Oh, you’re bleeding!”

“It’s nothing,” said David, swatting Jennifer’s hand away from his face. The turbolift announced they were on level 18 as David dabbed the blood from his nose with his sleeve.

“Here we go,” said Sideburn. “Crew quarters. Ultra Magnus thought it’d be cool to introduce you to everyone.” He stepped out of the lift before realising. “Ooh, I forgot to ask if you humans were okay to climb 2000 feet in less than a second.”

“It’s no problem,” said Jennifer, pointing to David’s nose. “Just some guys seem to crack at the slightest pressure.”

The group of three walked (well, Jennifer and David had to maintain more of a jog to keep up with Sideburn) along the corridors of level 18, as the young Autobot continued his tour.

“These are the Build Team’s quarters. They seem pretty useless around here.”

There was an angry, “cheek!” from inside the room. “Oh yeah, ‘cept for when they dug us out from under that lava.”

“Um, thanks guys,” David called into the open door. He got a distant, “whatever” in response.

Several doors along, Railspike burst out of his quarters. “Can’t stop,” he said, “Magnus wants us to monitor seismic activity around the planet. Can’t be late!”

As the grey robot sped past them, Sideburn remarked: “Those Bullet guys are crazy, always rushing around fretting about something.”

Jennifer laughed. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to or not.

“These are Speedbreaker’s quarters,” Sideburn said with a smile. “He’s really cool. I think he’s training with Mach Alert. They took their defeat at the hands of Megatron pretty bad.”

They arrived at Wildride’s quarters. “Not as bad as this guy. He’s been in here since they got back, refusing to come out.”

The door slid open suddenly and Wildride stepped out. “You’re disturbing me,” he said, almost growling. The door shut again and David and Jennifer looked at each other.

Sideburn laughed nervously. “Strategists, eh?”

The threesome walked further along and turned right around a corner. “This is where me and the boys are! You’ll get on well with us. ‘Cept Speedtrap maybe, he’s a bit of a nerd.”

“I have plenty of experience of those,” Jennifer said as she turned to David.

“You’re a lot more sarcastic than I was expecting,” Fire Convoy told Ultra Magnus.

“I’m told it’s a defence mechanism,” Ultra Magnus replied, folding his arms.

“Are you threatened by me?”

Ultra Magnus avoided the question. “I’ll admit I’m not comfortable in this situation.”

“Well, who is, really?” said Fire Convoy. “I hate being here. This planet’s too cold for me, I feel weak.”

“And that’s my problem, how?”

“Are you sure you didn’t deliberately choose Russia as a base of operations? It must be the coldest part of the whole planet!”

“I chose it so we were as far away from human populations as possible.”

Fire Convoy grunted.

“You’ll learn,” said Ultra Magnus, “and hopefully soon.”

“I’m only interested in learning the whereabouts of Megatron and this spark we’re looking for.”

“I’m sure we’d find it a lot quicker if we could actually agree on a strategy.”

“I’m all audio-receptors.”

“Listen to what these humans have to say, it might prove helpful.”

“You’re not going to drop this, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Say, where’s Oilslick?” Sideburn asked Warcry.

“No idea. Probably doing a few laps of the storage bays,” the red Autobot replied. “So, are these the fleshlings?”

“We’re humans,” said Jennifer, feeling more confident dealing with robots who were only a two feet taller than her instead of twenty. “I’m Jennifer and this is David.”

Chicane, Warcry, Daytonus, Hot Shot, Rev, Crosswise, and Ox silently acknowledged the two humans. Speedtrap walked up to them, thrusting some kind of device in front of their faces. “You two are going to have to stop breathing. The moisture from your lungs may exceed the safety parameters for environmental humidity.”

“We kinda need to keep breathing,” said David as he pushed the device away from his face.

Rev took the device out of Speedtrap’s hands. “When Ultra Magnus asked us to get to know the humans, I’m not sure he wanted us to monitor their bodily fluid output.”

“Fine,” said Speedtrap, his shoulders falling into a slump. “Just don’t come crying to me when you get condensation on your resistors.”

There was a sudden bleep-bleep and Sideburn tapped the side of his head lightly. “Just got a message from Magnus. He and Fire Convoy are ready to see you two now.”

David and Jennifer stood nervously on top of the table. Fire Convoy, Pitstop, Tow-Line and Ultra Magnus watched them intently.

“Our group found a spacecraft called the Axalon about fifty years ago. We believe it to be from your home planet. We have translated much of the onboard computer files, and found references to a massive disaster on this planet and names such as Megatron and Ultra Magnus.”

Fire Convoy impatiently drummed his fingers on the table. The vibrations pulsed through David’s skeleton as he continued: “The files are kept at our base in the United Kingdom, and we’d be happy to—"

“Why would anything you have be of any value to us?” Fire Convoy asked. “I’ve never even heard of the Axalon.”

“Think about it,” said Magnus. “If we came from the future, then it’s plausible the Axalon came from further forward in time but crashed in the Earth’s past.”

“Translate that for me, Tow-Line,” Fire Convoy said abruptly.

“I’m a maintenance mechanic, not a temporal mechanic,” he joked.

Ultra Magnus continued: “This Megatron… who we believe has the spark we’re looking for surely must have come here from the future.”

“I still don’t—“

“On board the Axalon.”

“Sir,” explained Pitstop, “if we find the Axalon, then we find Megatron’s spark.”

“So, we might be useful to you after all,” Jennifer said defiantly.

David motioned to stop her from saying anything more. “We have the location of the Axalon back at our base.” He was lying. In truth, they were only ‘close’ to finding the location.

“Very well,” said Fire Convoy. “We will retrieve the files, learn the location of the Axalon, complete our mission and be on our way.”

“There is one small condition,” said David. “In return, we want your help to stop Megatron and save our planet.”

Ultra Magnus answered for Fire Convoy: “Of course. You have our word.”

“Wait a minute,” said Fire Convoy. “That’s not part of our mission.”

“These volcanic eruptions could be the beginning of the catastrophic events recorded in the Axalon’s files. It’s our duty as Autobots to help.”

Fire Convoy banged his fist on the table. David and Jennifer lost their balance and fell. “Feeble creatures.”

“I have already asked the Bullet Team to monitor seismic activity. It could help us track Megatron’s next move and prevent the next eruption.”

“That is if there’s going to be another one,” posed Pitstop.

“There will be,” Magnus assured. “He’s collecting energy for something. I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”

Fire Convoy remained quiet. He just wanted to get off the planet as soon as possible and retrieve his prize from the Vok so he could finally, finally put Star Saber down.

“Well?” said Ultra Magnus.

David and Jennifer sat on the table, pinning the rescue of their doomed planet on this group of out of time Autobots. Fire Convoy’s words were like a knife in the back.

“No deal.”