Tomato Seeds/Ring of Fire

Jennifer Butler sat trembling with dried blood under her fingernails. She wasn’t shaking because of the dead man in the hallway, but because of the myriad news reports she saw on the television as she flicked through the channels. This was it: the end of the world was here.

“Over two million people in the Auckland region were drowned by the biggest tidal wave in recorded history. A spokesperson for the World Volcanology Association has confirmed that the tidal wave was due to the synchronised eruptions of the undersea ‘Rumbles’ in the Kermadec Ridge. Rescue teams from the south island and Australia have been—“

“—reports of minor tremors and earthshakes across the entire planet.”

“—weeks after the eruption of Mt St Hilary. Experts cannot even begin to calculate the death—“

“—is under a solid piece of furniture, such as a table or bed. Keep your distance from windows, mirrors, paintings and shelving.”

“We have new reports coming in of major quakes along the entire West Coast of the United States, Central and South America.”

“—mass suicide. Many more cults have assembled at—“

“—unsubstantiated reports of giant robots in the vicinity of the last three major eruptions. Government Officials are suspicious of terrorist activity.”

Jennifer stood up from the edge of the armchair and switched off the television. She sighed heavily. Giant robots, alright. Giant robots that didn’t want to help.

Ultra Magnus couldn’t see, but he could feel and hear a tiny drill burrowing into his helmet. Pitstop delicately removed the cracked visor. “You should have hit him back.”

“It’s not my style,” Ultra Magnus replied.

“He’s not your style,” Pitstop joked. “You’re two sides of the same coin. Probably for the best that you stay out of each others’ way for the time being.”

“Where is he anyway?”

“He’s on the bridge with the Bullet Team, trying to figure out the location of the Axalon.”

“Our human friends could have told us that.”

“Yeah, I know. But I also know Fire Convoy.”

Ultra Magnus laughed. “And the more I get to know him, the less I like him. Sideburn has been taken by this ‘Megatron’, who is getting away with ripping apart the planet Earth while we bicker over—“

“Don’t you worry about a thing, Magnus,” Pitstop calmly said. “I’m his doctor, remember. I know things about him that I can use to change his mind.”

“Ah, that’s better,” David Siddons said, zipping up his flies. He turned back towards the parked tow-truck, slightly embarrassed that he had to pee in front of an alien robot in the middle of Russia.

“Is everything okay?” Tow-Line asked. “You were leaking coolant quite quickly there. I can patch you up with some hot resin.”

David flexed the tendons under his chin, shuddered, then climbed into Tow-Line’s cab.

“This is just the weirdest sensation,” said the Autobot, “having another living being inside me. It’s… it’s metaphysical.”

“Does it tickle?”

Tow-Line laughed. “I like you, David,” he said. “From what I’d been told about humans, I didn’t think I would like one.”

“But how would you know what we’re like?”

“Transformers have been to Earth before, other Earths as well as this one. Your society, culture, history, and future have all been recorded by the Autobots.”

David shifted in his seat. “So why didn’t you think you’d like any of us?”

“You never help each other out, and when you do it’s only a thin veil covering an ulterior motive. You fight with yourselves over money, power and territory. You’re greedy. Half your planet is starving, while the other half are too worried about their appearance to eat what they’re given. You—“

“Jeez. Nice to get an alien perspective,” David said sarcastically.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Since arriving here I can see why Ultra Magnus is so fond of the place. And I like you; you share my love of gadgets!”

“Well, I just need to convince Fire Convoy to like us.”

“And this plan of yours is going to do that?”

“Of course! You just get me to the nearest greengrocers in Cheboksary, and leave the rest to me.”

Fire Convoy marched onto the bridge of the Brave Maximus. “You’d better have found the Axalon, otherwise Pitstop will be reattaching twelve limbs.”

Midnight Express rose from his chair and clenched his fist, but Railspike threw a glance that said, Remember what happened with the Build Team.

“As we said before,” reported Rapid Run, “we can’t locate the Axalon, because presumably Megatron has cloaked it.”

Midnight Express pre-empted Fire Convoy’s next question. “We hacked into this planet’s satellite web, but still nothing.”

Fire Convoy growled and punched a nearby console, shorting it out. He turned to leave.

“Sir, we continued to monitor seismic activity as Ultra Magnus suggested. Whatever Megatron’s been planning, it’s getting out of hand.”

“Shouldn’t you be bothering Magnus with this?”

“You’re the one who is supposed to be our leader,” said Midnight Express.

“Well, I’m glad someone around here respects my authority.” Fire Convoy shrugged. “Since I’m here then, tell me.”

Railspike made his report: “Megatron has chosen his volcanoes carefully, he’s done his research. They are all part of something the humans call ‘The Ring of Fire’. It’s a subterranean weak-point in the Earth’s crust that follows the edges of the Pacific Ocean.”

Fire Convoy folded his arms. “You’re boring me.”

“Yes, well, for those of us with an attention span longer than a Sharkticon, it means we can follow the pattern and figure out his next target. He needs time to build the next siphon, which gives us the advantage.”

“I’m actually quite impressed,” said Fire Convoy. “I will choose a suitable strike force and you send me where you think Megatron will pop up next.” He paused, then said: “I want it encrypted, I’m going to do this without Ultra Magnus. He only got in the way last time.”

Ultra Magnus walked out the med-bay, admiring Pitstop’s handiwork on his optics, and right into Fire Convoy.

“Get out of my way, Magnuts.”

“I assume you’ve assembled a rescue force for Sideburn.”

“I’m getting sick of repeating myself to you, I’m only interested in Megatron’s spark.”

“Well some of us are more interested in our own troops, so maybe I’ll be taking the cadets to save our friend.” Ultra Magnus scratched at a small dent behind his head. “Speedbreaker is pretty cut up about it too, so I’m sure he’d come along. And then there’s the Bullet Team and the Build Team, they’ll enjoy the chance to get out of here and see some action.”

“Are you threatening mutiny?”

“It’s hardly my fault that you’ve been making unpopular decisions.”

“Leaders don’t have to be popular.”

“Star Saber teach you that?”

Fire Convoy raised his arm aggressively.

Ultra Magnus remained still. “Going to hit me again?”

“Do what you want,” Fire Convoy lowered his arm. “I don’t care.”

“Talk to the humans, they know where the Axalon is. You’ll get what you want and so will they. Defeat the monster and save the world.”

Fire Convoy stood at the window of his personal quarters looking out onto the Chuvashian vista. His contempt for the planet Earth and its inhabitants was on a par with his hatred for Star Saber.

He was so confused by it all: everything he was experiencing now was in direct contradiction to what he’d grown up with. On one side he had Ultra Magnus, preaching the Autobot code and the ideals of Optimus Prime, and on the other there was everything that Star Saber had instilled into him.

An alien entered his room, interrupting his brooding. It was small, pink, hairy and sweaty. It was David. And he was carrying a tomato.

David climbed up a storage unit and along the side of the window until he was elbow height with Fire Convoy. The giant Autobot remained silent and motionless as the human clambered up onto his forearm.

He held up the ripe, red fruit. “This is a tomato,” announced David, as if he were teaching a class of four-year-old children. “So you think Transformers are way up high on the level of importance compared to humans.

“You think because you’re bigger and stronger and able to switch forms and travel through time that you’re more important. Look at this tomato and compare it to me. It can’t talk, or swim, or hold a pen or remember its mother’s birthday, so that makes me more important.”

David threw the tomato hard onto Fire Convoy’s arm, rupturing its skin and spreading its seeds and juices across his armoured skin. “See how easily I can crush it, how easy I can obliterate it. You could do the same to me, just as easily. So that makes you more important than me, and me more important than this tomato. Right?”

It was a rhetorical question. “Wrong!”

David knelt down and picked up one of the seeds. “Look at this, a tomato seed. I may have destroyed the tomato, but this and a load of other seeds have survived. With the right conditions, each one of these seeds can grow into a new tomato plant, each growing dozens of new tomatoes.

“So you see, I may have destroyed that tomato, but by its very nature, it has a system that will allow more to grow in its place. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. I don’t have such a system, and you don’t have such a system.

“Kinda makes this tomato just as important as me or you.” David smiled, nervously waiting Fire Convoy’s reaction.

The Autobot thought for a moment. “All life is important in its own way. Everything is special and has unique qualities, even though it might not be obvious at first. I never thought about it that way before.”

Sideburn couldn’t see, but he could feel and hear a tiny drill burrowing into his helmet. Megatron had removed his visor, working his way to the small Autobot’s cerebral processor.

“I’ve tried just about every interrogation technique available,” the Predacon had said. “But really it’s just much more economical to download what I need directly from your brain.”

Sideburn had fought back, snidely shouting something heroic/witty like: “Your motherboard.”

“I always enjoy a good lobotomy, yes.” Megatron had said while he subdued the young cadet.

Sideburn’s world was black, and despite his courage, wondered if he’d ever see daylight again.