TRANSFORMERS: Who Seeks The Seeker?

                                                          Chapter 1 -  Exploration

Interstellar space

           Deep space was a cold and uninviting place at times, devoid of souls and living things depending on where you were. It could be rewarding to find something this far out, or just as disappointing if you find nothing at all, instead meandering aimlessly through the far reaches of the cosmos. His days as a soldier now long over, exploration and science were back as his number one interest again. Preferring to work alone, he wandered the galaxy, looking to find
something that had not been seen by anyone else. Discovery and the knowledge that came with it was his reward now.
           Starscream jetted on in his flight mode, not exactly sure where he was heading, but happy to be far away from his own kind, exploring alone. Not always this calm and content, he once was obsessed with power and how to obtain it, always trying to overthrow the leader of his faction at the time, wanting to lead and reap all the rewards from it. Waging war with the Autobots and their allies as well as their destruction were what preoccupied him. His drive for power eventually resulted in his own destruction, before being restored by Unicron a few short years later. Ever since the explosion on Unicron thanks to the Autobots, he had left to pursue other options.
            It wasn’t until an incident a few hundred years later on the planet Thelos, did he lose his desire for power. While searching for energon, he came across Thelos, and all the wonders it contained. Minerals and natural energon that one could only think of, as well as being a scientists dream for discovery. But all was for not, as he had soon found out that there was a power struggle underway on the planet for those very riches and wonders between two peoples, each occupying half of the planet. It was then, just as he decided to leave and let them go at it, did they both use a doomsday weapon on each other.
            The resulting twin explosions scorched the surface of the world, destroying all life in a short period of time. If that wasn’t enough, the combined energies of the weapons penetrated the core, ripping the planet to shreds from the inside, leaving nothing but rocks and debris in it’s wake. This event had such a profound impact on him, helping return him to his science roots and no longer wishing to destroy, but rather to explore, find, and preserve. Starscream was again the way he was long before the Cybertronian war had begun.
            There had been times since then that he had wished that his old partner in science, Jetfire, has been with him on this adventure. They were once the two top scientists on Cybertron before the war, and had accomplished a good bit of research in their day. But being out this far, Strascream had known it would be somewhat of a solitary mission, not expecting to be joined by anyone. Trying to figure out where to go next, he continued jetting through the system he was in, scanning some of the lifeless planetoids nearby for anything interesting.
            In the centuries of exploration he’d conducted, there was also much time for him to think about his own life up until this point. From his initial activation, to his first stint of science and exploration, to his time with the Decepticon faction, and even his destruction and rebirth. A small part of him missed Cybertron, hoping one day to return there triumphantly with evidence of new discoveries. The rest of him was content to stay in the far reaches of space and never return to his home planet.
           Starcream’s thinking was interrupted by his scanners, as they suddenly detected something metallic on the surface of the nearest planetoid. He changed course, and headed for it. Additional scans did not pick up any forms of life on the rock, not that he was expecting any on such a small thing with minimal atmosphere, but knew it was wise to check before approaching it. He learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago, and wasn’t eager to repeat it ever again. Descending on the planetoid, Starscream reduced his speed before transforming to his robot mode, landing on the rocky, bumpy surface of the tiny world near the metallic object.
           His optical scanners guided him to a crater where the signal was. Walking up the side of the small crater, what he saw upon his arrival on the inside of the crater confused him greatly.      
          “A space bridge, this far out?” he said aloud, not expecting any kind of response. The ring-shaped object, heavily damaged in some places, was before him on the floor of the crater, looking as if it hadn’t been used in some time, while being downright neglected. What he couldn’t figure out why one had been constructed this far away from Cybertron and even the furthest Cybertronian outpost.
           Walking up to the large ringed space bridge, he noticed that there were some blastpoints on parts of it, suggesting that it came under attack at some point in time. Further analysis showed the carbon scoring was centuries old, if not older. It seemed as if this portal hadn’t seen service in at least that long, as evidenced by the damaged and scorched control panel he came across. He couldn’t get anything working, so he decided to spend some time repairing the module in hopes of reactivating the ring and finding out where the other end was.
           Having only a few tools on him was no replacement for a well equipped laboratory with functioning energon siphons and robotic grapplers, but it was all he had for the time being. Time passed as he tried as many things as he could think of to get the damaged ring going. Nothing really seemed to work, no matter what he tried. Starscream had never been that great of a 
mechanic, preferring to let someone else do the fixing.
          “Why isn’t this cursed thing working??” he queried out loud, now confused as to why the space bridge remained non-functional. He’d been working on it for the better part of a megacycle, and tried everything he could think of to get it going. It now had power, but refused to come online and do what it was supposed to do. Feeling frustrated, he swung his right leg forward to kick the side of the space bridge. 
           “Piece of slag!!” he exclaimed as his foot connected with a loud thud. Suddenly, the hum of power flowing through it’s systems was heard and the control panel lit up all over the place. It was working, finally.
           “And all I had to do was kick it....” said Starscream, his voice trailing off as he went to the control panel and checked the readouts from it’s last recorded use. He wasn’t sure what to make from the coordinates provided by the ring’s computer. 
           “These coordinates make no sense.” he said to himself, not exactly sure what to make of it all. Regardless of that, he decided to re-enter the information into the space bridge’s computer and activate it, hoping to find all the answers he wanted on the other side.
            The last coordinates now in the computer again, Starscream entered the space bridge, the heavy doors sliding shut behind him, the ring now powering up fully. All panels began to light up at the top, the ring now a giant circle of light. Suddenly, a teleportation vortex opened high above it, the purple swirling complex dematerializing that which was inside the limits of the space
bridge, Starscream. Vanishing up into the vortex, it’s swirling mass crackled with energy a few times before rotating itself out of existence, it’s passenger now en route to the other side. And just like that, the space bridge and the planetoid were now quiet again, alone again.

Space near Chaar

             Supply missions were usually boring, especially on the return trips when he was empty and had little to do on the way back to Cybertron. His last drop off for the time being, he was leaving Chaar for a while to focus on some research he’d been doing in his lab recently. Spending his trip back thinking about his experiments and new tests to run on them, he didn’t seem to notice the subspace rift appearing right in front of him.
            The reddish-brown aperture gave no warning of it’s birth, phasing into space and pulling in whatever was nearby. His scanners went off, and he kicked his engines into full reverse, but to no avail. The rift pulled him in, it’s dark colours and random bolts of energy dwarfing him now. He tried sending an emergency signal to Ultra Magnus back at Chaar, but there wasn’t time. Before he knew it, the rift had closed again, trapping him on the other side.
            Jetfire managed to come to a full stop, trying to get his bearings as best he could. The area of space he was in was unfamiliar, and the starfix didn’t make much sense. Stars weren’t exactly as they should be, and the only thing his scanners picked up was an extremely large object on the edge of scanning range. Unable to think of any other plan of action, he set a course for the object, hoping the answers to why he was pulled into the rift might be there. 
           ‘If I can’t find anyone, I might not be able to get out of here.’ he thought to himself, unsure on whether or not he would be stranded here forever.

Riftspace

           “Why can’t I see anything?” he said aloud, hearing his voice bounce around. He knew he rematerialized, but wondered why his optics were not working properly. Just as he was about to perform an internal scan, his optics came back on line. There was no light where he was, so he enabled his optics’ infrared function. Now he could see just fine. The vortex has deposited him in a cylindrical room that somewhat resembled the room in Shockwave’s old tower in Cybertron built for the same purpose.
            The sliding doors appeared offline, so he forced them open with his hands, pushing them apart. Starscream wandered out into what seemed to be a command centre of a large space station, but nothing that he overly recognized. The place was in bad shape, Bulkheads smashed, crossbeams that would normally support the ceiling now crashed down to the floor. Computer consoles were badly damaged, and upon inspection, were inoperable.
            There was however, a main viewport looking out into space that wasn’t damaged. He walked over to it, stepping on a few pieces of fallen beams, and looked out into space to get a bearing on where he was. What he saw startled him for a moment. The large metallic-looking sphere was a little familiar to him, but brought more questions than answers. 
           “That-that looks kind of like one of Cybertron’s moons....” his voice trailed off, his mind trying to figure out what a planetary moon was doing here, all by itself, with no planet to orbit. 
Things were getting more confusing for him in a hurry. Not one to hang around and wait for something to happen, Starscream searched for an exit that led off the station. The intact moonbase somewhere where it shouldn’t be was too much of an opportunity to pass up. 
           “I must find out what is going on.” he said to himself, ready to explore it.

                                               Chapter 2 - Investigations

Cybertron

           “What do you mean you don’t know where he is?” asked Minirod, angry at the fact that no one seemed to know where Skystorm, their boss, has gone off to. The Seacons all shook their heads collectively, before leaving the command area to go commence their duties. 
           “Well. Isn’t this just great.” he finished, some frustration in his voice. He didn’t like not being informed, especially when the boss was concerned.
            Looking around the command centre to see that he was alone for the time being, he decided to spend some time researching a curiosity of his in the library computers. Minirod had long been intrigued about the story of Moonbase Four, a moon of Cybertron that vanished without a trace during Unicron’s attack on the homeworld a thousand years back. How an entire moon and it’s garrison of Autobot soldiers could suddenly go missing was a mystery, but one that many Cybertronians forgot about completely, lost in the action of that time when all hope seemed to be lost.
           The only things he seemed to be able to pull up on the library computers was a video clip that showed the moon float past Cybertron on it’s final orbit, then disappear. The clip ends there due to the damage inflicted on the planet by Unicron’s assault. There were no other records he could find, relying on rumours he had heard over the past little while. Minirod even
contacted Shockwave, who kept records of just about everything, about the lost moon, but even he didn’t have a record of the disappearance, due to the damage done to his command centre at that time.
           Not getting anywhere for the time being, he turned off the screen and walked off to take care of some other business. There was always something to do when Skystorm wasn’t around. Even though Minirod was the smaller of the lot and not nearly as powerful, the others knew that if he was put in charge, there was no questioning it. Nobody wanted to be that person that spoke out about Minirod, preferring to not be reduced to slag by Skystorm himself. There were days, however, that Minirod wished someone else could be in charge, just for a little while. 
          “It would be nice to get away from here more often.” he mumbled.

Riftspace

           When he first came across this realm, he found it a little chaotic, getting pulled through a rift or two. Now that he had spent some time exploring and scanning it, he had a much better understanding, and actually found it awe inspiring. A realm devoid of many things, only having
a thing after pulling it in, it seemed to be space that existed within space, but on another plain. Not able to use the phase-shift to leave, Skystorm stood on a small piece of asteroid that was drifting through the realm, reveling in the peace and tranquility of the realm, while trying to figure out how to eventually leave it and return to his own dimension.
            Not many would find peace in a chaotic realm like this, but he now had an appreciation for it, having explored some of it himself. As he continued to let the spatial currents take him and the rock on a slow ride, he began to feel another presence in the riftspace with him. Transforming to his jet mode, Skystorm blasted off the rock and headed into the direction of
where he felt the presence, unsure who or what it could be. He wasn’t really expecting to run into anyone or anything else during his visit here, having thought he would be for the most part, alone as such.
            Cycles ticked past as he got closer and closer to the presence. For a chaotic realm, riftspace was extremely vast, making him think that maybe it was another parallel realm, or one that existed on the same plane as the normal universe, but slightly out of phase. He decided to
think about all of this later, as he closed in on his target. It came into view shortly thereafter, and to his surprise, was someone he knew. Stopped in riftspace was his comrade Jetfire, in his jet mode. Skystorm immediately opened a commlink to him, hoping to find out what he was doing here in this realm of all places. 
          “Jetfire, this is Skystorm. Do you read me?” he asked. The response came quickly. 
          “I copy. Just not sure where I am all of a sudden.” he said, some confusion in his voice. Skystorm queried him immediately. 
          “What are you doing here, anyways?” There was a brief pause before Jetfire responded.  
          “Not sure where ‘here’ is. I was doing some supply runs to and from Chaar when a spatial distortion pulled me in.” he explained, still trying to determine what happened.
          “This place is called, ‘Riftspace’ and is a realm unlike any other I have visited. It forms spatial rifts in our universe that pulls anything nearby into it’s own. I can’t use my phase shift to leave this place, and I don’t know of any other ways out.” he explained to his comrade. Jetfire was about to respond, until his scanners started beeping. 
           “I’m picking up a faint signal on my scanners.” he said. Skystorm began to pick it up as well. “Same here. A new arrival to this realm I would think. Shall we go investigate?” he asked his comrade. 
          “Yes,” started Jetfire. “Let’s have a look.”
           Jetfire knew that investigating this could reveal a way back to their own universe, among other things. The two of them jetted off towards the signal, eager to see what had arrived. Skystorm thought it to be a ship or another asteroid, but as they started to get closer to the signal, it’s strength grew stronger and stronger, the energy output reading more than a large space station at the very least. Whatever it was that got pulled into the realm, one thing was for sure.....it was big.

Cybertron

           “For the last time ‘Magnus, I don’t know where Jetfire went off to! I thought he was doing resupply for YOU!!” yelled Minirod, getting frustrated with the same question being asked repeatedly. Ultra Magnus replied quickly, but still toned lower than Minirod. 
           “Very well. I will try to contact him on other bands. If that fails, I will send out the Technobots to go looking for him. Could you please send a shuttle here with the rest of the supplies? I can’t spare anyone else to run the supplies back and forth right now.” 
            Minirod seemed a little more calm now. “Very well. I’ll send Bluestreak with a shuttle containing whatever was left. Cybertron out.” he said, closing the comm channel, the screen going blank. 
          “Like I’m going to know where everyone is. Sheesh.” he said to himself. He pressed a few button on his console, and the screen came back to life, this time with an image of the base’s hangar bay to see if there was a spare shuttle. There was, so he opened a commlink to the hangar right away. 
          “Bluestreak, this is Minirod. Come in.” he said sternly.
           Bluestreak’s voice crackled to life over the comm. “Yeah, I’m here. What do you want?” he asked curiously. Minirod responded rather quickly, wanting to get this done and go back to all his other problems as soon as possible. 
           “Load your shuttle with whatever is left, to go to Chaar, and deliver it immediately.”        
           “Consider it done. Hangar bay out.” said Bluestreak, closing the channel. Minirod was glad for a moment that somebody knew what they were doing, and walked back over to another console to check the status of another frustrating project.
            As he brought up the information on that screen, six of his comrades arrived in the command centre at the same time. It was the Battle Squad, led by Meltdown, their de facto leader. He spoke up right away. 
          “Air Slash said you were needing some help up here, so here we are.” Minirod was glad to hear this. 
          “Excellent. Everyone take a station, there’s lots to do.” he explained. As they each found a console and sat down, he looked towards Half Track, the more gung-ho of the six. 
          “Half Track, prepare for a shuttle launch. Bluestreak will contact you when he is ready.” the Battle Squad member nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll be ready for Bluestreak!” he said excitedly.

Riftspace

           Having come to a full stop, the two of them floated motionless before the source of the signal. It was something neither of them expected to see, especially not here, in Riftspace. The large, hulking mass of Moonbase Four lay before them, slowly rotating on it’s axis as if it were in orbit of a planetary body. 
          “Interesting.” said Skystorm over the comm. He really couldn’t figure out anything else to say, while Jetfire had stayed completely silent. They both were in awe of the lost moonbase, now found, and right in front of them. 
           A little while later, Jetfire broke his silence over the comm as well. “I’m also picking up a smaller signal in orbit of the Moonbase.” he said, scanning away at the moonbase. Skystorm knew there was only one course of action. 
          “Let’s investigate. You take the moonbase, I’ll head for the unknown object.” he ordered. Jetfire didn’t respond, but jetted off for the Moonbase’s surface, while Skystorm jetted off for whatever it was that was in orbit around it at that moment.
           It didn’t take long for Jetfire to reach the base on the moon’s surface, totally intact and untouched. He transformed above the landing strip, and came down with a dull thud, weapon in hand just in case. He was not one to use force right away, but didn’t wanted to be taken by surprise by any hostile being that may or may not be waiting for him. Walking towards an entry hatch to the base, he marveled at how nothing had been disturbed by the moon’s journey here through a rift. If he remembered things properly, the Autobot contingent stationed here abandoned the moon after the quick destruction of the other two moons.
          “There shouldn’t be anyone here to run into.” he said to himself, entering the base and wandering down a dimly lit corridor. He was supposed to be stationed here at some point, until Unicron showed up and changed everyone’s plans. Jetfire knew that if certain events hadn’t  happened, he might have ended up here in Riftspace on the moonbase, maybe even in stasis lock, or even destroyed. 
          “Who knows.” he mumbled. Turning down another corridor, it quickly emptied into a large control area, probably the base’s command centre. The lighting was sporatic, and before he could find a power switch, the unthinkable happened.
           “Welcome, Jetfire. It’s been a long time....” said a very familiar voice as it trailed off. Stepping out of the command centre’s dark shadows was none other than Starscream, Jetfire’s old scientific partner, then later an adversary in the Cybertronian War. Jetfire was at a loss, to say the least. 
           “Starscream? Is it really you?” he asked the former Decepticon.
           “Yes. It’s me.” he replied. 
            Jetfire smiled somewhat, but was still unsure how this all came about. “I had been searching for you on and off over the last  little while, to no success.” he explained.
            Starscream nodded. “Indeed. However, I was exploring the far reaches of the galaxy for many centuries. It’s a shame you weren’t there with me. I saw things you could only dream of.” he said, a tinge of happiness in his voice. 
           “I am not a warmonger anymore, old friend. Certain things I saw while out on the rim changed me for the better, and I have once again devoted myself to science.” he finished.  
           “Interesting.” started Jetfire, wanting to know more. “But how did you end up here, on a lost Moonbase, in riftspace?” he asked, confused. Starscream’s reply was quick. 
           “Is that what this is called? I found a very old and damaged space bridge on a planetoid, and fixed it up enough to use it. The teleporter  rematerialized me on that tin can in orbit of this moon.” he said.
           “Ah. The other signal I detected.” said Jetfire. “Skystorm is investigating that as we speak.” he finished. 
           “Who?” asked Starscream. Jetfire smiled. “You’ll meet him soon enough. Until then, I want to know all about your travels as we get the moon’s computer core working again.” he said, putting away the weapon he forgot he still had in his hands. 
            “Very well.” started Starscream, “I’ll try and explain as much as I can.”

                                           Chapter 3 - Additions and Subtractions

           The space station that he had landed on was of a mostly unfamiliar design, the markings of which were unknown to him. It was large as far as space stations were concerned, but heavily damaged, and full of wrecked systems and superstructure. He had been wandering around on it for a while, looking for anything familiar or otherwise. Every computer station he found was damaged beyond repair, and offered no insight into who built it, and where it came from. Descending to a lower level, Skystorm was about to try a couple more computer consoles he had found, when he started hearing a humming sound on the station.
           He managed to bring one console to life, and the readout screen was flashing yellow. Suddenly, the station started shaking. He could hear the sound of the superstructure creaking and tearing. The shaking only got worse, and some beams from the ceiling fell on him with a loud clonk.
           “Oww.” he mumbled, before a larger chunk of the ceiling fell on him, toppling him over onto the deck with a heavy thud. As quick as it started, the shaking stopped suddenly, and the humming ceased. Skystorm picked himself off the deck and pushed the rubble aside, returning to the computer console to figure out what just happened.
           The screen was scrolling a readout in an unfamiliar text that he couldn’t seem to understand. Leaving the computer station behind, he walked over to the forward viewport. The station was still in orbit of the moonbase, but now he saw a purplish-pink mass floating off in the distance. Skystorm performed a long-range scan with his optics to discover the mass was a small nebula. 
          “Just what I needed.....more questions than answers.” he mumbled aloud, confused at the sight of the nebula. He decided to contact Jetfire on the moonbase. If the computer core could be re-activated, the moon’s scanners would provide more detailed information.
           Skystorm opened a comm channel to his colleague. “Jetfire, do you copy?” There was silence for a moment, before the comm crackled to life with a response. 
          “I copy. What can I do for you?” he asked. “If you have the moon’s computer up and running, scan that nebula that just showed up.”  explained Skystorm a little hurriedly. 
          “A nebula you say? Interesting.” replied Jetfire, a little bit confused. “We are close to bringing the core back online.”
           Now it was Skystorm’s turn to be confused. “We? What do you mean we?” he asked. There was a pause. “I have been joined by a long lost colleague.” started Jetfire. "Head over here and all will be explained.”                                                    
          “Agreed.” said Skystorm, who then closed the comm channel.
          “This should be interesting.” he remarked to himself. His optics began to glow continuously, as he focused his thoughts. Suddenly, a shimmering energy field appeared, surrounding him temporarily, before he vanished into thin air, the energy disappearing just as quickly. Skystorm had phase-shifted out of the old space station, rather than transform and fly.

           “Just one more circuit, and everything should power up and start working again.” said Starscream, hunched over the last open console with a micro-torch. Unbeknownst to him, a shimmering energy field was taking form behind him. Engrossed in his work, he picked up the sounds on his audios later than he would have liked, and stopped what he was doing to turn around and see what was going on. A large, somewhat familiar form stood before him, the black armour and partial purple markings reminiscent of a past comrade, but the body much modern and upgraded. 
          “Skywarp, is that you?!?” he said, confused. The form was bigger than him, but smaller than Jetfire, but looked closer to the former seeker.
          “I am Skystorm. The one you knew as Skywarp was melded with my old form to create what you see before you now.” explained Skystorm. 
          Starscream was a little bewildered by this, and it was definitely showing on his face. An
awkward silence followed for a cycle, before being broken by Jetfire. 
         “The core is ready to be brought back online.” he mentioned. Skystorm, looked to Jetfire
and nodded, joining him over at the main controls. Starscream wandered over as well, and stared up at the viewscreen. 
          “Here goes!” yelled Jetfire, who pressed the button to activate the main core. The command centre’s computers suddenly came to life, blinking and beeping, with the viewscreen not far behind. Jetfire then activated the moon’s scanners, and quickly picked up the nebula that had apparently joined them.
           Skystorm walked over to another computer station. “I’ll check the computer’s records and see what happened while you scan that new nebula. It might be a good idea to figure out what exactly happened.” he said.
           “Agreed.” nodded Jetfire. “There has to be a reason behind all of this.” 
           “Pardon me,” started Starscream, “But shouldn’t we also be trying to figure out a way out of this confusing realm?” he asked aloud, not sure who would answer first. 
           “Perhaps.” said Skystorm. “Unfortunately, there is no space bridge, and my dimensional teleportation can’t seem to penetrate whatever is keeping us here.” he explained. “It’s in our best interests to learn as much as possible about this place in the meantime.”
           “Very well. I shall personally go get readings of that nebula. Perhaps it could give us some answers.” said Starscream, wanting to do something. He ran down the corridor and out the exit, transforming into jet mode and jetted off towards the nebula. 

Near Cybertron

            “I’m telling you, I just saw the nebula get sucked into a vortex then disappear. Why would I make that up???” queried Bluestreak, who had his shuttle at a dead stop after what he had just witnessed. 
            “Good point.” said Minirod through the comm, who was a little confused at what he was being told, as well as the scans of the area he had just performed. 
            “I managed to send a small probe at the vortex before it closed, not sure if it worked.” mentioned Bluestreak, checking his controls. “Very well.” began Minirod. “Continue on to Chaar and get those supplies delivered.” he finished.
            “Aye aye!” replied Bluestreak, before cutting the channel and firing up the shuttle’s engines once again, hoping that there wouldn’t be anymore craziness on the way there.
            ”Just when you thought you’ve seen it all.”  he mumbled to himself, as he again checked for the probe’s telemetry while getting the shuttle back on course for Chaar. He was hoping that someone would figure this all out soon. All these things disappearing into nothingness made him uneasy. Focusing back on the controls, he adjusted the heading on the navigation console, then checked for probe telemetry one more time before setting the autopilot. It was time to relax for a bit.

Riftspace

             Transforming into robot mode, he floated there in the middle of the colourful nebula, his optics now glowing red as they searched for the metallic object he had struck while scanning the gaseous anomaly in flight mode. Just as he was about to give up due to the lack of scan range in the gas, the metallic object floated right in front of him, probably due to the swirling gasses themselves. He reached out with both hands and grabbed it. 
            ‘A probe.’
             Not taking any chances, he transformed back to his flight mode and stowed the probe in his small cargo area.
            “Starscream to moonbase, I’m bringing something back me that I found inside the nebula.” he said over a comm channel. 
            Jetfire’s response was quick. “Good work. See you when you get here.” he replied, a hint of excitement in his voice as his closed the comm. Starscream kicked in his afterburners, and charged out of the nebula back towards the moonbase. It wasn’t long before he had landed back on the moon, and transformed, making his way back down the corridor that led to the control centre. Jetfire watched him walk up and immediately gave his attention to the metallic object that Starscream held in his hands.
            Skystorm had also turned to see what Stascream had.
           “A probe? Is it functional?” he queried. 
           “Negative.” said Starscream. “It looks as if whatever brought it here drained it’s energy reserves.” he finished, taking his attention off the probe. He stared at Skystorm and considered him for a moment, feeling like they had met previously. Skystorm caught the glare, and focused on Starscream for a moment before pondering a question. 
          “There is something on your mind perhaps?” he asked the seeker. Starscream’s optics
glowed brighter for a moment before he responded to the query.
           “Yes. I believe we have crossed paths before.” he said calmly. 
           Skystorm nodded. “Indeed we have.....in battle.” he said, his own optics now glowing quite bright. Starscream needed to know more. 
          “Did we fight on the same side? Perhaps you served alongside me during the Cybertronian War.” he mentioned, sure of it now. 
          “No Starscream.” began Skystorm. “A few years before the Decepticons gained full control of Cybertron, we fought against each other in my home city of Polyhex. I was an Autobot then.” he explained, with Starscream now taken aback by the revelation.
           “I.....I remember now. You were damaged in the fight. I was about to blast you into oblivion, but one of my own subordinates snuck up from behind me and was about to advance himself up the leadership ladder, until you shot him with your last bit of energy.” he recalled, always wondering why he himself didn’t get shot that day. 
           “Yes Starscream. And when I was brought out of stasis lock at the repair facility, I had been rebuilt and reprogrammed into a Decepticon, at your orders.” said Skystorm, also recalling the past events.
           “For the longest time after that day, I could not figure out why I was given that second chance.” he said.
            Jetfire was silent, listening to all this that he had not known about before today. Starscream spoke up again. 
            “It wasn’t everyday that the enemy saves you from one of your own. You were worthy of a second chance.” he explained, not usually one to give credit where it was due. 
           “A lot has happened in the time since then. I will have to fill you in at some point, but for now, we have a more pressing matter.” he said. 
           Starscream agreed. “Indeed we do.” Both of them returned their attention back to the probe, as well as the command centre’s computer. 
           “Perhaps we should scan the probe before we.....” Skystorm was cut off as all the power on the moonbase failed and it went completely dark. Nothing was working, and the hum of the core was gone. Jetfire’s optics glowed bright blue, and using his scanners, picked up something unusual. 
           “Well.....the core’s energy just got sapped by a collector beam that was projected at the moonbase.” he said. 
           “Where was it projected from?” asked Starscream. 
            Jetfire responded quickly. “The orbiting space station.” he said, a bit of disbelief in his voice, as he had thought that the station was inoperable, as did the other two. 
           “Well.....” started Skystorm. “We are going to have to go back to the station and figure out what is going on over there.” he said. With Jetfire leading the way with his head mounted floodlight, the three robots headed out of the command centre.

                                            Chapter 4 - Three Against a Realm

            “The purpose of Riftspace was to preserve our race, our past, and our future, by dimensionally displacing all of us to this realm. The dimensional vortex is held in place by energy from a reliable source, most likely the nearest star. The energy is transmitted to the quantum singularity which is contained in the space station, and in turn creates the realm. In theory, my people will be able to live in this realm indefinitely, as the star that we draw power from is young, and can be used for millions of years, in which we will have left back to our own realm after the events of the cataclysm. We predict that our stay here will be short.”
            “I have made this recording so that whoever has come across the station and it’s technology will know that this was created in peace to help a race. We are not at war with anyone, and hope to never be at war. We are a race of scientists and explorers that only want......” the image on the screen fizzled out to static and ended prematurely. 
           “What ‘star’ is he talking about?” asked Skystorm. “I’ve explored as much of this realm as possible, and I’ve never seen the presence of a star.” he remarked. Jetfire then spoke up, having found something. 
           “There is another memory disk here.” he said, picking up a somewhat damaged disk, not as pristine as the first one they had found at the computer station they all stood around. It was one of only two consoles that remained intact and online.
           “Well, don’t just stare at it, play it for us!” said Starscream excitedly, wanting to know more. Jetfire nodded and ejected the first disk before inserting the second one. The display crackled to life again, with the same being making the recording. This time however, his tone was drastically different.
             “......unstable.....can’t shut it down......” said the being, now hunched in front of the recording device, the background shaking, with large flames visible behind him. “.....chain reaction......stop......will explode any......” his voice was cut off by an explosion behind him that sent him falling over to the side, and the recording device crackling out again to static.    
            “Apparently something went wrong, and he was killed.” said Starscream, looking around the large room. It would explain the level of damage done to the station.
            “Yeah,” started Jetfire. “Something went wrong all right.” he finished.  
            Skystorm pondered for a moment, then spoke. “So they created this realm to survive, then something went horribly wrong. The star no longer exists, the station keeps sucking power from our moonbase, and the vortex caused by that quantum thing keeps pulling in more objects from our realm.” he said. 
            “And to top it all off,” started Starscream. “We’re still stuck here.” he finished, a little frustrated with their circumstances.
            Suddenly, the station started shuddering violently. While Skystorm and Starscream struggled to keep their footing, Jetfire started working the controls, trying to find a manual shut down or some kind of program in the computer that would stop the vortex. Without any warning, the computer console exploded, sending Jetfire flying backwards, crashing into Starscream and knocking them both into the floor.
           “OWW!” yelled Starscream, as a chunk of ceiling collapsed on them as well. Jetfire stumbled to his feet as the shaking stopped, and helped his fallen colleague up as well.
           “What happened?” asked Skystorm, confused.
           “Not sure.” started Jetfire. “I was looking for a way to shut it all down when the console blew up.” he said. Before Skystorm could respond, Starscream spoke up next to the viewport.   
            “That’s the planetoid from the rim where I found the space bridge!” he exclaimed. “Now it’s pulled in here too!” he yelled. 
            “That’s not all....” said Jetfire at the other viewport, his voice trailing off. Beyond the moonbase was a gigantic object which resembled a planet, a gas giant with several rings, spinning on it’s axis, but now not orbiting anything.
             “Just what we needed.” said Starscream. “More problems!” he exclaimed, not happy at the sight of the planet. 
             “Gets worse.” said Skystorm, using the last operational computer consoles. “This realm is now shrinking, quickly.” he said, focused on the data. “It won’t be long until the realm contracts us all into oblivion.” he finished. Starscream looked shocked, while Jetfire stood motionless, trying to comprehend what he had just been told. 

Overseer Realm

            “Dimension 551 is contracting in on itself? How is that possible.....it was deemed an artifically created inert dimension!”said Jengra, yelling at his monitor. He was alone in the complex, not having a learner present with him. It was his second century now as a full-fledged
Seer, and it had been going quite well, up until today’s calamity had begun. Moving between several stations, he could not determine what was causing the artificial dimension to collapse. He had scanned that realm many times over a long period of time, only to determine that it was inert, with no signs of life of anything that could interfere with it. 
           “Perhaps I was wrong.” he said aloud, checking over his recent collected data. More researching provided more disturbing details of what had been transpiring. 
           “Mechanical beings and planetary objects are being pulled in from Dimension 021??” he mumbled, not expecting a response. It didn’t make any sense to him, but he knew that the only way to make things right was to allow the inert realm to collapse, as any outside interference on his part might cause sporadic temporal distortions, and destroy the past and /or future of any associated realms. 
          “They are on their own for the time being.” he remarked, having every intention to keep monitoring the situation as it unfolded, ensuring the right things happened.

Riftspace

           “More objects are being sucked in here, and according to this computer, this realm has lost fifty percent of it’s size just in the last megacycle!” exclaimed Jetfire, knowing things were about to get interesting. He and Starscream had stayed behind on the space station while Skystorm had returned to the moonbase, reactivating the power core. 
           “Very well.” began Skystorm via a commlink. “Leave the station immediately and join me on the moonbase.” he finished. 
           “Acknowledged.” said Jetfire before he terminated the communication. “Time to go.” he said out loud. He and his partner Starscream transformed to their alt modes quickly and jetted away from the station, joining Skystorm in the moon’s command centre shortly thereafter. Having transformed back to robot mode, he queried Skystorm. 
           “Have you a course of action now?” he said.
           Skystorm nodded. “Yes. I intend to destroy the space station as soon as the moon’s fusion cannon batteries are fully charged.” he explained. 
           “That might speed up the dimension’s contraction!” Starscream pointed out. 
           “I’m counting on it.” replied Skystorm, with confidence in his voice.
           “And then what happens?” asked Jetfire, a little concerned at the news. 
           “When the stations explodes, it will also cause an implosion of the quantum singularity, which in turn will become a sort of black hole that will destroy this pocket of space that we are in.” explained Skystorm. 
           “Swell.” mumbled Starscream. “We will be torn apart by the forces of the gravities inside the black hole!” he exclaimed, making sure his point was made. 
           Skystorm shook his head at the statement. “No. I will project a force shield around the three of us as much as possible. We will survive.” he said calmly, sure of what he could do.
           “Let us prepare, then.” suggested Starscream.
           Skystorm nodded, and the three of them went off to make the necessary modifications to the moonbase and it’s power core, as well as making sure that the fusion cannons were ready to go. There was a giant chance that this would not work, and that all they would only be expediting their own doom. Skystorm however, was sure that everything would go according to
plan. “Our stay in this realm is all but over.”

Overseer Realm

            Jengra thought that Dimension 551 would take care of itself in due time, but it seems there were other plans afoot in there. He detected three robots in the realm ramping up the power levels on the moon object they had been inhabiting while there. 
           “What are those fools doing?” he asked out loud. He knew that any kind of overload with that much energy present might trigger an event that could possibly destroy the realm, but not before punching several holes into the space/time continuum. 
           “Damn......” his voice trailed off.
            He had a bad feeling about the whole situation. The last thing he needed was a multi-spatial incursion across several dimensions. This had only happened once before in the history of the Overseers. Jengra was merely a child when the tear to the space/time continuum put everyone in jeopardy. It was eventually repaired, but it took a while before all was back to normal. Jengra swore when he became a full Seer that nothing of the sort would ever happen on his watch, but here he was, about to watch it happen right before his eyes.
            The only other course of action was to terminate the dimension himself, but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t cause a host of other paradoxes. 
           “If any of those beings are influential in their own timeline, then I will only compound the problem.” he said aloud. Jengra was able to peer into a realm’s past, but not it’s future. There was no way of knowing what would happen if he pressed the button. Faced with these issues, he decided to wait it out a little longer, hoping that the robots knew what they were doing in there.

Riftspace

            “The power core is at it’s maximum. If we try to force anymore out of it, we’ll blow ourselves up before this dimension does.”
            Jetfire reminded. Skystorm only nodded and walked over to the controls of the moon’s twin fusion cannons. Both readouts were green. The time was now to set his plan into motion.   
           “Let’s do it.” he said calmly. Starscream stood behind Jetfire’s chair, watching the main viewer as Jetfire kept working the controls. 
           “Green light!” he yelled out. Skystorm nodded, and stabbed the fire button with his finger, activating the weapons.A blast of purple energy shot out from both cannons simultaneously, striking the station a nanosecond later. The fusion energy easily overwhelmed the space station, causing an instant explosion that enveloped it before vaporising it completely.   
           “Station destroyed!” exclaimed Starscream, as the first part of the plan had been carried out. Just then, the moonbase and it’s command centre shook violently, throwing all of them to the floor. Jetfire looked up at his readouts as best as he could. 
           “DIMENSIONAL TEAR IN PROGRESS!!!” he screamed, as the shaking became overly loud and more violent than ever before. With time of the essence, Skystorm focused all his energy on the three of them. Swirling red energy began to form around them, crackling uncontrollably as it formed a protective bubble, keeping all of them out of harm’s way. The tear in space was pulling everything it at an alarming rate. The nebula was pulled in almost instantly, followed by the planetoid from the outer rim. As both objects disappeared into the new void, it expanded even more, enveloping the gas giant easily, before pulling in what was rest of the realm, with the final thing being the moonbase.
            The amount of energy present was shorting out the systems of the three transformers, with the core of the moonbase now offline. Still shaking violently, the moonbase was starting to break the plain of the event horizon. Skystorm was going for broke, pouring all his energy into the force shield. 
           “Only one thing left to do....” was all he said, trying to activate the phase-shift one last time, as the tear swallowed the moonbase, and the last of the dimension.

                                                     Chapter 5 - Reunions

Cybertron

           “What IS that thing???” asked Minirod, now yelling at his screen. Some kind of distortion field had just appeared past the orbit of Moonbase Three, and was easily twice as large as the moon. Minirod opened a comm channel to Bluestreak’s shuttle. 
           “Bluestreak, this is Cybertron. Come in.....” he said into the comm. A momentary pause, then it crackled to life with an answer. 
            “Yeah, what’s shaking?” his said, a jovial tone in his voice. “Get back here as fast as you can. There is a distortion field near Moonbase Three and it’s BIG!” he exclaimed.
            “Man.....Magnus isn’t going to be happy, but alright. I’m on my way back.” said Bluestreak.
            “Acknowledged.” said Minirod, before closing the channel to the shuttle, before opening one to the comm tower on Moonbase Three. 
            “Come in Soundwave.” he said. 
            Soundwave’s monotone voice came over the comm. “Soundwave reporting.” he said. Minirod’s orders were short and to the point. “Investigate the distortion field immediately.” 
           “Very well.” said Soundwave. “Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Ratbat. Operation, investigation. Eject, eject, eject!” he said before closing the channel. Three of his cassette robots flew out of his chest cavity and transformed, blasting off towards the distortion and what ever awaited them in there.

            “I can’t even set an autopilot anymore without getting bothered by someone.” mused Bluestreak, now on a heading back to Cybertronian space due to some anomaly showing up out of nowhere. His scanners started to beep, now picking up the object. He looked as the readout, trying to make sense of everything. 
            “What is that thing....” he said aloud, his voice trailing off. In less than a few cycles, he was close enough to the anomaly to look at it through the forward wiewport. Bluestreak cut the shuttle’s engines, and came to a full stop.
            “Wow. That thing is BIG!” he remarked, in awe of the anomaly. Just as he was about to perform another kind of scan, the anomaly began crackling, with bursts of energy flickering across it’s large opening. Suddenly, something began to emerge from it. The object that was
appearing in the anomaly was huge. It was somewhat round, and resembled a small planet or moon. As more of it became visible, Bluestreak was able to analyze it. 
            “It’s been through a lot, that’s for sure.” he said, examining the highly visible damage, the object looking like it had been through a battle or two, possibly more. It looked vaguely familiar to him, and he pondered it for a cycle or two before he recognized it.”A moonbase!” he exclaimed. He had heard a while back how one of Cybertron’s moons had gone missing during Unicron’s assault on the planet during the final phase of the Cybertronian War, but had written it off as some lame storytelling. 
           “Heh. This is the stuff that Kup will come up with.” he said, reminded of the war stories that an Autobot comrade loved to tell. A few more cycles ticked past, and now the moon was fully out of the anomaly, which had now begun to shrink in size. He set a course for the moonbase, and ignited the shuttle’s engines once again. As he got closer and closer to the moon, the anomaly continued it’s recede. By the time Bluestreak’s shuttle got to the moon, the anomaly had vanished completely. Suddenly, his comm crackled to life. 
           “Minirod to Bluestreak, do you copy?” the voice asked.
           “Yeah, I’ve got you.” he replied. “Open your side boarding hatch.” said Minirod. Bluestreak was a little confused, but complied, activating the hatch as the comm closed. Shortly afterward, he was joined on the flight deck by the smaller transformer. 
            “I jetted out here immediately. I want to be there when we land on the moonbase    
            Bluestreak nodded. “Alright, take a seat and let’s descend to the moon’s surface.” he said, taking his station and working the controls. The shuttle headed downward, on a course for the moonbase’s command and control centre. 
           ‘Wonder what we’re going to find down there....’ thought Bluestreak.

           The computers were heavily damaged, the power core had been thrown offline, and the command centre was a mess. Chunks of rubble lay strewn about, and there were a couple of fires still burning. The moonbase had seen better days, but at least it had made it through the tear in one piece. Absent from the picture were the three transformers that had valiantly tried to survive the moon’s passage into the tear and beyond, not wanting to give up. Suddenly, the command centre was bathed in a purple light as a large sphere of shimmering energy came into being in the middle of it. The energy field swirled for a cycle, before beginning to disappear,
revealing three familiar forms in it’s wake.
           Skystorm, Starscream, and Jetfire stood there, looking a bit worse for wear, but operational. Skystorm lowered his arms back down, having done his part for the time being. 
          “I told you it would work.” he said, his comment directed at Starscream. The ex-Decepticon nodded. 
          “So you did Skystorm, so you did.” he said. Jetfire immediately ran to the controls. 
          “The main computer is offline, as is the power core.” he explained., trying to assess everything. Just as he was finishing up, a control panel next to him beeped.
          “An unknown ship is landing.” he said.
          “Interesting.” started Skystorm. “Let’s prepare to ‘welcome’ it.” he said, producing his plasma rifle, and aiming it at down the short corridor at the entry doors, the only way into the command centre. Starscream pointed his arm-mounted cannons in the same direction, while Jetfire stood up against a wall with his own weapon, ready to act. Now, it time for them to wait, and be ready to strike.

           “Main power seems to be down.” remarked Minirod as he and Bluestreak walked over to the entry doors of the command centre, the shuttle behind them on a landing pad. Bluestreak nodded, now a little cautious as he slowly moved to the door with his weapon drawn. 
           “I don’t like it....it’s too quiet!” he said firmly, but quietly. Minirod only nodded, and started to use his hands to pry the door open. It was stubborn, but started to move for him. Suddenly, Bluestreak picked up a faint movement through the gap in the doors, and his optics lit up in surprise. 
           “AMBUSH!” he screamed, as he leveled his weapon ahead and opened fire, sending bolts of energy lancing forward into the command centre. Minirod has opened the doors enough to get through, but was now taking cover behind the wall next to the doors, watching weaponblasts come from inside. Making a quick decision, he turned back to the doorway and peeked around it, letting loose a few blasts of his own weapon. It didn’t have any effect, as he watched all of the bolts of energy hit the target, bit not have any effect on it.
            “I’M GOING IN!” yelled Bluestreak, leaving his cover to mount an attack. But just as he was about to run inside, a blast caught him in the chest plate, knocking him backwards onto the ground, smoke pouring out of the wound. 
            “Damn.....” he said, letting his rifle fall to the ground beside him. Minirod knew this wasn’t good. There was no going back however, and if he was going down, he was going to try to take one of them with him. He psyched himself up, clutched his weapon, and left his own cover, ducking into the doorway and opening fire. He was expecting to get picked off any nanocycle, but it didn’t happen. 
            “CEASEFIRE!” yelled a familiar voice from within. He stopped in his tracks and looked up to see Skystorm and two others standing before him with their weapons lowered.  
           “Boss?” queried Minirod, a little confused. “Yes, it’s me. Jetfire, go see to Bluestreak and make sure he’s all right.” said Skystorm, as Jetfire nodded and headed outside. 
           “We have a lot to discuss.” he said to Minirod, who still had a look of confusion on his face. Minirod nodded. “Indeed.”

Overseer Realm

            “Amazing.” he mumbled. “The inert dimension ceases to exist, no other realms were affected, and everything is back where it belongs.” said Jengra to himself, musing about what had just taken place before his eyes. 
            “I wonder how that one robot was able to do all that, all while saving his comrades....” he wondered, knowing there was more than meets the eye to this turn of events. Jengra knew that this could be no ordinary robot, and that he should keep an eye on it’s home dimension.  
            “I’ll have more time to observe that dimension if I ever get that learner I’ve been promised to share some of the load.” he said, in reference to the continued requests he had been making to the Council to get a learner sent to help him with his work. 
            “Perhaps they think I’m doing too good of a job on my own.” he said, chuckling to himself, amused at the thought of it all. He knew that the Council really only cared about the Council itself.
            “As long as the status quo continues, they feel like everything should be left alone.” he mumbled, knowing that there were better courses of action. 
            “But then again, it’s not my job to question them. My job is to oversee all the realms, and I do this well.” he said to himself, confident of his abilities and his record thus far. Getting back to his work, Jengra began to lose himself in the various realms that he scrutinized on a regular basis, making sure nothing interrupted the status quo.

Cybertron

            “Easy there buddy. You took a heavy hit, but I think you’re going to be all right.” said Ratchet, the always positive medic. 
             Bluestreak sat up. “Thanks doc! I feel like I can take on anyone!” he said happily.  
             Ratchet shot back immediately. “Don’t get your circuits in a sizzle.” he said sternly. 
            “Yes doc.” said Bluestreak, happy to be up and almost about. 
            “How is he?” said Jetfire, walking into the repair bay.
            “Oh he’s fine.” replied Ratchet. “He’s all yours if you need him.” he finished. Jetfire nodded. “Good. C’mon Bluestreak, let’s go. I need a hand getting Moonbase Four working yet again.” he explained. 
            “All right.” said Bluestreak, hopping off the repair table and onto the floor. As they walked down the corridor towards outside, Bluestreak queried his comrade. 
           “What do you think Starscream is up to? Can we really trust him?” he asked. 
            Jetfire nodded. “He’s changed a lot in millenia he spent on the rim. He’s a scientist again, and that makes me glad.” explained Jetfire, upbeat. 
            “If you say he’s okay, I have no reason to doubt you.” said Bluestreak. Jetfire responded as they emerged outside, with Moonbase four visible up in the sky. 
            “I’ve waited a long time for this to happen. Nothing pleases me more than to put science first again, and with someone who understands things the way I do.” he said.
            “Fair enough.” replied Bluestreak, taking it all in. “Let’s get to the moonbase. I’ve spent too much down time with Ratchet!” he said humourously. 
            “Agreed.” said Jetfire, transforming into his transport jet mode. “Get in!” he yelled, lowering his rear boarding ramp. Bluestreak transformed to his vehicle mode, and drove up the ramp, which closed behind him, just before Jetfire blasted off towards the moonbase. There was so much to accomplish, and so little time to do so.

                                                 Chapter 6 - New Beginnings

           Headquarters on Cybertron had been a little boring as of late, with only routine happenings taking place. Today however, the place was abuzz with action, as various shuttles were blasting off with supplies to repair Moonbase Four, while power transfers from Cybertron’s secondary cores were sending it the necessary energy. The Battle Squad and some others were working the consoles and seeing to the shuttles, while Minirod coordinated with Bluestreak and Jetfire and the Aquacons who were working away on the moonbase.
           Down the corridor in one of the headquarters’ labs, Skystorm and Starscream were looking over some data, and going over each other’s plans for the future. 
          “So.....” began Skystorm, “Are you going to remain here with the rest of us, or have you really reverted to your scientist roots?” he queried, working some controls. Starscrean was working on a project at another station, but replied promptly. 
          “As much as I might want to stay and be a part of things, I would rather do some research away from Cybertron for the time being.” he finished.
           Skystorm was a little intrigued by this. “Any idea where you plan to start?” he asked, hoping to learn a little more. 
          “Well,” started Starscream, “I thought I would go to the Krill system. I was about to explore it before the Cybertronian war first started.” he explained, his optics blinking once.
          “If memory serves me, the Krill system contains an asteroid field rich in planetoids, not to mention a planet rich in ruins of an ancient civilization.” said Skystorm. 
          “Exactly.” replied Starscream. “Those ruins alone could provide me with enough research to keep me busy for some time.” he said, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

           The repair work was now complete, and all that was left to do was to activate the main power core, restoring the moonbase back to it’s past glory. Bluestreak stood looking through the main viewport, happy to see Cybertron and all of it’s moons exactly where they should be once again. The power transfer had been completed, and it was time to bring all the moon’s systems back online. 
          “Let’s get this show on the road!” he exclaimed. Air Slash, sitting across the command centre at the main computer, nodded in agreement. He pressed the core startup button, and almost instantly the familiar hum of the moon’s power core was back, with all of the systems lighting up and coming back online again. Bluestreak was glad that everything was going to plan, and that all on Cybertron was for the most part, back to normal. The events of the past little while, especially getting shot, made him stop and think about being so gung-ho.
           Perhaps he should be more cautious, as he was not eager to repeat what had just transpired. For the time being, he decided to keep doing his job as best he could, no matter what happened.
           “Full power restored, all systems functioning within normal parameters.” said Air Slash, monitoring the systems. 
           “Right on!” said Bluestreak, turning towards the comm station to update Cybertron. He quickly opened a channel to headquarters. 
           “This is Moonbase Four calling Cybertron. We are up and running at full capacity!” he said into the comm. A voice crackled to life and replied. 
           “This is Skystorm. Good work up there. I am putting you in charge of Moonbase operations until further notice.” Bluestreak’s optics blinked once, and then glowed very brightly.   
           “You mean it?” he said back. Skystorm’s reply was firm. 
           “Yes, I mean it. Cybertron out.” The comm channel closed. 
           “This is great!” exclaimed a happy Bluestreak, careful to not get too carried away.

            “So your going to go to the Krill system are you?” asked Jetfire, curious at the news from his old comrade.
            “Yes,” started Starscream. “But I have a request to make of you before I leave.” he said. Jetfire tapped his head for a moment with his left hand before lowering it back down, his optics glowing. 
             “I’m listening.” he replied. 
             Starscream cut to the chase. “Join me. Let us be explorers again. Partners in science again.” he said to his larger colleague. Jetfire was intrigued by the proposal, and could not contain his excitement. 
            “It is a very intriguing offer. I have always wanted to go there and study it in more detail than the long range scans I have performed in the past.” he explained.
            Starscream nodded. “First hand experience is seldom paralleled by a computer scan from afar.” he started. “After Krill, we can head further out, and explore what others can only dream of. I have been on the edge of the galaxy and seen wonders, Jetfire. Wonders that would keep us busy for some time.” he finished, thinking of some of the places he had explored for now. Jetfire stood motionless, considering the offer. 
            “Let us start with Krill, and figure out the rest afterwards. We are of Cybertron, and I would hate to spend too much time away from home.” he said, not wanting to get too ahead of himself right away.
            “Very well. We will focus on Krill for now.” replied Starscream, eager to leave and explore with his old colleague. 
            “I look forward to it.” said Jetfire. “Let’s get ready to disembark.” he added, turning and walking through the doorway and into the main hangar bay. Starscream followed him, and they both walked up a boarding ramp into a shuttle. Within a few seconds, the two scientists took their stations at the controls and prepared for launch. 
            “The bay doors are now open.” said Jetfire, looking ahead out the viewport at the open launch portal. Starscream nodded, and hit the ignition button. The shuttle’s two main engines roared to life, propelling the small ship forwards and out of the hangar, heading up into the darkness of space and away from Cybertron.  

                                                            THE END