The High Road: Part 5
A long journey back to Cybertron to clear the Maximal's names. Many mysterys about the present siuation, the crew and the part are solved.
PART FIVE
Trapper glances down at his forearm and notices that some of the nano fluid he had taken as a sample was spilling onto his wrist.
Trapper:
"Uh......guys, I think we have a potentially fatal situation......Uh....this nano fluid sample is beginning to eat away at my arm....After its done with me it will probably take the ship...WHERE IS THE LAB AND CR BAY ON THIS SHIP!!!!!!"
Phyphen lay there, crouched underneath the chair, jumping at the slightest sound. The child was on the verge of perpetual panic. She had been there for quite a while and was becoming hungry. She peeked into her pockets for anything – all she found was three candies. In her state of mind – she rationed one candy for now and the other two would be saved for later, because she might not eat again for a while. Also that she could use the candies for bribes when she was captured by space pirates or something.
Unfortunately for Phyphen, being stranded out in the middle of nowhere had given her plenty of time to think. Most of which followed the trend of “How could I be so foolish?” or “Why was I so rude, Mimi was so nice to me… they all were.” Phyphen continued to feel sorry for herself until her thoughts wandered onto specific people.
‘Why had that wolf-bot been so sad? He just sat there… alone with the black ‘bot in the CR chamber. Were they friends? Maybe they were related... or fierce warriors together.’ Phyphen paused in her though, ‘I never did find out who the hurt ‘bot was. Nobody spoke about it… the poor guy… I wonder how long he’s been in there. And his friend, Mister Wolf was awful crabby about my saying hi… maybe he’s a hermit or something!!! Yea! He probably doesn’t hang around people… he was all alone in the medical area… that’s so cool!!!’
The next few hours went on as such… the child rambled on and on about pointless and ultimately incorrect observations but, it kept her amused…
"I'm on a ship with the fragging murderer himself and they make like he's their best buddy..." Buckshot growled as he stalked down the hallways. "Thought at least Querion would get what I'm on...guess not...the hell is going on? Damn it all to hell with the sicko bastard..."
As he walked, talking to himself, he passed a doorway from which smoke and giggling were emerging. Buckshot stopped, glanced at the doorway, then just shook his head and walked off.
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Penji and Weede huddled around the bong, their optics changing colors randomly as they took in the smoke.
"Dude...I feel so funky..." Weede giggled.
"Penji tripping out!" Penji laughed.
Trapper runs out of the bridge frantically with his arm engulfed in the fluid....he finds Weede and Penji......
Trapper:
"Thank primus I found you guys, could you tell me where the lab is on this ship?"
Penji:
"Tripping out"
Trapper sees the bong....and grabs his head in frustration...then he realizes that the hand he just touched to his face was the same one engulfed in nanites.
Trapper:
"AHHHHHHH"
he runs off again. This time to his own ship in the docking bay, he enters through the cargo hold.
Fluffy:
"ROOOOOAR!!!"
Trapper:
"not now, gotta get to my lab"
Fluffy:
"ruh?"
Trapper:
"Never mind"
he enters back into the main part of his ship and into his lab and gets to work.
Skitch was about to call it a day. He had misappropriated more loot in a couple cycles than he had ever done in a whole day. He was walking on air. Plus the fact that everybody aboard this ship seemed too caught up in their own little troubles to notice him. He had observed, while he was on board this ship, a brawl, two stoners, and a guy with some kind of flesh-eating stuff on one of his arms. These sort of things, if thought about too long, made Skitch's little head hurt. So he didn't.
Right now his attention was fixed on the med lab. Medical supplies were rare in his sector of town, and he could make insane amounts of credits selling them on the black market. The prospect made his mouth water. If you can imagine a drooling ferret, you would be right in thinking that it would not be a pretty sight.
The first things he did was to open the pharmaceuticals cabinet a sweep all of the meds into his bag. After that, it was the equiptment. Syringes, inhalers, defibrillators. All disappeared into Skitch's bag. Then, he turned to the lab equiptment. He was just aquiring a rack of test tubes when he heard footsteps behind him. Panicing, he tried to run. Unfortunately this run carried him into the rack of lab supplies. The sound as all of the scanners, beakers, and other assorted stuff came crashing down was deafening to the startled thief.
He was barely able to climb up into a vent before the door opened.
"Da hell was that!?" Solarflare said peering intot he med lab! "Hey where did all the stuff go! Primus i hate these people!" Solarflare said and began poking vent shafts. "Where are you, you little thief!" Solarflare said contiuing his search.
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"Well," Rhapsody said sighing "Its just alot of pressure, i don't even know if we can win anymore to tell you the truth. What do you think? I am doing a good job wraith?"
[Onboard the Xavior – Timber and Switchblade]
“So,” Switchblade asked, “What do you plan to do once we reach Cybertron?” Timber looked up from her drink, her normally cheerful face looking slightly confused.
“What do you mean?” the wolf replied. “You’re not thinking of leaving us when we make planet fall are you?” Timber took her mug in her hands and turned it about slowly as the badger ‘bot nodded her head in confirmation. Timber’s face fell imperceptibly. “Think of all the things we’ve been through, though, since we both arrived. What about all the things we’ve fought for? After all that effort, you…you’re just giving up?”
“I don’t think of it as giving up really,” Switchblade said. Just moving on.” She shifted on her seat, turning to face Timber more directly. “When I first arrived in Endport I had only planned on staying for a few hours. I wanted to do what I was sent there to do and get out, not get tangled up in some sort of resistance movement. Primus, I didn’t even know about the Predacon occupation until my carrier ship was in orbit around the planet!” Switchblade smiled weakly. “But things didn’t work out that way. I got stranded, attacked (a quick unhappy image of Chapel popped into her mind), and wound up with all of you.” She paused. “Do you know why?”
“No,” replied Timber softly.
“Because ultimately, I decided that it was the right thing to do. And it was. I guess I could have smuggled my way off planet, but I didn’t. I stayed behind and fought. I gave the Resistance as much as I could, as much as anyone… But it wasn’t enough. We lost, Timber, and now it’s time to get on our lives. We all tried our best, but it’s over now. There’s nothing more that we can do. Not me, not you…not even Rhapsody, I think. It’s gotten above us.”
Timber shook her head slowly, as though she was unwilling to accept Switchblade’s view of the Resistance. “How can you be so sure of that.” Timber said back. “How do really know that we’ve done everything that we can to save Endport. How can you…” she stopped abruptly. “Maybe there’s something we can still do yet. All of us. It may not be fighting any more, but maybe there’s still something.” She set her ale mug firmly back down on the counter in front of her. “We’re going to Cybertron, right? So what do we do when we get there? Abandon everything we’ve fought so hard for? Just give it up? No. We can still fight. We can go to the Council of Elders and tell them what we saw; tell them about the Predacons, and Endport, and what is really going on. They’ll understand us, Switchblade, they have to.”
Switchblade frowned. “I see what you’re saying, but…I don’t think it will be that easy. Cybertron is a big confusing place, and its politics are even worse. Remember that I’ve spent most of my working life transferring important information for the Council of Elders, and people just like them. They’re confused, and the bureaucracy surrounding each and every decision that they make is enough to kill us all before our case even gets off the ground. I’ll admit to you that it is a possibility, but a small one. Maybe too small. At any rate, that task is better left to ‘bots like Rhapsody, who know how to handle these situations. She’s better equipped than the both of us to get our point across. What can a raggedy little group of fighter ‘bots do about any of it.” Switchblade looked for any sign of agreement from Timber, but found none. “We’re not politicians, Timber, and we shouldn’t try to be.”
For a moment, the she-wolf said nothing. She only stared at the tabletop before her, thinking. For the briefest of moments a look of indecision crossed her face. But it faded quickly, replaced by a characteristic Timber grin. It was a forced grin, but a grin none the less.
“Enough of all that for now.” Timber said. “There will be time for determining the fate of the Resistance later. Truth be told, I don’t know what will happen once we land. My instinct tells me to stay with Rhapsody and… Well, with Rhapsody and the others at any rate. But, just for the sake of argument,” Timber smiled. It was more genuine this time. “Tell me what you had in mind.”
Switchblade smiled back, and told her.
Wraith pretended to looked stunned at Rhapsody's words, but he knew the case. He'd seen commanders completely go to pieces before, so it wasn't anything new to him. He stood up and walked over to Rhapsody.
"Of course you are. I can't think of anyone better equipped to lead a small band of renegade Maximals against the Preds here. The assassination was a great success and the Preds are spooked because we pulled it off!" He said, resting his hand on her shoulder. He wasn't sure if they really were spooked, but he didn't care about that.
"Just because Relic's out of control for the time being doesn't mean you're not doing your job well. The commander does have a lot to deal with and I've seen others with a lot less problems completely fall apart."
Trapper emerges from his ship with a brand spanking new arm. Having at last permenantly contained and studiedt the nanites, he decides to return to the bridge.
Trapper:
"that was simple enough....maybe someone on the bridge would be interested in one of my thesises"
Fluffy gazed at the blurry rodent in front of him through bleary eyes. He considered trying to nibble on the small transformer, but decided against it. He was in no condition to hunt, Trapper looked capable of defending himself and Fluffy felt his stomach might revolt if he tried to put something into it.
He blinked dully and the rat was gone again. Fluffy moaned softly, rolled over, and curled up to sleep some more.
With a loud, rumbling thump, Rita and Mandrake finally arrived at the Xavior's bridge.
"Don't tell me," Burnout sighed, " another recruit?"
Rita shrugged, "Maybe we're getting popular."
Mandrake, still in beast mode, only grunted and lowered himself to the floor. "Whatever."
Skitch was not ready for this. He did not plan on getting caught. The Plan he had made for this venture did not include Getting Caught. It was NOT part of the plan. This fact almost made Skitch pass out. If he couldn't trust The Plan, what could he trust? Solarflare's fist through the vent 10 cm away from him shocked him out of this line of thinking. Dropping the bag of misappropriated meds, he scrabbled to his feet and took off down the vent.
As he half-ran, half-skid down the vent Skitch busily modified The Plan to include Getting Caught.
Running was bad for Skitch. This he had always believed. Part of this was because every time Skitch ran somewhere, there was something bad waiting for him. This time only proved the rule. Forgetting the way he came from, Skitch plowed into a ventilator fan. The last thing he heard before blacking out was Solarflare cocking his weapon.
The force feild was genorerated side to side so Mimi figured an easy way by it. Shem grabbed her broad sword and placed it slowly into the feild cutting off a piece on the left side. She quickly slid the drink through as the feild popped and sparked her sword away from her hand behind her. She laughed slightly and picked it up. Relic smiled faintly and grabbed up the drink taking a long sip and setting it to the floor.
-----------------
Solarflare was in the process of dragging skitch down the hallway and tapped on wratih's quarters door. The young maximal opened with a "WHAT!" he seemed quite irrated with being interupted.
"So sorry to INterrupt." Solarflare said sarcastically "But i need a word with our commander." Wraith swore again and walked from the door. Rhapsody looked out into the hallway seeing the newest person on the xavior and sighed.
"What now?"
"FOund this wondering in the vents. What to do with him. He's a maximal."
"Gah, lock him in a CR tube but leave it off."
"Right." The finch said dragging the thief away watching as he "Accidently" bumped his head into a bulkhead.
Back in wraiths quarters he was again sitting on his bed angrily. "Are you ok?" Rhapsody said.
Wraith nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's you that's not ok. You're on edge and it kinda shows. You really need to take some time off and relax."
Rhapsody sighed. "Maybe you're right. There's just so much happening right now, it's hard to deal with it all." Wraith came over to sit by her and put his arm around her gently. "I know. It's hard to be in charge of a motley crew like us. But you're a good leader, you'll manage. Just need to take some time off from being the commander is all."
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