* * *

Some nine million years ago...

Had anyone been looking in the right direction, into the barren, quiet expanse of deep interstellar space, in the outer arm of a particular spiral galaxy, that someone might have noticed an unusual event. Two light-colored forms coasted through the starlit darkness at a rapid clip, emitting a quiet electromagnetic hum and a small but persistent heat signature. Occasionally one, usually the smaller of the pair, would put out a burst of energy to correct its drift. Sometimes, a pulse of laser fire would pulverize the unlucky chunk of rock or ice that crossed the path of the two explorers.

Time was meaningless, distance relative. Starscream knew only that he was farther from Cybertron than he had ever been, that Skyfire knew perfectly well where they were and where they were going, and that they were not there yet. Even with their efficient, energy-sparing methods, they were well past the range Starscream could have travelled alone. He depended on the energon Skyfire carried inside his larger cargo space, replenished at nearly every stop. Silent planets, mostly, but now carefully mapped, and there was almost always an active volcano or a sunny spot to lay out solar collectors....

And sometimes, life! On one recent planet, there had been liquid water on the surface, vast oceans kept from boiling away only by high concentrations of solutes. They had come away from that system caked in salt, barely able to transform or fly for the ionic deposits on their relays, but it had been worth it. Primitive organic life existed naturally on that world, and not all of it microscopic. There were photosynthesizers with complex structure toward the ocean surface, and animate creatures with discernible behavior below. Skyfire had spent an inordinate amount of time on floor-dwellers Starscream dubbed Squirms, creatures with neither exoskeleton nor endostructure, held together only by surface elasticity. Unlike his partner, Skyfire had seemingly infinite patience for losing his grip on the one he was studying. Starscream, for his part, had preferred Parachutes, oily colonies of small primitives that drifted with the current, casting rainbows through the water. Individually, the organisms were extremely simple, but collectively, their reactions summed to apparently organized behavior. The colonies could swim, after a fashion, by contracting their edges rhythmically, or sail on particular currents by orienting their concavity along them. Skyfire had only commented that he preferred organisms that were complex to those that merely looked it.

"I see three planets," Skyfire commented over the radio, breaking into Starscream's reminiscence. "No, four. One's very close to the primary."

Skyfire's sensors had a longer range than Starscream's, and were tuned better for gravometric readings. The Seeker could see virtually nothing of the system they were approaching. Nevertheless, he put some distance between himself and Skyfire and set himself coasting directly toward the star, in order to run his spectral analysis. Better to take a clean reading than to try to correct for interference from his partner! He liked what he saw. Even after he adjusted for his approach velocity, the star was blue, hot, and patterned with numerous absorption lines from its cooler outer layers. "It's a young star, third-generation," he told Skyfire. "There could be heavy elements in the system."

Skyfire, for once, did not complain about Starscream biasing his observations with what he wanted to be true. "The inner two planets look solid, and the larger gas giant has moons," the larger jet replied, tacitly agreeing with Starscream's interest.

For propriety's sake, Starscream had to turn his attention to the radiation of the gas giant in question, confirming that it was not actually a brown dwarf. Skyfire would have noticed if the system was technically binary, he thought, but it didn't hurt to check as they flew by.

"You picking up any transmissions?" Skyfire asked abruptly.

"What? Just yours."

"Second planet's got an atmosphere and a couple small moons. It's close enough for solar collectors and not close enough to melt them. Looks like liquid oceans. It's too good to be true. I figure we should see if someone else found it first."

It was not until they were making a graceful bend in the gravity well of the inner gas giant that either one picked up the signal, and then they did so nearly simultaneously, repeating the frequency to one another for confirmation that they had found the same channel.

"Wide band... it's a repeater," Skyfire said.

"I don't recognize the code. Sounds like something left over from the war." Not that Starscream had been alive for the last war, but there were still beacon buoys for several light-years around Cybertron. Both scientists knew a few codes in both sides' languages, useful ones like "Danger - live minefield", but neither Starscream nor Skyfire was much of a cryptanalyst. On the other hand, why would wartime equipment be this far out?

"It doesn't sound like a welcome to alien life, does it?" Skyfire's question was rhetorical, and Starscream didn't answer. "Go in under low power. Be cautious. I don't want to get shot by some automatic system that thinks there's still a war on."

If the locals noticed two unusually persistent meteors streaking across the sky with the annual shower, they didn't come to investigate. Skyfire had to hand it to his young protegé -- when he bothered to be sneaky, he did it well. You can't take the military out of the jet, Skyfire thought. Starscream might have been built and trained in peacetime, might be lightly armed and heavily burdened with scientific equipment, but his sleek design spoke of espionage and attack, not civilian labor.

They landed on the western slope of a mountain and regrouped. Starscream had come down first and was waiting for Skyfire in a hollow, relatively sheltered from sight. He had not been idle, either, and was examining a rock sample when Skyfire arrived. "Old mountains," Skyfire commented, scanning the forested slopes and blunted peaks. Trust Starscream to ignore the forest and the soil chemistry; he was only interested in a species if it moved. Rocks, on the other hand...

"This plate goes east." Starscream pointed redundantly, then held up his hands, palm down, sliding the right up over the knuckles of the left. "Somewhere down to the west we should find the fault." He tapped one fingertip.

"I'm more interested in the inhabitants," Skyfire said.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's find them." Starscream had apparently forgotten the point of sneaking onto the planet. The Seeker had less of an attention span than ... than those ciliates he had been so fond of on the ocean world!

"Heard any more of those transmissions?" Skyfire reminded him without rancor.

"No, it's all static here." Starscream gestured to the peaks. "Listen for yourself. I picked up something when I was coming down, but not enough of it to make anything out. My receptors were still fuzzy from re-entry."

"Direction?"

Starscream shook his head. "East? I didn't see anything coming in."

"Me either. I guess that fault line will just have to wait."

Starscream grinned.

They crested the range on foot, keeping under the tree line where they could to avoid detection. Skyfire slowed them down some, taking the soil and flora samples that Starscream hadn't, while the smaller jet paced impatiently. Privately, Skyfire's reasoning was prudence. The more slowly they moved, the more time they had to notice signs of the nature or intentions of the inhabitants. Out loud, his excuse was that understanding the native life in general might be critical to making sense of any sentient forms. Whatever animate dwellers the forest might have had, neither Transformer saw, except briefly as shadowy shapes, fleeing in terror from their heavy feet.

"I've got something," Starscream said quietly. The tone of voice got Skyfire's attention immediately. Starscream wasn't discreet unless he was told to be -- or saw some very good reason for it. "There's still a lot of static, but I hear narrow-band, non-repeating radio transmissions. Low frequency, probably line of sight."

"Local communication," Skyfire surmised.

"And there's something else. There's a power source in that direction."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

They picked up the pace, Starscream leading the way. At the edge of a deep river gorge they paused, eyeing the lightening horizon ahead. As he stood up straight, risking detection momentarily, Skyfire could see forms that were clearly not natural. There were squared-off stepped pyramids, wide platforms, even a few heady spires that might have been the radio antennae. Both could hear the radio traffic clearly now, though the messages were still indecipherable. A city... an entire alien city. Skyfire hid his excitement better than Starscream, at least making the attempt to keep his observations objective.

The gorge was too wide for a simple jump, and they took to the air, flying low and shifting back to robot mode to land on the opposite side. They never made it. Something dark went flying past them, and suddenly Skyfire found himself tangled in a net, falling, swinging, hanging in the gorge over unfriendly-looking white water. Starscream, he could see, was in the same predicament a short distance away, upside down and struggling frantically with the ropes that were snarled around his limbs and wingtips.

Skyfire muttered a few choice words, then held the his own net away from himself long enough to pull out his weapon with his free hand. He focused on the net around Starscream, planning the best sequence of ropes to shoot to free his companion without damaging him in the process or sending him down into the river still too tangled in rope to fly. He never got the chance to put the plan into action.

Chattering wildly between themselves, the natives appeared on both sides of the gorge and descended either wall to ledges and niches that were nearly invisible from above. Six-limbed and agile, they skittered into their places with ease, keeping what looked to be projectile weapons trained on their Cybertronian captives with their middle pair of limbs.

"Can you tell what they're saying?" Starscream hissed.

"Not yet. Keep listening. See if you can guess what any of the words refer to," Skyfire instructed in a low voice. If they could just get a start on the language, they ought to be able to pick it up quickly. He was already filing away a lexicon of words and possible orders, but both were as yet useless. A single meaningful word, even a name, could be the breakthrough he needed.

The locals evidently didn't understand Skyfire either, because one of the larger ones promptly silenced his companions with a wave of his unencumbered right middle limb, and barked a phrase at the jets.

Skyfire shook his head, repeating patiently, "I have no idea what you just said." They wouldn't know the words, but maybe they could guess his meaning.

The alien was momentarily silent. The one beside him spoke up, with what Skyfire thought might be a question. Again, he shook his head.

"Organics," Starscream commented. "We should be glad they use sound to communicate at all."

Skyfire wasn't sure if he heard sarcasm in his partner's voice, and decided that even if he had, he preferred to pretend he hadn't. "Respect for all life," he reminded Starscream in a low murmur.

"Even when it's holding us prisoner?"

"Yes." He would have liked to say more, but every word between them was making the aliens more anxious, to judge by the frequency of vocalisations and weapon-hand gestures.

Finally the first held out his weapon sideways toward the Transformers, showing it to them, and tapped it with his free hand. Glancing at them to make sure they were watching, he opened the rear compartment and shook it so that several smaller objects fell out into the palm of his hand. Closing one of the fingers and the thumb of that hand around them, he pointed the other long, slender digit toward Starscream, then Skyfire. After a moment, Skyfire understood. "He wants us to unload our weapons."

"How? We don't use projectiles."

"I know that, but he doesn't." Skyfire thought. "Can you unmount yours?"

"Maybe," the Seeker replied dubiously, shifting slightly in the net. The aliens started skittishly.

Skyfire sighed. Well, maybe they'd accept a gesture of peace from him alone, since they must see that Starscream was hopelessly tangled. Rather awkwardly, Skyfire turned his hand weapon around and offered it to them handle first. The attempt to reach across the gorge set the net swinging and he was half the length of his arm short of reaching them, but the point of the gesture was not lost. With a cry, the apparent leader skittered back up over the edge, the others following suit. Momentarily, Skyfire felt the net being pulled up jerkily. After more than a few bumps and scrapes, he and Starscream were atop the cliff again, still netted and in Starscream's case clearly uncomfortable. The Seeker was unusually forbearing, keeping his mouth shut and only darting miserable glances in Skyfire's direction. He was nervous, Skyfire catalogued, and filed the information away for reference. Was this Starscream's first encounter with intelligent aliens?

They had been pulled up by twenty or so of the aliens, using massive pulleys. Skyfire couldn't believe he and Starscream had both managed to miss this much equipment the first time they had passed it. Yet, it had to have been there. Hidden. Somehow.

The group from the far side of the gorge joined those operating the pulleys, and the leader imperiously held out his upper right hand to Skyfire. Again momentarily baffled, Skyfire remembered to offer the gun again before the alien lost his patience. Three of them worked together to free Skyfire -- without harming the trap for future use, the Cybertronian noticed. He stood up, no longer worried about discovery and enjoying the chance to straighten his joints. This sparked another flurry of chatter among the natives, and at their urgently gestured request, he sat down with a sigh. None of them were taller than Starscream, he reasoned. Maybe they were disconcerted by his size? No, they were worried about some specific danger, and that danger wasn't him. As little as he knew about their communication, some instinct told him that much.

"What about me?" Starscream reminded him plaintively. Repressing the urge to chuckle, Skyfire turned to face the leader and pointed to Starscream, keeping a questioning expression on his face until he realized that aliens with eyestalks and pincer-like mandibles probably didn't have the same range of facial expression as flat-eyed, slit-mouthed Cybertronians.

The native again held his gun out sideways and patted it. Skyfire sighed, and pointed to himself, then Starscream's closer arm turret. The leader waved him in that direction, and Skyfire crawled to his partner. "I'm sorry," he murmured, then set to work extracting the Seeker's weapons from net and body.

"Sorry for what?" Starscream asked as the same three aliens disentangled him. One walked right over him, drawing no reaction. Despite their size, they must be very light! "You got me out of that."

Skyfire shrugged. "Your dignity."

"My what?" Starscream grinned wryly.

The pulley that had been used for Skyfire was being retracted below ground, along with the platform it sat on. Several of the natives worked to cover and disguise it. The Cybertronian guessed it was an expression of trust that they allowed him to observe the process.

The alien leader signaled Skyfire again, waving him in a peremptory gesture to follow. Starscream trailed, flexing his joints in a way that made Skyfire wonder if he'd actually been hurt in the capture. Not that Starscream would tell him. The Seeker made a habit of brushing off any damage that didn't outright cripple him, always assuming the worst was yet to come.

They were led along the river gorge for some distance, then down into it on a shallower path. Evidently, the natives had guessed Skyfire and Starscream weren't built for climbing. Had anyone seen them transform and fly? Skyfire wasn't sure.

Once they were below the level of the sides, the natives allowed Skyfire to walk upright. "I think we did the right thing not flying in," he commented to Starscream, glancing back at the Seeker.

Starscream shrugged, trailing his fingers along one near-black rock wall and then idly inspecting the dark dust that came off on them. "What are they so worried about?"

"I don't know. Until we learn their language, we can't ask them."

"They're not taking us to the city."

Skyfire frowned slightly at the abrupt change of subject, then dismissed the matter. "Maybe we're going the long way. Or maybe they don't like outsiders there." He turned a wry smile on Starscream. "For all we know that was our mistake before."

"What mistake?" Starscream asked in disgust. "We weren't attacked, we were trapped. Either they predicted our movements, or those nets weren't meant for us."

The thought gave Skyfire pause. It was unlikely those traps had been set specifically for the Cybertronians, though possible. They certainly hadn't been built specifically for them. These natives didn't fly and didn't seem inclined to jump, so why build traps for large, flying creatures? Skyfire knew of cultures that practiced hunting for sport, and he had no desire to be memorialized as someone's tale of exotic prey... or a head on someone's wall. Too late to worry about that now, though.

They reached the bottom of the gorge and followed their hosts out into the rushing water. Skyfire braced Starscream, though his own footing was none too sure on the slippery rocks. The current and depth were sufficient that if the Seeker fell, he might be swept away. The natives, despite their lighter forms, walked confidently, and Skyfire remembered with some envy the three opposable claws on their feet. Excellent for climbing nearly sheer rock, and excellent for slippery, uneven riverbeds. Of course, they were built for -- no, evolved for this environment. They would be adapted to it.

The leader pointed ahead with his upper right hand, indicating a hollow in the cliff face. When neither Cybertronian immediately grasped the significance of the gesture, he waved forward impatiently with the hand below it. Skyfire waded ahead past him and into the cavern, for cavern it was. The water inside was stagnant and the floor nearly smooth, a relief to Skyfire, for Starscream was up to his wings now. Two of the aliens scrabbled up to ledges on either side of the entrance, and the leader gave a sharp command to Skyfire, reinforcing it with the palms of all four hands. "I think he wants us to stay put," Skyfire interpreted unnecessarily as the rest of the natives disappeared from view, back up the gorge.

"Nice of him to tell us as well as posting guards."

"Respect," Skyfire hissed, then added in a milder tone, "Would you trust us to understand and obey if you were him? For all we know there's some very good reason for us not to be out there. Like whatever those flier-traps were for."

"You have a point." Starscream was looking around the cavern, eventually producing a light for the darker areas. He found what he was looking for -- a dry ledge big enough to sit on -- and pulled himself up onto it, perching dejectedly with one knee pulled up to his chest, arms folded over it. "I guess we wait."

Skyfire waded to the entrance, getting the attention of both guards immediately, but he didn't pass through. Instead, he pointed to himself. "Skyfire." He pointed into the cave, where his partner could be faintly discerned in the reflected dawn, a few shiny bluish lines and a pair of glowing red optics against the dark wall. "Starscream." He waved to the guard on the right. "You?"

"Jei. Tabo." The guard tapped his chest with his middle hand.

"Sona," the other introduced himself.

Skyfire turned and repeated the names to Starscream, not so much because he thought the Seeker hadn't heard as because he wanted to check his pronunciation of the alien syllables. "Sona, Jei Tabo."

The guards both made a chattering sound Skyfire thought might be laughter. Sona pointed to the other. "Tabo. Tabo."

Skyfire smiled. "Tabo. Not Jei."

"I think Jei means 'no'," Starscream offered. "Their leader used it twice during our ...rescue."

"Skah... Skyfire." Sona repeated. "Starscream."

Despite Skyfire's optimism, the jets were playing the language game with all five shifts of guards for four planetary rotations before Skyfire figured out how to say they were scientists from another planet and only came out of curiosity. In the meantime, they learned that their captors were Ethorians, that the greenish algae in the water were nutritious and the reddish variety tasted bad (the Cybertronians took the Ethorians' word on that), and that the fingertip-sized creatures that scuttled about the cavern on all six of their legs were "coy rae", ubiquitous to all the rivers the Ethorians knew about. They could be boiled and eaten as a delicacy, but didn't make a filling meal. Like the Ethorians, they had both endostructure and a hard shell, and that didn't leave much room for flesh.

Both Transformers were "hungry" themselves by that time, their energy reserves depleted by the long journey and the days of fully active isolation. Skyfire still carried reserves, but dared not transform until the Ethorians were convinced of their peaceful intentions, so the spare energy was stuck in subspace along with their equipment. It was with a wry, ironic grin that Starscream suggested a celebratory feast on the evening they finally communicated their profession and were permitted some freedom of movement. The Ethorian leader, Kreseth, did not object. Skyfire surprised the Ethorians with his transformation, and then had to repeat the procedure not only once but many times to entertain the curious.

They were still not in the city, but a smaller, more discreet settlement centered around a large firepit, now set ablaze. The rest of the structures were simple, well camoflaged, and mobile. That detail, and the guards posted continually around the perimeter, scanning the sky, reminded Skyfire of Starscream's comments in the cave. Were the Ethorians worried about predators, or a sentient enemy, who lived in that city?

"Is there a war on?" Skyfire asked Kreseth when he had the chance to do so quietly.

Kreseth shook his head, raising his upper pair of hands and showing Skyfire the palms. He didn't understand. Wrong word for "war", probably...

"Do you post the guards because of a conflict?"

Kreseth looked even more puzzled, his eyestalks retracting into his head. "No one argued with my decision."

"That's not what I meant. I'm sorry." That one must have been a syntactic error. Skyfire reviewed his understanding of the language. Reversing logical causality was the kind of error that cost time, equipment, or even lives. "What are you guarding against? Animals? City people?"

Kreseth nodded, a gesture he had picked up from the Cybertronians. "Shree live in the city."

"What are Shree?"

"Captors. Enemies."

"And they can fly?" Skyfire guessed.

"No. They walk, just like us, walk and climb. But they ride machines that fly."

"Like us." It came out as more a statement than a question.

"No... not like you. They don't look like you," he made a gesture with his hands and his eyes turned aslant from each other in an expression Skyfire had catalogued as amusement. "Either way you can look. They're not as big. And they certainly don't hold conversations with us. It was a surprise when you turned up in our nets."

"They worked," Skyfire commented, relying on understatement because he didn't want to offend his host.

Kreseth picked up on the ambivalence in Skyfire's voice. "We have to set the traps to keep them out of our air. They're faster than us that way, can run us down and evade our weapons. We lose so many of our people whenever they find our camp."

Skyfire nodded. That explained the temporary architecture.

"You aren't impressed," Kreseth accused mildly, then answered himself. "Of course you aren't. You can probably outfly them, and Shree claws wouldn't make a dent in your metal sides." He moved one of his upper hands in a tearing gesture. "I can show you what goes on in that so-called city, if you promise not to let them follow you back here. They are no threat to you, but they cause great harm to us."

"Thank you," Skyfire said.

"Tomorrow. Now, we rest." They parted, Kreseth going to speak with one of his guards. Skyfire scanned the camp for Starscream, and spotted him at the far edge. One of the smaller Ethorians, one who had been very curious about his transformation, was demonstrating something to the Seeker, complete with elaborate and flamboyant gestures. As Skyfire watched, the Ethorian flung both his upper arms out with such force that he bounced up onto his front toes before landing back on the joint of his feet.

The rattle of Ethorian laughter made Skyfire look to his right. One of the taller members of the camp stood beside him, also watching Starscream. She was female, judging by the predominance of green-grey on her carapace, but Skyfire didn't know her name. "Dijou will wear your friend out with questions if we let him. He asks them, and then listens to only the first two words of the answer before he's off on the next one."

Skyfire chuckled. "Then he's perfectly matched."

He looked down again in surprise when he felt pressure on his arm. The Ethorian woman had laid both her left hands on his forearm, the dry, leathery hide dull and brown against his paint, the sharp fingertips scraping but not actually damaging his finish. They looked almost ... brittle, though he knew they were not. "One day they'll grow up," she said softly, her fully relaxed eyestalks always pointed in Dijou's direction as he dragged a willing Starscream off to look at something. "And there is nothing more rewarding than being around to watch it happen."

Skyfire didn't reply. There was nothing he could think of to say that would not leave him feeling dishonest. Somehow, the Ethorian had mistaken his relationship with Starscream for something other than it was, something that didn't exist among Transformers, who were created with adult personalities and no family ties. On the other hand, he agreed with what she said. It was rewarding, watching Starscream learn and develop, and his mind did persist in referring to Starscream as "younger". The Ethorian could understand, where another Cybertronian might not, how his partner could be neither an equal nor an unwanted liability. He let the moment of kinship play out in silence, intending to say nothing at all, but as she began to move away he blurted out, "Thank you."

As he stood, frozen in place, wondering how he had managed to do such a patently Starscream thing as speak against his own judgement, she laughed again and walked away.

"One day, I'm going to be as big as you are!" Dijou flung his arms out in demonstration.

"You ...grow?" Starscream looked down at the Ethorian boy, not really skeptical, but trying to imagine it and failing. Dijou's eyestalks currently came up to Starscream's hip. "Like a plant?"

"No... kinda. Like trees that grow in rings. Every year in the hottest season we shed our shells, and then we grow until the weather cools and our new shells harden to protect us. We're really hungry then." Dijou sighed, looking down. "And the Shree like to hunt us then. They can tear right through soft shells with one swipe and kill us. They have --" the boy shuddered. "Big feasts in the Landing Square."

"The where? Who are the Shree?" Starscream bent closer to ask the boy quietly, despite his urgency. Finally...

"Over there," Dijou pointed east toward the mysterious city. "In the work camp. The big square in the middle is where they land transports once a year to take away the rock stuff."

"Rock stuff? Crystal? Ore?"

Dijou showed Starscream all four of his palms. "I don't know what it looks like when they take it away. I never worked there. The rebellion started before I was hatched. But they smash rocks and burn them. There's always smoke when the sun is high. You didn't come up in time to see it today."

"A refinery!" And a rebellion. Starscream didn't know where to begin with all the questions that ran through his mind, so he picked one at random. "Which rocks?"

"I'll show you."

"It's not a war, Skyfire, it's a slave revolt."

The two Transformers had retreated to the river cavern for the night, after seeing that there was no other place suitable for housing them. They did not need sleep, but Skyfire felt that it was prudent not to attract attention, after what Kreseth had told him. The guards were gone, and Starscream and Skyfire conferred freely in their native tongue.

"These Shree," Starscream continued, "are mining molybdenum, iron, copper, hydrocarbon fuels, maybe some others, and they're using Ethorian labor to do it. And when they're done with the Ethorians, they eat them."

"That sounds like propaganda to me, Starscream, the stories told to youngsters to keep them in line." Skyfire grinned, knowing Starscream could see his features even in the near darkness. "You remember being a freshman at the Science Academy, right?"

"Yes." The reply was so sour that it drew a chuckle from Skyfire.

"Now. Ignoring the part about people eating people, ..."

"Dijou showed me one of the old strip mines. It's just north of here, almost overgrown but you can see the scar. They started out near the refinery, seventy planetary revolutions ago, but now they're mostly to the south and east of it."

"Refinery?"

"The whole city is a refinery and spaceport. At least I think those transports he was talking about go offworld. I don't remember seeing anything else that resembled a landing site, and they have that repeater beacon..."

"We didn't see any transports either."

"They only come once a year. Must be some big ships."

Skyfire sighed. "I didn't have a good enough angle on the city to tell how big it was, much less whether there was a central platform suitable for space launches. We'll have to make sure we see it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes. Kreseth's taking us to some vantage point from which we can see the city, maybe even overfly it if we think it's safe enough." Skyfire didn't repeat Kreseth's assurances. Starscream was enough of a daredevil without being told he was invincible. "Remember, we are here to observe. Keep your objective remove."

The glow of Starscream's optics in the darkness didn't reassure Skyfire any.

"Here."

Skyfire crawled up the slope to peer over the crest of the hill beside Kreseth, focusing beyond the dry golden grasses. The area was unpleasantly exposed after their days in the forest and gorge, wide open to the sky, and he winced at the way the pale gravel crunched under his movements. Then he chastised himself. He had let himself be affected by the Ethorians' fear of the Shree. Not the way to begin an observation!

The city ahead of him was sophisticated and permanent. That much was obvious from the expansive, solid, and complex architecture. Despite the Shree emphasis on flat, quadrangular forms, the structures appeared to take the landscape into account in their design. Yes, the central courtyard appeared big enough to land a spacecraft of thirty times his capacity, but Skyfire could also see colored markings and a purely aesthetic pattern to the higher and lower parts of the wall on the far side, and the city entirely parted to frame a prominent mountain to the northeast. The latter was not obvious from Skyfire's position, but a little mental rotation suggested that it would be the first thing one noticed when standing in the center of the courtyard ... or landing there.

The streets and ramps bustled with activity. The green-grey and terracotta orange shells of Ethorians were visible in industrious motion, pushing, carrying, walking and working in lines. Skyfire could discern no overseers, just workers. Perhaps Starscream's informant had fed him more propaganda than even Skyfire had guessed, though Dijou probably believed what he was saying. Young beings often lacked a sense of ... perspective.

Gravel crunched beside him as Starscream arrived, lowering himself from hands and knees to a fully prone position, chin resting on his hands. His gaze was toward the city, but his attention wasn't yet on it. "This place must have taken years to dig out," he commented.

"One season," Kreseth replied in a short tone that Skyfire had learned indicated dislike of the subject, not the questioner.

Skyfire looked over his shoulder, now curious about what had kept his partner. The near-barren hollow behind them, with its calcium-rich rock powder, was almost bowl-shaped, and now that Skyfire was looking for the right features, he saw how the sides varied regularly in steepness. Eroded steps. An open quarry. The mounds beyond the hollow must be the piled debris, ignored once the quarry was exhausted.

He looked down at the soil and gravel beneath his own hands for telltale pebbles, the glitter of metallic dust, or the stain of iron ore. The white powder was impure, he noticed. He'd have to do a chemical analysis later, if Starscream hadn't already.

"I want to overfly that place," he said out loud. Starscream had had plenty of time to make his own observations, or at least to determine there was little to be seen from here. "I think we can outfly anything they send after us, and we'll see more from directly above. We'll map the city ...refinery, and its patterns of activity, and estimate the population. And Starscream, see if you can track down that power source." Starscream had a knack for picking apart radiation into useful signals, almost a tracker's instinct for power. It was a function of sensors newer and better than Skyfire's own, and also of Starscream's tendency to leave the specialized instruments on full-time until their use became as natural as that of his optics.

"It may be more than one," Starscream amended, eyeing the city, but didn't object to the plan.

Neither did Kreseth. "I'd like to go with you," he said. "Free Ethorians don't get to see the work camp from the sky. I'm ... curious." The grudging way he admitted the emotion made Skyfire smile. The expected chuckle from Starscream didn't materialize, and Skyfire glanced at his partner, but the Seeker was only frowning in the direction of the city again.

Skyfire slid back down into the quarry, and transformed at the third level. "Hop on," he directed the other two. "Starscream, give Kreseth a hand. You at least can fly if you lose your grip on me."

Whether the comment made him nervous or indignant, Skyfire could never tell, but Kreseth held on with all eighteen claws, nearly flat atop his nose. Starscream perched behind the Ethorian, careless by contrast. "I'm not picking up anything that looks like antimatter or fusion reactions," Starscream reported. "Low levels of beta radiation, but that might or might not be from an online reactor. If there is one, it's shielded. There's definitely multiple power sources, and none of them look powerful enough to be a ship or an anti-aircraft weapon. If they have one, it's powered down."

Skyfire ascended almost vertically out of the quarry, then travelled at an oblique angle to the city, gaining altitude until he would be only a speck in the bright sky to the city-dwellers. Finally he took his position over the courtyard and hovered, committing to memory the layout of the city and the movements of its inhabitants.

From here, the design in the center of the courtyard definitely looked like a landing marker, a square greenish cross that stood out against the golden stone. Even in the full sun, several buildings appeared as hot spots in a general thermal scan, and Skyfire confirmed Starscream's conclusion of multiple power sources.

"No magnetic distortion around the one on the north edge," Starscream radioed. The structure in question was one of the larger ones, its trapezoidal roof slanted. Comparing the current view of the city with his memory from the quarry, Skyfire decided that it was the same building whose roof had been held above its walls by pillars. Hot air and some smoke were escaping from the upper side in a shimmering mass.

"Want a look inside?" Skyfire offered. "It's open to the western sky."

As Skyfire veered west, Kreseth's claws tightened sharply, the first time the Ethorian had communicated anything since they had been in the air. Skyfire thought he remembered Kreseth looking down some, stretching to the right to peer past Skyfire's bulk, so the Ethorian must not have been frightened by the heights... just unable to shout over the wind.

"It's all right," he heard Starscream's voice say, the words coming in unevenly to his audio receptors, distorted by the wind. "We're flying beyond the camp, into the mountains."

Skyfire raised his estimate of Starscream's social perception a notch, as he hadn't even repeated Kreseth's caution about returning with Shree in pursuit, and maintained his altitude. Even at the greater distance, he and Starscream should be able to get a good look into the slant-roofed building, perhaps the only glimpse indoors they would get without entering the city.

Before entering the city, he resolved. He was going to go in there before leaving this planet, if it cost him his rapport with the Ethorians. He would finish his studies with the rebel camp first, learning what he could about their culture from them, and then approach the Shree, open-minded. He was here on a mission of science... not diplomacy.

He turned, turning telescoped vision on the refinery from the new angle. The most obvious feature in the shadows of the building was the trough of molten ore, a white-hot streak through the center. Figures could be seen around it, but Skyfire had to adjust to account for the shadows and the high contrast before he could make them out clearly, finally blocking out the trough area entirely. Then he could see the Ethorian workers, and finally, the overseers.

"They're a separate species!" he exclaimed.

"I've been trying to tell you that," Starscream grumbled.

Skyfire re-focused, his determination to explore the city redoubled. A separate species... he couldn't be mistaken. The silhouettes were dramatically different. The Shree were four-limbed and had pointy, long-jawed faces. Their limbs had one too many joints and were longer. The characteristic points of shell on the Ethorians' shoulders were not present, and the Shree seemed more lithe and supple, leading Skyfire to suspect they wore no shells at all.

"They're not native to this world," he guessed. Every species he had seen thus far was six-limbed.

"Ask Kreseth. You know what I think," Starscream said. His tone was almost belligerent, but Skyfire didn't give him the satisfaction of a reaction. Immature, that tactic. Skyfire hadn't deliberately ignored him!

They descended into the mountains and returned to the Ethorian camp by the same path they had used initially. They walked in silence, Kreseth in the lead. If the Ethorian had taken anything from the flight beyond a renewed determination to free his species, a mood evident from his posture and pace, he didn't share his insight.

Whether it was because of the Cybertronians or not, the Shree caught up to the Ethorians that evening as the sun set in the mountains. With an ear-splitting scream of engines, light fliers descended into the camp, a Shree perched on top of each one, fangs bared and eyes slitted. Ethorian youngsters grabbed anything that wasn't tied down or too heavy to carry and sprinted for the gorge or their underground shelters, while the guards took cover and opened fire. Skyfire and Starscream stood still, at the south perimeter. Skyfire probably meant to be doing exactly what he was, but Starscream was only paralyzed by the initial shock and subsequent indecision.

The Shree craft were primitive by Cybertronian standards, just a narrow golden platform to stand on, handles to control, and jets down and to the rear. They were not fighters themselves, but they gave the Shree the advantages of flight and speed. The Shree might have been evenly matched with the Ethorians on the ground. They were about the same size, and made up for their lack of a protective exoskeleton with ferocious teeth and claws. Their forms were lean and sinewy, and their three-jointed legs looked capable of a fast run or a long leap. They wore few garments, and most seemed to be of the utility belt type, leaving the Shree flexible and unencumbered.

One of the Ethorians pushed his guns at him. It occurred to him that he really should have had them before flying over the city -- but no, there had been no danger. The Shree craft didn't look powerful enough to gain that much altitude, and they were slower than he was.

Slower than Starscream... but faster than a running Ethorian. Starscream started at a shriek, and saw a Shree lift Dijou off the ground by the edge of his shell at the nape of his neck, leaning forward on his craft and seeming to urge it into the air.

Ignoring Skyfire's yell, Starscream launched himself into the air, transforming and accelerating at full power. He rammed into the Shree craft at just above the treeline, sending its rider flying and the machine spinning in smoking loops to the ground below. He banked sharply, propelled himself downward, and got under Dijou mid-fall. The boy's claws scrabbled for a hold on his sleek form, and found it.

Starscream headed for the river, outpacing the Shree. He didn't need a head start, but he got one. The Shree were too surprised by the appearance of a very fast, agile, flying silver pyramid to even think about shooting at it.

He soared over the gorge and turned north to follow it, unable to descend directly at his high velocity. Dijou scraped along his side, grip momentarily lost. He caught Starscream's dorsal ridge between his top hands... and shrieked again as his leg swung into the edge of Starscream's plasma wake. His fingers came loose entirely.

Starscream transformed, catching the boy in his arms before he could fall into the chasm. Dijou yelped as his burnt leg hit, then clung to Starscream... and shrieked in fear as they plummeted. "But you can't fly this way!"

With a neck-snapping jerk, Starscream broke their fall, pulling Dijou up under one of the more pronounced ledges on the shadowy west side of the gorge. With nothing to stand on, he hovered motionless, holding the Ethorian boy to his chest. "Of course I can," he murmured. "But the Shree don't know that!"

Both huddled in silence as five of the Shree craft dove into the gorge, passing by them without so much as a glance. The first three were skimming the spray when the fifth slowed and began to turn to look behind them. Before their cover could be blown, Starscream aimed and fired.

The aircraft plunged to the water, its rider not far behind, as Starscream transformed again, this time giving Dijou a chance to get a proper grip on his lateral ridges and around his nose before he powered upward... and back toward the camp, this time under heavy fire.

As they approached, Starscream spotted Skyfire standing out in the open, holding his rarely-used sidearm. Frantic, the Seeker dove behind his partner, thinking to protect Dijou between two metal bodies.

Skyfire never had to fire a shot. He just stood there, dwarfing any Ethorian or Shree, his expression determined and his aim unwavering from the leading Shree. That aircraft veered off, leading the retreat toward the city.

Slowly, other details impinged on Starscream's senses, his attention scattering. The shelters that had housed the Ethorians hung in blackened tatters, some still burning and others losing bits of grey ash every time there was motion near them. Bodies had fared little better, but were identifiable: four Shree and eleven Ethorians. But how many had been carried away?

Dijou whimpered, leaning heavily against Starscream. His leg... "Medic... he needs repairs," Starscream told Skyfire. He had forgotten that organics were so much more easily damaged by heat. The boy's leg was discolored at the joints where the shell afforded less protection, even charred in places.

Ethorians were reappearing from the direction of the underground shelters, and Dijou left Starscream's side to hobble to one of the taller females. Starscream watched the pair, the beginnings of contrition mixing with the remnants of fear and excitement, until he overheard a snippet of their conversation. "They're so brave... they saved me..." Then he cracked into a slight smile of sheer relief, and glanced up at Skyfire.

Skyfire wasn't smiling.

"What can we do?" Skyfire asked Kreseth as soon as he was able to catch the Ethorian leader between orders.

"Salvage," Kreseth told him, gesturing to the camp. "Recover everything not destroyed. Then we move. They will be back."

Skyfire acknowledged the instruction, turning to assess the camp. The poles that had supported the shelters were blackened but serviceable. Some weapons were packed and piled while others were still kept at the ready. Around the camp, Ethorians were combing ruined shelters for personal belongings, tools, and the metal equipment used for cooking and maintaining the fire. The wounded, including Dijou, worked as best they were able until the two healers had time to treat their injuries.

As he watched, Kreseth sent a team to fetch the traps. Skyfire went to assist that team, dragging Starscream behind him.

"Dijou will be fine," Skyfire said shortly in their native tongue. "Now that you've committed us to this war, it's time we did our part to help out."

"Now that I've what?" Starscream exclaimed. "This is punishment for saving Dijou?"

"You've got us involved. I don't care if you think you can pull someone out of the fire, call yourself a hero and walk away. That's not right and it's not realistic. It's cowardly. We are going to follow through. And speaking of which, if you ever, ever pull a stunt like that again, I am dragging you back to Cybertron for good!" He hissed the last four words, realizing midsentence how his voice was rising.

Starscream stared, standing stock-still long enough that the Ethorians behind him gave up and walked around the pair. Skyfire never lost his temper. Never! Then he closed his mouth, his dark face hardening and optics flickering slightly. "Whatever happened to objective remove?" he asked pointedly.

Skyfire was momentarily stunned silent himself. He had never until today glimpsed such bitter insolence in Starscream. A childish sulk maybe, but never this. "You are not an experiment!" he snapped. "You are not my subject. You're my partner and I care about your safety."

"Because you need me to get back to Cybertron. Because I can find energy to refuel us when you're too weak to see straight. Because I amuse you!" Starscream almost shouted the last accusation, ignoring the stares of the Ethorians. Not that the Seeker could hide his feelings anyway. Every mood, every fleeting emotion showed clearly in his expressive face and in his posture.

Skyfire shook his head in negation. "Because you're my friend." Because you make being out here worthwhile. Because there is nothing more rewarding...

The simple statement melted Starscream's resistance... or maybe it was the heartfelt sincerity in Skyfire's tone. He relaxed a little, standing on his heels instead of leaning forward, arms unfolding.

Skyfire placed a hand on the smaller Transformer's shoulder. "Let's get to work."

Both nets had been demolished beyond repair. Two Shree had been captured returning to the city, along with their aircraft. They had killed their Ethorian prisoners as a final act of retaliation, making Dijou the only captive today to return alive. Skyfire noticed that neither that news nor the quiet admiration of the rebel soldiers had any apparent effect on Starscream. The Seeker worked efficiently and steadily, lifting and dismantling pulley components too heavy for a single Ethorian, more than making up for the time spent in argument. Skyfire doubted it would last, given Starscream's attention span, but he welcomed the change.

Then Skyfire himself was distracted by the sight of flat litters... just large enough to carry each component of the traps. The Ethorians couldn't mean to carry those by hand to their next destination!

Of course they did. He chastised himself for his slow comprehension. There were no roads and little flat land for a cart or sled to be useful. The Ethorians didn't have flying machines.

They hadn't, at least, until now.

Skyfire transformed, opening the door to his cargo hold. "Starscream, pack those inside me. I'll take them wherever they need to go."

It was the Ethorians' turn to stand dumbfounded, but only Skyfire's internal sensors were witness to Starscream's silent amusement. When all the parts were loaded, mostly without Ethorian assistance, he transformed again, shifting the dismantled traps into a subspace pocket with their scientific equipment. This caused even more consternation, and this time neither Cybertronian could quite restrain their laughter for a moment. They dutifully reassured the Ethorians on the way back to the campsite, only to have to repeat the whole explanation to Kreseth upon arrival, when the Ethorian leader irately demanded to know why they had not retrieved the traps.

They retreated to the southwest, into the foothills of the mountains. Starscream took point and Skyfire brought up the rear. Even laden, the Cybertronians were logical guards, as they were nearly invulnerable to Shree attack. Skyfire mostly served as a dumb shield in case of a surprise attack from behind, but Kreseth had noticed Starscream's perpetual hyperawareness and fast reactions, and decided the Seeker was made to be a scout. Skyfire didn't tell him how right he was.

An Ethorian male with a medium-pitched, quiet voice kept pace with Starscream, guiding. Skyfire could occasionally hear him speak, but more often saw him point. Finally, as the sky was lightening, the guide turned and signaled with all four hands for the line of rebels to stop.

At first, Skyfire could detect nothing different about this site from the rest of the forest. Then, as quiet followed the shuffling of litters, slings, stretchers and bags being set down, the sound of running water reached him. A tired-looking Ethorian drafted him to bring in stones to line the new firepit, and he set to work, impressed with their quiet dignity and perseverence. If only he could believe Starscream admired the same qualities...

As predicted, Starscream's mood changed before the day was done. The Ethorians needed rest and time to attend to details, and Skyfire was still patiently trying to discern the culture and history of the Ethorians by talking with nearly every member of the camp. None of those pursuits could hold Starscream's attention. Finally, while learning the traditional method of making a paste from a plant and a salt, Skyfire overheard Starscream ask Kreseth why the Ethorians didn't go on the offensive against the Shree.

"Excuse me," Skyfire said to his Ethorian tutor, and stood. "Starscream, I need a word with you." He half-dragged his partner away from the camp. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Following through."

There could have been worse answers, Skyfire admitted to himself. "Explain," he ordered aloud.

"I've been watching them set up their defense perimeter. Helping. They had me flying all around the area to figure out where to set their traps."

"So that's what that was. Go on."

"But it's all defensive. That doesn't fit what I know of a rebellion. They must be doing something to at least annoy the Shree."

Skyfire crouched to his partner's level, trying to look him in the eye. Starscream turned away at an angle that suggested he was still listening. "Starscream, you're trying to impose Cybertronian beliefs and expectations on the Ethorians. Don't do that. For all we know, their idea of a rebellion involves dancing in a circle and casting spells, and the first time he'd ever heard of going on the offensive was back there when you prompted him."

Starscream did meet Skyfire's eyes then, but only for a dubious look. "They just saw the Shree do it. He knew what I was talking about. And if he was doing something else, like waiting for intelligence or attacking covertly, he'd have a good explanation for it. Which I didn't get to hear."

Skyfire looked back into the camp. Kreseth was deep in another conversation. "He's busy. And you're a scientist, not a military strategist."

"The study of warfare is part of sociology," Starscream replied defiantly.

"The rest of which you're ignoring. Leave all of it to me, please, unless you plan on doing a comprehensive evaluation." Skyfire made his tone mild, knowing the words sounded severe. "And if you're not, one of us needs to do a proper geological survey near the refinery. I'd rather you did it. You're better at sneaking in than I am, and you can get out faster if things get hot. Find out what they took, what's left, whether they've been using the same power source all seventy years and what the area was like before that..."

"You mean archaeology."

Skyfire grinned. "Do both. But find out if the rocks tell the same story these guys do."

Starscream started to leave, then stopped in the act of leaping up into the air. "I'm convinced." He transformed and flew off to the south.

Skyfire sighed. "I know." He watched Starscream turn west into the peaks, decided he didn't want to know what circuitous route the Seeker had planned, and returned to his plant paste tutor.

"Brave little warrior," the old man commented without looking up from his root shavings.

Skyfire shook his head slightly, the denial automatic. "He's good at anything he puts his mind to."

"Youngsters are all like that. Now, if we could get them to put their minds to feeding the community, building shelters and not laying so many eggs..."

"Then there'd be no youngsters," a female commented from nearby where she was attaching a shelter's fabric to its poles. "Jei, jei," she interrupted herself, waving at the woman she was working with. "You, go help Elela cook." She gave the other woman a little push, then set about undoing the work as soon as the silent other was gone.

Noticing Skyfire's curious look, his tutor explained, "That's Theld."

"She can't do anything right. Look at this. This pin was upside down and here, she stretched the top too tight." The building woman waved at the half-completed shelter in dismay, clicking her mandibles.

Skyfire peered, then shook his head. "I haven't had my building lesson yet."

"What do you live in on your planet?" She worked as she talked, and Skyfire followed her example.

"Metal boxes."

"You're joking?"

"Well, some of them are towers. It's really very beautiful... at least to my eyes." The Ethorians laughed.

Proximity to ground water had seemed an obvious criterion to Skyfire, who knew that most organic species, and certainly the ones on this world, required water. He had missed a level of significance, however. Ethorian young were initially aquatic. He didn't get to see any, it being the wrong season, but he did assist in finding a suitable sheltered spot along the new stream. The Ethorians were not as happy with the smaller stream as they had been with the steep-sided river, and several times Skyfire overheard one wish to move again before that season came. He wondered what Starscream would think when he heard they had spent their first four days on the planet in a nursery.

By the time Starscream returned, however, Skyfire had learned something else of interest. More of the eggs were hatching in recent years, and more young surviving, at least to the age at which they were frequently captured by Shree. Several possible explanations came to mind, but Skyfire didn't like any of them. Evolution should not happen this quickly. Genetic manipulation of the Ethorians seemed too subtle for the Shree. There had been no changes in medicine or in the way the Ethorians cared for their eggs and young, at least not that anyone around remembered. He set the problem aside to listen to his partner's report.

"I can't tell you much about the history," Starscream said. "Something heavily irradiated the area near the refinery and patches out farther than this camp. That radiation static I was getting was mostly from the ground. It could have been seventy years ago or it could have been a hundred. I can't tell you. I've got their mining operation characterized, though."

Skyfire nodded. Starscream might well have answered his question. He absorbed the rest of the survey results with quiet attention, then let Starscream go. Mindful of the earlier conversation, when Skyfire spotted the Seeker in conversation with Kreseth, he left them alone.

Skyfire's consistent respect and compassion, and his new status as a hero in the fight against the Shree, served him well. The Ethorians were not only willing to answer his questions, by the second day in the new camp they were coming to Skyfire with their own ideas of what he ought to learn. The healers were dismayed to find that his hands were too big to practice their techniques, though he was happy to patiently observe them and help where he could. One of the guards showed off a necklace of the fashion worn by several in the camp. The glossy grey arcs were Shree claws, "won in battle."

In between learning to distinguish the three separate systems of absolute direction the Ethorians used depending on the situation, Skyfire inquired discreetly about Theld. He had begun to notice the quiet Ethorian girl around more. She had always been in the background, he supposed, but it hadn't occurred to him that she was any different from the others.

She was just barely adult -- sixty-five years old, as best anyone could recall. She was one of the first hatchlings after the invasion to survive the transition to a land-based life, but that survival didn't indicate a stronger organism. She had grown up with the rebels, normal at first, then more and more withdrawn, clumsy, and careless. One Ethorian pointed out that she didn't make eye contact and usually seemed dazed.

There was something to be learned about a culture from the way it treated such weak members. In the case of the Ethorians, they were happy enough to provide for her as a member of the community, but no one wanted to assume personal responsibility for her. As her condition worsened, whatever it was, Theld was simply left alone. Currently, she was almost completely isolated. Because she wasn't competent to be independent, she suffered, but she did so in silence. The Ethorians didn't seem to think so, but Skyfire noticed that she slept in the poorest of the shelters and didn't always seem to eat when the others did.

It took some time to convince her of his sincerity when he finally talked to her, though to the best of his knowledge he had broken no taboos, only surprised her. She spoke hesitantly at first, her sentences jumbled, and he quietly encouraged her. If she was less intelligent than other Ethorians, it was not pronounced enough that Skyfire could tell. It was only when she became more confident that he noticed her clarity was not improving. Nor were the appropriateness of her emotions. With a twinge of pity, and distaste at using the term, Skyfire finally pinned down the meaning of the single word the Ethorians used to describe Theld and only Theld.

Insane.

"I can settle one question for you, though it's trivia now that we've seen the battle," Skyfire commented to Starscream that evening.

"Oh?" Starscream looked up, his optics bright. Skyfire chuckled inwardly at the Seeker's interest. Starscream seemed even more alert than usual, though he was containing his impatience.

"The Shree don't eat Ethorians. They're silicon-based. Their chemical composition is totally different. Ethorian flesh wouldn't do them any good."

"Were you able to do an autopsy of one of the Shree killed at the old camp?" Starscream asked.

"No. I regret not thinking of it, or at least to bring one of the bodies, but we were a little busy at the time."

Starscream shook his head. "A body might have led them to us. They can track by scent."

Not having a Shree body along wouldn't prevent that, but Skyfire let it pass. "Three of the men and one of the women are wearing Shree-claw necklaces. The claws are mostly lead, but in a matrix of silicon and other elements. I can't tell the exact contents without dissolving one, and the Ethorians were understandably reluctant to let any of their trophies go. One of the young ones has a tooth, and it's of a similar composition."

"From a higher gravity planet, maybe."

Skyfire gave Starscream a puzzled look for that conjecture, and the Seeker explained. "Their muscles are stronger than they need to be, especially in the legs. They're heavy, almost as heavy as Cybertronians. And now you say they're made of dense materials."

Skyfire nodded, then changed the subject abruptly. "What have you learned?"

"Meteorology, mostly. It's going to rain tonight, so you can put off your astronomy lesson."

Skyfire sighed exaggeratedly. Actually, he had a clear enough image of the night sky that tonight's lesson could be restricted to Ethorian mythology without great loss.

"Did you know the Shree invasion actually changed the climate of Ethor? At least the local climate?"

"I didn't. How?"

"Cooling. I think it's global, but these Ethorians don't know. The Shree triggered some seismic activity and ..."

Skyfire understood. "Those cloaks they wear at night seem like a new thing," he said in oblique support.

"The mountain range to the east, close to where they're mining now, is actively volcanic. This area was subject to earthquakes but no eruptions."

"Eastern range... You didn't get out that far in your survey?"

"No. One more thing. That annual transport? It's coming soon."

"...Hello?"

Starscream peered into the dark shelter, holding back the door flap to allow a few rays of light in. His optics adjusted quickly, but it still took him a few seconds to discern the figure seated inside, among all the objects. The only light came from a steadily burning string in a cup of fluid.

"Um... hi." Theld sounded puzzled, and her eyestalks moved as she regarded him in open bewilderment. "I already..."

"I know you already talked to Skyfire," Starscream sighed. "For some reason he wants me to go through and talk to all the people he already did. It's a 'learning experience'." That, Starscream thought, was a euphemism for a chore. He was a student and a scientist, almost always engaged in learning, but there were only a few times when anyone felt the need to point it out, least of all Skyfire. "Are you busy? I can go away." Oops. Had that sounded too hopeful?

"I'm ... it's okay." She pushed something on her lap to one side. "I'm not busy. But you don't have to talk to me. I'll tell them you did."

Starscream didn't have an answer ready for that. Responsibility, not compassion, compelled him to move all the way inside the shelter, letting the flap fall closed behind him. "No, I'm here. I'll leave whenever you," he emphasized the pronoun, "want me to." He couldn't stand in the low shelter, so he sat, knees tucked up in front of him, and rested his arms across him. His wingtips almost touched the canvas behind him, but he couldn't move forward without pushing into the space she needed to move freely. He pointed to the pile at her left side. "What were you doing?"

"Oh. This." She held up strands of plant fiber, some of them twisted together. "Making ties." She looked at the one in her hand critically. "This one's good for a firestarter, that's all. Maybe they'll get used before Elela notices them." She sagged in place, such as a shelled creature could. It was mostly a motion of her upper arms and head.

The silence wasn't long, but it was long enough to make Starscream uncomfortable. "Bad way to start." He stuck out a hand. "I'm Starscream."

She actually laughed a little. "I'm Theld." She cocked her head, eyestalks moving again, though her eyes remained focused on his face throughout. "What did you want to know?"

"I'm not sure where to begin," Starscream replied honestly. The other Ethorians had all had something in mind to teach the Cybertronians, whether it was interesting to them or not. "What do you think is important?"

She shifted slightly. "Skyfire wanted to know about my childhood..."

Starscream shook his head. He didn't want her to exactly repeat the interview with Skyfire. It didn't occur to him to consider it cheating, but it was redundant. "Never mind that." He grinned suddenly, inspired. "What do you think is the dumbest thing Skyfire and I have done since we got here?"

"What?" she exclaimed.

"The kind of thing where any child would know better, but we didn't."

"You're asking me? I'm the one who can't do anything right," she said bitterly, retracting her eyestalks almost completely in tense suspicion.

Starscream knew what the other Ethorians thought of her, especially Dijou. The adults called her incompetent, and another word Skyfire had refused to translate for him. Dijou called her the ugly one, to which Starscream had replied flippantly, but accurately, that all Ethorians were ugly to Cybertronian eyes. He was slightly disconcerted to realize that he could tell Theld was uglier than the rest. She was asymmetrical, in a disfigured, crushed kind of way. Her right shoulder sloped down too sharply, compared to the left, and the points of the shoulder ridge, where the front and back of her shell met, were unevenly spaced and oddly blunted. Her second right arm was distinctly shorter than the other three, and thinner. The hand tended to hang oddly from the wrist, though she did use it in gesture. Even her eyestalks weren't identical to each other. On the other hand, she sounded pleasant. Her voice was low-pitched, typical of an adult Ethorian, resonating at perhaps half the frequency Starscream's did. And if he looked at her energy patterns instead of her physical exoskeleton, much of the asymmetry disappeared. She still shimmered with the complex curves typical of organic beings, but he didn't mind.

"Oh, come on. We're the aliens that don't know food from poison, enemy from friend. We can't walk on rocks if there's water running over them. Did you see me fall in the river when we were first coming out with the rest of you?"

She laughed. "And Skyfire went frantic trying to find and catch you? He thought you'd float away or something."

Starscream grinned again and nodded.

"Okay." She leaned forward, clasping her top pair of hands, resting the bottom pair flat on the ground by her knees. "When Skyfire was first learning to cut yalai --"

"Ya-what?"

"Orange roots?"

"Oh, those."

"He looked at what Mrayo was doing, washed one, and carefully started cutting thin slices off it, into the pile." She mimed cutting slices off the end of a root.

"Mm-hm?"

"Only he cut across the grain of the root." She held her hands to draw attention to the fact that she was cutting cross-sections. "And the point of slicing them is so you don't have to eat the tough fiber in the center. He was carefully making sure every bite had a little portion of it, right..." Her incipient laughter finally caught up with her at about the time Starscream understood, and she gave up on trying to speak for a moment, then started a new story.

"When we were setting up the shelters, Sona showed him how to tie down the edges. This kind of knots." She demonstrated with her supposedly worthless string. "The kind that don't slip out when you pull on the end. So he went all the way around the shelter, got done, and started to go on to the next one. And Elela came running after him with her spoon because he'd gone right around and tied the door shut! They couldn't get it loose for an hour, and Sona had to do it because Skyfire's hands are just too big." She held up her own, comparing her slender digits to Starscream's blunt fingers. Her hand was longer from heel to fingertip, but both of her parallel claws were barely as wide as his forefinger. The thumb was dainty, fragile, and a full joint longer than his. "Yours are smaller but they're still big."

"You don't have to just pick on Skyfire because I'm in the room..."

"You," she offered shyly, "are the one that went out flying for an hour and came back all proud of yourself for finding those flat black rocks, when there's a whole bluff of them, just on the other side of the creek."

He didn't bother to tell her that she had misunderstood the point of his surveys. This was more what he had had in mind, because it allowed him to glean information about the broader Ethorian worldview as well as the details of their customs. Theld interpreted any assessment of the land around her as searching for useful resources, though whether this belief was due to the Ethorian lifestyle or the Shree, he could not guess. "Thanks," he said.

"Oh, and when you get caught in a net, don't fight it until you stop swinging. Then you pull yourself up until you're hanging from the top part by your fingers, and use your free hands -- uh, your free hand to untangle the ropes from around you. Then, you can stand on the ropes -- well, if your feet will go into the holes -- to untie the top and climb out."

Starscream regarded Theld in unfeigned surprise and gratitude. Had she known how frustrating, frightening and demeaning the method of their capture had been to him?

"The tops just pull shut when there's weight on them," she finished and shrugged, a little shy again under his gaze.

"Thanks," he said again, and meant it this time. "I'll remember that."

He let her tell several more stories. She had gone back to talking mostly about Skyfire, not seeming to know much about what Starscream had done during his time in the camp. As she talked, Starscream noticed the growing bitterness in her tone. Although Skyfire was the target and she seemed to bear neither affection nor animosity for the other Cybertronian, she was finding it harder and harder to laugh at the mistakes. As if, he thought, she had fallen victim to the same lectures and pranks herself, and the memories were painful.

"Why don't you think you can do anything right?" he asked abruptly. "I mean, it sounds like you know a lot about everything. Does your arm make it hard to do things?"

She drew her wilted arm close to her abdomen, her expression wary again. "No. I just make mistakes. I know how to do things, but I get distracted and then I do things wrong. I drop things, I put things in backwards, I ruin lots of things. I'm not clumsy, I just stop paying attention for a split second and next thing I know I'm looking at a mess." She sighed, both pairs of hands tucked together in her lap.

Starscream felt the first light touch of sympathy toward the girl, and followed it like a hunch. "I know the feeling," he said. "I can't count how many times I've heard," and he tried to imitate Skyfire's voice, "'Starscream, stay on task.' That's all he says, but I know I've just lost some opportunity or responsibility I never even saw coming. Some part of his trust in me." He looked at Theld questioningly, noticing that she had relaxed again.

"Exactly." She sighed. "They think I really can't do the simplest things. Even Skyfire." She looked up briefly, gauging Starscream's reaction to that accusation, then looked down again. Whether because of her emotional state or for some other reason, she seemed to glow more brightly in the energy spectra Starscream was attuned to, but she had completely ceased to make eye contact, not out of distrust this time, but as if her mind were focused on something far away. "They think I'm worthless, that I can't do anything, but I'm meant for so much more." Her voice had slid down even further in frequency, deep, resonant, and slightly louder, though her tone was still calm.

Starscream stayed silent, some instinct putting him on alert. If he had thought consciously, he would have laughed at the idea of finding Theld threatening, but something about her voice and her energy pattern left him feeling oddly small.

"I am meant to be as I am," she murmured, her tone now a full two octaves below Starscream's. A breeze blew the flap of the door against his wings, making him twitch despite his attempt at control. The lamp flickered and went out. Neither noticed. Theld had steadily brightened in the alternate spectra to the point where Starscream barely registered information from the conventional ones. Her patterns extended into the air around her, not in little ripples now, but in broad curves, like the field of a powerful magnet. He could feel the current through his chassis now, a fluctuating thing like water or wind. Her axis was a pillar of light.

"I am power incarnate," she continued inexorably. "I am a priestess of the Destroyer."

As suddenly as the mood had come upon her, it was gone, and Starscream found himself suddenly in a double darkness. Without turning, he fumbled for the flap behind him, holding it cracked open until Theld got the lamp burning again.

He was still gaping at her when she looked up. "W-what?" she stammered in her normal voice, then accused, "You don't believe me!" She jumped to her feet, crouching in the low shelter, agitated, but could not leave because he was blocking the exit.

"I -- no!" he exclaimed, gesturing her to sit. "No, listen. I'm just -- you tapped into something very powerful there."

She stilled, looking suspiciously at him. Tentatively, she asked, "You could feel his presence?"

Starscream shook his head. "Just energy. Lots of it. I didn't know a being of your kind could be so powerful."

"I'm not. It's him. He speaks through me."

Not quite, Starscream thought. She had declared herself a priestess, not the Destroyer himself, whatever the Destroyer was.

"You can see it?" she persisted. "Really?"

"Yes." After a moment, he added, "Skyfire could too, if he looked at you right."

She beamed at him. "But you're the only one that has."

By the time Starscream emerged, Skyfire had begun to wonder how wise he had really been in subjecting poor Theld to his partner. He excused himself from his current tutor, but Kreseth caught up to Starscream before Skyfire could completely disengage himself from his task. The Ethorian leader's manner was urgent, and Starscream listened closely to whatever he had to say. Kreseth gestured to a group of Ethorians and Starscream followed the lot of them off toward the creek. "Never mind," he said to Tabo. "Let them talk."

Tabo chuckled, holding his fabric and tools still for a moment as he looked at Skyfire. "Worried what Theld might have said to confuse him?"

"Worried what he might have said to Theld," Skyfire admitted. "He doesn't always know when to keep quiet."

"Whatever he said, it won't be the worst she's heard," Tabo assured him with detached amusement.

Skyfire's worries were assuaged when Theld emerged to work on some mundane task, hanging out bags of some edible on tall poles. She appeared entirely unconcerned, as if Starscream had spent that hour just asking her the time of day and her favorite color. When the Seeker returned to the camp, Theld called out his name with an enthusiastic wave of greeting, then turned back to her work just in time to catch the pole she was working at before it toppled. Irritably, she shoved its pointed end back into the ground, stamping the dirt down around it to hold it fixed, as Ethorians around her rattled their laughter. "The bag didn't fall," she challenged, but her pride didn't last in the face of continued laughter. She slumped as she continued working.

"See?" Tabo said to Skyfire, then added, "Your friend didn't laugh. He's polite."

Polite was not a word Skyfire would have used to describe Starscream, but he smiled at Tabo anyway.

Kreseth stood by the firepit, calling for attention. He got it gradually, as Ethorians put away work and emerged from shelters, but once the community assembled they stood respectfully. Even small children came from their play. One pair poked each other in the sides until an adult separated them, but mostly they watched.

Skyfire noticed Starscream standing near Kreseth and caught his partner's gaze. Starscream nodded to him almost imperceptibly, and broadcast a message over his radio without changing his expression. "He's about to repeat everything."

More Starscream discretion. This didn't bode well.

"You are all aware that the ore ship comes to the work camp soon," Kreseth began. "That is why the Shree have been so active in eliminating us and driving us away from there. They wish to hide our existence from their own people. We will not let them. We will send a signal the Shree homeworld cannot ignore." His voice rose on the last few words, and the rebels cheered.

"Starscream, what have you done?" Skyfire asked silently, partly exasperated but with a growing sense of futility and dread.

"I didn't start this," Starscream replied in kind. Skyfire noted the narrow band and low frequency and guessed the reason. Starscream wanted to avoid drawing the Shree to the Ethorian camp with a stray transmission, even an indecipherable and virtually content-free one. Out of respect for that desire, Skyfire didn't press his partner for information right then.

Kreseth continued, unaware of the Cybertronian conversation, "We will enter the city when the transport is being loaded. Most of the captives will be in the courtyard. If we move quickly, they won't be able to get them into the buildings, much less lock us out. Three of us will attempt to plant explosives on the fliers or make them inoperable by any means necessary, but if they fail we will need to protect the captives from airborne Shree as we liberate them."

Skyfire saw several Ethorians nod, committing themselves to the task in an informal way. Kreseth looked up at him. "I cannot require your help, Skyfire of Cybertron, but it would make things easier if we had it. Your partner tells me you won't fight unless you have to," he said, speaking louder as Skyfire opened his mouth. He didn't interrupt. "so I'm asking only that you stand by to carry people back to this camp, especially the weak and wounded. It would save lives."

"The Shree transport isn't built for local flights," Starscream added with a wry grin, "even if I could get to the controls and figure out how to fly it in time."

Skyfire's resistance dissolved into amusement. "I'll do it," he said. He knew he'd been manipulated, that Starscream and Kreseth had been conspiring to deftly wrap him around one or the other's finger. He couldn't bring himself to be annoyed, especially after realizing how much they had still conceded to his beliefs. Then again, if Starscream had remembered his teachings about respect for all life, they wouldn't be in this war...

"Good. Then Skyfire will be waiting in the northeast avenue. Starscream, I want you to stand by near him. If the Shree do get any aircraft flying, draw them away from Skyfire. If we have to load wounded, they'll be easy targets."

Starscream nodded. Skyfire wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or more worried, until Kreseth outlined the fourth objective.

"One of us," he paused, looking around the silent group, "will enter the Shree transport and plant an explosive that will go off once the transport lifts off. The cargo section will not be good enough." He looked up at Skyfire again and commented, "We tried that." He returned his gaze to his people. "He will need to get into the engine section. I won't deceive you. This is a suicide mission." There was silence for a moment.

"Kreseth, you are not going," Elela spoke up suddenly. "You are needed to lead our people. I will not let you go get yourself killed."

"Funny, I thought you were in charge," someone muttered, but then made himself hard to identify.

One of the guards stepped forward. "Not you, Kreseth. I'll go." Immediately, someone protested the new volunteer, and a third stepped up, only to have a small Ethorian fling herself at his knees, shouting, "Jei, jei, jei! Daddy!"

"I'll do it." The deep, loud voice drew everyone's attention for a moment. Starscream wheeled around to stare at Theld, so fast that he in turn startled the Ethorians nearest him.

"Theld," Elela said scathingly, "Has anyone communicated to you the importance that this mission succeed?"

Theld straightened up, another flash of pride sustaining her. "I can, and will, do this." Her voice was in its normal range now, and Skyfire wondered how she had made it boom when she wanted to get attention. He didn't think the Ethorian voice apparatus was capable of such a dramatic shift. "Get on the ship, take the axial corridor to engine section, and hide. Simple." Skyfire raised his assessment of her reasoning a notch. Either she had been having a bad day when he first talked to her, or Starscream had actually broken through. The defiant attitude she had picked up did resemble the Seeker.

"And don't drop the bomb while you're on the way!" someone jeered. The crowd exploded into raucous laughter.

"I will do it. The matter is closed," Kreseth announced over the pandemonium.

The Ethorians reversed their attitude so fast that Skyfire wondered if Kreseth had ever intended to go on the mission. He suspected the leader was only engaging in further deft manipulation, but he said nothing.

"Let Theld!" someone shouted now.

"Between her and the leader who kept us free..." Tabo muttered beside Skyfire. "Much as I pity the girl, we need him."

Kreseth shook his head, threw up one pair of arms, and conceded. Theld stood straight, looking determined and doing her best not to react.

"Starscream, I need to know." Skyfire tried to catch his partner's eye, but gave up on that. "What was your involvement in this, besides telling them to keep me out of the fighting?" And had Starscream been protecting him, or only making sure he wouldn't refuse? That question could wait for later though.

Skyfire had dragged Starscream well up into the mountains, near their original hollow, to get some privacy. The Ethorians had become accustomed to the Cybertronians holding conversations, even obvious dramas, in their own language, but now the impending attack seemed to have made them jumpy again, particularly when familiar names appeared among the foreign words.

Starscream turned fully away. "I agreed to wire the detonator. The Ethorians don't know enough about the kind of engines the Shree use to detect when the transport is in flight. If it were to go off while the ship is still on the ground, it could ... even this camp might not be safe."

Skyfire acknowledged that, but suspected Kreseth was not fool enough to go through with the audacious plan without Starscream's help. "That's all?"

"I do what Kreseth asks of me. The weapons are Ethorian design, but yes, I help make them." Starscream's posture was still stiff, and Skyfire suspected he was holding something back still. "I didn't make them do this, Skyfire. Like you said, what do I know about military strategy?"

"That's not what I said," Skyfire said, smiling slightly. "Just as long as you're not getting any radical ideas that you should be the one in charge."

"With you around? Never." Starscream almost eagerly accepted the detente, relaxing. Skyfire realized with a twinge of shame that he hadn't even noticed how strained their relationship still was, despite some improvement since the night of the attack. Starscream was still hurting, and couldn't dismiss the emotional pain like a physical injury, try as he might.

Skyfire rested a hand on Starscream's back, between the wings, looking out at the deep blue rim of dusk above the western horizon. Starscream stood still, the only sign that he welcomed the contact.

"Theld won't make it," Skyfire mused. "The Ethorians know that."

Starscream shrugged, but Skyfire knew to read the gesture as disagreement rather than disinterest. "It's her sacred duty. She won't fail."

Skyfire turned to face Starscream, taking a step backward so that he could stare at the Seeker's face rather than the top of his head, at least once Starscream turned to meet his eyes. "You can't possibly believe her! Starscream, she's a --"

"She's an E-band energy conduit!" Starscream glared at Skyfire. "Or wasn't that what you wanted me to find?"

"A what?" Trust Starscream to overlook personality variables in favor of an obscure technical quantity. Not that Skyfire could even make sense of what a conduit might mean in that context. "I meant, she's a lunatic. Schizoid. I checked, Starscream, there's no Destroyer in the Ethorian mythos. Nothing she could even possibly be referring to. They don't have priests and priestesses anymore, not since the Shree invasion, and when they did they were to naturalistic deities, not abstractions."

"She's perfectly rational. Listen, I talked to her for an hour with no evidence that she was anything but socially isolated. She sounded like I did when you met me! She told me perfectly sensible stories, all kinds of things about Ethorian life and customs. She's not insane. Something is channeling energy through her and when the levels get too high... it's like she shorts out. She loses recent memory, she forgets what she's doing, she gets clumsy and emotional. The rest of the time, she's fine."

"Except when you walked back into the camp circle today."

"Well, mostly." Starscream sighed. "You saw it happen at that assembly. Her voice drops in pitch and her energy readings go wild. If you're standing close enough, you could recharge on it. It's too much for her to be producing it herself. There's not that much energy in her mass in fissionables!"

"And it doesn't cook her?" Skyfire looked at his partner skeptically. "Or the tent around her?"

"I can't explain it. It's around her, through her ... you see a vertical pillar." Starscream gestured, frustration apparent.

"You see it," Skyfire amended, obliquely reminding his partner that not all Transformers had the Seeker's range of sensors.

"When she was speaking at the assembly I also picked up a transmission. Subspace, category eighteen. I couldn't decipher it." Starscream kicked at a rock. "I can't figure it out. I'm in over my head. But I know there's more to it than just a crazy woman."

"Alright..." Skyfire tried a new tactic. "Who's sending the transmission? The Shree?"

Starscream shook his head. "I don't know."

"Direction?"

"Subspace!"

"Right." Skyfire gave up. Subspace was a dead end.

"Trust me here, Skyfire... trust her. When she volunteered at the assembly, whatever was using her as a conduit volunteered through her. You heard her voice. So it's not going to do anything to distract her from it."

"You're assuming it's honest."

"I told you I'm in over my head with voices from subspace! I don't know if it's honest!" Starscream's voice had risen to an unpleasant screech. Skyfire reached out to him again, physically, trying to calm him.

"We can't do anything about it now anyway," Skyfire said softly, once he had Starscream standing still. "All we can do is do our job for the Ethorians, observe what we can, and analyze later."

"Hey Theld, I'm looking for yellow rocks today. Seen any under our noses?"

Starscream had interrupted Elela mid-lecture, and with an exasperated gesture she pushed Theld at him. "Help him find what he wants and don't knock anything else over! Thanks to you," she berated Starscream, "she's worse than ever today and she thinks she's the water deity's gift to Ethor anyway!"

"I could use an assistant," Starscream said amiably. Grinning irrepressibly, he led Theld across the camp to Skyfire. "And you," he told her once Elela was out of earshot, "looked like you could use some time away from here."

"Thanks," Theld half-whispered. "I thought she was really going to kill me that time."

The joke fell flat, reminding both that Theld was only going to live one more day. "We need minerals to make the explosives," Starscream explained. "We need --"

"Can I come too?" Dijou ran up, flinging his upper set of arms around Starscream's waist.

Skyfire laughed. "Can't hurt." Near the firepit, he saw the woman he thought was Dijou's mother, watching him again with that relaxed expression that substituted for a smile. "Come on, you little scamp. You can ride up here," he lifted the boy to his shoulder, "and tell me where I should be going."

Dijou protested that he could walk again, but only until he was about halfway up. Then he changed his mind. "This is so fun!"

The other three laughed, then set off. Skyfire led the way, setting an easy pace so that Starscream and Theld could keep up despite their shorter strides. The Cybertronians actually had a decent idea of where to find the minerals they needed, but Skyfire allowed Dijou some pretense of being the guide. "I can't go tomorrow," the boy announced mournfully. "You guys are going to get to have all the fun."

"War is not fun," Skyfire told him. "You could probably get Starscream to take you for a wild ride like that in peacetime."

"Naah, they wouldn't let me if I asked first."

"Axial corridor?" Starscream demanded of Theld once they were away from the camp.

She shot a startled look at him, but recognized the reference. "Axial corridor. The hatch is near the front, behind the control room where the pilots sit, and then there's a big main passageway that goes from front to back along the top of the ship. The engine room is behind the cargo section, still on the top, and at the back of it are the plasma conduits and the monitoring equipment."

From Skyfire's shoulder, Dijou looked curiously down at Theld. "On the transport ship?"

"How do you know that?" Starscream asked. "When we were still talking about me trying to fly it, Kreseth told me no one had ever gotten outside the cargo section on one of those transports."

"Oh... well, you can see it. There's a ridge along the ceiling of the cargo bay. Half the height of that corridor projects into it."

"So this is just conjecture? For all you know, there could be a big locked door at the end of that hallway!"

She didn't say anything.

"And the plasma conduits? Theld, remember you trust me?"

Theld gave Skyfire's back a pointed look, and then glared up at Dijou.

"Yes, I told Skyfire," Starscream said.

She relented. Her voice took on a curious modulation, not the deep tone but something Starscream faintly recognized as emotional. "He told me. Showed me the inside of the ship, and how it all works. It's very stupid, you know. A dead machine."

Starscream smiled a little, the diversionary tactic working.

It didn't work on Skyfire. "So ...he... just showed you the schematics for the transport? While we were all talking yesterday?"

"Yes." Her tone dared him to contest that.

"That could be that subspace transmission," Starscream reminded his partner.

Skyfire was thinking along a different line. "How does he know them?"

"That's just ..." she hesitated, thinking. "That's just what he does." She showed all four of her palms.

"Down there," Dijou interrupted, pointing. Skyfire set the boy down so he could scramble down the hillside. Theld followed.

Skyfire caught Starscream before he could fly down after the Ethorians. "If this turns out to be a trap laid for us tomorrow, I want you to get out of there. As fast as you can fly. Don't worry about me, don't worry about the Ethorians. Get yourself to safety. We'll regroup later. Understood?"

"Understood."

"Good. Let's go."

"They're still talking," Starscream reported, sinking back behind the not-so-natural ridge that hid them from the Shree lookout. From the high mountain northeast of the city, they had a clear line of sight to the transport's open cargo bay, and the day's weather was excellent for visibility, but only the Cybertronians could make out details due to the distance.

Skyfire sighed. He had begun to worry that the Shree would wait through the afternoon before beginning to load the transport. Then they would be both flying into the sun as they approached the city, and facing into the sun as they held their position until the evacuation. Neither condition was desirable.

Kreseth was anxious as well, but for a different reason. "They can't suspect... they can't have guessed," he muttered to himself.

Starscream stuck his head up again to give the refinery's overseer and the transport captain another look. "For all I can tell, they're talking about the weather," he said in disgust. "No, wait. They both just laughed." He paused. "At least, I think that's what that was." He gave Skyfire and Kreseth one of his more mischeivous smiles. "It might have been a howl."

Sona shoved at Starscream's foot with the butt end of his weapon. "At least someone's in good spirits around here." He didn't sound annoyed, and he was looking at Kreseth.

The Ethorian leader chuckled, forcing himself to relax.

Skyfire looked down by his own foot, where Theld was sitting quietly, the bomb in a bag in her lap. The bag's strap was loosely hung over her normal shoulder, but at the moment all four hands could be devoted to holding it. As if sensing his scrutiny, Theld looked up. "Look now," she directed Starscream in that deep voice they were by now all accustomed to.

Skyfire frowned. Whatever was communicating with her was making some attempt to prove itself, but it wasn't convincing him. He already believed that her informant was capable of observing the Shree. That by itself did not tell its intentions. Then he wondered at his own paranoia. He had to get off this planet soon, he decided. Soon, before he couldn't go back to being the curious and open-hearted explorer he had been two weeks ago.

"They've started," Starscream said. "Twelve Ethorians in the courtyard."

"Wait," Kreseth said, holding out two hands, palms down. "There will be more."

"Give it a few minutes, Starscream," Skyfire said, pulling the Seeker down gently by the gauntlet. Starscream fidgeted impatiently, drawing chuckles from the Ethorians, but did stay out of the refinery's line of sight.

Skyfire turned his attention back to the fuzzy radio signals he was picking up from the Shree. He could hear them better from here than the current Ethorian camp, and was able to understand the language, to an extent. His vocabulary was still limited to common terms, and the new ranks and titles introduced with the transport crew baffled him.

"What are you doing?" Theld asked in her normal voice, tucking her eyestalks to look up at him.

"Listening in. They've got people packing carts in the storage facility. They just called for three more teams."

Kreseth nodded. "Once they send them into the ship to unpack those carts, we go."

There was a rustle and click of claw, rock, cloth and weapon as the Ethorians shifted from relaxed positions to ready poses. Only three didn't anticipate the coming signal. Starscream and Skyfire were both listening to the radio transmissions, and would know before Kreseth. Theld remained seated in apparent disinterest. Resigned numbness? It was disconcerting to watch.

"Now," Skyfire said, and realized only after he saw Starscream come to his feet that he was the only one that understood Shree. Even listening to the radio, Starscream wasn't any better informed than the Ethorians. Skyfire transformed, opening his cargo hold for the Ethorians to file in.

Starscream led the way to the refinery, prepared to meet aerial resistance on the way in, but there was none. As Skyfire banked and descended, he spotted three figures scuttle away from the golden row of aircraft. The saboteurs had done their work.

Skyfire unloaded his passengers under fire. The first four rebels returned fire as soon as they were off, which meant they were still underneath Skyfire. He protested vocally, but to no avail.

Theld was the last one off, as planned, and as soon as she was on the ground, Skyfire transformed and stepped over her crouched form. She stood, leaning against the back of his leg, as the Ethorians drove the Shree guards back into the courtyard by sheer numbers. Then she ducked into the shadows. He quickly lost track of her.

There was a percussive rattle and a series of howling screams. Skyfire looked left, toward the source of the noise. Over the rooftops he could see smoke rising from what had been flier row.

Ahead, the transport's crew was swarming out of its top hatch. The overseer already had a vantage point and was firing into the melee, killing captive and rebel alike, but not Shree. Whether that was by luck or skill, Skyfire could not tell.

The slaves had broken away from their tasks. Unarmed and evidently weakened, they grabbed any makeshift weapons they could find, mostly rocks. A few ducked for cover, but most attacked the Shree. Skyfire watched a pair of slaves catch the arms of a Shree guard, dragging him back and holding him still to be executed by an armed rebel.

Elsewhere, one slave grabbed a Shree gun. He got off one shot, which missed its target. The enraged Shree swiped across the Ethorian's face with one clawed hand, then grabbed him, shook him, and tore off his shell with a horrid crunch.

Skyfire flinched, turning briefly away. He noticed that Starscream had perched on a nearby roof for a better view. Aside from the occasional ineffective potshot, the Shree had forgotten them. Because we're not fighting, Skyfire thought with faint amusement.

The Shree had driven the Ethorians back toward Skyfire and Starscream, away from the precious transport... all except one. Skyfire saw a dark form tumble over the edge of the transport into the top hatch, but forced himself not to watch for any reaction. The radio band was too busy for him to make sense of any of it.

Ethorians were pouring out of the buildings now. He saw running bodies fall. Some were picked up or dragged out into the courtyard by comrades, but others were reached first by the Shree. Abandoned carts of crates were now shelters from which to fire. Several had been turned on their sides for the better protection the metal bottoms afforded.

The living were a united front in the northeast corner, slowly driven back. Had the Shree really intended to drive the Ethorians directly to their escape route? They couldn't have. And yet --

Starscream shrieked a warning, diving behind Skyfire. He turned around to the sound of transformation and energy weapon fire. A scattered line of Shree were trying to regroup.

They'd gotten behind him! The Ethorians had been encircled. Skyfire wasn't sure they could have gotten anyone aboard with Shree on both sides. Even a few... there wasn't time to contemplate what ifs.

The Shree were regrouping, despite Starscream repeatedly diving into their midst. One had fallen, but Skyfire could tell the Seeker was trying for disorganization, not casualties. Finally, the Shree split into two groups, flattening themselves against the walls on either side of the open avenue, shadowed and protected by heavy eaves. All nine of them concentrated their fire on Starscream.

Starscream transformed again, landing in a crouch in the middle of the avenue. He was facing the courtyard beyond Skyfire, his gaze fixed, face betraying nothing. Even as he absorbed the shock of his landing, he flung both arms out and fired sideways.

The walls above both clusters of Shree crumbled, and the gunfire stopped, replaced by howls and shouts. "Show-off," Skyfire said to his partner in Cybertronian. Starscream merely jumped aloft again and shifted, swinging south for a pass over the courtyard.

"Skyfire!" A shout alerted him to the main group of Ethorians. Kreseth was waving them to retreat into the avenue, slaves and wounded first, and Skyfire transformed to give them a place to go.

The cargo bay door of the transport slammed closed. Several Shree raced across the courtyard in a group. Two turned to give cover fire while the others climbed the ladder to get inside, and the other Shree around hastily vacated the courtyard, leaving overturned carts and scattered crates in place. The last two finally jumped up the ladder and into the hatch just before it closed.

"Lift off! Lift off!" the overseer shouted clearly into his radio. Nothing happened.

The wounded and slaves were almost all loaded and the rebels were shooting from Skyfire's ramp to allow stragglers to duck in from the buildings to either side. Some of the Shree were beginning to lose concentration, glancing at the transport, and it was costing them lives. Starscream did another nose-dive to scatter them further, then pulled up and perched on his chosen roof again, assessing the situation.

"Stand by," a Shree voice said on the radio channel, louder than the usual transmissions.

"What do you mean stand by?" roared the overseer.

The hatch flipped open. The remaining Shree in the avenue stopped fighting entirely, finding cover so that they could face the courtyard. Kreseth's elite were still standing on Skyfire's ramp so he couldn't close it or take off, but they, too, ceased fire at a wave from their leader. "Don't waste ammo!" he ordered.

A Shree emerged from the hatch and climbed down to the third rung of the ladder, then bent to pull something out of the inside. An object, which he passed down to one of his fellows at the bottom of the ladder... and then Theld.

Skyfire heard Kreseth's soft denial. He didn't know the word the transport crewman spoke to the overseer as he handed over Theld's bag, but he could guess its meaning. They knew what the bomb was. Above him, Starscream flinched as it was handled roughly. Skyfire guessed that it had already been disarmed.

The overseer handed the bomb off to one of his underlings, then beckoned to Theld's captor. She was conscious, and walking, but there was no fight in her. She cringed at every word, every shove the Shree gave her good shoulder.

"No heroics," Skyfire radioed to Starscream, who looked dangerously close to leaping off the roof and flying at the overseer's platform. Whether he meant to save Theld or worse, complete the mission, Skyfire didn't want to know. It was enough to know that his partner's impulsive tendencies needed to be brought under control, and fast.

Starscream acknowledged, and Skyfire saw him slump. He looked down at Skyfire, and there was something plaintive in his expression. Before Skyfire could repeat his warning, Starscream turned back to the courtyard and yelled Theld's name.

"Starscream! Kreseth, get inside," Skyfire snapped, frustrated at his own helpless state as much as his partner. Kreseth didn't budge.

"Remember what you are!" Starscream shouted. Theld straightened, but made no other response. Skyfire could see the Shree talking among themselves and pointing to Starscream, but they didn't open fire. Maybe they, too, had decided not to waste ammunition? Or maybe ...

"Theld, is it?" the overseer said, approaching the would-be saboteur with apparent condescension. He showed her his claws, and sneered when he got no reaction. Skyfire guessed from Theld's posture that she was showing him her best defiant stance.

With a roar of fury, the overseer brought his hand down, slashing across Theld's face until the pads hit her shell. She wobbled, but did not fall. He reached for her again, but his claws never connected.

Skyfire felt more than heard it, a roar like lightning passing around a flier's chassis in a disorienting, scorching river. A roar with a few piercing high frequencies, a sound and sensation that had Ethorians and Shree alike trying to protect their ears. Theld stood, and the overseer hung suspended in the air a few feet from her, surrounded in a coalescing red miasma. Skyfire watched the flesh disappear from the overseer's bones, and those melt, separating into component elements, little balls that bounced around in the miasma. Like hailstones. A storm was simply the only thing Skyfire could think of to compare to.

She wielded terrifying chaotic power. Starscream had tried to tell him... The Destroyer was very real.

Then the sound was gone, and the pieces of the overseer dropped. Some bounced and rolled, others shattered. The other Shree shrunk away from Theld as she turned, and for a moment Skyfire thought she might actually walk in triumph back to him, that Kreseth had been right to wait...

Then he saw where she was looking.

The transport.

Without a warning, he closed his ramp hard, flinging Kreseth and his comrades unceremoniously inside. Shouting for Starscream, he took off and accelerated. It didn't matter what direction he was headed now, so he didn't bother to turn. If the Shree didn't follow closely, they never would. And they didn't have his speed.

He checked his rear view nevertheless. He spotted a silver gleam above the camp. "Starscream, are you coming?"

"Right behind you. Keep going, I'll catch up."

"Starscream, get out of there!" He couldn't tell if the Seeker was headed his way, but he could see red, glowing haze over the refinery. He accelerated at a rate that had his passengers screaming.

Too late...

He was only at half Mach when he saw the flash. Even in that fading brilliance he saw a pointed silver shape veer and tumble behind him. The last seconds seemed to extend into eternity, accelerating painfully slowly, until the shock wave reached him.

For the sake of his Ethorian passengers, he tried to crash gently.

The first thing Skyfire was aware of was a slightly-irregular thump. As his sensors came online again, some still buzzing from half-repaired states, he realized that there were Ethorians pounding on the inside of his cargo bay. He got enough external sensors working to determine that there were no Shree in the immediate vicinity, and opened the door. As they unloaded, he tried to assess his condition.

He wasn't badly damaged. His internal repair systems were effectively handling much of what the explosion and crash had done to him. On the other hand, he had no idea where he was, or where Starscream might be. Orient, then...

He was nose down in the shallow edge of a river. The Ethorians were standing on the muddy slope of the bank. Gravel and water were getting into some of his forward systems, complicating those repairs. "Is everybody out?" he asked, and received a negative. Marshalling his patience, he waited until Kreseth called out an all-clear before trying to transform.

After a false start he managed, but fell fully into the river. Disoriented and embarrassed, he brushed off the Ethorians' concern. Wobbling to his feet, he forced himself to stand still. He would do Starscream no good racing off to find him while Skyfire himself could barely walk.

"What happened?" Kreseth asked. One of the other Ethorians had taken over management of the wounded and was setting up a medical camp further up the slope with the first aid kits that had been brought along inside Skyfire. It wasn't much, but their camp must be several days' walk away if it even still existed. He could see the mountains, backlit by the setting sun, and they were distant. He must have flown almost directly south.

"The transport exploded on the ground," Skyfire said, realizing that he had neglected Kreseth's question for several seconds.

"The refinery is destroyed?"

"Without a doubt." Skyfire looked north. All he could see was a thick plume of smoke.

"You are damaged," Sona said, his voice concerned. "Come, sit down, tell us what to do to fix you."

Skyfire brushed him off again. "I'm alright. I have a partner to attend to, and you have a temporary camp to set up."

Kreseth acknowledged Skyfire's implicit request and gave him leave to go. Not that Skyfire had any intention of staying around with Starscream still out there. He walked several long strides away from the Ethorians, transformed, and lifted into the air gingerly, cruising off to the northeast at a cautious pace. Starscream had fallen this way, had he not? Skyfire called him again and again over the radio, falling into a drilled-in search pattern. To the north, he could now see the ruins of the city. Little was left, and fires burned wild in the forest nearby.

Several times, a gleam caught his attention, but investigation disappointed him, as it was only a lake or a creek. He was losing his light to search and he switched to alternate scans, wishing he had Starscream's sensitivity. Finally, he saw a gap in the forest... a gap where tree branches had been torn aside, and at the bottom of it...

"Starscream!" The Seeker was too far gone to hear Skyfire. The only good sign was that he had managed to transform as he fell, and now lay on his back. His optics were darkened, and Skyfire examined his form almost frantically to find any reparable damage. Millenia of training kept his search methodical, his hands steady as he worked. "Starscream, Starscream," he chanted, his voice the only outlet his emotions had left. "Come back..."

Red optics flickered, and Starscream's voice rasped, "Skyfire..."

Skyfire smiled in relief. Now, he was losing it, his concentration shattered by reassurance where he had held out in the face of fear. "You're going to be fine," he told his partner. "I'll make sure of it."

"Can't walk away," Starscream grated out before slipping back into stasis mode. Skyfire forced his mind clear and began to work again.

It was most of the night before the Cybertronians made it back to Skyfire's crash site. Starscream still couldn't fly, but he wasn't depending on Skyfire for support or balance so much as he walked. He was well enough off to pretend he wasn't injured, and Skyfire permitted it. Starscream would probably be doing stunts in the air as soon as he could take off, just to prove he could, so Skyfire didn't need to ask for status reports.

They saw the bonfire first, the flames licking above the lower treeline, not quite taller than Skyfire. As they approached, they could hear shouts and what must have been Ethorian singing. Still outside the firelit area, Skyfire and Starscream exchanged smiles.

Skyfire didn't understand, at first, where the shelters had come from, until Dijou ran out of one of them. This time, he flung his arms around Skyfire's leg. Skyfire chuckled and picked the boy up. "So you walked down here with the whole camp? All by yourself?"

"We saw you fall," Dijou said, unable to keep still in his excitement. "We didn't bring everything. Elela said we wouldn't need the traps, and if we did you could help us go get them."

Skyfire laughed again. "No, I don't think you'll be needing them for a while."

"Is it true? Is it true that everybody's free now?"

Skyfire looked away, unable to hide his mixed feelings. "Everyone who is alive now." But there would be time for the Ethorians to celebrate, and then mourn.

Dijou was bouncing and squirming so much now that Skyfire feared he might fall, and he set the boy down. "Come on!" Dijou called. "Come dance!"

Skyfire shook his head. There was indeed a ring of dancers around the fire, but Skyfire couldn't imagine joining it. "I don't have enough arms," he excused himself with a grin. "Besides, I'd probably step on someone." Dijou giggled and ran away, his mood undampened.

Elela separated herself from the celebrants, a few of the other Ethorians with her. "Thank you," she said in a candid tone, looking up at Skyfire with an occasional glance at Starscream beside him. "Thank you for bringing back Kreseth and so many others safe. You are our hero today. Both of you. You earned us our safety, Skyfire, and Starscream gave us our freedom."

Starscream shook his head. "Theld did it. I was just late getting out." Skyfire noticed Starscream was avoiding his gaze, and a small smile crept across his face. Sometimes, the anticipation of a reprimand... Skyfire had no intention of complaining about Starscream's risk-taking when he had already suffered so much from it.

"No, no, no." Elela reached out one of her hands and placed it on Starscream's shoulder. "You are the only one who ever got any use out of that girl at all. Don't belittle your accomplishments. You've got leadership potential, m'boy. Great potential." And with that she walked off.

"Don't let it go to your head," Skyfire advised Starscream mildly as he turned away from Elela's retreating form. Then he noticed Starscream's expression... or lack of expression, really. The young Seeker's expressive features were still and blank. Either he'd been damaged worse than Skyfire thought, or ...

"Can we go now?" Starscream demanded, his tone suddenly suggesting the beginning of a sulk.

"I think we should."

They departed the system without incident, though both kept their radio receivers wide open for any sign of the Shree. Starscream flew ahead of Skyfire, removing debris from their path with a little more force than was strictly necessary. Skyfire let his partner work off his feelings, understanding them better than Starscream probably realized.

They flew for a time in silence, a time and a distance that really had little meaning. It might have been hours, or it might have been Ethorian lifetimes flashing by as they coasted away close to the speed of light. Finally, Starscream made contact.

"We're not going back to Cybertron, right?"

"No, silly. Cybertron is one-twenty degrees to our right."

"I hope we're going to a dead world next," Starscream commented almost accusingly. "Maybe one worth spending some time on geology."

"Hmm. I'm sure we can find you some nice, interesting rocks."

"Good. I'm sick of people."

"Even me?" Skyfire teased.

"N-no! Not you!" Starscream dropped back to fly close beside him, profusely apologizing until Skyfire chuckled.

"I know."

They flew in silence again, close enough that they were probably wasting energy on excessive corrections in order not to collide with each other. Starscream had positioned himself almost under Skyfire's wing, and in permitting it Skyfire reaffirmed their friendship.

Without comment, Starscream propelled himself ahead, veering off to take his usual more distant position. Skyfire watched him, lost in thought, absorbing and organizing the detail as well as the broader patterns of their observations on Ethor. He knew that Starscream's conclusions would be different when the Seeker finally considered the stay with some detachment, and a few worlds from now they might discuss them, even hold a lively debate to while away the hours in space. For now, to himself alone, he summarized what he had learned in the last two weeks.

There is nothing more rewarding...