Chapter Text
Pittsburgh, Earth, Early September 2006
Kati was out after dark, again. Home wasn’t where she wanted to be and her last class had gotten out earlier that night. The cheap takeout dinner she’d had was good, and it was an excuse to stay away from home…and her mother for longer. Her mind was elsewhere still. Apparently a small group of Autobots had been stationed in the city with mayoral and gubernatorial permission; their ship landed in a vacant lot near the Ohio River in the North Shore’s aging and decaying industrial district. They’d been in Pittsburgh for a few weeks now.
The Cybertronians had been active on Earth since the 1980s. A huge alien starship had been under Mount St. Helens for millennia and the eruption had woken them up. Earth became a battleground for years until with the help of Earth governments, the Decepticons were mostly driven off-planet. Humans were not alone in the universe, and they had a race of protectors, giant transforming machines, but living machines, with thoughts and feelings. Their homeworld was damaged and near-dead, so since the successful offensive in the 90s, Autobots and unaligned Cybertronians had been flocking to Earth. It had been contentious but Autobots were landing all over the world, specifically in cities. They got lonely if they weren’t around other people apparently. Their war had been hell on their numbers, and with their planet dead, apparently they couldn’t make any more of themselves.
Kati was far more fascinated with their technology—or their biology. She wasn’t quite sure how that worked, where the distinction lay, but it had driven her degree path. The best engineers worked with the Autobots, and by god she wanted to work with these alien robots.
“What is that?”
“Look at it, it’s so gross.”
Kati’s eyes darted back to the hecklers. A group of men five years her senior at least. Her breathing sped up, and she walked faster. This could be bad. Was her shitty barely there facial hair visible in the streetlight’s limited spectrum, or was it something else giving her away?
“Why are you running away, you fucking faggot?”
Kati answered by breaking into a jog. She really didn’t want to become a statistic, but this was now officially bad. A parked car’s lights flicked on, dazzling Kati. Did they have friends in a car? Fuck! She covered her eyes, stumbling on her feet and wondering if she’d be making it home today.
“Stop right there! What’s going on here?” Kati tried to make out the driver, but she wasn’t able to. All she could tell was that he was in a red compact with black and white detailing. The voice was a bit odd, like it was through a megaphone. Was this a cop?
One of the men shouted back, “None of your business! Stay out of this.”
At that, there was a scoffing noise and then something else entirely. The car split apart with a whirring of motors, compacting down as it rose up onto two legs. Piercing blue eyes blazed to life framed by a stubby pair of distinctly devilish horns. The Autobot, for who else could this be, was about nine feet tall and mostly red. The car hood ended up on his chest and the still lit headlights were on his shoulder pauldrons. With a gentle but quick motion he leaned down and placed one of his arms to shield her.
His voice boomed and thrummed, somewhat youthful sounding for a being she knew was older than modern civilization. In an incredibly authoritative tone he said, “I think it is my business if you’re about to hurt someone. Get out of here.” Kati turned around and peered over his boxy forearm and watched the bigots run. A gasp of relief escaped her as she collapsed to her knees. Kati’s eyes burned with tears. The Autobot shifted behind her, giving her space. “Hey, they didn’t hurt you, right? I know humans can be pretty fragile.”
Spluttering out between ragged breaths, she said, “I’m okay.” She tried to stand but found her legs weak. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Name’s Cliffjumper.”
She looked up at his face, straining her neck. “Kati Lovell.”
This was the first normal human Cliffjumper had interacted with in robot mode. Sure he’d met the mayor and seen a crowd, and of course, driven around the city. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Something was a little odd but he supposed that all humans were different.
“Where’s home for you? I can drive you there.”
She rose to her feet, shakily. “No, not right now.” He looked closer, letting his sensors tell him more. According to the data brief on humans he’d received she was agitated and potentially at risk of the medical condition, shock.
“I don’t want to leave you here. It wouldn’t be right.” Kati’s eyes met his own optics. Her gaze was intense. “What did those aftheads want with you anyway?”
Her demeanor shifted immediately, she had closed him out somewhat. “It doesn’t matter,” she replied coldly.
He raised his manipulators, opening them and showing them just like the briefing had told him to show non-threatening behavior to these humans. “Hey, that’s fine, forget I asked.” His processor spun for a moment, how to save this interaction? “You can ask me a question if you’d like.”
The young-seeming woman looked him up and down. It felt odd, being looked at by her, it was like she was stripping him apart in her mind. “How do your joints not wear out? You’ve gotta weigh at least a ton and a half, but you move like it’s nothing. That would wreak havoc on any material I know of.”
Kati was trying to focus on anything but what had almost happened. It was the first thing she’d thought of to ask a Cybertronian. She was learning about metal fatigue in mechanical systems earlier today so it had been at the forefront of her racing mind.
Cliffjumper’s expression seemed confused. “I’m not entirely sure how, they just don’t. I think our self-repair routines have something to do with it?”
That was interesting. She wiped her eyes, mind being occupied with this new problem. These Cybertronians must be so complex on the inside. “So you can repair yourself, huh?”
“Yes, but I don’t know much about how that works. You’d have to ask Evac, our medic.”
Without really thinking, she asked, “Alright, can I ask him?”
Cliffjumper corrected Kati, “Her, actually.” I guess it’s better than her staying here. “Sure, hop in, we can go to the ship and you can meet my…roommates I guess.” He pulsed his T-cog, dropping to the ground as his new alternate mode assembled itself from his frame. It was a bit bulkier than the last one, but he liked how it looked on him. Teletraan 1 had made the right choice, as usual. His optic feed seamlessly swapped to his auxiliary sensors, broadening his field of view. As his weight settled on his new tires, he popped his left door open. The human got into his alt mode, reaching for his steering wheel before placing her hands on her lap. “It should be about fifteen minutes, if that’s okay.”
“What, are you asking if I can wait fifteen minutes to see an alien spaceship?” Her vital signs seemed to be returning to what he knew humans were supposed to have. “Of course I can wait, I’d love to see it.” Cliffjumper shifted to drive, and began to roll, the rumble of his new engine thrumming through his frame. Kati’s eyes were darting around his interior, she was doing it again. Like she was trying to strip his panels away and look at his bare frame. He was kind of uncomfortable with that, but he didn’t know how to ask her to stop.
Kati was blown away at the level of mimicry this Autobot could do. The seats felt like real fabric, the interior looked like plastic, and it was impossible to tell this car was even a fake. There was the Autobot faction symbol on the steering wheel, but barring that…it was a perfect replica. She’d heard about it but this was ridiculous. Their disguises were indistinguishable! She really wondered how the hell that worked, mechanically it didn’t make any sense.
She was trying to not focus on what could have happened if Cliffjumper hadn’t intervened. If she hadn’t been saved, would she be okay? Would she have escaped? Kati’s eyes were watering again. She tried to stop thinking, just looking at the skyline. It wasn’t working very well. Her mind drifted, fragmenting. Home wasn’t safe, and now roaming around the outskirts of campus wasn’t either? She dropped her head into her hands.
“Hey, do you need medical attention? Are you okay?” The gauge cluster pulsed with Cliffjumper’s voice.
“I’m…fine.” She really wasn’t fine but she didn’t want to talk about it with someone she barely knew. “I don’t need medical attention either, I’m just a bit shaken. I’ll be fine.” Probably. She focused on the world outside this car—person. An enormous spaceship rested on two empty lots. It was a slightly metallic orange-ish yellow, and was almost a lifting body in shape. It was bigger than a city block.
“Here it is, the Steelheart. She’s a bit of a small ship, but it’s what we got here with after we got Prime’s message a few years ago.”
Dark thoughts temporarily forgotten, she yelled, “That’s huge!”
“Hah, you should see the Ark, this thing could park inside of its main hangar bay with room to spare. This is a craft for seven full sized Autobots at most.”
“No kidding…” Kati drank in the details, scoring on the hull, the hatches and panel lines, what seemed to be a sensor array, weapons. It was the coolest thing she’d ever seen. Cliffjunper drove towards the ship’s rear and a ramp dropped to the street, showing a cavernous interior. It was illuminated with warm light, and scaled for titans. The entryway was fairly simple, but still the closest she’d ever seen Cybertronian machinery. When she was younger she saw an Autobot up close at the museum. He was named Wheeljack and had presented new technology developed in collaboration with human scientists to the city, and she’d gotten to see his presentation. She hadn’t been able to focus on the speeches or the demonstration because her eyes hadn’t left the Cybertronian. She smiled. This wasn’t how she was expecting to fulfill that goal, but she’d take it.
Cliffjumper’s dash pulsed in time with his speech again. “This is just the loading bay, let’s go to the living space so we have a chance to stretch our legs.” Kati thought he sounded embarrassed. They drove through an enormous sliding door into a huge room. She couldn’t see much through the limited field of view of his windows. He braked and popped the door again. She wondered how he had so much fine control of his vehicle mode as she got out.
Kati made sure to watch him change forms this time. The Mini Cooper split on several major lines, mechanical parts appearing from inside and underneath with incredible complexity and speed. Doors folded around stocky forearms as hands appeared, hood covering the torso as he pushed off from the floor. The back of the car folded in on itself as the rear bumper became his feet, with the rear tires folding down to form the soles of his feet. He stretched his arms and rolled his neck, a surprisingly humanlike motion.
Such a transformation was so far beyond human technology that Kati really wondered how these people did it. What source was their technology from? She looked up at Cliffjumper, taking the chance to really see him in better lighting conditions. The bright spots in his eyes locked on her. “Can you stop looking at me like that?”
Kati dropped her gaze, trying to avoid any conflict and asked, “Like what?”
“Like you’re trying to see through my plating into my frame and Spark chamber, or dissemble me with your eyes.” He shrugged. “I’m not used to it, and it feels really weird.”
She frowned. She hadn’t really considered how her gaze would be taken by a sentient machine. “Sorry about that. I just find Cybertronians…fascinating.”
Cliffjumper laughed. “Fair enough, fair enough. I suppose I’ve been observing humans like that too, just more subtly.” He waved his hand, “This is the main living space on the Steelheart, it is where we’ve kind of…I think you’d call it ‘hung out’ ever since we fled Cybertron.”
Kati looked around. The ceiling was easily five stories up, and maybe a third of the ship’s internal volume seemed to be dedicated to this room. There was a table with varying sizes of chair around it, a collection of truly enormous desks or workstations, and a low table, or maybe a bed. Next to that was a huge box, maybe an appliance of some kind. There was also a large screen placed opposite what could only be described as a couch. With an amused grin she mused that there were only so many ways to accommodate a humanoid body plan. She noticed that they were alone here.
“Where’s everyone else?” Her mind was now truly off the subject of why she had met Cliffjumper.
“Mixture of out in the city and in their quarters probably. I think Powertrain is on the bridge calling command. Let me ping Evac so she can answer your question.”
Oh right, the question. He says it like I’m not going to keep asking them after the first one. Shortly, the doors at the rear of the room slid open to reveal a huge Cybertronian. She had to be at least forty feet tall. She was white and orange with dull silver accents and had a short orange V-shaped crest on her rounded forehead. She clearly was a helicopter when she transformed. Her chest was covered with the split front window of her vehicle mode, and her shoulders were halves of the nosecone. Trailing off her back like a cape were four dark rotor blades, and her lower legs were formed out of the tail boom, shaped in such a way that Kati was reminded of flared pants. She walked quickly towards the two of them, and leaned down. Her footsteps were soft for her size, but still rather loud. Evac’s eyes were softer, but her gaze was intense nonetheless.
She turned to Cliffjumper and asked, “You brought a human here, Cliff? Who’s this?”
He responded in a cool and confident tone, “I got her out of a tight spot and figured I’d show her something fun, especially considering I put my pede up my intake manifold earlier tonight with her.”
Kati could not take her eyes off the towering Autobot. “I’m uh, Kati. You’re Evac?”
The bright gaze turned back towards her as Evac knelt. Bright spots like pupils darted around her eyes as she took in detail. “That’s right.” As if she was talking to no one, she muttered, “Fascinating, I’ve never seen a human this closely before.”
“I…wanted to know more about how your self-repair works. He mentioned that you’d know more than he does.” A tittering laugh answered her, the noise kind of overpowering at close range.
“That’s because he’s the muscle and I’m the one who fixes him when he gets himself banged up. He doesn’t need to know how he gets fixed, while I do, especially considering his track record.” Evac brought her hand down slowly to the floor near Kati. “Do you want to stand on the table, so we can be a bit closer in stature?”
Kati’s neck was already hurting from looking up at all these giants. “Please.”
“Alright, climb on and hold onto my thumb.” Kati followed her directions and held on tight. Evac’s hand was big, she could sit comfortably in it. She ascended, faster than most elevators, before being gently placed on the table. “Cliff, you can join us if you’d like to learn how we repair our own minor damage without help.” She sat down at the lowest large chair, placing Kati around her chest level. Still a difference, but much more manageable.
“How is it that me bringing a guest to this ship results in an educational lecture for me?”
“At least it’s not Tracks lecturing you for bringing someone who sheds their dermis all over without asking him first.”
“Oh Primus, just don’t tell him she was here, he won’t work it out.”
Kati was observing the conversation, a bit confused but following enough to be intrigued at the level of discretion these Autobots had. Everything she’d learned implied far more military discipline, but that didn’t seem to be the case here. Though maybe that was because Earth was peaceful by their standards. Would it be rude to ask? Probably, and she didn’t want to make a bad impression.
“Alright. So, Kati, how familiar are you with our anatomy?”
“Just what I’ve been able to find with a bit of research, you’re built around an endoskeleton frame of extremely durable alloy with high flexibility from the joint density for transformation, you have three vital parts, a Spark, brain module, and transformation cog to control that flexibility, and you’re absolutely full of wires and tubes for vital signals and fluids, just like us. And that you should be suffering from enormous wear and tear by everything my education tells me, but you clearly don’t. Oh and you run on something impossibly efficient and energy dense, Energon.” Kati finished her report with a nervous smile.
Evac’s expression was noticeably shocked. “…You’ve found a lot, you don’t work with any Autobots, right?”
Blushing with the implied praise Kati said, “No, I’m just a college student in CMU’s engineering program with a good set of research skills and maybe a bit of obsession.” Kati wasn’t quite sure why she was so willing to open up to this Autobot. She just seemed safe.
“Well, the secret is probably that you’re not thinking about the fact that we’re made of living metal. We have nanites, semi-independent nanomachinery that repairs small damage. Cliff, that’s what your diagnostics report as self-repair. Nicks in tubing, corrosion on wires or armor or frame, joint damage, provided it’s light, we can get by without attention. Moderate damage can often be fixed by an infusion of medical grade nanites mixed into a mineral and metal solution for extra repair material. Heavy damage and I have to start getting out laser scalpels and replacement parts that get…my language library is saying innervated, but that’s not quite right, They get incorporated after long enough stasis by the ‘bot’s own nanites. Of course I’m oversimplifying the field of Cybertonian medicine”
Kati’s mouth hung slightly agape. “Right, of course.” She was stunned into silence for a moment. She shook her head and asked, ”You have nanoscale robotics as a normal part of your anatomy? Holy shit.” Kati examined the Cybertronian in front of her, trying not to make it weird again.
Evac’s optics swapped modes as she turned on her advanced sensor suite. The human in front of her was fascinating, and amusingly she regarded Evac the same way if her piercing analytic gaze was anything to go on. Humans were remarkably similar to the way Cybertronians worked, with the caveat of them being much smaller and more fragile. Humans must be protected, that was something she was sure of. She answered Kati’s question, “Yes, but you do too. You have a huge amount of nanoscale ‘machinery’ inside you too, according to other medbots I’ve talked to. It’s just organic, instead of mechanical.”
With a shrug, Kati replied, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Evac tilted her head a bit, trying to get a new angle for her wide-band sensors. Atmospheric monitoring kicked into overdrive as new spectrums layered into her vision, allowing her to see much more clearly. Something about this human seemed a bit at odds with the basic medical data packet Ratchet had given her. Presumed development hormone levels emanating from her glands were low for her age range, and there was more tissue than standard for a woman at her groin. Her stress hormone levels were high too, but decreasing as they talked. Evac filed that information away, not sure what it meant, or if it would be rude to ask. She didn’t want to make a bad impression on the first human she met up close.
Evac smiled, her smallest facial plates shifting. She liked this human. Most were clearly bothered by her size, but this one wasn’t. “You must be burning up with curiosity, what else do you want to know about Cybertronians?”
“I mean, everything, but we don’t have all night. God, I don’t know where to start.”
Cliffjumper’s field flared on Evac’s senses with amusement. “Now you’ve done it Evac, you’re keeping her from her home with the promise of scientific exchange”
Kati spun on her heels and stared at Cliffjumper, her body language indicating sudden anger and defensiveness. “Look, I don’t exactly want to be home right now, it’s fine.”
Evac recoiled from the outburst. Her Spark hurt sympathetically. Something was wrong here, something she wished this girl didn’t have to deal with. “Hey, I’m not gonna force you out, and I won’t put you anywhere you don’t want to go.” She held herself back from asking what was wrong, instead choosing to playfully prod the red minibot. “Ignore him, he’s a crass soldier.”
As he dropped out of the chair he retorted, “And your processor is so high up in the clouds that it’s getting fogged up.”
As the doors to the quarters section slid shut, Evac apologized again. “I’m sorry for whatever he said to upset you originally. He can be rough around the edges but he does mean well.”
Kati’s anger began to deflate into melancholy. “I’ve had worse, it’s fine, really.” She rolled her shoulders, mask raising over her emotions. “Anyway I’ve got a question, how sensitive is your sense of touch? I know our robotics really suffer from that sort of thing.”
“I mean for me, more sensitive than yours or any other Cybertronian, but that’s because I have the systems and programming needed for medicine. I can feel detail below the millimeter scale with these.” She extended her sub-manipulators from her fingers and flexed the tiny digits. Kati’s eyes went wide as she stepped closer to Evac.
Kati got even closer, stepping around Evac’s hands to get a closeup view. Evac held her hands still to avoid bumping the woman. “Look at the degrees of freedom, and…wow.” Kati muttered, “The density of parts in your hands must be insane.”
“That’s right, but most Cybertronians can’t do this. Medics are somewhat special in that regard. Cybertronian sense of touch is based on deformation and surface pressure, and it’s most concentrated around transformation seams and manipulators—hands, but we have it everywhere.”
“Wow…I never knew. Cybertronians are amazing. You’re incredible even before I consider that you transform. How does that work, by the way?”
Hours had gone by. Kati had asked every question she wanted to ask an Autobot and had come up with new ones. She’d seen a couple Autobots walk through this area as well, but they gave enough space. Evac was a fascinating person, and a friendly one at that. She wasn’t sure, but maybe they were becoming friends. The time she was dreading was approaching. She would be getting a call from Alexandra if she didn’t get home soon. “I’m going to need to leave soon. Back…home.” She wasn’t able to keep the disappointment out of her voice. Evac looked worried at that.
“Let me get Blaster in here so he can get you our contact information. You have a communicator, right? Er, a cell phone, I mean.” Kati nodded. She was getting their contact information? Evac must actually like her. “Call or text Cliff or I if things get bad, we’re willing to help.”
Kati’s thoughts raced. Oh. What is that supposed to mean? Am I that obvious? With a frown on her face she turned to the opening door.
Blaster stepped into the common room and beelined to the table. They must be messaging each other somehow. Blaster was a grey and red robot with a yellow pattern over his boxy chest, on the order of thirty feet tall. His head had fins on either side with a silver dome on the top. It seemed like he turned into a heavy truck, maybe a communications truck. He walked with confident swagger and smiled down at her. He was really good at expression, better than the others, it felt natural on him. His eyes were a golden glow.
Blaster’s voice was bassy with an almost autotuned quality. “Hey there little lady, nice to meet you.” He saluted with a few fingers in a lazy way. “Evac said you wanted some Autobot frequencies on your phone, right?”
Kati nodded, “Yeah, before I leave.”
His eyes dimmed for a moment, and her phone buzzed. “There you go, Cliffjumper and Evac’s comm frequencies are dialable and textable from your phone now. Should work just as good if not better than normal phone stuff.”
Kati whipped out her phone and to her shock, he was right. She had two new contacts, including photographs of their faces…somehow. They didn’t have listed numbers, but she was pretty sure it would work. Apparently her phone’s password didn’t mean much to him. Breaking her silence she muttered a somewhat stunned, “Thanks.”
“See ya. Maybe we’ll talk more next time, or not, no pressure.” Blaster waved and turned around, sidestepping the approaching Cliffjumper.
Evac sounded sad as she said, “Stay safe, Kati. I look forward to the next time we meet.” She offered her hand to bring Kati back to the ground.
“I’ll do my best.” Without much ado she climbed into Cliffjumper’s car mode, saddened equally by leaving here and the prospect of going ‘home.’
Cliffjumper leapt into the air as he transformed, trying out that move with his new alt mode, landing shakily on his pedes, not expecting the sudden stop. He was back at the Steelheart after dropping off Kati at her home. He wondered what was wrong with it, it seemed fine, but he was still learning about humans, so he was probably missing something important. Evac was tinkering with a piece of machinery at her desk.
Cliffjumper strode towards her desk and asked bluntly, “You want to protect her, don’t you?”
She turned, her field pulsing with concern. “How could I not? She’s passionate and driven, and at the same time, something is eating at her. I just want her to be safe. And besides, we’re here to protect humanity.”
Cliffjumper chuckled. “I don’t think we’re allowed to add random humans to the crew rosters of Autobot ships.”
Evac pulsed her fans in a sigh. “Can it. That’s not what I’m doing, I just think she needs someone to support her.”
Cliffjumper laughed, “You’ve known her for less than a local solar cycle, don’t get too ahead of yourself.”