The New Arrival

Chapter Two

A/N: user Draw4Life noted that Rian should have met Ratchet again. She is right, as my on-off Ratchet-muse pointed out two weeks ago, for Ratchet would want to check her over. This chapter is dedicated to Draw4Life.

"Rian."

The voice was gentle, but insistent.

"Rian. Your recharge is finished. I need to talk to you and check you over."

I yawned and stretched, although when I say 'stretched' it doesn't quite put across what sort of process this involves-a full-body stretch designed to unlock stiff joints and pull cables and wires straight, a process first involving stretching the body from neck to foot joints, then a limb-by-limb stretch. A full-on stretch can take up to two minutes to complete.

I took that time, and then unshuttered my optics, to find that Ratchet was standing by the recharge chamber, having watched and enjoyed the sight of a good stretch. As a medic, he understood the importance of the action, was obviously glad that I was still keeping up basic low maintenance exercises such as this, and enjoying the sight of seeing a femme stretching, something he probably hadn't seen for who knew how many millennia?

Ratchet lifted the chamber canopy and I sat up, swinging my legs to dangle over the edge of the recharge chamber. Ratchet offered his arm for me to support myself on, as I slid down the side of the unit. As the brief dizziness and disorientation that was an unavoidable side-effect of recharge swept over me, I was glad of the support of the medic's strong and steady arm. Then the disorientation passed, and I relaxed, releasing his arm and nodding my thanks.

He nodded back, then dropped his head, allowing his gaze to run up me from feet to head. He wasn't just having a good look, I realised, for I had seen Ratchet do this before, back before we got separated. He was now in full medic-mode, and running a mid-level diagnostic scan.

"Rian, you have just less than an hour before you need to report to Optimus for debriefing. I can do a little repair on your communications systems and check on your navigational systems, which also show evidence if damage, in half that time. Come on, I'll repair what needs repairing, and check a few other things while I do so." He took my arm, leading me through to the main medbay area.

Ratchet repaired my communications and navigation equipment, and pronounced me fit for duty, my self-repair having already taken care of any other damage that might have occurred. After that, there was fifteen minutes left, so Ratchet used it to show me around his medical bay, donated by this continent's governing body, and proudly showed me all its facilities. By the time he had done that, it was almost 0900, and I had to go to attend my debriefing session.

Ratchet took me to the medbay door, and pointed across and down where the door to Leader Prime's office was. I bid Ratchet farewell, walked over, and knocked on the door. A millisecond later, I was invited in via databurst.

Leader Prime was stood by an energon dispenser, filling two mugs, and as I stood before a big stone-topped desk that Leader Prime had in front of a chair of his size, I idly wondered where he had got the energon.

Leader Prime put the two mugs on the desk, pushing one over to me, and said "Take a 'seat.' It is a human comfort that we have adopted as it saves wear and rear on the legs, and puts everyone on a level with each other. Take a mug and I will tell you what has been going on." I nodded and pulled over a chair suited to my height and build.

He himself sat, and I found we were indeed not far off optic-to-optic level. I did not have to look up much, nor he down, to speak. He asked me to first report on my journey, and how much Decepticon activity I had noted.

My journey had been uneventful, as I told him, and I had managed to avoid being caught up in any skirmishes, which was just as well, because as small and alone as I had been, I would have been at a disadvantage. Then I detailed my arrival at the solar system, and how I had managed to avoid the gravitational pull of the gas giants by entering away from them, and how I had been concerned about the small red planet, then detailed how the asteroids between the fifth and fourth planet had wreaked havoc on my systems. I then explained how my navigations had been knocked awry, resulting in my arrival at the base four days later than anticipated.

Then Leader Prime filled me in about the Decepticon attempts to hack into the military data systems of the country we were in, called the United States of America, how the second attack had been successful, how the Decepticons had used the knowledge to locate and free their long-missing leader Megatron, (who had been captured and kept frozen by some of the humans) and how it had all culminated in the big battle in Mission City that had resulted in the destruction of four of the eight Decepticons in the country, including Megatron, and had also, regrettably, ended with the destruction of the AllSpark.

The other four had been classed as "missing, presumed hiding", for Starscream had been seen rushing off, one called Barricade, (who had attacked a human who unknowingly had possessed artefacts containing the co-ordinates of the AllSpark), was unaccounted for, a Decepticon called Scorponok was assumed to still be where he had last been sighted, and although a body had been recovered of a hacker called Frenzy, it turned out that this body was one of two, for the AllSpark had regenerated Frenzy's body, and that body, with much of his head still attached, was unaccounted for.

"Starscream has recently returned, with several others, including Soundwave, whom we must assume has his Cassetticons with him, Dropkick and Dead End, who are both fearsome warriors, the torturer, Swindle, and Payload, who is often silent, but must not be underestimated for he can dish out violence with deadly force." Leader Prime told me. "These arrived at the same time as our other five Autobot new arrivals who turned up less than two weeks before you did. They are Cliffjumper, Mirage, Prowl, Bluestreak and Hound. Cliffjumper and Mirage you met yesterday, with Ironhide, my weapons specialist. The other three you will probably meet today-hopefully under better circumstances."

Leader Prime filled me in on many details that had not been available on the Internet, which answered most of my questions, and then he answered a couple more I had.

"I am hoping to keep the mechs occupied with finding acceptable ways of approaching and talking to you in a manner that does not make you feel threatened or obligated." he told me. "I have advised them to both remember and access knowledge on Cybertronian courtship, and look up human courtship rituals. From this I have asked them to work out a system by which you can, as you stated you would, carry out your duty, as you see it, to our race, without any pressure being put on you." He took a mouthful of his energon, and leaned back.

"I have reiterated that whatever system or systems they propose must give you the maximum say, and must first be reviewed by you and given your approval before being implemented. I have also made it clear that you are not to be pressurised, intimidated, harassed, hounded, or otherwise coerced into anything you are not happy with. I have also told them that there is no rush to submit ideas, as we are not in imminent danger of extinction. You are to be given the time to adjust to the situation, and your new status - and I use the word 'status' in a respectful sense - amongst the mechs here." Leader Prime leaned forwards again, relaxing slightly.

"This base has been adapted for our use, and some of the rooms have door locks that will respond to our individual vocal patterns. One of these room has had been readied for you, the only people whose voices it will respond to will be yours and Ratchet's, and Ratchet's is only for medical or other emergencies when he might need to gain entry. An energon dispenser a computer terminal, and a large rest pallet, that you can have for your individual use but will take two if you have a guest overnight, have been installed. If you begin to accumulate possessions, shelves and storage can be made available. I hope that this provision is enough to reassure you. We do still have our beliefs in freedom, and yours is as important as anyone else's. If you are ready, I can show you it."

"I would like to see it." I told him. Leader Prime rose, and indicated I should follow him.

He showed me the room, which was as he had described it, and aided me in keying the door lock to my vocal print.

"I have nothing else pressing for the next half-hour, so perhaps I can show you the rest and recreation room, usually just shortened to 'R&R.' You should meet the others, and hopefully my presence will discourage any overenthusiastic response to your presence, although they have all been warned."

He showed me the way to this 'R&R room', and then pushed the door open, guiding me in with a gentle hand on my shoulder and then moving to stand beside me.

It was Jazz I spotted first, standing at a green table, holding a piece of organic plant matter called 'wood' in his hand. The table had several red and yellow spherical objects on it, plus one white sphere and one black sphere. Holding a similar piece of wood was a black-and-white mech I didn't know. As I watched, he used his piece of wood to hit the white ball, which hit one of the red balls, which rolled across the table to go in a hole in the corner.

Looking around, I saw a green mech I didn't know talking animatedly with Mirage and Cliffjumper, two of the three I had met the day before. A grey and red mech was involved in throwing thin, metal, sharp-pointed unpowered projectiles from his hand at a picture of Starscream that was pinned to a thick board on the wall. The picture was already pocked with dozens of holes: the mech had obviously done this for some time before we got there.

It was this mech who spotted me first, and he was sufficiently distracted by me to send the metal projectile not on it's planned course towards the picture of Starscream, but towards the three mechs having a discussion. Mirage happened to look up, saw it coming, and yelled "DUCK!"

The three did, and the projectile's sharp tip embedded itself in the wall behind Mirage. Mirage looked at it, then back to the mech who was still staring at me.

"Bluestreak, throw the darts at Starscream, not at us, if you don't mind-oh-er, hi Leader Prime, hi Rian."

Mirage had just spotted Leader Prime and I.

"Rian and I thought to join you." Leader Prime said, as every optic in the room turned our way.

"Oh, hi Leader Prime. Glad you made it, Rian, hi." Jazz said, waving my way. He was the first to move, heading for the energon dispenser in the corner.

"Hi Optimus, hi pretty femme, what's your designation?" asked the black-and-white mech, who moved to follow Jazz, who was now filling three similar-sized mugs. "My designation is Prowl." the black and white mech said.

Jazz left one filled mug on the side, and picked up the other two and headed our way. Prowl picked up a much larger mug and began filling it.

Jazz handed me one of the mugs.

"I'm Rian." I said, answering Prowl's question, but pitching it so every audio processor in the room would hear it. "Thank you." I said to Jazz. Prowl finished filling the big mug, and carefully bore it over to Leader Prime, who thanked him both by voice and with a nod. Prowl returned for the mug that Jazz had left on the side for him, returned to stand to one side of me, and looked me up and down.

By now the green mech who had been talking to Mirage and Cliffjumper had got up and walked over. He stopped before me, picked up my free hand in both of his, and before I could ask what he was doing, he raised it to his mouth and pressed his lips against the back of it.

"Pleased to meet you, Rian, I'm designated Hound. My specialty is holograms, and I have a special interest in this planet's dominant species, humans. That 'kissing of the hand' is a now sadly outdated way whereby some male-that's 'mech'- humans would greet a femme human. It was seen as polite. A more modern way for a male to show his appreciation for an attractive femme used to be this." He held out his arms, and a holographic and very colourful display of botanical specimens appeared, and he pushed them into my free arm. They looked and felt realistic, with cold and pliable surfaces of all different bright colours.

"These are called 'flowers'." Hound told me. "I'll get you some real ones later, but for now, scan and save the hologram as a gift." I did so, and a few seconds later the hologram flickered out. "I'm sorry I couldn't maintain it much longer, but powering such a detailed hologram uses a lot of energy, and I'm due for a recharge in a couple of hours." he said.

"Show-off!" Jazz said good-naturedly.

"Thank you, Hound." I said, a little overwhelmed, because I was so unused to this level of attention.

"Let her sit down and drink her energon." said Mirage, sitting down himself, and moving a hand invitingly to indicate the empty seat next to him.

"This from one of the three who scared her so bad yesterday that half the base heard the commotion." said Jazz, but not unkindly: taking it in the spirit it as meant, Mirage had the good grace to look abashed, but otherwise ignored him.

Smiling, I sat down. Cliffjumper immediately took the seat the other side of me: Hound pulled a face, which Cliffjumper promptly pulled back at him.

"Where do you get the energon?" I asked.

"We all do work for humans to earn money. We all contribute a tenth of what we get towards buying fuel, and Ratchet has some interesting medical technology that he can use to convert it to energon." Mirage said. "Ratchet's a skilled brewer. He said he'd rather use medical equipment for non-medical purposes, and make the energon himself, so he can test it to be sure it's safe rather than leave it to someone who may not know what they're doing. There are several ways to brew energon to make it inferior and dangerous to the systems. Ratchet says that if he makes it, that way he doesn't need to treat the consequences of inept brewing. Don't worry about paying for anything yet: you've only just arrived, you're a guest."

I was suddenly distracted as something leaned against my arm. Looking over, I saw it was Cliffjumper. He was leaning against me, head on my shoulder, optics shuttered, and with a blissful smile on his face as one hand moved up to clasp my upper arm.

"Cliffjumper!" said Leader Prime sharply, who had also noticed. Cliffjumper jerked upright, looking guilty.

"Sorry!" he said.

I laughed and shook my head.

"No, that's okay, I don't mind being leaned on and my arms being touched, I feel safer now and this is a different situation." I said. I put down my energon and pulled Cliffjumper back down onto my shoulder, where he resumed his relaxed posture and smile. A similar pressure on my other shoulder told me that Mirage had decided that if Cliffjumper could, so could he, which suited me fine. The contact, as I had told Leader Prime, did not feel threatening, and in fact reminded me of the huddles I and friends of a similar age had sat in as children.

Pressure against my legs made me look down: Hound had sat in front of me and was leaning back on my legs. I laughed: Hound had found a way to sit near me after all.

Leader Prime nodded.

"You seem okay now, Rian. I must return to my office. Prowl will help if anything becomes too intense for you, just call his name if you need to." He smiled, put down his now-empty mug, and quietly left.

"Rian, we've been thinking." murmured Mirage from one side of me. "This system that Prime wants, well, dating is something humans and Cybertronians have in common, we've done some research. How about we have a date system here? We suggest things that we can do for first dates, which is just getting to know each other, we could even hold a first date, say, here, in a social situation, so you're not alone and wouldn't feel awkward or pressured." he said.

"How often would I be expected to hold these 'dates.'" I said.

"As soon as possible?" Cliffjumper asked dreamily.

"No, Cliffjumper, shut up." Mirage said, good naturedly but meaning it. "It would be whenever Rian felt ready." He opened his optics, and looked earnestly at me.

"If we took on this system, you could call a first date whenever you felt like it. You could hold it tomorrow, or in a couple of millennia's time, whatever felt right for you, Rian." Mirage said. "I'd suggest that first dates would go at your pace-may I suggest no Spark-sex on the first date being a given, so nobody expects it. That gives you the scope to go as far as you might want to without worrying that they'll expect more. After all, everyone likes to be caressed, but you should have the opportunity to be kissed and, or, caressed, just for pleasure and relaxation, whilst knowing the mech won't be expecting more than that."

"That sounds like a good idea. Carry on." I told him.

"Well, the only time Spark-sex would be allowed would be on second date-or third, or fourth, or however long it took you to feel that you'd be happy with that." Mirage said. "Spark-sex would only happen as long as both participants felt happy with it, and preferably, with agreement from both parties beforehand-although if at any stage either participant decides they don't want to after all, that would be respected. You do sometimes get shy mechs, you know."

"Yes, I know." I said, trying not to be distracted from Mirage's ideas by Hound's stroking of my upper foot surfaces with the tip of a finger, and Cliffjumper snuggling his face against my arm. Mirage must have noticed my distraction, for he sat up and said "Well, we don't have to agree to any system or suggestion right away. Think about it, and let us know."

"Okay." I said.

"Hey, Rian, come over here!" Jazz said, beckoning me over with an arm. "Prowl and I will show you how to play pool!" As both Cliffjumper and Hound reluctantly allowed me to rise and move over, I smiled at Jazz, and his adroit 'rescue' of me, without Prowl having to say anything directly to any of my trio of admirers.

Prowl handed me the wooden implement.

"First things first. This is called a 'cue'" Prowl told me, and then proceeded to explain what everything was, and with Jazz's help, proceeded to teach me how to play…