Exiles

by Alex Irvine

  That was how it looked to Optimus Prime, too.

  Silverbolt reported just as night fell, expressing some optimism that the Ark could be repaired if the Velocitronians would permit the use of some spare parts and, much more important, the chemical processing capacity to mix a new fuel supply, since much of the Energon in the tanks had bled out during the explosion and its aftermath. Optimus took this under advisement and was debating how to approach Override when Bumblebee came up with Ransack behind him. Bumblebee said something incomprehensible, and Optimus sent him off to Ratchet before greeting Ransack.

  “My sympathies on your trouble,” Ransack said. Beyond him, a group of his closest followers idled in altform.

  “Appreciated,” Optimus Prime said, electing courtesy even in the face of the disrespect Ransack had shown him by not bringing his followers out of alt-form; the implication was that Optimus had nothing to say to them or they to him. Ransack was deliberately aggrandizing himself in front of Optimus Prime. “It appears that we will be able to repair the damage.”

  “With what? How much in the way of spare parts did you stockpile on your hurried exit from Cybertron?”

  Ransack’s challenge wasn’t entirely unexpected, but his insolence was. Optimus considered a new angle on the sabotage. Could it be that Velocitronian elements had persuaded an Autobot to do it? Why? What would be gained by keeping the Autobots here, especially if Ransack was hostile to their presence, as he certainly was?

  None of the potential answers to any of those questions were good. All of them led, one way or another, to Megatron.

  “Ransack,” Optimus Prime said, “I thought you wanted us to leave.”

  “Your departure is my second fondest desire,” Ransack said. “Well, no. Third. What I really want is for you to never have come here. But if you had to come here, I wish some other bot, stronger than you, would come along to get rid of the problems you brought us.”

  Optimus Prime smashed Ransack square in the face with a punch that knocked the Velocitronian flat on his back and sent him skidding across the pavement and into a junked repair hoist. Even before he had come to rest, Ransack had snapped out a long double-barreled energy rifle. He exploded up out of the wreckage of the hoist and leveled the rifle at Optimus Prime as his retinue of bodyguards brought their weapons to bear, engines revving and capacitors humming with pent-up energy. At the same moment, the Autobots working on the Ark stopped what they were doing and leveled their weapons at Ransack’s followers. Optimus held out an arm, keeping them where they were and standing alone against the assembled Velocitronians.

  “You’ve chosen the wrong side if you’re choosing against me,” Ransack growled.

  “I choose the side of the AllSpark, and I choose to stand by my fellow Autobots.” Optimus Prime said. “Now stand down or we’ll settle this permanently.”

  After a long moment, Ransack folded his rifle back into his arm and took a step back. His followers did the same, remaining in alt-form but hiding their weaponry. “You show your true colors,” Ransack said. “Do not be surprised when Velocitron shows you another truth. You say you search for peace, but the only true peace comes through tyranny.”

  Those last words came as a shock that told Optimus Prime much about what was happening below the speed-obsessed surface of Velocitron. Ransack was daring Optimus Prime to start a war, right there and then. “Take your own advice,” Optimus said. “And do not presume to speak for Velocitron. Now go.”

  They did. Optimus Prime stood by himself, considering what he had learned. If Ransack and his followers wanted the Autobots stuck on Velocitron, that must mean that someone on the planet knew or was at least reasonably certain that Megatron was coming. That in turn brought Optimus Prime back around to Prowl’s theory that there was a Decepticon spy on the Ark. Putting that together with the increasingly open conflict between Override and Ransack, what did he get?

  Exactly what had happened.

  Immediate threats having passed, the Autobots got back to work, except Jazz, who sauntered up and said with exaggerated flippancy, “Nice diplomacy there.”

  “It was bound to happen,” Optimus Prime said. “Better to have enemies out in the open.”

  “Wonder if Override is going to feel the same way,” Jazz said.

  Optimus said, “That’s what I’m about to find out.”

  He entered the hangar and approached Override just as Hightail was walking away from her.

  “Before you say anything,” she said, “tell me about your ship.”

  Optimus Prime watched Hightail long enough for Override to take notice. He knew Hightail was associated with Ransack and wanted Override to know that he knew it. She doubtless would be irritated that Optimus had lost his temper, but the time had come to reassert control. He was Prime and on a quest of enormous importance for all Cybertronians and their descendants on colony worlds known and unknown. No interference or factionalism could be tolerated.

  “Before I tell you about my ship,” Optimus Prime said, “you should know that Hightail is not loyal to you.”

  “I do know that. You may be surprised to discover that I do not need you to tell me where the loyalty of individual Velocitronians lies.”

  Optimus Prime was taken aback by her directness. “Override, there is a civil war brewing here. If you already know this, I have to ask why you have not prepared.”

  “What preparation did you make for the civil war on Cybertron, Optimus Prime? What would you have me do differently?” Override waved in the direction of the hangar’s front entrance. “Hightail and all of Ransack’s followers have been looking for an excuse. Your appearance has given them one. They believe that you could solve our problems but are choosing not to.”

  “How do you know this?” he asked.

  “If you want to talk about intelligence gathering,” Override said irritably, “talk to your Prowl. I ask you again: What do you think I should do about Ransack?”

  Megatron, thought Optimus Prime, probably would have killed Ransack where he stood. But that was one of the many differences between him and Megatron. Every death Optimus Prime had ever caused still weighed on his conscience; Megatron had become so identified with killing that it was the only way he understood power. Communicating that difference would be critical to gathering support among Velocitronians … and whatever other lost colony populations the Autobots might encounter on their travels.

  “I come to you asking a favor and knowing that it will be difficult for you to grant it,” he said, changing the subject as a signal to Override that he trusted her to understand what was at stake and take the correct action. It would do no good to assert the prerogatives of a Prime if that assertion left bad feeling among needed allies.

  “You want materials and Energon for your ship,” Override said, cutting to the chase more quickly than Optimus Prime had expected. “I appreciate your manners, but the situation calls for candor. If it is Megatron’s pursuit you’re worried about, why not stay here and confront him?” she asked.

  “I would not do to Velocitron what our war has done to Cybertron,” Optimus Prime said. “It is better for you that we leave.”

  “Except to leave, you need us to supply materials and fuel.” Override looked angry, but Optimus didn’t think she was angry at him. She was the leader of a people pressed by shortages and increasingly divided by factions. He understood.

  “We must go on,” Optimus Prime said. “I regret that we could not do more to help Velocitron. It was never my intention that we should be a burden.”

  “Velocitron will get by a little longer,” Override said, shaking off her anger. “I would appreciate a trade link with at least one other planet, though, when you get the Space Bridge functioning again.”

  Optimus Prime nodded. “Once the Space Bridge is open, it is yours to use. If I can send a message back along our route, of course I will, but you may want to be cautious in opening links with Cybertron at this time. In any event, recapturing the AllSpark must be ou
r sole objective.”

  “From the sound of it, this Megatron isn’t going to wait,” Override said.

  “No,” Optimus agreed. “He will in all likelihood find this place, since we did. And I would not be surprised if his ideas have preceded him.”

  Override was silent for some time. “How might this be?” she asked then, her tone of voice making clear that she knew and wanted Optimus Prime to say it out loud.

  “It is possible that someone on board the Ark is not who he seems,” Optimus Prime said.

  Anger again flared in Override’s face. “You disappoint all of Velocitron. You upstage the most important event of our calendar. Then, as you’re about to leave, you inform me that you might have a traitor in your midst who is spreading the ideas of your enemies among us.” Override shook her head and looked away from him. “Is there anything you haven’t told me?”

  “Possibly,” Optimus Prime said. “Don’t be surprised if Ransack is listening to those ideas.”

  “If he wasn’t before, he will be now.” Then Override surprised him by laughing. Optimus realized that he had underestimated her. She probably had been anticipating a confrontation with Ransack for a long time and saw his provocation as an expected next step naturally produced by a challenge to his ambitions. “Don’t worry. I’ve often wanted to take him down a peg myself, and I’m glad someone did,” she went on. “Ransack has been looking for an excuse to take Velocitron for himself. We all have known this for some time, and we have been quietly choosing sides. I believe that most Velocitronians will march with me. Ransack is simple. He wants power. He has no thought for the future or the consequences of his appetites.”

  “I have heard that story before,” Optimus Prime said.

  Override turned to him. Alt-formed bots thundered and roared by on one of the trunk routes leading in from the southern plain. “I will be ready for Ransack. And if need be, Velocitron will be ready for Megatron. Your quest is our quest. The AllSpark must come back to its point of origin. Know that Velocitron supports you, and I will give you what I can to assist you on your way.”

  Optimus Prime nodded his thanks. “The first thing I need to do is find out who the traitor is.”

  “How do you know there is one?”

  “A turn of phrase Ransack used,” Optimus Prime said. “I doubt that any Velocitronian has ever advocated peace through tyranny.”

  “ ‘Peace through tyranny,’ ” Override echoed. “This is Megatron’s slogan, then?”

  “It’s what he believes. It wasn’t always, but this is what he has become. Be ready.”

  “I will,” Override pledged. “You be alert—and resolute—as well, and we will see each other again.” She paused, then looked thoughtfully at Optimus Prime. “There is one other thing we must settle.”

  “Which is …?”

  “Two of my finest mechanics want to leave Velocitron and accompany you,” she said. “Mainspring and Clocker. I believe Clocker has spoken to you, but Mainspring may not have.”

  “I know Clocker. Mainspring, too, and I have seen him work. They are both welcome if you will permit them to leave,” Optimus Prime said.

  “It’s a free planet. Mainspring is a skilled engineer and will be of use to you, as much as I hate to lose him. If war is coming to Velocitron, all bots must rally to the cause of freedom.”

  Somehow that felt like a challenge. “I will take them,” he said. “And I thank you for agreeing to their request. Velocitron will not be forgotten, Override. I promise you that.”

  “If only we could be forgotten again,” Override said with a sigh that Optimus Prime recognized: the resignation of a leader who knows that the hard times to come cannot be avoided. “Every good bot is going to be missed around here if what you say about Megatron is true.”

  Which, Optimus Prime knew, it was.

  It took a number of solar cycles to complete the repairs to the Ark and finish replenishing the fuel reservoir. Silverbolt and Ratchet reported that the fixes to the reservoir were holding, but neither of them wanted to guarantee that it was permanently functional. “It’ll get us where we’re going if where we’re going isn’t too far,” was how Jazz put it. “But don’t be surprised if we have to do this all over again at the next planet we find.”

  With that in mind, Optimus made final arrangements with Override to bring a precious few spare parts and discarded pieces of alloy. Once she had let go of her anger at the situation—and her frustration that the long-awaited visit from Cybertron had brought not restoration but the threat of war—she seemed to be fully committed to the Autobot cause. Optimus Prime wondered whether that was due to Ransack’s increasingly open questioning of her leadership. The Velocitronians were choosing sides.

  Perhaps all bots would have to as Megatron pursued Optimus Prime across the stars. Perhaps a final peace would necessarily be prefaced by a final war that would spread across all the long-lost colony worlds. Optimus Prime hated this idea, but it had come to seem inevitable to him. He held the pieces of the Star Saber close to him as a token of his belief that the Matrix of Leadership would reveal to him what to do.

  Once the repairs had been completed, all that remained was to gather the Autobots and board the Ark, with Clocker and Mainspring joining the Autobot contingent. Neither of them expressed much sentiment at leaving the only planet they had ever known, and that surprised Optimus. He was still grappling with a nagging sense that he had failed as Prime when he abandoned so many good bots to a war they could not hope to win. Luckily, Mainspring and Clocker had no such worries. They were embarking on a great adventure, to see things that no Velocitronian had ever seen.

  They would be useful to the Autobot cause, with long experience making do in the circumstances of Velocitron’s resource-poor history. That would come in handy as the Ark traversed the uncertain course that awaited them. Optimus Prime was glad to have them. In addition, there was something about those two that made him think they were destined to be part of the quest. What exactly he wasn’t sure, but when he saw them together, he had an indefinable sense that they were part of something greater. As a rule, Optimus Prime mistrusted intuition, but living with the Matrix of Leadership embedded in his frame had begun to teach him that there were times when a bot had to rely on feeling rather than fact. This conflict often troubled him, and he feared that it clouded his judgment at times. For now, he set it aside, trusting in the Matrix to reveal to him what he would need to know. Preparations for the Ark’s departure must absorb all of his attention.

  The Autobots’ farewell to Velocitron took place, of course, at the entrance to the great hangar near Delta’s racetrack. This was the ceremonial center of Velocitronian culture, and here a great gathering of bots collected to see off the visitors. Optimus Prime looked them over, feeling both pride at their resilience and foreboding at the possibility that Decepticon ideas had accompanied the Autobots here and would proliferate in their absence.

  That there was a traitor on board the Ark could not be denied. Optimus Prime dreaded the process of rooting that traitor out. Someone had betrayed the Autobot trust, and to discover who, Optimus was going to have to question his trust in everyone aboard the Ark, no matter what he had said to Jazz.

  At the time of their departure, the Ark stood surrounded by Velocitronians who had come to see the show. The planet’s roads were miraculously free of traffic. “We got here and nobody noticed,” Hound commented. “Now everyone shows up to watch us leave.”

  “I can’t decide whether that means they’re happy to see us go or not,” Ratchet said.

  Optimus Prime ordered final boarding onto the Ark. “Doesn’t matter,” he said as the Autobots made their way onto the ship. “They have seen us, and they will know the truth.”

  One shall stand, one shall fall, he thought. That is the truth.

  His last obligation before departure was a final meeting with Override, who waited at the head of a delegation of Velocitron’s leading bots. Behind her, Ransack remained silent. He had
not yet progressed to open rebellion, but Optimus Prime was certain he would. At least Override would see it coming as well. At Ransack’s side stood Backfire. The two were whispering quietly to each other, and Optimus Prime had a feeling that their close confidence was a bad omen for the future of Velocitron. It pained him to think that he had brought war to Velocitron in the act of escaping from it on Cybertron. Override was a capable leader and would need all of her resources to keep Velocitron from descending into the same kind of chaos that had engulfed Cybertron.

  I will recover the AllSpark, thought Optimus Prime. Then I will retrace my steps across the galaxy and sow peace on my return wherever our initial exodus has inadvertently fomented division and war.

  “Be well, Cybertronians,” Override said.

  “Velocitron has been a most welcome way station,” Optimus Prime said loudly enough for all the assembled bots to hear. “Your support of the Autobot cause will be long remembered, and your generosity in time of scarcity will not be forgotten. We will return to Velocitron, and we will bring the strength and prosperity of a restored Cybertron. Do not lose faith in what is right.”

  “Prime,” Jazz cut in.

  Optimus Prime looked first at Jazz and then in the direction Jazz was pointing. Ransack stood—weapons out—at the head of a mob, all armed and all holding in formation, clearly awaiting his orders. “Override,” he said.

  “I know,” she answered without looking in Ransack’s direction.

  “I hate to break up this sentimental farewell,” Ransack called, “but I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to inform the illustrious Optimus Prime that Velocitron belongs to me now! I claim it, and I say to the Autobots: Leave now or we will finish what Megatron so elegantly began!”

  So, thought Optimus Prime. That was the plan all along, for Ransack to bring things on Velocitron to a breaking point and then use the Autobots’ departure for his own ends. He would make the Autobots look like cowards for leaving at the point of open conflict and simultaneously aggrandize his own position.