Transformers' 'verse. Transformers' base. Finding Jeimu

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

In the period of time that Endeavour had been spending at what she came to call the Base of the Bots, there'd been many changes to the place.

They'd acquired a giant pile of CRT monitors. She wasn't exactly sure how they'd acquired 'bot sized couches, but then again, here she was, sentient and chipless and a 'bot herself, so anything was really possible.

She walked past where Bee and Jazz were hanging out on the floor, shelling monitors like they were peas, and continued on her way to the workshop at the back of the hangar.

Halfway there, she heard a dull clang and felt a weight on her back. She turned her head slightly and looked. Honey was clinging to her back, shifting slightly with every move Endeavour made. It was a little hard for the sparkling to stick; the vestiges of Endeavour's thermal tiles were mostly on her back and they were definitely not ferromagnetic.

Still, Honey was determined and Endeavour didn't mind, so she carried the sparkling all the way to the workshop, before sitting down in her chair made from SRB components and gently extricating Honey from her back.

"Now, what are you going to do in here?" Endeavour asked the little one, who just stared up at her attentively. A sigh left the older 'bot, and she flipped open a panel on her upper chest. Out scrambled a little six-wheeled machine, who wheeled in circles around Honey, chattering away in mock Cybertronian. Rover liked to think he could speak, but he couldn't.

Hoping that Rover would provide a decent distraction for Honey, Endeavour focused on her latest tinkering project: dismantling a whole load of older, more complex monitors the group had somehow acquired. Pretty soon she was into her work, and had her TDRS receiver sticking out of the back of her neck, picking up some old 1980's music station. She hummed along while she worked.

Comments

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

"What's that?" Ratchet asked of the music as he put a hand on her shoulder and leaned over to see what she was doing. Then he winced at a thud and laughter from the other room. "Ironhide got a roach in his works."

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

"Just taking the CRT tubes out of these things." She held one up in her hand. "Probably be a good thing to have around. I remember when I had five in my cockpit... Roaches? How'd he manage that?"

She watched Rover continue circling nearby.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

"They came in the monitors. We had so many in the main room the other day while you were out that Bumblebee wound up stepping on Sam's foot." He absently gave the back of her neck around the TDRS receiver base a gentle rub. "But I meant the music. I haven't heard this kind before."

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

"Oh." She smiled and continued working. "I have no idea. It was the first channel I could patch into that didn't have that screamy, noisy music."

it's totally playing "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins

She shuddered at the mention of lots of roaches. "Tell me you got rid of them." That's all she needed. Roaches crawling up her OMS engines while she slept.

If it was possible for a robot to gag, Endeavour did just then.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

Ratchet rubbed her back, then pulled her into a hug, feeling a little embarrassed about their living conditions for the first time. "It's alright. No one but Uncle Jazz is laughing at you, and he doesn't count."

"Hey!" said the local Jazz as he moved away from the door to return to what he'd been doing.

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

Endeavour let herself be hugged because let's face it, she really liked this one for a moment, and then drew back. "Okay," she said, glancing at the retreating local Jazz. "I'll try to remember to not listen to anything he says. And I'll try not to frighten Honey."

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

He smiles at her, then turns back to the door as Prime looks in.

"We're needed on base," says the leader. "Endeavour, will you be alright staying behind?"

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

She looks up and gives Prime a deferential nod.

"Of course," she said politely. "No problem."

Although part of her had a really large problem with this. Namely the separation from Ratchet everyone. She didn't like being alone. Careful, you're totally getting in over your head here...

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

"Uh...." Bee looks around, then walks along the road a bit, looking for something to give her a hint. "No, it's Florida. Just not right where you came from."

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

She taps her head a few times, as though thinking.

"Well, do you know how to navigate this place?"

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

"...Checking my maps," says Bumblebee absently, cocking her audials toward a far distant horn sound. "And the local radio waves...."

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

Endeavour extended her antenna as well. "...Florida Keys?" She frowned. "Never heard of them."

Mostly because she'd only ever launched the other way.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

Bee chuckles. //Thanks. What are you seeing from where you are?//

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

She evens out over the water.

//A... boat. It's still out to sea but... people are disembarking. It doesn't look like an emergency, though...//

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

Bee sends an acknowledgment, absently scanning the local radio waves as she did. Then she blinked as she caught a two way radio exchange. //Does your friend know somebody called Vic and Jav?//

[go-endeavour.livejournal.com]

///...yes.//

She's good.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

//She's on the passenger list. Do you see her yet?//

[jeimu.livejournal.com]

Jeimu stepped off of the ferry and slung her bag over her shoulder. Vic and Jav had decided to stay back on the ship, but she was both antsy and adventurous.

So she figured she'd take advantage of a few hours on the Florida Keys. The weather was nice and the sea breeze was refreshing.

She walked purposefully toward the market square, and then something hit her broadsided.

She fell down to her knees and came face to face with...

... a robot. It bore a vague resemblance to the Asimo robot she'd studied in undergrad.

"What the..."

The robot just tilted its head and beeped.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

//Anything?// Bee bounces just slightly on her tires.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

It takes moments to reach the rendezvous point, and Bee smiles to herself to see her friend sitting on the road, gleaming in the Florida sun. Radio still singing, she pulls sideways and opens her door, then flips the seat forward so that Jeimu can get out.

All this is done without the 'driver' moving.

[jeimu.livejournal.com]

Jeimu scrambles out of the car with the chattering robot never leaving her side. The sun is bright, and Endeavour's white tiles gleam like -

Waitjustaminute.

"Oh my G-" Jeimu runs as fast as she can to the ship. Her ship. The one that had been all over the papers because it had apparently been destroyed in an accident. And now a chattery Asimo wannabe and a possibly-possessed Camaro had brought her to Endeavour as though nothing had happened. Jeimu had been saddened by the loss and now... now it wasn't real. Or was it?

As she gets closer, she realizes that something was wrong. The ship is too small. The small robot gets in front of her foot and metamorphoses into something like the Mars rover, giving her just enough leverage to stand up and run her fingers over the blunt carbon-carbon nose of the ship.

"I knew you weren't really gone," Jeimu whispers. There were tears sparkling in the corner of her eyes Inanimate or no, she'd always felt a connection to this machine. Endeavour had character. "But... what happened?"

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

Bee closes her door and turns so that she can see better, inwardly grinning broadly at the small woman's reaction.

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

"She's safe now." Bee looks over the human's head toward her friend.

[jeimu.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know." Jeimu frowns again. "So where are you living now?"

[nottabeater.livejournal.com]

Bumblebee nods to let Endeavour know it's okay to tell her, then turns her head to look toward the town and to scan the surrounding area.