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By Andrea Cory
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The star lines flashed around Slipstream as she emerged from hyperspace after her third jump. Hanging in space in front of her was a massive blue-purple gas planet. A precautionary sweep had revealed nobody else in the area, and Slip made her way towards one of the several rocky moons orbiting the planet. On appearances the moon didn't seem to be anything special, but as Slip drew closer she sent out a brief signal, and one section of the moon slowly started to open. She slipped through as soon as the cleverly hidden doors were far enough apart, then sent another signal to close them behind her. Slipstream flew through a rocky tunnel large enough to allow a medium-sized space craft through. At first it was pitch black, but another remote signal soon had lights flickering on near the tunnel's end. The black flier sighed slightly to herself as she reached the end of the tunnel and emerged in a massive stone cavern. A large landing pad covered the floor, bearing various scorch and scratchmarks that showed a great ship had once landed and taken off from here many a time. Slipstream slowed down and hovered just above the pad, then transformed and landed on her feet. "I seriously dunno why I keep comin' back here," she muttered to herself, slightly sadly, as she walked to one of the other tunnels leading away from the cavern. It soon opened up into a smaller cave, the wall lined with computers. Slip sat down at the main one and powered it up. "Good thing the power generator's still working," she mused. "I wouldn't have the faintest idea what t'do if it ever broke down..." On a sudden whim, she opened her shoulder compartment and released the spiderbot Diablo had given her. "Prob'ly better t'talk to you rather than m'self, aye Scrabble?" The little blue and black spiderbot beeped in reply, then scuttled off to explore its new surroundings. "So much for y'listening either," Slip said wryly, watching with amusement as the little spiderbot scurried around, beeping to itself. By this time the computer had finished its start-up mode and had switched to the screensaver. A silver symbol, the same one Slip wore, slowly spinning on a black background sprinkled with stars. Slip sat there watching it for a while, remembering. Remembering the teammates who had once worn the same symbol, remembering their trials and triumphs, the friendships and the fun. Finally remembering the last, ill-fated mission that had left her alone for so long... The black femme shook her head slightly, unwilling to even think about it, and deactivated the screensaver. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, following the same routine they'd followed every other time she'd returned here. First, the maintenance drones. The half-dozen or so small droids were released to clean and maintain the extensive cave system and repair anything that might have been damaged in Slip's absence. She smiled slightly at the thought of how Scrabble would react at running into one of them. After a quick check to make sure the drones were doing what they were supposed to, Slip opened one particular program. The computer's equivalent of a logbook. Slip had started logging in where she'd been in the faint hope that one or more of her teammates had survived somehow and would return here. That hope, however, had faded over time, and the past few entries Slip had made almost entirely out of habit. Once again, habit drove her to make another entry. She paused for a moment to consider, then began to type. *Joined the League of Non-Aligned Cybertronians (LONAC) on 2238.119 at Adelaide Station. A neutral group founded and led by Waitstate. Based in the ship LSS Freedom. Last port of call was the planet Horizon, 2238.351.* Just as Slip finished adding LONAC's contact details to the log, she felt the now-familiar sensation of Scrabble starting to climb up her leg. With a slight smile she scooped the spiderbot up in one hand and depositied it next to the keyboard. "And just where have y'been, hey?" she asked it cheerfully as she entered her latest log and closed the program. "Finished exploring the whole place already, aye?" Scrabble let out a series of beeps and clicks, as if replying, then scuttled up to perch on top of the screen. Slip chuckled slightly and picked up the bot again, then placed it on her shoulder. "You'll get a better view from up there, I reckon," she told it as she shut down the computer and left the room, and Scrabble answered with another happy little beep. Slip walked down another corridor and emerged in another rocky cave, slightly larger than the one she'd just left. Several comfortable chairs were scattered around, along with a couple of small tables. One of the maintenance drones was just finishing cleaning the room, and Scrabble beeped at it from it's perch on Slip's shoulder. The drone ignored it and finished up with its work, then quickly rolled out of the room. Slip settled into a chair that showed a few more signs of use than the others and relaxed with a sigh. A small table next to the chair became the resting place for a container Slip took out of subspace. She opened it and took out one of the energon snacks it contained. "So what now?" she asked the spiderbot on her shoulder, idly taking a bite out of her snack. "Should I continue makin' these solo pilgrimages here every few stellar cycles for no particular reason, or should I just forget about it?" It was a question the black femme had asked herself every time she'd come here before. Scrabble beeped slightly, accepted the small piece of energon Slip offered it, then beeped again. "It's not like I want to forget about it... but every time I come now, people are gonna ask questions 'bout where I'm goin', what I'm doin'..." And questions were something Slip usually did her best to avoid, as most people who spent any time talking to her soon found out. She sighed and continued to mull over the matter, idly drumming her fingers on the armrest. It was some time later before she finally came to her inevitable conclusion. Despite the long period of time and all the evidence to the contrary, Slip couldn't give up the faint hope that some day some of her teammates would miraculously return. It was this hope that had gotten her through some dark times, and kept her coming back to this isolated little moon, far from any inhabited systems. It wasn't something she could just give up, not yet. Which meant that Slip would be back here again, eventually. Her decision made, she put away her small container of energon, then levered herself our of her chair and slowly left the room. Slip had reached the main cavern when she suddenly realised she was more tired than she'd originally thought. She placed Scrabble on the wall and told it to stay put for a moment, then switched to flight mode. Her landing gear came down and she settled on the landing pad with a slight sigh. Scrabble beeped and scuttled off the wall towards her. "Don't worry, Scrabble, I ain't goin' anywhere just yet," she told it. "Just gonna clock in some recharge time. Don't annoy the maintenance drones too much, okie?" Scrabble clicked in reply, then clambered up one of her landing skids and settled on her wing. "Keepin' me company, aye?" Slip said with a slight chuckle. "How nice of ya." With that, she powered down and went into recharge mode. The little spiderbot beeped quietly to itself, then settled down to wait for its large companion to wake up and start doing interesting things again.
It was quite some time later before Slipstream finally started to wake up. She muttered something unintelligible to herself under her breath like she usually did after a recharge cycle, and Scrabble clicked happily.
Epilogue
A few days after Slip had left, a small shuttle approached the unremarkable moon. The bot piloting it had to dig through his memory a bit for the codes, but eventually a section of the moon started to open, and the shuttle flew in. The bot landed it on the landing pad and was out of the shuttle even before the glow of the engines had started to die down. He couldn't help but notice the good condition the base was in, and his hope rose. Deeming his bot mode too slow, he transformed to monster truck mode and roared through the familiar tunnels to the main computer room. With a screech of tyres he pulled up and transformed again, then turned on the main computer. A smile gradually broke out on his faceplate, and he let out a whoop of joy as he read through the latest entries in the computer's message log. |