After their experience with the Pirates, Sari and Jazz prepare for a long journey back to the Terran solar system, and Earth.

Sari and Jazz prepared to leave Sniper's Autobot base. "How are you feeling, Sensei?"

"Much better, Sari, thanks! They have a top-notch sick bay here. Did you enjoy your visit with Sniper?"

"Very much! It was good to see him again. He gave me a full tour of the base."

"Well, we are fueled and ready. It's a long journey back to Earth," he smiled.

Jazz got on the ship's comm. "Ark-32 ready for takeoff," he told the command tower.

"Roger, Ark-32, you are cleared. Safe journey back to the Terran solar system." And leaving the landing site, Jazz and Sari headed back to their home base.

On the way back to Earth, an alarm went off. "Uh oh, Sari. Looks like the anti-matter magnetic containment generator is failing," said Jazz.

"That's not good. Let me see if I can make repairs with my mod."

"You'll have to access the control panel from a hatch on the port bow. I'll monitor the generator's health from the monitor here." And Sari stepped outside the ship and walked over to the port side. Opening up the access hatch, she placed her servos near the control panel. Her digits opened up and the prods penetrated its circuitry. Immediately her optics went all white, and she began "seeing" the internal workings of the generator.

"One of the main circuit breakers has tripped. There was a power surge coming from a blown dampener. Might have happened when the pirates hit the ship with their EMP."

"Can you repair it?"

"I can't repair the dampener, it's fried, but the ship has a spare unit. Let me come back in and swap it out."

"According to the diagnostics from the display we should be good for at least another megacycle before things become critical." And Sari returned to the ship to retrieve the replacement part.

During her EVA replacing the part, Jazz got on his comm. "Sari! Watch out! There's a rapidly moving asteroid cluster headed this way. How soon are you able to complete the unit swap?"

"Almost finished, Sensei." And she worked rapidly to get the new unit hooked up.

"I put the ship on auto pilot and it will be able to navigate around the large objects while I move over to the particle-combustion cannons port. I'll take out as many of the smaller ones as I can, but you may have to use your orbs until you can get back in."

"Acknowledged." And Sari closed up the hatch just as the asteroid cluster enveloped the ship. For the next several tense kilks, the Ark-32 dodged the larger asteroids and Jazz disintegrated the medium-size ones that might come too close. As for Sari, she clung to the ship's exterior with the mags on her pedes and blasted the smaller ones as she walked towards the hatch.

"Making my way to the hatch so I can get back inside." And arriving at the door, she used one servo to begin turning the door open, and used her free servo to shoot orbs at the rocks headed at her chassis.

Just then, one of the larger asteroids that Jazz hit did not disintegrate but split into two. One piece ejected away from the ship but the other flew right at the port side toward the spot where Sari was kneeling. "Oh, slag!" She threw out both her servos at the object.

"Sari!" yelled Jazz. The broken asteroid, instead of striking the ship, suddenly flew away.

"Sari, are you alright?" There was no answer. "Sari! Answer!" Static. They were past the asteroid cluster, so Jazz stopped the ship and went outside. The ship was undamaged. Sari was nowhere to be found.

Going back into the ship, Jazz piloted it back into the cluster, looking for the broken asteroid.

Power Levels 80%
Initiating System Reboot
Stand By…
Mechanical Systems Online…
Weapons Systems Online…
T-Cog Functionality Online…
Internal Systems Online…
Backup Systems Online…
Processor Online…
Energon Levels Nominal…
Spark Rate Nominal…
Final Systems Check Complete…
Reboot Complete

Sari opened her optics. "What happened? Where am I?" She sat up and rubbed her helm. "I was on the outside of the Ark-32, deflecting small asteroids while we were passing through that cluster. Oh! A large asteroid piece came at the ship! I didn't have time to hit it with an orb. I…I…I pushed it away. No, no. I jumped at it. I jumped at it and used the plasma thrusters on my pedes, and, P-O-M to shove it away. But, the force of the effort overpowered my Spark, and then, I landed here, and lost consciousness."

She looked around. "Where's the ship?" She got on her comm. "Sensei? Do you read? Sensei?" Static. She scanned the surface of the rock. She was lying on the asteroid fragment. All around the fragment were other asteroids of varying sizes. "I must still be in the cluster. Most of these must be composed of some kind of metallic material, blocking our comms. Hopefully he'll be able to find me."

Back tracking the ship through the rapidly-moving cluster, Jazz began his search for the asteroid fragment holding Sari. "I just hope she's in one piece!" he worried.

Getting up, Sari watched the highly unstable environment surrounding her. The asteroid fragment she was on was spinning, and the other rocks around her were in constant motion, spinning and moving past each other. "Definitely not a picnic site!" she thought. A similarly-sized rock started hurtling right at her. "Not good!" she thought, and aiming both servos, she shot two powerful orbs, blasting it to tiny shards in a bright blue display of energy.

Her comm crackled to life. "Sari! Was that you?"

"Sensei! Yes, I'm here!" Jazz saw the rock explosion and knew it must have come from her orbs. He piloted the Ark-32 to her asteroid fragment so she could return to the ship. She walked into the bridge. "Glad I found you, Sari. Welcome back aboard!"

"Glad to be back, Sensei!" And they left the cluster and continued on their journey.

Back on Earth, they sat down with Optimus for a briefing.

"So, Sari, I understand you fought some Pirates, helped rescue your Sensei, and protected the Ark-32 from a rogue asteroid," said Optimus. "Well done! Well done indeed!"

"Thank you, Sir!"

"And how are you feeling, Jazz?"

"Back to 100%, Optimus," he smiled.

"Well, we've been receiving reports from Cybertron Intelligence about increased Decepticon activity in this sector. We need to stay on the alert. Bumblebee has his crew on constant watch."

"I imagine the new nuclear power plant they'll be building on the moon would be a prime target," said Jazz.

"That it would be. Bumblebee will be receiving a team of construction bots in the next decacycle to start their work. He's asked us to provide additional security. The three of us will take the Ark-32 up with Arcee and begin patrolling the area."

The ship landed at Farside Beacon One, and the bots gathered in the conference room with Bumblebee and Captain Fanzone.

"The construction bots tell me they ought to have the nuclear plant foundation completed in two decacycles," said Bumblebee."

"That's fast! How are they able to manage it?" asked Optimus.

"The majority of the sections are prefabricated from another plant they built on Moon Base One. Once it's done the nuclear engineers will come to inspect and certify it for safety."

"I'm sure the Decepticons would like nothing better than to halt its progress," said Arcee. "We'll work with your crew manning the long range scanners, and be ready to intercept them."

"That's just what we'll need, Arcee, thanks," said Fanzone.

"At least the far-range scanner will give us sufficient lead time before any Decepticon ships enter this system," said Sari.

"That's what we are hoping," said Arcee, "however, Autobot Intelligence has received reports of some new weapon that the Decepticons have acquired. They are still trying to determine its capabilities, but initial Intel suggests it might be some kind of cloaking device - which means they might be able to sneak up on us without warning."

"I understand Sumdac Systems is developing some new advancement on the long-range scanner," said Optimus. "Perhaps it will have the ability to detect cloaked ships."

"I've talked with Professor Sumdac about that, but the improvements are still experimental. Nevertheless he's anxious to have them installed and tested," said Bumblebee. "They may give us some advance warning, but we may not know until the Decepticons are within range."

"Sari, perhaps you can help us get them installed," said Fanzone.

"Be glad to, Captain!"

"We have a new technical expert on board, Airman First Class Athena Young. She's been with us a few weeks now. You'll be working with her on the installs."

"Sounds good!"

The meeting adjourned, and Sari switched over to "human" mode. While staying at the station, it was her habit to remain as a human so she could make use of their quarters. "It'll be nice to have another female in the barracks," she thought, and got settled in one of the rooms.

She exited her room and walking down the hallway, happened to meet up with the new member of Fanzone's crew. "Hello there! You must be Airman Young. I'm Sari."

"Oh! Well, pleased to meet you, Sari!" She offered a handshake, and noticed that Sari was not wearing a uniform. "I'm Athena. Are you a Civilian Contractor?"

"No, I'm a Cybertronian Soldier. Optimus Prime is my Commanding Officer."

"Really? Cool! I didn't know that humans joined the Cybertron armed forces."

"Oh, they don't. You see, I'm not exactly a full human!" Sari explained. "I'm a Technorganic. I'm half human, half Autobot." And with a blue flash, she transformed into "bot" mode.

Airman Young's eyes opened wide and chuckled at the sight of this small Autobot suddenly appearing before her. "Well hey! Gotcha! Very neat, Sari. I'd heard about Technorganics; never thought I'd get the chance to actually meet one!"

She folded her arms and smiling, leaned against the hallway wall. "Cybertronian Soldier, eh? So what's your MOS?" She put out her hands. "Wait, don't tell me, let me guess! Hmmm. Half human, half Autobot...gotta be Intel."

Sari chuckled. "Close! I'm a Cyber-Ninja."

"Ah! A stealth warrior. Excellent! So, what're you here for?"

"I'll be helping to patrol the area around the new nuclear site, but in the immediate time frame, I'll be working with you, getting those long-range scanner upgrades installed."

"Cool! Glad to be working with you, Sari! I was just on my way to the mess hall - c'mon and join me! That is, if you…you know…eat?"

"Well, not in 'bot' mode, but," she switched back to "human" mode, "now I can!"

"Alright! Let's go! The chef bot's serving meat loaf today - it's good!" And the two headed on over.

"So tell me, what's Autobot Boot Camp like?" And the two swapped training stories as they walked down the hall.

After their meal, Sari and Airman Young went into a work room to look over the install manual for the new long-range scanner. "OK, the first thing we need to do is swap out the unit on the antenna," said Young. "Then, we'll come back in to the station to complete the rest of the install and power it up for testing."

"EVA time," said Sari. And closing up the manuals, they made preparations to go out onto the lunar surface.

"Captain, Sari and I are going out to the antenna to install the new scanner component," she told Fanzone.

"Sounds good, Airman. You and Sari be sure to let us know when you're ready to disconnect the old one."

"Yes, sir," she replied.

Young got into her space suit, and Sari switched into "bot" mode. They stepped into the decompression chamber. Once outside, they chatted on the way to the antenna.

Young spoke in her comm. "You hear me OK, Sari?"

"Loud and clear, Athena."

"That's interesting - when you responded to me, I didn't see your lips moving."

"Oh. Bots communicate in space straight through radio frequencies when talking to humans. My voice box wouldn't work anyway, so no need for lips," she smiled.

"Ah! So, you said 'radio frequencies' for humans. How do bots communicate? I'm intrigued!"

"We communicate in Cybertronian, which is all electronic, and can transmit through most media, whether air or the vacuum of space. If you were to hear it, it would probably sound like a collection of vowel-intensive electronic noises and rumbles."

"That's fascinating!"

"But it would be rude to talk Cybertronian in front of humans, so we only do it when we're among each other."

"What about Decepticons? What do they speak?"

"They speak Cybertronian. Of course, they don't care a whit about speaking it in front of humans."

They arrived at the antenna. The long-range scanner module was near the top. Looking up, Young said "OK, who wants to climb?"

"I got it covered!" And picking up the replacement part, Sari used her micron boosters to jump up to the top of the tower where the long-range scanner component was located.

"Nice mod you got there!"

Sari laughed. "First time I used it here on the moon, I forgot the gravity difference and landed waaay over on a far away crater. Bumblebee had to come pick me up."

She unpacked the new part. "OK, let Captain Fanzone know I'm ready to swap components."

Young got on her comm. "Captain, Young here. Sari's ready to replace the antenna unit."

"Very good, Young. We'll power down the scanner here and begin manual protocols."

Sari swapped out the component and jumped back down to the surface. "OK, ready for the internal units, shall we head on back in?"

"Sounds good, Sari," and they walked back to base.

Sari and Young were nearing completion on the long-range upgrade when Optimus walked into the control headquarters. "Sari, please come with me."

"Yes, sir." And she excused herself and went with Optimus. "Yikes! I wonder what's going on?" wondered Athena.

In the conference room were Bumblebee, Arcee, and Jazz. "Please sit down," said Optimus to Sari.

"We just received a report from Cybertron about a Decepticon attack that occurred on Gorlam Prime," said Arcee. "A delegation of Autobots was attending a science conference, and several were abducted."

"Oh, no!" Said Sari. "Do I know any of them?"

"Yes," said Optimus, "unfortunately, you do. The head of the delegation was Dataminer."

Sari's friend, and Cybertron's foremost authority on Technorganics, has been abducted by the Decepticons! What might they want with him? Will Sari be part of the rescue mission? We'll see! Thanks for reading! Please review.