Yep, I've been toying with this idea for a while. And I know the looks you're giving me. Like: 'Really, AndromedaAI? Really?' I know I have several stories running right now, but I've hit writers block. Just give me some time to think about what should happen next…

I have thought about the plot in this story. Each chapter will be around 4000 words, like this chapter is. Updates won't be too frequent, just because. Note: this story will be covering the first, second, and third movies. Yeah, yeah, how original. Not to worry, though, it won't be boring *gives encouraging smile* There's a sub plot to this :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. I also don't own the main sub-plot—that sadly belongs to Michael Bay. I do own Ashley Knight and her father.

We Are Not Alone

1 – It's Not Safe Anymore – 1

I held the phone up to my ear and looked up at the stars from where I stood in my grandmother's backyard. As I listened to the phone ring, I thought about the week I had spent here so far. I was going to a public high school, but I hadn't made any friends yet. There was a family genealogy report that was due tomorrow, and thankfully, I had been able to finish it. It was about my great-great grandfather, Jonathan Knight, who was one of the men who dared to go into the Arctic shelf with Captain Archibald Witwicky. He helped haul Captain Witwicky out of the ice hole he had fallen into, and when he returned to England, he became a famous scientist.

The phone was answered, and a familiar baritone voice asked, "Hello?"

"Daddy? How are you?" I said.

"Ashley!" my father exclaimed happily. "Have you settled down comfortably in Tranquility? How's Grandma?"

I couldn't help the smile that crept onto my face. I missed my Dad so much. "I'm as comfortable as I'll ever be down here in Nevada, Dad. Grandma's doing great—she appreciates having me living with her. How's life in Qatar?" I hadn't been happy when the company my father worked for, Sun-E Energy, told Dad that he was needed to work at the brand new oilrig that had been set up, ironically, next to Qatar's SOCCENT base. They had told my father that it was one of the safest places a rig could be, but I didn't believe them. I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen to my dad.

"Just landed with a whole bunch of Army Rangers. I'll have to stay on the base until tomorrow because they want to make sure I'm not some kind of threat. Then I'll have to work under the scorching heat of the Middle Eastern sun," he said.

"At least you'll know what you're doing. Sun-E Energy trusts you to get your work done, because they know you can. I just don't want any Al Qaeda's sneaking onto the rig to blow it up," she said.

There was a hearty laugh. "My sweet, I don't think any of the soldiers here would allow that to happen. There's so much security here, an ant would be picked up on their scanners. I'm as safe as a mouse in its burrow."

I rolled my eyes. "If you say so, Dad," I said flatly. After a few seconds of silence, I said, "Hey, after my genealogy report tomorrow, me and Grandma are going to go and look at cars. I'm going to look for a fixer-upper, something I can customise. And when you get back, you can help me make it tickity-boo, right?"

"Sounds like fun, Ashley. But I have to go now; security is giving me The Look. I love you."

I smiled sadly and a tear came to my eye. "I love you too, Daddy."

I expected to him say something more, but there was a sharp bout of static, and then a click, like someone had forcefully jammed the connection before ending the call. I lowered the phone and looked down at the screen before I pressed the on/off button. I shoved my phone into my pocket before I turned and walked into the house. After I kicked my sneakers off by the back door, I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table. Grandma walked into the kitchen and saw me sitting there, looking disappointed.

"How…did it go?" she asked.

I drew in a deep breath. "Fine," I sighed. "Securities tight, though. I couldn't even talk to him for five minutes. Makes me wonder when I'll be able to speak to him again…"

"They'll let him speak to his family, I'm sure of it," Grandma said as she drifted over to the counter and, after picking up the kettle, before she filled it with water and set it down on the stove. She turned on the element it was resting on before she pulled out the tin of powdered hot chocolate. "Do you want some hot chocolate, dear?"

I thought about it for a second before I realized that I was in a desperate need of something sugary…and Grandma always made good hot chocolate. "Sure."

XXX

After he had been "interrogated" by security, and after he had something to eat, Kris Knight was assigned to share a tent with the Captain of the Army Rangers he had to fly with in order to reach the base. His name was William Lennox, Will for short when he wasn't on duty. The tent had housed both Lennox and Tech Sargent Epps before he had come along, and it still did. Kris was only going to occupy it with them for one night before he would be sleeping in the barracks offered for the overseas oilrig workers.

Kris had quickly found out that Lennox and Epps were easy to get along with. Lennox had a clean sense of humor, but Epps' was a little strange and hard to decipher. They didn't look down on anyone, but respected those around them that had different ranks. I guess it came with being in the military, because as sure as heck Frackers didn't treat each other the same way. He was comfortable around the two. He would kinda miss them when he had to go to the oilrig.

He was looking at the pictures of his family when he heard Lennox run into the tent. It had been an hour after he had been settled, and homesickness was beginning to grow in the pit of his stomach. He tuned out the brown haired man behind him as Lennox let out a happy laugh followed by, "My ladies!" Kris knew he was referring to his wife, Sarah, and his newborn daughter, Annabelle. Lennox had told him all about them over dinner once he realized that they were both fathers.

Kris ran a hand through his greying black hair as his blue and brown heterochromatic eyes took in the sight of the picture in his hand. It was a picture of his wife and his daughter. They were both smiling into the camera. He was glad they were both safe. His wife was visiting relatives in Ontario for the summer, fall, and winter while his daughter stayed down in Tranquility, Nevada in order give her grandmother some company.

He missed them though. It felt like his heart was being ripped apart. He had never left the continent of North America without either his wife or daughter. This was his first time. He had wanted to hear their voices when he first landed, but all he got to hear was five minutes of his daughter's voice and what she was going to do the next day. He allowed himself to sigh before sharp crackling from the screen Lennox was using to talk to his family drew his attention towards where the Captain was standing. He watched as the image on the screen froze a couple of times as the woman on the screen asked, "Wi-i-ll?" before the image pixelated slightly.

Lennox grabbed the sides of the screen. "Hey, Sarah. If you can hear me, I love you and I'll be home soon," he said quickly before the connection cut out and the screen went dark. Lennox groaned before he hung his head. He then looked away with a look of disappointment and unhappiness on his face.

"Wonder what could have been the cause of that…" Kris mused quietly, his New Zealand accent weighing heavy on his words as he noticed the sound of helicopter blades.

Curious, he got up from where he had been sitting on his temporary cot and walked to the open "doorway" of the tent. Night was falling, but because of the floodlights stationed in several places around the main "courtyard", he was able to see the large military-grade helicopter land. He watched with mild interest as several soldiers decked out in gear and uniform formed a circle around the helicopter and pointed their weapons at it. Lennox came up and stood beside him as he listened to the different shouts coming from the soldiers.

Will and Kris watched as the helicopter sat still for about two minutes, without moving. But then something unexpected happened, which threw the two men, both soldier and oilrig supervisor, off-guard. The column that the rotor-blades were attached to suddenly rose up about a foot. Then the blades rotated forward slightly before rotating backwards until they met. They stayed like that for about five seconds before the helicopter exploded into several different pieces.

The soldiers cried out and began to fire on the…the…helicopter and it transformed into a humanoid figure. Kris wasn't sure what the thing was, but by the way it stared down at the soldiers with those…red eyes…and how it prepped its weapons…he knew it was evil.

Kris sucked in a shocked gasp as the robot started to fire at the soldiers. Jeeps exploded, soldiers screamed. Kris couldn't help but take a step back in fear when a visible, blue, shockwave—something he thought would never leave Star Trek—erupted from the robot and destroyed everything (including humans) in its wake. The windows of the control tower were even affected by it as they shattered.

Lennox roughly grabbed Kris' arm before he dashed out into the chaos. Kris had no idea what was on the Captain's mind, and he guessed that the man was confused when they suddenly came to a stop. Soldiers were running all over the place, trying to get their stuff and trying to get out of the robot's path. Over the noise of the robot and the shouts, he heard Epps shouting at the top of his lungs as he ran towards him. He didn't understand what he was saying, but one phrase stuck out like a red light in the dark: "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

That was obvious, though. They had seen the robot fire.

The robot continued to shoot at buildings, and cars, and out of the corner of his eye, Kris watched as the robot shot at a C-17. In a ripple of blue light, it exploded. Soldiers tried to dodge the rolling corpses of military vehicles, but some couldn't. It was total carnage.

Lennox started to run, and Kris had no choice but to follow as Lennox's team ran to keep up with them. Kris' heart was beating a hundred miles a minute as he worked hard to stay right behind Lennox. It was beating from both fear and exertion as he realized that he really wasn't dressed to sprint away from a giant robot. Loafers were not running shoes he noted as a wave of blue light shot past in front of them.

Lennox was suddenly handed two bullet-proof vests on the run. He strapped his on before he tossed the spare one to Kris. Kris quickly managed to figure out how to put it on, and was thankful for the fact that he had some sort of protection. He wanted to return to his family.

A kid suddenly ran up to them, with a look of terror on his face. Lennox looked at him and grabbed the boy's hand as they ran. Kris realized that the kid would never be able to keep up with them and might catch the tail-end of an attack by accident, so he scooped the kid up into his arms and continued to run. Lennox glanced at him and gave him a grateful look before they dashed out into a clearing.

Out of nowhere, tanks rained down from the sky. Lennox's team managed to dodge the tanks, but some soldiers weren't so lucky. Before his eyes, Kris watched as four men were crushed under a tank as it crashed to the ground. Thankfully, the boy had looked away just in time.

They continued to run, though, and slid to a stop in front of a long row of tanks that had been parked there. Quickly, they turned around and faced the chaos. Kris was horrified at the devastation the robot was causing. But then he spotted Epps.

The African-American man was running full-speed in order to reach them. The robot came out of nowhere and nearly stepped on Epps as he reached the center of the clearing. Epps screamed as fell to the ground in order to avoid the robot's massive feet. "Whoa!" Kris heard him holler. "Oh!" Epps lifted up some sort of binoculars to his eyes and seemed to stare at the robot for several minutes before something popped out of the robot's chest—a gun-like thing—and pointed it at Epps. Epps got to his feet and ran the rest of the way towards Lennox and his team. The man Kris recognised as Fig, from when he was on the Osprey, pointed some kind of gun at the robot and fired.

The bullet hit the robot in the chest, and the robot twisted away slightly with a string of deep mechanical noises as Epps joined them. The robot looked at them, and fired, but missed them as they ducked between two of the tanks and ran for their lives.

At that moment, Kris' mind blanked. He held the boy close and he thought about his family as his position went from oilrig supervisor to soldier.

XXX

Today was the day I was to give my family genealogy report. I knew I was going to do a good job, since I loved history and that I was okay with talking about something in front of a class. I had been in 4-H and had won second place in the senior level during Public Speaking. I just had to keep the side of me that got stage-frightened buried.

I rose from my bed and had a shower. After I had dried myself off, I dressed myself in a pair of jeans, a light blue t-shirt, and some socks. I decided to wear my Italian charm bracelet with my medic-alert bracelet on my right wrist. After I got a good look at myself in the mirror, I left the bathroom and packed my backpack before I went downstairs. I then walked into the kitchen, took out a box of chocolate cheerios, and made myself breakfast. I sat down at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal and a glass of Sunny-D orange juice in time for Grandma to walk into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Ashley," Grandma said cheerfully.

"Good morning," I returned between bites. I was quickly, but carefully shoving my breakfast down so that I wouldn't miss the bus. I wouldn't have to worry about the bus once I got my car, though. I smiled slightly at the thought before I finished my breakfast and took the dishes to the counter. After I had rinsed them out, I put them in the dishwasher. I then kissed my Grandmother on the cheek and said goodbye as I picked up my backpack. Slinging it onto my back, I quickly walked outside, out onto the sidewalk, and then down to the bus stop. As soon as I reached the bus stop, the bus pulled up and came to a stop.

The door opened, and I went to step into the bus, but I stopped when I noticed someone frantically running up the sidewalk in order to catch the bus. I looked up at the bus driver. "Can you please wait a minute?" I asked. At his nod, I smiled before I watched the person, a teenaged boy around my age, come to a stop beside me. I quickly looked over him and noticed he was wearing a navy-blue shirt, jeans, and had brown hair.

"Thanks," the boy said breathlessly.

I grinned. "You're welcome," I told him before I stepped into the bus.

Quickly, I walked to a seat in the back and sat down. As I took off my backpack and set it down on the floor by my pink converse clad feet, I watched the boy make his way to the back of the bus and sit down next to a shaggy-haired boy on a seat across the small aisle from me. The bus then started forward with a lurch, and we were on our way to school.

School went well. First class I went to, as always, was math. After struggling through quadratic functions for an hour, it was on to science. Then it was lunch, and then it was back to school. It went on like that before the end of the day rolled around and I found myself sitting in my last class—history. I grinned. It was my favourite class.

I waited patiently as every kid went through their family genealogy report before my turn rolled around. I got to my feet and grabbed the stuff I'd need for my "presentation". I walked quickly to the front of the class, and positioned myself behind the table. I carefully set my items down and smiled at the class.

"Hi, everyone," I said cheerfully. "My genealogy report is about my great-great grandfather, Jonathan Knight. He was one of many men to brave the Arctic Shelf under the leadership of Captain Archibald Witwicky." My heart fluttered uneasily at the blank stares I was receiving from most of the class. Huh, maybe Mom was right: American kids were different than Canadian kids. Or maybe they weren't. I had just grown up in a different environment then they had. I had been homeschooled before I came to stay with my grandmother.

Taking a deep breath, I continued. "Anyway, being Captain Witwicky's first mate, he helped keep order on the ship as they sailed from England to the Arctic Shelf. Uh…after rescuing Captain Witwicky with help from the crew when he fell through the ice, they sailed back to England. When they got back, they went their separate ways and Jonathan Knight became a famous scientist." I stopped and held up a news article about his scientific finds, among them a type of gem that was a strange indigo blue (and according to the article, it also glowed in the dark). "But because of being a scientist, he tampered with several chemicals that cut his life short at the age of fifty." I held up an ancient microscope. "This is the microscope that he used when he conducting his experiments and studies." With a wary smile, I said, "That is all, thank you."

"Interesting report, Ms. Knight. Please sit down," the teacher, Mr. McPhee, said. I went and sat down at my desk with my things as he said, "Okay, Mr. Witwicky, you're up!"

I watched as the boy I had stopped the bus for stood up with his props and made his way to the front. So this was Sam Witwicky? Interesting.

Once Sam's stuff was on the table, he began. Though, I was amused at how he just dumped the stuff he needed out of his backpack and onto the table. "Sorry, I've got a lot of stuff," Sam apologised. "Okay…" he said before he put his backpack down on the floor behind him. "For my family ge—" he was abruptly cut off when an elastic band flew out of nowhere and slapped him on the cheek. The class laughed at how he flinched. I sat there and crossed my arms, not happy at how the class laughed at him. For crying out loud, let the boy start his report!

Mr. McPhee stood up, not looking pleased. "Who…who did that?" he demanded.

When no one stood up and confessed, Mr. McPhee pointed and said, "People, responsibility." And then he sat down.

Sam looked at the teacher, who gave him the signal to continue. "Okay," Sam said, turning to look back at the class. "So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky." I froze, and my eyes widened slightly. What? "Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first to explore the Arctic Circle." He held up an old map of the Arctic. My heart was beating a little faster because of the fact that my great-great grandfather was his great-great grandfather's first mate. "Which is a big deal."

"In 1897," he continued, "he took forty-one brave sailors into the Arctic Shelf." I could almost imagine the ship and the sailors hard at work. They were probably very cold. "So that's the story, right?" Sam pointed at the objects he had on the table in front of him. "Here are some of the instruments used by nineteenth century sea-men." There was more laughter, but Mr. McPhee held up a sign that said 'QUIET!' "Here's the quadrant—which is for eighty bucks. It is all for sale, by the way," he said, motioning to the stuff on the table. "Like the sextant, here," he held up said instrument. There was some more laughter, but Mr. McPhee held the sign up again, silencing the class. "Fifty dollars for this," he said after a small pause. "A bargain. These are pretty cool." He looked down and then held up a pair of old glasses so the whole class could see them. "These are my great-great grandfather's glasses, I quite haven't got them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things."

"Are you going to sell me his liver?" Mr. McPhee asked sarcastically. "Mr. Witwicky, this isn't 'Show and Sell', this is the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing."

"I know. I'm sorry," Sam said. "I just—this is going towards my car fund." He gestured to the class. "You can tell your folks that this is on eBay. I take , cold, hard cash works too. And the compass makes a-a great gift for Columbus Day—"

"Sam!" the teacher warned.

"Sorry!" Sam said as he glanced back at the teacher. Then he continued on with his report. "Unfortunately, the genius that he was, not long after going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols" he traced the symbols on the papers he was now holding up "and babbling on about some, uh…giant ice man that he thought that he had discovered—" the bell interrupted him, signalling the end of the class.

"Okay, there might be a pop quiz tomorrow, might not be," the teacher exclaimed at the students rushed out of the room. "Sleep in fear tonight."

I watched as Sam tried to sell his props to the teenagers filing out of the room. None of them even paid any attention to him. I stayed in the classroom, because I wanted to talk to Sam before he ran away. Was it coincidence that our ancestors knew each other?

Sam went and stood before the teacher's desk, trying not to look too uneasy it seemed. "Pretty good, right?" he asked Mr. McPhee with a smile on his face.

"Uh…I would say a solid B-minus," Mr. McPhee said.

Sam's happy demeanor instantly drooped. I quirked an eyebrow.

"A B-minus?" Sam repeated in disbelief.

"You were hawking your grandfather's crap in my classroom!" Mr. McPhee exclaimed.

Sam pointed back at the classroom. "Look, can't—look, can you do me a favour? Can you look out the window for a sec? Can you see my father?" With a groan, Mr. McPhee looked out the window. "He's the guy in the green car. Okay? I want to tell you about a dream, a boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked him in the eye and said, 'Son, I'm gonna buy you a car, but I want you to bring me two thousand dollars and three A's.' 'Kay? I've got the two thousand and two A's, okay?" It looked like Sam was going to go into rant mode. "Here's the dream" he held up his hands, holding them together "Your B-minus? Pfft" he made an explosion gesture with his hands "dream gone! Caput!"

After a deep breath, I realized he wasn't done yet. "Sir, let me ask you…what would Jesus do?"

I couldn't help but snort at that. Clever, Sam, very clever.

Mr. McPhee sighed with a roll of his eyes. "Fine, fine! A-minus."

We both watched as Mr. McPhee wrote it down on Sam's report. Sam cheered and ran from the room, backpack and report in hand. I smiled before I stepped forward. "What about me, Mr. McPhee?" I asked.

"You got an A-minus as well, Ms. Knight. Next time, though, I hope you'll try to be at least a bit more creative. I don't need two students doing nearly the same report again," he said.

Mentally, I rolled my eyes. They hadn't been the same. Our great-great grandfather's just-so-happened to work together, and we had no idea ahead of time. But I didn't voice this as he handed me my marked report.

Quickly, I ran from the room, and ran to catch up with Sam. I had to ask him that question. I came across him throwing things into his locker. I watched as his slammed the locker door shut before I stopped him. "Sam…?"

He looked at me. "Yeah?"

"I had no idea that our great-great grandfathers worked together, I'm sorry if I caused you to lose some marks," I apologised.

He grinned. "No problem, uh…"

"Ashley."

"Right! No problem, Ashley," he said. "It's cool, though, that the Witwickys and the Knights worked together in the past."

I nodded. "Yeah…cool…" I shuffled my feet. "I heard that you've earned a car, are you getting it today?"

He nodded.

I smiled. "I'm getting one as well. As soon as I get home. I'll leave you alone now, so you can go get your car…" I turned and walked around him. But then my phone rang. I stopped and answered it. "Hello?"

"Ashley!" my mother's voice wailed.

"Mom!" I was alarmed. "Mom, what's wrong?!"

"It's your father!" Mom sobbed. "The Canadian military just called. Your father is missing in Qatar!"

"What?!"

Fantastic ending, I know *sarcasm* Um, so I wanna take time and be careful with the "Transformers" third of this story. I don't want to mess this up. But see you next time! Please R&R! XD