Plague

Plague-chapter 1

"You heard me, Hook," Starscream's voice screeched through the comm. link, "isolate the repair bay as quarantine for us, and wear coveralls and masks when you come to take us in."

"Starscream," Hook sounded relatively annoyed, "how can you tell at all-"

"I have my methods," Starscream was starting to lose patience at the Constructicon's lack of respect, "and last time I checked, of the two of us, I am the scientist and your superior, so do as I say! Megatron and Astrotrain are infected for sure, and I don't want to risk anything until I can figure out what exactly we have here."

A whoosh of air could be heard from the link as Hook sighed, "Alright, Starscream. We'll make the preparations. Hook out."

Starscream snorted and turned back to Megatron; his leader was still clutching his shoulder where he had been hit by the asteroid chunk, but instead of moaning, he was taking deep ventilations to cool his systems. His temperature had risen, and Starscream could see through the cracks between his fingers that the metal around the tear had darkened considerably - that was the first thing that rose the Seeker's suspicion. He was glad he still kept his inbuilt microscope from the time before the war when they went exploring other worlds with Skyfire, but he wasn't so glad about what he saw when he examined Megatron's wound and the chunk.

And seeing the Gunformer's dazed look and how quickly it affected him, Starscream was starting to think it was better when he was still throwing tantrums.

The air commander was preparing for another comm. call when he heard Megatron's voice, "Starscream... are you sure you're not mistaken? Some strange corrosive chemical would be more logical then organic microbes-"

"I know what I saw, Megatron." Starscream grumbled back, "Those were microbes, though I didn't state they were organic, I said they looked like they're organic. And anyway, we explored many planets with Skyfire" he fought the urge to wince at the name, "and we've found organic microbes that use metals as energy sources. Even on Earth there are species of bacteria that oxidize iron or other metals. That's why I need to examine this thing, and until I can figure out how it spreads, we'll stay in quarantine."

"Why do I have to stay?" he heard Rumble's whine from his other side and looked down to see the mini-mech scowling up at him, "You touched Megatron and the asteroid, okay, but I didn't-"

"You're in contact with Astrotrain." Starscream shot back, "You're inside him! And didn't you listen to what I said?! I don't know how infectious it is, and you can't walk around in base spreading it all over the Nemesis!"

Rumble looked down, "But I don't feel ill." he said and this time, there was a twinge of fear in his voice besides the annoyance.

"Not feeling ill and not being ill are two different things." Starscream managed to contain himself from screeching again, "I'm not feeling ill either, but I might be infected already. All of us. Stop being a crybaby, a little isolation won't hurt you."

"Rumble," came Megatron's raspy voice from the other side, "I hate to say it, but listen to him."

Starscream didn't know if their leader was already too weak or simply had realized his second was more of an expert in this field than him, but the Seeker was grateful he, for once, trusted him enough to take control and didn't argue back. It made things a lot easier for him, and he nodded shortly to the Gunformer.

Rumble shut his mouth at Megatron's order and Starscream took a deep breath. He could see the young Cassetticon was frightened, and he could understand it; the thought of being infected with some unknown, maybe even mutated organism scared him, too, but he needed to collect his thoughts and he couldn't do that when everybody was questioning him. He was the scientist! He knew what he was doing.