Transformers: The Cross

Chapter 8 - Shaky Explanations

     I was taken across the platform through a door into the side of the hangar - the glass corridor - where several more people were working diligently, their faces drawn into the screens of cluttered computers. Some of them muttered swiftly into headsets, or listened intently like their lives depended on it.

     I curiously scanned each monitor as we passed, but couldn't decipher any of the data; a plethora of them featured world maps, complicated numbers, and neon words in a font too small to read. Soon we took a turn, and the scene of activity was swept away by a blank wall.

     Only after Major Lennox led me through a series of hallways with Sergeant Epps tailing behind had the crucial thought occurred to me. As peculiar as it would be to see Optimus try and squeeze into a tiny corridor, it wasn't possible for him to 'join' us. Not without bringing down a couple of floors in the building.

     We turned another undistinctive corner and finally Major Lennox stopped at one of the thousands of bold metal doors in the wall. There was a label on it engraved with a title that read DBR 102.

     He opened it, releasing a wave of fresh, algid air, and I peeked curiously under his arm into a confined room, lit with bright fluorescent lights and a matted carpet. In the center of the room was a nice metal table, probably cool to the touch.

     That'd be a nice place to sleep, I thought tiredly as I trudged in and plopped into one of the rolling chairs that were lined around the table's perimeter. I grunted as a jolt shot up my back; no cushion at all.    

     On the opposite side, Major Lennox and Sergeant Epps sat and faced me, both of them with stony expressions. Behind the two soldiers was a dry erase board with black Expo markers lying unused on the thin, coin gray tray.

     I had a very strange urge to draw something on it, but what I did not have was the desire to get up. All I wanted to do was sleep.

     No one talked. We just stared around the room and avoided each other's eyes. Or at least I did.

     My eyelids began to droop forward, and I wasn't aware that my head was until it slammed on the table with a painfully loud bang, startling both men in the room. Pain briefly flared into my forehead. I didn't bother to look back up.

     "Is she cryin' already?" Ironhide's voice intruded.

     Annoyed, I lifted my head and saw two men I'd never seen before. The one who I assumed had spoken was buff, wearing a similar outfit to Miko, Jack and Rafael, except instead of a gray T-shirt, he was in a tight black shirt with N.E.S.T. in yellow font. He had latte colored skin, jet black hair in the style of a buzz cut, and a short stubble grazing his sharp jawline.

     Piercing blue eyes, almost or even exactly as bright as an Autobot's scrutinized me with unmistakable disdain.

     "Why is Ironhide's voice in your body?" I blurted, only to realize a second later how crazy that sounded.

     "That's a first," the man snorted in Ironhide's light british accent. "She recognized me. Sort of."

     I flashed my eyes quizzically over to Major Lennox and Sergeant Epps.

     "Holoform," Major Lennox provided. "Courtesy of Ratchet. It's like a hologram, but more advanced to where they can physically interact with things from our perspective, if you will."

     I lifted my eyebrows and turned towards the other guest in the room. The first thing I noticed was that he was tall. Very tall. Maybe 6'2. His hair looked very silky and was a shade of brown so dark it was almost black, but he was fair-skinned, which provided a nice contrast.