Fic - Neverwhere
Title: Neverwhere
Warnings: gen
Continuity: G1 [part of ultharkitty’s Dysfunction AU, pre-war]
Characters: Blast Off
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Sadly, nothing is mine.
Summary: On a dead world, Blast Off finds a place beyond reality.
Beta: ultharkitty *glomps* :D
Note: Written for tf_speedwriting (the prompt Task - Write about the favourite place of your character of choice [14 July 2010])
Another note: I dreamt this. Actually, not with Blast Off or anything else which might have to do with Transformers. I just dreamt about this place, and I wanted to write it since… Then I thought Blast Off would probably appreciate it the most. :)
Still, I’ll plan on using it in an original fiction of mine again. :p
Neverwhere
From space, it was an ordinary planet of average size, located in a binary star system. Two suns burnt hot and fierce about 200 million miles away, heating Blast Off’s plating where the radiation and light at all wave lengths hit the metal.
The shuttle floated in the orbit of this as-yet unnamed planet. It had a scientific name, a series of numbers and characters chosen by its location, but nothing which revealed information about the planet itself; nothing about the surface, the atmosphere, the potential life forms or energy sources.
It was Blast Off’s mission to find out about all this.
His scanners gathered the last information for his processor to calculate. Apparently, it was a dead world without any signs of life, but under the surface was a strange foreign energy signature, arranged in some sort of energy streak web. This was reason enough to take a closer look. The atmosphere was dense; denser than on Cybertron, but the gravity was only a quarter of Blast Off’s home world; an odd combination, not a scientific mystery, but rare.
Generating the information needed for a safe atmospheric entry - velocity, angle, location - Blast Off rearranged his position, and began the controlled fall.
---
The entry was exhausting. Heat surged through him and over his plating, hot plasma pressed at his underside and his wings became numb.
It was nothing new.
Blast Off had done this often enough he’d lost count. He was used to it; vorns of experience leaving him unafraid of any consequences. He knew which measures were important; he knew how to react in different emergency situations.
He knew what he had to do, but it still was tiring process; draining mental and physical energy.
Flying through the layers of atmosphere quickly, he reached the first clouds. Blast Off didn’t pay attention to them, he was still focused on his flight path, when his first scanner malfunctioned.
He didn’t care, as long as he was able to tell how fast and how high he was, he didn’t need it. Though, even if Blast Off ignored it, there was a distant feeling of uneasiness. Being not even a klik on this planet and the first system already began to glitch, this couldn’t mean anything good.
The surroundings suddenly very important, Blast Off searched for the nearest safe place to land. His system gathered information as he couldn’t see anything through the clouds, and it was only now that he actually looked at them.
Silvery wafts of mist hung in the air, consisting not of hydrogen oxide, nor any other liquid he had seen in the many vorns he’d analysed and discovered worlds. This was something entirely new.
The next scanner gave in, and he focused again on the landing. Diving though the clouds, his plating tingled, more scanners gave in, but came online the instant he left the clouds.
Transforming mid-air, he landed safely on black, clean, even ground.
His intakes adjusted to the dense atmosphere as did his hydraulic and pneumatic pressure. He performed another few checks on his system, before he allowed himself to take a look at his surroundings.
Blast Off looked, turned around, and looked again.
He’d never seen anything like this before, and he was one of a few Cybertronians who had already seen so many things.
It was a plain, dead world, impossible to create or support any form of life - and it was beautiful.
There was no need to scan anything; the main elements were as obvious as the feeling that he didn’t belong here.
Blast Off stood at an area of dark granite, a burnished surface that reflected the light. The mountains in the distance were barely visible at first glance, consisting of uncoloured glass; their peaks hidden in the monochromy of mercury clouds.
He shuddered, and rebooted his optics. Standing there felt so entirely wrong. It wasn’t dangerous, but Blast Off felt as though he was the only thing on this planet which was actually real.
He activated his thrusters and flew in the direction of the glass-mountains. The colour of the granite changed only slightly, it was mainly black or different shades of grey. Between the darker stone, there were small spots where liquid mercury gathered into small lakes.
After a breem, Blast Off landed. He hadn’t reached the higher mountains yet, but a hill made of glass only twice his own size caught his attention. Within the glass several fragments of granite and mercury were embedded, giving the impression that the darker materials were floating.
Slowly, reverently, he stepped closer; he didn’t scan what he was seeing, just looked at the view in front of him. The hill created a deformed mirror image of him, and he huffed, amused, and touched it cautiously, stroking with two fingers over the smooth surface.
The sound of waves echoed to him; they curled, producing metallic foam at the bank of the mercury lake a few yards away. Blast Off tried to compare the sound to anything he knew, but failed.
He sighed, and looked up, as the sunlight suddenly darkened.
Clouds moved fast, and he remembered the earlier strong wind in the higher layers of the atmosphere.
It began to rain.
The drops fell surprisingly slowly, and where Blast Off had expected they would dent his armour, they only hit with enough force to cause a faint prickling. They seeped under his plating, in through transformation seams, where the fluid metal connected several sensor nodes which were never meant to be connected. Energon lines, circuits and sensor nodes were linked for slight instants, the mercury functioned as conductor as a low charge rushed through it. Blast Off quivered, not worrying about being damaged, because the surface tension of mercury was far too high to seep into places where it could cause trouble.
It felt nice, and again it was something which he neither had felt before nor could be satisfactorily described.
Blast Off dimmed his optics, enjoying the foreign sensation, and sighed again. He was relaxed; he’d probably never been more relaxed in his entire life than at this moment, standing in a dead world, utterly alone while a non-sentient touch drained the tension from his joints.
And then the second sun rose.
The clouds above Blast Off covered the light of the other sun as through the giant glass mountains the first rays of the new star were diffracted into colours in ranges Blast Off’s optics were never designed for to detect.
For a moment it felt like his systems stopped working and the view, the sensation, just everything around him became too much. The unreality of this place suddenly was so intense, it almost hurt.
Still, he just kept looking.
---
The rain had stopped, but he waited until the sun stood above the mountains before he moved again.
He didn’t scan anything, he didn’t want to know, and abandoned the thought of the weird energy source he’d picked up from space. It seemed as though it was better if he didn’t know, as though he wasn’t worthy of the knowledge.
Absorbing as much of the view he was able, he eventually transformed and headed back into space, back into reality and the things he knew.
---
Blast Off reached Cybertron about twenty decacycles later, where he told everyone who asked that his mission had been a failure.
It wasn’t. Not for him. He had found something which was worth protecting, and because of this, he risked more than he’d ever done before.
He waited, several cycles or even decacycles until he had the chance to alter the maps within the main computers of the facility; the computers where every shuttle former, and every star ship pilot got their information.
Knowing his own race and its quest for energy resources, and the lack of caution in approaching them, Blast Off deleted the solar system from the databanks.
He waited again; until he was sure that most of his colleagues had updated their datatracks and he was the only one who knew where the planet was.
This world beyond reality, so far away from anything real…
Blast Off ciphered the memory file. It was the only thing he would keep.
Then he accessed his own databank which contained the celestial maps.
Delete all information about ‘CeBiS-S35’ - Yes/No?
…
…
Blast Off hesitated.
…Yes.
Warnings: gen
Continuity: G1 [part of ultharkitty’s Dysfunction AU, pre-war]
Characters: Blast Off
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Sadly, nothing is mine.
Summary: On a dead world, Blast Off finds a place beyond reality.
Beta: ultharkitty *glomps* :D
Note: Written for tf_speedwriting (the prompt Task - Write about the favourite place of your character of choice [14 July 2010])
Another note: I dreamt this. Actually, not with Blast Off or anything else which might have to do with Transformers. I just dreamt about this place, and I wanted to write it since… Then I thought Blast Off would probably appreciate it the most. :)
Still, I’ll plan on using it in an original fiction of mine again. :p
Neverwhere
From space, it was an ordinary planet of average size, located in a binary star system. Two suns burnt hot and fierce about 200 million miles away, heating Blast Off’s plating where the radiation and light at all wave lengths hit the metal.
The shuttle floated in the orbit of this as-yet unnamed planet. It had a scientific name, a series of numbers and characters chosen by its location, but nothing which revealed information about the planet itself; nothing about the surface, the atmosphere, the potential life forms or energy sources.
It was Blast Off’s mission to find out about all this.
His scanners gathered the last information for his processor to calculate. Apparently, it was a dead world without any signs of life, but under the surface was a strange foreign energy signature, arranged in some sort of energy streak web. This was reason enough to take a closer look. The atmosphere was dense; denser than on Cybertron, but the gravity was only a quarter of Blast Off’s home world; an odd combination, not a scientific mystery, but rare.
Generating the information needed for a safe atmospheric entry - velocity, angle, location - Blast Off rearranged his position, and began the controlled fall.
---
The entry was exhausting. Heat surged through him and over his plating, hot plasma pressed at his underside and his wings became numb.
It was nothing new.
Blast Off had done this often enough he’d lost count. He was used to it; vorns of experience leaving him unafraid of any consequences. He knew which measures were important; he knew how to react in different emergency situations.
He knew what he had to do, but it still was tiring process; draining mental and physical energy.
Flying through the layers of atmosphere quickly, he reached the first clouds. Blast Off didn’t pay attention to them, he was still focused on his flight path, when his first scanner malfunctioned.
He didn’t care, as long as he was able to tell how fast and how high he was, he didn’t need it. Though, even if Blast Off ignored it, there was a distant feeling of uneasiness. Being not even a klik on this planet and the first system already began to glitch, this couldn’t mean anything good.
The surroundings suddenly very important, Blast Off searched for the nearest safe place to land. His system gathered information as he couldn’t see anything through the clouds, and it was only now that he actually looked at them.
Silvery wafts of mist hung in the air, consisting not of hydrogen oxide, nor any other liquid he had seen in the many vorns he’d analysed and discovered worlds. This was something entirely new.
The next scanner gave in, and he focused again on the landing. Diving though the clouds, his plating tingled, more scanners gave in, but came online the instant he left the clouds.
Transforming mid-air, he landed safely on black, clean, even ground.
His intakes adjusted to the dense atmosphere as did his hydraulic and pneumatic pressure. He performed another few checks on his system, before he allowed himself to take a look at his surroundings.
Blast Off looked, turned around, and looked again.
He’d never seen anything like this before, and he was one of a few Cybertronians who had already seen so many things.
It was a plain, dead world, impossible to create or support any form of life - and it was beautiful.
There was no need to scan anything; the main elements were as obvious as the feeling that he didn’t belong here.
Blast Off stood at an area of dark granite, a burnished surface that reflected the light. The mountains in the distance were barely visible at first glance, consisting of uncoloured glass; their peaks hidden in the monochromy of mercury clouds.
He shuddered, and rebooted his optics. Standing there felt so entirely wrong. It wasn’t dangerous, but Blast Off felt as though he was the only thing on this planet which was actually real.
He activated his thrusters and flew in the direction of the glass-mountains. The colour of the granite changed only slightly, it was mainly black or different shades of grey. Between the darker stone, there were small spots where liquid mercury gathered into small lakes.
After a breem, Blast Off landed. He hadn’t reached the higher mountains yet, but a hill made of glass only twice his own size caught his attention. Within the glass several fragments of granite and mercury were embedded, giving the impression that the darker materials were floating.
Slowly, reverently, he stepped closer; he didn’t scan what he was seeing, just looked at the view in front of him. The hill created a deformed mirror image of him, and he huffed, amused, and touched it cautiously, stroking with two fingers over the smooth surface.
The sound of waves echoed to him; they curled, producing metallic foam at the bank of the mercury lake a few yards away. Blast Off tried to compare the sound to anything he knew, but failed.
He sighed, and looked up, as the sunlight suddenly darkened.
Clouds moved fast, and he remembered the earlier strong wind in the higher layers of the atmosphere.
It began to rain.
The drops fell surprisingly slowly, and where Blast Off had expected they would dent his armour, they only hit with enough force to cause a faint prickling. They seeped under his plating, in through transformation seams, where the fluid metal connected several sensor nodes which were never meant to be connected. Energon lines, circuits and sensor nodes were linked for slight instants, the mercury functioned as conductor as a low charge rushed through it. Blast Off quivered, not worrying about being damaged, because the surface tension of mercury was far too high to seep into places where it could cause trouble.
It felt nice, and again it was something which he neither had felt before nor could be satisfactorily described.
Blast Off dimmed his optics, enjoying the foreign sensation, and sighed again. He was relaxed; he’d probably never been more relaxed in his entire life than at this moment, standing in a dead world, utterly alone while a non-sentient touch drained the tension from his joints.
And then the second sun rose.
The clouds above Blast Off covered the light of the other sun as through the giant glass mountains the first rays of the new star were diffracted into colours in ranges Blast Off’s optics were never designed for to detect.
For a moment it felt like his systems stopped working and the view, the sensation, just everything around him became too much. The unreality of this place suddenly was so intense, it almost hurt.
Still, he just kept looking.
---
The rain had stopped, but he waited until the sun stood above the mountains before he moved again.
He didn’t scan anything, he didn’t want to know, and abandoned the thought of the weird energy source he’d picked up from space. It seemed as though it was better if he didn’t know, as though he wasn’t worthy of the knowledge.
Absorbing as much of the view he was able, he eventually transformed and headed back into space, back into reality and the things he knew.
---
Blast Off reached Cybertron about twenty decacycles later, where he told everyone who asked that his mission had been a failure.
It wasn’t. Not for him. He had found something which was worth protecting, and because of this, he risked more than he’d ever done before.
He waited, several cycles or even decacycles until he had the chance to alter the maps within the main computers of the facility; the computers where every shuttle former, and every star ship pilot got their information.
Knowing his own race and its quest for energy resources, and the lack of caution in approaching them, Blast Off deleted the solar system from the databanks.
He waited again; until he was sure that most of his colleagues had updated their datatracks and he was the only one who knew where the planet was.
This world beyond reality, so far away from anything real…
Blast Off ciphered the memory file. It was the only thing he would keep.
Then he accessed his own databank which contained the celestial maps.
Delete all information about ‘CeBiS-S35’ - Yes/No?
…
…
Blast Off hesitated.
…Yes.