[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]We Need to Go Deeper [Open]

[Petrichor]

Episode 3.5 | Week 1 | Day 4 | Mid-morning
Location: Omega Outpost One - Rec-Room

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The lights in the room were dimmed, making it feel unfamiliar and off-putting. Petrichor could see shadowed figures subtly shifting in the dark as she squinted beyond the one light source glaring blindingly at her from the back of the room. The air was still and quiet, and she nervously cleared and reset her vocals in an effort to break the oppressive silence. She had no reason to be nervous! She had prepared for this! Gone over every detail that she possibly could and then some, burning it directly onto her hard drive so she didn’t have to worry about forgetting anything. She used to do this all the time! She was a professional! And yet...

Standing and giving presentations still made her tanks churn.

Rafael had helped her set up the projector so it shone against the smooth concrete of the back wall nice and big. Heck, he had even showed her how to actually use the human program “PowerPoint” to put together her slideshow. Sure, she would have figured it out herself eventually, but he had helped speed up the process. A lot. Bee was right - the kid knew his stuff, and it hadn’t taken Petra long to decide that she liked Raf.

She had arranged to utilize the Recreation room for an hour block of time that afternoon to prevent a dispute over conflicting schedules and usage. Ideally, at least. How many people actually used or even bothered to check the schedule planner for the Rec room was anyone’s guess. It was probably literally just her. There was a reason it was called the ‘Rec-Room’ and not the ‘Planned-Meetings-Room’ or whatever. Regardless, she had the space now and she was going to use it, whether others besides those she pinged showed up or not! It’s not like what she was going over was classified. Yet. That could change depending on what some of the people in this room thought after hearing what she had to say.

“Right. T-thank you for coming. I won’t take much of your time, but I think you’ll find that what I’m about to share might be the-uh, the breakthrough we’ve been searching for in regards to at least part of our energon crisis. Here on Earth, I mean.”

She took a deep intake to steady her firing nerves and tapped a digit to her datapad, beginning her presentation.

“To…put it succinctly, um, energon seeded on Earth indirectly – aka from orbit and beyond – would have impacted Earth’s surface, uh, like those of typical meteorites. Leaving behind impact craters.” Several image examples like Meteor Crater, Arizona and the Gosses Bluff Crater in Australia appeared behind Petra, her visor flashing with reflected light from the projector as she glanced down at her notes. She wasn’t actually reading them, but seeing them there reassured her and she continued.

“These craters, over vast periods of time, would have mostly filled with sediment and/or water. I am, of course, excluding those impacts where energon would have been left exposed and already been collected by Cybertronians of either faction or otherwise.” More images of meteorite craters were displayed, only this time they were filled with water or eroded to less recognizable impacts.

“However, energon cached or seeded on Earth directly, millennia ago, would have been a much gentler process, meaning locating these sites is much more challenging. Currently, the most common and reliable way of locating energon on Earth is detection via energy signature – a reliable method only as long as one is within range to pick up an exposed signal or a signal is strong enough to permeate any matter obscuring it. Otherwise, its discovery seemingly relies on one’s luck or if one happens to have old documented coordinates – both highly unlikely. But, I believe there is a way to narrow down our search parameters for both direct and indirect pathways and retain accuracy.”

Petra was starting to find her rhythm and was feeling more confident. Her voice came out clear and sure, stumbling less on her words as she went. She tapped her datapad again, changing the slide to display raw energon, diagramming its structural and molecular make up.

“Because of its inherent nature in raw crystalline form, energon gives off a mild energetic field – the same field that we detect when utilizing scanners. This field does more than just put out energy though. It acts as a minute barrier between itself and specific materials around it, many of which I have found include terrestrial minerals like those naturally occurring on Earth, unlike most of those on Cyberton. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the small gaps left between energon crystals and Earth’s surrounding rock and soil would allow space for a material less affected by its energy field – in this case, water – to accumulate and eventually create larger pockets, caves, and tunnels as water is a universal solvent on this planet.

“I have been analyzing geographical maps and data currently available to me to find areas that contain impactite and/or subterranean pockets and aquifers large enough to consider. With this criteria, I was able to refine my search and have selected a few key locations that meet most, if not all requirements for indirect and direct energon seeding.”

A flattened image of the Earth appeared on screen behind Petrichor. Sections of continents and even parts of the oceans had a light red highlight over them, but amongst the lighter colored areas here a few bright red blips, clear as day, shining brightly as if powered by the energon Petrichor hoped to find there. The brightest spots hovered over the Baltic Sea, Western Australia, Quebec, the Dakotas, and the Yucatan Peninsula.

“The only way to test this hypothesis, however, is to conduct a thorough analysis in the field. I am therefore requesting permission to form a small expedition team including myself and one or two others with experience in excavation or highly refined scanning capabilities to investigate at least two of these five locations.” Petrichor’s gaze wandered around the room, allowing a pause before clicking a button and allowing some of the lights to come up.

The nerves were back.
What would everyone think? 

Best ask and find out.

“I will take any questions you may have.”


(Permission from Kov for referenced interactions with Raf.)

[Jetfire]

Aha.

Oh how the fates had shifted.

For once, perhaps for the very first time in his long procession of cycles, it was not by Jetfire's hand that the slide presentation clicked forward. The Slide Presentation was simply an immutable facet of life for beings like he and Petrichor, the turbo-nerds that they were. There was only so much information they could communicate to half-interested minds without resorting to colorful images and charts. He felt like a sniveling elitist thinking such a thought, but when was the last time that anyone who was not an ultra-dork had to break out the dreaded slides?

Never in history, Jetfire thought.

Still, good on Petra.

Jetfire had parked himself in the rear of the rec-room, naturally. Her initial proposal had garnered a great deal of Jetfire's interest, sparking something he hadn't felt since his days as a seeker. He wanted to represent that interest by sitting up front. However, he was rebuked by both his wingspan, and his desire to not blind the prospective audience behind him to the presentation. Even sitting in the near pitch-black rear of the room, Jetfire's bright coat and size sliced through the shadow.

Petra had been successful in holding his rapt attention, however. He was not surprised in the slightest. Though she was fighting for her life against her nerves, she hadn't made a single slip once. No hasty conclusions, no overgeneralizations or simplifications. Jetfire was no geologist, but he knew energon like an old colleague, and Petra was spot-on. 

In the early days, relative to his own age, energon deposits on far-off worlds were far more common. It was capable of forming naturally in some environments, with little Cybertronian intervention required. It was more in line with what Petra was in the process of proposing, if only just. What she was proposing was a good old classic energon seek, pre-war. No crater-hopping, as near-war seeking was sometimes referred to.

Without the requisite expertise in locating such 'gentle' deposits however, it was much more difficult to locate. Energon was easy enough to find when a seeker was trained to follow how the land moved, especially so when they left rather large, predictably-shaped craters after being seeded.

Jetfire sincerely doubted they'd find absolutely nothing at all. He'd quickly discovered that Earth had a sort of uncanniness about being the resting place for various bits and bobs from the old world. Perhaps they'd find less than they'd hoped, but any amount would give credence to Petrichor's promising hypothesis.

For a brief instant, the former seeker was brought back to academia.

This was a field research proposal, and while he'd never actually held the position of tenured professor, Jetfire felt a strong instinctual urge to grant this bright young professional's request. Back in the present, he was veritably a colonel in rank. If he deigned to do so, he could snap his digits and approve her request. Not that he wouldn't. He would, absolutely, but it had been some time since he had flexed that muscle. The authority muscle. And, it had been even longer since he'd done it while Optimus was around. And never when Optimus had been as he was now.

Only one way to find out whether or not that muscle had atrophied, of course.

He blinked as the lights returned, his gaze locking on Petra as she seemed to shrink down in size. Jetfire smiled approvingly. "Quite the presentation."

He assumed they wouldn't march into the Baltic Sea and begin blasting right then and there, of course. In his mind, he pictured a tidy, quiet geological survey. "There's more than enough merit to your theory to have this expedition approved, Petrichor." Professional expert opinion, at your service. 

"I would be more than happy to come along as well, provided we have someone well-versed in excavation to accompany us." His cadence and smile told the tale that he'd gladly pick up a shovel and begin digging himself, if needed. But ideally, Jetfire would've preferred an expert's touch.

[Petrichor]

It felt hot in the Rec Room. Or maybe that was just Petrichor’s circuits overheating from the nerves. That made more sense. Jetfire didn’t look like he was uncomfortable, so that was probably it.

Jetfire was smiling. That was good! He must have liked her presentation. Whatever Raph wanted – ice cream, video games, one of those fun mineral kits from the commercials (that would have been her choice), a puppy – Petrichor would provide it.

Maybe not the puppy…

Wait, Jetfire was speaking. Petra had just missed what he said. She blinked, everything crashing back into focus.

Pay attention.

"There's more than enough merit to your theory to have this expedition approved, Petrichor."

She let out a vent of air she didn’t realize she had been holding and couldn’t help the giddy grin that spread across her face. As soon as the idea had sparked in her processor, Petra had thrown herself into the project at a feverish pace, only really stopping for assigned duties and recharging. All of her hard work, all of the hours she had crammed together researching and putting together this proposal over the past few weeks was paying off. And now Jetfire had just cleared her expedition! Petrichor had only ever dreamed of conducting her own geological research and that was before she had joined the war. Holy Primus, this was actually happening!

Petrichor wanted to ‘whoop!’ but managed to refrain and keep a professional – albeit pleased – expression and nodded. This was serious stuff after all, not just an academic excursion. The main purpose of this whole project was to locate and secure energon that the Decepticons had not yet discovered. And keep it. The advancement in energon study on Earth was second to the war effort, unfortunately. But Petrichor would take what she could get. She was just glad that she was finally getting to do something that she felt fully useful in.

“I – ” she reset her vocals to clear the excited jitters though it didn’t really work. “I would be more than pleased to have your expertise on this mission. Thank you, sir. As for o-other potential candidates – um – a few names do come to mind… But I am open to suggestions and want to be realistic, considering our current situation.”

Said current situation being they had limited personnel with limited time and resources on top of trying to maintain a low profile on an alien planet where familiar and unfamiliar hostiles lurked. Not ideal research conditions.

“If I recall, Skirmisher was present on planet when energon was first seeded here? Unless I’ve misread some of our archived files? His insight could be of benefit.”

Although Petrichor highly doubted he would be allowed off base for an expedition such as this where they would be exposed for potentially long periods of time. He was kind of one of their only fully functioning medics present on base at the moment aside from Blades. And considering their current track record with medics, Petra could imagine someone blowing a gasket should anything happen to another one. Still, it would be good to consult him on at least a few things before setting out, and Petrichor would be more than happy to be proven wrong and have him along if he was cleared.

“Javelin also has prior professional experience scouting for energon I believe, although I’m not sure how much physical excavation she’s participated in. Avalanche may be a good candidate to consider in that regard with her background in construction.”

She paused, mildly embarrassed to admit, “I’m afraid I haven’t fully considered who all would make up this team. I didn't think it would actually get approved…” voice mumbling the last part more to herself than Jetfire.

[Jetfire]

He would have given everything he had to be in Petrichor's spot in that moment. The elation, the vindication, perhaps even a spot of shameless pride. The hearty feeling of a research proposal accepted, adding cycles to one's life. Except the anxiety. The anxiety leading up to the proposal's presentation was something Jetfire would gladly do without. He was fairly certain Petrichor would have gladly gone without it too, had it been within her power. She was still just starting on her way, he had found. Both the proposal and the theory backing it were solid as rock, yet it seemed Petra had doubted herself heavily. She was early on the curve. It would pass. There would be a confident Petrichor before war's end.

Now, recommendations on survey team candidates?

Besides himself, of course.

Omega possessed and unfortunate dearth of energon seekers, to Jetfire's knowledge. If his old team had been present, they could have carried out the full extent of Petra's plan within a week's time. He turned his mind's eye away from the thought, lest he begin to feel sad.

Once again however, Petra was on the ball.

Jetfire nodded along. "There aren't many among our number who would qualify for such an expedition, unfortunately. Although, I believe Skirmisher's inclusion does hold merit, provided medical is willing to part with him for a time."

He parsed the other candidates, leaving the back of the room behind to approach Petra, speaking as one peer would to another. "Mm... both excellent recommendations as well." Javelin and Avalanche, while not dedicated geologists, seekers, or physicists in their own right, could adapt their skills well to a dig or excavation.

The former seeker grinned, not quite hearing Petra's comment as it trailed off. "Nonsense, you've just provided three solid survey team candidates about thirty seconds after being greenlit, Petrichor. A less motivated researcher would have taken a victory lap and left it for the day after." In other words, Jetfire would have absolutely basked in the glow of victory, gone out for drinks, then handled team selection after the hangover had passed.

[Petrichor]

Bashful heat flooded her faceplate at the compliment and Petrichor glanced away from Jetfire who had moved up to the front to speak more freely.

“T-thank you sir. I guess I - we? - don’t have to decide this instant. Umm, I assume conversations with Agent Fowler will need to happen, as well as sourcing any potential equipment we might need. Should we have a human liaison with us? In case we come into contact with locals of a given area? I won’t be much help in any kind of human situation since my holo is…um, well…not the most…reliable? And umm…w-would you would be taking lead on this - what with your position and experience and all, or…? I’m sorry, I’m…very new at this. Haha. I mean, not the researchexpeditionpart,ofcourse! Imeantheorganizingpart!Ahahaaa…”

Primus dammit all. You had it and then you lost it. Good going, Petra.

She reset her vocals and counted down from five to settle herself. She had already done the hard part, Jetfire was right. She was already ahead of the curve and should cut herself some slack. Easier said than done though.

Loosening her grip on her datapad, she brought it up and began jotting down additional notes as they discussed. Having something to do with her servos always helped and Petra’s posture began to ease with the familiar motion.

“I must admit, I’m a little conflicted on which two areas to investigate. Obviously, the Dakotas would be the least complicated since it’s on US soil and not even terribly far from our location should we not have access to groundbridging for whatever reason. However, I believe the Baltic Sea and Western Australia locations to be more promising based on the geological data I’ve gathered. All five locations are sound though. What do you think, sir?”


Using the datapad, Petrichor pulled up the map she had created and offered it to the seeker to reference. The same five, bright red blips glowed brightly - scattered across the planet.