Ep 1.5 - Compromised (Closed)

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Normally Rhinox returned from his garden reading more relaxed and happy than he had when he'd left, not less. Yet this time as he stepped off the space bridge into Outpost Omega, his field was dark with sadness and worry. He tried to pull it in, project only calm as he moved to the central console.

As he expected, records on his cassette visitor were sparse. He found that her full name was Fairwinds, and that she had been active since before the exodus, but other than that there was precious little information. It didn't even say who her carrier was, if she even had one. Rhinox sighed and tugged a chair closer to the console, settling into it heavily. He could feel his melancholy glyphs slipping his control again. If he didn't even know this most basic thing about Fairwinds, he couldn't begin to defend against her if - part of him insisted when - her allegiance overrode her interest in plants.

Well, there was no reason to keep delaying the inevitable. Rhinox opened a comm line. //Jazz, I need to speak to you at your earliest convenience, please. ...Something's happened, and I need your advice.//

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Jazz paused in the middle of cleaning up his work bench (by the simple expedient of sweeping the scrap into a box and shoving it under said bench) in preparation for his monitor shift. I need your advice was right up there with We need to talk in the "you never know what you're gonna get" category. ::Comin' up right now, big mech. Got monitor duty. That cool?:: Jazz asked as he headed up to Control.

Jazz liked Rhinox. The larger mech was laid back and nice and eager to help out. Jazz had mentally dubbed him an "associate morale officer", just because Rhinox seemed to get along with everyone and his longwave was infectious. If Rhinox had noticed that Jazz would sometimes partner Rhinox with folks that needed to talk, he'd never mentioned it.

That "something had happened" to make Rhinox need JAZZ'S advice was worthy of Jazz's full attention.

Luckily, "something" evidently didn't include something blowing up. As Jazz arrived for his shift, Control was quiet and empty except for an unusually subdued Rhinox. Jazz cocked his head up at Rhinox. "What's up, my mech?" He pinged Rhinox with a commed glyph for standby, indicating that Rhinox could take this to private comms if he wanted.

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When Jazz arrived, the file Rhinox had found on Fairwinds was still on the screen. Rhinox tried to brighten up his glyphs - actually not difficult to do in Jazz's presence. Aside from being someone Rhinox considered a friend, Jazz was extremely smart, competent, and well-versed in exactly this sort of thing. He would be able to give Rhinox good advice.

"There was a Decepticon in my garden today." He gestured to the onscreen file in illustration. "She was remarkably polite and our interaction was peaceful. But..." His glyphs turned gloomy again. "The fact remains that she knows the location of my garden now, and knows that I visit it regularly. It would be easy for her to... well, you can imagine far better than I could." He shrugged morosely. "I want to keep my garden. But if you think it's necessary to abandon it..." He trailed off, flickers of regret chasing through his field.

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"Oh dear," Jazz said, his frame slumping slightly as he looked up at Fairwinds' file. He vaguely remembered her from his time in the Decepticons (he'd written some of the file that Rhinox had pulled up, in fact, particularly the part about her partialness to rhodium-infused gummies). She absolutely was NOT the worst Decepticon that Rhinox could have encountered, but she was still a Decepticon, and he certainly COULD imagine what it would be easy for her to do.

"Well, first of all, don't freak out. I know you, big mech, and I know you're just all atwitter and ready to fall over into stasis out of stress." Jazz's glyphs were gently teasing, and he patted Rhinox's leg as he came to sit down and log in for his monitor shift. "But there's...a lot of ways we can handle this. It just kinda depends on the circumstances. One of those is who SHE is, and I can tell you, last I knew about her, she was still kinda young and distractable. So, why don't you tell me the whole story? Fore to aft, whole thing, complete with commentary?"

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Rhinox actually cracked a smile at Jazz's teasing. "Young and distractable about covered it," he admitted with a nod, moving aside to give Jazz room to log in. "She seemed interested in my garden, so I taught her a little about Earth wildlife. And she actually listened," he chuckled. "Though she does have a few prejudices to work through before she can truly be a student of organic biology."

"I... may have promised her a cactus," he added with a sheepish look. "I couldn't help it! She seemed so eager to learn, and that should be encouraged, shouldn't it? Especially in a young Decepticon?"

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Jazz listened with interest and cool tactical intent. That Fairwinds had struck Rhinox the same as how Jazz remembered her was a relief. That meant she was more predictable. Though...that had been so long ago...he would have expected her to be more mature by now.... Odd. Though it was possible that she'd meant to play on the size difference and make herself seem harmless...that wasn't usually the direction mecha went in.

Of course, her motives really were the key question here. Her actions (or the actions she'd been sent by someone else to perform) revealed quite a bit. She had known that an Autobot regularly came, alone, to an isolated place. Yet she had revealed that information in the least threatening way possible and possibly given up the only chance to use it to attack or capture Rhinox. Jazz was fairly sure that, had that info gotten to Soundwave or Megatron, Rhinox would have been at ambushed with the intent to capture or at the least followed discreetly. Trying to gain Rhinox's TRUST was a viable strategy...it just wasn't one Jazz would have expected out of the current Decepticon roster on Earth.

Thus...oddly enough...Jazz was willing to bet that Fairwinds hadn't told anyone about her little field trip. And perhaps WOULDN'T. Especially if Rhinox could keep her coming back for a good while. Then the chances of her telling anyone actually DROPPED...after all, who would want to be the one to tell Megatron that ze'd known of an opportunity to ambush a lone Autobot for months but hadn't told anyone?

All of this made Jazz glad. Because Rhinox was looking at him with puppy optics, and though Jazz's resistance to puppy optics was fairly high due to raising Blue...he was out of practice. And risk of capture and torture and death aside, the idea of Rhinox patiently teaching an excited little Decepticon cassette about cacti was really, really adorable.

Jazz tapped his pede thoughtfully, his glyphs teasing. "A cactus, huh? I don't know...sounds like interfactional peacemongering to me. That could get you in trouble, you know."

Jazz pondered the monitors for another moment. "I'll be honest, it's really not ideal for any Decepticon to know where you go, particularly alone, but you know that. But I think that the chances of this being a formal set-up of some sort are actually kind of slim." He shared his thoughts on the matter with Rhinox and then shrugged. "She could still set you up LATER, of course, but then again, we could set HER up as well. So what we've got here is a bit of an intelligence Mexican standoff, as the humans say. Which, you did not hear from me, is a time-honored spec ops tradition."

Jazz cocked his helm to look up at Rhinox, a sly smile spreading over his face. "So I guess my recommendation'll depend on how much spec ops shenanigans you want to add to your job description, big mech."

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Rhinox straightened, optics brightening in understanding. Jazz meant to turn the tables, in a sense. He had as much chance to glean data from Fairwinds as she did from him, and with equal risk to them both - it made sense, when he thought of it that way. All kinds of sense.

Of course, it was entirely possible that his desire to have peaceful interaction with a member of the opposite faction (not to mention his desire to keep his garden) was clouding his judgement. But Jazz was the one who'd come up with the idea, not him. That he seemed willing to try it made Rhinox think it wasn't as foolish as the Rattrap-voice in his head was telling him it was.

I can just imagine what Rattrap would say, hearing about this.

"My function has diversified since my sparking," Rhinox offered with a hint of a smile. "But not quite that far - no one looks at me and thinks 'stealth bot.' I'll need instruction on... 'spec ops shenanigans'."

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Jazz smiled in a not-entirely-pleasant fashion. "Oh, but that's what makes you the BEST type of stealth bot. The kind that hides in plain sight. One of my FAVORITE tricks."

One he'd used to good effect against both Autobots and Decepticons.

Jazz patted Rhinox's arm. "I think you'll like it. Mostly it's about making double-sure to cover your aft as much as you can and then...chatting. Innocently. Carefully. Juuust to see what kind of things'll pop out of the other mecha's vocalizer."

Jazz's processor searched back for next steps. Oh, it'd been a long time since he'd set up one of these.... "First step is to run this past the big boss. He might nix the whole thing, and then, sorry, big mech, but you might have to leave your garden to Windy or, y'know, do some creative transplanting. But...but I think that he'll be willing to give it a go."

Jazz spread his hands, then waggled them in the air, then shrugged. "Lotsa things to do after that. You set up a way to get in contact with her? Another meeting?"

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Rhinox shook his head slowly, mental gears already turning. "It seemed unwise. But if she doesn't know my usual garden times by now, then I'll leave a note for her when I leave her cactus."

It sounded... doable, if Optimus approved. Rhinox wasn't much of a conversationalist, but Windy's general state of Chatterbox more than made up for the lack. She was more likely to let something of import slip than he was, by virtue of sheer volume of words. If he was careful, and clever, he could...

...

...he could be torn, between using Windy to help his faction, or helping Windy herself, someone he genuinely did like. This would be harder in many different ways than he anticipated. He wondered if Jazz had felt that way on his undercover missions, though he didn't think it right to ask. Whether he had ever befriended mechs on the other side, whatever the other side had been at the time, and what he felt when he betrayed them.

I don't know if I can do this. His doubt must have colored his glyphs; he pulled them back, visions of his sunrays and bee plants dancing behind his optics. I could be worrying prematurely. Prime could still say no.

"Should I write up a proposal for Prime, then?" he asked, determinedly forging ahead.

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Jazz felt Rhinox's field dip in disquiet and grow grim. He patted Rhinox on the arm. "I'll do it. But only if you're really sure, y'know?"

Jazz tilted his head up at the bigger mech. His glyphs were non-judgmental, simple statements of accepted fact. "It's not something everyone can do. Not something you should force yourself into doing, either. You don't wanna do it, then we don't do it. You'll probably have to leave your garden, or relocate, but neither me or Optimus'll pressure you on it. I just brought it up as an option. If you want to keep going, want to keep talking with her, that'd be the only way I could pitch it to the big boss." He spread his hands. "And it'd be risky. And you'd have to be totally willing to take the risk. And really...anything you found out would be oil on the oilcake."

He nudged Rhinox with his shoulder. "Not gonna expect you to be a supah spy, big mech, or a liar. Just not givin' anything away and bein' a good listener's good enough."

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Jazz's assurances helped. His field was open and calm, empty of anything like judgement no matter what Rhinox ended up choosing. And there was something else too - a faith in Rhinox's abilities. Jazz was right, Rhinox was no "supah spy", but the task Jazz described was one Jazz believed Rhinox could do.

"I have been told I'm a good listener," Rhinox admitted, mulling it over from a more objective standpoint than that of his own insecurities. "And I managed not to give anything away when we talked. It is possible I can do this."

He let himself have a moment to cycle. "I want to try."

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That was something Jazz liked about Rhinox: he thought before he answered, then meant what he said. It was refreshing!

Jazz nodded, patting Rhinox on the arm. "A'right, then." He returned his gaze to the monitors. "It'll take a bit," he warned. "I'll do m'best to convince the big boss about this, but y'never know what goes through these officers' helms." He attached all the required glyphs for self-mockery to that.

"If he says go ahead, we'll start setting you up. Send you back to school for a bit. I'll need to give you some of my special sneaky courses, and we...well." He turned to Rhinox with a very serious look on his face. "I do have to warn you. We WILL have to go see Ratchet. I've got a tracker just your size, my mech, and we'll need to have it installed somewhere overly personal, if you know what I mean."

Jazz patted Rhinox's arm again. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be gentle."

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Rhinox gave a bit of a theatrical groan. "Do I get an energon lolly afterwards?" He didn't mind, really, but that kind of response seemed traditional.

He leaned on the nearby chair, watching Fairwind's picture flicker on the screen overhead. "Jazz - thank you. For helping me." He felt himself smile. "For giving me a chance to save my garden. Next time I get a really interesting plant, I'll name it after you."

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The coldly pragmatic part of Jazz's processor murmured Thank me when this idea doesn't get you captured, hacked, and/or killed.

But Jazz was used to ignoring that voice. He'd led spec ops teams before. And besides...life was cold and hard and thankless if you didn't take at least some risks. Especially for things that you loved.

He tilted his head back to look up at Rhinox. "Y'welcome, big mech. I hope it pays off. For you and your garden, mostly. Fairwinds is ditzy but not dumb. That she's stuck around this long proves that. I'd be interested in figuring out who her carrier is. Only one we know on Earth is Soundwave and...." Jazz snickered. "...that...oh, Pit, would their personalities NOT mesh. That would be HILARIOUS."

Jazz imagined the Fairwinds he remembered flitting around Soundwave's head, chattering away and likely calling him boring and dull.

He grinned at Rhinox, forwarding the a little chibi animation of just that, a la his post-raid presentation. "And I don't know about lollies, but if Ratch doesn't have any, I've still got an energon gummy or two you can have for being a good mechlet."


<<Feel free to have Rhinox ask more questions or wrap up whenever you want. >>

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Rhinox laughed, at the pinged animation file as much as the offer. "You're a thoughtful mech, Jazz."

All the worry had made him weary, and he still had to have the 'are you crazy, big guy?' discussion with his teammates. Rattrap he'd be able to talk around, after the initial flail; Airazor might be a harder sell. But he needed them on his side before he could do anything, for reasons that had more to do with how closely their sparks were bound now than what backup they would be if things went sour on him. Better get started convincing them, then.

"I'll let you handle things with Optimus Prime, then," he said, straightening slowly. "Again.. thank you. Comm me if you need me."

With a final smile, he wandered off, already rehearsing what he'd say to Rattrap and Airazor.

<<fin!>>