1.5 - Week 2, Day 6: 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall (Closed)

[Deleted]

Megatron reattached the grate as instructed, turning the panel in increments until the seals met flush and locked together. He listened to Ghost Wind with interest, sensing that this was previously overlooked, valuable knowledge he was receiving.

At the mention of tracks, he automatically checked the floor. It looked pristine, scrubbed to a dull shine that didn't suggest a trace of what ran through here. Good advice for future reference, though - assuming Lord Megatron would ever be inclined to vanish into the bulkhead and walkabout.

Ghost Wind was starting to relax in his company, likely because they were well within the maintenance mech's territory, but Megatron had not missed his unease and surprise at how willingly the commander had gone along with this scheme. Megatron himself doubted that his uninjured self would have asked the mech his name, let alone ducked into a hatch with him and a few cubes of High Grade.

They ought make the most of this opportunity; likely it wouldn't happen again.

Megatron regarded the floor again when Ghost Wind asked if he could feel the slope, optics narrowing thoughtfully. Gradients. Location markers and indicators of direction. Whilst the knowledge was inaccessible, the sensitivity was ingrained. The former miner's pedes were large and flat to the ground, the undersides minutely articulated to accommodate terrain that did not yield to his weight. It was good for balance, stability and detecting the shape and texture of the ground.

He shifted his right pede outwards an inch, humming. "Yes, slightly."

[Deleted]

Both the Tomahawk's field and his faceplate project absolute, blank surprise when Lord Megatron answered in the positive. Bottom of the rung that he was, Ghost Wind was normally pretty good at putting on the "yassboss" face, the blank expression behind which you could be angry, scared, or just plain boggled at an XO's stupidity, but his commander's answer was just so far out of left field that it had entirely deactivated that very needful survival mechanism.

For a long moment he could only stare until he remembered who he was talking to. Ghost would have been perfectly willing to admit that, if he'd been tossed into a mine without assistance, he wouldn't have known what to do with himself other than shout a lot, comm. even more, and walk around in circles. Possibly without meaning to.

Unless the mine had a ventilation system. Then all would be good.

But it was not a long leap of logic to assume that some sort of mining... magic... something would, indeed, allow Lord Megatron to detect what Ghost detected by maintenance know-how.

"... Huh." He rubbed at the side of his helm, shrugging one-shouldered. He lifted a hand and ran it lightly against the side of the conduit. "Don't get me wrong, sir. Wasn't expecting that but hey, I can work with it."

He started walking, sedate and steady. "The slush lines all slope towards the central axis; you'll only ever be level if you got to the gut of the ship, sir, and she runs parallel with the main data column, so it's easy to tell front from back. Data always runs hotter to the bridge; it kinda scatters when it's coming fro-- I'm talking conduit again. I'm sorry, sir. You'll see when we're there."

Even as he walked, Ghost's attention roamed, as did his hand in occasion. He measured temperature shifts, air currents, the density of a number of components in the air. He was there, might as well make sure the system wasn't in need of maintenance.

He pointed upwards as they passed another hatch. "Every other hatch is a dud, sir - it opens to a pipe that doesn't fit even me. I'm not even sure why it's there. It's difficult as sl-- as scrap to get into any of the combat systems unless you're already inside the ship and inside the ship's pipes, sir. But once you're in, they're all in stand-by, so you're good to go wherever. I..." Ghost rubbed at the back of his helm again. "... I figured you'd had your fill and them some of staring at bulkheads, sir, so I thought we'd go change that?"

He looked sheepish. "I mean, I can't get you out unnoticed, sir. But as long as we stay this side of the atmospheric sensors..."

[Deleted]

Megatron had been listening intently as the smaller mech spoke, absorbing the titbits of technical information with interest. It struck him as faintly amusing how Ghost Wind censored his profanity, even if it was a gesture of respect.

Clearly he'd not heard Fairwinds whilst watching television or playing video games. The cassette had a great many oratory shortcomings, but vocabulary was not one of them...

When Ghost Wind turned awkward once more, he shook his head slightly and offered a thin smile.

"I appreciate the diversion," Megatron replied, referring to both Ghost Wind's maintenance patter and the escape from the tedium of his quarters. He gestured to the space around them - a place that had been ever-present and yet utterly unknown to him until now. "This is all new to me, and I suspect it was before. Which is unfortunate."

Likely very few outside of the maintenance crew onboard gave much thought to what was behind the bulkheads so long as it was all working properly.

"Knowledge of the hidden byways throughout the ship may be useful in getting around unseen one day." He raised one claw and added, to show he'd been listening: "But not during combat, because of the coolant."

[Deleted]

"But not during combat, because of the coolant."

Ghost nodded stoutly. His posture, the expression on his homely faceplates and the unabashed feel of his field all expressed his pleasure that the Boss-bot was at least enjoying himself. He didn't say anything - nothing really needed to be said about that.

But the slush-coolant system of the 'Nemesis', oh, that was another matter. The two-wheeler would have given both his front tires to see it at work. "Yessir." He gestured as he spoke. "I've only read the specifications, and cities don't normally have this kind of combat setup, so I'm mostly guessing, but if you got caught in the slush flow you'd be flash-frozen, at least. Probably smashed into bits at the filters... Anyways."

They were at last coming to a change in the vast tunnel, a spiral gate shuttered tightly at the moment; Ghost rapped his talons on the surface of it. "Slush filter. You can get through if you're maintenance, but it goes on the log at, uh... at least three places. And anything that isn't authorized gets to meet the purification systems, and that's just not a lot of pleasant."

As he spoke, the bike-bot was tapping his pedes lightly on the floor, almost in some sort of weird dance routine. He stopped as the sound of the metal changed noticeably, from the dull clang of a sealed system to a hollow ringing as noticeable to his senses as a shout. "Did you hear that, sir? I can't... There's no other way to find the drop-shafts."

Rather than attend to the hollow sound beneath his pedes, however, Ghost instead sidestepped up to the wall and ran both hands over the tunnel's surface. what he was seeking became suddenly apparent as two of his talons caught on a nearly invisible seam. With a grunt of effort, the bikebot pulled a rung from the side of the tunnel. A purely mechanical device, his action caused the rest of the rungs to appear sedately from the side of the wall.

"There is this really, really awesome setup for combat-maintenance, just in case the automated systems fail or get compromised..." The rungs were spaced so widely that Ghost could barely use them, but it did not seem to dampen his enthusiasm. Neither did he seem hampered by a climb that was drawing him further and further away from an amicable agreement with gravity, until he was hanging upside-down at the highest point of the tunnel. "You cut off the flow..." Hooking both legs over the last rung, he ran both hands around the ceiling until he found a rivet that wasn't; like the step-ladder, the hatch was purely mechanical, and the hiss of the pneumatic mechanisms keeping it shut was quite obvious when Ghost wrestled it open until he was hanging from the lip of it; it was quite wide enough to accommodate even Megatron's shoulders. "... and you literally drop a mech down the drop-shaft, to scrub the filters clean and drop the sludge down the hatch below; twenty-nine astroseconds to scrub and go, 'cuz the flow re-opens automatically after that."

The hatch at last surrendered open, and Ghost muscled himself into the dark, incredibly chilly space beyond it, poking his head out to grin at Megatron. "Now that is a job, I bet. Way's clear from here, sir. And you wouldn't believe the view."

[Deleted]

Megatron watched the contortions and efforts with open interest, taking a genuine pleasure in seeing such a mechanical side of the Nemesis. So much of the running of the ship was done digitally - data was transmitted; glowing icons were pressed. Even the groundbridges were intangible compared to a shuttle craft.

Reading had been all he'd been left to do aside from his meandering walks about the ship to interact (usually in an unorthodox way) with the crew. He could have the data files uploaded directly to his processor, which would be far quicker and well within his abilities. However there was something about visually digesting the glyphs that he enjoyed. Reading, not uploading. He liked holding datapads and making marks with a stylus, and using his hands and his frame as opposed to simply being part of a digital conduit.

Ghost Wind's world was physical and had a tangible, logical causality. Navigating by what he could feel and hear, exerting himself on hinges and levers built sturdy and stiff... It was a world Megatron was comfortable with.

Though, that open hatch looked dubiously-sized. He'd need to do some manuevering to get his shoulders through.

"I'll take your word for it," he said.

Game as he was to trust the small mech, his expression was still skeptical. It was impossible to imagine exactly where they were, and whether the space above was one he could crouch in or if he would be crawling on his belly.

"Will there be room for me to stand on the other side?"

[Deleted]

"Will there be room for me to stand on the other side?"

The question drew Ghost Wind, or rather Ghost's helm, back out of the hatch. Cold steam seeped in thin, steady tendrils all around him, and a faint blue light was reflected off of the parts of him that were visible.

Though he wasn't about to spoil the surprise for the boss, the Tomahawk had brought him to one of only three systems he could think of that wouldn't just accomodate him, but do so comfortably. They were in one; you couldn't access the other one without massive clearances which... well. Ghost didn't have them, and Lord Megatron probably did, but that would have defeated the purpose.

The third loomed above the boss, and was chilling Ghost's armor. He was in a vast, dark tunnel that at brief intervals ran parallel to the main neural communications column of the 'Nemesis': separated from them by a lethal energy curtain, the brilliant blue light of the massive data nexus shone the only light in the space - steady going up towards the front of the ship, pulsing in brief patterns as it scattered back towards the larger mass and myriad stations within it.

You needed so many levels of clearance to physically work the data column that Ghost wasn't sure anyone actually had it; just working on the slice-and-dice, near-invisible energy lattice that separated the column from the tunnels of its powerful cooling system required you to log in a whole lot of paperwork. If power interrupted, alarms went off; if power hiccuped, alarms went off. If a dust mote touched the barrier and got neatly reduced to its atomic components, alarms went off.

The hatch was not so close that anyone risked touching it, unless Lord Megatron faceplanted or something, and the chill wind humming past them was not bad, just pointedly noticeably.

"More than enough, sir. Pretty sure you couldn't touch the ceiling up here no matter how you reached. I'll, uh, I'll get out of your way, too."

Ghost's head disappeared back into the hatch, leaving the cold and the faint blue glow behind. "Watch your step, sir."

[Deleted]

Ghost Wind had done nothing to indicate what was on the other side of the hatch, which whilst preserving the (positive) element of surprise also left Megatron completely unable to anticipate and prepare. Already much of what the maintenance mech had demonstrated had been unexpected; an ongoing series of revelations about the world contained within the ship's bulkheads.

Obviously the destination of this venture - the view - was just through that hatch, and Ghost was keen to watch the reveal.

Megatron was game. He tipped his head back, noting the height of the tunnel and the inverting curl of the ladder rungs as they ran up the wall. Finally, he bent his leg and jumped straight up with one hand extended.

Seizing the edge of the hatch, he gripped with both hands and started to pull himself up and through. The sudden change in temperature was extreme and absolutely, like diving into chilled fluid. White wisps curled out from about his helm and shoulders, reflecting the red of his optics and the faint blue of the sole light source in the new place.

It was another tunnel that curved off into perfect darkness. Ghost was only visible stood to one side of the floor hatch by the light of his optical band, and the reflection of electrical light against his armor. Running parallel to where they stood were bright beams of... something. It looked like electricity, but denser. 'Solid' conduits of light.

Megatron moved to stand on the other side of Ghost to the hatch, but was careful not to pass the perimeter of the smaller mech's pedes. He could see the faint distortion of a forcefield between them and the mystery lights, and would not move any closer unless it was to follow the other's lead.

"Is that..." He didn't have the terms for what the lights could be. "What is that?"

Whatever it was, it was beautiful in a raw and immediate sort of way.

[Deleted]

Ghost Wind was a simple mech. He'd always thought so, he'd always believed so, and his cohort, simple mecha in their own right, had never treated him otherwise. He'd been content to be so, too, which might be counted a rare thing: he'd been entirely unhappy with the grinding abuse that came with his lot in life, but never with the lot itself.

And yet there were times when he found something outside his experience, something he knew ought to give him the rattlings - but it hardly ever did. Ghost was not one to balk from something simply because it wasn't familiar, because it wasn't 'maintenance'. All such things did was bring up an old, sedate sort of caution, and a curiosity for the hows and whys and what-fors of it. That curiosity had gotten him in trouble, and it was likely part of the reason he'd never made command of the lowest sort, but he refused to outright part with it.

There were times, after all, when it was altogether worth all the trouble. When he could stand and see the expression of fascination in the Decepticon Commander in Chief, and know he'd put it there. Of course, if he were to be absolutely honest, the Tomahawk would've had to admit he'd been pretty dumbfounded the first time he'd seen the main data axis of the 'Nemesis'.

And yet, now that he'd brought the boss-bot this far, Ghost wasnt' entirely sure the irony of the location was as funny a joke as he'd first thought. Here they were, practically touching the main source of Commander Soundwave's power... and yet the Tomahawk would've bet credits he'd still wouldn't know where the boss-bot had gone. But then again, it was possible he was biased by still trying to process the whole kidnapping-the-boss thing.

"Isn't it something?" It was as much as question as it was a statement, because while Ghost didn't have the words or the technological know-how to specifically explain, he could still recognize the power, the sheer magnificence of the view. "It's the ship's main hub. Everything's here: sensors, consoles, everything. There's someone typing up a report back aft where the engines are, and someone replying from the bridge, and it's all here." The two-wheeler stared at the quasi-solid light beams, tone going almost reverent. "Thoughts going in, thoughts going out."

[Deleted]

When Ghost Wind had invited him on this merry tour to see the best view that the Nemesis had to offer, Megatron had been expecting a viewport into the glowing engines or perhaps a window to space. As a rule, the warship didn't have views of the outside beyond a screen. However, tactically, if all the power were to suddenly go off, it was very useful to be able to look outside.

He had not imagined anything like this light display. It was like staring at the spark of the ship, interconnected in threads and flickers with its ever-active crew. Raw, untampered, and so incredibly critical and vulnerable a point. Certainly something that few laid optics on.

"Stunning," Megatron remarked quietly, feeling rather humbled by the expanse and power of the spectacle before him. It was hypnotic.

He stepped backwards to the curved wall and lowered himself into a seated position. The large barrel shape of his chassis meant that his back rested against the bulkhead despite the angle. A quick dip into his subspace produced two of the High Grade cubes he'd 'packed' earlier, one of which was set pointedly on the deck towards Ghost. He pierced the seal on the other but didn't immediately sip, instead continuing to stare at the hub with his gauntlets resting on his knees.

"It reminds me of something. But I don't know what."

He frowned as he grasped at the elusive wisps of knowledge. The feeling had become so common as to be a constant on the ship, where everyone was a known stranger and every corridor a familiar labyrinth.

This state of being lost but constantly on the edge of remembering was temporary. Megatron shook his head as he reiterated as much to himself. There was no point in getting frustrated with a healing process. Often, that only made it slower (or at least seem slower).

"It's almost tangible, solid," he went on, thinking aloud. "One would think the datastreams would be confined within electrical cables."

Megatron finally looked back to the Eradicon, openly curious. "Is that effectively what this tunnel is, on a massive scale?"

[Deleted]

Ghost stepped back and crouched down, his back to the wall and his hands hanging easy between his knees. The plain shift in position brought him to utter relaxation, as complete as it could be in a Decepticon life. He might as well have laid down to recharge.

The boss-bot's reaction was everything he'd hoped for, but then again the trip alone seemed to have done part of the job as well: Lord Megatron had forgotten about being locked up, or injured, or recovering, or what-have-you.

Ghost picked up the cube, though more interested at the moment in examining this rare beast that the boss was offering. He'd never even seen plain ol' energon so clean, let alone hi-grade of this quality. If he hadn't thought it rude he'd have saved it, but then again he couldn't really think of any occasion that merited the drinking more than the current one.

The Commander's question made Ghost smile widely, and he nodded, tipping the cube at the gleaming thought-stream. "You need the space; specs say the flow can double, or even triple, when the ship goes into combat, and even then it don't touch the contact surfaces. I don't have hard numbers - that's massive-classified stuff, obviously. But even now it's way beyond city-traffic, and I had cohort that worked port-side." There was no sadness to the mention, only a delivery of facts.

"There's, uh..." Ghost ticked off thick, taloned fingers. "Four different systems just keeping track of temperature, particulates, vacuum stability, that sorta stuff. But in there it ought to be cold enough to freeze your b--paintjob off." Ghost swiftly, though not at all smoothly, reworded what he'd been about to say. He ran a swift reboot through his vox, and tipped the cube at the boss-bot.

"Next drink's on me, boss." His grin turned crooked. "You can't come down to maintenance without drinking like a maintenance mech."

[Deleted]

Megatron tipped his cube towards the Vehicon, optics narrowing with a thin smile. "Of course."

He took a sip of the High Grade, savoring the crisp, clean taste of the fuel and the peaceful company. The twisting ribbons of light before them drew the optic deeper, revealing smaller and smaller tendrils of electrical energy. Raw data. The very nerves of the ship.

There was a rumour that the Nemesis had once been a living mech, an Autobot or Neutral slaved and processor-wiped to serve as the Decepticon flagship. More likely it was just a ship, but the rumour of turning such a massively powerful being into a tool for the war effort was a beneficial one. Megatron hoped that the latter was true, and had no interest in finding out for sure without the context of his memories.

Megatron shifted his pede out, feeling the warmth of the metal and the curve of the floor. "Who works on this if it's damaged, if it's so highly classified?"

[Deleted]

"Bridge crew," was Ghost's automatic reply, even as he examined the cube and realized he'd yet to sip from it. It just... it seemed like such a rare beast, and once he drank it it would be gone.

Ah, well. He tipped the cup lightly, just a sip, and rolled it in his mouth, this rare experience. No particulate, no sour notes, just the smooth glide of the energon. This, he thought, is much too high a High Grade for lil' ol' me.

So he took a good drink and let it glide its astonishing warmth all the way down to his fuel tank, breathing a deep, pleased sigh and bringing his processor back to the original question with an effort. "Mostly because bridge personnel have already been cleared on a lot of sensitive levels, I imagine. Cuts the paperwork. Still can't come in without a senior officer overseeing, though. But." He lifted a stubby talon. "From the maintenance logs I've read, it's never needed fiddling. It's got more redundancies than -" Ghost brought himself to such a sharp halt his vox hiccuped a weird little sound with the strain.

He'd waltzed himself into a corner; this wasn't a word to be... eased into something else, or coughed away. He rubbed his helm sheepishly, and gave the boss-bot a look that was equal parts wary and resigned, muttering an "Ah, scrap" before he did what he rather guessed would be requested of him anyways. "... more redundancies that Commander Shockwave's lab failsafes."

He hung his head and pinched the space between his optics. "Meaning no real offense, sir. I mean, the Commander's lab... I'll just stop talking now."

[Deleted]

Megatron took the cube as it was handed back to him, taking a long swallow. Hidden as they were in here, Soundwave had probably noticed that he was missing now and set up some kind of search. Ravage could well appear any time (apparently Dark Energon gave him a very particular scent, or so Fairwinds said) and put an end to this peaceful reprieve.

Best to make the most of it.

He smiled a little as Ghost Wind shrank in on himself, apparently embarrassed for just being himself. It was a recurring theme of his recent interactions, and a tiresome one. Now, however, after being shown into this sanctuary inside the very lifelines of the ship, Megatron only felt sympathy.

Resting his helm back casually against the curved wall, Megatron rumbled thoughtfully. "Having been inside Commander Shockwave's lab, I appreciate knowing those safeguards are in place."

He gave the smaller mech a conspiratorial look from the corner of his optic. "There were things I couldn't identify, and that was only in the main room. Right now, I have no concept of what could be in his vaults. And, perhaps, I ought not to until this is over."

[Deleted]

"Having been inside Commander Shockwave's lab, I appreciate knowing those safeguards are in place."

"I hear that." Ghost felt a deep wash of relief that the boss-bot did not mind his tone, or his implications; he hadn't, in truth, meant anything by them but an ongoing point of comparison among the lowest echelons of the 'Nemesis'. He stared at the conduit before them and shrugged a heavy shoulder. "Gives a whole new meaning to that old lesson of 'Don't ask no questions you didn't want answered. And you can't even imagine what he's done to the guts of his walls, sir."

Ghost gestured all around them. "I mean, you could jettison his lab out, just -poof!- lock up and throw out the entire subsection, like an escape pod from the Pit, but he's also added all sort of things no one in Maintenance can ID. Filters, mostly... I think. He's done something to his entire power grid so it drains half the juice and does twice the job. One of the Vehicons went in to fix a parallel system and ran himself into something - ended up high as a remote weather probe for a week."

He gave the boss-bot a quick side look, then feigned a casual mien. He was absolutely, utterly, thoroughly terrible at it. "Also heard he had a fish tank in there." It wasn't exactly a question, but, you know...

He had also shifted to reach again his toolkit, though this time rather than reach for a tool he upended it, and expertly undid a false bottom. He'd promised to respect the stash when the kit had been loaned to him, but he did not think there would be a protest to sharing the small measure of distilled swill in the hidden compartment, amidst a few game cartridges and a mixed deck of Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards. And two casino tokens. He brought out the container and held it up to the light, to let its venomous, pale yellow color show exactly what it was: a bribe.