[ti]Ep 2.5[/ti]Holes in the Sky. [Vega and Flamesnort]

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Episode 2.5, Week 4, Day 6
Two minutes til midnight.
Just outside Blackridge

High on the rocks working by the light of his own biolights and occasional flame flicker, Flamesnort was methodically setting up a telescope. He was methodical, because it was frickken tricky setting up such delicate equipment on a rocky outcropping when he was forged as a quadruped. But he was high spirited. The current difficulties were expected and fully under control. The night was perfect. Clear skies, still wind, next to zero light pollution, no damn moon, but most importantly, Flamesnort now had at hand, up to date astronomical data. He had been doing amateur stuff with poor knowledge and little to none dedicated equipment for the better part of far-too-long. But now, now he had a yPad complete with star charts listing current constellations visible and the planets. This was the best part. Saturn was ten degrees above the horizon and Jupiter was due to rise right about now. Instead of just being a wandering star used to map the date on the calendar, he would finally be able to see the details.

In his excitement, he was self heating again and currently resting at approximately 60 degrees Celsius. In infrared, he stood apart from just about everything else in a huge radius. Any concern or worries about the current Decepticon situation was so far from his mind as to be non-existent. The planets and stars, they were real, and they awaited his inspection.

[Vega]

At this rate she would welcome the long hallways of the Nemesis again. At the very least there was a chance of encountering and empty hallway in the titanic war ship. From what she heard expansion was in the works but it was hardly coming fast enough. Vega was growing tired of rubbing shoulders with near everyone composing the Decepticon army.

Socializing was something she normally tool a fair amount of joy in, used to the crowded atmospheres of her favorite bars back home. But there was such a thing as too much. She needed to be away for a while. And there seemed no better night for it. The heavy curtain of stars threw the world into darkness. It was slow going cresting the high rock face to reach the top, better that way lest she have to explain possibly the most moronic reason for that trip to the medbay.

Vega had yet to sight Flamesnort, taking a moment to pause in her trek to try and coerce her leg into not hurting. She exvented softly before starting her walk again, her pedefalls crunching the loose bits of the mountain under them. Oh well - she thought - at least the view will be worth it.

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After much adjusting, Flamensort finally had the tripod of the telescope mount positioned securely. The self drive rock screws prevented the whole affair from any accidentally repositioning. The telescope with control servos went on top. Fundamentally simple mirror telescope built to a size manageable by the average Cybertronian. In terms of sheer quality, it was above anything of human manufacture, but such precision slightly wasted when used inside of an atmosphere. With the telescope firmly bolted on top, the last piece was plugging in the control remote. Just enter the bearing an inclination, and the servo motors would position the telescope exactly. There was none of that imprecise manual aiming.
 
Once satisfied that all his preparation was, Flamesnort checked his yPad, loaded in the expected position of Jupiter and waited as the telescope orientated itself. With slow but anxious anticipation, Flamesnort crept up to the optic piece and checked the view.

The View was worth it! A thousand, a million years years of staring up at the sky came down to this one satisfying moment.

Absolutely stunning was how he described it to himself. Jupiter was square in the center of his view with all the animated storm bands in perfect clear focus. Flamesnort whooped with joy and did a happy little dance on the spot before he could calm himself to look again.

[Vega]

Vega had just created the top of the rock face when she heard him. She paused again, reaching down to rub the spot on her leg in the hopes of coercing it to stop aching. Her attention shifted to the noise in front of her giving her just enough time to see the biolights of someone moving in a quick and seemingly random fashion. A dance of sorts.

Seemed she wasn't the only one hoping to enjoy the view.

Along side him Vega could make out another shape, elongated and fastened to the side of the rock. She slowly moved closer making her steps loud enough for the other to hear. She spoke after a few steps.

"It seems I'm not the only one here to enjoy the view then."

True she had hoped for a moment alone but this was certainly better than the shoulder to shoulder conditions inside the base.

[Deleted]

At the sound of footsteps, Flamesnort quickly shelved his giddy and tried to install some semblance of dignity. The hunter listened to the sound of the footsteps quickly calculating. Light so unlikely Coldwind or Breakdown, slow and deliberate however, almost polite, that eliminated almost everyone else that he’d met so far. So he turned and greeted the owner of the footsteps. “It is a rather enjoyable view I must confess.”

Flamesnort looked the newcomer up and down and immediately knew he did not recognize them. He could barely make out her silhouette, just enough to pick the low hanging wings and guess at a flier. Only the brilliant red optics gave light to a pleasant seeming face.

“I am Flamesnort” he said in a slightly neutral friendly tone. He would be very happy to share in the astronomy but he didn't want his currently intense focus to be off putting. “Is there any chance you give an iota about astronomy?” he asked in an offhand manner. He was totally bluffing his nonchalance.

[Vega]

The moment he took notice of the other he immediately snapped out of his joyous mood, turning to a more curious if not cautious mood. He watched her for a moment as she approached and Vega quickly took note of him in turn. She hadn't seen anything like him before. A quadrupedal build, long in the torso with squat legs and a large head. His purple eyes illuminated his "horned" face with a dim glow.

He agreed the view was enjoyable as Vega stopped short of him. He introduced himself as Flamesnort then followed up with a question that made Vega chuckle to herself.

"Quite a bit more than an iota I would have to say. I was sparked on Cybertron as an astrophysicist and astrocartographer. I am Vega."

She then turned her attention to his telescope mount shifting the conversation to it immediately. "Where in the pit did you find this? I haven't seen any sort of equipment even remotely related to viewing space in storage."

Vega moved slightly closer but did not touch the telescope, not wanting to disturb his view he no doubt searched for quite some time for.

[Deleted]

As Vega approached closer he could make out more of her silhouette and some details of her form. Not unpleasant at all he decided. Flamesnort chuckled gently. “I found this in a box marked miscellaneous, tucked away covered in dust in storage. I was curious while chasing away some vermin. And here we are.” His tone was delighted. “Currently tracking the gas giant of this planetary system, the one the squishies call Jupiter.” He looked through the eyepiece briefly letting out a contented sigh before moving away and gesturing with one hand for Vega to take his place.

“I humbly bow to your expertise Vega.” Flamesnort further added, testing her name in his head and finding he rather liked it. “I have spent so many years looking up to the night sky this past million years. My stasis pod malfunctioned so I had to learn to use the movement of the planets to calculate the years...without a telescope.” Flamesnort sighed again, amusement in his tone. “I had to be stuck on an alien planet to appreciate the beauty of stars.”

“This was my plan for the night.” Flamesnort offered his yPad. On it were half a dozen objects in the night sky along with their coordinates. Saturn, Polaris, Andromeda Galaxy, Cassopeia, Draco and Lyra.

[Vega]

"What a fortuitous find!" Vega exclaimed as Flamesnort explained finding it in a box left to gather dust in storage. Her red optics glanced over him for a moment as she drew closer in the darkness following his relax in posture as he offered the eyepiece for her to look through. Leaning down Vega glanced through it as the quadruped explained he was currently tracking 'Jupiter' as the humans called it. A marvel to see undoubtedly, an atmosphere of entirely toxic gases. It was in such clear view as well!

Vega leaned back to make eye contact with him as he spoke again, explaining how he had to use the movement of the planets and stars to keep track of passing time in his malfunctioned space pod. Slowly she nodded as she shifted to settle on the cliff face beside him and the telescope. "I had to do much the same for quite some time, up until a few short earth weeks ago I was stranded on Cybertron. Trapped in the heart of the sea of rust before the exodus. After a while you begin to question your internal chronometer, fortunately the stars are always trustworthy."

Accepting the extended yPad she glanced over the screen as Flamesnort listed each celestial entity he planned on observing that night. It was perfect conditions for all of them, as proven by their very clear view of Jupiter. She offered it back before speaking again. "Sounds lovely! Would you mind if I joined you?" True she had come to escape the agonizingly confined space the was Black Ridge but she would not turn away from another who enjoyed space as much as she did.

The right company made everything better.

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Flamesnort gently took the yPad back from Vega, clipping it onto a forelimb. “I would absolutely welcome such a refined companion as yourself.” Flamesnort replied to Vega’s request with plite enthusiasm. “The repugnant egos of so many of our brethren can be so claustrophobic.” He added further with mock disdain.

He leaned back and sat on his haunches, looking straight up at the night sky. Flamesnort briefly looked Vega up and down causally, before forcing his attention back up once more. He decided he liked Vega for more than just one shared interest, but knew better than to pursue that particular trail of thought. Not today anyway.

“It’s humbling isn't it? We are so small and insignificant compared to this planet. Dirt on top of rock floating on top of molten rock with a semi liquid iron core. And yet it’s pitiful compared to that Gas Giant up there, and yet it takes ten of them to make a star. And they just get bigger and bigger and bigger. We simply don't matter, not to the universe, not a bit. And yet it’s so freeing. If nothing we do really matters, we should just live the happiest lives we can.”

Flamesnort rocked forward off his haunches, back onto all fours and peered back down the telescope’s eyepiece. He could clearly see Jupiter’s ring and red spot, a anti-cyclone threes times bigger than Earth. “There’s power out there. I’d like to think that one day our civilization could harness that energy once more. Not that I trust us to use it wisely” he chuckled.

[Vega]

Vega found it hard to disagree with Flamesnort, a socialite as she was the atmosphere of the base was staggering. Company was nice but the crowd had gotten out of control. Vega slighted slightly to give the quadruped easier access to the telescope her own eyes glancing back up to the sky. Flamesnort then spoke again, marveling at just how humbling the universe was. No matter how large a planet was there was always something bigger, and then something even bigger than that. A small smile on her lips Vega nodded softly as he finished his musings.

"Well said." She offered before he spoke once again, this time musing over the power that was out there in the universe to be had. How their people would harvest it again...but he doubted they would use it wisely. Softly the flier nodded as he looked back to the yPad. "You certainly have a point, there would be plenty who would use it incorrectly." Greed was all too apparent in sentience.

Vega motioned to the yPad he had attached to his forelimb. "If I may?" She asked hoping to once again review the itinerary he had mapped out for the evening. Saturn was lovely - swirling dust storms and all - but she felt it was time to move on to another spacial body. The evening was still young but Vega was eager to see what Flamesnort had picked for his viewing tonight.

[Deleted]

Flamesnort was really beginning to feel properly relaxed and happy in a way he had not felt for a huge chunk of his lifetime. It was just the right amount of socializing and intellectual stimulation. He had only known Vega for a minute but felt comfortable in her company, she seemed bright and nonjudgmental. And polite, that counted for a lot.

For all the time spent on earth, the draconic flier favorite pastime had been swimming. But he did that the way others drove or flew, an enjoyable liberating exercise but it didn't engage the neural circuits. It didn't really make him happy so much anymore. This night seemed like it just might be the best night of the last million years.

“Certainly.” Flamesnort replied to Vega’s request with a deft flick, handing her the yPad with ease no so apparent for his form. He also moved away from the telescope to let Vega work her technomagic should she so choose.

“How fares Cybertron? I have quite literally been away a very long time.” A mental gear clicked into place and he turned his head to face Vega squarely. “You above all must know which star is Cybertrons yes?” Surely the astrocartographer above all else must know. The question had gone unanswered for so long, he had almost forgotten it.

[Vega]

Vega too felt a long needed sense of ease. Rather then having countless folk around her this company was small - in many senses of the word - and intellectually stimulating to boot. Flamesnort himself seemed very agreeable company, comparably if not just as polite as the larger flier (which she too counted as a lot) and just as enthralled about space as she was. It had been quite a while since she had such company and she herself felt very comfortable with her new acquaintance. "Thank you." She nodded as he graciously passed her the yPad.

Then he posed a question...a question of Cybertron.

At this Vega's face noticeably dimmed, her finials angling downward. How could she answer this question? Just how long had he been uninformed? Was he aware of the purging of the All Spark? Vega sat in silence for a moment before a soft sigh rolled from her vents.

"That...depends on how long you have been away."

She turned to the yPad and again fell silent as she focused the telescope onto Cybertron's coordinates. What he would see was not their once bright home world...but a floating ball of decaying metal. Seeing it herself left a bad taste in her mouth, for reasons aside from homesickness. In a way she had grown bitter toward her home, having watched it die slowly while she herself struggled to not do the same.

"Optimus Prime," his name fell out of her mouth with a small degree of poison "purged the All Spark from the planet...effectively killing it. We followed them here when the Exodus was underway...most of us did anyway." She had never placed blame with her superiors, there were fare larger matters to attend to than rescuing a navigation officer who had gotten herself stranded (bitterly ironic that). If anything it was now a testament to the kinda of tenacity she had.

Still...she would prefer not to dwell.

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“One million years, I was away for one million years.” Flamesnort whispered more to the night sky than Vega. It was still hard to grasp. His thoughts turned sombre as he noted Vega’s face dim, the light of her intellect redirected to sad thoughts.

“I have heard many conflicting rumours from the troopers and miners this last week about the waning years prior to the Exodus and what's left out of official records.” That word, exodus, it felt so alien on his tongue with the taste of disbelief. “They all agree that Optimus launched the Allspark, and whatever his selfish reasons, I’m beginning to think it was for the better. We simply have no right to bring new sparks into our war. Wherever it is, we should only find it when we are united once more.”

Flamesnort's thoughts turned further introspective but he voiced aloud for Vega’s benefit. “Hmm how long, one million years since launch, half that? I don't have a reference. Let's say one. At light speed max that one million light years. Okay right that is a long way, open space between galaxies? yeah that's right. We’d have to interrogate Optimus. Unless the Allspark has already found a new home. Hmmph, all speculation already been done by many better than me really. Win the war first!”

“Somber thoughts aren't really becoming, are they?” He looked up at Vega and smiled. He after all brought the light of fire to dark places as a calling. “My fire may not be as bright as the Sun’s but I will ignite a path through the vile Autobots!”

[Vega]

His perspective was... interesting? No, thought provoking? That fit slightly better.

While yes it would be difficult to integrate new sparks to a hostile and war ravaged world - and perhaps there was a degree of selfish intent in it - it was still pivotal. The imbalance in lives lost to lives gained was impossible to ignore. The possibility of extinction was quite real. The only one who knew even an inkling of the All Spark's location was the last Prime. They would win, and make him answer for his cowardice.

Flamesnort quickly waved away the sudden lull in the atmosphere, claiming somber thoughts had no place here. Yes, there was not much point in dwelling on it now she supposed. Time would prove them victorious. Vega eased back into a relaxed air once again handing the yPad to him once again.

"Yes, now is not the time. Let us return to the stars."

Vega lifted her head back towards the darkened sky as her company went back to his viewing schedule. "Apparently many of the star formations are named, the primitive native species on this planet document them avidly. Many seem to be named after figures in folklore." She lifted one hand tracing two digits drawing an invisible line in-between a cluster of stars.

"This one is apparently dubbed after a mythic Archer..."

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“Oh! I know this one! I read it yesterday..” Flamesnort of course had known very little of astronomy before leaving Cybertron, and the change of reference completely changed the appearance of the constellations. Two stars close together from one perspective, were many light years apart from another viewing angle. It also didn't help that a civilisation that had once upon a time travelled the stars didn't give much weight to patterns in the night sky.

Flamesnort flicked through data on his yPad. “..Archer...archer, here it is! Sag - ee - tar - ee - us. I think. I’m still not used to the language of the squishies.” Flamensort shrugged with nonchalance. “I paid so little attention to the stars before my journey to this planet, and now I find an insatiable quest for knowledge. I feared my processor had become addled in the passing eons, but if a quest for knowledge is the province of great intellects then maybe ...something...I've lost my plane of thought.” Flamesnort chuckled with mild embarrassment, his cheeks plates heating up further. Millenia of self induced energon starvation had not done him any good.

Flamesnort sat on his rump and held his yPad up to the night sky with one forepaw. He constantly twisted and turned small amounts as he sought to line up his display with the night sky. “Got It!” he happily announced. Tracing lines and shapes in the sky, Flamesnort connected the dots for the human named constellations. He turned to Vega. “Draco. I like that one.” It was a sound, a human sound he had some familiarity with.