ANOTHER TALK WITH BLUESTREAK


Barracks...
Bluestreak lies on his stomach atop his bunk
Bluestreak looks at the wall, a faraway look in his optics. He doesn't 
take any notice of his surroundings.

Candice queitly leaves her room upon robotic footsteps move past. She 
approaches Blustreak's personal cubical and gazes up at him. "I'm 
sorry. That  was a dumb comment to make."

Bluestreak blinks down at Candice. "Oh, that. Don't worry about it."

Candice nods silently snd then asks, "Mind if I ask what your thinking 
about?"

Bluestreak says, "Oh, not much. Just how it was, umm, before"

Candice nods again, not really knowing what to say. "Do you think about it 
alot?"

Bluestreak says, "Ohh, sometimes. I think it's good to think about the happy 
times I had before all this happened. It kind of makes me think about my 
friends. It wouldn't be good to forget them, you know."

Candice responds with, "I dunno. Sometimes I think it would better if 
they were forgotten."

Bluestreak shrugs. "There's no one left to remember them, except me."
Bluestreak rolls over onto his back, careful not to smash his 'wings'.

Candice thinks for a moment and is forced to agree. "I suppose." She 
then asks, "What were some of your friends like?"

Bluestreak says, "Well, I've forgotten some of their names, but I still 
remember what it was like. Have you ever seen any pictures of Cybertron?"

You say, "I remember seeing it from a distance once...when Cybertron was in 
Earth's orbit almost 10 yrs. ago."
Candice adds, "I've seecomputer siulations of your homeowrld but no actual 
pictures."

Bluestreak says, "Well, there's a lot more to it than the images show. 
Alot of stuff underground and such"

You say, "Tunnels?"

Bluestreak says, "Yeah, the whole planet is shot with caves and tunnels and 
stuff. Most everyone lives on the surface, though. There's agreat big cavity 
in the planet, though. Called the Great Gorge. That's were I lived."

You say, "That's where your home city was?"

Bluestreak nods absently. "I used to be able to look out of my home and 
down on the most beautiful scenery. That was before the war really engulfed 
the whole planet, though."

Candice asks, "Can you tell me what it looked like?"

Bluestreak says, "It was basically a drop. A big one. Bigger than your grand 
canyon."

Candice blinks.
You say, "What about the city? What did it look like?"

Bluestreak looks over at Candice. "The city was built on the ledge over the 
drop, there was a bridge over the canyon there, and living quarters built 
into the cliffs. That's where I lived. Tall buildings. Lots of spires and 
stuff. See, I was a trade ambassador to the city across the bridge. 
Relationships had been always been rather, umm, strained."

You say, "Why's that?"

Bluestreak says, "Well, you know. Normal relationships between competing 
cities. They were the supply, and we were between them and the demand"

Candice nods. "Oh. The ole 'supply and demand' concept."

Bluestreak says, "See, it was my city that had built the bridge. So we 
charged a fee to cross. Not that much. It was fair, considering the cost 
and the upkeep. So I was the ambassador that kept things going smoothly. 
I was making a lot of progress too"

Candice nods again.
Candice asks, "What kind of progress?"

Bluestreak says, "Well, there were a lot of boring meetings, but I think I 
was getting things going in the right direction. Their trade ambassador 
was an old friend of mine. We were both looking out for the best thing for 
both of our cities. When I was over there, I used to look out over the 
canyon for the spires and the lights in the cliffs."

Candice wonders, "He must have looked over his city when he near yours."

Bluestreak says, "Yeah, I suppose he did. This was back when the war was 
just a rumor. We used to laugh about it a lot."

Candice says, "Must have been a beautilful sight. Looking out some of the 
human cities in the distance it's kinda like a living tapestry." She 
pauses. "I take it the Decepticons weren't as 'noisey' as they are now."

Bluestreak says, "No, not at first. They were a far off threat. We didn't 
even think about them, really. Some of us didn't even think they existed. 
Then Alpha Trion came and paid a visit. They called a meeting, and that's 
when they voted to construct a wall around the top side of the city. I was 
across at the time, and even though I hurried back, I only caught the last 
little bit of it."

Bluestreak says, "Not like I was anyone important anyway. Alpha seemed angry, he didn't seem to think it was enough. Personally, I was surprised he'd managed to get that far"

Candice shrugs. "Maybe he thought having eveyone there was important."

Bluestreak says, "Well, I asked him about it before he left, and he said that we were all in for a rude awakening. I didn't think much of it at the time. He was nice enough, but I'd never heard of him before, and he came all alone. I didn't even know why they called the meeting then. In fact, after the wall was built, Powerlock, who was the, umm, mayor I guess you would call it, got ousted in the next election because of the draw on the city's funds."
Bluestreak sighs. "After Alpha Trion left, there was a lot of disturbance at 
first, then after Powerlock left office, things kind of went back to normal. 
It stayed that way for a long time."

Candice stands there listening.

Bluestreak says, "See, what we didn't know was that the Decepticons 
could fly. As I'm sure you've noticed, the Autobots are pretty much non 
flight capable. Except for those that have alternate modes suited for 
flying."

Candice sighs. "Yeah...I noticed."

Bluestreak says, "So all the guns and stuff pointed down. I was out on a 
trade mission Kalis, that's the other city, at the time when the attack 
came. All I could do was watch."

Candice presses her lips tightly together. "I guess I was lucky in a way. I 
never saw Seattle being actully destroyed." She then adds with a note of 
bitterness, "I was having too much fun at DHQ at the time." 

Bluestreak's look turns inward. His face fuses into a look of dull horror. 
He doesn't respond to Candice's words. "They came down from the sky in a 
wave. There wasn't even time to prepare, it seemed. One minute they weren't 
there, and the next they were. I looked across, and all I could see was the 
spires crumbling. Down. Into the gorge. I tried to cross. They didn't want 
me to, but I did it anyway. I... I... I got about halfway across, and then 
they shot the bridge down. Everything was falling, down..."

Candice opens her mouth only to close it again...continuing to listen.

Bluestreak covers his face with his hands, throughly engulfed in his memory. 
"The next thing I knew, I was at the bottom, and everything was silent and 
dark. I climbed out and looked up. It was so dark. No lights. So what could 
I do? I got up and started climbing. At first I figured that I was too far 
down to see the lights at the top. But as I got closer, I knew. I didn't 
want to, but I did. I remember finally coming over the top, and then I just 
lost it."

You say, "That's when you started roaming the wastelands?""

Bluestreak nods miserably. "I don't remember how long I did. You have no 
idea what being an Empty is like. I was very lucky to survive long enough 
to escape."

Candice's widen. She nods, more than willing to simply take his word for it. 
"How...did you survive?"

Bluestreak says, "By taking what I could get when I could get it. 
Scrounging. Doing things I would never have done before. There were others 
like me after the raids. Many, many others. And I've seen robots rip each 
other apart for the energon. I'd seen both Autobots and Decepticons, and 
other Empties done like this. I swore I would never be a cannibal."

Candice remarks. "Kinda like what some of our own homeless are like out in 
the streets..." the young woman muses.

Bluestreak says, "That was the one guideline I never broke. I would never go 
that low. Never kill someone and feast on their remains. I think I suffered 
both more and less than the others like me about this, though"

Candice slowly closes her eyes only to open them again. "And to think...I 
was born in peace time until---" her voice arubtly cuts off and she refuses 
to finish her sentance.

Bluestreak nods to the human
Candice falls silent...not knowing what to say.                             
Bluestreak sighs.

Candice looks down thoughtfully. "Maybe I should let you get some rest."

Bluestreak nods, "I need some time to think it over."

Candice sighs inaudibly. "I understand." She starts moving towards her 
room/office. "I guess I'll see you later."

Bluestreak says, "Umm, goodnight."

Candice replies, "Night."

Bluestreak's optics close and he powers down for a rest.