Cabin Fever

Scene opens in the empty vacuum of space, a green and violet portal opens, out of the rift emerges the Voyager. Silverbolt looks out of the view-port.

SILVERBOLT: What is that!? (A slight flash of green. The others look but not soon enough.) Never mind, I must just be seeing things. (The crew is awaiting Crynoth's results with the dimensional scanner.)

COMPUTER: Scan for Cybertron, negative. (No one is surprised.)

CRYNOTH: Where's the nearest planet?

COMPUTER: No planets, planetoids or stars detected. (Everyone looks at the computer in confusion.)

SCALE: No planets in our sector, or... (Airrazor has been looking out the window and suddenly realizes something, she backs away in disbelief.)

AIRRAZOR: Nothing no where, look! (Outside the window is empty space, completely empty, no white dots in the distance, nothing.)

CRYNOTH: Computer, is there anything in this dimension at all?

COMPUTER: Negative, no trace sediments of any kind.

SILVERBOLT: Incredible!

ANARCHY: There's not a speck of dust in this entire dimension? (Everyone looks to each other.)

B'BOOM: What does this change?

CRYNOTH: We can't land to recharge, so we'll have to shut down the ship.

OPAL: Including life support?

CRYNOTH: We'll only be able to keep life support on in three rooms at the most, or else we can't make the week deadline.

LUNA: Boy, that makes me feel so much better.

CRYNOTH: We should probably only have two rooms active to be safe, we need to have the bridge operational and we need food, so the mess hall. I'll tie the teleporter in a loop- (Blackarachnia cuts him off.)

BLACKARACHNIA: Teleporter!?

CRYNOTH: Well, yes of course, we never needed it before.

AIRRAZOR: What else does this ship have that we don't know about?

CRYNOTH: I'm not sure what all is in the cargo bays and storage holds.

SILVERBOLT: Let's just hurry up and get what we need to the mess hall. (The camera shows time lapse as everyone pitches in, taking various things to the mess hall. The mess hall is a pretty big room, with over ten four-person tables scattered around, about enough seating for fifty people, two entrances both of which will be sealed, a main kitchen and counter, a small stage platform designed for mail call, and the usual chairs at tables and stools at the counter. Inside Anarchy and Cheyenne's room Cheyenne is looking through a box of stuff taken from their ship, she pulls up a box with a long cord and microphone hanging from it.)

ANARCHY: What's that?

CHEYENNE: It's a karaoke machine. (She looks at the various disks that go with it.) Mostly oldies, I mean really oldies!

ANARCHY: Ew! Get it away.

CHEYENNE: Hey, it'll help pass the time away. (She gives him a devious smile. Blackarachnia is communicating with Crynoth over a radio, she is in the mess hall and he is on the bridge, they are installing the telepads, next to Crynoth Tigatron is working on the shut-down preparations. After it is all finished the entire group is seated at the various tables in the mess hall. Silverbolt is communicating with Crynoth and Opal on the bridge.)

CRYNOTH: Okay, me and Opal got the bridge handled for a while, everybody got what they needed?

SILVERBOLT: Hit it. (Crynoth flips a switch and a low humming sounds through the ship, the doors seal and the lights dim slightly. Opal sits back in her chair.)

OPAL: Now what? (Crynoth crosses his four arms across his chest and sits back.)

CRYNOTH: Six and a half days of waiting.

OPAL: Well, that ruined the mood. (Inside the mess hall, Cheyenne has just introduced her idea, no one seems to like it right away.)

B'BOOM: No!

INFERNO: What is it?

PUN: You gotta be kiddin' me. (Cheyenne has a determined look on her face.)

CHEYENNE: What else are you planning on doing? (No one has an answer for that.) That's what I thought, any volunteers? (Pun takes a deck of cards out of his pocket and deals between himself, Scale, Luna and Airrazor. Silverbolt and Blackarachnia begin a pointless conversation, Tigatron and Anarchy run to a pool table, Inferno goes back into the kitchen, B'boom is left standing there.)

B'BOOM: Ah slag. (He walks up to the mail call platform and takes the mike from Cheyenne, she plugs in the machine and hits a button, the machine begins to make a random selection.)

CHEYENNE: Your song is, (Ding.) Sweet Home Alabama. (The music begins and the words are holographically displayed in front of B'boom, he begins singing, halfheartedly at first, then starts enjoying it. Everyone in the room begins to enjoy it, when he finishes Silverbolt and Blackarachnia step up, they choose their own.)

SILVERBOLT: I got you babe. (The enthusiasm in the room dies down, Inferno lets a faint cry of horror from the kitchen.)

INFERNO: No! (The camera skips to when the two are done, Anarchy stops his pool game and runs up, he takes the mike away from Silverbolt.)

ANARCHY: Okay, we've had enough! Please take your seats and be quiet. (He turns to Cheyenne.) Hit it!

CHEYENNE: Jailhouse Rock.

ANARCHY: Hey Inferno! Got any oil back there!? (A yellow bottle flies from behind the counter, Anarchy takes a handful of it and smears it in his mane.) All right, now I'm ready! (The music begins.) Went to a party at the county jail!... (He goes on in the background as Tigatron walks up to Inferno and sits on one of the stools.)

TIGATRON: What are you doing over here anyway?

INFERNO: First of all, avoiding karaoke. Secondly, seeing how I am with food. (He finds a chef's hat under the counter and puts it on. Tigatron just chuckles and spins his stool around to watch Anarchy make a fool of himself. A time lapse begins and you see Tigatron singing Skies of Blue, then you see Pun singing Do you Want Somebody to Love, then Cheyenne is trying to get Scale to come up.)

CHEYENNE: Come on, try it.

SCALE: I don't need to try it.

CHEYENNE: You don't need to try it.

SCALE: Thank you. (She smiles and Pun gives her a grin, the camera shows Inferno set out a plate for Anarchy and Luna, he turns on his wrist flamethrower and singes the meat just enough. Next up Airrazor begins singing You are so Beautiful. In the cockpit Crynoth and Opal are asleep in their chairs, Opal, stirs a bit and opens her eyes, outside the window is a large round, ghost-white orb, the moon. She Opens her eyes and looks outside the window, empty black. She sits in the big quiet bridge, not wanting to be alone she elbows Crynoth, he is startled and jerks awake.)

CRYNOTH: Ah! What! What! I wasn't asleep! (he sets back in his chair.) What's wrong?

OPAL: Nothing, I just didn't want to be alone.

Scene goes to that night, everyone is sitting around the mess hall, empty plates on the tables, Crynoth and Opal teleport in, grab their meals and teleport back to the bridge.

LUNA: How long has it been?

CRYNOTH: We still have tonight and six more days after that.

AIRRAZOR: We've played every game imaginable and sung almost all of the songs on that machine and it only took five hours?

PUN: I did grab my movie collection, maybe we could watch some tomorrow.

SILVERBOLT: I think now we should get some sleep.

B'BOOM: I second that motion!

(The Maximals convert to beast mode, Blackarachnia makes a web bed from the ceiling and Airrazor perches on a chair, the others just go to sleep on the floor, Anarchy, Luna and Pun get into sleeping bags, and Scale stays sitting up in her chair, her eyes closed and body unmoving, she wraps her wings around herself. Much later that night, Tigatron in beast mode is laying asleep on his side, his face twitching, the camera zooms in and shows his dream from his eyes. The world is twisted and confusing, he is surrounded by strong winds, you see from his eyes, but you can't see him. The camera shows Airrazor's hawk face then the same dream inside her head, they do not see each other, but more like they are each other, suddenly there is a black form in front of them, a lightning bolt rips out of it, at first they seem to resist, then a burning pain sets over them and they both snap up in the darkness. They look around and they are alone in the mess hall, but it isn't the mess hall, they stand up, they are in their original robot mode bodies.)

TIGATRON: What sorcery is this? (They look at the strange hall they are in and begin walking down it.)

Scene goes to Scale, asleep in the mess hall, the camera zooms in on her reptilian face, then inside her dream, she is inside the star destroyer again the last time she ever obeyed an order from her master Lord Vader, then she is somewhere else, a city on a dark dismal planet, black and white storm troops are swarming over the town, they are executing at will members of Scale's species. Darth Vader is supervising the destruction, he comes upon a young one, her wings barely developed past little leaf-like protuberances, the young one raises her hand to Vader. He easily blocks the weak attempt of an attack.)

VADER: For your species you are strong with the force, little one. (Scale watches as the scene suddenly changes to the inside of a different place, Darth Vader is talking to an Imperial officer, while the young one lays on a table between them unconscious.)

OFFICER: Her memory has been completely drained, you- (The dream ends and she is watching the young one, herself, training unknowingly with Vader.)

SCALE: This is what happened to me and my people? (Then there is darkness once more, then she is standing on a strange planet with several moons in the night sky, suddenly a dark winged creature, unlike any nightmare ever seen before lunges on her, the creature has two mouths in its eyeless head, one inside the other and a gaping mouth in its chest, inside that mouth are three smaller mouths on long tongue-like stems, its arms are black and spidery, its legs also resemble arms, its long razor sharp tail snaps the air, preventing Pun from helping her, the creature opens its mouth and screeches. Scale opens her eyes and sees nothing, she realizes her wings are folded over her and unfurls them, scattered around her on the floor of the mess hall are bodies upon bodies of her people, all with laser-burns through them.) Ahhhhhhhhhh! (She closes her eyes and turns away, she opens them and sees something else, but she is suddenly snapped back awake and looks around the mess hall, afraid to go back to sleep she flies silently over the others to a window, she sits in the window sill and begins thinking deeply.

A few feet away from her Silverbolt is asleep laying with his head on his talons. He wakes up, the mess hall is dark and it is hard to see, but he knows no one else is in there, the whole room looks run-down, dust covers the tables, the chairs are knocked over, everything is beginning to rust. He stands up, in robot mode now, and walks to the door leading out of the mess hall, it is now wide open, the door itself is several feet down the hall, he walks down the hallway, through more doorways until he arrives at the bridge, he steps in.)

SILVERBOLT: By the matrix! (He looks past the shattered computer consoles and destroyed keyboards out of the veiw-port, there in the center of the shattered view-port is the moon, Earth's moon. Silverbolt stares open-mouthed, he climbs out of the shattered view-port and slides down the front of the ship, he lands on dirt, dead gray dirt, and looks around himself, everything is burned and dead, no grass, only skeletons of trees and a dark smog hanging low over the ground.) Could this be...

(He doesn't finish the sentence and decides to start walking. Inside the bridge Opal and Crynoth are sleeping on the floor in their sleeping bags, both twitch and stir, the camera zooms in on Crynoth's eagle-like face, he opens his eyes and is in an entirely different place, Opal is lying next to him, on ground, dirt ground. Both of them are then running, from what he can't see, there is a rumbling in the ground behind them and a crack follows them along, a huge, dark, spidery, nightmare creature with multiple arms leaps in front of him, everything is a blur, the dark creature grabs up himself and Opal, the creature brings Opal up to its hideous face. He tries to fight the creature but it is too strong, suddenly he sees a whip-like tail with a razor sharp end arc through the air toward his face, then everything is dark. Opal sees the ghastly face, it opens it's mouth and a second mouth slices the air, blackness. Crynoth and Opal are back on the bridge, everyone else is seated there, but there seems to be more, everything is distorted and plain, He sees Earth's moon outside of the view-port, Opal turns and sees it to.)

OPAL: I did see it. (Her voice is muted by silence, everything suddenly becomes brilliant with light, Crynoth instinctively shields Opal from the blast, darkness. Airrazor and Tigatron come to the end of the tunnel, outside the tunnel they see a sight that fills them with extreme joy, there before them is Cybertron, the two, now in their original beast modes jump out of the tunnel and land on the street, everything suddenly grows dark, they realize no-one is there, they begin walking down the street, suddenly they are being chased, behind them are shapeless forms, in front of them a dark shapeless form, then the air shivers and everything takes form in a still moment of time, behind them are tanks, with a gun and a head jutting out of the top, in front of them is Optimas running away, time stands still, then darkness, then it is morning, they are now back in transmetal robot mode and standing on top of a tall building, they look down.)

AIRRAZOR: By the inferno. (Below them, in piles on the ground, are thousands of off-line transformers, their bodies sprawled lifelessly on top of each other.)

TIGATRON: What does this mean? (As he says these words everything turns to black again. Scale is watching out the window and suddenly notices.)

SCALE: Stars. There's stars! (She turns to tell everyone but the only ones there are Anarchy, Cheyenne, Pun and Luna, they are standing there watching out of the window as well. Silverbolt's voice comes in over the ship's radio.)

SILVERBOLT: We're preparing to land on Earth. (The four look at each other, then they watch as Earth comes into view, it moves faster and faster, then fire, then darkness. Inferno is asleep a few feet away from B'boom, he lifts his head and looks around, he and B'boom are now standing up in robot mode, they look at each other, then at their surroundings, they are on a metallic platform, they are surrounded by tall buildings and factories, B'boom steps up to him.)

B'BOOM: Cybertron? (The words seem to echo in the air. They turn and see something on the horizon, a formation of jet-like machines, about their size, it is suddenly dark, the two dive into a pipe, they are now in their original beast modes, non-transmetal. the aircraft transform into strange flying robots, suddenly, something flies down out of the air and takes one down, it is a gorilla, the jet/transformers fly at the gorilla but are stopped in mid-air by a green web that appears from no-where, then down the street a group of pink motorcycles without drivers speed up to the ape, he turns looking in the direction of Inferno and B'boom, Inferno's words are a mere whisper.)

INFERNO: Optimus? (Darkness once again. Silverbolt is walking through a burned forest, in front of him is something that should be familiar, but isn't. A mountain, half blown open, a huge gold mass is sticking out of the side of the mountain, half blown open and battered beyond repair Silverbolt still recognizes it.)

SILVERBOLT: The ark. (He flies to it in a hurry, he arrives at the door, it is blown open, he walks in, he walks through the dark halls, when he arrives at the bridge he sees a terrifying scene, both the Autobots and Decepticons are scattered around the floor, ripped to pieces and destroyed, all of the computers are blown apart, laying lifeless in front of his chair is Optimus Prime, his chest blown open, there is a sound behind him, he whirls around, standing there is a familiar character, his exo-structure is battered and dented but it is him, Waspinator, in his original body.) Wha-what?

WASPINATOR: Waspinator was wondering when you would come. (Silverbolt draws his gun.)

SILVERBOLT: What happened here!? (Waspinator's face grows morose.)

WASPINATOR: Waspinator show you. (He walks out of the Ark, Silverbolt follows cautiously, they arrive at a cave, in front of it are mounds of dirt with stones on each one.)

SILVERBOLT: Graves. (He bends down to read the words scratched into them.)

WASPINATOR: Most of them human friends, they die in cataclysm, the ones on the end are your crew. Waspinator used what was left of ship's records to make grave-stones. (Silverbolt walks by the human graves, the last two read Una and Jhock. He steps by them, reading the names of his comrades and some he doesn't recognize, half of him doesn't want to look, he stops at one and goes down to his knees.)

SILVERBOLT: Nooooooooooooo! (There in front of him is Blackarachnia's grave, he looks next to it, Airrazor, Tigatron so-on. Waspinator walks up to him.)

WASPINATOR: Doggy-bot's fault, Doggy-bot's fault they all died.

SILVERBOLT: How is it my fault? What happened? (His back is to Waspinator, Waspinator pulls a large gun out of a backpack slung over one of his shoulders and aims it at Silverbolt, Silverbolt notices the last grave, it is empty, a mound of dirt next to it, inscribed on the stone is Silverbolt, Silverbolt hears a humming noise and dives to the side, the ground exploding where he was kneeling, he turns and sees Waspinator aim the gun at his head.)

WASPINATOR: Waspinator has been waiting for you. (He keeps firing at Silverbolt, who narrowly escapes each shot.) Doggy-bot's fault Waspinator all alone! Doggy-bot's fault everyone die! (A shot catches Silverbolt in the leg and he flips in the air and lands on the ground, he rolls over, looking up the barrel of Waspinator's gun.)

SILVERBOLT: What did I do!? (A flash and everything goes black. The camera shows, up close, Luna's cat-like face, she opens her eyes she is floating in a strange limbo, then she sees a black object in front of her, then a pinkish object slams into it, the object seems to battle within itself as green and pink beams of light shoot from it, then Luna turns around and sees a dark green cloud of vapor, inside the cloud are glowing points of light one of them moves toward her, it begins taking shape, an eye, a giant eye with tentacles flailing behind it, the eye keeps moving toward her and doesn't slow down, then it hits her, darkness.

Anarchy opens his eyes and looks around, in the night sky shines Earth's moon, he is laying on fresh grass, next to him is Cheyenne, they both stand up and look around, the sky suddenly shines bright and fills with fire. The camera shows the reflection of the fire up-close in Cheyenne's eyes, Anarchy turns and looks, he and Cheyenne are now in the mess hall of the Voyager, Scale, Pun and Luna are also standing there. Scale is looking out of the window in disbelief.)

SCALE: Stars. There's stars! (She turns and looks at them. Silverbolt's voice comes in over the ship's radio.)

SILVERBOLT: We're preparing to land on Earth. (The four look at each other, then they watch as Earth comes into view, it moves faster and faster, then fire, then darkness. Pun sees the dark creature leap onto Scale and pin her down, he tries to help her but the creature keeps him at bay by snapping its tail in the air, the creature screeches, the sound piercing and painful to Pun's ears, then the creature puts its mouth up to Scale's face, a smaller mouth inside begins to creep out then slices through the air, the camera shows her hand fall limp to the ground.)

PUN: Nooo! (He runs at the creature, it leaps and he misses it, falling to the ground, he feels the creature's hands hold his shoulders on the ground, Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Pun reels in pain as the creature's tail slices through his back, everything goes black. Inferno and B'boom are standing in a room with Tigatron and Airrazor, all of them are now in their transmetal robot modes, they are standing inside a huge hall. A gigantic tentacle of cables is coming down from the ceiling, at the end of the tentacles is a familiar being encased in a technological shell and cloak. All four of them speak at once.)

ALL: Megatron. (Megatron cannot see them standing directly in front of him, instead he is looking through them to something behind them, they start to turn but everything again goes black. Silverbolt is in a dark room, surrounded by floating globs of colors, a loud booming voice comes out of nowhere.)

VOICE: You are Silverbolt? (Silverbolt is startled by the appearance of the voice.)

SILVERBOLT: Y-y-yes.

VOICE: You have seen depictions of past and future, both intertwined, yet completely different. You have seen what will happen if you continue this journey.

SILVERBOLT: What are you talking about?

VOICE: Silence! If you continue your journey you, your crew and thousands of lives will never have existed.

SILVERBOLT: Why are you helping me?

VOICE: I want you to stay in my dimension, I can create a perfect world for you, you will never have to worry about returning home again. (Silverbolt doesn't swallow a word of it.)

SILVERBOLT: You're lying! (His body is wracked with pain.)

VOICE: How dare you speak against me in my realm?

SILVERBOLT: Who are you?

VOICE: That is immaterial! I will tell you what I want you to know!

SILVERBOLT: The future isn't set! What you have shown me is one possible outcome!

VOICE: Silence! (Silverbolt is set back in a surge of pain.)

SILVERBOLT: Why do you want us to stay here!? Ahhhh! (He is wracked with another wave of pain, he steps forward, another wave of pain, another step, another wave, he keeps going until he runs into a black wall.)

VOICE: I will show you again! (The black wall in front of Silverbolt lights up like a video screen, it replays images of the others dyeing, and stops on an image of Blackarachnia, right before a computer falls on her during the crash, the image zooms in, her face is twisted in a scream of terror. Silverbolt backs up, the sight of his crew being blown up and crushed is unbearable.)

SILVERBOLT: Nooooooooo! (He pulls out his gun and fires at the screen, it shatters and rays of light pour out of it, burning Silverbolt's exo-structure.) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

VOICE: NO! You had your chance at paradise!

SILVERBOLT: Not a paradise! (The light coming from the rift is blinding.) Nothing exists in this dimension!

VOICE: That's what I wanted you to think! Pitiful fool! (The room disappears around Silverbolt, he is standing in the bottom of an immense room, like the inside of a hollow planet, a red glow around him, he is unable to see the walls or the ceiling far, far above. Then from above him a huge form glides down, bigger than any ship he has ever seen, it is a gigantic floating head, black, ugly and scarred, bony spikes and protuberances stick out of its face in random locations, its single eye is like a black hole, its mouth is incredibly huge, it speaks.) You will pay the price for your ignorance! (The huge face moves down at Silverbolt.)

SILVERBOLT: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! (He suddenly realizes something, he looks up, stands firm.) You can't hurt me. (The face keeps moving down.)

VOICE: Are you sure mortal!? (Silverbolt takes flight, straight up, heading straight for the creature's eye.)

SILVERBOLT: You! Can't! Hurt! ME!(He travels through the creatures eye, darkness. Everyone is on the bridge of the Voyager, all of them look at each other, everything seems twisted and distorted, then is clear, they are all there, plus more unknown beings, they are heading toward the planet Earth, its moon shining brightly next to them, then the surface of Earth seems to go up in flames and the Voyager begins traveling faster and faster, everyone screams, at the moment of impact everyone jolts awake. First Crynoth and Opal in the bridge, then everyone in the mess hall sits up in terror, they stare at each other in horror, they are all drenched in terror sweat, Crynoth and Opal transport in, a bewildered look on their faces. Slowly everyone gets up, unsure of what has happened, Scale looks out the window. Black starless space.)

BLACKARACHNIA: What, what happened?

LUNA: I don't like this, I don't like it one bit!

CRYNOTH: Then you wont believe this, according to the ship the time is roughly a few hours BEFORE we arrived! (Everyone gasps.)

B'BOOM: How?

OPAL: We don't know, but that's not the only thing. (Everyone still has the 'I want to wet my pants' look.) The ship is fully recharged, we're ready to go. (No one says a thing, the disturbing images still setting in.)

SILVERBOLT: There is more to this dimension than meets the eye.

SCALE: I couldn't feel it before, but there is a strangely strong, very dark force here.

PUN: I saw death, Scale's and my own, but twice.

CRYNOTH: Let me guess, once on a strange planet, then in a crash.

SILVERBOLT: A strange being, pure evil, offered me the chance to stay here in paradise.

BLACKARACHNIA: I'm guessing there was a lot more to his offer than met the eye.

TIGATRON: Not all Airrazor and I saw was death and destruction.

AIRRAZOR: We saw images of Cybertron, we saw Optimus, and-

B'BOOM: Megatron.

INFERNO: Not all was bad, Optimus, and others we couldn't see, were fighting against Megatron.

SILVERBOLT: I believe, powerful as he may be, this evil specter could not control all of what we saw.

LUNA: Still, these things could happen.

SILVERBOLT: Indeed they could, but the future is uncertain.

ANARCHY: As well as our fates.

Scene goes to the bridge where everyone is sitting silently, the lights brighten as Crynoth brings the ship back on-line.

SILVERBOLT: Get us out of this cursed dimension!

CRYNOTH: Roger that sir! (The portal opens in front of them with a flash of green light, then not far away the exact same ship comes out of another dimensional portal. On the bridge another Silverbolt looks out of the view-port.)

SILVERBOLT: What is that!? (The flash of green light happens again as the other Voyager exits the dimension. The camera irises out and dark preluding music drones.)