A Pet Squishy

Discovery

"You can drop me off on the way."

"I can't. My quarters are two decks below Cargo Bay 3 and if I don't go right now then I'll really get it." he explained in a hissing tone. "Just stay quiet, ok?"

Lana felt somewhat nervous as her master walked, until he finally stopped. The glass of his cockpit cleared a bit and Lana found herself staring at gigantic door, scrolled with alien characters. She guessed it was Cargo Bay 3. The door hissed open with a mighty bang and her master entered. Inside Lana's eyes widened with wonder at the large stacks of glowing pink cubes and the tower of 55 gallon oil drums against the far wall of the gigantic room. The Cargo Bay even made Thundercracker seem small. Oddly, there weren't too many of the glowing cubes.

Thundercracker cast suspicious eyes around the cargo bay, but soon realized no one else was there.

Pressing her hands to the cockpit glass Lana looked around some more, "What are you going to do?"

With no amount of enthusiasm he grabbed four barrels of oil, "Convert fossil fuels into Energon."

"Can I watch?"

Thundercracker glanced around again, assuring himself no one else was present or watching. With a quick adjustment he reversed the polarity of his cockpit glass so Lana could see out, but any prying eyes could not see inside.

"All right."

Like he was opening aluminum cans, Thundercracker tore off the tops of the oil drums and dumped the oil into one of the transparent energy cubes. The viscous black fuel passed through some kind of barrier at the top of the cube and once it did the cube began to hum. Like magic, the oil transformed into the pink glowing liquid.

"How'd you do that?" Lana was mesmerized.

"The chemical process of it is far too complicated to explain."

Thundercracker emptied four more barrels into the cube until it appeared full. Casting the empty barrels aside, Thundercracker placed his hands on the glowing cube and pressed down hard. The glowing cube compressed down and he stacked it with the others.

Lana made a fascinated noise.

"You're easily entertained," he grumbled.

Thundercracker continued his work and Lana's fascination soon paled with the monotony of it. Her mind began to wander to more pressing matters.

What was she going to do? She'd never had anyone "need" her before and quite frankly she wasn't very thrilled with the prospect. The longer she remained with Thundercracker the more ingrained his dependency and attachment would become. He was already more attached than she ever thought possible for a robot. Did that bode well for her? Did that bode well for HIM? What if one of the other Decepticons found out about her?

"How long is this going to last Thundercracker?" she finally asked.

"Bored already huh?" he smirked.

"No. I mean this situation."

He looked down at her.

"I'm not stupid you know. I know you're not allowed to keep me and you're lying your ass off so no one else finds out about me." Lana stared critically at him, "How long do you think you can keep this up?"

He looked away, frowning as he continued his work. Clearly he had been thinking the same thing, but never wanted to bring it up.

Lana drummed her fingers on the console in front of her, "What would happen if your commander figures out you've been keeping me?"