Kita hadn't said a word as they neared the coast. She was upset over what had happened with the patrolman. It was her first time in handcuffs. I thought I'd be handcuffed someday, but not like that. She'd hoped the humor would lighten her mood, but it just reminded her that she'd never had a girlfriend.
What bothered her were the repercussions. The patrolman was going to wake up and get help eventually. He'd seen Kita's face and Arcee—not that anyone would believe him. But, there was the wrecked patrol car.
"Newport port area ahead," said Arcee.
"Huh? Oh, ok."
"Are you ok? You've been quiet."
"Just thinking. I'm uneasy about what happened with the cop."
"He hit you. I hit him back. Does that upset you?" Arcee asked sounding concerned.
"No. I've never been in trouble before, and it might lead to bigger trouble later."
"We can talk about what do after we find a safe place to shelter. Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."
Kita closed her eyes and sighed. She'd been told that once before. And, Dad died. I want so hard to believe, but...
Arcee took an off-ramp then turned onto the main surface street that led to the port. A side street took them into the warehouse district. All the warehouses they passed had lights on and semi-trailers parked out front. They traveled around the district looking for something abandoned.
"How about that place? It has broken windows and soot trails from the windows to the roof," said Kita.
Arcee pulled into the lot and drove up the loading ramp to the door. Kita hopped off and tried the roller door. It wasn't locked and went up easily.
Kita and Arcee entered the warehouse. Blackened and burnt pallets of merchandise sat in neat rows. The warehouse walls showed signs of flame and the concrete floor was blackened. A white residue covered everything.
"Definitely a fire," said Kita. "Something must have gone wrong with the fire suppression system to let it burn so much." Up near the ceiling were the pipes and sprinkles.
"Or maybe it didn't start small," said Arcee.
They idled through the debris to the back of the warehouse, Arcee's headlamp lighting the way. A large door blocked their path. Arcee transformed and opened it revealing another section of the warehouse. It was bare except for a shipping container in the middle and some one-story offices in the corner. The area showed no signs of fire.
"They wanted just enough to burn, but not all of it," said Arcee.
"Probably insurance fraud, but they can't have gotten away with it if we figured it out," said Kita.
"We have a lower burden of proof to meet."
"Yeah, I guess so. I'm going to go check out the offices and see if there's anything worthwhile."
Kita crossed the cavernous space and tried the door to the offices. It was unlocked and led to a narrow hallway. She found the light switch and tried it. The overhead fluorescent lights flickered on. The first office contained a desk that partially hid a chair and filing cabinet in the far corner. A window near the desk connected the office to the warehouse. The second door led to a bathroom. Kita tried the faucet and discovered the water was running. She checked the stall. The seat was gross, but there was toilet paper. I guess I can hover to pee.
The last office was empty, except for some broken down cardboard boxes. Kita yawned. Sigh. Right now, any kind of bed looks good. She gathered up the cardboard. Arcee met her at the door.
"Anything we should worry about?" said Kita.
"No. What's the cardboard for?"
"To sleep on. I've been up for—" Kita checked her phone, "—almost twenty-four hours. I need to sleep."
"Oh, yes. You do need sleep. The others are a few hours behind us, so we have some down time."
"Do you sleep?"
"I can go into a low power mode for repairs, cognitive recalibration, and energy conservation. I've been in energy conservation mode for a long time, so I'm well rested, so to speak."
"Oh, you can leave me here, if you want to go explore."
"No. I will stay here with you and wait for the others."
"Ok." Kita spread her cardboard on the ground.
Arcee sat at the head of it. Kita wrinkled her nose. Arcee didn't leave her much space. Kita sat on the cardboard and curled up on her side.
"You can use me as a pillow," said Arcee as she patted her thigh.
Kita raised an eyebrow not sure how comfortable a metal pillow would be. She shrugged and rested her head on Arcee's thigh. Surprisingly, it was warm and comfortable, especially for being part of her body and not part of the bike.
"Hey, you said you can charge my phone?" said Kita.
"If it has a battery I can charge it."
Kita pulled her phone from her back pocket and handed it to Arcee. She turned it over in her hand. "I've never seen anything like it. It's much different than the phones I've seen."
"Standard Android cheapo phone."
Arcee placed the phone on her other thigh and then put her hand on Kita's shoulder and turned out the light.
***
Kita awoke to light on her face from a set of windows high on the warehouse wall. She slid out from Arcee's arm. Her eyes were dim. Kita's phone was on Arcee's leg. She picked it up and checked the battery. It was full, so she pocketed it. Bumblebee and Ratchet were parked not far away.
I must have been out if I didn't hear them arrive. Kita tiptoed around Arcee and hurried to the bathroom. After testing her leg muscles to use the toilet, Kita checked her hair in the mirror. The ride had left it wind whipped. She took off her headband, ran her fingers through her hair, then pulled it back, and put the headband back on. Improvement, yes. Looks good, no. When she returned, the three Transformers were awake and talking next to the shipping container.
Bumblebee and Ratchet stood in sharp contrast to Arcee. Ratchet was twelve-feet-tall. The front of the ambulance made up his massive chest. The ambulance doors were on his shoulders. Panels from the ambulance covered his lower arms and legs. Tires were attached to his ankles and hips.
Bumblebee was shorter, only ten-feet-tall. The body of the VW bug made up his torso and his arms extended from the rear tires. Panels from the hood made up his feet and lower legs. His head came out of the VW bug's engine compartment.
"Kita, how are you feeling?" said Arcee.
Kita's stomach growled loudly.
"Ah, hungry," she said with an embarrassed smile.
"Aren't we all," said Ratchet in a gruff voice.
"I know you are, Ratchet, but she does have to eat more often than we do," said Arcee.
"I usually only eat ramen once a day," Kita admitted.
Arcee frowned. "Humans are supposed to eat three times a day and something more nutritious than dehydrated noodles."
I didn't think she knew what ramen was. "It's all I can afford."
"I will fix that."
Kita shrugged. She'd kill for a burger and fries.
"We must take care of ourselves," said Ratchet. "We are all low on energon, and we've made no attempt to construct a converter."
"I plan on starting finding pieces for it today."
"What do you need?" said Kita.
"Who are you, human?" demanded Ratchet. "To stick your finger in our business?"
"I, ah—"
"Ratchet," snapped Arcee. "Kita, this is Ratchet, my science, and medical specialist. And this is Bumblebee. He is a weapons specialist. Team, this is Kita. She has agreed to help us, in return for our help."
"Is she a quantum engineer or a particle physicist?" said Ratchet.
"No, but I can turn a wrench," said Kita softly.
"I need someone who understands the fundamentals of energy and matter. You're no good to us."
I will not cry. I will not cry. I—Oh, slag. Kita wiped at the tears forming in her eyes. She turned around and hurried over to her cardboard bed.
"Ratchet, she has skills that will help us. I know she can help us gather the parts needed for the energon converter. She knows the area and the people and can go where we cannot. You will have to build the energon converter yourself."
"You're soft, Arcee."
"No. There is a reason I am the leader, and you are not. Not everything is a mathematical equation to be solved. Our problems require thinking outside the equations. Kita is one of the solutions. She is young, but give her a chance to prove herself. She is crying out for acceptance and approval and will be loyal if we give it to her."
"The human will slow us down."
"How can we be slowed down anymore? We spent forty Earth cycles in hibernation and have barely explored this planet."
"She will end up like Mike."
Arcee said something in an unintelligible language. "You let me worry about Kita. You worry about what I tell you to. Figure out what you need to build the converter."
"I know what I need to build the converter."
"And what do you need?" said Kita. She sniffed and wiped her nose.
"Four GE five horsepower motors, two microwave ovens, three hand-held calculators, four telephones, an Atari Twenty-six Hundred, and an Apple Two desktop computer."
"Do you know what century it is?" scoffed Kita. She took her phone from her pocket. "This has a million times the computing power of all that stuff combined. Plus, the only place you're going to find that stuff is either a museum or some old lady's house."
"Last time it was it was in cans on the street."
"Yeah, good luck doing that. I'm not dumpster diving for you. You can go to the Crushing Depths for all I care. All of you! I'm going home." Kita stormed toward the interior door that led to the burned-out section of the warehouse.
Arcee looked at Ratchet, and an eye dimmed. He frowned and took a step back. She pushed by him and caught up to Kita at the door.
"Kita," said Arcee gently.
"What? I'll find my own way home," Kita snarled.
"Kita, please, you're not going home. Ignore Ratchet. He only sees value in something if he can attach a number to it. I want you to help us. We can't do it without you."
"He doesn't have to treat me like I'm less than worthless. I've been doing it all by myself for years. He doesn't know me or what I can do. Just because I'm not a rocket scientist or a particle engineer doesn't mean I don't know stuff."
Arcee put her arm around Kita and hugged her tight. Kita blew out a breath feeling some of the tension release.
"He can design what you need, right?" said Kita.
"I'm sure he can. It might take some time for him to come up with alternative parts. It'll take weeks of scrounging, but we'll find what we need."
"Do you have that long?" Kita said worriedly.
"Energon levels are low, but not critical yet."
"You can use my phone if you want to speed up the search."
Arcee frowned. "Forgive me for sounding ignorant, but how?"
"You can search the internet."
"And what is that?"
Kita turned to look at Arcee. "You don't know about the internet?"
"We've only been active for a few weeks. My knowledge of this planet ended March thirtieth, Nineteen Eighty-One when we entered hibernation."
"Well, the internet is a combination of everything humanity knows, gaming platform, communication medium, and porn. All available using this." Kita held up her phone. She turned it on.
"Who's that?" Arce asked.
"Huh? Oh. My wallpaper. Just a pretty girl. Here." Kita tapped the internet icon, and her Google feed appeared. "See? News of the day."
"How's it done without wires? Ratchet, come here and look at this," ordered Arcee.
Ratchet stomped over. "Yes?"
"We have the whole of human knowledge at our fingertips. We just have to access it."
"Even for humans, there isn't a library big enough."
"It's not stored in a library, but on this," Arcee pointed to Kita's phone.
"It's not technically on the phone," said Kita. "It's just the portal I use to access it. The phone connects to towers that connect to the internet. The internet is a bunch of connected computers storing all the stuff."
"I have detected an enormous increase in the electromagnetic activity. May I see the device?" said Ratchet.
"You break it, I'll break your face," said Kita as she offered it to him.
"She's very hostile."
"My life is on that phone."
"The phone doesn't look alive to me."
"Figure of speech," snarled Kita. "I mean, there's really important stuff on there that I can lose."
"Not to worry. I will scan the hardware and software without damaging it." Ratchet held the phone in his hand. A wire snaked from a finger on his other hand and connected to the USB port. Light from another finger moved back and forth across the phone. Ratchet grunted. "Not as primitive as I feared. We can emulate the hardware, and the software is crude. I've copied all applications and the operating system. Once I have connected to the internet, I will pass the specifications over to you, Arcee, and Bumblebee. I still have not detected life on this phone."
"I don't mean it's alive, I mean there are really important things on it like business records, phone numbers, text messages, pictures, and all my music. Things that are important to me and my life."
"I see a lot about automobile parts, transactions, and invoices. I do not see anything of what I would classify as personal."
Kita didn't know if she should be ashamed, mortified, or sad that she had such a little life and what she had of one was consumed by the yard.
"It's all I have," Kita whispered. She walked away, sat against the shipping container, and put her head on her knees. It felt like her biggest secret was exposed and no one cared. She expected a reaction of some kind, surprise or ridicule. No reaction stung worst of all.
Arcee placed a hand on Kita's shoulder. Kita looked up at her. "You were right. I'm trapped and have been for so long. I don't know what to do. This is worse than high school. At least there people cared enough to pick on me. Now, I'm worse than that."
"Oh, Kita, it's not that way at all. I respect what you have done. For Ratchet, that was respect. It shows him you work hard and are dedicated. It wasn't meant to be an insult. You were dealt a harsh blow, and you handled it the best way you could. Life is about seizing opportunities. You took the opportunity to honor your father, and you came with me. Both of those things take courage, dedication, and resilience. You sell yourself short when you don't see the potential in you."
"I'm just being stupid, aren't I?"
"No. You have valid fears and concerns. You've been hiding from, and now that you're out of your comfort zone you must face them. It's a process you would have gone through at college."
Kita groaned. "This was destined to happen?"
Arcee smiled. "If you'd stayed in the yard, you could have run from them your entire life. But do you really want to be that person?"
"No. I don't want to end up like the rest of the people in that town—clinging to god, guns, or my job to forge my identity."
"Harsh, but I don't know the people in your town. From what you've told me about the way they treated you I understand why you are."
"Let them rot out in the desert. Well, not Mickey or Ralph, they're good guys, though they didn't know the truth about me."
Arcee touched Kita's hand. "But you shared the secret of your sexuality with me. Why? If you guard it so deeply."
"You were like me. I thought you'd understand."
"I don't understand why your sexuality is such a big deal."
"Because a books and religions thousands of years old say what I am is bad and people believe it. Not all people are like that, but people who believe the same thing like to congregate. That's why I couldn't wait to go to college. People there are more open and understanding. Those that dislike me are a small minority."
Arcee put her arm around Kita and hugged her. "I'm sorry you being a lesbian matters to so many when it's none of their business. We are constructed and programmed how we are. We can't change it. I am proud you have accepted yourself. That is a first step to realizing your potential and your goals."
"I tried to be straight once and kiss a boy. I thought if I did, I would grow to like it. When my lips touched his, I freaked out and ran away. The thought of being touched by a guy weirds me out."
Arcee pulled her arm away slightly. "You don't mind me touching you, do you?"
"No. I like it. You're comforting and make me feel good."
"I'm glad I can help you. Are you ready to go see if Ratchet has any questions about your phone?"
Kita sighed. "Yeah."
Arcee helped Kita to her feet.
"You know what's odd?" said Kita.
"No. What?"
"This shipping container. It's the only one in here, and it has a shiny lock on it."
"Maybe it belongs to the building's owner."
"Maybe, but it seems out of place. This place might not be as abandoned as we think."
"We'll be careful."
Kita and Arcee rejoined Ratchet.
"I am finished with the girl's phone," said Ratchet. He offered it to Kita. She took it and flipped through her screens to make sure her apps and files hadn't changed. Satisfied, she put in her back pocket. "I have connected to the internet and searching for parts now. I will send you schematics on how to transform your communicators to connect to their network."
"Ah, you're not using my account are you?" said Kita. "Because I pay by the gig."
"No. I have detected unlimited corporate accounts and spoofed users of their account."
"Leader, there are voices outside," said Bumblebee through Kita's phone.
Kita looked at Ratchet. "I modified your phone, so it will work with our communications."
"Everyone transform," said Arcee. "Kita hide in the office."
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