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By the time Sam managed to struggle upright, the Decepticon's altimeter was at fifteen thousand feet and rising fast. His first instinct, ruthlessly crushed, was to panic. His second, discarded almost as fast, was to fight. Panicking would do no good, and the idea of fighting his way out of a Decepticon jet was laughable. Even if he managed it with his telekinesis, his TK control wasn't refined enough yet to let Sam control his own freefall; a fall from this height would kill him for sure.

"So," he asked, trying to keep his breathing under control and the fear from his voice, "where're we going?"

He jumped as a spate of invective-laced Cybertronian was his reply.

Don't let him know you understood that. In a hostage situation, keep your cards close to your chest, Sam thought, remembering Lennox's serious lectures on this possibility.

"Sorry," he said, "didn't get that. Let's start over. My name's Sam Witwicky, though I guess you knew that already."

"Fleshling," the voice grated from the jet's speakers, "don't make me put you in stasis for this trip." A distinct hiss kicked on in the silent rush of the cockpit, and Sam could taste faint chemicals in the air.

"No! No, I'm good, thanks. No struggling here! I just thought we could, y'know, be civil to one another. Since I don't have much choice about being kidnapped, and I'm sure Megatron didn't really give you much choice about squishy-courier duty, and all that."

The hissing cut off. Sam could count the harsh beats of his heart and the breaths that accompanied them.

"Skywarp," the jet eventually said.

"I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but the circumstances don't really permit that," Sam replied automatically, then froze, waiting for the gases to kick on again. Why did his mouth have to run ahead of his brain?!

After a moment, though, the jet laughed, a harsh, bitter sound, and Sam relaxed a little. He turned his head and his eyes widened, watching as the thin blue layer of the planet's atmosphere narrowed beneath them and vanished. Below the jet, falling away, the Earth was a glowing blue gem cushioned by blackness.

Precious few humans, Sam knew, had ever seen this with their own eyes.

It took his breath away.

And it was clear he'd been hanging out with Bumblebee too long, because the only thing Sam's brain could conjure up was a mishmash of lyrics from two old, intertwined songs:

and the stars look very different today...

earth below us, drifting, falling...

planet earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do...

across the stratosphere, a final message: give my wife my love...

Ignoring his gape-mouthed wonder, the Decepticon Seeker jetted out into black space, leaving Earth behind.

Deus Ex Machina: Transit Time
by K. Stonham
first released 23rd August 2012

For a change, Will was awake when the alarm went out and Epps pounded on his door.

"What is it?" he asked, buttoning up his shirt even as he opened the door.

Epps' face was grim. "'Cons got Sam," he reported.

Will felt all goodwill drain from him. "Do we know where they're taking him?" he asked, falling into an easy lope beside Epps as they both made for the command center.

"Off the planet," the Master Sergeant reported. "Our satellites lost him after they passed the moon."

"Fuck."

The command center was wide awake and bristling, half a dozen Cybertronians present in addition to the human complement. "Sitrep!" Will called as soon as he passed the threshold, and listened to half a dozen voices reporting at once, sorting them out with the ease of practice.

"So we have nothing," Will concluded. "No way to track them, no way to retrieve Sam."

"Not entirely correct." Red Alert sat, unfolded from his Cray workstation form, in the corner of the building. He was still hardwired into NEST's systems, a few dozen cables trailing from various ports on his body. "The Decepticon has left Earth's sensor range, true, but not ours."

"Explain," Will requested.

Sideswipe snorted. "The kid's cellphone is as much a rack model as I am a sports car."

Will took a minute to parse that.

Ratchet rolled his optics. "Bumblebee voided Sam's warranty and... reworked his phone months ago," he explained. "His cellphone now functions akin to our comm units."

"More importantly," Ironhide rumbled, "it's got a tracker in it."

"Does Sam know that?" Mikaela, pale but bearing up, asked.

The Autobots looked at one another, then Optimus shook his head. "We felt the less he knew for sure about Bumblebee's modifications...."

"That is so going to bite you," Maggie, at her terminal, warned.

"So where're they headed?" Epps finally asked.

The holotable in the center of the room blinked to life. An orange-red planet spun lazily above it.

"Mars," said Red Alert.

***

The knock at the door was short, firm, and quick. Leo blinked and shoved his laptop aside.

Mirage stood in the hall.

"Sam forget his keys?"

Her blue-green eyes looked right into his. Her face was serious, and Leo felt his humor dropping away even as she spoke. "They have Sam."

***

Dean Janet Fields forgot to breathe for a moment, looking at the face of the being she'd thought was only a student, the day before. "Yes...?" she asked weakly, wondering how he had found her at home.

Alien robot, she reminded herself, as if she needed reminding.

His blue eyes met hers steadily. "My apologies for disturbing you at home, ma'am," he said, "but my superiors thought we should inform you. Sam's been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?!" she yelped, then covered her mouth.

He nodded. "Taken off-planet. We're going to do our best to get him back. With luck, he and Mirage and I will return in class in a few days."

Off planet?! "And without luck...?" she asked.

For a moment, he didn't answer. Then he spoke very quietly. "Sam takes the same risks any soldier does. He's known what they are since the day he first encountered my kind. If worse goes to worst... we will let you know, ma'am. We do appreciate what you've done, letting him and us attend your fine university." He smiled, a small, almost shy thing. "I do hope we get to come back. I've been enjoying the learning."

With a small salute, the disguised alien turned and walked down her front steps, going toward a black SUV that waited at the curb. Its engine came to life before he even reached the sidewalk, passenger door flicking open.

There was no one inside the cab.

Feeling breathless and more than a little shell-shocked, Janet clung to the doorframe and watched red taillights disappear into the night.

Then she went to find her rosary and start praying for the safety of her school's students... and their apparently-not-entirely-Terrestrial vehicles.

***

Skywarp was using his teleportation ability in short bursts. For no good reason, the effect reminded Sam of skipping stones across water.

As soon as he had figured out where they were headed, Sam had relaxed minutely. The report NEST had hacked out of Rumble's corpse had indicated the Decepticons' base on Mars was fairly complete and functional, scavenged as it had been from two of their interstellar spacecraft. And Cybertronians liked airtight spacecraft construction as much as humans did for two reasons. One, there were some planets whose atmospheres would corrode even their all-metallic structures. Two, being cybernetic organisms, they were OCD about dust in a way that would put Sam's mom to shame.

Mars was a very dusty planet. And he was pretty sure the Decepticons wouldn't go to the trouble of kidnapping him just to kill him from oxygen deprivation.

No, Megatron would want to kill Sam much more personally, more painfully than a few simple minutes of suffocation. And if Soundwave was right... no, no, best not to hope.

Sam could hold 'Cons off with TK for a bit, until one of them got the bright idea to vent his atmosphere, so saving that trick for a last resort was his best option. In the meantime, he intended to drag the encounter out with talking for as long as possible, and pray that his brother Prime would somehow show up as the calvary.

(Skywarp, he discovered, was apparently not impressed by Earth's baby steps into space. Which, given that he was a Decepticon and a starcraft, Sam kind of expected.)

One final teleport and the red planet filled Skywarp's viewscreen. The Seeker swooped down into its thin atmosphere. They were not, unfortunately, going in over Cydonia; Sam would have been fascinated to see the Face on Mars with his own eyes. But then, this was hardly a pleasure jaunt for either of them. Rather than ask, Sam shut his mouth and concentrated on drawing deep, calming breaths in through his nose.

The meditative breathing reminded him, with a pang, of his Mom. He spared a thought to hope NEST was keeping her and his dad apprised... or, maybe, that they weren't.

Deep breaths, Sam. You're going to have to deal with Megatron.

Just keep breathing....

***

"No," Mirage said. After telling him his roommate had been kidnapped, she had turned and left the building. It had taken a second for Leo to chase after her, with Sharsky and Fassbinder trailing after. Now they were outside, where it was cold and dark and a yellow Camaro waited at the curb. "You are staying here. There is absolutely nothing you can do. Attend your classes. Take notes for Sam and us."

"And what exactly is there that you can do?!" Leo demanded. He refused to be left behind. Not when Sam was in alien hands! (Again.)

She glared for a moment. "I have infiltrated more Decepticon ships than you have years of life."

"I'm part of this, aren't I?!" Leo demanded. "You dragged me in. I'm not just gonna stay here and wait!"

Her hand, strong and implacable, was suddenly at his throat, lifting. He'd forgotten that she was made out of metal underneath. As her grasp threatened to lift him off the ground, Leo remembered it. Hard.

"This is not a game," Mirage told him. "This is not one of your online RPGs. People can die here. People have. Stay out of the way."

"I know it's not a game!" Leo choked. Her grasp relaxed incrementally. "I was there, all right? I saw those jackasses torturing him! I was in Egypt. I saw people die, okay?!"

Mirage's expression was unreadable as she released him. "I realize you only want to help, Leo, but this is something you're going to have to trust us to do."

The Camaro's radio kicked to life. "They also serve... who stand and wait."

Leo's fingers massaged his throat.

"Stay here," Mirage instructed. "Stay safe." Her gaze flicked to Sharsky and Fassbinder, then back to Leo. "We will be back. With Sam." She turned and went toward Bumblebee.

"Hey," Leo called. She paused. "You stay safe, too, querida."

Never turning to look back at him, Mirage nodded, and got into the car.

***

"It's not your fault," were Mikaela's first words when the Princeton quartet followed Optimus into the hangar.

Hound looked blankly at her. Bumblebee played a clip: "Of course it is. Who else's would it be?"

"They would have gotten him sometime, somehow, anyway," Mikaela insisted. She knew it down to her bones. Sam didn't live a safe life. Neither did she. They'd talked about it.

Neither of them regretted the path they'd chosen.

Mirage whirled and left the building, heading toward the sand. Hound's shoulders slumped. Mikaela exchanged a glance with Trailbreaker, and one with Bumblebee, then left the 'Bots to their waiting, and went after the Pretender.

She caught up with Mirage on the lagoon beach, where the spy stared out at the sea. Mikaela squatted down next to where Mirage stood, and combed her fingers through the white sand. "Credit for your thoughts?" she offered.

Mirage was silent for a moment more, then said "O Captain! my Captain!"

Mikaela blinked. "...Dead Poet's Society?"

Mirage smiled humorlessly. "One of your poets, Walt Whitman, wrote those lines in reaction to the death of your Lincoln."

"...Which relates to current circumstances how?"

"I was trained by Jazz."

Mikaela blinked at the non-sequitor.

"I have failed him. I allowed my charge to be stolen from under my very nose. And Megatron may well...." Mirage fell silent. "Sam will pay the price of my failure."

Mikaela blinked and straightened, looking out at the ocean in the same direction as Mirage.

"Jazz is interred there," Mirage explained with a gesture at the horizon. "I shall always know the resting place of my captain."

And Mirage was reserved, but somehow there was so much pain in the undertones of her voice that Mikaela had to take a breath to steady herself. The Autobots were generally friendly, happy people, but once in a while she realized anew how much they'd lost and could never, ever get back.

"I'm sorry," she said, and it was so inadequate, but all that she could offer. She'd only known Jazz for a few hours. Mirage had known him for thousands of years.

Mirage drew a deep breath, straightening. Her resolve seemed to come back. "He would not allow me to give up," she murmured. "It is my mistake; I must fix it." She turned to face Mikaela. "We will get Sam back."

Mikaela smiled, ruthlessly shoving her fear and worry down because getting emotional right now wouldn't do anyone any good. "I know you will."

***

The Decepticon base was located in the lee of Syrtis Major Planum, half-drilled into the volcano's basalt to, Sam suspected, protect at least one side from the planet's incessant drift of sand and dust. Sam barely had time to take this in as Skywarp swooped toward the base. A hangar door, dark and imposing, opened for the Seeker, then closed soundly behind them.

"You know," Sam said, "for a race that hates dust and rust as much as you Cybertronians do, whose bright idea was it to set up a base on this planet?"

Skywarp was silent for a moment, then grudgingly replied, "Starscream."

Sam blinked. His opinion of Megatron's lieutenant had never, ever been a good one. But he had at least thought the mech was competent. "Isn't being on Mars like being surrounded by a sea of corruption for you guys?"

"It was the closest we could get to your planet without being observed." Skywarp sounded sulky, but also like he agreed with Sam. "You have too many sensors on your moon."

"Brilliant."

A mechanical snort was his answer. The space jet taxied through dark hallways. Sam could see little of their features; they were cavernous by his standards, and poorly lit for human eyes. He suspected that to Cybertronian optics, they'd be bright as day.

They met no one.

With a sinking feeling, Sam realized that the fact Skywarp wasn't letting him out of the cockpit likely meant the base didn't have an Earth atmosphere. Drawing a breath, he tried to prepare himself for a box. A cage.

Finally, a door opened before Skywarp and they entered a room that stretched further than Sam could see.

//I have brought him, my lord,// the Seeker said in Cybertronian.

Sam sucked in a sharp breath as heavy footsteps thundered the deck. Out of the darkness loomed a giant figure he'd hoped never to see again.

Megatron.

//Well done,// the warlord complimented Skywarp. Sam reminded himself again not to react. He was not supposed to understand Cybertronian. It was his edge. He didn't want to give it away. //I will take him.//

//Yes, my lord.//

Clicks and transformation sounds came from all around him and Sam was flung into the air before he could yelp, flying, falling--

Before he could grasp for anything with TK, he was caught by sharp metal hands.

How was it, he dizzily wondered, that despite being made of the same stuff, Bumblebee and Optimus' hands was never anything less than soft and gentle, while the Decepticons' grasp was harsh and callous?

He was plucked from Skywarp's hands by Megatron. //Dismissed,// the warlord said. Sam could just see Skywarp bow and retreat before Megatron turned and strode off.

As expected, Sam was dumped into a box that sealed itself over his head. A hiss of vents sounded, and he took a tentative sip of the air.

Earth type.

He relaxed. As much as he could in a plexiglass box, anyway, watching while Megatron walked away and seated himself on what, to Sam's eyes, looked like a high-tech obsidian throne.

No dismemberment attempts? No creepy medical microbots sticking cybernetic eels in his mouth? No attention at all from the slag-maker?

Sam stared, disbelieving.

***

"He's stopped moving," Ironhide rumbled, optics affixed to the holotable which showed the dotted line of Sam's journey. "Well, relatively."

"Relatively?" Lennox asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Mars is not stationary relative to the surface of the Earth," Ratchet explained.

"Plotting coordinates... huh," said Maggie.

"Huh?" Epps echoed.

She looked up at him. "Remember that footage Sector Seven had from Beagle 2? If this," she said, tapping at the pusing red dot on her screen, "is the Decepticons' Mars base, it's practically right next door to where the Beagle landed."

"You mean they built a fragging base there?" Simmons demanded. "If only we had known..." he lamented.

"You wouldn't have been able to do anything," Ratchet replied. "Any of those plans for interstellar nukes I can practically see in your warped little mind... they would have detected and diverted them long before they became an issue."

Bumblebee warbled.

"Yeah," Mikaela agreed with him, standing beside her lover. "How are we going to get him back?"

"You cannot have understood that," Simmons told her.

Mikaela's grin was toothy.

"Teleport in, grab the kid, teleport out?" Sideswipe asked Optimus.

Who in turn looked a question at Jetstorm.

The elderly mech sighed. "It can be done," he said. "A single jump of such distance... yes, by the young and healthy. That said," he said with a gesture at the holotable, "there is a reason that one took it in jumps. It will be being a significant strain on the spark. To be arriving and having not the power to stand is not, in this case, ideal. Let alone the taking of others with you; that may well be impossible, even for a young, healthy Prime."

"Wheeljack doesn't have the human breathing apparatuses ready yet, does he?" Lennox asked quietly.

Ironhide shook his head. "No."

"Can't run and fight in scuba gear," Epps said with a frown. He looked at Lennox, then up at Optimus. "We can't back you up on this one, Big Buddha."

"Nor would I ask you to," the mech said solemnly. "For Megatron to go to such lengths to capture Sam... I fear there are few reasons he would do such a thing."

"Revenge." If there was a quaver in Mikaela's voice, it was well-hidden.

"Perhaps. Yet I cannot help but think of Soundwave's beliefs regarding Megatron." The Prime paused, then looked to his communications and security mech. "Red Alert. Is Soundwave still in orbit?"

"He is piggybacking on a NHK satellite at the moment." It was difficult to tell what Red Alert thought of Soundwave's predeliction for Japanese television.

"Contact him," Optimus ordered. "See if he has any messages to relay from Megatron."

The red and white mech's optics dimmed. There was silence for a moment, then he looked up again. "One, Prime," he said.

***

Megatron did nothing. Sam watched for about half an hour, then sat in the center of his box and watched some more. The Decepticon leader might have been carved of the same stone as his throne, he was so motionless.

Sam watched, and thought.

Why had Megatron gone to such lengths to get him? What was he hoping to gain?

Why bring Sam all the way to Mars, only to put him in a box and ignore him? What was the possible purpose?

What did Megatron want...?

Realization slowly dawned on Sam and stole his breath away.

He stood.

"It's not me you want, is it?" he asked Megatron. The Decepticon turned his head slightly to look at Sam, still no more interested than if he'd been an ant in a terrarium.

"You're not after me at all." In Megatron's silence and disinterest, Sam felt the certainty that he was right growing. "I'm just the bait."

"You're after Optimus."

*~*~*

Author's Note: Sam's song lyrics are from David Bowie's Space Oddity, and Peter Schilling's Major Tom (Coming Home). I did actually calculate out how far away Mars was from Earth at the point this chapter was happening (roughly, early April 2011). Roughly, 218,167,732 miles. Syrtis Major Planum is a Martian volcano right next door to Isidris Planitia, where the Beagle 2 lander (remember its brief appearance in TFs1?) may have crashed.