Chapter Text
The slavers had collected various races, from various planets. Wing and Drift stood at the navigational array, pressing at keys as they charted out their course.
“Amazing that there’s so many giant organic races out there,” Wing hummed. “I suppose the atmosphere allowed for them to evolve like that?” he said. Drift acknowledged his musings with just a flick of his finials.
“I’ve been around the universe but not that far,” Drift said. “They grabbed people from the Naklav sector,” he said in disbelief. “That’s 800 lightyears away!” he exclaimed.
“It’ll be our last stop then, seems like we’ll be hitting the Tyr system first,” Wing pointed out. “Once we get into the atmosphere, we’ll contact the Tyrians.”
“Hopefully they don’t try to destroy us,” Drift said through gritted teeth. “A lot of organics aren’t particularly friendly towards Cybertronians.”
“I wonder why,” Wing replied sarcastically. Drift snorted.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” he grumbled. “So… seven stops. That’s not that bad,” he said. “We should have enough fuel for the quantum engines as well…”
“Long as we don’t strain the engines, we can’t afford to be dead in the water when neither of us are engineers,” Wing pointed out. “Especially with others on board, I don’t want them to get restless or prolong their return home more than it should,” he sighed. His arms were crossed this time as he looked out into the vast emptiness of space.
“Tyr system, huh,” Drift said. “Says it’ll take a few hours for us to reach it, so…” he whirled around to face Wing with a mischievous twinkle in his optics. “Wanna do something to pass the time?”
“I think we should explore the ship and get familiar with it before we do what you’re suggesting,” Wing said, gently pushing him away and walking off. Drift growled for a moment before running to catch up with Wing. “I’d rather do that when we have more privacy, Drift,” Wing chided. “Besides, patience is one of the Circle of Light’s virtues.”
“You’re tutoring me now? Seriously?” Drift asked.
“This ship’s fairly large, don’t you think we should familiarise ourselves with it?” Wing replied. “It’s not a standard Cybertronian ship, in fact I don’t think it’s Cybertronian in origin,” he said. Drift silently conceded and followed Wing down the halls. They passed a few of the freed slaves that had been walking around in the ship, who were also taking the opportunity to explore. Drift and Wing slowed to a stop.
“Thank you for returning us to our homes,” one of them said. They were Ilxians, with dark eyes and tentacles on their heads.
“We’ll make sure you’re home soon,” Wing said in their language, his translation modules activating. “For now, please make yourself comfortable, we will let you know when we near Ilixios.” They departed after that and peeked into the engine room after going down to the lower deck.
The warp core was bright, as if it were a gigantic spark. It was spinning in a clockwise measure, the core working hard to travel through time and space. They quickly closed the door to the engine room, knowing it was better to leave it be for now than try and enter and mess something up so early into their journey.
Drift and Wing made their way to one of the storage rooms, large boxes stacked in the room, energon tucked to the side in a safe container. The ship’s fuel was set aside in a corner. It was a small amount of dysonium, the standard for non-Cybertronian spaceships. Luckily no one was in there, it would have been concerning if there were. Drift had set up a security code to access the storage room anyway. The docking bay was at the end of the ship and the two looped around to see yet more of the secondary storage room. This one was full of the organic goods that were going to be used throughout the trip. Eventually, it’d diminish and the two could possibly use the room for sparring.
They made their way back up to the upper deck, looking at an empty habsuite.
“Hmm. Should we claim this?” Wing asked. The room was decently sized, it was just stock full of supplies for the trip. There was a double berth, big enough for both Wing and Drift to sleep on. The berth was recently installed, since Found Faith was reformatted to fit a Cybertronian lifestyle. An energon dispenser was installed into the wall as well. Hopefully that wasn’t the only energon dispenser on the ship. They’d have to check the small dining hall that was in this ship.
The dining hall was crude to say the least. It was tiny and not large enough for the amount of people on this ship. Luckily there was an energon dispenser as well as various organic foods that their guests would be eating throughout the trip. Hopefully upon dropping off their new friends, they’d be able to resupply in case they ran out of anything. They weren’t expecting any outposts or planets to have energon, especially with how scarce it was as well as the fact that any stockpile of energon would have attracted the wrong crowd.
They left and went to the lounge. Most of the people they were bringing home were hanging out there, either looking out the window as space passed by them or chatting amongst each other. At least they had people to interact with for the trip. The two left the lounge, feeling it was too crowded and made their way to the second habsuite.
This one was empty, but still had the newly installed berth as well as the energon dispenser.
“This one’s probably better,” Drift said. He entered the room and set his greatsword up on the mantle the Knights had so graciously installed for the both of them. His sword in comparison to Wing’s was missing the gem in the centre.
“Is that Axe’s work?” Wing asked.
“Yes, despite his… disapproval of me at the beginning, he gave me this greatsword for when I was ready to bond with it,” he said. His digits traced the empty groove where the gem would have been as he examined the greatsword. “He said you’d teach me how to make the gem,” he looked up towards Wing this time. Wing’s wings fluttered for a moment as a smile grew on his face.
“We’ll have to find a planet that has the materials but… I’d be honoured to teach you how to make it,” he said. Drift couldn’t help but smile. He kicked at nothing this time as he realised how much time they still had.
“We still have a few hours,” Drift sighed. “Anything you want to do to pass the time since you’re waiting until everyone is gone before we have a bit of fun?” he said. Wing chuckled at Drift’s impatience poking at his EM field. Not even that far into the trip and he was already needing to let off some steam.
“I want it as much as you,” Wing confessed. “But perhaps we should get to know our new friends for the time being.” He offered his servo to Drift this time and he took it with an annoyed sigh.
“Alright,” Drift replied, conceding and kissing Wing’s cheek. The two exited the habsuite, making their way towards the lounge. When Drift entered the lounge, he didn’t know exactly what to feel. All he knew is that he felt out of place. And that interacting with new people was definitely more of Wing’s strong suit. He steeled himself and walked beside Wing as he approached a couple of Catharsians. They were mechanical like them, but instead of being able to transform or have sparks, they had different systems. Nonetheless, Wing spoke to them as a friendly gesture. Drift kept his EM field tight to himself as they conversed, unsure whether or not Catharsians had the same ability to recognise each other's emotions through said EM field.
These Catharsians seemed friendly enough. When they asked who was piloting the ship, Wing informed them that the auto pilot had taken over for the time being and that they would be dropping out of quantum drive when they neared the first planet. They then moved onto the Eurythmans.
A rather peculiar race, Drift thought. They spoke in a singing manner and Wing mentioned how their planet was music based.
“If you’d like, you are absolutely able to sing to make things livelier or more comfortable,” Wing said offhand, his voice lilting and singing in their language. Drift couldn’t help but enjoy hearing him sing. He was too embarrassed to join in and simply listened.
“When will we reach our planet~?” one of the Eurythmans asked.
“You’re the fourth stop, so halfway, I’m sorry that it may take a while~,” Wing replied. One of them hummed a discordant note in disappointment and then nodded.
“We can only be patient for the time being~,” they lamented. Wing gave an apologetic smile. Wing continued to speak to the other aliens on the ship before Drift tapped his nacelle, frowning.
- I’m going to head to the bridge, I’m getting a bit overwhelmed. - Drift comm. linked Wing. He never was the best in social settings. He was more of a loner anyway.
- I’ll join you soon, I’m sorry for keeping you here :( - Drift could only bite his lip and he pressed a chaste kiss to Wing’s cheek, hopefully communicating that it was fine before leaving the lounge and heading back to the bridge. He sat on the captain’s chair with a huff, relieved that he wasn’t surrounded by strangers anymore and rubbed at his face for a moment before looking ahead into the void of space passing by him at light speed. It was going to be a long trip. But as long as Drift had Wing, it’d be much more bearable at least.