For the Queen

The transport hums along away from Iacon, moving toward Nova Cronum. Ever since Kickback's unanswered question of where they were headed, there's been a tense silence in the back.

Finally, though one of the others just -has- to ask, albeit weakly. "So....why'd you do it? Why'd you...just...turn yourself in?" The question pierces the silence and the others look up at him, clearly curious themselves as well.

"For the sake of my Queen. I did not want her to come to harm," is the honest answer. Whether or not anyone aboard is going to be surprised at his clarity of speech is another matter altogether. "She asked me to do this, because she was told it would be better for my wellbeing."

They aren't too surprised, since they'd heard him talk earlier. Still, talking bug. "Where'd you learn to talk like that?" One of them asks.

"Heh, that's probably why they nabbed him."

Back at Kickback. "So...your 'queen'. She betrayed you."

"I was a pet," the swarmer explains calmly. "A mech named Proteus was my owner, but he did not want to keep me because I grew too large. My queen took care of me and saw to it I could mature. I learned your mouth-speech by listening to all of your talking, watching all of your writing."

At the suggestion that Arcee betrayed him in any way, he is taken aback. "No, she did not betray me; there were soldiers there that insisted I get into this truck. She... she did not want to see me go. Her waves were full of grief, but the soldiers insisted."

"Okay, so she just didn't want to put up a fight. Didn't think you were worth the trouble. Basically betrayed you." The battered mech shrugs.

The transport finally comes to a stop, moving into a subterranean loading dock. The doors retract open, and the two officers who had brought them here motion sharply for them to get out. "Right then, get moving." Outside, a shady look mech is holding a datapad, counting them off as they exit.

"A worker does not fight a soldier. There is no point in it, the soldier is there to protect the hive, the worker works. It was my duty to protect her - not the other way around," Kickback insists, irritated at the beaten mech's assertions and trying to wrap his head around the mess that is the not-hive society.

He stands and exits with the others at his turn, not putting up a fight, looking at his surroundings with a child-like curiosity.

The officers leave the new subjects in the hands of the Institute workers, who escort the group into the front room, which actually looks kind of like a normal reception area with offices and stuff.

The mech with the datapad who had been outside earlier is joined by a couple of others. They discuss quietly and then line them up, examining them one by one. Each one is sent off to a different ward, until Kickback is the only one left standing there.

"Mmmm, oh, now -this- one is interesting, I hear." The sordid-looking mech grins. "Pharma would have a fine time with you." He marks something down on the datapad. "Medical research, I'd think."

"Who is Pharma?" Kickback asks, trying to step forward to look at the datapad.

"Oh, you'll see soon enough." The mech chuckles. "Come along now, I'll see you to the Medical Research wing." A door on the left side of the room opens into a barren corridor, with the occasional window along the wall. If Kickback were to peer into them, he might catch a glimpse of just some of the unspeakable horrors that go on in this place.

It's no wonder those other bots were so horrified that he'd just turned himself in...

It's not -as- horrifying to Kickback as one might imagine. He's confused by the fact that there are others in the not-bug Hive that are harming one another, but he assumes it is a territorial dispute between rival not-bug Hives. His reactions come from a state of being tabula rasa, filtered through hive-structured glasses. "Very well," he responds calmly.

This bug thing is remarkably cooperative. Which is a good thing. The mech ushers him into a large room filled with medical equipment, as well as other research instrumentation.

Standing over a circuit slab is the winged doctor Pharma, one of the best physicians at the Deltaran Medical Facility. Who knew he worked here too? He turns around when the two of them come in. "Well, hello there." He looks over Kickack. "Heh. Wow. So they say you have a name."

Pharma pauses, then nods. "Yeah, kind of. I'm a doctor, and a researcher. I fix people in Iacon, but here, I just look for new ways to...'process prey.'" He turns back to the circuit slab. "I'm just going to finish up this real quick, and then I'll get to you, okay?"

There is a moment of wariness. "Am I prey to you, then?" the Insecticon cautiously asks. His wings rise a few inches away from his frame.

"Oh, no no!" Pharma laughs. "Certainly not, you're much more interesting than that. Did you know you're the only one of your kind to learn our language and transform like the rest of us? It's kind of amazing, actually." He pulls a capacitor out of whatever he was prodding. It's covered with energon and other body fluids. "We could never leave such a valuable specimen to mere chance out there on his own, now could we?"

The Insecticon observes with an almost professional distance, what Pharma is doing. He has a cooperative creature at the least, fully domesticated. Who would have imagined that kindness and gentle care would produce something that -wasn't- a raving feral monster? "That is where you are wrong. We transform when we are mature. We have since the time of the first sparks. I am the first to choose to use your mouth-communication, yes, because my Queen used it, but it is unnatural to me. None of you speak wave."

"Wave?" Pharma's interest is definitely piqued. "Is that so? Please, tell me more." He tinkers with the capacitor, then moves over to a workstation, bringing up a holographic diagram of it. "Your kind have always fascinated the intellectual community."

"The energy around your spark, through your systems, and your shields. It produces resonance. Frequency, wavelength, energy level. We alter the resonance around ourselves to communicate without need of sound. The mouth is for working and eating instead." Kickback is definitely intrigued by what Pharma is doing, it looks waaaay more interesting than alphabet blocks.

"Huh." Pharma considers that. He is running some calcuations on that diagram, once he finishes, he stores the capacitor in a compartment somewhere. He turns to Kicback, now. "Interesting. Why don’t you do tell me something in wave then, I'll see if I can get some readings."

Kickback nods in agreement, and stands there, stock still.

If Pharma has any multispectral scanning equipment, he'll see that the Insecticon's EMF is like a thick, dark fog around him - foreign, alien. Variation in color, energy and intensity flicker across it like lightning during a storm. The places where these changes occur, if slowed down and carefully watched, take on the shape of language-like glyphs.

Pharma is fixed on the scanning equipment, intrigued. "Incredible." He starts pulling the data into analysis algorithms, looking for patterns and similarities to Cybertronian. Hah, this doctor might have just scored the best specimen he's had in vorns!

"Will I be allowed to return to my Queen?" Kickback asks. Oh what a thing to ask.

Pharma laughs. "Oh...that very much depends on you, Kickback. -If- you're cooperative, perhaps you will." He files the data away. "Thus far, you're doing excellently, so just keep it up, okay?" He stands up, and clears away whatever was on the circuit slab before. The remains of...something. Maybe someone. Drones move in to clean up any mess that might be left behind.

"I need to you get up on this circuit slab, so I can get a closer look at you." he says, pointing to the flat surface he'd been working on earlier.

"Can you not see me from here?" It's an innocent enough question, but it might be considered stalling. Kickback is feeling somewhat pensive around this medic.

"Sure, I can see you, but I can't see -everything-. A -closer- look, as I said." Pharma says cheerfully. "Now do you want to see your 'queen' again or not? Remember, the only way you might get to see her again is if you keep on cooperating as well as you have been thus far. And you've been doing great, so it can't be all that hard, now can it?" He smirks. Oh he just can't wait to cut this guy open, now can he??

It's that desire to see Arcee again that urges Kickback to obey. Pharma may as well have him by his antennae. He does as he's bid, and has a seat on the indicated table. His plates raise like hackles, uneasy.

Pharma grins. "That's a good bug. You're even smarter than I thought you were. Now lie down as flat as you can, arms at your sides. I'm going to administer some anesthetics, okay? So you won't feel a thing!" Mostly so he won't scream and writhe, because that will mess things up.

Kickback nods and lies back. He doesn't fight it and he has no idea what anesthetic is, but it's apparently neccessary.

The large black and violet insecticon barely fits on the slab; he turns his head to observe what Pharma is up to. The jet is almost giddy about something.

Oh, Pharma is definitely excited. He's never seen a specimen quite like this one...he's giddy just at the -thought- of what he might be able to learn from the Insecticon. "Very good, very good." A spherical drone hovers over toward the circuit slab and stops right above his head, a bright light glaring down onto his face.

The doctor quickly sets up the anesthetic feed, inserting a tube into Kickback's arm. The drugs flow, and it won't be long until the bug is sent off into stasis lock.

And exactly that happens. Kickback is no longer aware of what is happening to him.

Pharma sets to work, cutting and prying and prodding. He takes thousands of images and scans of the Insecticon's inner anatomy. It's all so very fascinating. They're so different, yet similar at the same time. As excited as he is though, the doctor is acutely aware that Kickback is unique, thus he is the -only- specimen like this on perhaps the entire planet. Therefore he needs to exercise great caution so as not to kill him, damage him or alter him too much. It doesn't stop him from using various tools and chemicals to enhance data collection, however.

Thankfully, Pharma is a good doctor though. Well, 'good' as in good at being a doctor. There's a reason he's one of Deltaran's finest. He continues poking around in Kickback's vivisected body for several cycles, until he finally decides he's had enough looking for one day. It was time to take the data and see how it could be applied to the rest of the world. So he welds the Insecticon back up and dumps in a cell in the containment ward with some other Outlier. Once the drugs start to wear off, Kickback will begin to come to--and also become aware that his -everything- hurts. Drugs might have spared him the pain of being cut open, but they are far from healthy, and well someone had just sliced him open and prodded all around in his innards then sealed him back up. But for Arcee, it's all worth it, isn't it?

Kickback groans as consciousness returns to him. His body is definitely registering and complaining about the damage done to him. Lying on his side, he partially rolls over, wings twitching and fidgeting as a sign of his discomfort. He cannot tell how long he's been here, or if anything was permanently damaged, and he resolves to himself to listen to his instincts next time. That medic's waves seemed to resonate with deception. There is no guarantee he will be able to protect Arcee from inside here, because there is no guarantee that the medic will let him go.

He decides that if he is going to make it out of here in one piece, he will have to become an exceptionally convincing liar.

He'll be left alone...for a little while. Just so he can heal up enough that he won't die from the trauma and stress the second time Pharma or other researchers go diving into his body. Yes, today's vivisection would only be the first of many. Especially after -other- sentient bugs are discovered. Once he's not the only sample any more, they'll likely no longer be afraid to conduct...bolder experiments.

Oh, yes. Not only will Kickback need to become an exceptionally convincing liar in order to make it out of here alive and in one piece, he will need to become a fierce and vicious fighter, as well.