Orion Pax was sitting by the fireplace in his cottage, using the fire to keep the cold of the Cybertronian winter outside. He held a cup of hot energon in his hands. Drinking from it brought back memories of a time when he got to share the drink with his fellow Autobots. He remembered offering it to Arcee when she lost Cliffjumper and Bumblebee when he lost his voice box. He remembered how much this small gesture meant to them at the time even though as far as he was concerned he was just making sure they were okay. He remembered how happy Ratchet always seemed when he drank his favourite energon and how…
Pax stopped himself from reminiscing any further. There was no point in dwelling on the past. Besides, it's selfish to feel nostalgic for the worst times of people's lives. Orion proceeded to drink the rest of the hot energon as fast as possible to prevent any further flashbacks.
Meanwhile somewhere up in the sky red lights are flashing on a spaceship, its human occupants scrambling to regain control of it as it spins aimlessly through space. Starship captain William Kline eventually managed to reach the ship’s controls and got it to stop spinning. The ship was, however, clearly caught up in some planet’s gravitational field, judging from how it was on a crash-course to some giant sphere-like object. William attempted to change course but to no avail, it seemed that whatever had hit the ship and sent it spiraling had done some internal damage as well.
“Everybody strap in immediately. We’re going to crash!” He screamed as loud as he could.
“We were already trying to do that Will!” Cassidy responded as she entered the cockpit. She wasn’t trying anywhere near hard enough to get to her seat, William, who had by this point already fastened his safety belt, noted.
“Cassy! You’re here! Where’s Luke? Is he okay?”
“He’s coming, he just wants to grab his toolbox to make sure it doesn’t get crushed beneatha pile of rubble . He’ll be fine.” Cassidy said as she put on her seatbelt.
“What?! Why’s he getting that now?! Go find him and tell him to come this instant! We’re going to crash!” William replied, trying his hardest to prevent himself from slamming his hands on the control board to not somehow make things worse.
“He’ll be fine, Will. The planet’s still pretty far away, we’ve got time.”
“We. Are going. To crash. I don’t know what you don’t seem to understand about that. Go. Get him!”
Right as Cassidy was preparing her response, the automatic doors opened. Behind them, a tired looking Luke could be seen rushing into the room, toolbox in hand.
“Luke! Come strap in now!” William shouted.
“Coming!” Luke said.
~~~~
On Cybertron, Orion stepped out of his cottage to see that a small metal-looking thing had crashed into his backyard. When he moved to investigate, he found that whatever this thing was, it wasn’t a normal meteorite. The object that the former Prime was beholding was clearly made. Meteorites are haphazardly thrown together bits of rock, they exist only by pure accident of the cosmos, but not this. Someone built this for a purpose, a purpose it was far too damaged to fulfil anymore.
Before Orion could inspect the machine further, he saw three shadows dart across its broken windows. Startled, he took a step back and deliberated on his next words for a little time.
“Do not be afraid, I mean no harm,” he eventually settled on.
Nothing came out of the seemingly-spaceship, so Orion decided to sit down for the time being.
“Take as much time as you need,” He said. Whoever was inside this thing clearly was a lot smaller than the typical Cybertronian, Pax had hoped that, by giving them as much time as they could have needed to get their bearings, he would eventually earn their trust in spite of his size.
Time passed, and the sun had started setting, coloring the land in a deep orange hue. No one had dared to come out of the space-ship yet and Orion was still patiently waiting for someone to do so. The former Autobot had started to wonder whether those shadows he saw were just tricks of his mind when he heard the sound of a door opening. He immediately looked to the space-ship to find that a door was, indeed, opening.
What came out wound up surprising him even more. A human had exited the shuttle. A human. They were wearing a strange suit, but what they were was still crystal clear.
Orion stared at the brave little alien before catching himself.
“I-I’m sorry, you may come out, don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” he blurted out
“Oh, I-um, don’t worry about it, it’s fine,” The female human said as she made a proper exit out of the space-ship, touching down on the metal below.
“What’s your name, little one?” Orion asked after he managed to properly compose himself.
“My name’s Cassandra, but everyone calls me Cassidy. What’s yours?”
“Welcome to Cybertron Cassidy, My name is Orion Pax, and I hope you enjoy your time here.”
“Thanks. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a few questions for you,” Cassidy said as she opened her notebook and pulled a pen out of her pocket.
“I’m open to questions.”
“Good. Now, what’s your name, big guy?”
“My name is Orion Pax, I am a resident of Cybertron.”
“That’s the planet we’re on I assume.”
“Your assumption is correct.”
“Good, good.” Cassidy wrote down something. “Now, what do you eat?”
“Cybertronian food cannot be safely consumed by your kind.”
“I–okay, first of all, I wasn’t asking about whether we could eat it, and second, how would you know what we do eat?” Cassidy questioned, the tone in her voice making it clear that she was more intrigued than concerned.
“I have come in contact with humans before.”
“You have done what? How? We’ve never heard of this planet before!” She was interested before, but now Cassidy was downright excited.
“That is a story best left for another time.”
“C’mon! Tell me!”
“I am sure that you have other questions for me, little one.”
“Please!”
While Orion was formulating a response, another human came out of the spaceship and grabbed Cassidy.
“C’mon Cass, we’re going back inside. We are postal office workers, we’re not trained for this.”
“It’s not like I was in any danger, Will.”
“You don’t know that Cass! He could be deceiving you! You don’t know!”
“Sure, whatever, I’ll let this go for now if it’ll make you feel better.”
“Nothing about your statement is making me feel better.” William let out as they made it to the ship.
~~~
Luke was assesing the damage that had occurred to the ship's engine when Cassidy entered the room, it took until she had walked up to him and started talking for him to notice she was there.
“So, how’s the repair going?”
Luke turned around to face his ship-mate in surprise.
“Oh, hi Cass! Sorry I didn't notice you there! How did your encounter with the alien go?”
“Pretty well if you discount Will dragging me back here like he always does.”
“Y’know, it’s not like he doesn’t have a point. We really aren't trained on situations like this. We’re just postal workers.” Luke said and then immediately returned to his work. He wasn’t deliberately ignoring Cassidy. It’s just that he always compelled to mess with whatever technological thingamajig was on hand and a broken spaceship engine was literally in front of him.
“Well, I will let you know that my questionnaire was taken straight from the federal xenorelations course!”
Luke continued to look over the broken engine in response. After Cass gently reminded him of the conversation they were having, he started talking again.
“We both know you’ve never taken that course.”
“Oh, c’mon! You know I’ll take it once I have enough experience flying in space!”
The conversation kept going until Cassidy had fully finished venting and then promptly switched topics.
“Anyway, that was fun, but how is the repair actually going?”
“Well, I’m mostly just looking everything over so that I’d know how much work there is ahead of me. Right now, we are suffering from major damage to the engine, solar panels, the artificial gravity system, the doors that keep our oxygen from exiting the shuttle, the–”
“Yeah, okay we get it. I just hope I get to see him again soon.”