TRANSFORMERS GENERATION 2
                                 and
                     ROBOTECH: THE NEW GENERATION

                               STRANDED

                      Part Ten: The Voyage Home

                      By Christopher E. Meadows


    The small shaped charges that Skram had magnaclamped to the bottom
of the Invid power core were designed to channel most of their
destructive power inward, disrupting and destroying the interior of
their target.  For a power plant producing enough energy to power a
full-scale Invid Hive, this would soon produce a chain-reaction large
enough to detonate the entire structure. 
    The explosions took a few moments to cut through the haze of
white-hot rage that was darkening Corg's vision to all but the blue
human battloid with which he was trading volleys.  Then, as
realization dawned, Corg knew in his heart that he had failed the
Regis once more.  "All Invid, evacuate the Hive at once!" he sent over
the broadband mental channel that would reach every Invid in the area.
He fired a barrage of cannon shots in Scott's direction to cover his
retreat, then lit the boosters on his Royal Command Battloid and
launched clear.  "You may have won this battle, human, but I'll be
back," Corg vowed.  "I _will_ be revenged!"
    Lancer was holding his own reasonably well against three Invid
Troopers when they all turned and fled the battle without warning.
"Hey, what gives?"
    Scott turned his gaze from the retreating Corg to look down at the
explosions.  "Looks like our friends have done their job after all."

    Nightracer stuck her gun back into subspace and ran over to Skram,
who was struggling back to his feet.  He did not appear to be in the
best of shape; dented and battered from the fall, with several places
on his chassis where exposed circuitry was sparking, and his left arm
did not appear to be functioning properly.  "Can you walk, Autobot?"
Nightracer demanded, hauling him to his feet by his good arm. 
    "I--don't think so," Skram gasped.  "You'd...better get outta
here, Nightracer.  Save yourself."
    Nightracer growled.  "Don't you even _try_ to pull that
self-sacrificing heroic Autobot bullshit on me.  Decepticons _don't_
leave their teammates."  Even if their teammates are only teammates
of convenience, she mentally added.
    Nightracer put Skram's arm over her shoulder, and her arm around
his back, and started staggering with him toward the wall, where
Rapido's cable would be waiting.  Overhead, more small explosions
sputtered and blew out around the bottom of the spherical power core,
raining debris down around them.  It would only be a matter of moments
before the whole thing went up now. 
    "I...don't understand why...you're doing this.  I thought...you
hated me," Skram gasped.
    "I do, so shut up or I _will_ leave you," Nightracer said,
devoting her attention to reaching that cable.  Perhaps she should
have let him die, she thought; she was not entirely sure what she
would tell Megatron about this.  All the same, if she let Skram
sacrifice himself for her, or believe he was, then Nightracer would
owe her functionality to an Autobot, and she could not live with that. 
    "I...don't think we're gonna make it," Skram said, and Nightracer
silently agreed.  She could see the cable, about a hundred yards
away, but at the rate they were going, it might as well have been a
hundred miles.  All the same, she gritted her teeth and kept going,
because there was nothing else to do.
    Then two Battloid-mode Veritech fighters touched down in front of
them.  "Grab on--we'll get you clear!" Scott called.
    Nightracer all but threw Skram at them, then dodged around.  "Get
him clear.  I can make it on my own."
    Lancer shrugged.  "You heard the lady, let's move it!"  Lancer
and Scott's battloids grabbed Skram by the arms and rocketed skyward,
while Nightracer ran for the cable, leaping a good fifty feet up to
grab it in mid-air.
    Nightracer quickly pulled herself up, hand-over-hand, walking up
the wall with her legs.  She felt a tugging at the cable from the
other end, helping her; when she made it to the lip of the tunnel, she
found Rapido had been pulling it from his end as well.  Nightracer
glared at him, but there was no time for words now; they both
transformed and raced for the exit. 
    Behind them, the chain reaction quickened, the power core was
engulfed in flames, and at last the whole thing exploded.  The flames
and shock waves burst outward, shattering the chamber walls, sending
debris tumbling through halls and rooms, destroying the Invid not
fortunate enough or ambulatory enough to evacuate, until finally the
very outer walls of the Hive itself cracked and the flames and smoke
broke through.

    A few hundred feet up and a mile or so away, two Alpha fighters
and one injured Autobot turned their heads to look back at the
fireball.  "Well, that's a sight to be proud of," Scott Bernard mused.
    "Yeah," Skram said, half-grinning in spite of the pain feedback.
"I..._do_ do good work, don't I?"
    A few miles further away, Lunk's armored personnel carrier was
parked near the river.  Within it, Marlene screamed in agony as the
pain-shock from the death of the Hive tore through her mind.  When it
subsided, she sat up, breathing heavily, face dappled with sweat, and
looked to the west where the column of smoke could be seen reaching
into the sky. 
    "Are you okay, Marlene?" Annie asked worriedly.  She had done all
she could to try to make her comfortable, as she always did whenever
Marlene went through episodes like this, but deep down, she always
felt uncomfortable about it herself.  She never knew what to do when
this happened, except be there with a pillow and some blankets, and it
just didn't feel like enough.  Whatever the Invid had done to mess
Marlene up like this, she wished she could pay them back _double_ for
it. 
    Marlene smiled slightly.  "I...I'll be fine, Annie.  Thank you
for caring."
    "That's all right, Marlene," Annie said, her brash, cheerful
nature reasserting itself.  "D'ya think Scott and the others got out
okay?"
    "I'm sure they did, Annie," Marlene replied.  "I think I'd know
somehow if something went wrong."  I hope...oh, Scott, please come
back to me....

    The very edge of the explosion barely caught the two Transformer
sports cars as they raced through the exit, tumbling them end over end
through the air with the rest of the debris.  Rapido and Nightracer
transformed and rolled with the impact, arms held in front of their
faces to protect against the flying debris. 
    "Nicely done, Nightracer," Rapido said, getting to his feet.  "I
can see why Megatron values your skill so highly."
    Nightracer scowled behind her faceplate, having none of it.  "You
shouldn't have waited for me back there."
    Rapido shrugged.  "Autobots don't leave their own."
    "I'm _not_ 'your own,' Aubobot," Nightracer snapped angrily.  "I
am _Decepticon_, and proud to be."
    "Autobot, Decepticon...there's no difference in this world.  We
Cybertrons have to stick together," Rapido replied. 
    "Not for much longer," Nightracer shot back.  "And after we _do_
return, I would very gladly see you scrapped.  You'd be wise to keep
that in mind."
    "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," Rapido said.  "And
speaking of bridges, I think we should head back now, and see if ours
can get us home again."
    "That sounds like a _wonderful_ idea," Nightracer replied.  "The
sooner I can rejoin my fellow _Decepticons_, the better."

    Within the hour, all the Transformers and human freedom fighters
were reunited back at the site of the spacebridge's emergence.  As
Rapido and Nightracer pulled up, leaving huge dustclouds behind them,
they found Skram sitting on a boulder, working on his left arm with a
soldering waldo extended from his right wrist-socket while Turbofire
stood behind him patching on his exterior. 
    "About time you guys made it back," Skram said.  "We saw the Hive
go up.  Nice fireball, don'cha think?"
    Rapido turned to Windbreaker, who was also there.  "Status report
on the human prisoners?"
    "All went well.  We rendezvoused with the Resistance caravan as
planned," Windbreaker reported.  "They'll be handling the POWs'
relocation from here."
    "Excellent.  And Skram, what about your condition?"
    "A bit beat up, but I'll be back on my feet in a few," Skram
said.  "If it hadn't been for that airlift, Nightracer and I might
_both_ have been scrapped, though."
    Nightracer glowered.  "You'll have plenty of time to talk about
_your_ near-escape later.  What about the _spacebridge_?  Is it
operational yet?  And if not, shouldn't you be making it so rather
than sitting around having your armor buffed?"
    "Hey, keep your auto-body on," Skram replied, waving his soldering
waldo dismissively.  "I've got Lunk hooking up the cells, it's
covered.  Won't be able to do anything on the bridge without being
powered first anyway.  By the time he's finished, I'll be finished,
and then we can see about patching it up."
    Nightracer growled, "If the Invid return with reinforcements
before we make it out of here, we'll _all_ be finished."  She turned
and stalked off toward the spacebridge. 
    Rapido watched her go, then nodded.  "Satisfactory.  As soon as
you two're able, join us at the bridge.  Windbreaker, you're with
me."
    "Yessir."  The two Autobots stepped past Turbofire and Skram,
heading toward the silver circle of the spacebridge where the humans
were working and talking.

    As the others talked a short distance away, Lunk sat crosslegged
on the ground next to an open access panel on the spacebridge,
messing with protoculture cells, high-conduction electrical cable,
and duct tape.  Annie was standing behind him, looking over his
shoulder.  
    "Wow, so much protoculture!" Annie mused.  "Are they really all
gonna be used up?"
    "Every last one of 'em.  Fold reactions take a lot of energy,
Annie," Lunk replied, twisting two wires together.  "Ripping a hole
through the fabric of space and time isn't easy, and you have to use
a lotta brute force to do it."
    "Wow.  But that amount of energy could power an Alpha fighter for
_months_!"
    "Yup.  I think it's gonna be quite a light show."
    "Even more than that Hive going up was?"
    Lunk grinned.  "Maybe.  Different, anyway.  And probably something
we won't ever see again."
    "Ooooh.  I'll be looking forward to it!"
    A short distance away, Scott Bernard and Lancer stood talking.
They looked up at Windbreaker and Rapido's approach.  "Hey, there!"
Scott called out.  "I have to say, we really appreciate your help.  We
accomplished a lot today!"
    "On the contrary, I feel like _we_ should be thanking _you_,"
Rapido replied.  "All in all, I think we both met all the goals we
could have hoped for."
    "Nothing like a little cooperation to move a few mountains,"
Lancer put in.
    "Yeah, or blow them up," Windbreaker quipped.
    "Are you sure we couldn't convince you to stick around?" Scott
asked.  "There's still a lot left to do before Earth is free again."
    "It's tempting, and I mean that honestly," Rapido said.  "But we
have to go home.  We have our own Earth to help save."
    "Home."  Scott nodded, looking up at the sky for a moment.  "Yes,
I understand that particular need completely," he murmured.
    "And I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say we wish you the
very best of luck keeping _your_ world safe for human life," Lancer
put in, and Scott nodded his assent.
    "Thank you," Rapido said.  "The same to you.  From what I've seen
today, it looks like the fate of your world is in very good hands."
    "Bah.  Autobots," Nightracer muttered, stalking away from the rest
of the party.  If she heard another word from that goody-two-shoes
mutual admiration society, she just knew she was going to
reverse-cycle her Energon feed system.  All that self-congratulation
and patting each other on the back, for what?  It had been _her_
contributions to the plan and the group effort that had made it work,
and she had done it out of no Autobot so-called "higher motives."
Bah.  Well, let them talk.  She would be content to act, when the
proper time arrived.

    "Once we're gone, I want you to blow up the spacebridge," Skram
was saying to the humans as Nightracer stepped back into the vicinity,
a few minutes later.  "If it remained around, and was found by someone
like the Invid, things could get pretty bad."
    "Hold on.  Wait a minute," Nightracer said.  "The bridge came
_with_ us last time.  Won't it be coming with again?"
    Skram shook his head.  "Negative.  The first time, the
transmission field was unfocussed, due to the damage to the
accelerator coils, and it scooped us up and dropped us here bridge and
all.  This time, it _will_ be focussed on just us, hence more
efficient and directable, so it _should_ drop us right back where we
belong." With a little luck, anyway, Skram silently added.
    "Right," Scott said.  "Will do."
    "After that, we'd better beat feet," Lunk added.  "That much
protoculture going off at once will light up every Invid sensor
within a thousand miles.  They'll be swarming the place."
    "Oh, joy," Rook muttered.  "My favorite thing."
    "On the bright side, it should overload nearby Invid sensors long
enough for us to make a speedy retreat," Lancer said.  "We hope."
    "And you're sure you _can_ 'drop us right back where we belong'?"
Nightracer asked sardonically.  "We don't exactly know how we got here
in the first place, y'know; that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in
direction-finding the way back."
    Skram shrugged.  "Based on the sensor readings I've taken since
entering this universe, I'm programming in my best guess.  I'm no
Perceptor, I can't read exact quantum ion state or things like that,
but it's all we've got and a darnsight better than nothing."
    "Why am I somehow not reassured?" Nightracer wondered aloud.
    "I think we've heard about enough out of you," Turbofire growled.
"After all, _you're_ the reason we're here in the first place, let's
not forget."
    "If you want to settle this bot to bot, I've got a laser emitter
with your designation etched into it, Autobot," Nightracer retorted.
"How about it?"
    Rapido raised his hand for silence.  "Nightracer, Turbofire, both
of you simmer down.  Skram's right; this is the best shot we've got.
Nightracer, if you don't trust his judgement, perhaps you'd prefer to
remain behind?"
    Nightracer shook her head.  "I bought a round-trip ticket for this
ride.  Be a waste to miss the train back."
    "Right.  Now that that's settled, Skram, how soon can we make the
jump?"
    "I've just about finished wiring in the spare parts we all
donated," Skram replied.  "I just need to make a few more connections,
run some tests, and we'll be ready to go."
    Just then, Rand jumped down off the top of the spacebridge,
binoculars in hand.  "Hate to say it, but you may not have time for
those tests; I just spotted an Invid patrol heading this way from the
northeast quadrant.  You don't go fast, looks like you're not going."
    "Great.  _More_ pressure," Skram muttered.
    Scott pulled on his helmet.  "You finish up the bridge and go.
We'll take to the air and hold them off for as long as we can."
    Rapido nodded.  "Right.  We don't have time for lengthy goodbyes,
so let me just say it's been a pleasure working with you."
    "Same here," Scott replied.  "Goodbye, and good luck."  He turned
to the others.  "Come on, everybody, let's mount up!"  As one, the
pilots dashed for their Veritech fighters.  A few moments later, the
Alphas and Beta lifted off and zoomed away. 
    "I hope they'll be okay," Skram murmured.
    "I'm more interested in making sure _we're_ okay," Nightracer
replied, pulling out her laser sniper cannon.  "Get to work, kid, you
can go all starry-opticed on your own time."
    "And what will _you_ be doing?" Skram asked suspiciously.
    Nightracer's sensor visor slid down over her optics, and the
crosshairs lit up as the interface locked in.  "Evening the odds a
bit," she replied, jumping up onto a nearby boulder and aiming off
into the northeastern sky.  "Now do your job, and let me do mine."
    "She's right," Rapido said.  "Skram, make those connections so we
can get _out_ of here!  Turbofire, Lunk, wire the bridge so you can
blow it once we're gone.  Windbreaker, you and I will take defensive
positions to the northeast.  We don't have Nightracer's range, but if
they get close enough for us to make a difference, we'd better be
ready."  With a chorus of "Yes sir!"s and other phrases of
affirmation, the Autobots and human engineer got to work, while Annie
and Marlene did their best to stay out of the way. 
    Skram knelt and patched and wired as fast as he could, checking
the schematics to make certain that everything was as it ought to be,
or at least close enough to spec to get them through one jump.  Half
the components would probably blow out after the first go, but it only
had to work once and they would be home--theoretically, at least.
"_Knew_ I shoulda gone into general maint, not special ops," he
muttered more than once.  "Woulda kept me out of _this_."
    "Well, it's never too late to change your mind.  Once we get back,
anyway," Turbofire commented, clamping cobalt limpet mines to either
side of the access hatch in which Skram was working. 
    "Yeah, _assuming_ we get back," Skram muttered, making another
cable patch.  On the boulder, Nightracer started firing, as she got
the range down.
    Several miles away, Scott toggled his comm switch.  "All right,
let's hit 'em hard and--what was _that_?"  A laser shot streaked by
his plane to hole an Invid Scout through the eyeplate. 
    "Looks like we've got a robotic sniper on our side," Lancer
commented.  "Like you said, let's hit 'em!"  The fighters broke
formation, guns and missiles blazing, amid a dozen streams of plasma
discs.
    Skram made the last solder and pulled back out of the access
hatch, switching his hands back to normal and dashing over to the
control console.  Half of the instrumentation had been burned out or
shattered, but everything he needed was still intact.  Skram's hands
danced over the control matrix as he called out, "Done!  Everyone
who's going, gather.  We're only gonna do this once!"
    Nightracer fired off a last volley of shots and backflipped off
the boulder, somersaulting in mid-air and landing in a crouch
squarely within the spacebridge's silver ring.  "Fine by me."
    Rapido and Windbreaker pulled back from their own defensive
positions, dashing into the bridge confines.  Rapido flipped open the
commpanel on his arm and set it to the human frequency.  "Rapido to
Bernard group.  The spacebridge is ready and we're leaving.  Good
luck with the fight, and with the rest of your lives."
    "Farewell, my friends," Scott replied.  "Thank Nightracer for the
fancy shooting, and get home safely."
    "Adios, amigos!" Rand put in.
    Turbofire turned to Lunk.  "It's been fun."
    Lunk nodded.  "Sure has.  Thanks for all the help.  I'm only
sorry I didn't have more time to study your spacebridge.  I'd have
loved a chance--"
    Skram looked up from the spacebridge control console.  "We've
almost got full power!  Everyone get ready now!"
    "Looks like that's me."  Turbofire waved, then stepped into the
bridge.
    Skram glanced up from the console at the others.  "Everyone clear
the way--I'm setting this thing on a ten-second timer, and I
definitely want in before it triggers."  He punched a few more keys,
then turned and ran for the gate, making it well within the allotted
ten second span. 
    Skram turned to the other four as the lights started to cycle
around the rim.  "Well, this is it.  Been nice knowing you."
    Nightracer turned to face him.  "And just what is _that_ supposed
to mea--?!"  She was cut off in mid-word as the lights became a solid
circle.  A pillar of white light appeared within the silver ring,
reaching far up into the sky and obscuring the Transformers within
from view.  Moments later, the light faded, leaving nothing behind,
and half the access panels around the ring blew out in showers of
sparks. 
    Lunk just stood there for a few moments, watching, then nodded to
himself and turned to dash for the APC.  "Time for _us_ to go now,
too!  Move over, Annie!"  A few moments later, Lunk's vehicle raced
away from the area at top speed.  Not long after that, four Veritech
fighters joined it. 

    The smoking spacebridge sat silent, still, and deserted in the
middle of the desert as four Invid Troopers touched down nearby.  They
walked forward, slowly, cautiously, tri-lensed eyes swivelling left,
then right, scanning for signs of human occupation or protoculture
use.  The occasional white-hot glow against the red background of the
Invid viewscreens showed that there were still traces of protoculture
within this machinery, but there were no other signs of humans or
their mecha.  What was this device?  The Regis would want to know. 
    As the Troopers examined the strange silver ring, a bit of motion
caught one's attention.  Its optics swivelled and zoomed to focus on
the cylindrical object with the strange glowing hieroglyphics that
read 00:03, 00:02, 00:01, 00:00. 
    This was that last thing that any of the four Invid Troopers ever
saw. 

    There was very little conversation amid the human freedom fighters
as they raced away from the area at top speed.  Each of them was lost
in his own thoughts, and those thoughts mostly involved the four
Autobots and Decepticon they had encountered today, the Hive they had
helped destroy, and the prisoners they had saved.  Scott's thoughts
also involved searching for a rumored supply depot the leader of the
Resistance caravan had told them of, but even that could not eclipse
his thoughts of the brave warrior-robots, and the curiosity about
their fate to which he knew he would never have the answer. 
    Of the group, only Annie and Marlene looked back to see the
spacebridge site explode behind them.  "Gosh," Annie murmured, as the
afterimage faded from her eyes.  "D'ya think they made it?"
    "I hope so, Annie," Marlene said.  "I certainly hope so."

                               THE END

                             (or is it?)


Author's Notes:
    Well, it's hard to decide what I ought to say here.  Something
momentous, I guess.  I've just _finished_ a complete fanfic...my first
in a long, long time.  It's been a whole lot of fun to write, this
last part especially, and yet at the same time kind of emotionally
exhausting.  Well, it's over now, anyway.
    Since I asked for it after sending the last part, I got some
feedback on the last nine parts, and since a couple of them brought up
the same points, I figured I should probably address some of it here. 
    A couple of people suggested that my story would have been much
more interesting to them if I had used the original Transformers
instead of the relatively-unknown Generation 2, and the Macross or
Southern Cross segments of Robotech instead of New Generation.
    The thing is, _anyone_ can do an original G1 cast story; in fact,
almost everyone _has_.  They're so well-known, there's just not all
that much that can be done with them anymore, and they just didn't
interest me for the purposes of this story.  But hardly anyone has
done anything with the G2 cast yet, which means they're fresh and new,
and I don't have to worry as much about goofing up their
characterization.  The Axelerators (Rapido et al) are just plain neat
little toys (they're sitting here on the computer in front of me right
now), and I thought they deserved a chance to be seen in action in a
story.  Besides, I'm not quite as familiar with the G1 TFs as
characters as I ought to be; it's been an awfully long time since I've
seen the TV series eps. 
    As for the Robotech side, it would have been a _lot_ trickier to
fit the Transformers into the earlier generations with any
believability.  Given that none of the ones I chose can fly anyway,
and all the action took place in deep space in Macross, there wouldn't
have been any way for them to interact meaningfully there.  Southern
Cross, with its strong government and GMP, would have been difficult
as well, and again I would have had no clue how to do it.  With this,
the story just popped into my mind. 
    Several people told me that I had indeed succeeded in making
Nightracer a believable and sympathetic Decepticon character (although
one person said that he really _hated_ her by part 9; go figure).  One
person said, "She's quite complex, and there may be something to the
old idea that a well-written bad guy is more memorable than nice
characters."  I hope that depth has carried through this episode. 
    The more I've written, the more I've found Nightracer has taken
over the story, to the point where 80-90% of this last episode is
written from her perspective.  That, to me, is the sign of a
successful character.  I hope she enjoys the spotlight. :)

    So..._did_ they get home?  Is this the end?  Nooooot quite.
Sometime soon, the ten chapters will be put together and the Author's
Notes from each will be edited into one, and the compleat "Stranded"
will be posted to rec.arts.anime.creative for distribution and
archival.
    And shortly thereafter, I will begin writing "Stranded II: <title
yet to be determined>", chronicling the further adventures of our
hapless dimension-lost band of Transformers.  Perhaps there will even
be a "Stranded III" after that.  As Simon Furman so aptly put it...

    "It never ends."


"Stranded" is copyright 1997 by Christopher E. Meadows.  Permission
granted for free electronic distribution via Usenet and associated
archival, as long as no fee is charged and this notice remains intact.
For further permissions, such as inclusion in "Con-Quest" or on an
archival webpage, please contact the author, he would likely be more
than happy to oblige. :)

The Transformers, Rapido, Windbreaker, Turbofire, and Skram are
registered trademarks of Hasbro and Takara, and Nightracer is a
trademark of Raksha and Plumed Serpent Productions.  Their
unauthorized use here is not for profit, and not meant to infringe
upon those trademarks.  This is _not_ an official Hasbro-endorsed
story, please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as one.  (There,
that should make the Hasbro lawyers happy. :)

Robotech, the Invid, Prince Corg, Scott Bernard, Rand, Rook, Lancer,
Lunk, Annie LaBelle, Marlene, and other associated characters and
mecha are trademarks of Harmony Gold, Inc.  Their unauthorized use
here is not for profit, and not meant to infringe upon those
trademarks.  This is _not_ an official Harmony Gold-endorsed story,
please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as one.  (And that should
make the Harmony Gold lawyers happy too! :)
"Stranded" is copyright 1997 by Christopher E. Meadows.  Permission
granted for free electronic distribution via Usenet and associated
archival, as long as no fee is charged and this notice remains intact.
For further permissions, such as inclusion in "Con-Quest" or on an
archival webpage, please contact the author, he would likely be more
than happy to oblige. :)

The Transformers, Rapido, Windbreaker, Turbofire, and Skram are
registered trademarks of Hasbro and Takara, and Nightracer is a
trademark of Raksha and Plumed Serpent Productions.  Their
unauthorized use here is not for profit, and not meant to infringe
upon those trademarks.  This is _not_ an official Hasbro-endorsed
story, please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as one.  (There,
that should make the Hasbro lawyers happy. :)

Robotech, the Invid, Prince Corg, Scott Bernard, Rand, Rook, Lancer,
Lunk, Annie LaBelle, Marlene, and other associated characters and
mecha are trademarks of Harmony Gold, Inc.  Their unauthorized use
here is not for profit, and not meant to infringe upon those
trademarks.  This is _not_ an official Harmony Gold-endorsed story,
please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as one.  (And that should
make the Harmony Gold lawyers happy too! :)