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Characters:Ratchet, Botanica Location: Omega-1 Medical Bay Content Warnings: N/A Plot Summary: Following the discovery of Botanica, Ratchet takes it upon himself to evaluate the anomaly in person.
Botanica was practically beside herself as she sat quietly waiting in the Autobot's medical bay. Never once in her life did she think she'd be able to watch history being made in person, let alone history as important as Team Prime. In spite of the fact that she may have crash landed into a different time, the goal of her scientific sojourn remained the same. Now was the perfect opportunity to gather a trove of valuable data, both for her own research, and for the Autobots themselves.
Windshear was understandably fussy at the prospect of leaving their home for the first time in over sixty years, as he was occasionally letting out a short nervous chime as he sat upon Botanica's chest.
"Don't you worry, now. If history is anything to go by, the Autobots can be trusted," she voiced, giving a reassuring grin to her companion which served to quiet him down a tad.
It was one of the rare nights that Ratchet had actually managed to get a decent night's recharge. Being with Wheeljack definitely helped, but after the whole ordeal on the Nemesis.. finding a peaceful night's recharge had become much harder. Nightshade had only escalated that impossibility, but it was worth it for her. With a proper night's rest, he was feeling a bit more energetic than he was at the start of the day.
He walked down to the medical bay after checking on their sleeping sparkling, letting her get some needed recharge. The little one could use the time with her carrier when she awoke, and Ratchet had a busy day ahead of him as it was.
When he arrived, he was greeted by a rather unfamiliar face. She seemed to be mechanical, and yet there was part of her that seemed.. organic? Maybe it was just his imagination.
"Is there something I can help you with? I don't think I had any appointments this early in the day."
For all her composure and words of comfort to Windshear, Botanica was startled by Ratchet's sudden appearance. She stood up straight as a board, hands folded over her chest as her emerald optics appraised the Autobot for several moments. There had been quite a few candidates that she'd hoped to have the chance to meet while marooned in the past, and her observations confirmed she was looking at one. The tall, wiry figure took a few long strides towards him, lips curling into a smile.
"You're Ratchet!" she expressed, looking enthusiastic about it as well. "Oh, I can't overstate how much I'd always wanted to meet you one day, and here you are..."
A beep from the drone sitting atop her chest snapped Botanica out of it. She shook her head, reaffirming herself, "Oh, yes. Where are my manners; my name is Botanica, and this is Windshear," she said, brushing a few digits over her friend's left wing.
"The Autobot known as Chris discovered us on our island in the central Pacific, and I expressed an interest in meeting several prominent Autobots of this age, you see."
Ratchet had been completely caught off guard by the femme's excitement when it came to meeting him. He still wasn't used to this whole 'people seeing him as the greatest medic ever' thing, and that's with all the experience he'd had with the war. Even now he'd still say Pharma was the better medic as he was the one to teach him.
"It's.. nice to meet you, Botanica. Windshear." He was going to at least be nice and greet the other mechanical being.
What confused him even more was her mention of 'prominent Autobots of this age'. What did she mean by that? "I'm not sure that I follow. I mean, I'm flattered you see me as prominent, but I really don't think I'm what everyone makes me out to be. I'm not the only medic, after all, and I don't see myself as being better than any of them."
Ratchet's confusion was perfectly understandable. After all, he had yet to perform his greatest medical miracle, although he didn't even know it yet. Botanica felt he was deserving of some sort of explanation, while being careful enough not to 'spoil' anything about his future. Since she was starting to think about it, this would mark the first time she's ever spoken to anybody historically significant.
Botanica produced a light chuckle at the medic's semi self-depreciation, full well knowing the real caliber of Ratchet's abilities. "Oh I'm sorry Ratchet, I should've opened with this, but I'm not from this era. Temporally displaced from seven hundred and sixty four million stellar cycles in the future, if my observations are correct." She paused, a smile returning to her face, "You're the quintessential face of Maximal Medicine, actually. We teach courses at New Polyhex around you and the Autobots as well."
Seven hundred and sixty four million stellar cycles..
From the future?!
How in the world was that even possible? As far as he knew time travel wasn't a thing, but if Botanica was telling the truth maybe it was something that was achieved in their time? Sure there was this whole dimensional travel thing that Rodimus and a few others had mentioned in regards to the Lost Light in their notes, but.. time travel? He couldn't even imagine such a concept. Although there was that temptation. If he could do it, maybe he could prevent all the things that happened to Pharma, but.. time wasn't something that should be tampered with. So much could change with just the smallest of alterations. There had been many theories on it back on Cybertron.
"How is.. I thought time travel was impossible? Is there truly a way to do it? But even so, how did you find yourself here in a time so far removed from your very own?" Ratchet sat down, trying to work this all through his processor.
Now he was speaking her language; her very confusing and theoretical language. Botanica was happy to shoot the breeze about it, regardless. She let out what could for all intents and purposes be considered a 'squee', before she dove right into it. "Okay! So, time travel is not impossible, and the fact that I'm speaking to a living Autobot right now is concrete proof of it. As to how its possible, I don't have a grand unifying theory of causality manipulation formulated just yet, BUT... I am making some excellent headway."
In her peppy bout of scientific discussion, Botanica took her optics off Ratchet to begin pacing around him in a circle, apparently speaking to nobody in particular anymore. "My ship and I were brought out of our jump cycle after departing post-historic planet Earth. If our vessels had the ability to breach the time stream before my maiden voyage, nobody had elected to inform me about it. Over the past several decades I've performed experiments using the reconstructed remains of my ship, experiments in which I recreated the phenomenon that sent me backwards in time. I was able to transport matter forwards in time! Granted, I was only able to send about three nanograms of it for an exorbitantly high power cost. I've theorized that to send my vessel and I forward in time again, the process would consume more energy than has ever been generated by human-kind in their twelve thousand years on Earth; I would only be moving forward fifty years, though."
Botanica paused to take a literal breath, before continuing on. "I've hypothesized that the event that transported me to this period in history must have been of unimaginably high energy, centered around the Earth in this age. I still don't have an idea of how to transport matter back in time as opposed to forwards, but-"
Ratchet's well-timed question managed to snap her out of her tirade. The poor Autobot had probably just gotten an audial-full of theories and ideas for half his lifetime. Botanica had every intention of filling the other half with theories and ideas, if she had the chance to.
"Oh, 'Maximal' is the composite form of our moral code in one sense, and what we call our faction in another. Optimus had the idea of basing it off of our ancestors, the Autobots, as well as the Progenitor himself."
Botanica's talk on time travel both fascinated Ratchet and confused him all at once. He never would have imagined that it was actually possible, but was there any proof to actually disclaim her word? If she was correct, then time travel alone would require a tremendous amount of energy.. Even so.. Even if she were to return to her time, would her time really be what she remembered? There were so many theories on the whole 'alternate timeline' and 'messing up the time continuum' prospects, and there was no way to ever prove those.
Could Botanica be the first one day?
"And we don't have the energy to test that theory at the moment.. If we did, I would be more than willing to assist you in further research in regards to your.. time displacement."
At least she was able to help with one matter, and that was explaining to him just what a Maximal was. It wasn't a term that he had heard before, however the 'imal' part of the name only reminded him of animal. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. However, as Autobots.. was it possible that they were Autobots with organic forms? Techno-Organics?
"So if what you say is true.. then would I be correct in the assumption that these Maximals aren't.. vehicles? They almost sound as if they could have organic forms such as Techno-Organics."
Botanica's 'ears' twitched and perked up, indicating that Ratchet's initial assumption was correct. She nodded her head as a silent response, before moving on to a much more vocal one. "We are indeed! Every one of us is a perfect blend of sentio metallico and organic cells. Although in my case," she trailed off, taking a few steps back from the Autobot medic.
The time-traveling botanist stretched her arms out to her sides, putting her full body on display for Ratchet. Several species of alien flowers, vines and shrubs sprouted up all across Botanica's slender form, but still left her a defined shape beneath. "...I may have been forged with a slight proclivity towards chlorophyll."
Just as quickly as their accelerated life cycle began, each plant, vine and flower protruding from Botanica suddenly aged in reverse. The vines shrank back, just as numerous flower petals folded back in on themselves. In moments her form was as plain and green as it had been but a few moments ago, as if Botanica wasn't a walking garden.
"We can certainly still transform, though. Most of my brothers and sisters enjoy taking the forms of wildlife, but we are not averse to taking other forms as well. Observe." Again Botanica put on a little show for Ratchet, crouching down as several obviously-metallic plates silently slid around her form as it contorted and morphed. The walking, talking tree was now in the shape of an appropriately-green Ford Mustang, without so much as a hint that it was also a walking botanist who was also a walking garden.
"I've noticed that humans don't seem to like walking ambulatory plants, so as you can see, I've done my best to appropriately adapt."
That's certainly not something Ratchet would have expected for a future. Techno-Organics were something that were frowned upon by many on Cybertron, though not all reacted negatively to them. If what Botanica was saying held true, they apparently not only were all the rage, but the dominant sub-race on the planet! Talk about a turn around.
And yet they were also capable of transforming.. but not into vehicles necessarily. Some took the form of an animal..? But how did that even work? "Out of curiosity.. do the appear to be similar to the organic animal they take the form of, or do they still appear as mechanical as ever? We do have a couple of Techno-Organics on our team, both with human appearances.. so I was merely curious if they were the same."
The medic watched as Botanica transformed before him, turning into a vehicle just like the rest of them could. It was impressive nonetheless. "And adapt you did, Botanica. Very nice. Not every medic has to be an emergency vehicle in my optics. Were you the medic for these.. Maximals?"
Botanica transformed rather silently out of her alt mode, coming back to stand at full height before Ratchet. She folded her hands together quite sagely, much like before. The Maximal's enthusiastic grin had yet to dissipate from her face, and showed no sign of decay for the foreseeable future. She had hoped it wasn't too off-putting for Ratchet. His next question took some pondering on her part, as it had been quite some time since she'd even spoken to her kin.
"It really depends on where we are in the universe, so to speak. Our alt modes are indistinguishable from the real thing, but in cases such as mine, we may adopt a more mechanical appearance quite easily."
Then, Ratchet got down to the good stuff again.
"Chief among them, in fact! I was endowed with a healthy capacity for knowledge when I was forged, which I've used to educate my younger brothers and sisters. Of course, we don't use surgical tools like those you might be familiar with. I'd very much enjoy showing you how we perform procedures, some time."
Botanica let out a playful and almost childlike chuckle, which she quickly stifled.
"Oh, pardon me. Eight hundred years of entropy, and I'm afraid I'm still somewhat of a child."
"But... if you'll allow me to break the rhythm here for a moment, I have a question of my own."
"Rodimus Prime lives in this period of time, does he not?"
Indistinguishable from the real thing..? Had their transformations become that accurate?! It was so bewildering to even think about, but he took Botanica's word for it. Maybe one day he would be lucky enough to see it, but he didn't know of anyone who could take on such a feat with an organic alt mode. He recalled that when Strongarm had spoken to him about her team, she had mentioned a Dinobot who had taken the form of a T-Rex.. but even then looked nothing like how the humans described them. No scales and such.. and was green.
Ratchet had been surprised to hear that Botanica had been the CMO among her team. It was not an easy position to get one's servos on, and there had been so many times where Ratchet himself had thought about passing that role onto someone else. He had thought about Pharma, but at the same time he didn't want to put that level of stress on him. Not after everything he had been through.. Maybe one of the younger medics one day..?
"I would love to see that. I can't even imagine the improvements on medical technology, but if you are able to produce those for me the next time surgery is required I would love to see what you can do." If not, he could always train her on the 'old' ways. Though at the same time, why fix what wasn't broken? What benefits did these future modifications to medical science hold over the old fashion laser scalpel?
However, Botanica's next question had thrown the CMO for a loop. He looked to her, almost as if she had grown a second helm. Rodimus.. Prime? As hard as he tried to force back a laugh, a stifled chuckle still found it's way out. "I'm... I'm sorry. For a moment I thought you had said Rodimus was a Prime. That mech is by no means Prime material."
On one hand, it was as if Botanica had just been slapped in the face; on the other, Ratchet had verified that Rodimus was indeed alive and active. But then again, he'd basically denounced her faith in the process. History being what it was, Botanica wasn't too torn up over it. Rodimus was absolutely Prime material, but even that grand of a statement was unfairly undercutting what he really was, to the Maximals at any rate. They'd never been clear exactly when Rodimus took up the mantle from Optimus, but Botanica was giddy at being able to meet her god before he was god.
She let out a hearty laugh at Ratchet's supposed ignorance, although she couldn't fault him for not knowing what was to be his future. "I'll have to disagree and say that he is," she began, grinning. "I should know, because he's me."
Botanica let the implications of her statement swell in Ratchet's mind before she elaborated, "We all are, actually; my people, that is. He's as important to all of us as Primus is to you and yours."
"There will come a time when Rodimus must accept the Matrix of Leadership, and he will carry it with him as the last Autobot, until the last of the fires of Cybertron have extinguished; his fading spark will ignite the hope within our home, and allow it to live again." At the end of her sermon, Botanica had unconsciously held out her arms as if speaking to a crowd. She quickly folded them back against her chest, if only as a courtesy. Windshear leapt from his mount to Botanica's right servo, having taken a mental command from his master.
"I understand if you're not one for religious overtones, Ratchet, which is why I've unintentionally brought along a piece of visual aid with me." Smiling, Botanica retracted her torso plating to reveal...
...nothing less than the Matrix of Leadership.
Granted, an empty and extremely ancient looking one. Not to mention there was a very familiar star added to the engraving.
Botanica let her fingers glide across the surface of what was essentially an old family heirloom at this point, "It was drained when Cybertron was finally restored. Our leaders no longer call themselves Prime out of reverence for it, although I am allowed to carry it by right of being the Firstborn."
"So long as Rodimus survives until the dawn of my time, I am confident that my actions here will not disrupt the flow of history..."
Rodimus. Prime. These were two words that Ratchet believed should never be in the same sentence together, unless said sentence was had the name Optimus Prime in it. Rodimus was young, immature, and so didn't exhibit the qualities that became of a great leader. Nothing like Optimus. Maybe with diligence and hard work he could become a leader, but certainly not with the persona he displayed at this present moment.
"....He's you." Ratchet almost stared in disbelief. Even as Botanica further elaborated in what she had meant, it only made him that much more skeptical. How.. just how could someone like Rodimus be worshiped like.. like Primus?! This had to have been some regional Cybertronian dialect he was unfamiliar with. Ratchet was from Vaporex and he'd never heard of such a thing.
...Kalis, perhaps?
Then Botanica did something that the medic most certainly did not expect: produce the Matrix itself. His optics widened, jaw practically hitting the floor. "How.. I.. that's.. that shouldn't even be possible!" It couldn't have been a fake, and Botanica had said she was from the future. Could there really be two Matrixes in one existence? Could they both even function? Cancel each other out? Something told Ratchet that he didn't quite want to know.
Thankfully, the femme informed him it had lost power. One less thing to worry about.
"If this is all true.. what you say about Rodimus and such.. is it wise to be telling me all of this? What if simply telling me all of this alters time itself? Or telling anyone else for that matter. Of course.. I will keep this between the both of us, but I wanted to be sure you or myself did not say anything that would jeopardize anything."