Exiles by Alex Irvine

time I see him,” Silverbolt said, full of bravado. Optimus wondered what the outcome of such a race would be in noncombat circumstances.
    The mention of Starscream reminded him that hecould not avoid his responsibilities any longer, that the moment for being anonymous was long past for Optimus Prime. Time was short. “Override,” he said. “May I speak with you?”
    She nodded, and they broke away from the group to consult in a quiet corner of the hangar.
    “I should apologize,” he said.
    “Yes, you should,” she agreed. “You had no idea what you were doing.”
    “I did, in fact. But it is true that I did not anticipate all of the consequences. Such as,” Optimus said, watching Override closely, “Ransack’s desire to take over Velocitron for himself.”
    Override was silent for some time. “I could have managed him if you had not arrived,” she said.
    “I’m sure you still can,” Optimus said. “You seem stronger than he is.”
    Looking him in the eye, Override said, “Do you think you are stronger than Megatron?”
    Optimus Prime had no answer for this.
    “We must leave soon to continue our search for the AllSpark,” he said. “If Megatron comes, will you fight him?”
    “What you’re really asking is if Ransack will,” Override said. Optimus nodded. “Then the answer is, I don’t know. We are desperate, Prime. Desperate bots turn to strong leaders, and they mistake tyranny for strength. I have feared this turn on our planet for some time. The race can only preoccupy us for so many cycles before we must confront the problem that we cannot live here much longer without aid.”
    “This is one reason why I wanted Velocitronians to know the strength of the Autobots. You may rely on us.”
    “Until you leave,” Override said.
    “Before we leave, I believe we can get your Space Bridge working again,” Optimus Prime said.
    Taken aback, Override paused as if replaying his words in her head. “You can?”
    “I do not wish to make promises, but yes. I think we can.”
    Override nodded thoughtfully, looking at the array of her citizens going about their business in the vast hangar. “If that’s true, you’ll leave a better impression than you could ever have anticipated,” she said. “But I still can’t promise what will happen if Megatron comes.”
    Optimus Prime thought he could. Wherever Megatron went, there was only one outcome.
    War.
    In the following cycles, they got to work doing necessary repairs on the Ark and, as Optimus had promised, seeing what could be done about the defunct Space Bridge. Optimus also had a third goal on Velocitron, one that he had told no one about. The Matrix was murmuring to him, and he felt the tug of its orders. There was something on Velocitron that it wanted him to see. Override, wanting Optimus to be careful about antagonizing any more Velocitronians than he already had, assigned him a local escort named Clocker. Impetuous and jumpy, Clocker seemed to Optimus Prime like a Velocitronian version of Bumblebee. As a favor to Override, he allowed Clocker to accompany him wherever he went except for a few command meetings that only Ratchet, Silverbolt, and Jazz attended.
    Optimus Prime found that he didn’t mind Clocker’s company. The Velocitronian talked nonstop, but that reminded Optimus Prime of Bumblebee’s onetime loquacity. In turn, this strengthened his resolve that Clocker and the other Velocitronians not suffer underMegatron the way that so many Cybertronians had. Clocker, for his part, was full of questions about Cybertron and about the war. Optimus Prime answered them, but reluctantly. He was more interested in the history of Velocitron. “How did you all get so interested in speed?” he asked once while Clocker was following him from the hangar to the barracks where Override had allowed the Cybertronians to stay.
    Optimus Prime had sent the second landing team, under Hound’s leadership, out to map the terrain of Velocitron. Whatever material