Enemy of my Enemy

Chapter 6: No Rest for the Weary

"Wow." Jack sat at the corner table in Groom Lake's mess hall, grinning at the food piled on his tray. "That's the biggest omelette I've ever seen."

Arcee sat her human-size doppelgänger down across from him and smiled. "Guess it's about time you had an actual meal." Ratchet had finished replacing her parts, but had ordered her to stay in the repair bay for another day or two to give her autorepair systems a chance to finish whatever fine-tuning they needed to do. Not long ago, that would've annoyed her because she hated sitting on the sidelines, but now that she had a human-size body she could operate remotely, it wasn't a big deal.

"Yeah. I hadn't even thought about it until now, but I haven't had more than a quick snack here or a sandwich there in the last several days." He leaned forward, inhaled deeply, and smiled. "Deluxe omelette with extra cheese, toast, biscuits and gravy, and barbecue-flavored potato chips. I'm starting to drool just from thinking about it."

"Hey, guys."

Jack glanced around and found Mendoza and Conrad heading in their direction.

"Hi."

Arcee waved at them.

"Mind if we join you?" Mendoza waved a hand at the empty seats beside each of them. "Or are you having a private breakfast?"

Jack glanced at Arcee and shrugged. She shrugged back and nodded at the seats.

"Go right ahead." She cocked her head and arched a brow plate. "Rosalina, you're eating, too?"

"Pretenders would have a hard time passing ourselves off as human if nobody ever saw us eating." Mendoza sat beside Arcee and picked up a potato chip in her sharp, metal fingers. "Since you're using one of our bodies, you can do the same thing. Wanna give it a try?" She put the chip in her mouth and began chewing.

Arcee shrugged. Jack grinned and offered her a potato chip. She held it uncertainly, raised it to her mouth, and arched a brow plate when Jack started laughing.

"Sorry, babe. You opened your mouth so wide, it was kind of comical."

She chuckled. "Well, I've never done this before." She inserted the chip, watched Rosalina chew for a moment, and tried to mimic her movements. The potato chip broke apart into ever smaller pieces. Suddenly, a completely alien sensation spread through her mouth as the chip triggered sensors she didn't even know she had.

"Oh, wow. This is ... this is amazing!" Her optics widened. "Is that what it's like to taste something?"

"Yep." Rosalina smiled. "It's probably not the same as what humans experience, but it's as close as we could make it."

"Even if it's not the same, it's still ... well, like I said, amazing!" Arcee grinned, continued chewing, and looked at Rosalina. "Okay. Um, how do I finish it?"

"You haven't read the owner's manual, have you?" Rosalina laughed. "There's an instruction file included in the software we installed before you linked up with this body. You'll find out how to swallow, among other things, if you run it."

"Sorry, I haven't been in a hurry to run any software I don't recognize. This body, y'know, being designed by Decepticons, and all that."

"I understand. Ratchet checked all the software, though."

"I know. Tens of thousands of years of seeing all Decepticons as the enemy isn't exactly easy to overcome."

"Well, you've come a long way already, and I'm grateful that you've been able to accept me and the others."

"Your actions over the past few months speak for themselves. And you've helped me overcome a lot of my own prejudices." Still, rather than opening the unfamiliar file, Arcee connected to the Internet and searched for information on how humans swallow.