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Before his optics booted, he was aware of the fields around him. State of the art sensors supported by complex coding read the patterns within those fields in a manner that seemed to bypass his processors entirely and go straight to his spark. His spark, in turn, adjusted its spin and vibrations so his field could join in those patterns and weave them into something peaceful and whole.
Of course, he did not understand that until later. He only knew, from the moment he onlined, that disharmony surrounded him, and his spark surged with the need to harmonize that discord.
When his optics did online, he sat up, and then stood, wrapping his arms first around the attending medic, and then the engineer, holding their hard angles to his softer self. He scanned them on coded instinct, the nanites of his metalogel shifting it to conform to their shapes. To be close, to touch, and to mold himself felt right. He missed the amused expression that the medic and engineer shared as he took a step toward the one to whom his files supplied the title of Prime. That large mech was briskly inserting some device into a shining orb and then connecting himself to the orb with a data cable, while another data cable was plugged to the grey mech on the next berth. Vector Sigma, the mechling's date files supplied when he queried them about that potent energy source that was so different from the other living energies in the room.
Before he could move any closer, a mech whose field was so calm he had not even sensed it gently grasped his shoulder.
"Do you have a designation, berthformer?" the calm mech asked.
The question led to thoughts of shifting downward and outward, molding into something wide and embracing.
"Recline," he said brightly in recognition as the glyph flashed through his processors.
"Return to your berth, Recline, so Torque can complete your examination."
"Okay," Recline said in an agreeable tone. But before he complied, he wrapped his arms around the mech whom his files identified as his mentor and code-donor, letting the cool stillness of that field settle the questing, weaving warmth of his own. "Your field feels nice," he explained.
"It is my function," Repose noted, "and yours as well. I will teach how to best make use of your coding, frame and spark."
"That's good. I like that idea!" Recline pronounced as he sat and then laid on the medical berth. He smiled brightly at the smooth, near emotionless features of the other berthformer, letting the eddies of his field dance in the still waters of his mentor's.
"There are two paths to maintaining the balance and harmony of your own spark so you can bring peace, at least momentarily, to others," Repose explained after they had begun their orn with their centering meditations.
Recline listened attentively, basking in the field he had known since coming online a decaorn earlier, a pool of calm that matched the elegant simplicity of the berthroom where Repose served. The mechling could not seem to stop himself from weaving patterns within that field with the tendrils of his own, like warm eddies within the refreshing coolness of the solvent bath.
"The first is the path of complete detachment from all emotional connections, even from ones own spark," Repose continued. "Upon this path, we form no bonds with those we recharge, that we may be a conduit of untainted peace from the Spark that is All Sparks. Recognizing the oneness that unites us all, there is no need to be attached to any we serve, for all are one and one are all. Complete detachment is the simplest and most sustaining path by which we maintain our harmony."
Recline flared his ever-changing field affectionately, thankful for the wisdom his mentor was giving him that went so much deeper than the mechling's core code and function files.
"Then there is the second path," Repose explained, his field giving no response to Recline's affection. "It is the path of deep attachment. Rather than forming no bonds, a spark codes a bond with every resonance field it serves, following the natural instincts of that bond to serve the spark in ones care. Rather than a conduit, one is vessel, shaped by those bonds to become the harmony others need the most."
"Oh! I like that!" Recline said, his field flaring with warmth into that cool pool again.
Repose nodded with serene understanding. "I cannot help you understand that path, Recline. It is a choice of the spark rather than coding, and is one you will need to discover on your own. It is a path with a far greater potential for suffering than the one which harmonizes my own spark."
Recline cocked his helm and observed the fellow berthformer, searching for any sign of disappointment in his field or expression. There was none, of course, because Repose had not attachments to any outcome or to Recline himself. He was beautiful in that way, and Recline could not help but to love him.
"You are distracted today, Recline. Your field is unsettled," Repose said halfway through their centering exercise.
"I am processing and integrating the Iridium Tower rules you instructed me to download before recharge," Recline answered. "I am prohibited from transforming into my root mode in the presence of my sponsors, but also must follow any command that is given to me unless it would do harm that I am not able to repair using my medical coding. But what if what if a sponsor needs the most is not a berth? Or what if a sponsor I serve orders that I transform?"
"In the former case," Repose explained, "there is nothing that you can give them as a mech that you cannot also give them as a berth, and seeing you as a mech detracts from your function. You will interface with our sponsors, but, doing so as a berth maintains the appropriate decorum and distance. As to the latter, such an occurrence has not taken place in all the vorns I have served in Iridium. In the unlikely event that it should, you would obey the sponsor you are recharging at that time, then follow the dictates of the senior-most member of the cohort. When the clade gifts you to a cohort, you will download a file of cohort-specific rules regarding the circumstances when a servant must report the activities of junior members to those who are senior. However, I do not anticipate that such a situation will arise. Now begin your centering again, from the first exercise."
"Yes mentor," Recline answered, envisioning the archaic glyphs of the oath the first berthformer, Recharge, gave to his Prime. However, questions kept distracting him from mentally tracing the complex patterns.
"Mentor," he asked quietly, "Recharge voluntarily placed himself in Prime Nova's service. If freedom is the right of all sentient beings as the Canticle of Primus says, why were the terms of my service coded even prior to my coming online?"
Repose onlined his optics from his own meditations, not a trace of irritation apparent in his field at the interruption. "Recline, examine your data modules on the history of the growing shortage of energon and the limits that have been placed by the Senate on the continuation of unessential, unsustainable, and inefficient frame classes. Berthformers are classified as a type 4-E unessential frame type, and therefore are not eligible for Senate creation subsidies or energon rations, and only eligible for sparks from Vector Sigma with sponsoring fiscal agents. Our class is considered a luxury item. We would not have the means of supporting ourselves beyond towers society, and only by having a sponsor can our code-line continue."
Recline did as his mentor instructed, following the history of the first energon riots to the Senate's most recent actions to ensure enough resources for the majority of Cybertron's frame classes. He was shocked at the level of discord beyond the haven of the sparked tower where his sponsoring clade dwelt. Riots and even insurrection were becoming common in all of the city states, and not just those largely inhabited by the frame classes the Senate had restricted the most severely. Considering the vulnerability of his frame configuration and the complete accessibility of his systems, the world beyond Iridium would be a dangerous place indeed.
"We do not always have the luxury to live according to the ideals of our ancient code kin, Recline," Repose explained after a moment. "But aside from that, it is also the tradition of our code lineage to serve our Prime. When Recharge became a medic-consort to Nova, he voluntarily accepted loyalty coding to the Prime lineage, and each of us has carried that coding in honor of our lineage originator. Sentinel felt it fitting that I enter into the service of this clade. Who are we to question the will of the Prime in these matters, especially when it allows our lineage the resources by which it might continue and a means by which to fulfill our function?"
"But there are so many who are in far greater need of us," Recline said sadly, the images of suffering in the newsfeeds still scrolling across his HUD.
"Clade Iridium Kappa is very powerful and influential, Recline. We are fortunate to have such sponsors. The balance and harmony we bring to them will impact their dealings with the rest of Cybertron, and benefit all. Now begin your exercises again, and this time, no questions until you have found your peaceful center."
"Yes mentor," Recline said, shutting down the newsfeed and returning his attention to his originator's ancient vow before his Prime.