The Diego Diaries: Game Changer 11
=0=In the CMO's office, Autobot City, Mars
Ratchet leaned back in his chair staring at the big bot looking at him coldly. The anxious bot standing beside him looked shocked. Placing a servo on Copperton's arm Turquoise looked at him. "Only One please."
Copperton looked down at the mech that was the only living thing that could reach him no matter his state. "You will not be in any danger nor will you ever experience violence."
"I see," Ratchet said.
Copperton looked at Ratchet. "And what do you mean by that?" he asked.
"Who wants to experience violence or be around it? Primus knows that members of your caste seldom do," Ratchet said. "You outsource that to the rest of us."
"You have a reputation for violence."
"You're right. I am violent," Ratchet said nodding.
"There. You admit it," Copperton said folding his arms across his chassis.
"Of course," Ratchet said nodding. "I've been a soldier for millions of years. I have done the work that you and yours can't be bothered to do. You start the wars and mechs like me have to finish them. I have to go into battle, run into fire fights to save wounded, stand ankle deep in spilled energon trying to put back together mechs and femmes that your actions and policies put into harms way. I have done that for millions of years. It marks you. You don't suffer fools as easily. You don't take slag from anyone, ever. You don't put up with pompous buffoons either. You need to tell me what you have done to help the war effort besides sending mechs and femmes to die."
He looked at Ratchet. "I worked hard in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs doing the work assigned to me."
"You never enlisted. Has anyone in your family served in the military? Or is that too low brow for you? You might have to put something into jeopardy fighting the bad guys. So much easier to stay behind the lines and formulate opinions. You don't have to get your servos dirty or maybe get your aft shot off."
"My bond is the son of the Chief Justice of the High Court of Cybertron. Turquoise and I both served Cybertron."
"Conveniently from behind the lines," Ratchet rose from his chair surprisingly calmly. "The code error I am reading was caused by unrelenting war. Our soldiers have always shown violent tendencies from time to time. They drink, fight often among each other and some of them are hair triggered. My sons are among the most violent mechs of all but they have extenuating circumstances," Ratchet said looking directly at Turquoise. "There is a problem borne out of eons of war that is causing our soldiers who are carriers to be intensely violent if they feel even abstractly that their sparklings are in trouble. They have a glitch in their programming that causes this and we are trying to isolate it so we can formulate a treatment. That is where a code reader and analyst comes in. You can do something directly good for our soldiers, their bonds and sparklings by doing this."
Turquoise nodded. "I see."
"Then there is a danger in this city," Copperton said. "What has been done to prevent this from causing harm among the general population?" he asked.
"We are working on the problem as fast as we can. The code is enormous billions and billions of strands of numerals with the breaks hidden like straws in a haystack. The carrier-soldiers are aware of this problem and self monitor."
"That's ridiculous," Copperton said. "The chances of them becoming violent are a clear and present danger. What does Prime have to say about this?"
"He is aware." Ratchet looked at the big bot and fought the usual reaction that aggressive high castes always elicited in him. Turquoise was needed and seemed a more reasonable bot. He would stifle his urge to kick Copperton in the slats for his soldiers.
"I will have to talk to him. I have a number of issues that I wish to discuss. There is the matter of the murder of Kudon for instance."
Ratchet looked at him and shrugged. "That has been adjudicated. The situation is settled."
"How did he die? I was told a mech killed him for slandering a sparkling. Surely that is bunk. What really happened?" Copperton asked.
Turquoise put his servo on Copperton's arm. "Please, Copperton."
He looked down at his bond. "I need to know."
"He slandered a sparkling that belonged to a highly devoted carrier who had served on the front lines of the wars of our nation for the entirety of his life. Kudon made the big mistake of flying straight into the problem I'm trying to solve and he didn't come out the other side in one piece."
"He was murdered for slandering a sparkling?" Copperton asked.
"He was killed because he was struck by the ada of a sparkling that he slandered. He died because he had never taken care of his spark chamber defect. Surely if you were his great good friend you knew about that. Right?" Ratchet stared at him calmly, the fires in his spark banked in the shimmering need to protect Sunstreaker. The idea of that bot being as small as Orion and left alone with his brother in a youth center flooded his processor. It came to him unbidden and he steeled himself to protect a bot who had never been protected.
"I can't believe this is what happened. What are you not telling me?" Copperton persisted.
"I haven't told you that Kudon was a slagger who didn't do a hard thing in his life that someone else wasn't assigned to accomplish. I didn't tell you that he never risked a damned thing for the survival of our world. I also didn't tell you that he broke Prime directives trying to resurrect the caste system here. He should have been in the brig, not roaming the streets trying to foment rebellion."
Copperton looked at Ratchet silently, then turned. "I will talk to Prime. Turquoise?"
The anxious little bot looked up at him. "I wish to stay and see about this project, Copperton. The sooner its safer here the better."
"I don't want you to stay here with this mech," Copperton said.
"I will catch up with you. You go ahead and I will come after. I would like a nice walk." Turquoise smiled and patted Copperton's arm.
The big bot looked at Ratchet. "I will be back."
"The door is open," Ratchet said nodding.
They stood as Copperton walked reluctantly to the door. He looked at his bond. "Come shortly. I will look for you if you don't."
Turquoise looked at him and nodded. They watched him leave. Turquoise turned and looked at Ratchet. "I am sorry for that. Copperton has exquisite manners but this whole business has made us forget the right behavior with others."
Ratchet shrugged. "Everyone is entitled to their opinions here. He will find out this isn't Cybertron and the old system is not coming back." Ratchet paused and pulled a data stick from the console behind him. "This contains all the data that we are using to search for the solution to our problem."
Turquoise held out his servo and took it. "I will read it and see what is there. If you don't mind, I would like to do it from home and help my bond."
Ratchet nodded. "I will ask data processing to send the equipment that you need. Do you have space in your apartment to set up a work station?"
He nodded. "I do."
Ratchet grinned. "Then we're in business."
Turquoise nodded, a ghost of a smile on his face. "We are."
-0-Armory
Sunstreaker walked in pausing at the door of Ironhide's office. Grinning, he watched as the big bot pushed datapads. "You look like you're actually doing something."
The big bot looked up and sat back. "Some of us actually have a real job."
Sunstreaker walked in and sat on the couch along the front wall of windows. "I just finished a commission. Some of us actually have two jobs."
Ironhide grinned. "What brings you down here?"
"Ada wants us to have lunch together. He wants his genitors and Flint to get together at Club Cybertron."
"Sounds like a plan," Ironhide said nodding. He looked at the chronometer on the wall. "Why don't we get everyone together and meet old mech there? It's nearly lunch time."
Sunstreaker nodded pausing to send a message to Bluestreak and Sideswipe. They pinged back and he stood. "Sideswipe and Blue are heading for the Club. Let's get Flint. Where is he?"
"He's at the dojo," Sunstreaker said. "He knew Drift from before and he wanted to deliver personal messages to some of the mechs there."
Ironhide stood up and they turned together walking to the door and beyond. By the time they were on the sidewalk heading for the club Flint was walking from the dojo with Springer, Kup and Drift followed by Lon. They also headed for the club to join the party.
Ratchet stood on the street outside the medical building waiting for his genitors to join him. He had walked from the building pointing out the Fortress where Copperton was bound. Ratchet watched that mild bot heading out. It was a find to have him on the team in spite of the situation with his bond. That bot had pushed every button but Ratchet had kept it in. He needed Turquoise on his team. The rage circulated in his tanks contained by his dedication to the mechs who needed him so much. Later he would do something about the inferno in his processor.
His genitors appeared and waved. He waved back sublimating his irritation to spare them. They could read him like a book. When they arrived he was smiling and becalmed. They turned to walk to the club together. The sun overhead was warm and the city's energy was awesome.
-0-Club Cybertron
Sideswipe and Bluestreak walked into the club and paused by the bar to chat with a couple of bots. There were tables being assembled in the dining portion of the club for their party. Overhead on the monitors, IntraComm 4 was playing the infant football games from the orn before in the sports arena.
Kup, Drift, Springer, Flint and Lon walked into the room pausing with Sideswipe and Bluestreak. Chuckling over a joke, they stood together enjoying each others company. Out on the street, Ironhide and Sunstreaker waited for Ratchet and his genitors who were coming. They basked in the sunlight as they waited, the sounds of laughter reaching them through the open door of the club. When Ratchet reached them they turned to walk inside.
Sitting at a table in the dining room watching the ballgame on the monitors overhead, Stiletto and Barricade sipped high grade and ate bar food.
=0=TBC
2012 (9) edited 8-20-14