Ratchet's Journal

by Cin70

This story is showing copies of Ratchet's private journals. What he thinks about what's going on the base and he's personal notes on his patients. Ole grumpy hatchet does care. ten years on earth and after the battle in Egypt. WARNING THERE IS CONVERSATIONS IN THIS STORY NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG CHILDERN; THAT RATCHET REPORTS IN HIS JOURNAL ABOUT HIS FINDINGS AND SURGERIES HE DOES

12. Chapter 12

Ratchet's journal

Chapter Twelve: Too much work, not enough time in the day

And as you have seen I have revised chapter 11 with some more details that need to be added to get the story back on track, so hope you enjoyed the chapter! And here begins chapter 12 with Ratchet is up to his armpits in check ups, surgeries and a new sparkling due any time this week.

I'll start the journal early Monday morning where Ratchet has been up late all night working on making the new circuit board for Kups new chair and Redalert had completed one of three surgeries on Powerdrive around 2300 hours when will they saw that Powerdrive's condition had improved enough for this surgery and then afterwords, Redalert rolled him back into bay two. Moony is starting to worry that Ratchet is working too hard and Ratchet's starting to feel fatigue and stressed out but, his friend Wheeljack although he is a scientist is also a junior field medic too and he comes in this morning to relieve Redalert for the next 24 hours.

Ratchet today has to get to Proceptor, Acree, Hot Rod and last but not lest Redalert's exams done. Now Ratchet will have procedures and surgeries through out this week; plus visit with those leaving out Tuesday evening with Optimus on the PR trip as Ratchet is calling it now. He really hopes the progress of the meetings will be a life changer for them all. Remember this is a reading of Ratchet's journal so most of it will be in Ratchet's words Okay, here we go, hold on !

0100 hours in Ratchet's office in the med bay

It's one a clock early Monday morning and I've just finished building the new circuit board for Kups new chair. The last time I saw him it was back on our home planet of Cybertron and then he was able to walk and he worked at the city of Iacon engineer department and it is where he had worked for most of his life. The war had just ended and we won our independence from the caste and then he became the head of the engineer department and he lead the project in rebuilding our cities infrastructures. I came here from Oracon and took up working in the medical field as a resident at the main hospital. When this civil war began about a hundred years later between us and the deceptions Kup and I signed up with Optimus. Kup had fought in the last war and that was when Optimus, Magnus, Elita and Megatron weren't born yet and that's why Optimus promoted him to a Lieutenant and he lead his own group of fighters. Thousands of years later I was told by Redalert he had became the story teller to him, Hot Rod and Powerdrive Arcee and others. Redalert told me he loved nothing more than to share places he had been and told stories about how lucky and very cleverly how some Autobots that fought along side of him; got out some of most stickiest situations back on Moon base one when they were fighting against Astrotrain and his army. But he never really talked about the one time that changed his life forever. He and his team were back on Cybertron near the city of Tacon and he was running to get back to his team that were hidden in a tunnel under the city and he ran over a hidden bomb and it blew his lower legs to bits. His fellow Autobots found him a few hours later, passed out but still functioning. Hot Rod was told by Magnus along time ago the location of Alpha Tricon's hidden base was. They left after dark left hoping they could fine Alpha Tricon's base in time. After waiting several hours, Alpha Tricon came out and told them that he was able to save Kup but, he will only be able to get around in a portable chair that I will make for him. Kup has never forgot and he blames his self for not seeing the bomb even though it was hidden so there was no way he could see it. The hardship was hard on him for awhile until he came to terms with excepting it.

Anyways, I'm writing away here and time is getting away from me, I guess I just wanted to get some things written down that I in part remember and some I have just learn but, everyone else including Optimus is recharging, or as the humans say, sound asleep. These last few days have left me tired and so stressed out. Hound, Powerdrive and several others do need additional repairs and or surgeries. Redalert left about an hour ago and has been really good at teaching me patience and I know this cause ever since he got here, he's been limping around. I asked him about it three hours ago before he did Powerdrive's surgery but he just said, "I'm not that bad just minor stuff." Last night Powerdrive was dealing with a lot of pain in his lower back where four discs are bulging but, he won't be able to have that major surgery for a few days. Redalert had wheeled Powerdrive in to bay three around 2315 hours where I have everything set up for surgeries. Redalert is able and skilled at doing minor surgeries for me so the first operate was on taking out Powerdrive's right knee joint apart and removing his lower strut where he was shot actually just below where the knee joint connects to the lower strut. He had to cut the lesion off, straighten the strut and hold it in place while putting a clean wield on it to close it, use the sander to smooth it out then apply primer to it. After that Redalert then rebuilt Powerdrive's knee joint, he put the parts in a cleaning solution to get the dirt and caked on dry old grease out then replace the bearings. Then he reattach the lower strut back to the ankle. Then he reconnect the lower strut to his knee joint and then reconnected the upper strut to the knee joint. He then plug back in the sensor module going to the knee joint and then repacked his knee joint with gear grease. He wrap Powerdrive's leg up so he couldn't move it for awhile then he wheeled Powerdrive back to bay two and left a IV attached to his left wist to administer a slow drip of pain medication and a lower dose of enriched engeron.

So, before Redalert left , he came by my office to inform me about the surgery and let me know it was a success; and then I told him how much I appreciated his help. He looked at me and said, I know and I'm just glad a lot of us are here together again. He looked exhausted and before he left I told him to rest in quarters tomorrow until I call you in for your check up. He said, understood and then told me, don't work to much later you need some recharge too and I told him I wouldn't but, I just got to much to do and not enough time to get it done. Before I started writing all this down I went to bay two to check on Powerdrive and saw he was still recharging and his right leg was wrapped up to allow his leg to remain still for a few days. So, I came back to my office and to finish my notes on Powerdrive's data pad. The next surgery will be to fuse the four discs together with rods and pins in his lower back then also replaced several burnt and pinched wires and connect them back to the sensor module then connect that back into the spinal frame. Then later this week maybe Thursday I will wield the three cracked braces [in human terms they are called ribs] using my wielder at a lower temp to closed them carefully. But he couldn't handle all those surgeries one time so, for now Powerdrive is recharging in bay two.

I've decided to replace Kup's old chair with a human one, it's called an electric scooter that I just ordered. With his old chair, the inner and outer gears were stripped so bad and I don't have the machinery here needed to fabricate new gears for it. They are not like gears made here on earth. So, the electric scooter will be here by special delivery in three to four days. But, I still have to enclose the unit for privacy, add a waste tank were he will be connected to so he can take care of that in private. Then install the new circuit board to a panel that has senors connected to where his legs once were that will read his movements for it to go forwards and back, left to right. So, about a week from now hopefully he will be in his chair. For now I will have Cup using a human wheelchair today that I got in here late last night from Lennox's chief medical doctor here on base and I'm grateful for their help. With Kup being the size he is he should fit in it and I'll do a little twitting on it this morning to give him privacy while traveling around the base. He's should start feeling a little better in his left shoulder this morning after I did surgery on it yesterday. I cut the strut opened pull it straight together and then I put a good wield on it then I sanded it down smooth and put primer on it then wrapped it so he don't move that arm around for at least eight hours. at least now he'll be able to get around the base somewhat. For now he is resting in bay four. Now I'm going back to my quarters now and get some recharge before 0800 hours when I open the clinic. This evening I'm going to check on Elita she is due this week and Chromia is due in two weeks not four as I previously thought because I just happen to rechecked the results that were added to her data pad yesterday and she is further along that I previously said so now I'm going to be more busier this month than I thought I was going to be, oh Primus help me! Now it's 0145 hours and I have been writing to much so now to head back to my quarters for a couple of hours of recharge cause I'm getting cranky with all of this.

1000hours

I got in this morning around 0730 hours very tired but, I went and got myself a hot cup of engeron then I began looking over the data pads for Proceptor, Arcee, Hot Rod and Redalert. And I'm reading that yesterday Redalert done did his samples and ran the test and posted the results on his data pad. It was great to see Wheeljack just before 0800 hours this morning and I saw other Autobots bring in supplies that I desperately need and more equipment from the Advion this morning while I was busy getting caught up the information on the data pads. the equipment will help me better diagnosis of problems they have and be very useful in helping me detect issues sooner. Then when I got through with checking over the data pads; it was 0750 hours and Wheeljack had started to plug in all of the machines and started booting up their operating systems . It was finally great to get a remote monitor to plug into their port to read their systems. Then around 0815 I wheeled the chair down the hall to bay four where Kup had stayed overnight resting. He was awake when I walked in and was just laying there in his berth staring at the chair and then he said to me, what the pit is this? I told him that I ordered a new electric scooter for him last night and it is scheduled to come in about three to four days then I can make it work for him but that would take at least four to five days. He wasn't thrilled to say the least but, he knew there was nothing I could do to fix his chair. I went ahead and took the wrap off his shoulder and it's healing good, yesterday I had to wield his upper right arm strut straight and then I cleaned out the foreign matter in his rotor socked that was causing him pain then repack it with gear grease and I told him some of the gear teeth in his arm joint were getting real close to be grind down to nothing. I had to inserted a line into his interface rod that will drain the lubricate into a bag that would be hidden under the blanket. This way he didn't have to worry about asking for any help and I told him hold to empty the bag. While I was doing that he told me again the story of how he got shot while retreating to Tacon then from there he and the others escaped on the Advion. I took a berth sheet and wrapped him up in it after I was done inserting the drain line then I used the lift to hoist him up and lower him into the chair. He just sat there and looked at it rather strangely. It is going to be a huge change for him to be now thousands of years in his original chair to this. I think he was trying to figure out that he had to use his arms to make it move and then he told me, well pit, it's better than setting in a [berth or called bed to the humans,] needing someone to carry me around. I told him, use your arms and push the wheels forward and after he started to move the chair around in the room I told him call me if you need any help then he said yes Doc I will and thanks Lad. He left out of the door and turned right and was leaving but as he was wheeling down the hall I was standing they at the bay door and could hear him swearing at something and oh how I needed a good chuckle and said to myself that's Kup alright!

After I got done with Kup I went back to my office real quick to get Proceptor's data pad who has been for ten minutes waiting in bay seven for me. I came in to find that Wheeljack just took Preceptor's samples and leaving to go to the lab to start running the test on the samples. Now Proceptor too was dealing a lot with pain in his lower right strut which at one point was almost cracked in half and his right elbow joint got twisted hard in a one on one fight with one of Soundwave's mini cons called Ravage and he now has an ugly lesion on it [ struts are like a bone to humans but different.] caused by Ravage clamping down on his arm and doing a nasty violent head shake to his arm and almost severing it in the attacked. anyways it had broke his upper arm strut almost in half. And now that it mended back wrong he will need the lesions cut out and the strut held straight and a clean welted put to it. I would then need to use my sander to smooth it out then apply primer to seal it close and wrapped it for at least 24 hours. After that he will be able to use his hand again without pain. He had tripped and fell twisting his right ankle until it snapped and so he will need to have surgery on it I'll have to re break it so I can reseted it with pins and I told him he needed some adjustments and debris cleaned out of his right hip joint. That could have been cause him more pain as a result of when he twisted and broke his right ankle. I told him I could schedule him tomorrow around Tuesday 1500 hours for both his surgery and then he said ok. Wheeljack had came back in the bay about ten minutes later and then gotten started with Proceptor's IV fluids of enriched engeron because his levels of nennits were low and a douse of pain medication then rolled over the portable unit so I could hook it up to his waste value and start draining his tanks then as I finished talking to Proceptor and made so notes on he's data pad of the surgeries he will need to have and his test results. I know all of the new arrives are going to be low on engeron cause they have been wondering around space for a long time It's amazing that they made it here at all and I thank Primus they did.

While Wheeljack finish on Proceptor it was 1300 hours and my next patient to see is Arcee and she was in the waiting area when I came around the corner and told her, you can follow me to bay one. We walked in and I asked her to set up on the berth . I glimpsed over her data pad again then I ask Arcee about what's going on with her left foot. She told me that she was running across the catwalk when she slipped on something and fell down twisting her left foot and slided off the catwalk only to be caught because her foot and was pined between two bars that was stopping her from falling down to certain death. She then said, it wasn't long after that Ultra Magnus had found her and help her get untangled and he then carried back the town of Tacon where they were in hiding in the small under ground bunker before Starscreams second in command of his elite team started dropping bombs on the city then they escaped to the out lints of town and found the Advion. I plug in the machine into her port located on her right arm and read her system reports and it read that she was functioning at 45 percent. It was not as bad as Proceptor was he was at only 39 percent and he has been in and out of recharging mode shortly after arriving here with the others who too have been resting. But, I told Arcee that she need to go and take a hot oil bathe to lucubrate and so it will help clean her joints out of debris then come back to get her the gears in her joints repacked. She had several lesions on her back and her lower left strut was twisted out of alignment and a small cracked in it so she too was dealing with a lot of pain. Before she left I gave her a shot of pain medication to ease her pain and I told her to come back her but if she need help to call me and I'll come and get her and put her in bay one. I will operate on her this week and tonight have her stay here in bay one and get a IV enriched engeron and control her pain with a low dose of pain medication I built the Hot oil bathe system four years ago and I use the purest refine machine oil that I can fine, it was great that the United States supplied us with barrels of it when we need it, now we have from the Advion some cleaning supplies more adapted for our use but we will still be depended on the 40 barrels a month that we get.

1600 hours

I got just about two hours to set in my chair to dowse off and get a little recharge been writing a lot down what's been going on with the new arrivals and looking at their personal system information and their original schematics to see where repairs are need that I can't see from just an examination. And right know I have Hot Rod in bay four and he too has been waiting a few minutes so I'll post more later

okay I'm going to stop it here, next time Ratchet makes more notes on the check up with Hot Rod and he gets done with Hot Rod he goes back to his quarters and falls into a deep recharge.