The Diego Diaries: Moving On (dd8 142
Note: I got so sick last night I almost heard the Matrix calling. I don't know what it was. I think its gathered up fatigue from the dogs getting up and down all night long. BUT I'M BACK! Lordy, it was so bad last night. I don't think I've been sick in 45 years. Teaching kids makes you immune for just about everything like forever. HERE WE GO!
=0=There
They sat around the fire pit waiting for anyone in the colony who wanted to signal their willingness to leave. It was silent a moment, then Raptor glanced at Prime. "We're getting signals."
Prime leaned over to peer at the handheld and sure enough, there were a few, then many starting to show up on the monitor. For a moment there was a flood, then it stopped. He stood, then downloaded the information into his internal systems. He then sent a message to those who had pinged back. :Please come to the road leading to our camp. I would like to talk to you about your decision. I applaud you and welcome you as the leader of our people. We have spent all of our time and energy searching for everyone everywhere they are lost. Please, come to me and we can talk about this situation. Thank you: He signed off, then looked at the group. "Warlord, Raptor, Lissie, Jack, Magnus and Ratchet … come with me. The rest of you wait." With that, he began to walk toward the colony.
Dev watched them go, then glanced at the mechs. "All of you stay here and await my signal. I'm going to map this and if I call for you come to the places I tell you. No firing, no show. Hide. Understood?"
Everyone nodded, then watched as Dev walked to the trees and almost immediately disappeared. It would be a tense wait for all of them.
=0=Waiting at the place of meeting
They began to come, a few, then many. All of them were tentative and grim looking, youngish, some of them, and tense. They came and began to gather several meters from Prime. As they did soldiers from their side stepped out of the woods with their guns. One of them walked to the group. "What are you doing here? Leave," he said.
A femme, youngish and tall turned to him. "We want to talk to him. We want to know what he's got to say."
"Reset won't like this a bit," the mech said.
"I don't care," a youngish mech replied. He glanced at Prime and his party. "We want to hear what you say."
Prime nodded. "I am glad you do. We have retaken Cybertron and are rebuilding it. But there are refugees in the millions who do not have safety and care. We have been hunting for them, ourselves, the Network and the Knights. We have located millions and are bringing them to safety on a world that we have discovered that contains almost unimaginable amounts of energon. There, we have built a colony that we showed you in the videos. Did you see them?"
The group nodded. Some of them stared at him warily, as if trying to detect the lie he might be spinning. Others looked desperate with hope.
"That world is available for you. We have created the world everyone deserves and we live there, former Decepticons, Seekers, Autobots and civilians in peace. Its a beautiful world where families are being created and regrouped. We have elders and clans of all the different groups. You can do whatever work you wish, learn to do whatever you wish and be safe. We have universities, amenities of all kinds and our professional army and air force protects us orn and night. You do not have to be afraid any longer or feel the constraints of your situation. I can only imagine how limited your possibilities are here," Prime said.
The femme nodded. "We have only each other and we've been here forever. I can't imagine a world with 250,000,000 Cybertronians. I can't imagine being able to move about freely," she said. "You say the System is over."
Prime nodded. "It is. We have had Primal Hearings with Special Circumstances. Do you know what those are?"
"You try bad criminals, the worst. Then the Pantheon can weigh in on the verdict," an older mech said as an older femme beside him nodded. "They can take any measure They feel They need to do to make balance. The Matrix always seeks and makes balance."
Prime nodded. "In the last few the Pantheon weighed in personally."
The group stared at him with surprise but said nothing. It did, however, raise the timbre of the moment.
"Primus Himself appeared in several. In one He said that the System of Exception was over and if anyone continued to demand or utilize it they would have to have a contest with Him over that offense. I will leave it to you what He means by that. He said He was tired of receiving babies and children at the Matrix. Several of those here were with me. They can attest to the truth of what I say."
Ratchet and Raptor nodded.
"You can say anything, Prime," another older mech said.
"He bears the Matrix. The Matrix won't allow lies," Lissie said. "You've been away a long time. The Pantheon looks over this Prime. They stand by him and call him brother. It would do you well to remember that."
It was silent, then the young femme stepped closer. "What does that mean to us? Its been our way forever."
"It means you come to the colony because Cybertron is not fit to receive refugees yet. You will go through the Port and be taken in hand by the Bureau of Refugees. They will take your information and check you medically. Your desires for work, if any, at this moment will be taken down and then you will be shown to your new home. Everyone in the colony lives in a high end apartment that meets the needs of the size of their family. You have seen the images. Yes?"
She nodded.
"You will have time to look around, see what the place is like, then begin whatever it is you wish. The Employment Bureau will help you find the job you want or the training program that you need. That includes adult education. No one is ashamed to get what they want. If you wish to help your family or raise your children, you may. Every child must go to school up to the sub adult stage.
"You will find that no one cares nor checks your caste markings. No one cares. What they care about is your intentions, your point of view about belonging together as it always should have been. You cannot expect caste expectations to be met any longer. I have issued a Primal decree that if anyone does they must honor fight me."
The group stared at Prime who was a colossus to all of them, he and the big mechs with him. It would be suicide for anyone short of Megatron to try.
"What would happen if we can't … do what you said?" the femme asked.
"You will be arrested and charged for any offenses that you make trying to utilize these behaviors. The penalties range from disturbing the peace all the way to treason and honor fights with me," Prime said.
The group absorbed that as some of them shifted with anxiety at the news.
The femme stared at him thoughtfully. "I want to go. There's no way this place will let us stay. What they haven't told you is that the butterflies are sending sound waves toward us that disrupt our internal communications systems. Its an irritating sound and they don't do it often or long but if its done long enough it harms us. Its like a signal to us to go. The elders and our leaders, some of the younger mechs, they want to stay. I feel it, too, but we have to go. I think they're done with us now that you're here."
"We've done some science here, infant," Ratchet said as he stepped closer to the group. "There's some kind of effect going on here that makes you want to stay. We feel it slightly but the aliens with us, small organics, decided almost at once to come here and build an empire. The feelings of staying aren't natural. Its okay to like this place. I do. But the hard helmed feelings you have, they aren't real. They're some kind of effect of the hive mind of the species here. We've narrowed it down to the fungi and the butterflies. They work together to live and I think a byproduct is intense harmony and connection to this place."
The group stared at him for a moment, then turned toward each other to discuss things off line. It was silent, a kind of peacefulness that was harmonious and loving. It had arisen around them as they spoke.
Ratchet glanced at Prime. "Feel that?"
Prime nodded.
The group turned to Prime. "What would we have to do?"
"You would have to pack up whatever you want to take no matter how cumbersome or difficult. We are skilled at transport and I believe that you should have the things you wish to take. The group we've already transported took everything but the shells of their housing. Bring your dead as well. We want you to have familiar comforts in your new life."
"Do you feel what I feel?" Ratchet asked as he moved closer to the group. He scanned them. They were registering high levels of substances produced by their bodies that led to well being among their kind. Their systems were experiencing the effect of their surroundings and the newly emitted feeling of loving well being surrounding them.
They nodded.
"What is that? Its new," the femme asked as she stepped forward to look at Ratchet's scanner.
"That's the hive mind sending you soothing energy to help you with the difficulty of this decision. You do understand that you've been living in a soup of their communications and emotions. A lot of what you feel will disappear when you leave the influence of this place. I also think that the hive mind is sending you what it qualifies as love," Ratchet replied. "They want you to be happy and squatting here in an ever shrinking space is not going to cut it."
They stared at him, then each other.
"The others are hardcore about this. They want everyone to stay," a mech said. "Reset is adamant. He also won't take to the System being outlawed."
"What about you?" Ratchet asked.
He stared at Ratchet, then the others. "I'm … I don't know. I just know with what you showed us that I can't stay here. This place has no future."
The others nodded.
"Then what I need you to do is go back and convince them to leave. The entity that the hive mind generates has spoken to me. I meditated upon this problem at the Temple on Mars and we met. He's a very loving presence who wants your greatest good. That is all he wants. He holds no malice toward you but he hopes you will see the sense of it and leave. It hurts the species here, your presence, and he does not believe that you will thrive here," Prime said.
"You have a Temple there and the relics. Are they real?" a femme asked.
"They are," Raptor said. "The Pantheon and Primus favors Prime so much that Primus restored them to the Temple on Cybertron at Simfur, too. Both temples, the one in Simfur and the one on Mars have the relics."
"How?" a surprised mech asked.
"They're multiversal singularities. They exist in all universes at the same time, the same way Primus and the Pantheon do. Because They favor this Prime, They did this for him and our people, allowing Them to exist in both places for our comfort. We're blessed with this Prime," Lissie said. "Understand me, femme," she said as she stepped closer to the youngster. "You've been living here alone too long. The Pantheon won't allow us to harm each other anymore. We miss you and want you to be safe. Come home with us. Go and tell them. They saw the videos, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"Then go and HELP them. Show them we want and need them. Tell them that home is waiting. We're waiting with our arms wide open. You can bring the barn with you if you want. We can haul it all away for you to have when you get home. No one has to suffer to come with us."
They stared at her a moment, then Prime. Nodding slightly, the femme turned around and began to walk back. One by one, the rest joined her to disappear into the gathering night.
"Well, let's hope someone has a clear processor," Ratchet said quietly.
Prime nodded. "I hope so, too."
=0=TBC 4-20-2021
ESL:
constraint/constraints: limits, limitations
growing up, we used timbre to mean this: 'raising the timbre' meant the emotions and/or tensions rose