The Diego Diaries: Okay (dd8 149)
=0=At the Port of Autobot City-Mars, Bureau of Refugees Building, Office 46 A-F
The mech who'd been tazed stared at the officials, then Parable. "What if I don't want to give it?" he asked.
"Oh boy," Ratchet whispered softly.
That was when Springer and Drift caught up with their old Ma.
Ratchet glanced over his shoulder. "Cavalry has arrived."
The two reached him, glanced at the situation, then Ratchet.
"What's going on?" Springer asked as Tell slid out of Drift's carry hold.
Drift handed Tell to Ratchet, then steered him away. Turning toward the still estranged situation, he glanced at the guide. "What's happening, Parable? Do you have a situation?"
"I don't know, Springer," Parable said as he gazed at the incensed mech with anxiety. "He said he might not give his information."
Everyone turned to look at the mech who was building to a big hot blowout. Then everyone turned to look at Springer and Drift. They glanced at each other, then Ratchet standing nearby with their son. Ratchet smiled and waved.
Springer snickered, then turned to the mech. "What's your name, stranger?"
Drift snorted.
Whoopie-tay-yi-yo.
"What if I don't tell you my name?" the 'stranger' asked.
"Then we have to hold you until an identification can be made. If there's warrants on you then you're kept in jail until the grand jury hears your case and decides if there's enough to indict you for whatever is charged. At that point, you'll be in the jail outside of town to wait for your trial or maybe a lock up at the courthouse." Springer glanced at the group with him who were watching warily and silently. "These your people?"
"What if I don't tell you that either?" he said.
"Then I get you," Winnie said. "One way or the other, I always get you."
"His name is Will-M. He's my son," a small older femme said. "Let's go, Will-M."
Will-M glanced at his ada, then the group. "I'm not going to give my data when I get up there. I didn't ask to be here and I don't have to cooperate."
Everyone turned to Springer who glanced back at Ratchet.
Ratchet smiled and waved.
Snickers could be heard as Springer did the math. "Then we have to arrest and hold you. The Prime gives a lot of latitude to refugees given that most of them are tired and upset. I'll give you a chance to mech up and do the process. Your ada, I'm sure, isn't that interested in you being an aft. Help your family and do what you're supposed to do. Jail is a fragged way to start here."
"Will-M, come on. Let's go," another big mech said from the group. "We can talk later."
Will-M who was staring heatedly at Springer glanced at the mech. Then he glanced at Springer. "Frag you." He walked to the line and joined it. Everyone glanced at the Autobots, then the mech. It was tense as hell.
Parable sighed, then nodded to Springer. "I'm going to call your names. Move to the front of the line to the stations when you're called where the technicians and data clerks will take your information. When that clears we'll give you a ride to your new homes where guides will show you what you can do and expect there. Our people are very skilled and important to this process. They used to volunteer to do this and are very dedicated and kind. They're very good individuals. You may not abuse them in any way."
The group stared at him sullenly as Springer ordered Watch mechs to come and help supervise the transport and settlement of this group. He watched them as they were called, then moved forward to the stations ahead. He turned toward Ratchet, then walked to where he stood swaying with Tell in his arms. "What a fragger."
"I'd love to chalk it up to fatigue and slag but something tells me he's like this anyway," Ratchet replied. "How's our little boy?"
"He's a champion," Springer said. "He's doing well in his development. They have a placement for deaf children and the sooner they come the better. I hate it but we're going to put him in the Deaf Ed School in Metrotitan. Its in the tower near ours and a few floors up from where Hero goes. Its a couple of joors every orn so its not too much."
Drift nodded. "We signed him up for the Temple School when he's ready. I think that's the best place for him and we agreed."
"Agreement is good," Ratchet said as he basked in the sweetness of the two hardcore warriors as they discussed preschool for their baby. "I can vouch for the Temple School and the programs they have for special needs are amazing. I was told that Praxus is being pushed for Pioneer School again."
"Praxus," Springer said. "He's too little, right?"
Drift nodded.
"I don't know. Ironhide is up in arms about it. Both of us worry about Orion. He might think he's being passed over or has a problem. His only problem is in processing and expressing language," Ratchet said.
"He's got good reports, right?" Drift asked.
Ratchet nodded. "He's ahead of the curve and I think the only reason he isn't with Hero is his language. Roto can get to him easier at Sparkling Day. They have him individualized to the last dotted 'I'. I think I'm beginning to hate school."
They laughed and watched as the line began to move forward. Keeping their optics on Will-M, they moved forward toward the counter in the now mostly empty room. The others had been taken out and loaded onto buses which would carry them to their homes, almost all of which were in the same building in Crater District 7.
A nervous young femme was poised to take his data. The others had given it but weren't nice about it. She and the several techs looked stressed from their cold and unmannerly manner. "Welcome to Autobot City. I'm Jeen. May I have your designation, city and city-state if applicable?"
Will-M stared at her, then glanced at his ada, a possible atar and brothers who looked just like him. All of them were big and looked strong. "I don't feel like it now. I'm tired and stressed. What about later?"
Jeen stared at him with growing distress, then glanced at Springer who was nearby watching with his own growing angst. "I can't allow you to enter the colony without this information. We use it in the database to help our colony provide for our citizens and to bring missing family together. I do need your information."
Winnie walked up to stand by the counter. "You need to comply. You aren't acknowledged a citizen of Cybertron or the Empire until this happens. How about you comply or I'll have to take you to jail."
Will-M stared at her with her tattoos proclaiming her formidable skills. "I'm a citizen."
"How do we know that? You could be a criminal trying to sneak in. We've had plenty of those before. I don't know what your problem is but it won't be allowed here. Everyone does the same thing. Mech up and do this," Winnie said. She looked like a coiled snake ready to go off at the least possible provocation.
He stared at her, then the pained face of his ada. Glancing at the little femme, he said, "I'm Will-M of Upper Tetrahex."
"Thank you," she said as she entered the data. "Do you have family or are you alone?"
"Family."
"What are their names, cities and city-states if they apply?"
"You already have them."
"I … I don't know which ones."
Silence.
It was instructive how fast Winnie moved as she gripped Will-M's big wrists and slapped energon cuffs on them. She spun him and clasped them behind his back with a loud click. Holding his wrist just so, she pressured enough pain that he froze in place. "It would've been easier and smarter to just comply. Right now, you're going with me."
Two of the mechs who looked like him, his brothers, Cord-D and Mik moved forward toward both of them.
Winnie pulled a tazer which crackled with energy. "I'd stay put."
They hesitated, then stopped.
An older mech and the older femme turned to Winnie. "I would like you to unhand my son," the older mech said.
"Your son is under arrest for failing to comply with the process, creating a disturbance and being a dumb aft," Winnie said. "We ask so little from you and we give so much, it makes me angry that you'd make a scene and distress these good people here. He's going to jail. You can find the numbers of the jail in the Community Bulletin Board in the file named 'Colonial Directory'. Until then, he's mine."
"Unhand him," the older mech said as the two others, sons of his as well it seemed gathered behind him. The elder femme stepped back into a group of femmes who had waited for her at the door. All of them seemed related from the energy that the Autobots were reading.
"If you'd like to join him in jail this is the way to do it," Winnie said. "Stand back and do what you're being asked to do. He's coming with me."
"I would comply. Winnie knows how to make little ones out of big ones," Ratchet said with a grin.
"Who are you?" the older mech asked.
"Why, I'm Ratchet of Iacon. I'm the mommy of half the mechs in this room." He smiled a dazzler. "Oh. You mean WHO am I? I'm the Chief of Medicine for the entire empire, the Secretary of State for the entire empire, the Chief Negotiator for the Primes and the Ambassador Plenipotentiary for the Primes. I also have about 54 children and a few daughters available, all of them good looking straight shooters. Literally." He dazzled them again with a smile.
A guffaw nearby drew their attention as Raptor, Jack and a smiling Sun walked up to the group. Blackjack, Delphi, Turbine who glommed Tell, Hard Drive, Lissie, Scout, Trooper and Steiner were among the imposing figures that gathered around Ratchet.
Ratchet the Empty Handed.
Hardie grinned. "I know you."
The elder mech and femme knew him, too, and didn't hide their displeasure. "We remember you. Unfortunately."
A bellow behind the crowd drew their attention as Ironhide strode up with great offense. Alor was with him and so was Flint. "WHO THE FRAG ARE YOU TO INSULT MY APPA AND AMMA?!" -old mouthy
"Someone who brought the sickness with them," Hardie said. "You do know that The System of Exception is banned here upon penalty of an honor fight with the Prime and Primus Himself."
No one said a word but their expressions said it all.
"I want my son released," the older mech said. "We just got here after being kidnapped from our homes. We didn't ask for this."
"No, you didn't," Hardie said. He glanced at Raptor. "What's happened to their colony, son?"
Raptor glanced at his father, then the older mech. "It's gone."
"What do you mean?" one of the two big mechs asked.
"Harmonics. The guardian of that world created the right frequency to make the colony disappear. Do I have to explain that to you?" Hardie asked calmly. "Its all about sound and physics. Suffice it to say, the entire village, all traces of it disappeared. That's why you were held up, Ratchet. Raptor had to check it out."
"We were standing on the runway by your ship, then everything began to shimmer. It shook a moment, everything, then seemed to burst into nothingness. We explored the area and there's absolutely no trace that anyone had ever lived there. They did it with the other habitat and they did it with yours. You have no home to go back to because they made it go. You were squatting on their land and they removed all traces of it," Raptor said as Steiner nodded.
"It was pretty amazing. Those are very, very advanced individuals there," Steiner replied.
That didn't go over well either.
=0=TBC 4-27-2021