The Diego Diaries: Visitin' (dd8 169)
=0=Waiting
It was getting late in the command center as they waited for the next round of negotiations. Ratchet was contacting them every joor, a length of time which would begin to shorten until they were talking every half breem. As he sat waiting for the next chat, he slid a computer over, logged into the medical nexus of Teletraan, then downloaded the data he took from the refugees heading to the buses that had gone to the Temple and Monastery. The information which had a number of babies and children included input to the proper sector and when it did red flags and alerts popped up.
Startled a moment, Ratchet began to run the data, then set it to compile. The information he'd gotten from the original contact taken when the refugees had walked past him to board ships to leave was also there so he set it on the same task. It flashed alerts and pop ups as well. Frowning, he opened them and read the data. Glancing at Prowl and Prime, he considered the problem before them. "We have a situation here," he said.
-Moments later
"What do you want to do about this?" Prime asked.
"We need to have Wheeljack and Perceptor here and we have to get their doctors or doctor in as well to discuss this," Ratchet said. "I think its imperative that we do this now and get the ball rolling."
"Very well," Prime said as he cut the line open for Ratchet to join. "Do what you have to do."
Ratchet linked himself in, then made a general call off line. :This is Ratchet of Iacon. I'm asking for the attention of your medical personnel, doctors, nurses or techs. I've gone over the medical data I took when I scanned you during the exit of Meadow Lands and from those boarding buses just now to go to sanctuary sites. We took the data because we want everyone to have whatever treatments or procedures they need to be optimal even during this. I'd like to discuss this with your medical staff so we can move forward on this for your people, especially your children and babies. Please identify yourselves now:
Ratchet waited, they all waited until finally the spokesman voice was back. "What do you want with our people and what is this about?"
The voice came over the intercom but Ratchet held it off line for privacy reasons. :I need to coordinate my findings with your medical personnel regarding the health of your children and babies as well as your elders. Many refugees arrive here with health issues and we want to ensure that your people aren't among them. I wouldn't call about this if it wasn't absolutely imperative:
It seemed to take forever before another different voice was back. "This is Stint. What is the issue here?"
:The issue is the health and well being of your most vulnerable populations. Come here. I've asked Lady Sela to meet you there, bring you here, then escort you back. Come now and let's talk about this. I think you already know what I mean:
It was silent, then the voice replied, "I will come and leave with Lady Sela."
-Half a breem later
They walked in with a couple of Autobots, Lady Sela and Stint. He was a very handsome and elegant figure with an impeccable protoform and a grim expression. Everyone stood for Sela, then everyone sat. Wheeljack and Perceptor, Prowl and Prime, the elders of Ironhide's family and Ironhide himself sat or stood around the room with other soldiers and Seekers, many but not all of which were part of the situation. It was silent a moment.
"I'm here."
Ratchet considered the big mech, then hit him with a scan. Glancing at the data, he looked at Stint. "You have a number of mineral deficiencies that are important. All of your people do. Explain your energon situation please. Its important."
Stint considered that. "We made our own both from sunlight and the minerals found on the planet. We had a quarry from which we made everything including food."
"You can make energon out of anything, even some things with marginal value," Ratchet replied. "I'm a master metallurgist myself. I know how these things work and chemist enough to know why they might fail sometimes. Your quarry was your own source of material for energon. Correct?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"You were quarrying it a long time. I found it interesting how deep you were going given that your space was restricted to the bubble. You played out your quarry then," Ratchet stated rather than asked.
"We used what we had," Stint replied.
Ratchet nodded. "I know. When we get refugees here they tend to trend similar diseases and deficiencies when they have no food or food of poor quality. I imagine that you had good quality energon for a while but the deeper you went, the poorer the base materials to make good nutritious energon became. I'm clear on that."
Stint was silent as he stared at Ratchet, studiously ignoring everyone else. Everyone else was studiously studying him.
"Sometimes the deficiencies are so severe that they have pretty dire consequences for those involved. Your infant and child population is pretty stable in numbers given the time you've been stranded. It didn't seem to be as big a population given your time there that would be expected. I'd like to know how many children and babies have died there, especially those that didn't reach separation?" Ratchet asked.
Stint stared at him. "Why?"
"It's my considered opinion and my opinion is considerable that the deficiencies have led to a high mortality rate for your people for successful separations and infants in the first year of their lives. I also found that the children that have survived have overall smaller size and decreased function of their bodies. You have a lot of kids with disabilities. You also have lots of kids with lower processor functional levels than they should be. Your elders show impairment as well but not to the degree as your children. How many children have died because of the lack of proper nutrition?" Ratchet asked.
Stint stared at him. "What are you getting at? What impairments?"
"All of your children are smaller and underdeveloped physically than children should be at their age. All of them display lower rates of processor development than they should and they all have protoform wasting, something that is a direct result of malnutrition."
"Our children are fed well," Stint countered.
"But food that's lacking in the basics, the building blocks that support health and wellness. They're in dire need, some of them. I respect that you were not able to make this work better than you did and that you were trapped in your cage. But now isn't the time to argue over this. Your children need to be given care and treatment immediately. Its my guess that over the most recent past you've had little to no infants make it to separation. Tell me where I'm wrong," Ratchet said.
It was silent, then Stint leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. "I'm not a doctor. I took on the roll because there was a need. I'm not up on the latest techniques. I do this to the best of my ability because it had to be done."
"No one is blaming or second guessing you. You were trapped in a cage. It was bound to happen at some point. The energon you made wasn't up to the task. I'll tell you that the protoform wasting I'm seeing here is a new strain. I don't have any treatment on the books that will meet it." He glanced at Wheeljack and Perceptor who were listening with grave expressions. "I have the data here," he said handing a data wafer to Percy. "Make this a number one priority item. We need a protocol immediately."
Percy took it, then nodded. "We will." He looked at Stint. "I am Perceptor of Crystal City and this is my bond, Wheeljack of Polyhex. We will make this a priority but we may need some of the children to examine. A sample of their energon and scans of their protoforms will be necessary if we're to determine what this is and how to attack it. Protoform wasting can kill them. It makes their frames dissolve if left fully untreated."
Stint flinched slightly. "We had no idea what was happening. Its only been over the past 3 or 400 years. What …" He looked sick for a moment. "We did what we could with what we had. We haven't had a successful separation in the colony all that time."
"We will do this. We need a contact person to go back and convince them to help us. We aren't the enemy," Ratchet said gently. "Help us help you. We need to get all the children and elders out of there and while that's happening, I'll go over the data to figure out what the adults are experiencing. Staying where you were would've been a death sentence in the long run for everyone."
Perceptor stood with Wheeljack, then walked out to go to Sciences and figure out with their smart kids in chemistry and medical what the frag was going on. Developing protocols to treat protoform wasting had come a long way in the colony and Cybertron but a new strain was going to be a task and a half to figure out.
Ratchet glanced at Sela. "Perhaps you can get Stint back so he can convince his group to do that right thing here. The flags that popped up when I ran the data don't lie."
Sela rose, then glanced at Stint. "Come with me. I will help you."
Stint who was staring at Ratchet rose. He hesitated, then followed her out the door.
It was silent a moment, then Prime leaned forward to glance down table at Ratchet. "How dire is this, Ratchet?"
"As dire as I've ever seen, Optimus," Ratchet said grimly. He rose. "I have to get the Medical Center and the Children's Long Term Treatment Center in Pax ready to take them. We have 101 children on the list." With that, he hurried out of the room to make things happen.
It was silent again. Then Prowl sat back tiredly. "This is a terrible development."
Prime nodded. "Maybe it will be enough to end this."
=0=A joor later
Stint walked out of the Tomsa Tower leading a number of mechs and femmes who carried children, some of them small and frail looking, wrapped in blankets and coverings. They climbed into buses which pulled out heading for the trauma center in Pax and the Med Center in Autobot City.
Groups came from the other towers, adults carrying children and babies. All of them looked fearful as they climbed onto buses to leave. By the time they boarded and pulled out, 237 more individuals were removed from the problem including all of the children who were still here. The children at the Monastery and Temple were on their way as well driven by buses from both places.
Everyone was converging on the hospitals.
=0=The Children's Long Term Treatment Center, Pax, Terra District, Mars
The buses pulled in led by Watch patrol cars with lights flashing. Trauma teams were waiting at the emergency room doors with gurneys for patients and techs ready to run deep data on all of the patients. Watch and Autobots were there with weapons sheathed, ready to provide security and quell any problems that might occur. Ironhide and Blackjack were in charge of the situation there and watched nearby as Gypsy ran the operation as director of the emergency response here.
Babies and children were placed on the gurneys including about half a dozen frail appearing elders, then rushed inside. The buses continued to empty as fit and fearful adults carried their frail cargo out to assistance in the bright lights of the entrance. It was evident short of someone flipping out over really bad news that the focus of the adults here, mech and femme were their family members.
Blackjack and Ironhide along with soldiers and police followed the last group inside the building as the buses with their own flashing lights began to pull out to go back to their respective dispatches.
=0=Autobot City Medical Center, Autobot City, Mars in the well lit darkness
They came, those buses directed to come here. Filled with fearful refugees and their ailing family, they came down the steps to place their loved ones on gurneys. Hurrying in with the techs and doctors that were attending, they were directed toward their respective examination rooms by Ratchet. It was noisy and emotional inside as the experts hurried to help the patients coming in.
Helping with them were a number of children, all of them from the Watch Auxiliary who would be very helpful in the crisis they had at hand. Children helping children was gold.
=0=TBC 05-21-2021