The Diego Diaries: Board (dd6 88) editing needed. :D
-0-At the School Board Executive Session, Metrotitan
She stared up at all of them, a tiny figure among a forest of colossal alien forms. She turned slowly to look at them, the humans who watched her supportively in their silence, then the board themselves. They stared back, a row of brutal appearing machine-like individuals. They were hard core warriors, three of them, all of them fathers themselves. Most of them had only passing knowledge of her and her family though Sunstreaker and Ironhide were very clear what and who they both were. It was very silent in the big room.
:I'm Rain Harris and I made a big mistake. I know you don't have to be lenient with me. I know you have rules and I agreed to follow them. I didn't. The blame belongs only on me. I wanted to share my school life with my friends on Earth and with everyone else too. This has been the most fun and I wish everyone could come. But they can't so I made videos. I'm sorry. I was wrong. But I'm asking for lenience because I don't want to leave my class and have to do detention. My class is fun and the hardest thing I ever did. I like everyone there and would like to have a chance to do it over again. If you could do that I would be grateful. Thank you: she said. She stood there a moment, then walked back to the others. Sitting, she stared at them hopefully.
:How much of that is real and how much for affect?: Sunstreaker asked Ironhide off line.
:Hard to say. I don't want my decision to be made on my anger at her father. Given that you and I are related to one of the victims, we have to step away from this: Ironhide said as he glanced at Sunstreaker. Sunny stared at him, then barely nodded his helm. Ironhide looked at Hugh-E. "Sunstreaker and I have a child in this. We have to recuse ourselves. The rest of you have to make this decision without us. For us to continue would be to have to act around bias and personal interest."
Hugh-E nodded. He looked at the others, then sat back. "Very well." The rest of the board sat quietly discussing things off line as everyone else watched. It was very tense as they waited.
Harris sat beside his daughter watching the mechs with intensity, studying them for tells and other clues. They were as alien a creature as he could imagine even if the setting was about as mundane as any could be. This was a meeting hall for a school board. Oddly enough, this was the first school board meeting he had ever attended and but for the make up of the participants, it could be any such meeting anywhere on Earth. It was discombobulating.
Finally, Hugh-E sat back and the others relaxed. Apparently, a decision was made. Hugh-E looked at Endar and Fenix. "We've reached a decision. Before I tell you what it is, let me inform everyone that the only avenue of appeal is through the Office of the Primes. I'm sure, Endar, that you can help the Harris family write a letter to Prime if they're unhappy with the outcome.
"We have the discretion to find guilt or innocence, then impose, or not, a penalty," Hugh-E began. "It's the finding of this board that you, Rain Harris, be suspended from school for three orns ... days. Three days. We could have imposed a penalty of up to thirty but because you're new and have no other offenses, we're giving you a lighter outcome. You will come to school tomorrow to this building and report to the front desk. They will take you to the Behavioral Center where you will remain for three days, then you will be discharged back to your classroom with a clean slate and the expectation that you learned something here.
"If you appeal to Optimus Prime, he can only excuse a portion of the penalty. You will have to serve no less than one day and no more than the three imposed. I would suggest that you write and send that letter tonight if you wish to seek relief from the sentence within the time frame you're now required to fulfill. It's not the position of this board to punish you, per se. All of us but our youth representatives are fathers. We're here because we love and wish to serve the best interests of children.
"You, on the other hand, stepped over the bounds and we feel that you must repay a debt of trust, then begin again. It's our hope that you will come to school with respect and an attitude of unity, something that's our code and creed. Until all are one, Ms Harris, is our core value." He looked at the two youth reps. "Do you wish to speak?"
Mani looked at him, then Harris. "It feels like entitlement," he said. "We've had enough of that. You're a guest here, even as I would be on Earth. You need to remember that. Some of us have had really hard lives and trust isn't easy for us. You're welcome here but only if you bring respect."
The other youth representative nodded. "I agree. This feels … odd and … I don't know. I don't want you not to be happy here but I also don't want to be … a specimen."
Harris looked at them, then nodded. It was very tense among the humans, some of whom looked embarrassed. Hugh-E rapped the desk. "This outcome is set and can only be amended by the Prime. You're bound to this directive, Ms Harris. If you don't fulfill it, you will be expelled from our school system and returned to your own. When you've fulfilled it, then we're even. Go and sin no more," he said with a grin. "I declare the meeting adjourned."
It was a relief to hear as the humans gathered to go, climbing into their machines nearby. Two walked to Sunstreaker to speak a moment, then touched base with Endar and Fenix before entering the machines. Honking their horns, they drove off for the long, long ride to Earth 1 and Earth2.
Ratchet stood, then grinned. "Well, wasn't that fun."
"No." -everyone there
They walked out together to go back to their lives of work and planning an invasion against an unknown enemy who was holding their people in slavery.
-0-The secondary command center, The Strategic Planning Center, under Ops Center, The Fortress
They sat around the vast space, using its facilities as they went over intel that Jazz, Elita and Mirage had pulled off the databases of the ships and from the memories and recollections of the group they had rescued. Their settlements were very close to the Rifts and the roiling energy that had made the Benzuli in this area so dangerous and unreachable by normal means. They were sheltered by the fear of others to travel there and risk the wrath of the 'Rift Ghosts'. Blackjack and Alor were going over the data and matching it up with their own. Being that they were the 'Rift Ghosts', they had more than a passable working knowledge of the area.
"How come, Appa, you didn't know about these settlements? You're practically on top of each other," Chromia asked as they studied a huge roll up map that was building the picture of the area with every bit of information Jazz downloaded into it.
Blackjack glanced up. "There are unpredictable blasts of energy all over this area. We mapped this area," he said pointing to a vast swath that led into the Barren on one side and the Benzuli itself on the other. "That is, we timed the explosions and found a strange rhythm to them. This area," he said pointing to the location of the three settlements, "is right here by these spatial fractures. The energy that pours out of there appeared to us to be extra-dimensional and therefore, utterly unpredictable and dangerous. I don't know what happened here … perhaps a black hole created this when a star imploded or something else, something worse. We couldn't cross it and we didn't get messaging through it. You have to go a long way around the empire to reach this place and frankly, its too dangerous. I believe this is where Nova Prime went and anything and anyone who goes that way never comes back."
"The D-Void?" Hercy asked as he studied it.
"There's that possibility. This area is unmapped so anything can be there. I don't want to find out. We used this to create our cover and keep out the bad guys. I can only imagine what its like to be this close to all of it. We have to get those settlements but I wouldn't rely on bridges all the way. We had to move out from our own settlements from our own unstable rifts when we bridged out with you so that there wouldn't be an accident. A bridge crossing an energy surge would make a very big kaboom."
"I agree," Perceptor said grimly. "We will have to bring the prisoners away from the area a bit to make it safe to bridge them. Going there by bridge will be possible but we won't be able to get very close. That's the problem with the area and why its blockaded."
"Sounds like fun," Springer said grimly as he sat nearby with Drift. They were considering the design of the teams that might have to fight hand-to-hand in what appeared to be clustered habitation sites that could provide a lot of cover for whoever was facing them. It wasn't going to be fun no matter what they did.
It would be a long afternoon of figuring out what they would do as new information was made available. The complete picture would take until late afternoon.
-0-Earth2, in a palatial office
"Thank you, Endar. I'm very grateful for your assistance," Owen Harris said to the figure of Endar on the monitor. "We await the decision and will abide by whatever comes."
Endar nodded. "I'll let you know. Because I'm your representative, the Prime's Office will notify me directly and I will call you. As it stands, Rain must go to the Behavioral Center tomorrow no matter what."
"We understand. Thank you, Endar," Owen said. Nearby, Rick and Rain sat in chairs looking grim.
"You're welcome, Mr Harris," Endar replied. "Endar, out." The screen reverted to the background images of Earth2 and the NASA and Martian Consortium emblems.
Owen sat back, then turned in his chair to stare at his kids. "Well, tomorrow, you go to the jail school as I heard it called. You really didn't think you could talk your way out of this did you?"
Rain, who was feeling the burn as any pampered 14 year old would. shrugged. "You never know until you try."
"You fucked this up, Rain. You have to make it right. The reputation of the humans on world is great. Don't mess it up," Rick said to his sister with a frown.
She rose to walk to the door, then paused. Turning to face both, she frowned at them. "No pain, no gain. You suddenly care about this sort of thing?"
"We care about fitting in here," Rick said. "If there's going to be a human presence here beyond the most minimal, we all have to make it happen including you. You could've been kicked out of their school."
"Well, they didn't do it, did they," she said with a cold expression. "I'm going to do my homework." She walked out the door and it closed slowly.
"Well, that went terrible," Rick said glancing at his father.
Owen nodded. "That's why I asked your mother to come here to stay. She's the only one who can get Rain to behave." He looked at Rick. "And I do mean behave. All of us."
"When does Cam and the Beliveaus arrive?" Rick asked as his father rose to get a drink.
"Tomorrow," Owen said. He tossed a beer to his son and poured himself a scotch. He grinned slightly. "Your sister is driving me to drink. It's way too early for this."
"That's alright. This is Mars, not Earth. We're making our own rules," Rick said. "Cheers."
Owen clinked his glass against the beer bottle in his son's hand. "Cheers, indeed."
-0-Rain
She walked to the library that was adjacent to the school facility. Entering, she saw her friends sitting at a table working on their homework from Youngling Day. She sat and they huddled.
"What happened?" Jaycee asked.
"I'm suspended for three days unless the Prime cuts it down," Rain replied.
"That sucks," Camilla replied.
Rain pulled out her homework, then nodded. "Tell me about it. You know what's worse? My mom is coming to live here in a few days."
They looked at her, then each other. "Your parents are divorced," Jaycee said.
"It doesn't matter when it comes to Rick and me," Rain said with a pout. "This is going to be like prison."
It was a mopey bunch of girls that sat in the library doing their homework together.
-0-TBC 8-10-17 edited 8-11-17