The Diego Diaries: Meeting Schmeeting (dd6 117)
-0-The Fortress in the big conference room
They stood in the doorway, Ratchet and a fascinated Partition. Ratchet nodded toward a heavily laden table nearby. "Let's get some grub before we go in." They walked to the table, loaded up a plate with pastry, 'fruit' and took a 'tea' into the room. "Why don't you sit there with Hercy and Kup. They can explain things that come up and you can get the word on them from pros."
Partition glanced at the two mechs who were grinning slightly at him from comfortable chairs along the wall. He glanced at Ratchet, then walked over to sit. He looked around, grinned at Ratchet, nodded to the two older mechs, then began to eat his treats. Ratchet with a grin walked to his place at the table to sit next to Ironhide.
Prowl who was syncing agenda datapads glanced at Ratchet. :You brought that stranger in a Partition suit with you, did you, Loon?:
:You're just jealous, you losing whiner. Get your own doppelganger/poltergeist and see what a great idea it is. If I need more tea I have a built-in flunky: Ratchet replied with a grin.
:Yeah. That's why you did this: Prowl said with a knowing smirk as he slid datapads down table. :You needed someone to carry your cup:
:He's about as reformed as he can get at this point and a bit rough around the edges but I'm proud of him. He sincerely wants to be different than he was and fit into the life: Ratchet replied as he counted down the agenda datapad to his own report. Then he gathered information from the data dump at the Med Center to formulate one. :I have my report. I'll give it to Prime later and let you know what's what when its my turn:
:You didn't get it together did you: Prowl said as he stared at Ratchet with a smirk.
Ratchet smirked back. :Bingo:
More mechs and femmes walked in to take their seat, some of them nodding or grinning at Partition. He nodded back, his excitement and interest at an all time high. These were the real deal, these mechs and femmes, the ones who ran the colony and protected it with their amazing skills and courage. He was here and it was almost overwhelming for him.
:We keep the secrets, infant: Hercy said as he glanced at Partition. :This is the trust zone:
Partition nodded. :I understand, Abba:
Hercy patted Partition's leg. :I know you do: he said.
Partition would replay this exchange a few times before filing it away.
Prime entered, nodded to everyone including Partition, then took his place. "Is everyone here?" he asked.
Prowl glanced around. "Mostly. Springer and Drift are coming," he said as he leaned forward to spot them in the rec room. "Call them in please, Elita."
Elita leaned out the door. "HEY! GET IN HERE! MOM SAYS SO!"
Huge laughter greeted that as everyone glanced at Prowl who was frowning at Elita. The two entered, slapped servos with Elita, then sat in the usual place, the other side of Partition. The kid was seated between heroic mechs and his spark fluttered with excitement and joy.
"Let's get this goat rodeo on the road," Prowl said. "Jetta, your assessment please."
Jetta grinned at Prowl, then took the datapad his brother, Mack, gave to him. "Well, we seated everyone in the first city of the new construction in the Crater District. We can house between 5-7 million individuals there when its fully utilized. Right now, we've consolidated everyone into a manageable area. When the cities are named, we can make it more homey but for now, the entire group is settled and incredibly happy and appreciative. We have a meeting Martian Friday to settle the next building phase here, the construction review requests from Earth and for different businesses that want to build service oriented operations on the TransWorld Highway. There's also the first reading of the space station that we plan to build in deep space. We have diagrams and plans from war worlds that we're modifying so its going to take a few orns longer than planned. When we have the plan crafted, then we can present it to you, Optimus."
Prime nodded. "Very well. Thank you for the effort with the new refugees. I want their comforts assured. What about their dead?"
Jetta looked at his datapad. "We have a large number of individuals who will be re-interred at the Mausoleum. The Temple and Monastery have stepped up to accord the honors," he said as he glanced at Prime. "There are few words they can muster to form the thanks that they want to extend to you, Optimus, for allowing this to happen. It would have been unbearable for them to leave their deceased family and friends behind."
Prime nodded. "Where we can, we will."
Jetta nodded. "The Mausoleum can accommodate them but we have to plan for a further internment site given that we've grown so much and changed the math of future projections. We have a site planned near the Crater District. It's a sloping hillside that would be terraced. We'll let you know as soon as feasibility plans are finalized. It's not so far from here and the Temple will share maintenance with the local clubs and City Works. We can support it and the other buildings and sites all together."
Prime nodded. "Thank you. I worried about that a bit."
"It's in hand," Jetta said as Mack nodded. "I would also like to say that the Performing Arts Center of Autobot City is signed off and ready to open. The different companies and schools have moved in and the entire facility is turned over to Scout and Trooper. They couldn't be here because of something that had to be ironed out about the different schools and who would direct them. Show biz people. They're not like you and me."
"That's my genitors you're talking about, infant. Your in-laws, maybe. I, however, agree with you completely," Alor said with a grin. Laughter accompanied that admission. "They can't get over the place. They actually have a little apartment to sleep in if they want. I'm going to have them catered by Vos Senior Center until the cafes and restaurants come on line. We may have to issue crowbars to the family to get them out of there from time-to-time."
"That's the last thing to finish, Amma. They want the 'cuisine' to be up to the surroundings. Rampage is designing it and I sincerely hope that they have normal food too. That place is halfway between the Industrial Park Cities and everywhere else. I'd love to have a convenient place to pop in for lunch that serves something that isn't too … abnormal to eat," Jetta said with a chuckle.
"Good luck," Alor said with a grin. "My genitors are adventurous in every possible way."
"I hated eating dinner at their house," Ironhide said as he remembered some of the food they laid on. "It wasn't that it was slop. It was just … high tone and weird sometimes."
Jetta nodded. "I'll check the menus myself. All in all, Optimus … we're going great guns. The construction on Cybertron is picking up now that we've worked out the food supply system. More of the titans are creating construction materials and the distribution supply lines are a lot straighter. We still have to send some under guard in the most outlying areas but otherwise, we're good. Last time I checked, Iacon was 22% rebuilt and the camps have actually shrunk down a bit."
That was greatly received, then Prowl soldiered on. "Ratchet? How about you next? Especially since you don't have a report to give prepared."
Chuckles greeted that as Ratchet smirked at Prowl. "Well, since you asked so nicely … we have very few problems in this group. They were in good shape but for a few that were burned or harmed in the takeover. That was a good thing. The health, not the burns," he said to snickers all around. "It also allowed my student doctors and others who need more experience to manage the refugees. As for the colony itself … we've discovered another resistant strain of protoform wasting. We're working on a countermeasure but its going to take time. Those affected are holding on with the usual cures and a few measures from the hedge doctor's bag of tricks.
"There were several serious injuries in the rescue armada including two Seekers that won't be soldiering further. I'm hoping that you can manage that sad news, Starscream and Elder, so that they can feel good about themselves anyway. We have injuries with four mechs in the hospital. Three will be released shortly but the last one … we're trying to figure out how to repair his flight mechanisms. They took heavy fire. Prosthetics is working on some very advanced tech which we'll try on this patient. I'm hopeful that they get their flight back on with it. They won't soldier but they should be able to fly again.
"We finished our physicals in the schools including the University and find among the sparkling group that we have only 10% or so of our population with any kind of lingering traumatic physical condition that requires home schooling and home support by both the schools and medical. Our intention long term is to get them into the schools even if for a few joors a day with the smallest number possible never reaching full inclusion. Our mental health population includes a number of children who are full time in the Processor Health Hospital as well as home school. They all meet with counselors and counseling groups daily for both individual and family counseling with the hope that we can help them back into the system again.
"The courier-trap problem here has been totally eradicated with any newcomers being scanned as they reach immigration for processing. On Cybertron, 69% of the planet has been scanned and there has been about 2-3% of them found with it. They're almost exclusively former Decepticons," Ratchet said. "We hope to have the problem eradicated entirely by Thanksgiving. We have teams roving out over Cybertron who have nothing more to do than find this virus and take it out. Along the way, they also send information to the district centers to have medical and other services delivered to local areas still in need They're still finding those who don't know things have changed and are in hiding, some of them in very bad shape. All of those are transported to Gliese.
"I have a proposal for Gliese as well. If we have another migration from Atlas and it turns out to be as healthy and well as the last two, then perhaps a couple of the big ships there can be turned to making things for Cybertron that are needed. Medical and consumer goods items, perhaps. Gliese is closer and they have a reduced need to be a medical receiver thus far If the support we've given Atlas at his camps at the gathering areas have helped turn the problem around, then maybe one or two of the titans on Gliese can be used for other things. I've talked to them and even though they're medical mechanisms, they want to help any way they can."
Prime glanced at Prowl. "What do you think?"
"I'd have to go there and talk to them. Maybe even go out to Atlas and see what he thinks. We have preliminary information that two big groups are being put together. Maybe Ratchet and I can go see him and get his views on this as well as a medical report from the teams on site," Prowl said. "I have no problem utilizing them otherwise. I'd just have one if a migration had a lot of problems."
"We can use the bridges to more greatly support Atlas, sending our people and supplies to him to help get the refugees up to par out there. It really helps us at this end if there was more of that out there. We can also take the worst cases at that point rather than wait for them to come here," Ratchet said.
Prime nodded. "Then you and Prowl need to go out and make an assessment. I want to know what we can do to help him at the staging areas. If we can work out what we actually still need, we can help Cybertron."
Prowl glanced at Ratchet. "After the meeting?"
Ratchet nodded. "I'm good to go. That's my report by the way except to say that the twinnies are speaking again but they still sign. All in all, their audials are functioning at 100%"
Congratulations and relief filled the room for a moment, then Prowl nodded to Starscream. The big Seeker glanced at Rainmaker. The Great Elder looked at Prime. "All of this group is invited to the Great Convocation of the Youth this weekend. We are going to hold it 500 miles from here. We intend to bring our youth and any adults who weren't given this ceremony into adulthood. We are hopeful that you will do us the honors."
Prime nodded respectfully. "Short of nuclear attack, we shall be there. Thank you for the honor of being included. This is a remarkable time to be a Seeker."
Rainmaker nodded. "It is."
Starscream smirked. "Or as its known among us … Martian Monday."
HUGE laughter greeted that as Rainmaker guffawed. He grinned at Starscream, then looked at Prime. "I shall send you the coordinates."
"Thank you, Elder. I look forward to this more than you can know," Prime said.
"Our Home Guard Armada has passed every measure we have laid out for their training. They have joined the regular air force to do more of the patrols in the local cluster including those entailing hot spots of contention. So far, they have met and exceeded every measurable expectation."
"Can it be any other way?" Arcee asked with a grin.
"No," Starscream said to great laughter. "The expansion of Aerie Hill to the top and down the other side of the Great Escarpment is highly anticipated and the designs are expected to show the beauty of our district to its greatest effect."
"I can't wait to see it. I'd love to have an apartment on top of the hill myself," Elita said with a grin.
"You're too late," Starscream said as everyone laughed. "However, my door is open any time for visitors."
Laughter, then the business reports began. Ratchet sat back, then glanced at Partition. He was leaning toward Hercy who was whispering in his audials. He looked content and attentive. He probably was the only one there that was but it made Ratchet ridiculously happy. He turned back to Caro who was outlining some such slag and like everyone else there, he put on his attentive face, then turned back to the important stuff.
Tetras.
-0-TBC 9-4-17 edited 9-5-17