The Diego Diaries: Onward Ho (dd6 139) needs editing :D
-0-Moving on
They walked with ill grace to the jail at the Courthouse passing no one in the darkness of the evening. The streets were pretty much empty this late and the two were spared the humiliation of being seen in cuffs and custody. The train system that ran between the Courthouse, its jail, the brig in The Fortress and the Prison, a dedicated travel system for criminals only, wasn't running from The Fortress at the moment. That area was getting an electrical upgrade, too, and the debris of tunneling had to be piled somewhere. It was cold, the sky was clear and filled with stars twinkling in the deeply black velvet of space. Lights from ships and all the different satellites of all manner could be seen slowly crossing overhead. Neither moon was in view as they sped on their ever fluctuating orbits of the planet.
Momus and Sherma walked past businesses sullenly, stomping along with a collection of amused Watch mechs including Springer and Drift. Hercy and Kup came along for the lulz, though both of them were due back at the Valles for fun. That included Magnus. The Pit Stop was going great guns as the drunk-hopeful-to-be-sober crowd and those on night shifts or leaving swing stopped in for breakfast-lunch-dinner. Light spilled out of the big windows of the big restaurant as they clipped along. Light poles were spaced apart along both sides of the eight lane highway that serviced the area and gave illumination to a wide open space that had a surplus of area for the airport next to it.
Hangars flooded light outward, though a couple were darkened as the inhabitants recharged inside. Ships moved here and there, their running lights bright in the night. Huge banks of lights spaced around the airport lit it up in the darkness. There was noise, conversations, shouts between workers leading, guiding or working on ships all over the area. The sound of welding poured out of a workshop they passed, its many windows throwing square pools of light on the ground.
The other side had businesses of many kinds and a number of storage places that handled both commercial and private inventory. The Courthouse loomed ahead and beyond it, the lighted space and enormous domed shapes of the Hu-An Habitat and that of N.E.S.T. Beyond, down a side street was the enormous compound of IntraCom with the original building since expanded several times and five big buildings beyond that which were sound stages for their broadcast, film and television industries. Everything that was produced here, music, television and movies utilized this area. With the inclusion of the Performing Arts Center, the possibilities for production expansion and support were unending.
They walked toward the Courthouse, then along the side street where all criminals began their journey into the Care of the State. A trio of vehicles were lined up in the parking lot next to the entrance to the jail waiting to go to bring in prisoners from all over the colony. Two were already out doing just that. Entering, they waited at the door while two mechs inside raged at each other. Neither of them were in cuffs but Springer stepped forward ready to do the deed. "What's going on here?" he asked.
Then the full fire and outraged outrage turned from each other to Springer. They began to back him upward toward a nearby wall. It was amusing for everyone, especially Sherma and Momus.
"BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
Then the two doubled over. Hercy, who had turned down the gain on his shock device, glanced at Springer. "Your turn, infant," he said as he stepped back. Kup smirked, everyone smirked, Drift tried not to and their two criminals doubled over with laughter.
"YEAH, SPRINGER! THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT! THE SHRIMP SHOWED YOU!" Momus said as he howled with laughter. Then he wasn't. Lying on the floor twitching, he gazed at Hercy with outrage anyway. Sherma stepped back eyeing the little mech with loathing.
Springer chuckled, then glanced at Hercy. "Is he safe to touch yet?"
"You're grounded aren't ya?" Hercy asked with a slight grin.
"I am now," Springer said as he dragged Momus to his peds. Electricity flashed through him, then grounded through Springer. He came to his senses slowly. "Let's book 'em."
The other two were dragged into a holding cell nearby to be judged by mechs and Primus later when they stopped twitching. The other two were steered before the 'Master of the Deck' as he was called by those who liked him and a select set of other names by those who didn't. They stood before the slightly bored looking Intake Sargent who stared at them with a slightly jaded optic. "Names."
"FRAG YOU!" Momus said as he swayed in custody.
The Sargent stared at him, then began to type on the computer in front of him. "Mr. Frag You." Huge laughter erupted as he glanced at Hercy. "Taze him until he gives me his data."
"Don't mind if I do," Hercy said as he unsubbed his prod.
Momus glanced at him with alarm. "That's not in the rule book."
"Being a secret Decepticon behind our backs is?" Drift asked with a smirk.
"NAME!" the Sargent asked in his usual delicate manner.
"MOMUS!"
"Where from?"
"HELEX!"
"Occupation if you have one, slagger. By the way, I have no problem hearing but I do like a good electrocution," he said as he glanced pointedly at Hercy. That mech flipped up the device from subspace and the two prisoners stepped sideways.
Momus glared at Hercy, then the Sargent. "I will have you know … I was the senator from Helex."
The Sargent stared at him with a deadpan expression, then looked at his screen. "On the pad*," he said though he wrote Senator down. "Next of kin, bonds, family?"
"My bond is in a settlement that you're never going to reach," Momus said with satisfaction. "So are my three kids, my genitors, his genitors, my brothers and sister and their families … my grandgenitors and several family friends. My aunts and uncles, all my cousins..."
"What's the name of the colony?" Hercy asked with a grin at the smug slagger with the great paint scheme and striking red face.
"Bolus 7," he said smugly.
"By Aviator 6, out by the big nebula?" Springer asked with a smirk.
Momus glanced at him with a wary expression. "Maybe."
"That's on the list to gather up isn't it, Springer?" Kup asked around his stogie. "I saw the list. I think Aviator 6 and the other three settlements out there are on the pick up list shortly. Remember?"
Springer nodded. "Yeah. My old pa and appas are slated to pick them up shortly. That far city in the Crater District is where they're supposed to be housed. Should I tell them that you're in the prison when we go, Momus? I'm sure your grandgenitors would love to know that you're safe."
Momus glared daggers at the pair, then the Sargent began to murmur as he typed. "Bond … three kids …" He paused. "What was the rest of it?" he asked with a guileless stare though he and the recording system taping everything got it down already.
"YOU FRAGGER! ALL OF YOU!" Momus said with heat. "Figure it out yourselves."
"Offenses?" the Sargent asked without batting an optic.
"To be determined. He's on a Primal hold at the moment," Springer said. "Arraignment is in the morning."
The Sargent nodded, then turned his optics on Sherma. "Name, if you can spare it."
"Sherma of Iacon."
"Where in Iacon?" Kup asked just because.
"Translucentica Heights, if you must know," he said with The Sneer.
The room went cold as everyone felt It, the divide over which their side wasn't allowed to cross. It was a good thing for the High Castes, too, that they couldn't or they would have been parted out eons ago.
"I think I robbed houses in the Heights," Drift said. "Too bad the twins aren't here. I imagine they could tell stories. Which house was yours?"
Sherma stared at him with a cold stare. "The best one."
"I robbed that one. What about you, Roadie?" Drift asked to be ornery.
He nodded. "I robbed it. So did the twins. They told me. They said they only robbed the best houses anywhere so they got yours too, Sherma."
"I did, too," Lorn, a Home Guard kid who had never been to Cybertron said. He looked at the others who he worshiped like the gods he considered them to be. "I robbed it, too."
Everyone there who knew him as the carefully raised, sweet kid of religious genitors who worked in broadcasting nodded. "Good on you, infant," Hercy said. "I'd have robbed it, too, but I was fighting the 'Cons around the edge of the Empire. You'll have to tell me the tale over a high grade."
"Mech has skills and stories," Kup said as he looked at the cygar in his servo. "That makes him a good prospect. Takes nerves of steel to rob the best house in Translucentica Heights. That place was like a prison for rich people. 5,000 of the worst 'best' people lived there. How many of your 55 relatives lived there with you, Sherma? You know Sarge, here, is going to ask."
Huge laughter erupted as Drift slapped the kid on his back. If he could have blushed with the support his heroes were giving him, he would have. Instead, he grinned like the big boys without giving out too much of his joy and stood with them like a warrior. He was learning the Way of the Kup.
"Are you ladies through?" the sargeant asked with a slight grin.
"I am. What about you femmes?" Springer asked before he was buried in slag.
Momus and Sherma stared at all of them with loathing. Then the sargeant turned back to Sherma. "Name … Sherma. Sherma of where again?"
"I said Iacon."
"Well, frag you," the sargeant said as he wrote that down. "Occupation, if you have one. Leech." He looked at Momus. "Yours, too. Senator isn't an occupation anymore. Thank Primus."
Momus glared at him. "I'm a writer."
The sargeant typed it in. "Leech." He looked at Sherma. "Pray tell … what is your real occupation and if you need to say it, your old one?"
"I WAS a senator for Iacon. Here, in this backwater, I get by writing blueprints for an electronics firm."
"Another leech," the sargeant said as he wrote what Sherma said. He looked up. "Next of kin? Bonds? Family?"
"They're in the same colony as his," he said nodding toward Momus. "I'll let you guess who and how many."
"I'll let him taze you if you don't tell me," the sargeant said as he looked up with a gimlet optic.
Sherma frowned. "A bond, two sons and both sets of genitors and grandgenitors. I'm an only child."
"Thank Primus," the sargeant said as he wrote it down. "Offenses?"
"Same as bumble butt here," Springer said, nodding to Momus who frowned deeply his way.
The sargeant nodded. "Medical? Special conditions? Name of counsel?"
Springer glanced at the two who stared at him defiantly. "None. None and not yet. There. I won't even send you a bill."
"Frag you, Autobot," Sherma said as Momus nodded.
Everyone glanced at them. The sargeant sat back. "Your 'Con roots are showing, slaggers. It's a jailing offense to be an active 'Con around here."
"They don't look too active to me," Drift said.
The young kid nodded. "They didn't get very far before Commander Magnus got them. Not so tough are you?"
Everyone beamed at the infant, then looked at the two. "Well?" Springer asked. "What about it, tough guys?"
"Frag you, Springer," Momus murmured with rage.
"I'm getting tired of hearing that, Springer. That's my job but I'm seeing you get offers all the time. I realize you have a great aft but …. is there something you haven't told me?" Drift asked with a smirk.
"It's my magnetic personality," Springer said as he preened just slightly. "They can't help themselves. I can turn into a helicopter. It gets them every time."
"So … it isn't that you can jump 60 feet straight up?" Kup asked with a grin.
Springer smirked, then put his servos over Lorn's audials. "Ask Drift."
Huge laughter greeted that, then they all looked at the sargeant who was watching the fun with a slight grin on his handsome face. "Well, we have two new guests for the hotel. I'd offer you a deluxe suite with a view and mini-bar but three mini-con drunks vomited in the only one I have available. Can I interest you in a small duplex?"
Huge laughter greeted that as two behemoth mechs with grins and grips like nobody's business clanked in to take the prisoners onward. They were covered in cuffs, clubs, tazers, chemical repellents, small guns, and other mayhem that was only released when they internally signaled it to do so. Then it was magnetized to fall into their hands. They were brothers, Bosco and Turill who were from around Slaughter City, had HUGE families of the Stanix persuasion and loved to attend services at the Temple. They were the biggest anomaly in the building at the time and that was saying something considering this was the jailhouse. They both LOVED Springer, Drift, Kup, and Hercy.
"Hi, boys. You need transport?" Turill asked with a grin.
"I'd love it. Got two pieces of dead weight for you," the sargeant said. "This leech and that one there," he said as he pointed at Sherma and Momus.
"On it, boss," Bosco said as he walked toward Sherma. That mech shrank as far as he could before The Grip was applied to his arm. The world could end and if Sherma survived it, he would still have Bosco's servo on his arm even if the rest disintegrated in the blast. "Come with me. I'll check ya in. We have concierge service for our clients," he said as Turill gripped Momus. Huge laughter followed them into the lockup out back.
Everyone turned to the desk sargeant. Springer grinned. "It's always good doing business with you, Parson."
Parson grinned. "Likewise, I'm sure."
"This is the greatest place ever, Sargeant Parson. You're the funniest mech I ever saw," the kid said.
Everyone grinned at the kid, then Springer gripped his shoulders with a hug. "I thought I was the funniest?"
The kid glanced at him, then the others before Drift grinned. "Stop teasing the infants, Springer," he said as the kid grinned. "Everyone knows I'm funniest."
Huge laughter greeted that as they walked out. A short stroll to The Pit Stop and orders for dinner and drinks were had. The kid, Lorn, from a colony somewhere that didn't exist now sat with his elders and listened hard. He was their Partition but he wasn't ever a terrible person before. He was a high caste kid with a kind spark and a desire to have a happy life. His family were the same and raised him accordingly. Picking the Home Guard and applying for half service there and half service with the Watch, he found himself chosen to be a horse patrolman, one of the elite forces in the Watch. He was DETERMINED to do a good job and make his elders proud of him.
They already were.
"Well, that was a blast from the past," Springer said as he looked at his plate. Huge platters of food were laid before them and their drinks were topped off. He grinned at the kid. "Anyone want to say grace?"
"Turill and Bosco would but they're running the bed and breakfast at the moment," Hercy said with a grin.
And so it would go until daylight.
-0-TBC 9-25-17
ESL:
The 'gain' on an electrical device is the level of power. High gain, high power. Low gain, low power.
On the pad: Someone who was taking bribes is said to be 'on the pad'. Lots of old timer words in this one, for some reason. :D:D:D