The Diego Diaries: Redemption? (dd6 161)
Notes about some things at the end of this piece. :D
-0-Autobot City about noon
"Then you'll take him on?" Ratchet asked with a smile.
Vinn of Tyger Pax grinned back at Ratchet. "Of course, I will." He looked at Lucien. "I have some time right now. How about we share a cup and chat, Lucien? It's been a very long time."
Lucien glanced at Ratchet who nodded, then walked with Vinn into a small lounge in his office. There was a long corridor nearby which led to rooms where personal and group therapies were held and a children's play room with a window to observe them could be found. There was a staff of six counselors and two play specialists in this private practice. It was founded to help those who were in gravest need, families in crisis and children. Vinn worked in the bigger system but held this one open as well due to the need. Among those who came to him were high castes who were having difficulty and wanted to talk to someone from their own 'circle'.
Ratchet watched them go, then walked out, leaving Lucien in the surprisingly strong grip of Vinn. He had a zillion things to do as well as two joors of parental attention in four different schools to attend to. That is … two joors each in four schools. It was the best part of his orn, the half joor he spent in a school every few orns. He walked out with a lighter step than he had going in.
-0-In the lounge
They sat together, both of them formerly immensely power and wealthy individuals from a past long gone. Both of them had the same upbringing, though Vinn had more of a conscience than Lucien had. He had even gone ped-to-ped with Lucien regarding the welfare of his city-state when he was governor-general of Tyger Pax. They looked at each other a moment over a hot cup, then Vinn grinned. "It's funny how the world turns out, isn't it. We were the apex predators of our civilization and now here we are."
Lucien glanced around, noting the pictures of family and friends that hung on the walls. Some of them were outings in the city taken as a staff, laughing images of families playing at the water park or hiking in the Valles. They were warm and cheerful, just like the décor of the offices. "Where is 'here', Vinn? I'm at a loss to figure it out."
"Most are at first, Lucien," Vinn said. "I, myself, figured it out when we were being chased by pirates from our fifth settlement after The Fall. I remember thinking that the bullets will penetrate me as swiftly and finally as anyone else. It was a watershed moment in my emancipation from stupid thinking and selfishness."
Lucien nodded. "Burris had a settlement where he kept to The Code. He was imprisoned for slavery and all manner of grave offenses. He would be shot on Cybertron if he were lower caste but he wasn't. He was given privileges and protection. Now, he's trying to figure out how to live here. He's working for Ratchet cleaning messes I suppose. Imagine. Burris working at menial labor."
"Why would he do that?" Vinn asked.
Lucien stared at him. "Ask Burris. I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out that mech. Money and privilege, power and position. That was Burris. Now? I don't know."
Vinn nodded. "That was me once upon a time as well. You, too. I was raised to covet that. I thought it was what I wanted but it was what my family programmed me to desire. They were programmed by theirs and backward to the beginning for all of us. I no longer have that programming and I find that my life here is without a doubt superior to anything I've ever known. Who would have guessed?"
Lucien nodded. "I'm told miracles can be had here," he said with a bitter tone. "I'm unclear whether I desire them."
"What do you desire, Lucien?" Vinn asked as he filled a plate with cookies. Placing them near Lucien, he sat and began to eat one. "These are very good."
Lucien nodded, then took one. He bit into it, savoring it for a moment. "They are," he said, then looked at Vinn. "I want what I know. I want order and structure. I want to have my place in the scheme of things and have it clearly defined not just to myself but everyone else. I wish to take my place as a leader among The People again. I want my sons to inherit their birth right. That's what I wish."
Vinn nodded. "You do know that systems and even ideas only have meaning if there's agreement on them. On Cybertron, they held because they always had. There was force used to make them so and no one who wanted anything else had a chance to change things. But out here in the bigger world, they hold no meaning for anyone any longer. With the yoke off, individuals have come into their own and find the dreams they always held are not only possible but essential. No one agrees that The System is anymore needed by anyone or those who do are insignificant in number. The idea must be held by the many for it to have meaning. It's like money. If we agree that it has the value stated, then it does. If we decide not to hold that meaning any longer, its only pieces of metal and paper. We have a cashless society here and on Cybertron because the many decided that would be true and fair, so it is."
"But what about effort being rewarded? What about those who create getting the value of their creations?" Lucien asked.
Vinn considered that. "They do. Work exchanges, Lucien. That's how. You have to understand that the value placed on things here and now is different than that on Cybertron then. Piling up resources that were made by their effort, denied to those who made them and have no value beyond the egotism of their holders at the expense of others is no longer valued or tolerated. On Cybertron, no one but the few got the fruits of everyone's labors. How could that be fair? How could that even address what you just asked when they were denied the fruits of their labors? Do you know that Ratchet is the 'R' in RTR Tools?"
Lucien nodded. "Everyone knows that."
"Did you know that the formulas and processes that Ravel and Tie Down created were their discoveries? Did you know that all of the profits of their creations was taken by the company that they worked for? They got nothing of the profits. They barely had enough to live on and raise their son. How is it that you can ask about effort being rewarded when they were robbed?"
Lucien considered that. "It was an investment. We invested capital and the workers did the work. They were compensated in wages. The circle was completed and all benefited."
"No, they didn't," Vinn said. "RTR Tools was a forced acquisition. You remember that law? You pushed it through the Senate for the faction that backed Nominus. RTR Tools was a small artisan company, just the two of them at first, making a superior product and keeping their earnings for themselves. When the news got around that they were doing this and the product was of an outstanding and hitherto for unknown level of quality and skill, they were forced by that law to work for General Dynamic as a tiny subsidiary. They were given almost nothing for their work and their products became a symbol for a company that had nothing to do with creating them. Even the right to declare their genius was denied them.
"General Dynamic showed them as their own, as the best kind of implements of their type that could be found anywhere. Their work ended up in museums, General Dynamic got literally millions upon millions and they, themselves got nothing. A law that allowed companies to force small businesses to be taken over for their own profit was an abomination. How could a couple like Ravel and Tie Down fight that? What kind of law is it that a corporation came come in and take over someone elses business without compensation and without the opportunity for the real owners and artisans to fight the action?"
"It was the way things were. That law was in effect long before you and I separated," Lucien said.
"Not the amendment, Lucien. You added the amendment that allowed hostile takeovers without compensation of ANY kind. As for it being an old law around forever… does that make it right? Does that make it ethical or moral? Those are the big questions being asked and answered here and now on Cybertron. What sort of society are we? What kind of life and system do we want to live with? Will we go backward or forward? That's the underlying hum of life here and in the Empire. We will never go back. I am here to assist those who find it difficult to make their way. We're choosing to be inclusive, moral and ethical. But then, our leader is that sort himself."
"Optimus Prime," Lucien said bitterly.
Vinn nodded. "He was chosen by the Matrix for the first time in generations. The Matrix made It's own choice. It surprises me how many former high castes have difficulty with that action. You're religious, right?"
Lucien nodded. "Who isn't?"
Vinn grinned slightly. "That isn't the question, is it? Perhaps it would be better asked if I were to say, 'who actually lives their convictions and who doesn't'."
"I live them, Vinn," Lucien said.
"Which ones? The ones where Primus and The One said, 'until all are one' or the others where someone picked up the Quintessan's brief and said, 'some of us are better than all of you'?"
Lucien stared at Vinn. "I see that this is going to be difficult."
"For me?" Vinn asked with a chuckle. "Don't worry about me, Lucien. Worry about yourself. You're now mine. Don't you find it sort of ironic that the only way I can say that's so is because of The System? The Court is very fair. They do listen and compare. After all, they function at 15% of their emotional capacity. That was what most of the executioners on Cybertron used when someone was condemned. You can't find fault with that can you?"
Lucien grinned slightly. "You have no idea with what I can find fault, Vinn."
Vinn grinned slightly, then stood. "Good. Let's get you booked into a time frame," he said, then walked to the office where his manager would put Lucien down for every other orn for the foreseeable future.
-0-Earth2, out and about
They drove down the road heading for the Sciences Habitat. Driving in to park, they waited for the change in environment, then walked into the habitat for the first time. A lot of the scientists who lived there were eating lunch. They waved everyone over to the food, then sat themselves. Four scientists from Earth2 were here along with the ubiquitous security, this time Sam Hedges, Jim Johnson and Lawrence 'Larry' Dobbs. They filled their plates, then walked to the table with soft drinks.
Sitting, an Earth2 scientist grinned. "Its forbidden to leave the habitat impaired. No beer, alcohol of any kind or other substances when we go out," Arlen Berry said. He was a botanist who had a wife, Merrilee 'Merry' (geologist) and three kids (children) who were here for the "ADVENTURE, DAD AND MOM!" Two of the three were in Youngling Day and the other was too small to be anywhere yet. It would be a coin toss between Sparkling Day and Circle Prep.
"Lucky you," Cindy Teasdale said from a monitor nearby. She was eating lunch and drinking a beer as she monitored the NASA website that featured real time images of the solar system.
They laughed, then settled in to eat. Another man, Mike King, an environmental specialist and bachelor, grinned. "I have to say … the food is damned good onworld. I suppose it helps with the isolation aspect, having good food and services."
"We're really not isolated if you want to know," Lola Teasdale said as she sat across from him eating her dessert. "We're in the middle of a 22 million bot urban center."
"I want to see all of it," Mike said. He grinned at Lola. "I'm allowed out in the company of other groups. Right now, I have ride-along status with Arlen."
Lola grinned. "I'm going to Axiom Nexum in the Crater District. I want to see the new water features. Come with."
Mike nodded. "That would be great. When are you leaving?"
"Now," she said as she picked up her dishes to put in the washer.
He wolfed down his food, then joined her. Glancing over his shoulder, he looked at the others. "Better haul ass or be left here and have to hitchhike home."
Several of the others began to hurry along. Hedges and Johnson who had said nothing since arrival glanced at the two. "Water features?"
"Normal water freezes and explodes upon contact to the outside atmosphere. They use a liquid that looks and acts like water but isn't. I was told the fountains at Axiom are amazing. You don't have to come, you know," she said as she walked back to the table to gather her gear and cameras. "No one is holding a gun to your head."
"You're real friendly," Johnson said as he gathered his stuff to put it in the sink.
"And you're one of Intel-Martin's mercs," Lola said in reply. "Sue me." With that, she nodded to the others and walked toward the hatch. Mike glanced at the others, nodded with a grin, then hurried after her. The others began to follow including the three clearly irritated former and current mercenaries. They walked out, gathered in the two vehicles, then with Lola's directions, headed out to the highway and the long intriguing trek to the Crater District.
Cindy grinned. "Lola will give them hell."
"Good," Shelby Willers said. She was new, an astronomer and came from Great Britain. "I remember them. They're a pair of wankers to draw to. I wonder why Prime let them come here?"
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Alejandro Lopez said as he cut a piece of cake for dessert.
"Here, here," Shelby Willers said.
-0-On the road
They drove through traffic, sentient vehicles, some of them that were oddly their size as they headed toward the massive and mostly unoccupied urban centers a couple of dozen miles away. It was to the west of the human habitations, built inside a massive meteor strike and had been designed to not only hold about six million individuals but to be able to expand. It was hosted by a hub city, Nova Cronum and around it were six other massive cities, all of them waiting for civilians and soldiers to liven them up and give them life.
Axiom Nexum was the destination and it had zero population. The finishing touches were being put in by crews that roved over all the area finding the remaining jobs that needed done before the mobs flooded in. Migrations would be coming. They were always coming. Cybertron would not be able to take new citizens for some long time. They buzzed past the last Metro District heading toward Earth2 and the other human sites. Before they would reach it, the junction with a giant round about would take them to the west and the glittering majesty of the Crater District.
TBC 10-16-17
Notes:
covet (cuh-vet) to desire something, usually what isn't yours or something that isn't easily had. A close cousin to envy and avarice (greed).
I sort of write this thing, half me, half something outside of my body. :D:D:D
I don't always plan a character because they tell me who they are as we go even if I started with other ideas. The really strong characters that are canon are held to canon, though I may tweak them slightly. Those who are mine sometimes write themselves. I may have a real actual plan but they and circumstances change it. Burris was a total freak show in this story and so was Proteus. However, they had family members that needed them so they changed because they cared about them.
Not everyone who comes has or will. Those that 'want to' will. Those who won't and more of them are ahead … they will show that. I'm sort of steering the story down paths that the characters lead me and not all of them, at least on my paper plans, are going to be easy or good. Cassio Imperialis is just the tip of the iceberg. Power doesn't surrender power easily or even ever sometimes.
They have things to say, things that happened to them and none of them would get off freely. This was war and annihilation. In a perfect world, until all are one is our creed. But this isn't one of those and the side of the reclamation process that showed the bad and the sad is what I want to show as well. I don't know how you can go through all this and not show it. Some might cling like barnacles to the old ways and others might have thrown them off as useless or that which they blame.
Bad things have consequences for victim and victimizer. That will be shown. Right now, these characters have lived in the colony long enough that it affected them. The others? Not so much. Sunee and Sio are still silent to me about which way they really want to go. That's the joy of writing. Sometimes, things write themselves. Other times, they wait and snag you when you least expect it. More to come. This world got mashed and some of those who caused it will be found. Not all of them will be happy. HUGS! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D HUGS, LACKWIT!
PS I know a Merry Berry. :D I also know someone named Gypsy Jolly. Best. Name. Ever. :D