The Diego Diaries: Onward (dd6 246) {} NeoCybex
-0-Outside
They gathered together, those that were present to rehash the news. Sunspot was making great strides, though his fear of adult humans was still intact. That was progress. At Circle Prep, Miss Birdie had led the conferences of the smallest babies and the news was reverberating through their processors. They had sat in the conference room with a number of teacher trainees watching as Miss Birdie went through the data for Prowler.
"This is a lovely child with a lot of basic intelligence. He's got a good sense of himself, loves to help others and he's smart. He learns fast, plays well with other and grasps things swiftly. Your efforts as reported on your reports filed every decaorn match the achievement he expresses in class. He's a full timer now, though we do let out three joors sooner than regular district schools. We do believe in the home component in the basic raising of infant children. That will continue. Your efforts are worthy, Ironhide, who I believe is still the main home instructor for this child?" she asked as Ironhide nodded meekly.
"I am, Miss Birdie. I love it. All of us help him but I'm still the main teacher for him. We do a lot together," Ironhide said.
"I can see that. He tells us a lot of his rambles around the colony and his visits to the armory," Miss Birdie said. "That sort of socialization is very important to growing up confident connected children. He's a social little mech but not out of bounds. His language skills are solid, though affected by his brother. That is typical among children who have deficits among their siblings, but it doesn't affect him too much. I am assuming that Orion is making progress?" she asked, piercing Ironhide with her level gaze.
"Little mech has a glitch that should be ironed out with age," Ironhide said. "Roto says he is."
"I heard that it runs in the family," she said.
Raptor shifted uneasily. "It does but it was corrected when Ironhide rolled down the steps at our house. Didn't Steiner have the same problem?" he asked Alor who shrugged.
"I remember something like it," Alor said. "I'll ask Auntie Lissie."
They all turned back to Birdie. "Suffice it to say, its a small insignificant thing here for Prowler, but it does exist. As for his person? He's got good fine and gross motor skills, he can color inside the lines, make things reasonably close to type with all manner of mediums and he's got and is enlarging a decent vocabulary and database for conversations. His skills at pre-reading and language are strong and so is his grasp of basic concepts. He can predict, analyze information and come to good conclusions for simple problems. I would say he's exceeding expectations in the content areas and we will continue to prepare him for Sparkling School in a Terran year."
"Sparkling School? One year?" Ironhide asked with surprise.
"Yes. It's our process to hand over to the district any infant that is this far ahead of our program. It would do him a great deal of good to go from our highly evolved academic program to another one. I expect that he will be at some point evaluated for acceleration."
Everyone stared at Miss Birdie, then each other, then Miss Birdie. "Oh." -All of them.
Outside …
They stood on the sidewalk debriefing together. Alor grinned. "These infants are going to kill me. Tomorrow, we get a short overview of Scout because he's only been in school a short time. I have to say, whatever we're doing, we need to keep it up. Hero is accelerated. Praxus and Prowler are looking toward it. Well done, us."
Huge laughter greeted that. "Tomorrow, we have the big kids. Orion, Hero, Praxus, and Prowler are doing well. I think the big kids are going to come out like champions. Ironhide, you go to Bos's conference, Raptor and Hardie, can you make Reflector's?" Ratchet asked as the two nodded.
"We'll make time," Hard Drive said.
"Good. Then we have Co-D as well," Ratchet said as he went over the list mentally.
"We have him," Ravel said with a smile. "We can go and applaud him."
"Great," Ratchet said with relief. "We have to work this around our schedules."
They worked out the schedule in which several of each would show up for everyone, then ambled off to their jobs here and there. Ratchet and Ironhide walked along the road heading toward the Hospital. "How's Halo?" Ratchet asked.
"She's gearing up to be a champion just like the others. I see her in college before too long," Ironhide said with a grin.
"I can see that," Ratchet said as they crossed the street at the lights. The crowd swallowed them up in the mid morning rush.
-0-Earth2
They sat in the coffee shop on the Main Commercial Concourse as it was called on the plans and sipped coffee together. They had been out the day before traveling everywhere and were now waiting for their time to go out again. They were looking closely at a list of things that Harris wanted to know about that included utilities, different business locations and the layout of the local security. They were building a map of the colony, something that the habitats short of the Family and N.E.S.T. were forbidden to have.
Around them, the habitat swirled onward with almost no one in the civilian population paying them any mind. In fact, they were ignored by most of those who lived here. Word had gotten around about some of them following Jim Johnson's arrest, news about Intel-Martin and their friendships with those in the anti-bot movement. No one wanted that kind of trouble so they avoided them.
"Where are we going this afternoon?" Carlos asked.
"We're going to check out the local police stations. He wants them all located. He also wants us to go to the Hangar District and get a bead on the bots who live there. The big ones," Silvio said.
"Jim gets out in ten days," Sam Hedges said. "We better regroup when he does. He's a hot head."
"You're best friends," Todd said.
Sam nodded. "We are but we're also in the midst of the enemy and we better be on our toes."
A couple of women walked in, ordered and got coffees, then walked out. Todd watched them. "There's a lot of good looking women here."
"Most of them are married," Silvio said.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Married. Remember that."
Steve Anson walked in the cafe and made his way through the shop to where they sat. "You ready to go?"
"We can't until 2," Todd said.
"We got final clearance," Steve said. "Harris was notified."
They stared at him, then each other. "Why do you suppose that Prime has allowed that," Silvio said mostly to himself. "I think that's strange."
"Maybe," Carlos said as he stood and stretched. "I want to see the big bots. Let's go."
They rose together and walked out heading for the gear locker in the entryway and the vehicle that would take them out into the big world.
-0-Earlier that morning at school
{This afternoon, I will be meeting with your genitors to explain how we are doing here. I would like to tell everyone of you that you have nothing to worry about in terms of your performance and efforts. All of you have worked very hard and well. What I'm going to be doing and for those of you from Earth2 with the teachers in your pull out classes … we're going to show your genitors all of the many things we're doing and your efforts. I expect that things will be very happy in your homes tonight} Terradive said.
There were happy faces all around the room as the kids listened. Given that their school day lasted nearly ten hours and ran year around with time off for three day weekends and the odd holiday, they had invested a great deal of effort in their education. They were gathered at their tables before being dismissed for the day. Lunch had been had and now they were heading out toward their homes.
{All you have to do is work on your individual projects. For the next four mornings, we are going to have open work periods rather than normal individual classes. I am going to be putting extra credit work on the board for you to do or not. Some of you have done most of your projects and have worked out the different assignments for math and science so this will be a nice extension of what we're doing in class. The stories for Cybertronian History are due by next week after weekend. If you need to use the library here during the morning sessions, you will be allowed. Any questions?} Terradive asked.
{I have to interview Uncle Optimus, Mr. Terradive, to get some more information about Zeta Prime} Annabelle Lennox said in perfect NeoCybex. {I hope to do that tonight but if I can't, can I take a cab to Ops Center to talk to him if he isn't able to do that tonight?}
Terradive considered that a moment. {Ask me tomorrow, Annie. We will see what we can do. That would be a really strong feature if you could talk to Optimus Prime about Zeta}
Rain Harris raised her hand. {Rain?} Terradive asked.
:Mr. Terradive … when are we going to be learning more about Cybertronian history and culture? Those of us from Earth2 would like to know: she said.
Terradive considered that. {That's a question before the school board, Rain, and when they give us a policy and plans for this to happen, you will be included}
:Would that mean going to shrines and seeing relics and things in different places like the Temple?: she asked. The other humans of Earth2 glanced at her, then Terradive.
{That will be up to others to decide, Rain. I would like my students to have very possible opportunity for learning but I'm only a classroom teacher so I can't say myself. I will be seeing Ironhide and Hugh-E who are on the school board so I'll ask them about it. Until then, not likely for now} Terradive said. He looked at the others who grinned at him. {I'd like you to pack your book bags and get ready to go home for half orn now}
The kids rose up to get their things together. Books and datapads, projects, story journals and other things were pulled together for them to carry away. Sitting in a slotted stack on a window sill nearby, folders for each child was placed to show their families when they came to hear the news. They included daily work and long term projects, lots of videos and other bits and pieces that would show families how their students were doing. All of the related teachers would add their bits and reports as well. By the time the families went their way, they would have a deeply detailed idea of how their child was doing in classes.
They walked to their lockers and gathered their things. Rain glanced at Anna Lennox. :What are you going to be doing after school?:
:I'm going to play. Swimming, running around. I want to go to the Water Park. The one at the Mall of the Tri-Cities: Annie said.
:Will you be allowed to go?: Rain asked as she closed her locker door.
:I already have permission: She looked at Rain, Lilly and Camilla. :Come with us:
:I don't know if they'll let us. If we can, that would be great: Rain said. They chatted, then walked to their tables to sit. The buses were here and so were cabs and genitors. The careful process of letting the kids go home began and in minutes the room was silent. Terradive turned to his desk and organized his list of genitors. In moments, he would have the genitors of Silverbow in. Hound and Trailbreaker would be very, very pleased when they left.
-0-On their way
They beat the buses to The City and turned toward Fortress Road to drive along the side of the Military Airfield. Cutting off, they drove toward the enormous hangars where the giants lived. Passing ships, some of them probably sentient, though they weren't clear, they drove toward the massive, colossal, stupendous hangars where the Supremes lived. Driving in, they pulled to one side. Sitting on a massive docking station with cables and lines sticking out of just about every possible slot, Omega Supreme was dozing. Nearby, bending down to speak to someone, Kappa Supreme threw a long shadow their way.
She was having a conversation with what appeared to be a Dinobot. The Dinobot didn't appear unhappy but was gesturing toward the outside through the open doors nearby. As he did, another walked in, one who was big and dangerous looking. He also looked pissed.
"Oh, God. Look at that fucker. That's … that's Slag," Todd Baseman said as the mercs sat in the vehicle watching as Slag came to the pair and began to rant. No one appeared to pay much attention to what was probably a common sight. But to the mercs, it was unusually interesting and when Slag transformed and blew a bale of fire upward at Kappa, they began to reconsider that conclusion.
-0-TBC 1-14-18 :D edited 1-23-18