The Diego Diaries: Onward Ho, Bro! (dd6 334)
-0-On the way back home
They left a maddeningly happy city behind them as they gathered on their vessel to come back home. Ratchet sat down next to Sunstreaker who came with Sideswipe to represent Kaon's Kavaliers. They had been congratulated themselves by the Brigadier fans who recognized them. It was light and absolutely spark warming how everyone felt and the good it did for a battered hard luck Cybertronian town to come out on top. He glanced at Sunny. "I never had a chance to ask you how you feel about the game."
"If anyone but us had to win, better a Cybertronian team. We found out a few defects that we're going to plug. Next year, its ours," Sunstreaker said as Sideswipe nodded in agreement. "They had a very strong defense but the game was between offenses. It was a tightly played game if I say so myself. But it won't happen again."
Ratchet grinned. "You did get slammed good," he said. "Flying out of bounds and landing in the stands was a great move."
Sunstreaker smirked. "That will teach the priests to sit that close to the field."
"No mini-con riots, no fights of any note in the stands … it was rather pedestrian in that way," Ratchet replied.
"Everyone wanted to see if Cybertron would win. They did. Not next time, though," Sideswipe said.
"You're going to bear arms?" Ratchet asked.
"Sunny might but I'm going to slay them with my killer good looks," Sideswipe said before being buried in mockery.
-0-On the ground
Ratchet walked to The Fortress heading for Prime's office along with the others. Some separated until Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl, and Prime were the only ones headed for the doorway that led to the corridor where the senior Autobots had offices. Entering the big one for Prime, Ratchet walked to the desk and sat. Putting up his peds, he smiled a dazzler. "How do I look? Do I give the office all the gravitas it deserves?"
"The Matrix is telling me to tell you to sit up straight," Optimus said as he sat down across from Ratchet. He grinned as Ratchet grinned at him. Prowl didn't grin. He was scandalized.
"Good thing you're not the Prime. There would be nothing left after your lunacy," Prowl said as he worked on the monitors nearby. He turned to Ratchet. "You're being put through."
Ratchet sat up and schooled his expression as the others sat down across from him out of the view of the camera that allowed Prime to have video conferencing in his office. The Emblems of the Primes on screen was replaced with a conference room where Harvey and Louis Richardson, Owen Harris and half a dozen other high rollers in the Earth2 Corporation sat around a big table.
It was silent a moment as both sides took in the other, then Harvey Richardson turned more fully toward the camera. "Ambassador Ratchet, we meet at last."
"I'm assuming you're Harvey Richardson," Ratchet replied.
"Yes," Harvey replied. "I would like to introduce you to some of my partners … this is my son, Louis Richardson, you know Owen Harris and Pierre Beliveau. This is Clark Walters, Simpson Lawson, Abel Matthews, Lyle Cutter, and Benjamin Alton. All of us are the owners of Earth2 Corporation. We're glad to talk to you about a number of things. We didn't expect to have this opportunity."
"Given the nature of the request, we felt it would be productive to have a conversation. You do understand that our history with the Daniels and Nast isn't good and we're not hopeful that it'll get better," Ratchet replied.
"Understood," Harvey said. "The Daniels family and mine have been friends for about a 100 years. We are close and I have to tell you, this was shocking to all of us. But they paid a price. No one expected the pardon. What do we do now to help friends back to productivity and service to the idea of the greater good? That's the crux of our request."
The sound of someone or something could be heard. Ratchet grinned. "We have static on the line. I could give you the science but you can also just believe me."
"We'll take your word for it, Ambassador," Owen Harris said with a grin.
Ratchet nodded as he cast a gimlet optic toward Prowl and Ironhide, both of whom snorted at Richardson's remarks. Prime grinned at Ratchet as Prowl smirked. "Tell us about your request in some detail. What can they do here and why should we let them beyond your concern that they have a place to live where people won't stone them. We are talking treason among other things here."
Harvey grinned. "Point taken. What we want are different studies taken concerning product development and efficiency studies about life in a closed environment. Even though the habitat is a remarkable and very large facility, we're interested in a number of projects we want to fund in our R and D budget." He leaned forward. "We have several requests from our scientists to join you for mutual research as well, if I might be so bold to add that bit of news into the conversation."
Ratchet nodded. "They're under review. We have a very positive view of your population for the most part. The scientists and families are very welcome and show a good face for humanity. We have our own coterie of security that are part of Chief Springer's department," Ratchet began. "They rather off set the bad image of the mercs that you've employed, Owen Harris."
"May I ask, Ambassador, what the Earth2 colony needs of nine human security officers working inside Earth2 yet are responsible to you and Springer alone? I rather feel as if you aren't sure you can trust us," Clark Walters asked, interrupting Owen's reply. He was a venture capitalist who could finagle money out of dry holes. He was smart, educated and interested deeply in this project. He was planning to move his offices there when the okay was given by Prime's government.
"We have redundancies built in. Ops Center there is maintained by our people and us. We come and go there without entering the facility directly through the main habitat doors. It's because we want to cut down on problematic possibilities that might erupt from a non-space going species like yours. Problems. Misunderstandings. We also want to protect our people from accidentally or inadvertently giving away things you don't have standing to know. We maintain mini and micro-mini personnel to work inside the facility to maintain it and to help with whatever the scientists or population needs within a highly negotiated and strictly observed list of acceptable items during charter negotiations. Our nine human security officers are part of our safety protocols for the facility. They operate independently of your own, they report to us about any incidents that are part of our highly negotiated list of items that fall to us to know about, and they meet our standards for training and operational functionality. They're under Springer's purview because they're employees of that department and the Prime's government. This is all negotiated and agreed upon during the build up. They are there to tell us if something happens that might just 'accidentally' slip your minds."
"Then they're spies," Clark persisted.
"No. They have only a limited number of responsibilities and spend some of their time rotating out to the other habitats. They help maintain and secure the UN Mission, Sciences, the Family areas, and the rest. Earth 1 has them two days out of ten. We've discussed this and frankly, I find it rather irritating that you keep bringing it up and casting aspersions on our motives when none of you can live here without us. We have millions of things to do besides working our tails off taking care of you. Read the charter documents, Mr. Walters." Ratchet sat back with a calm expression but he was intent about what he was saying.
"We have, Mr. Ambassador. We don't want to get off on the wrong foot together. We have hope you understand that our ventures are fluid and we will seek conversations about them along the way," Louis Richardson soothed. "This is just one of them, I assure you."
"We don't mind that. Things change. But some don't. We have half a dozen mercenaries from Diego Garcia in the facility who have a poor and abusive history with us and now you want to put four humans there who went out of their way to cross our paths and not in a good way. I'd think you'd try a little harder to see another point of view other than your own. You're asking a great deal and we've decided to make this call to you before deciding what we will allow and not to ensure both sides understand each other," Ratchet said. "We understand science and scientists. We also understand fuckers and frankly, all of the mercs at the facility and these four fall under that category. Tell me how things are different. As you just said … things are fluid and all over time."
It was silent a moment, then Harvey sat back. It was clear he wasn't used to be spoken to this way but he was smart. "We believe, some of us, that redemption is always possible. No one expected this pardon and for those of us who are friends of these people, life has been difficult. They had families and homes, lives that they lived before Diego. Now they want them back but life here would be terribly difficult right now. Therefore, we've asked that they come to Mars to live and work there. There are things they can do that are very helpful to our overall view of life on Mars. They could show they've changed and have hope that they can. We're sorry for the past but we live in the present and have to deal with it as it is. It's our hope to kill two birds with one stone. We wish to help rehabilitate their reputations and find their footing in the world as well as getting good work from very capable workers. That's our purpose here."
Ratchet nodded. "That's very stand up, Mr. Richardson, to do this for friends."
"We'd like to do a lot of things, Mr. Ambassador. We don't want to be your enemies but your friends. We want to do mutually beneficial things together. Some of our members are going to be moving to Mars. We've put their applications into the Secretariat of State. We hope they get approved," Harvey said.
"Walters, Louis Richardson, Abel Matthews, and Lyle Cutter? I've seen the applications," Ratchet said.
"Who would have to approve them, Mr. Ambassador? Who is the Secretary of State?" Lyle Cutter asked.
"Why, I am, Mr. Cutter," Ratchet said with a big smile.
A sound of movement could be heard, then Ratchet grinned at something off screen. "Excuse me a moment. Something dull and heavy just fell off a shelf."
Ironhide frowned at Ratchet who leaned out of camera range to smile at him. Prime and Prowl swallowed their laughter as Ironhide shifted back a bit more in his chair. Ratchet sat back up, then smiled. "There. All better."
"When can we expect to hear from you, sir?" Cutter asked.
"I'll be taking it up with Prime immediately, perhaps before I even leave this office," Ratchet said with a smile. "Is there anything else you wish to discuss before we part?"
"We have a lot of ideas, Ambassador. We would like to be able to discuss them with the relevant individuals when they come up," Louis Richardson said.
As he did, Prime grinned, then pointed to Ratchet. Everyone smirked but Ratchet.
"We'll schedule time. We aren't against discussions. We're against subterfuge. You will receive our letter by courier tomorrow with our answer. If by any stretch of the imagination these four return here, they will have to meet and discuss the very major caveats attached to them. They will have to agree to abide by them before we clear them through customs and immigration."
They nodded. "Understood, Ambassador. Thank you," Harvey said.
"You're welcome. Ratchet out," Ratchet said as he waited for the line to cut. When it did, he sat back and put his peds back up on the desk. "This is nice. I threw a few things in, Optimus. No sense allowing your soft spark Autobot ways to get in the way."
Prime grinned. "Send the letter. The sooner they are here and on our grid surveillance, the better. Paribolus will take the inside route and we, the outside. I want our tech back and our enemies vanquished."
Everyone nodded, then they stood to go. Ironhide and Ratchet walked out together to go about things before dinner and the inevitable rush of infants. Prowl sat with Prime to write the letter and things rolled onward.
-0-That evening in a big office in the Sears Tower, Chicago
Harvey and Louis Richardson stood by the window looking out over the city of Chicago. The Prime's letter had arrived by diplomatic courier and they had read it together. The green light was given but not unless there was agreement on the rules. They were simple. You have to meet with the Prime, then Springer. You have to wear trackers and you have to stay inside the habitat until further notice. If there ever was going to be a time when you wandered, you had to have special and formal permission from the Primal government to do so. If in some far off future that you proved your trustworthiness, there might be an ease of restriction.
That would be in a far off time, perhaps in another galaxy far, far away.
The slaggers.
Harvey turned to his son and smiled. "Make the calls. We're go."
His son nodded, then walked to the desk nearby to make calls to the Daniels, Nast, Walters, Cutter, and Abel Matthews. It was time to roll out.
-0-TBC 4-21-18 edited 4-22-18 Happy Earth Day!
Football highlights will be played out throughout the next few. I knew that would happen so I'm going to put the highlight reel on blast. :D
Someone asked when they would all end up in prison and/or off world, all the humans coming with poor intentions. Its going to take a while. After all, the length of this story should be a clue that nothing is ever fast, usually. I think we passed seven million words and a zillion chapters. I'm editing furiously, about 50 parts a day which should take me through Christmas Surprise. :D
It's a living. ;)