The Diego Diaries: Life Marches On (dd6 369)
-0-The Meeting
They sat in front of monitors, reps and their hangers-on from each of the human habitats on world. A big social event was happening and they were organizing their own participation. Lois Morshower-Howell, record keeper and junior member of the 'Wise Woman Trine of Barbara Morshower and Judy Fulton was recording everything, utilizing her position as event planner/coordinator of The Resort At Autobot City to fullest advantage. The 'Special Ops Trine' … Judy, Lonnie and Sarah were discussing the events that humans would attend and what they would do for the situation upcoming aka PARTAYS!
"We will be at the bonding ceremony at 1030 hours on the dot. Anyone cleared to come, be there on time. It's easy to get lost in the legs of all the attendees which I'm told by Blue are many … huge," Sarah said. "They've cleared a space in the front row for us to watch the show. The list of those who can come is approved and can't be expanded. Some of you from Earth2 and the Consulate are going to have to represent your facilities the best you can. This is being broadcast on the Cybertronian Lifetime programming channel, 37, so you can watch if you can't come. Thank Ratchet for that mercy."
The women nodded, then went over the lists.
"All the Sciences Habitat will come and have agreed to be there. That's about 100 individuals depending on family living there. Those newbie folks will stay there and watch the big screen. From the Consulate, Carly and the other 15 on the list have been approved. The diplomatic community is this close to getting freedom to come and go so just accept that this is who comes.
"The Hu-An have been invited. We can expect 10 or 12 of them to show. Larc and her bond, Temple have specifically accepted. The Earth 1 installation has been accepted, all of them. Newbies or visitors need to stay, of course. No accidents allowed. As for Earth2," Sarah said as she consulted the list, "Mr. Harris, Mr. Davis, Mr. Brown, Mr. Jameson, the three cleared scientists that wanted to come that are in collaboration with Wheeljack and the Sciences Habitat along with the scientists named Zak and Monica Hadden are cleared. No one else. We went over this with the event planner and there is little room for more and the clearances for Earth2 residents aren't complete yet."
"The Haddens?" Kyle Davis said from his screen. "Who are they?" He glanced at someone off screen.
"They're plant specialists on the farm," Owen Harris said. "Why them and not others? Why not Perry and others?"
"They've made friends in the science community here and they were just cleared. Someone asked for them to be included, so they are. In fact, we were asked to take them around, even after the ceremony. Someone likes them a lot," Sarah said as the other women nodded.
"The Hu-An work with them on their projects at Earth2," Lonnie said. "Farmers of a feather ..."
"I see," Owen said with a tight grin. He was pissed but he held it in. "We should be there at 1030 hours, then the parties? I have heard there will be two of them."
"You can come. You have to stay with us. We're going in a convoy so we don't get separated. They usually have a place set aside for us at things, a cordoned off area. It won't usually be inside a place where we can take off the masks. Make sure you hit the bathroom when you come here. We're going to meet you at the viewing stand at the airfield at 1030. We're not going to use it because the crowd that's expected will fill up the area and engulf it blocking the view. So pull in there and wait if we aren't there already. We're going to park there and walk to the viewing area in front of The Fortress where the Day Watch is going to support us. They'll even help us get to our spot if necessary and help us get back to the vehicles.
"After the ceremony which is very short and sweet, the family is going to The Tower in the Sky in Terra for a blow out dinner. We're invited. They usually put us on the table and we chat. Then there'll be a break until 1600 hours on the TMC when we go to the Central Labor Hall, to room 113 and 412 for the two parties that are going to happen there. You can stay at the Family Tower or Sciences until time to go. They begin at 1500 but we're getting there a joor later because the party will be swinging by then. We're meeting at the viewing platform and we'll drive you in, those among you who have to go back to check on kids or projects. There's a way to drive into the building that the locals know." Judy consulted her datapad. "Any questions?"
"Do we bring anything, Judy?" Carly asked from the Consulate.
"Just your smile," Judy said with a grin. "Cameras are optional. Remember … you're still on a general censorship rule, some of you. Once you prove yourself, that ends. Until then …?"
"When do we prove ourselves?" Hamilton Brown asked.
"When they give you full range. Its then yours to lose, the trust," Barbara Morshower said from another screen. She was in Virginia getting ready to bridge back for the fun tomorrow.
They chatted and discussed for a bit longer, then broke up to go their separate ways. Owen Harris was going upstairs to speak to Zak and Monica Hadden.
-0- Around the affair
"This is great, Rampage. Thanks for the hard work," Blue said as he checked the menu at the parties with a silent nervous Laslo. Blue grinned at him. "Relax, Laslo. Rampage has this."
"I know. Its all beautiful. I'm just … my first bond among my kids. This is so exciting I think I'm going to fall over." Laslo, helm in the sky Laslo grinned at both.
Blue and Rampage grinned back at the tall tense mech. "We'll get it there and set it up. After that, its up to you to eat and drink it."
"Give us a hard job," Blue said with a smile.
-0-Ratchet lounging in Ops Center with Prowl
Optimus Prime walked in with a still miffed Ironhide. They sat. Ratchet grinned at both. "Ready to do the bonding tomorrow?"
"I'm always ready," Optimus said with a smirk at Ironhide.
"I'm a slagging chaos bringer of THE AUTOBOTS! I'm ready for anything. Then I plan to get drunk right afterwards," Ironhide said with a mild sulk.
"That's my boy," Ratchet said with a smile.
Then they all looked down at the floor.
-0-Discussion much later that afternoon
"What is a Praxian ceremony like?" Jack Mellar asked as they sat in the sunny outer office of their business, Galaxy Productions which was on an upper level of Tyger Pax, a street side storefront establishment that now employed 30 humans on world. The youngsters and elders in the place were handling things as the 'bosses', Jack and Aaron Melcher had a chat with the 'real boss', Leonora Huttle.
"Well, I asked Bluestreak when I caught him at the Catering Place yesterday. They had his own and the twins at Diego back in the orn as they say," she said with a grin. "It's short and very to the point. Prime is officiating. When the crowd is assembled, literally anyone who wants to come along with family and friends, then Prime or a designee says something about the moment. After that, the family which is standing there comes into the picture. The two who are bonding are out of sight and are called to come forward. When they do, Prime begins. He asks if they want to bond. If they say yes, then he calls for genitors to step forward to make the promises, to support the bond and any kids. If they agree, then the good part comes."
The two men nodded. "Yes?" Jack asked.
"They discuss the meaning this has for Praxians, then Prime will ask if they agree, Lancer and Partition, to give genitor rights freely and fully to their Praxian family elders. Since Lucien and Laslo have agreed to a Praxian ceremony, they agree in principle to this part as well. If they agree to do that, then Prime seals the deal, declares them finally adult in the optics of the community and its over."
"They aren't adult now?" someone asked with surprise.
"Not in all the ways. You don't have to bond to be considered an adult. Once you reach a certain age, that's it. No one has to bond but a lot do and more so now that there's peace and hope. It's a coming of age thing, bonding. So is war, military participation and holding a job. Moving out and holding a job makes you an adult at a certain age no matter what your marital status is. You have to live here and talk to them a long time before it makes sense. It helps to understand them to talk to them about life, liberty and all that," Leonora explained.
"What are genitor rights?" Aaron asked as others who were listening nodded.
Leonora grinned. "I once dated a great guy from Rome, Italy who was handsome, decent, kind, and sort of suffered from the same thing. As long as you have a father, you'll always be a son. Also, his mom still treated him like he was living a home and since he dropped off his laundry for her to do every weekend, stayed over half the time and ate her amazing food, it sort of brought this home when I asked someone about this law. You give up your freedom to choose your way if your genitors decide that you need guidance. They can invoke … its even on the Cybertronian law books, some formal code that allows them to take over your life if they feel you're going down the wrong road."
It was silent a moment. Then a young man, an film and copy editor, leaned closer. "You mean … if they don't like what you're doing, they can reclaim you like you were eleven years old?"
"Pretty much," Leonora said with a chuckle. "They have the right and duty to invoke to stop whatever is happening dead in its tracks, pull things back and prevent, or not, something going forward. Even if you're bonded, you have to do what they say including leaving your house if they think you need to do so. I asked my friend about abuses and he looked puzzled a moment. He says its so rare an event that he never saw it happen in his own lifetime. Then he grinned. He said that Moda and Tress have invoked twice on Smokey for goofing around in school. It has the force of law. Most Praxians will tell you they never saw it but they heard about it. It usually involved someone chasing someone who wasn't good for them. Its extremely rare."
"What did they do? Did they obey?" the kid asked.
Leonora nodded. "Yes. They did. They didn't like it at first but it turned out alright in the end, the few who knew about one. I asked Prowl about it and he said that the idea of it usually took care of most crap. He said there are so few on record other than the trivial things like Smokey that few Praxians can tell you about one they knew of. Pretty neat system for taking care of goofy stuff, I think."
It was silent a moment, then Jack glanced at Aaron. "We have our season finale for Platoon. 'Autobot City: Weird Alien Rules'."
Huge laughter greeted that as Leonora smirked. She already had it down for the next production meeting three days from now.
-0-Ops Center earlier
Then they all looked down at the floor. Standing on her segway honking the hilarious little horn she had put on her own, Leonora Huttle was smiling up at them.
"Hello, Leonora Huttle," Prime said.
:Hello, Optimus. I was wondering … may I film the ceremony and parties tomorrow? I think that would be a great thing for humans to see: she said with a hopeful expression.
The bots stared at her, then each other, then her again. "Yes," they all said at the same time.
"I'm getting slag faced," Ironhide offered as a sidebar to the main event.
:Done deal, Ironhide: Leonora said with a smile.
Win-win.
-0-Farmville
They saw him coming with Perry Beliveau, Kyle Davis, and Hamilton Brown. Glancing up, they walked along their furrows toward the men and stepped down to the pathway.
Harris glanced around. "Looks really good here. How are the new trees doing?"
"Well," Monica said as she glanced at a small grove of fruit trees nearby. "The Hu-An helped us get them rooted and started well. No curling or falling leaves from root shock."
"Good. I hear you're going to the party and ceremony tomorrow as guests of someone. I was surprised to hear that since you haven't been cleared yet," Harris said. "Who asked that you come?"
Zak and Monica glanced at each other, then the men. "We're working with Larc, her Ag team and Wheeljack. Perceptor invited us along because it came up when we were face timing and he asked if we'd like to be there. We jumped at it."
Harris nodded. "I'd like to know about such things, Zak. It would help us plan our public relations campaigns to win the trust of the bots if you do. Everyone of us is an ambassador of our planet to the Martians here. We'd like to know we're a team."
Zak shrugged. "We're aware of that every time we interact or speak to the aliens here. We're scientists, not public relations experts, Owen. If you want us to do that, you can tell us and we'll help. We don't know what everyone is doing here. Maybe a memo will get the group more organized."
Owen nodded as he stared at Zak with an appraising expression. "I'll do that. Thanks for helping us get closer to the bots. They hold the keys to the kingdom. The more the better." He looked around again. "How's the irrigation project going?"
"We planned in the original outline to drip feed them but there's so much water here we've advanced to the second and third stage plan and we're working on general irrigation with buried pipes networking. It'll ease evaporation and provide a steady measured allotment. All in all, its doing great," Zak said as Monica nodded.
"Good work," Owen said with a tight grin. "Carry on. It's good to have trees here." With that, he walked down the wide path between the huge fields toward the facility's elevator bank on the far wall. They were gone in seconds.
"Somehow, something tells me that we have a demerit against us," Monica said.
"Something tells me you're right," Zak said. "Middle and upper management assholes. No matter what world you're on, they're always there making things harder than they should be." He looked at his wife. "Don't worry about it. I heard a rumor."
"What rumor?" Monica said as they walked back to their targeted plants.
"Wait until I have something to tell you that's rooted in irrefutable facts. Then I will," Zak said as he paused to look at Monica. He grinned. "We're going to see an alien wedding, sort of, between two of the most unlikely aliens ever. Then we're going to a party and dance. I can't wait. Who could have thought this up if they tried?"
"I don't know … Hasbro?" Monica asked as she grinned back.
They both laughed a long time.
-0-TBC 5-30-18 edited 7-7-18
ESL:
demerit: (dee-mair-it) a mark against you. Sometimes if you reach a number of them, they show you the door, either out or to your cell. ;D
Sorry about last night. I had to get up at 4:30 and drive to Anchorage for a car recall. They're tearing up the roads so stop, start, stop, start. :D I did see a lot of eagles. Its very weird to drive along the inlet at 65 miles per hour and see a bald eagle flying with a seagull about ten feet away at eye level keeping up. Beautiful place, this one. HUGS!