The Diego Diaries: Farmville (dd6 396)
-0-In a conference room near the end of a community council meeting
"Optimus … tell us your thinking on this project," Hard Drive said as he watched Blackjack add another cow to the 'herd' on the table top. Flipper glanced around, then lay down to doze. Pudding joined him.
"The humans are an inventive species, creative and determined. They will make their way into space at some point on their own. Their steadfastness in their vision and persistence in trying to achieve it is admirable and inevitable. It is also with their level of technological development foolhardy. Some orn they will come and I would like it to be with more potential than they can bring to the table alone.
"They wish a big habitat and larger on world population and presence. We will supply that but under our own control. We can work on the problems that will plague them off world as well as those on Earth. Earth is in dire straits nearly everywhere with a population they cannot feed at present. If we take the time to do the work here, we can give it back to the humans to use on their own. But since we will control it, we can give it to them for no cost. The humans are looking for ways to make money which is understandable but if it means some don't get the benefit, then it is not. We do not have that as a goal for our own civilization anymore, to make profits at the expense of the common good. It has been a game changer for us to do things this way. Everyone is important and worthy. Everyone can benefit from the group's effort. This way, Earth can as well, receiving for nothing all the benefit that we create here.
"I am also tired of playing games with the humans, those who bear us ill. Many are the humans who want to come here and who would do their best to be good neighbors. They want to learn, do research and some, make money. I am not against that. I am against any project that does not benefit the whole. Everyone on Earth deserves the same benefits that come from any efforts here. I am tired of the machinations, frankly. Let us do this but our way. All of the benefit goes gratis to Earth."
"I figured that was what you were working on here," Hardie said. "How big a population are we looking at?"
"We have planned a facility that would house in the beginning 10,000 humans with bot administration, security and supervision. It would be a facility that would hold many, many more." He glanced at Ty and Metroplex. "What would be the capacity for the installation, gentlemen?"
"We, that is … I can hold up to 20,000 individuals. Between Clipper, Dangerous and I, that's over 65,000 individuals. Given the size of the two mechs coming, you can house almost 42,000 individuals in the facility as planned," Ty said. He leaned forward on his elbows. "That's the number for the configuration as it stands. We can do other things, even building extensions of the habitat portion where everyone lives if necessary to accommodate more in future expansions. As you know, all our frames can fit into constructed surroundings such as cities and have in the past. All of the bots on Cybertron at some point will be included into construction to some point or the other."
Prime nodded. "The installation itself with all the housing, labs, facilities, an urban center for recreation, and commerce will encompass most of one mech who will be combining slightly with the other to make the design happen and be secure. The rest of the design will consist of a dome that will be the open spaces that will be the farm itself. There will be outbuildings as well but they will be constructed. The mech making the dome will handle environmental efforts such as atmosphere, rainfall and the like."
"How big will that be?" Hard Drive asked.
Jetta leaned forward. "We have a design that's L-shaped, a huge ten story facility with tall decks for us to walk around. You might have to lean slightly," he said to the titans sitting down table. "The farm itself must enclose a space of nearly 80 square miles. That will be accomplished by energy domes combined from both that will be created energetically, then set permanently after the diagnostics are clear. It will be as tall as seven stories, range outward to cover the entire area, then seal it against the atmosphere. The size of the space is what's required by careful cultivation to feed a population as big as the one we have on Mars. This can do that, this much space.
"We used to do this in the old orns on planets that had difficult atmospheres or environments. It hasn't been done since the age of exploration when the ships would take colonists and miners, geologists and the like out into the boondocks. It was easier to cover an area under a dome than try to work in a place where the circumstances were less than ideal. Given that two dreadnoughts who have enormous experience in deep space exploration, a capacity to mine and manufacture built in and lots of time spent being various types of habitats for various types of situations, they're perfect for this venture. The fact that they want a quieter life given they've been hunted since The Fall makes it a win for them as well."
"Are they well, Metroplex? What do they require to feel up to this?" Optimus asked.
"They require work and updates but they've done this a lot before. Some of our older settlements were part of their purview and they not only formulated habitation but protected it as well. They're looking forward to this. Most of their hurts are already healed in Soft Space. They're ready to take on light duty among our own kind," Metroplex said. "We're ready to welcome them home."
Optimus nodded. "We are as well. We have situated their location in the expanse south of the Industrial Park Cities and southwest of the human habitations. The United Nations Consul would be able to see them but the other habitats would have a more difficult time. This effort is to defuse impressions that we are not willing to share. The project's purpose is for the benefit of Earth and all her inhabitants. We will control the project and its many different efforts. By the time humans can come into space and settle around the system, all the science they need will be developed and refined here. I also think it might be interesting to see what the humans at Earth2 will do about this facility, especially in light of who owns and operates it."
Prowl nodded. "We are already aware of a network connection between the Family and Harris Industries. Now that there will be a human facility that operates outside of their influence … Earth 1 is autonomous but it still has human control dominating it … we can see how they deal with this one."
"What are we calling it?" Blackjack asked with a grin.
"I am thinking 'Unidad-Terra 1'," Prime said. "I like the sound of 'unity' in that language."
It was silent a moment, then Hard Drive leaned forward. "I like it."
Everyone nodded, then Epps who was listening stood. :Optimus, why did you discuss this with my grandpa, other than he farmed most of his life?:
"For that very reason. I wanted to understand more about the human pursuit of agriculture, something that can benefit Earth greatly if we can figure out how to increase crop yields as well as nutritional value of food grown here given the hunger on your world. Your abba has a lot of knowledge and so does the Haddens."
"Are you going to poach the Haddens from Owen Harris?" Raptor asked with a grin.
"Yes. I am," Optimus said with a smirk. "This is what we have planned to do. Call it the first real volley over the helms of the Family, the Resistance and those who would bring harm to Mars and Earth."
They would study the plan, troubleshoot it, then kick back for a few moments of laughs, lies and gossip. Everyone would leave with an appreciation for the multiple levels of agriculture among the humans and the generosity of spirit by their titanic brethren. What would surprise the humans would be how knowledgeable the bots were about farming. Until they mentioned that they had all pretty much come across farmers in their lives and many had helped them with their work, it seemed like the most incongruous thing possible.
-0-On the way out
Ratchet and Ironhide walked out with Halo smiling at them from her Seeker bag. "Optimus likes fragging with the humans. Don't let his integrity and his awesome dignity throw you. He enjoys sticking it to them when he can."
"Mech doesn't like those who won't do the right thing. If he can eradicate hunger on Earth, he'll be the happiest mech around," Ironhide said.
"He and me both," Ratchet said as they disappeared in the pedestrian crowds all around them.
-0-N.E.S.T. HQ
They gathered at a table in the rec room, all of Bobby Epps' adult male family. His father, Amos sat down with his own father, Grandpa Harley. "What's up, son? We're missing a game."
"What's this I hear about you talking farming with Optimus?" Bobby asked. The others sitting around him stared at them with interest including Olivia Bowers who was sitting nearby eating lunch. Joe was out with Charlotte and Seymour doing the business of human interests.
"He wanted to know about farming, Earth style. I told him. He knows a lot about farming himself, Optimus does. I asked him how he did. Did he learn it on the internet?" Amos said. "No, he said. I've helped others in my life and travels. I can imagine he did."
"What do you think about them making a farm here? One covered in a dome and filled with humans working it, all of whom are employees of Autobot Nation?" Bobby asked.
"I say sign me up," Omar said with a grin as his father, Harley Epps nodded in agreement.
"I didn't milk cows for fifty years for nothing, Grandson. I have a lot of wisdom and some to spare," Harley said.
Bobby Epps grinned at the two men who had shown him everything he needed to be a good man. "You do, Grandpa. Do you think he's going to start a dairy?"
"I don't know. I do know if he does, then I'm in," Harley said.
Omar nodded. "Imagine. Walking out into the fields again on a sunny morning to get the cows. The last homesick feeling I have for Earth will be gone when I can." He grinned. "Well, maybe not all of them. I do love a good cinnamon bun from the bakery in town."
They chatted cows and cauliflower, carrots, chickens and irrigation. Every day in every way, things got better and better.
-0-Out in space
They slipped through the last layer of existence necessary to reach third dimensional space where Mars and Earth were located. They had flown here from the ninth dimension, one where having a non-corporeal body and abilities was normal and having a meat sack or metallic frame wasn't. They had arrived at last, working out together the transfer coordinates that would take them to the solar well of a little star system on the edge of something called the Orion Arm, a minor part of the galaxy they found themselves in. Cybertron was somewhere around here but they put that out of their processors. They rested side-by-side, their running lights blinking, then with a few algorithms, teleported themselves away.
Soft Space was filled with their kind, titans of all shape and form. They felt something powerful when they arrived, something that felt like a gentle embrace. Their wounds were soothed and healed. Their traumas smoothed with energy that seemed to dial itself for just such a thing. No one knew what it was or where. They just knew that their frames hid there between disasters and came there to heal. One always healed there down to their paint scheme.
Flashing away, space was once again itself, its emptiness returning as the big vessels disappeared. All was well again in essentially null space. If someone wasn't in that spot, in the end, did it really exist?
Far away, two massive vessels appeared at the edge of the solar well where a white and red doctor, a winged wonder, a chaos bringer, a titan and a dreadnought, chieftains of their people, along with the Prime of Cybertron waited to welcome them home.
-0-TBC 6-27-18 edited 6-28-18
NOTES:
ESL:
non-corporeal: something that has an energy body, rather than a material one like us.