The Diego Diaries: Scoutin' and Farmin' (dd6 409)
-0-At the Habitat
Ratchet opened the door, then stepped inside. It closed behind him swiftly, then the entrance equalized. Walking across the huge paved space, he entered the facility and ambled onward. There were no humans in sight but that would clear up shortly. At nine tomorrow morning the first 500 would arrive. They would be brought to the facility via the airport by two Autobot City touring buses with their dogs, frogs and gear. They would also bring an extra 212 people for starters with them as family.
He walked toward the town, then down Main toward B Street where Merlie's restaurant was located. She planned to have it open today and the barbecue in a couple more. Her sons who were the cooks there were still experimenting with charcoal and energon. Pausing by the door, he could smell good food both here and at the barbecue nearby. Wishing he had time to activate his pretender gear and indulge himself, he knelt. "Hello. Anyone home?" he asked.
Tennessee came from the back wiping her hands on a towel. "Hi, Ratchet. Mama is baking pies and biscuits. We have to have both here. We're feeding the locals lunch and when the newcomers come, we're going to be open for business."
"How does your mama like not charging for her stuff?" Ratchet asked with curiosity. It would be interesting to see how the cashless society they favored would appear to the newbies.
"She loves it. She was always feeding someone who couldn't pay," she said with a smile.
"What about the dairy? Are you going to be using any of that?" Ratchet asked.
"We already are. Mama made butter and cottage cheese yesterday. We use a small trench vat. Gloria is going to be taking that on with her daughter when she comes. Her daughter is taking a year off from college to come and help. You should come by some time to see how its done," Tennessee said with a smile.
Ratchet accessed a video of a long vat with milk filling it. Curdling additives were added and it was stirred, then left. When it was a long bar of solid curd, they inserted screen-like paddles into the gelatinous mass and dragged the comb the entire length of the vat breaking all of it up. Then they combed it sideways, brushing it through the mass until the entire length was a teaming mass of tiny curds. That's when Ratchet stopped watching. "I'll take your word for it." He smiled.
She smiled. It wasn't like she hadn't heard that before. They chatted, then he walked onward.
-0-Ground time...
"It's night. How about we break this up? Two of us here to guard. Two home. We can come back in a couple of joors," Springer said as they stood together around the darkened camp. Nearby filming them, the camera crews worked in shifts.
"How will I know you'll come back?" Prowl asked. "SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU EVER FOLLOWED A PLAN OF MINE BEFORE!?"
Everyone glanced at the darkened camp, then Prowl. "Sh!" -all of them.
"Don't 'sh' me, slaggers. Tell me where I'm wrong." Prowl fumed to the three of them.
At that moment, stepping down from the ship, Maxi, Lee-Lee and Holi appeared. The four turned to the three femmes who were smiling at them as they looked around. Maxi smiled at Springer. "I like this place."
"Good. You can take my spot," Springer said.
"The frag she will," Prowl said with a gimlet optic. "All three are taking mine."
A furious argument broke out off line among the mechs as the femmes stared around the campsite with smiles. Holi turned to them. They paused their fighting to look at the three. "Gentlemen, you have your duty."
The four stared at her like they were miscreant kids to their mama. It pushed the right buttons for Prowl and Ironhide but not the other two. Well, not Springer anyway. "But Mom," he said with a big smile.
Holi laughed. "Duty, honor, people. You know what to do."
"Frag." -all four of the mechs.
They would.
-0-Outside
Ratchet walked to the door to stare into the distance. It was dusty inside the vast dome as they tilled, casting the finest sandy grains into the air. Fortunately, the air circulation system was designed to prevent this sort of thing for very long. He stepped out to go to the ponds and lake, check the grand canal and the spillway. The sun beat down but the internal temperature was kept at a solid 75 degrees Fahrenheit. It would be a nice walk. In the distance he could see the dairy and the herd hanging out in the big corral. Nearby, work was going on with the pasturage that would tend them, getting it ready to plant the next day or so. He personally couldn't wait to see it green and lush with cows enjoying themselves on it.
-0-Morning is breaking like the first mor-or-or-orning …
The camp began to stir early, brought about by scheduling and hunger. They staggered out, then gathered together, the humans, as they noticed the three new bots. The three femmes were sitting together on a box, then rose when they saw them. Smiling, Maxi stepped forward. "Good morning, infants. I'm Maxi."
-0-The walk to the lake district
The ground under his peds was a different color than he remembered it. It had been worked by the Hu-An with bot help, changing it from barren to useful. It would take a few more orns before the ground was ready for plants and water systems. Roads were outlined and marked for creation with all of them paved before this was over but for the track near the fruit and olive orchards and vineyard. That would be left rustic to fit the circumstances of its use. Beauty was important to the Autobots.
The canal came into view, a deep slash in the land that ran from the first pond between him and the main spillway. It snaked out into the distance with arteries running from it to cover the area in a grid pattern to reach all of the fields that would built here. He reached the pond that had been finished, itself a large slightly oval shape with sloping sides and rocks here and there around its edges. It had been lined with a fast drying cement-like mixture used by the bots to help prevent leaks in land features. It had then been lined with smooth stones, caulked with a sand colored mixture, then painted with a clear substance. Onto that, they had strewn a sand-like substance that hardened immediately, giving the bottom a more natural feel to anyone who swam there. All it needed was water. The stream leading in led out in three different directions, water that would go elsewhere, feeding all that it came into contact with in the carefully designed system.
Ratchet walked onward following the canal to another pond, bigger, more meandering in terms of shape and designed just like the other. Nearby, the road to the forest was marked for creation. Mechs were working with Terri Hadden and Munro of the Hu-An to make a rocky slope that would lead up to the dome itself. Trees would be planted along it so that it could be seen from the outside. Dust was hanging around them as the monster trucks working with them walked here and there to place massive boulders. There would be a couple of small meadows in the middle of the forest that would be an experimental site for bees and flowers.
He continued onward following the main canal until he came to the dam with a spill way that would be circulating water shortly. Jetta and Wheeljack were there discussing with the engineers who created this feature how things would work. "HOWDY!" he called as the two turned to him. "How's it going?"
"Well," Jetta said. "We're going to turn on the well pumps later tonight. We're bringing the water up slowly and will fill up the dam until it begins to trickle over the spillway. At that point, we'll open it up a tiny bit more so it can fill faster while checking the system as water reaches it. We hope to achieve equilibrium by noon tomorrow, then start the propulsion mechanism to begin circulation."
"Sounds like fun. How long will it take to fill the lakes and ponds?" Ratchet asked as he looked down into the bottom of the dam where a set of paddles were placed to begin movement of the water. It would circulate all through the facility including the big cisterns that were in the lowest levels of the habitat as reserve water.
"That's sort of a guess right now. We plan on beginning circulating the water by noon tomorrow but it depends on how fast the system fills. We plan on 1200 hours tomorrow." Jetta said as Wheeljack nodded.
"Then you're going to be ready to start the irrigation of planted fields. I heard that the irrigation of the pastures will be done with channels, but for the cultivated planted fields pipes will be used. Pipes with sprinklers," Ratchet said.
Wheeljack nodded. "We have plans to modify that so it isn't so labor intensive. Consider if they were living on another world with limited population. How much labor can you expend working on your projects before you begin working against yourself? That's a consideration we need to factor in. Not every place they live will have so many hands available to do things that come up or are needed."
Ratchet agreed. "Looks good. It's going to be great to see planted fields and animals on the grass. It sort of reminds me of pictures of farms on Earth." He grinned. "I have to go to Diego to check out the group that's coming tomorrow. They're gathering there, some of them with the rest coming from Army bases around the world. Most of them are already our employees."
"Good thing," Jetta said. "I want to see their faces when they see this."
"You and me both," Ratchet said as he turned to go. "See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya."
"YES YOU WOULD!" Jetta called as Ratchet transformed and with a whoop of his siren jetted off to drive back to the facility.
The two of them watched, then turned back to calculations of the machinery that would power the miracle they were planning.
-0-Earth
The three femmes waded out into the shallow lake, turning toward the shore when reaching their place to look at the kids waiting excitedly there. They were lined up behind canoes. They were going to race, two humans in a canoe to the bot kids' one. They were going to row out and around the three femmes who were standing in the water as goals. Everyone was totally stoked including Maxi, Lee-Lee and Holi. They clapped their servos with excitement as they watched everyone get ready.
Brim was in his canoe and two others had their dual human paddlers. Mr. Mertz stood at the edge of the lake with a starter gun. "ON YOUR MARK! GET READY! … GO!" he said, then fired the gun.
The teams shoved their boats forward as the kids inside began to paddle. The Cybertronian and Cybertronian human kids took courses in school gym classes about rowing all manner of boats. The human kids from Mars were very adept at this given that they had this as an alternative to swimming when the unit came up in rotation.
Screaming by the teams ensued as the big mechs watched with amusement and tension. The Cybertronian kids were better placed to win than the humans but the doubling of human kids to their boats helped. Swiftly they rowed, then around the femmes they went. The femmes for their part cheered them and turned in place to watch them angle around to go back. It would take a bit of time and dexterity for everyone including the Cybertronians.
The camera crews were there filming madly as the Cybertronian canoe with Brim paddling made the turn, then began to come back. A boat with Bobby and another human kid from Earth made the turn as well, then began to burn it back. The last paddled just as madly and when they reached the shore they clambered out and were replaced. The relay would last a bit but the conclusion was foregone. The Cybertronian kids by virtue of their physiques would win. No one would care. It was too much fun.
-0-Through a space bridge darkly
He ambled through, traded gossip with the bridge crew, then walked out to see the world. The ops center was busy and so was the rec room. A poker game with humans and bots was underway and it was anyone's guess who would win. He bantered, then headed out through the big doors to the busy outside.
There were the usual crowds of off duty military and civilians who lived and worked here, many of them from other nations. There were also humans bound to go to Mars who were hanging around as well. Everyone knew that Ratchet was heading here to speak with Fulton, the humans in charge of the group's transfer to Mars and friends. A roar went up as he appeared so he did his usual ice breaker … he preened and pranced, turning this way and that as he struck poses for the locals. Huge laughter and jokes went up from the punters as he obliged. Then he knelt. "Hello, little people. What's up?"
"TAKE ME!" -most of them there
Ratchet laughed. "I'll pencil you in."
"Ambassador Ratchet, I'm Mindy Beresan and this is my husband, Albert. We're part of the group heading to Mars for the new habitat. Can you tell us anything about it?" a small dark haired woman asked.
"Well, its very big, sentient and ready for you," Ratchet said. "If I tell you more the surprise will be diminished and if I know anything about humans, you hate surprises."
She laughed, then nodded. "I do. We go tomorrow? At 1400?"
"Yep. That makes it just about 0900 on Mars. Remember, we don't have synced time between worlds. When its day here its often night there. But you won't have the transmission delays due to our orbits. We've expedited communications, though for now you'll be censored. That's protocol."
"Understood," she said with a smile.
"Coolness," Ratchet said as he glanced around. "Where's Fulton hiding?"
"At the Admin Building," a soldier said with a grin. "When do I get to come?"
Ratchet laughed. "Apply."
"I did," he said with a chuckle. "I also applied to N.E.S.T. I hope they take old codgers like me."
"Age is a state of mind, infant," Ratchet said. "I'm older than some stars and I'm in." He smiled a brilliant smile and everyone laughed. "I better check in. Let me through, infants." He carefully made his way forward pausing for the odd selfie and confessional, then walked around the admin building. His helm could be seen over it as he made his way to Fulton's window. Then he ducked down to talk.
The crowd waited for him. Ratchet was fun.
-0-Scouting
They called the winner. It was Tippy. She had paddled faster than anyone there and she was ecstatic. So were the femmes who came out of the lake dripping water. As they did, Springer glanced at Drift, then Ironhide. As one, moving with lightning speed, Springer and Drift picked up Ironhide and ran for the lake. Carefully moving to the side where no one would get hurt, they heaved him in. He flew through the air, then landed in the water sinking out of sight right away.
Everyone who watched laughed loudly including the camera people as Ironhide stood up wiping water from his face. He smirked. "You shouldn't start what you can't finish."
Springer laughed. "Stay there. Who can swim here?"
Everyone could.
"Swim to that big black plug out there. First one there gets a ferry ride back on my hand."
With that, every kid in the group ran for the water and jumped in. It was incredibly cute to see them swim to Ironhide who sank down to his shoulders so the kids could hang on when they reached him. Holi stepped into the water and followed them, watching for stragglers but all of them made it to Ironhide. They bobbed in the water as they held onto his shoulders. He grinned at them, then smirked at Springer. "Come on in, Springer. The water is fine."
"I'm good here," Springer replied. "But thanks for ask-"
With that, Prowl and Drift grabbed him, then ran for the water down the way. Prowl and Drift leaped in dragging Springer with them and they sank below the waves. The kids rode up and down on the waves from their plunge, laughing loudly as they did. When Prowl came up with Springer, he leaped on him and down they went. Drift who laughed lay over on his back and began to bob toward the kids.
For the next half hour or so, it was fun time at the old swimming hole. The kids would swim and so would the adults who jumped in as well. They would sit on the hands of the big mechs, chatting to them and the three femmes. It would be a great moment in a historical gathering. Leonora Huttle would get it all on film.
-0-TBC 7-10-18 edited 7-18-18