The Diego Diaries: Zombie (dd6 491)

-0-The next orn

Ratchet sat on a stool in the autopsy room as they wheeled the spark chamber that was going to be the first test of his theory into the room. Laying on the med berth, a protoform to house it was waiting. Ratchet directed First Aid in how to install the chamber until it was completed. As he watched the procedure, he watched the data streaming into the handheld he was perusing from the numerous attached devices on Crader and his new body. He had taken to the procedure well, nothing out of the ordinary was happening, so it seemed to Ratchet that short of the assimilation process leaching into their spark chambers as well and it didn't appear to have happened, this might be a way to manage them. There was no indication that the zombie affect was going to repeat here yet. "Good job. Now we wait to see what happens. I want to see if they mutate even with new bodies."

Prime who was sitting nearby stood and walked to the berth to stare at Crader. He was in stasis and was going through the long process of assimilating a new body to his CNA and spark chamber. It would take about six joors before they could bring him up and out of the deep medical stasis he was in. Prime glanced at Ratchet. "Did it all go through properly? What usually happens when this thing is done?"

"Well, there's a bit of shock and disorientation. Almost every spark transfer is because of something like this or major injury. The processor may assimilate to the new form but there is a shock especially among adults when they come to their senses. Imagine having this done to you and waking up in a different body and features."

Prime nodded. "I can imagine."

"We need to keep him on the machines and monitor this whole thing for a few orns. If this works out, then we can seat the other sparks in the protoforms we chose for them. At that point, they can be kept safely in jail." Ratchet stood slowly. "In the meantime, I'm going to be home on call."

"What about Drift and Jetta?" Prowl asked as he gripped Ratchet's good arm.

"They can leave tonight after inspection. I'll come back and release them," Ratchet said as he turned to Perceptor and Wheeljack. "Call me. All the monitors are set up."

They nodded, then watched as Ratchet walked into the hallway where the others waited. He grinned when he saw them. "Well, look at you."

They laughed, then Ironhide took Ratchet's arm. "Come on, old mech. Home calls."

"Until this place calls. I want to be here if anything happens or not." Ratchet grinned at the others, then walked with Ironhide to the elevator.

Prime glanced at Prowl. "I hope this works. The next step is not something I want to have to decide."

"If its the only step, then its out of your servos," Prowl said. "I'm going to the lock up upstairs and speak to Cobbler."

Prime walked with him to the elevator, then glanced at the mechs following. "Go with Prowl. If they get out of line, then you have discretion."

They nodded, everyone entered the elevators, then were gone.

-0-Lock up at the security ward, special circumstances detention block or the Sentinel Prime wing as some called it

Prowl walked in with Roadbuster, Hercy, Kup and Springer. He noted that the individuals lying in deep stasis on berths with energon restraints. Fifteen mechs were here including the one who had come to the scene and spoke a bit about what was happening before getting hit with stasis codes. Gypsy who had followed them walked to the berth with Cobbler then glanced at Prowl. He nodded, so she put a special device on the mech's forehead and coded it. It would allow the mech's processor to revive but not his body. After a few moments, the lights were on and the mech was home. He glanced around, then fixed his gaze on Prowl and the mechs with him. He didn't see Gypsy who was pulled aside by Hercy to stand behind Roadie.

"Welcome back, slagger. Are you going to speak to me now or do we put you under and shoot you with the others into the local star here?" Prowl asked coldly.

Cobbler stared at him, then noted the others around him. "Frag off, Autobot. We don't speak to low caste slaggers."

"Then it looks like you're not going to speak again for a long time." Prowl stepped closer and leaned over the mech slightly. He grinned a cold grin that held no warmth. "I thought you might like to know about the other ten we have in custody down in the morgue."

Cobbler stared at Prowl defiantly but said nothing.

"We took their spark chambers out of their bodies," Prowl said.

Cobbler stared at him, then attempted to lunge. He was restrained but his mouth wasn't. He raged, then got quiet again.

"We plan to do the same to you if you don't talk to us about this. As for your bodies and their weird ability to look for their chambers even when their sparks are removed, we had Xantium Supreme step on them," Prowl lied. "We gathered up the interesting bits and shot the rest of the broken debris into the sun in this system last night. The carcasses that you came in are going there, too, unless you talk to us about this."

Cobbler stared at Prowl with murderous optics as he lay helpless to move. He was seething with rage, then he swallowed it, the fire disappearing from him almost immediately. He gazed at Prowl for a moment. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Prowl said softly.

"Well …" Cobbler began. "You're not getting it, fragger."

"Too bad," Prowl said. "You fifteen are next." He glanced at Gypsy. "We'll be taking them out of here shortly. Put this one down, please."

Gypsy moved toward the berth with Roadie blocking the view of the mech lying there. She coded the device and the mech fell into stasis. She checked the readings, then glanced at them. "I'm sending the data to Percy. He wants to know how fast the mutation is going. Maybe we can predict when they become as impermeable as the others and plan for it."

Prowl nodded. "How much change has happened since they were brought here and now?"

She checked the device that was monitoring such things on a console behind the berths. She glanced at Prowl. "It's very small, minute, but steady."

Prowl nodded. "Alright," he said as he led the mechs out. They waited until the vault door was locked and the guards in place again. "Remember. No one has the authority to go inside that room without Prime's, mine or Ratchet's authorization. Even if this place is burning down, no one can enter."

Gypsy nodded. "Understood."

"Thank you, Gypsy." With that, Prowl and the mechs walked out.

-0-Home

Ratchet sat on his chair with a grin. Ironhide was fussing and he was enjoying it. They were a long way from the usual recovery from a wound routine. Here, there were no shabby buildings or crowded bases to recover in after he patched himself, then sucked it up. He was slipping.

Into welcomed luxury.

Ironhide brought a snack dish and beer. He set it down beside Ratchet, then got his own. He sat and they ate companionably for a moment. "You feeling okay? What about staying in until you get better?"

"I wouldn't mind that but I have a lot to do," Ratchet said. "This thing has to be handled right."

"But the forms you took for them … mini-cons?" Ironhide asked.

"We measured their sparks and found the smallest and least deadly protoforms we could that would handle the size of their sparks safely. Jazz sized mini-cons … 15-16 feet was the lowest we could go without compromising the spark. You do know, don't you, that spark determines size of body," Ratchet asked with a grin.

"Now I do," Ironhide said. He opened his carry hold and pulled out Halo. She was half asleep when he handed her over.

Ratchet took her and put her into the crook of his arm. Halo vented a sign, then fell back to sleep. "Thanks, Ironhide. I forgot we had one of these."

Ironhide grinned. "She likes missions. She's good at giving a breakdown of the scene. Little femme has all the makings of a detective."

"Don't tell Springer. He and Drift will steal her. They're kind of partial to the shorties," Ratchet said as he sipped his cold beer. It was great.

"I noticed that," Ironhide said as he grinned at his daughter. "We have a meeting tomorrow and lots of slag. I suppose you have to go to Unidad and supervise something."

"I do, actually. I get more of the tour," Ratchet said. "Then we're going to have what they call site meetings. They want me to come once every four decaorns to discuss things in the 'habitat community' and hear how its all going. They can pose their own questions to me, projects they want put forward and the like. Earth 1, Earth 2, Unidad, the Consulate, The Resort and the Sciences Habitat will be there. They want to have some structure to the human community and be able to make more crossover stuff between them. Right now, they feel like islands."

"Frag them," Ironhide said. "More meetings. More slag."

Ratchet chuckled. "They want to bond. Who am I to say no?"

Ironhide smirked at him. "Do you really want to know?"

"Nope," Ratchet said as they clinked their bottles together.

-0-Autopsy Room, Metro Femme

They studied the figure lying on the berth. They had discussed the kind of protoform that would settle a spark as big as some of them. Then it was made clear that the spark was normal for an average individual. What was not normal was the size of the body of Crader and his party. It was clear as bells that the bodies were the end product of an as yet unknown program of enhancements. They had a lot of boxes on two tables filled with fragments and their team was sorting the pieces of what was once Crader's body.

"What do we know so far, Wheeljack?" Perceptor said as he scoped out something in microscope format.

"Well, thanks to you, Percy, we know that he was a tall and rangy mech before this, but not a meat head like he is now. He wasn't the gorilla that he displayed before all of his life. He was an average tall mech. What happened in the process grew him up. That part is obvious because the parts of his body are original but changed. The serial numbers and various part indications register in the medical computer as those he had since birth. If you check them in the registry for specifications of what they were supposed to be originally, they were ordinary. These have been tampered with. They aren't ordinary any longer."

"That's what I thought as well," Perceptor said as he transformed back. "He's mutated the normal attributes of his original body to something much greater. I wonder if the process makes him mad. He certainly wasn't acting normal when we came for him."

"It might be a side effect. We're going to have to do more study," Wheeljack said as he walked to a box to sort through it for some small item that fit with the piece in his servo. All of them would be at it for a while.

-0-Ops Center, Prime's office

"That's basically what we got. Nothing," Prowl said.

They sat together quietly a moment, then Prime sat back in his chair. "We can try it again later. In the meantime, we need to talk about you disobeying my direct orders."

Prowl smirked. "Buh-bye." He rose to walk to the door, then paused a moment to look back at Prime who was smirking as he watched Prowl's shapely aft leave the room. "I'll stay. Mostly."

Prime smirked. "That is an order."

Prowl smirked back. "That gives me tingles all over."

"Me, too," Jazz said as he peered around Prowl to grin at Prime.

Prime who saw him standing there laughed aloud as Prowl smote Jazz about the helm and shoulders.

It was a welcome thing.

-0-TBC 10-8-18

ESL: impermeable: (im-perm-eee-uh-bl) can't be breached. Something that is impermeable to water can't get wet or soaked. It can't absorb.

Minute: usually means a measure of time but it can also mean a measure of anything. (my-noot) means small, very, very tiny in this case.