The Diego Diaries: Forensics (dd6 517)
-0-The Scene
The night was deeply dark when the runabout from the Medical Center arrived with the night designate coroner. He jumped out before it fully landed and walked to Sky and his team. They talked a moment, then he pulled out a blanket from subspace. Placing it over the rolled up ball of frozen human curled up on the ground, he picked up the body and folded the blanket around him so that he was completely covered. "I'll take him to the morgue. Ratchet wants him thawed out but maintained so we're putting him in the cryo chamber to bring him down slowly."
"Thanks, Bardo." Sky paused to take a message. "Ratchet just told me to call in everyone for a search party at Earth2. Trucks, kits, all of it. Springer is pulling in Sciences and the Watch teams as well. Can you tell Murfee when you get there?"
"I will. On it now," Bardo said as he nodded, then walked to the shuttle. He sat on the edge, waved and away they flew into the darkness until their running lights disappeared.
Sky turned to the others. "Can you help the wrecker when it comes for the vehicle? I'm heading for Earth2. Come there when the scene is cleared."
The two tall Seekers nodded, then Sky transformed to jet into the darkness overhead just as another ship came in and asked for assistance. His beam of light covered the area and there was no disturbance from this ship's propulsion which ran on magnetic energy. A hatch opened underneath, then a flat heavy metal disk was lowered on a winched cable. Down it went, then settled on the vehicle. By then, the two Seekers had transformed and flew over the ship to hover out of the way. The ship hit its magnetic generators and the vehicle slammed upward into the disk. That magnet also drew every bit of metal that had flown off the truck into the ground around it, slamming like bullet strikes on the damaged vehicle.
After a moment, the wrecker ship began to pull away. It flashed its running lights to the two Seekers, then flew swiftly away. As he did, the two Seekers jetted to Earth2 and the next step in the murder investigation of Lawrence Frederick Dobbs, Junior.
-0-Earth2 about the same time
Prime rapped on the window. "Open up," he said with a cold voice.
Owen Harris turned to Silvio Lombardi and nodded. He looked at the crowd gathering in the main concourse and it seemed like the entire place was standing there, nearly 6,700 individuals at the moment. "We need everyone in the facility so Silvio can operate that airlock."
The group was ushered back by the mercs and the ten human members of the Day/Night Watch who worked here as part of the bot's negotiated security plan for Earth2. When everyone was inside, the doors closed and Silvio opened the outside lock. It slid apart as the bots poured in while many more outside gathered and still they came. Seekers landed, then one walked in with the others. Sky had arrived first and as head of forensics would lead the investigation inside the facility with Springer. The door finally closed, then the atmosphere returned. The inside lock opened and the leadership, their families and a lot of the inhabitants stepped closer.
It was silent a moment as Prime stared at Harris. "Mr. Harris, we have found Lawrence Dobbs."
"Shall we speak privately, Lord Optimus?" Owen asked as he turned to the others.
"No. What I have to say will be said to everyone," Optimus said.
Everyone turned to him and waited including Harris who looked shocked and ill at ease. "Then please, sir, tell us what is happening," he said.
"We found Lawrence Dobbs at milepost 19 on the TransWorld Highway. His vehicle was damaged in a collision off road and he himself is dead."
There was an intake of shocked breath as everyone glanced at each other, then Prime. The mercs themselves looked shocked as well. A murmur arose, then died down as silence returned to everyone there.
"The charters of all the habitats have certain agreements written into them that allow me as Prime and ruler of this planet to step in and assert control from you and your board, Mr. Harris. Consider that clause enacted." He looked at the shocked and somewhat frightened crowd. "Sometime earlier in the day, Lawrence Frederick Dobbs, Junior who was a security individual hired by the Earth2 Corporation left to visit the habitats here, the Consulate, Earth 1 and Unidad. He visited them, then drove away. Some time later he left the grid upon which all of you are fixed and tracked features. The grid is maintained to find you in case of emergency or to facilitate your passage around the colony. We maintain a lot of things through that connection including your medical well being. It is constant and part of your agreement to be here.
"When it went off, Ops Center here alerted the Emergency Command Center at Fortress Maximus and we began to search. Search and Rescue and the Civil Air Patrol looked for him, finding the transponder that all vehicles utilize as locators at milepost 15.5 on the TransWorld Highway. After trackers searched painstakingly along the highway, we found his body at milepost 19.
"He was lying on the ground dead. His death was painful but swift. There will be no disclosure of what evidence we have gathered there and from the area around the site. We are not disclosing this death to the humans on Earth until we have made our investigation. General Morshower who heads Global N.E.S.T and Major Lennox who commands the garrison here agree with that judgment.
"You are all confined to this habitat until we get to the bottom of this. You will not be allowed to leave it. I am going to ask Sosa at your operational center to disable your tracking and identification devices so that the doors will not open and allow you out. That will be so for every human habitat here but The Resort, N.E.S.T Headquarters, Sciences and the Family Tower. Every other habitat is under lock down as of now and security will be posted where humans congregate.
"Your communications are suspended until we complete the investigation. If there are important family or professional communications that are critical to go then send them to Starlet at my office and she will run them past the censors and send them if they are appropriate. No information is going to be released to cause an uproar on Earth before we know what happened. We are going to take care of the communications break ourselves and will tell Earth.
"There are one or more murderers among us and until we have solved this you will remain here. I do not want you out of a safe environment at the mercy of whoever this is until we figure this out. I am also assuming command of Earth2. I am asking you to return to your apartments and wait there for an officer to come interview you about this and what you might have seen or heard. I am going to have those who do interview you come in pretender gear so that they can do this more efficiently and give you the comfort of talking to a human. The hired security that you have brought here, Mr. Harris is suspended from their roles. The Day Watch, the ten men and women we employ here will assume full interior security for the facility until further notice. Does anyone not know who they are?" Prime asked.
No one raised their hands as the ten security officers moved to stand on the vehicles at the motor pool. Everyone looked at them, then Prime. "They have security duty here until further notice along with an Autobot who will be armed and doing indoor service starting tomorrow. The charter of Earth2 allows me free and complete discretion in case of situations like this and I am taking it. When you return to your homes an officer will come to speak to you. Since it is going to be private I encourage you to speak up. A man died an agonizing death who did not deserve it and I am personally aggrieved that this is so."
:Optimus … everyone is reading truthful including Harris and his gang: Ratchet said to Prime.
:Keep reading them, Ratchet. I want to know who is feeling the burn: Prime glanced over his shoulder. "We will be scouring this place, every inch of it including your data systems. If you have a project that you need to go to before returning to your apartments raise your hand now."
Several did.
"Will the Watch team accompany these individuals to their sites, then their homes? We have already locked everyone out of the data systems. Go now to your homes and wait for someone to come to you. If there are any situations that require attention now, come to me and tell me," Prime said as Phoebe Grant from Earth 1 who had been visiting patients came toward him.
"I have three patients here, Lord Optimus. What do you want me to do?" she asked solemnly.
"If they are ambulatory, then take them to the medical center. If not, tell one of the security where they are and they will help you make your rounds," Prime said.
She nodded, then walked to the female member of the team. They then began to walk back inside along with thousands of murmuring and uneasy individuals. The concourse began to clear as the bots and Owen's team watched them go. Owen looked upward at Prime. "I have no idea what this is, Lord Optimus. What about Dobb's family?"
"We will make contact when we can tell them something. It is my experience that the bereaved want to know the details, the smallest to the largest. We will make that happen. Right now, he is in the morgue and Ratchet will do the autopsy. Right now, you need to walk to your homes and stay there." Prime stared at them all of whom wanted to say more but didn't. Gathering their families with them, they began to walk back to the housing block in the distance.
The bots watched them go then Prime turned to the group with him who were silent and pensive. "Ratchet, analysis."
"All of them read shocked and dismayed. It was genuine. None of them were hiding anything. There was concern and worry but nothing that even comes close to being concealment of a dastardly deed. All of them read true to me," Ratchet said. "And note, Prime, that my tech is certified to court testimony. This is highly developed and approved by the legal system. What I can produce with it passes muster in court."
"If not them, then who?" Jazz asked with puzzlement.
"I do not know yet," Prime said though he had a suspicion. "Turn this place upside down. We need to have information as soon as possible." He glanced at Blaster. "I need to work out a release for Earth that the communications systems are out of service for a few days. Get with Prowl, Blaster, then let me read it before sending."
Blaster nodded, then walked to a sealed panel in the airlock. He coded it and it opened to reveal a complex communications console for just such moments. He logged in and Prowl appeared. They began to work on the message together as the bots began to walk outside to transform and park in the lot. When that was accomplished several dozen human males flashed into existence then walked into the facility to gather before Prime. They were human pretenders, well dressed and relatable to the locals here, much more relatable than an overly tall bot.
"I want chapter and verse," Prime said.
They nodded and headed inside for the huge wing where the apartments were. It would take a while to get there. While they did, Prime, Ironhide and his family along with Ratchet walked to the elevator and joined Sosa to go upward to the Ops Center. When they arrived, the pretender avatar of Paribolus would be waiting for them along with Slasher and Invincible.
-0-Apartments
"What do we do now, Owen? We're prisoners here," Mariah said as she paced in the living room.
Standing by the window, Owen Harris glanced at the reflection on its surface. Rick and Rain were there sitting on chairs silently as Kyle and Mariah paced. "You need to sit, both of you. We're going to do what they tell us to do. We lose control of the facility when something like this happens. We will all do what we're supposed to do and then wait."
"What about school, Dad?" Rain asked.
"I'll ask Prime," Owen said as a knock on the door alerted everyone there. "Come in please."
The door opened and two big men walked in, both of them dressed casually but clearly giving the aura of familiarity. "Owen Harris … Mr. Davis and Mrs Davis … you were told to go to your apartments."
"My daughter and son are here. I wanted to be with them. This is very upsetting," Mariah said as she wrung her hands nervously.
Springer glanced at Drift, then her again. "Very well. How about sitting and we can get into this. I would like all of you but Mr. Harris to go into another room and close the doors. These interviews will be separate. By the way, I'm Springer and this is Drift."
They stared at him, then Harris who nodded. All of them rose, then walked down the hallway to the other rooms. Both waited until the sound of doors closing was heard, then Springer and Drift turned to Harris. "We need to talk," Springer said grimly as Drift walked to a chair to sit.
Harris nodded equally grimly. "I agree," he said as he sat.
-0-Unidad Terra 1
Alor of Iacon walked into the facility and was met by Carly and Sam. After a moment of conversation, he rose and walked out. Sam and Carly watched him go, then glanced at each other.
"Holy shit," Sam whispered. "This is going to be bad."
"Very bad," Carly said as she took his hand into her own.
-0-Earth 1
"And that's the story. The four are in lock down, Unidad, Earth 1 and 2 and the Consulate. We're going to come here to interview next. Prime wants the leadership told but you can't tell anyone else until we have a chance to interview. We want no one synching their stories," Alor said.
"You have our word, Alie," Brandon Clark said gravely. "We will do what you need us to do."
Alor stood, then grinned. "And that's why we love you so," he said, then nodded and walked to the airlock to leave.
-0-Consulate of Earth
"So you understand our need for discretion, Lisle?" Alor asked the Carly replacement as interface and liaison for the Consulate and the colony.
"Of course," Lisle said with a shocked expression. "Please know you can count on discretion from me. When will you come?"
"Probably tomorrow. Tell everyone that a glitch is keeping communications down when they ask. Thanks, Lisle," Alor said as he rose. "I have to go back to Earth2."
Lisle nodded as she watched Alor leave. As it would be for Brandon Clark, it would be for her a very long tense night until the morning when teams of bots in pretender gear gathered to talk to the consuls and everyone else here.
The night of Mars was inky dark and in its complexity it was also something else that few of them had felt until now … sinister.
-0-TBC 11-9-18 edited 11-24-18