The Diego Diaries: Boom (dd6 614)
Should have a Chronicles of Orion up tomorrow. :D
=0=Earth2
He sat in the usual place by the window listening to the presentations and proposals by the CEO's of half of Earth's most prosperous and powerful corporations, investment banks and venture capital firms. They were all polite and some made an effort to connect with Ratchet. He was polite back, listened with a serious expression that many of them could actually see while not giving a thing away. The sun streamed in, warmed by the specialist fibers that were part of the window, fibers that allowed the small heat of the weak sunlight to be magnified. It helped warm the installation to a normal 70 degrees minimum. None of them knew that and none would. It was proprietary tech.
What they wanted was to make businesses here, to manufacture things in zero or near zero gravity, work on research which surprised him with its variety and to do joint ventures on some of the things that Autobot Nation was working on to the benefit of the humans everywhere. Energy and technology, especially electronics were very important along with space flight capabilities and propulsion systems for said space vehicles. It was instructive how unified they were and how they complimented each other's presentation and effort.
The slaggers were organizing better.
Sam Witwicky sat on a chair beside Carly Brooks-Spencer, both of them there as business reps and hosts of the overall conference. Unidad had not been the site for this as Owen wanted to show his building's overall capabilities for such gatherings. For him, this was just the first economic and technological conference he planned to hold. Unidad was still Prime's domain and he felt it when he was there. Here, the humans sat in the auditorium seating while a huge monitor on stage played their videos and showed what they wanted to do on his turf. It was informative and heavily dependent upon the goodwill and cooperation of the bots.
They didn't make any bones about it either. All of them acknowledged that and made it clear that the bots would be full partners in any venture they made here. They just wanted to be players and work out the cooperative tech that could be created between them. It was interesting to see men, and they were almost all men making efforts to show that they were willing to share control, something few of them did on Earth.
Sam had briefed Ratchet on all of them. They weren't the sharing kind but this was a new paradigm and they would have to play by someone elses rules. That was hard for them, Ratchet could tell.
Masters of (their own) universe having to acknowledge a greater master was a new way of thinking for most of them.
When the last film rolled to a stop and the last speaker had thanked him for listening, Ratchet sat straighter on the platform that was stored nearby for bot visits. He thought a moment, then sat closer. "Your presentations were good, informative and interesting. It's good that you acknowledge your limitations on world. This is as you have seen a very dangerous environment for you and your kind. Without our help, you would die almost immediately in a very horrible manner.
"As it is, any ventures you'd undertake here, any ventures that we'd green light would be highly regulated and overseen to ensure that things were done in a manner that was agreed upon by both sides. It would be easy to steal tech here and spirit it to Earth, tech that you're not capable of having or using wisely. We're still tracking tech that's been in circulation on Earth for some years now.
"I'm guessing that the majority of your intentions is to do your projects here at Earth2. Unidad as you know is under the control and domain of the Prime of Cybertron and is a wholly owned project of Autobot Nation, Incorporated. Anything that required other facilities would have to be devised, built and maintained by us. We have very strict laws here regarding use of resources and the planet. We'll not be dissuaded into changing them. That's a fact of life here that you must accept.
"As for your projects, I have them and having been appraised of what you want to do, I'm better informed to speak for you to the Prime and the Planning Commission of the colony. We troubleshoot all buildings, projects and operations by anyone, bot or human to the nth degree to see what might transpire and how things must be devised. If you could see the specs of this facility itself, the complexity of it and what it took to make it happen, you'd understand better how things take time and effort to unwind and study. I know that you want it yesterday, but it depends on a number of factors how fast it will go.
"We're taking a steady stream of refugees at the Port of Mars some miles away and that never ends day and night. That's our first priority over all others. Only the defense of this system, Cybertron, the local group and all the domain of the Prime has a higher priority. Humans are near the top as well and we take care of them here with a lot of effort both seen and unseen.
"On top of all of that, we have an empire to run. Prime has literally billions of tasks as important as rebuilding our home planet and feeding three billion homeless individuals while trying to find and rescue about a billion more who are missing down to making sure that the lights come on here when they're needed. He leads armies, takes care of civilians and protects everyone everywhere. His attention is fully involved in everything. You're on the list. It's your job to understand the list.
"It's my job along with Carly and Sam to explain and discuss with the experts who will implement, or not, the plans you've submitted. They won't cut corners. They'll take the time to make sure that anything approved is foolproof against integrity failure. There's no way that anything will be done ahead of its time or shoddily. We don't do shoddy.
"The planning commission meets in two days. We will present the proposals and give our own analysis. We want you to know that we value Earth and her people. We went you to advance into space and be ready for it when you do. Right now, you're not ready. Without us, you'd still be trying to figure out how to go to the moon and here. If it were left to you, it would be a death sentence for those chosen to come to live here. In four or five years, if they survived the radiation bath that awaits the unsuspecting human out there, they'd be dying of cancer. Their brains would be so damaged they might pick up a fork and not know what it was used for. They might just open the air lock, walk outside and die. That after just four years using your tech.
"Your projects are safe with us. We welcome collaboration that makes sense and advances everyone on Earth. You're aware that we aren't very interested in projects that you would sell at exorbitant prices to those in need on Earth who'd be able to afford it and hang the rest. Right?" Ratchet asked.
Harris felt tension rise in the group, then stood. "We understand that this is a cashless society and that the people here enjoy that. We, however, aren't on Earth. We have our own economic systems that we utilize and even though we're willing to discuss this further, Ambassador, we feel the need to hold to that system at present. We are after all in the business to advance our businesses."
"We're aware of that. Here, we're finalizing the process and are preparing to make available to the Earth solar power paint. Its a paint that's applied to say, your roof. The power it generates is gathered into a very small device that's then used to power your house … your car, your devices, all of it. I won't belabor the tech as of yet. It's proprietary. But when its ready, we're going to give it to most of the world. The rest who can are going to be asked for a nominal donation to The Prime Foundation to use for our projects in all the areas we have interest in assisting on Earth," Ratchet said.
"What's your idea of a donation, Ambassador?" someone in the front row asked.
"Five dollars in exchange for the entire set up. For us, making profits takes a back seat to assisting people into a decent and more sustainable life. That sort of thinking led to our current predicament. This system is designed to be easily installed and its completely resistant to the elements. It also is a good fire retardant. Those who can will be asked for five dollars for the system. Everyone else gets it free of charge. Soon, there won't be a need for internal combustion engines on cars and other devices. Imagine … clean skies and fresh air," Ratchet said with a grin.
Two of the visitors were from the fuel industry. They looked aghast.
It was silent a moment, then Ratchet rose. "Thank you for the most informative presentations, gentlemen. I hope you enjoy your remaining time here. Mr. Harris has been an excellent host, I'm told. Right now, I have to answer an emergency. I'll be getting in touch with you after the planning commission meet up and let you know how it went. What usually happens is some are put forward to be investigated further which is good. Some will be handed back with instructions for you to consider for re-submission and those that are out of bounds or not practical will be sent back with details outlining why we can't accept them. Thank you for the Prime of Cybertron and Autobot Nation. I'll contact you through Sam, here and Warren Roberts in the New York office."
Ratchet glanced at Carly and Sam. "I have an emergency. If anyone needs to talk more call Lee-Lee or Lucien in the Secretariat and I'll arrange it. Prime might be busy for another day but he wants to see these people before they go. I'll call you later." He then walked to the door and went out into the facility disappearing right away.
Everyone watched him go, then turned to Carly and Sam. "What do you think he thought about this?" a banking mogul from Switzerland asked.
"Well," Sam said. "Ratchet keeps his word. In two days I'll be at the commission meeting with Carly and we'll go over this. I'll take good notes on what the thinking was so you can get a better idea of how things work here and what's acceptable and what isn't. I can't say what will be passed or not but if you want to dig or otherwise require despoiling the land here, I don't feel you should set your hopes too high."
They would talk together for some time.
=0=TransWorld Highway
Ratchet drove with a sense of foreboding along the TransWorld Highway until he saw the scene up ahead. Three miles from the junction of the Habitat Highway as the locals called it, someone had reported a dreadful thing. It was then that a trucker spotting a glinting light in an area strewn with weather carved rocks had pulled over, unhitched from his trailer and transformed to look. Laying wedged between two big oddly shaped rocks was what looked like a sack. It was a human.
Calling into the Day/Night Watch Emergency Command Center at the Watch Security Tower in Metrotitan, it had alerted Hauser, Prowl, Prime who was coming from Cybertron along with Ironhide and the forensics team led by Sky. Ratchet was the last to arrive.
He transformed, then walked from the road to the depression where the strange rocks were. Lying like a sack that had been dropped was a human spilling out of a cloth bag. He wasn't wearing his suit. He had no gear on at all. Scanning the figure with his specialized human tech, Ratchet saw a number of things right away. This human had died before being brought here. He was stabbed to death. He had the usual markings of an organic who'd been set out into this environment, the frozen skin and distorted features of his face, frost bite and the like, but he showed no blood beyond some small seepage from a wound in his chest that had punctured his heart.
"Frag," Ratchet said. "He died before he was dumped. He has a stab wound in his chest that punctured his heart. Death was likely instantaneous, thus the lack of blood. Their hearts have to pump to cause gross evacuation of their body's blood supply. Someone who was strong had to do that because its damned hard to stab a human in an area enclosed by bones. Their bones and muscles aren't that easy to puncture. All of the trauma to his body from the atmosphere is post mortem. He didn't feel a thing."
"Who is he?" Hauser asked. "I'm not up on the humans much. I don't cross paths too often with them."
Ratchet scanned him, then went through the databases he kept of all humans on world and their medical conditions. He glanced at Hauser. "It's Silvio Lombardi."
=0=TBC 3-16-19 edited 3-31-19
ESL: expression: won't make any bones about it means usually that you won't argue or dispute something. If someone makes no bones over how they feel about someone or something, it usually means they don't like it.