The Diego Diaries: Copycat (dd8 551)

HERE WE ARE AT LAST!

=0=Earlier in the evening

:I SEE IT!:

"Don't touch it, Blondi. Okay?"

:OKAY!:

"See the dial next to the panel with slider bars?"

:YES!:

"That dial will help you land the vessel. Do you see the little monitor in front of it showing the outline of your ship and the ground below?"

:YES! THEY'RE NOT THE SAME!:

"That dial will fix it. What I want you to do, and wait until I tell you, is to turn that dial very slowly to the right until the ship and the street line up on the screen. It turns the ship into alignment. Very slightly, Blondi. Can you do that?" Hartie asked as the room filled with emergency workers doing their jobs listened to his calm voice give Blondi instructions.

:YES!:

"Okay. Then do it very slowly. I have your screen here, too. When I say stop do it. Go now, Blondi," Hartie said as he watched tensely.

Slowly by increments the ship began to align with the wide street below. When it was evident that she was clear and in a straight line with the road, Hartie spoke. "Stop, Blondi. Perfect."

"Mikel is there," Inferno said softly to Hartie.

He nodded. "Blondi, the flight instructor at the Seeker Flight Academy is hovering over you. I'm going to have him come forward and help you down. I'm not clear about letting him inside. Is there room for a big Seeker with all of you there?" Hartie asked.

:I DON'T KNOW, HARTIE! CAN YOU LOOK, TIMBER?: she appeared to ask someone on board.

There was confusion.

"Blondi? Let it go," Hartie said. "Mikel will help you from the front. Mikel, come around and help guide her down with me please," he said in his calm voice.

At that moment a huge Seeker who was the Master of Flight at the Seeker Academy appeared before them rising up from below to hover in front. He was handsome, kindly, a demon fighter and a dedicated grandfather who had managed to get his huge family to Mars through some of the worst fighting fleeing Seekers had to face thus far to reach safety. He grinned at Blondi, then put his servos on the window. :Hi, Blondi. Time to listen to lower this ship. We're with you. You're all very safe. Do you understand?:

Blondi and the others stared at him like he was the Messiah come to deliver them. :"Yes," she said as the others nodded.

:Then listen to Hartie and I'll watch out here. You're lined up perfectly with the highway below. All you have to do is lower this vessel and Hartie will tell you how. Okay?: Mikel asked.

Blondi nodded as she glanced from the panel before her and the calm comforting face of Mikel. "Okay."

:Hartie, it looks good. How about we go down now and then have a beer?: Mikel asked with a grin.

"Sounds good to me," Hartie said from C.E.S. Center at Fort Max. "Blondi, see the dial I told you about? Turn it to the right until the panel above it says 'optimal'. That will allow you to descend when we say so. Gently turn it. It won't change where you are but allow you to descend when you're ready. Understand?"

:I do: she said with a calmer voice. Blondi touched the dial, then turned it slowly until 'optimal' flashed on the screen. "I did it. What now, Hartie?"

"Now see the sliders in front of you. The middle one will lower you. You're just going to slowly slide it down the face of the panel until you reach zero on the scale. Mikel will help you," Hartie said.

Mikel moved forward and leaned on the forward viewport to stare at the panel. :See the middle one? Slide it very slowly downward, Blondi, until you feel the ship settle. It might settled unevenly because we aren't going to mess with the stabilizers. I think you're pretty level but it might bump. Sit down, everyone. We're going to go now. Right, Blondi?: He grinned at her and got a feeble one back.

Blondi took the middle slider in her servo, then slowly began to slide it down the panel toward her as evenly as she could. It lurched, then smoothly began to lower taking everyone and Mikel with it. Slowly, painfully slowly the ship lowered until a bump and jolt indicated it was on the ground. She let go of the slider then looked up at Mikel with fear.

Mikel who was standing on the ground ran around the ship to the hatch. It opened and he allowed the others out so he could come in. Reaching around Blondi, he hit a button and the ship shut down. He sat down next to her. "You did good, Blondi. Nice landing."

She looked up at him, then took his servo. "Thank you, Mikel. You were so kind."

"Until all are one, Blondi. Can you stand?" he asked with a chuckle.

"If you hold my servo," she said as she stood unsteadily. "I have to learn how to fly, Mikel. This can't happen again."

Mikel walked out with her, then glanced down at the tiny femme who stared up at him with big optics. "Let me know. I'll teach you," he said as everyone began to run toward them including Prime, Prowl and Magnus. Hartie was behind them running their way along with a pilot to return the ship to the roof of the City Hall once more.

"You did a good job, Blondi," Magnus said as he squeezed her servo.

"Mikel and Hartie were the ones who saved us," Blondi said as she stared up at both mechs. "They saved us."

"I think we need a beer," Hartie said with a chuckle.

Blondi, Hartie and Mikel would walk to Club Cybertron to have a beer before heading either home or back to the shop. Blondi would tell them about her three sons who were the apple of her optic and the big mech who was her good old bond.

Mikel and Hartie would tell of their families, Hartie of his daughter and Mikel of his son who were a bond together, finding each other in the world of flight both Seeker and vessel here in the civilian piloting community. They would also tell her about the grandson that they shared, the one who was the 'greatest collaboration of ALL TIME' between two rollicking families, little Buzz.

Then Blondi would go home to hug her family and tell them a tale of adventure and danger. Only then would she take Mikel up on his offer to learn how to fly.

Her bond would join her.

=0=On the ground

Prime watched as Springer and the others carried off the last of the slaggers toward incarceration after a spark procedure at Metro Femme. Then he hurried to the corner to see a runabout hanging in the air its chassis vibrating slightly from the fear and novice touch of a non-pilot, Blondi of Stanix.

"They all made it out of the building, thank Primus, because of the early weekend release program that Blondi created," Magnus said tensely as he watched a senior Seeker fly in, transform in air, then hover in front of the vehicle. "That's Mikel of Vos. He's the senior instructor at the Academy in Aerie Hill. He manages the Civil Air Patrol."

Prime nodded. "The sooner this is concluded the better." He glanced at Prowl. "Anything from Tennyson?"

Prowl who was staring upward glanced at him, then shook his helm. "No messages since we came."

The ship overhead began to angle in alignment with the street, then lower toward the ground slowly with Mikel assisting though the front viewport. Slowly it came, then sat down rockily as Mikel ran around to the hatch. It opened, everyone came out, then he was seen shutting down the engines. It was amazing how everyone there felt immense relief.

Prime and his group walked toward the shuttle, comforted all the City Hall refugees, the watched Blondi, Hartie and Mikel walk onward to Club Cybertron. Forensics heading their way would be at City Hall for some time before Magnus could lock it up.

Prime and Prowl would be back on Tennyson with Ratchet joining later.

=0=Morgue

They lay on the tables, the empty protoforms of the individuals who were now gracing cells in the Spark Locker. A larger and more specifically designed array of sensors were monitoring the now fifteen new sparks held there. The door closed behind them on a total of 24 individuals that were now floating in the silence and (possible) peacefulness of an existence without bodily sensation. If nothing happened to the Containment Center they could live until the end of time this way. It would be questionable whether any of them would want to, however.

Ratchet gathered with the specialist crew that would maintain them, then walked to his office to ascertain if there were any others of this ilk floating around they might have somehow missed. He entered, sat, then logged on to the high security access database port that all senior Autobots could access.

After an exhaustive search he found the original 25 who had arrived ahead of their group and located them here, relieving him of any possible oversight of the group. That in and of itself registered a number of questions for Ratchet about their configuration and familial connections.

Or not.

Crader was on Tennyson mutating in his mini-con form.

Fifteen including his son were now in the cooler along with nine others from their original arrival and following fire fight.

It was fragged.

Something that had bothered him since then, something about the correlation between the phase sixers that everyone knew about and these slaggers who were freelancing through the Book of Horrors that seemed to always have the name Jhiaxus on the cover, this new more dynamic version of Black Shadow. He thought a moment, then rose to go. He would be on Tennyson right away.

=0=On the deck

The science working group stared at Prime as they related the latest findings. Sensors on Crader showed that he was not only mutating but starting to slowly and surely mutate toward what he was before. That it would be min-con in nature was beside the point. That horror somehow seemed even worse. They paused as they saw Ratchet hustling toward them with an expression of consternation on his face. He halted beside them then considered his thoughts. "I think I have an angle for this. Or not."

"What?" Prowl asked with dread.

They all stared at him with the same expression.

Dread. Deep, deep dread.

'The phase 6 angle got me. Consider this. You know that the clammy servo of Jhiaxus is the common denominator in all of this including Stormy and Denita. As a scientist … of sorts …"

"I refuse to countenance that assumption," Percy sniffed.

Ratchet smirked. "Never change, Percy," he said, then glanced at Prime. "Consider a progression of experiments each one getting closer to the other step toward the goal. The phase sixers are step one. The progressionally slowly mutating slaggers are step two. Then Crader who can mutate anything he has around himself no matter what it is as fast as can be as step three. Somewhere in there, perhaps even part one on the dimensional stuff is Stormy and Denita.

"Jhaixus got a notion, then built a program. What about 'perfecting' our form into something that's not only impervious to death-causing events, abuse and pain but has the capacity to jump dimensions without a vessel. Remember the phase sixer Xylon? He could jump. Consider that he's the progressive step between Black Shadow who is impervious to normal abuse and Crader who is both that and can dimensionally jump.

"I see a progression from the Warrior Elites to Crader. I also see the phase sixer Xylon as well as Stormy and Denita as intermediary steps to the end game of Crader. Stormy and Denita could do this with their sparks but not bodies. Xylon could do it with both. Now Crader and his kind can do it both with ships and probably soon enough themselves. Crader is perhaps the most advanced member of the living crew who can.

"Consider that the ships are showing features of sentience. They're probably halfway or somewhere down the progression to being alive and self aware like our titanic ships. They were inert and lifeless but now they're nearly there through a process that has lifted phase sixers to Denita/Xylon status, then to Crader's crew and ships to finally, Crader himself.

"They're in a process of mutation and some of their aims and goals, dimensional jumping at LEAST by ships if not themselves yet is fully developing and its all organic, at least the mechs and femmes if not the ships. We'd have to have one to know for sure. Instead of just sparks going somewhere like Denita and Stormy, then forming a pretender shell which is more of Jhiaxus's handiwork, they can go anywhere with everything they got? They'd be unstoppable, unfollowable and dangerous as frag."

Everyone was silent as they stared at Ratchet.

"Frag," Prowl whispered softly.

=0=TBC 10-21-2022

ESL:

Sentience: (sen-tee-ens) self aware, alive