The Diego Diaries: Convocation (dd8 531)

=0=E2

Solomus reached the window, then knelt down. He was massive when he was standing in the distance but when he knelt he was much smaller. He still filled the window but without the colossal dimensions he had before. He stared at the humans, many of which were backing up with fear. He looked at the children, almost all of which looked back without fear. He raised his servo and touched the window gently.

Two children, a boy and girl who attended Youngling Day School stepped close to the window, then placed their hands against the clear surface. It was silent as their parents and family hovered behind them.

Solomus leaned in closer, then grinned at both.

The kids smiled, then patted the window.

Solomus tapped it gently with a digit, then glanced upward to stare at Cameron Frazer.

That individual was standing between his father and mother with a lot of others around them. He looked wary and even scared. His mother was scared and his father hovered between fear and wretchedness.

Pierre Beliveau stepped closer then walked to the window. He hesitated then placed his hand against the glassine surface. He looked upward at Solomus in silence.

Solomus noted his turmoil, the wavering bravado of his son, then touched the window with a digit. When he did Pierre, though present, slipped out of his body. He stood at the window but his consciousness was somewhere else altogether.

=0=Far away

It was a dark sky overhead filled with galaxies and stars. Pierre stared at it for a moment then jolted into awareness that he wasn't in the habitat. He glanced around frantically, noted that he wasn't geared up, then gripped his shirt front with both hands as he twisted it in terror.

"You are afraid."

He turned toward the voice, then froze. Solomus Prime was standing behind him his size. He seemed self lit just like before but they weren't on Mars and nothing around Pierre seemed real, familiar or normal. "Where is this? What have you done?"

"You seemed to want to speak to Me. I brought you here to do so." Solomus motioned and two stones appeared. He sat down on one and waited.

Pierre stared at the stone then the mech before him. He was beautiful and His face radiated wisdom and compassion. He'd never met a god before. This was unusual to him, a lapsed Catholic from a religious family. "I don't know how to talk to You."

"You just talk," Solomus said. He could see in Beliveau all the questions Pierre was going to ask. The future, past and present weren't strangers to Him. He waited for Beliveau to voice them.

"I never expected that the aliens we would meet would be so different as Your people. Its hard for some to grasp," he finally said as he sat on the stone.

"Your son perhaps? His outburst is not unknown to Us," Solomus said.

Beliveau blanched as he considered that. "I am very sorry. I don't know how to apologize the right way."

"Apologies are not necessary for Me. I am aware of this … matrix and the games you play in it. I am aware that all of us are pure and loving outside of its confines. Your son is a very disrespectful man who cannot see in diversity any beauty.

"There are species in this universe and all the others that would be much more incomprehensible than this format. I like this one because My father created Me in this manner. Primus was the first creation of The One. He created Him as perfect light. Then He chose the first format. It was this one."

Beliveau listened to the soft voice of the most intelligent and the oldest soul he would ever know. The warmth of the personality of Solomus was balm to his rattled nerves. "You were the first creations then."

Solomus nodded. "We were the first created after our father, Primus. He and His brother-alter ego came first. Over the eons, over unspeakable ages They raged. My father is the Soul of Creation. My … uncle is the opposite. Duality, Mr. Beliveau is the essence of All That Is. Dark, light. Up, down. Duality.

"If all were the same it wouldn't be much fun would it," He posed.

Beliveau stared at him. "No. I suppose not. You were the first creations, the first species that ever existed then?"

Solomus nodded. "Consider the inscrutable mind of The One. Imagine being all alone, then needing someone to talk to, to help understand All That Is. Imagine that the first spark decided that this was the format that was most pleasing out of all of the possibilities.

"You can understand how sentimental some of Us can be about this and those who bear it. We love our children. We love the Cybertronian people. They live on the body of My father and they struggle as you do to survive, to do right by their culture and families. Even if you cannot get past how We look, you can find commonalities in how We live."

Pierre nodded. "I do see them. Andre Boudin loves Mars and the people there. He sees virtue and elegance in your species. I do as well. I do not understand The People as much as he does but I appreciate the diversity of the universe. I am sorry for my son."

"Children," Solomus said. "I am sure that The One shakes Their helm now and again over Unicron. My father sleeps so that His brother cannot find our children to destroy them, then everything else. Things are delicate and held in balance but the process that makes it possible is love.

"If you cannot look at each other and see that you are indeed one then there is no hope for you to be happy. You may go forward and live a busy life filled with adventures and experiences but true happiness comes from the realization that love is the force that holds all things together. You can own the universe and have nothing if no one loves you. I despaired for Optimus until he understood that Prowl was there for him."

It was silent a moment.

Solomus leaned in slightly. "I hear that your son finds Our relationships not to his liking."

Beliveau groaned slightly. "I am sorry."

"I know," Solomus said. "What is a relationship? You have one with Allison, your wife. Yes? Does it please you as you wished it would?"

Pierre stared at Solomus. "It does. Perhaps too much. Perhaps our relationship didn't have enough room for our son."

"That is possible," Solomus said. "Optimus was resigned to be alone forever until the miracle of Prowl came to be. He is the first Prime to be a real father, to bond and to have that happiness. Optimus is a good mech and very dedicated to his work. We are all happy for him because he remembered the most important thing you can learn in a life, having and giving love. That is it."

"That is the secret of life?" Beliveau asked with a slight trace of bitterness. "It appears to be a lesson my people have forgotten or never learned."

"Life is choices. Look what it took for Our children to make the better choice and take the better path? If you lead with love, you will also lead with tolerance, compassion and empathy. You will learn to see another through their eyes. Their gender, their politics, religion, the differences that make no difference will fall away.

"Who is the person who lives such a virtuous life that they can make the demand that everyone who is living has to live the way they decide? You humans like to believe that you know so much you can make laws that demand everyone live just like you. The crushing conformity and the egomaniacal lack of self awareness is smothering. Who can tell anyone else what to think, how to live, what to do and how to look? Who can demand that the heart turn away from what it needs?"

Beliveau stared at Solomus. "No one."

"But they do," Solomus said. "That is the biggest problem you humans have. Know-it-alls. Do-as-I-say, not-as-I-doers. Egomaniacs that believe they have all the received wisdom. Its sad to watch the war that always follows such things. If I am living here and you are living there, how can you tell me what I can and can't do, believe, live or need?"

"I can't," Beliveau said. "This Convocation of the Will … it is going to solve the problem of The System of Exception?"

"That is hard to say. Every spark has its own need. But it will make it clear that its time has passed and it won't return. My father is very, very tired of death and destruction. It is infringing on the free will of those who suffer.

"That is an immutable law of the universe, Mr. Beliveau. No one can infringe on the free will of anyone else. In short, most of the people of your world need to just shut their traps."

Beliveau blinked. Then he grinned. "That sounded very strange coming from a god."

Solomus grinned. "I do try to shake up my game." He stared at Pierre a moment. "Your son is on his path. You have the power to influence how that goes. Whatever you do it will be more than he has now even if you think you have failed. He suffers from a lack of vision and love. I would have added wit but that sounds harsh." Solomus grinned, then leaned in slightly. "That was a joke."

Beliveau grinned in spite of himself. "Then there's God jokes?"

Solomus chuckled. "Some would think that gods are the joke. But that would be a mistake. Indeed, the joke would be on them."

Beliveau considered the figure before him, someone so incomprehensibly old and wise that he had no words to describe it. "I would like to speak with You again. Your wisdom is soothing to me."

Solomus nodded. "It can be done. I will consider it," He said as he waved His servo.

Pierre blinked, then looked upward again. Solomus was staring down at him on the other side of the glass in a larger format once more. He pressed his hands against the glass, then watched as the giant stood to walk back to where he was standing before. Solomus turned his helm toward the prison and was stilled again.

Allison Beliveau, Owen Harris and Cindy Tomas walked to the window.

"Perri, are you alright?" Allison said with no small amount of fear.

"We talked, Solomus and I," Pierre said. He glanced at the others who looked concerned.

"You were right here," Owen replied.

"I was somewhere else, on a planet with the universe overhead. We talked," Pierre said.

Cameron who moved closer glanced at the figure down the way. "That freak did something to you. You were here all along."

Pierre turned toward his son. "Don't speak about them like that again. I won't have it, Cameron."

Cameron stared at his father, then glanced at his mother and Owen.

"What did that thing do to you?"

Pierre turned toward his son. "That 'thing' is one of the first creations in the universe. That 'thing' is a person who cares about us. I don't want to hear you ever speak to anyone again the way you did to Ambassador Ratchet, Springer and Drift. I won't have it, Cam. Do we understand each other?"

Cameron stared at his father, then nodded slightly.

Pierre looked relieved a moment, then the monitor nearby changed again.

=0=TBC 9-25-2022

Shut your trap is slang for be quiet. :D

egomaniacal-(ego-muh-ny-ik-kul) someone with a big ego who acts like an idiot is said to be egomaniacal, I just call them boss.