The Diego Diaries: Avalone and Other Things (dd8 279)
=0=Ops Center, The Fortress, Mars
"They're going through the building after an initial fuss," Prowl said as he sat down beside Prime at the command table. "The changeover is going well but I think it might be a good idea given some of the personalities involved to have a guard on Cindy as long as they're there."
Prime glanced up. "The individuals. I do not know most of them. What are we facing then? Do you know?"
Prowl who was staring at his data pad glanced up. "I've pulled preliminary information about them, none of it linked to the Panama Papers because Barron has that task. This is basically biography of what we know of them. Kyle Davis is married to Owen Harris's ex-wife, Mariah who still uses his last name with her new one given her reputation as a socialite. Its likely too hard to start over with another name so she hyphenated both."
Prowl glanced at Prime. "I can't think of a worse way to live your life than being a socialite. Como's bond, Pawz was a socialite on Cybertron. Parties and planning for the next one. Social climbing to help the bond rise. Hanging out with people you don't like, don't know very well and who are as mercenary as you … that's what they are. My genitors dreaded them but they had to attend some functions."
"Sounds dry and lonely," Prime replied. "Certainly not the life for Venture and Miler."
Prowl grinned at Prime. "You're so cute," he said as he perused the data pad again. "First the ten who came back. Damon and Christopher Pallas are Greek nationals who made their fortune through shipping and industrial investments world wide. Their father started with nothing and turned it into a massive business his sons inherited when he died in a plane crash some years ago.
"Fortunately for them and unfortunately for the world, they were even better businessmen than their father, ie ruthless and bold as hell. Christopher is a sporting type who boxed in the Olympics and has a reputation as an international playboy, whatever that is. Damon is more dour and hard headed like his father. Both of them are ruthless businessmen and are linked though nothing is proved with international drug cartels and illicit arms trafficking. Apparently their region is a hub for such things.
"Neither are married now, though Damon has been divorced twice and has two sons and a daughter.
"Next is James Brickerson who is a huge media magnate from the United Kingdom. He owns newspapers, media of all kinds in about seven different countries and has a penchant for spewing on them all of his antique and ignoble ideas about life, what to expect from it and how nice wars are. His investments in munitions and armament companies should have been enough for him to lose his licenses to broadcast in half the countries where he does but he's gotten to be so powerful that even national leaders court him for their campaigns to succeed.
"Mr. Brickerson has several sons and daughters, all grown and married. They are part of his leadership team and are at present apparently in a fight to succeed him in running the business. He's a devoted husband and attends church regularly, endowing his parish with a lot of money to preserve old churches therein and nearby. Interesting. Apparently his attendance doesn't reach the parts about charity for all," Prowl said dryly.
"Apparently not," Prime agreed as he grinned at Prowl. A miffed Prowl was a cute one. "Who else? That is three of them."
"Next is Dimitri Petrov, a titan from Russia whose family made a fortune during the glasnost period of the end of the USSR and the rise of the new government configuration. He was friends with the new powers and between them and himself stole about everything that wasn't nailed down. He has a daughter and son who are extravagant the way Loon is nuts."
Prime snickered. "Please elucidate."
"Petrov bought a house in the West End of London for his daughter when she turned 21. It was a beautiful house encompassing nearly a complete city block and is a masterwork of Palladian architecture. She had it painted black wall to ceiling throughout the entire house. Every single room. It was going to be a party house and unless they sold it to someone with a modicum of taste, it still is."
"It sounds awful. I would prefer light," Prime replied.
Prowl nodded then continued. "Cossimo Rossi is another 'international playboy' who owns a massive media business that produces business programming and advice internationally, electronic platforms for all manner of businesses and types along with more traditional landownership. His money is old that somehow survived World War II, allegedly by close collaboration with the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and other dead wood of that nature.
"William 'Bill' Pearl from the United States is a manufacturing magnet who has shipped most of his businesses outside of the United States to exploit lower wages and lower to nonexistent environmental regulations of those countries whose leadership will accept bribes and partnerships. He also has a large holding in the arms industry and is a partner with a number of private space ventures. He's a venture capitalist who helps companies get going then takes them over hostilely. A real charmer, this guy.
"Michael Pare of Canada is a timber magnet, corporate farmer, right wing maniac of all manner of causes and conspiracy theories and has vast holdings in pharmaceutical companies that help keep prices up and profits high. He has three sons all of whom have substance issues and apparently a nice wife who tries to do good things. Miracle of miracles," Prowl said as he studied the data pad.
Prime grinned as he studied Prowl.
"Hans Weber is next. He's from Austria and is an industrialist. He's also a venture capitalist which a number of these men are. He eats businesses for breakfast and has no scruples about adding to his portfolio. He, like the others buys into businesses, loads them with debt, then forces them to go bankrupt. He sells all the viable assets, then lets the rest sink into the sea. They all create a wasteland wherever they go."
"Sounds familiar," Prime said as he remembered life on Cybertron back in the day.
"The last one of the ten is an anomaly. This person is Clare Hilliard-Barnard whose husband is also on the list. He's a financial wiz who runs her money and is the only one who can order her to do anything. She's so entitled that it would be anyone's guess how tethered to reality she is.
"She likes to tell people they're poor because they're lazy and drones. She has no concern about how vulnerable a society is when most of it is poor and she complains about the taxes she does pay, most of them small things by local authorities because she believes firmly and will tell you loudly that she's too rich to do such things. She figures the low paying hazardous jobs she supplies more than fulfills any obligation she has to helping her country prosper. She's one of the most hated people on this list, especially in her own country."
"Lovely" Prime said. "Where do they live?"
"The two Pallas brothers, Rossi and Pare live at Unidad. Webber and Pearl live at Prima Station and the rest at Earth2," Prowl replied.
"What about the other four?" Prime asked.
"Those individuals are Kyle Davis and Hamilton Brown of Earth2 and Micah Rivera of Mexico and Eino Vertanen of Finland at Unidad. They were here and didn't have to flee to get back. Apparently they're under the illusion that they have safety here or at the very least will be harder to retrieve from Mars," Prowl replied.
"So we're looking at fourteen possible extradition hearings and fourteen applications for political asylum then," Prime said.
Prowl grinned. "I will enjoy every moment of every one of them. By the way, Barron is going to start a proceeding against them that will allow us to subpoena all of the files they have of the run up to the building of the habitat. Its going to be part of the morals portion. It could be a treasure trove of information of the opposition since all of them were heavily invested in the push back of us being in the system before they decided to move here."
"Ah, a silver lining then," Prime replied with a slight grin.
Prowl nodded with a fierce expression. "That is absolutely correct."
=0=Ratchet
He watched as the system pulsed to a tiny node deep in Avalone's processor, the node that would prompt the big ship to rise to sentience and self awareness. It would be a measured response because the last thing they needed was a broken titan to feel any pain and then flail. It would be fatal for him and everyone else who were swarming over him securing his body to be lifted.
It was quiet on the bridge now that the show on Mars was underway. He'd conferred with Springer, then Prime and Prowl. Now he turned back to getting a dangerously damaged titan back to a state where he could be transported back to Saturn Shipyard to be worked upon. Once he was floated he would stay that way until rebuilt. Settling on a surface was too dangerous and hard on his frame to risk.
It took a second to send without return, then he sent it again. A ping rang out over the intercom nearly sending everyone into a silent tizzy of excitement. They watched Ratchet, all of those involved as he coded in long sheets of numbers. The signs of the titan scrolled beside it showing that movement was starting. A sleeping giant was beginning to respond.
=0=Banner
He sat in a restaurant with his brothers eating a meal together. He owned an apartment in the huge set aside tower in Iacon for the metrotitans and dreads to live in with their pretender gear access. It was a nice apartment, big and filled with books and comforts. Conspicuous on the walls were big framed images of Avalone and the two of them together. They were floating in space waiting for a mission and someone had taken their images while others were from his own memories.
Those were the pictures he had. None of them were pretender gear representations. Perhaps if life was kind he would have the same thing everyone else in his frame now had, personal images of their families and friends framed and hung on the walls.
They were talking about friends on Cybertron, those who held down the camps and cities for the rebuild. Some of them were in areas where they could move at last and would be to more dire places. He was glad to hear of them and their service. It was their primary function to serve Prime and The People. It would have been better if he could sit here with Avalone beside him. He wanted to see his amber optics again on the private channels where their avatars could be seen.
The afternoon would continue onward and he would spend time in card games and conversation but at the end of the day he would come home to his house and find himself alone. The love of his life, his precious friend, bond and brother, Avalone was still lost to time.
=0=Ratchet
He waited for the code red and when it came he nearly climbed out of his own exoskeleton. Entering the response code, he spoke the second one that would allow just enough of Avalone's sentience to surface for useful purposes. It was a medical setting that would let Ratchet see what was truly what.
"Code five, signal one, 888-11-25B, enable."
For a moment there was silence then a deep voice spoke to him from somewhere inside the battered frame of a massive ship. "Code five, enabled. I am Avalone."
=0=Banner in the late of the night on Mars
He sat up in a quandary. Somewhere a voice had said a sacred name. Somewhere a voice had spoken. Banner rose, then paced in his home for a moment. It would only be a moment before he would leave and take a train for The City and the Temple of Primus Restored.
=0=TBC 10-20-2021
ESL:
elucidate: (eee-lou-sih-date) explain
modicum: (mah-dih-cum) a portion or bit of something. Like taste.
dour: Some say (door) and I say (dow-r) it means sour or grumpy like
trove: (Rhymes with drove) means a great collection or pile of something, like booty, treasure, loot.
