The Diego Diaries: Around (dd8 336)
=0=At a big hole
They stared into the hole to watch big mechs hooking up what seemed miles of braided cables together to transformer boxes set at intervals. It was so complicated that it would take a master blueprint reader to make sense of it, something none of them were. Instead they were soldiers who were living here in a zero tolerance environment because of mechs like this. Some of them had even seen the sub floors below their habitat and the almost diabolical complexity of their support infrastructure.
:I'd hate to figure that out if it broke. I can't even find a light bulb in a Christmas light string when one goes out: Bobby Epps said as more cables on big spools were shoved off huge non-sentient trucks. They rolled along spun by the huge mechs who would lower them into the giant crater which would become the Consulate with a very large domed area for outside space.
:I hear ya: Niall Graham replied. His father and father-in-law stood next to him watching the show with amazed interest. :When this is done I heard that they're going to have gardens, a large patio and a swimming pool. Imagine swimming outside and seeing the desert all around you. This is going to be a huge improvement:
:We'll have to come over: Niall's father said. Rand McLean stood behind him watching the show.
:I can live with that: Niall replied.
Earth had been dug out along with almost every square inch of the infrastructure that created the foundation. Below a hugely thick and cybertanium reinforced level of stone and various classified stuff, sub floors leading to the shelter could just be detected. It hadn't been touched by explosions or fire so hot that it rivaled the sun's corona.
The dome's foundation to allow the equipment to create it was also being laid with the intensely complicated array of electronics and the like that would create a dome to enclose the ground under their feet as well as the sky over their heads. The humans would be safer than safe.
It would take a while to affect.
=0=Prodigal Son
He stood on the deck of his ship feeling frustrated. It would appear that they'd run out of targets. Turning to his navigator, then his sensor officers, he barked, "Where is new prey?"
The sensor officer glanced at Megatron unafraid of his tantrum. "We do appear to have run out, Lord Megatron."
Megatron gazed at his officer, a mech he'd known since he was young. If he said it was so it was probably true. "Well, that changes things."
It did. Everyone in front and around Megatron froze into place. He startled, then glanced at them, walking to his son to touch him.
That insolent mech was frozen as if in thought as he stared out the forward view port. The stars even seem to have frozen in place.
Megatron stared at his son's profile, then heard a sound behind him. He spun bringing his gun level to a stranger who was lounging in his chair, his throne. The intruder was no one from his own crew. "WHO ARE YOU!? SPEAK BEFORE I BLOW YOUR MOLECULES INTO OBLIVION!"
The mech regarded him, noting Megatron's terrible visage and physical perfection. It was ironic that so perfect a specimen of Cybertronian seemed to have nothing of merit to soften that truth. Like his spirit, Megatron was a spiked and terrifying mechanism. "You do not know me then."
"Am I supposed to? You are sitting on my throne. Remove yourself and I might let you explain yourself before I tear you limb from limb," Megatron said in his cultured voice, one that bespoke of education and a deeply intuitive intellect. He was a contradiction in many ways, seemingly embodying duality all by himself.
"I have a throne as well," the figure said. He was bigger than Megatron but appeared ordinary in aspect. Nothing about his appearance signaled who he might be but for the aura of his energy and the dynamism that escaped him no matter how he covered it. This wasn't someone who was your average Cybertronian.
"Is that so," Megatron said. "Then go sit upon it and let me have my own."
"Don't you want to see mine?" the figure asked conversationally. "Its rather nice if I say so myself."
"Actually, you caught me at a bad time. I'm in the middle of the annihilation of a species. If you wish your turn you'll have to wait," Megatron said. He felt a small kernel of enjoyment speaking with this stranger and wondered if he was a new species sent to this moment to scope out the marauder who was killing the Borg at an alarming rate.
"I see," the stranger said. "You have time. You have annihilated the Collective. I would say that the local civilizations and species along with traders are saluting you as we speak."
"Well, that is something then," Megatron said agreeably. "Are you here to line up for your turn?"
The figure grinned slightly. "Actually, I am here for you."
"You for me?" Megatron asked with some amusement. "Who may I pray are you?"
The figure grinned faintly, then stood the full 40 feet of his frame. He waved his arm and they were both gone from sight. The ship continued onward without them.
=0=Home
Ratchet walked into his office and sat down. Huge stacks of data pads awaited him. Ordering in a chocolate cake from The Takeout Place, he began to work. The incentive would arrive shortly.
=0=Cybertron
She stared at the group of them, her family pantheon holding up girders so that things could be shored up on a slightly collapsed building that fed electricity to a local area. The ground had shifted and it had toppled a bit, this makeshift set up toward a newer one shortly. Shortly had come now.
"Appa?"
Raptor glanced down at his granddaughter. "Pee Wee?"
She smiled at him. "Lou doin'?"
Raptor grinned. "We are. You stay over there. You can watch and straw boss."
Ironhide glanced at his daughter. "Halo, tell us a story."
She smiled at him. "From kool?"
"Sure," Hard Drive said as he made space on his lap for her. She was the honorary straw boss but everyone knew who ruled the waves.
She thought a moment, then smiled. "A doggie done goed. He goed and goed." She stopped a moment, then glanced up at her great, great grandfather. "Why he goed, Appa?"
Hard Drive grinned at her, then shrugged. "I don't know."
Halo smiled. She didn't either. She'd have to wing it and she did.
=0=Far Away
He looked at his peds. They were standing on what appeared to be a tiny island of which he was the sole occupant. Not even a palm tree kept him company. The area around him was dark and watery. It stretched away in all directions. Other than the panoply of the universe overhead, there was no one here but him. Megatron considered that. He wasn't afraid. He was unable to feel fear. He was curious.
He noted someone standing nearby as he turned back to the place he started. They were standing on what was obviously very dark water. He glowed brilliantly and it was obvious who it was. Primus was staring at him across the silent gulf between them.
The figure began to walk toward him on the water which appeared to be solid beneath his silvery peds. He was beautiful in a way that words could never describe, filled with radiance that shed itself all around him. It streaked as he walked, the light. It dazzled. He slowed to a stop before Megatron. "Welcome to My illusion."
"Lord Primus," Megatron said as he nodded his helm slightly. "What may I consider the honor of this meeting? Are you here to redeem me? To spank me?"
Primus grinned slightly. This one had gall but He loved him as He loved all of His children including those most wayward. "Most would be afraid to speak to Me that way."
"I am not most," Megatron replied. "If I were to step from this tiny island would I sink below?"
"Why not try it to find out?" Primus replied. "It is My great joy to provide opportunities for experiences for all My children."
Megatron stared at the water which began to ripple. It would appear that something was trying to emerge and it was happening everywhere as far as he could see. Rounded shapes, heads of mechs and organics both began to appear, then some closest reached for him. He startled, then began to beat them back. After a moment of frantic struggle, they began to submerge again. He looked at Primus who was watching him without expression. "What is the meaning of this? Are these the sparks of my opponents come to collect on a debt?"
Primus considered that. "It is for you to give meaning. It is for Me to provide the experiences for you to learn."
Megatron stared at the water. He could see the light of millions of eyes staring back. It was odd. He glanced at Primus. "If I walk to you then I can if I believe it. Correct?"
"If you believe. You must have full faith or it won't be possible," Primus replied.
Megatron stared at him, then the water. "I believe in nothing more great than myself. It carried me from the pits of Kaon to the pinnacle of Cybertron. I believe in destiny. My own."
Primus nodded. "What if you cannot fulfill your destiny? What then?"
"You already know. You could tell me the success of my ventures right now. Why would you ask for what you already know?" Megatron asked.
"There are many roads paralleling every choice. Whatever you decide to do chooses ultimately the direction you go. Consider how you have underestimated Optimus at nearly every step of your journey together."
"We were once brothers," Megatron replied. "Now we are enemies. I only underestimated him once. When he was chosen by the Matrix, that was the one and only time."
Primus grinned slightly. "Do you really believe that you still hold My person under your sway?"
"What do you mean?" Megatron asked with a voice filled with gathering darkness. "Cybertron fell to ME!"
"Optimus overran Cybertron and took it without firing a single shot," Primus said. "You underestimate his worth, though that is a common feature of the view point of others to My own son."
"Your son," Megatron replied. "We are all Your sons."
Primus nodded. "That is very true but I will let you in on a little secret." He stepped closer, then knelt on one knee. "I am a god. You know that to be true. The One is a god as well."
"You tell me what I already know." Megatron felt the radiance of Primus touch him, a gentle thing that felt like an electrical shock. To anyone else it would have been a caress but to him in his negativity it hurt slightly, like a prickle of electricity.
"You do know about Me, my sons and daughter," Primus said. "I am a god and I have children of My own, My own personal family. But then so does The One. In this universe where the universal impulse is to love and be loved even gods have families of their own to share that with. What about you, Megatron? I have sons and a daughter. The One has several of Their own. What do you have?"
He stared at Primus considering his novel pronouncement. He did have His own sons and daughter, Solus. The idea of The One also having personal children was pause making even knowing that. He gathered his thoughts. "I have a son, Galvatron. I needed and wanted an heir. Therefore, I …" He paused a moment, then chuckled. "I find this next part oddly funny." He looked up at Primus. "I bonded with Shockwave to produce an heir. What a good lord and master I am. I provided for the succession."
Primus nodded. "He's a rather novel son. Do you wonder where Shockwave is?"
Megatron felt his mirth flee. "I do from time to time. I left him in charge of the Empire. I suppose You're going to tell me that he no longer is …"
Primus grinned slightly as He enjoyed the conversation. "Bingo."
=0=1-1-2022 Hope its better for you, darlings. The last 2 sucked. :D:D:D
Fireworks are illegal in my town and they went off last night. My outdoor cat moved in to spend the night and when they went off she ran to hide in the house. I'm still looking for her at midnight. I want to wish you a happy new year. Just know you're loved.
UPDATE: She was in the bedroom under the bed while I slept on the love seat. HA-HA! Good thing I love cats. :D:D:D:D This was supposed to go out last night but the drama at my house between the two and four legged was overwhelming. LOL! I love you so. Replies to notes in the next one. :D:D:D:D:D
