The Diego Diaries: tempo (dd8 404)
NOTE: I used to read books with Gaelic names and no guide to pronouncing them correctly. I've decided that if I have a strange name I'm going to put the pronunciation in () right next to it. I hope it doesn't throw you out of the story too much but I hate a name I can't pronounce showing up. HUGS!
=0=Clubbin'
They sat together in the bar at The Crystal Ball in Retriades chatting, drinking and relaxing. Dancing was had. Given the ambiance of the place few of them were ready to move onward.
Hardie had slipped out with Drift and Springer, was gone a while, then slipped back in alone. Sliding into a booth, he ordered a beer then sat back to watch the show and talk off line about the problem with Raptor. It was fortunate for all of them that Prime was in a place seen by armies of people when the deed was done.
:When do you want to tell him: Raptor asked his father.
:When they decide to go home: Hardie replied.
They wouldn't for a couple of more joors.
=0=At Autobot City Medical Center, The City, Mars
"I have a hold on this one," the orderlie said as he wheeled the body on the gurney into the Morgue. "This one needs to be seen by Ratchet by order of the Watch."
The night manager of the Morgue glanced up from his paperwork, then nodded. "Slide him into the locker and I'll note that. Cause of death?"
"Gunshot most likely," the orderlie said as he wheeled the gurney into a big room where he parked it by the wall. There were two other bodies in the same space, all three were covered and waiting for the pathologist to see to their disposition.
He walked back out, nodded to the manager, then went topside to his post in the lounge near the entrance where the ambulance dispatch office was. He would play cards with the others, have three more trips that night, then go off shift in the early morning.
=0=On the street three joors later
They gathered on the sidewalk taking the air after a happy ending to a tense turmoil filled orn. The town would twirl onward after they left on this, the first orn of weekend. The coming day would bring the game in the Arena at Retriades. They would play Polyhex, the Comets, and were favored to win in this game which most teams would find would take a few years to perfect.
Prime and his team were naturals and their regimen of working toward that goal regularly off season or not made the difference. The 25 players of his team were the same ones who played on the Iacon football team. Some of them were lifelong friends who'd played games together since childhood and their shorthand teamwork was getting to be envied on three worlds.
"We have to be at the arena at 1400 joors," Prime was saying.
"Optimus …" Hardie began. "We have an incident. We didn't want to break up the party so I didn't feel the need to tell you until now."
Everyone turned toward Hard Drive and a pensive Raptor.
"What incident?" Prime asked as Prowl stepped closer to Prime.
"I received a call earlier from a friend in Dispatch and went to see about it. Someone shot Tempo and he's dead," Hardie said.
The silence was instructive.
=0=Moments later in a cafe nearby
They sat together, all of them huddled around tables and a booth to listen to Hard Drive after Prime had called Springer off line.
"We went there and he was laying half on the sidewalk and half sprawled in the gutter. He had a shot to the helm, a through and through. It was high caliber, close enough to go through and likely military issue. No one knows why he was there and no one can hazard a guess if he was the target or an unlucky bystander who happened onto something.
"The part of town he was in is mostly older individuals and the night life there is marginal or so Springer told me. Its a good thing that all of us can give you an alibi considering what happened," Hardie said.
Prowl sat back with a frown. "He might have smarted off to someone who let him have it. He wasn't necessarily made of smarts."
"No," Raptor said. "His family are among the more entitled individuals I ever met but this surprises me a lot." He glanced at his father. "His family will raise the roof and then some about this."
"They aren't the kind of individuals who won't find a lot of theories and express them, Optimus," Hardie said. "I had a lot of trouble with them and some of us ended up in jail arguing with them," he said as he glanced at Delphi. "This is not a good thing."
Optimus sat back. "Then we must be very thorough about this case and make sure that we find all the evidence and witnesses we can. Is that the case or is this one of those?"
"Springer and Sky were looking but it isn't clear that there's going to be any evidence to find," Hardie said. "He had a hold put on the body so that you can look at it, Ratchet."
"I can assist Percy," Ratchet said. "When we had a thing like this happen we did them together so that there's a high caste in the process and no one can say its a low covering anything up. I think the more high castes the better."
"Frag the System and those poisoned with it," Blackjack said darkly. "None of us got away without a nemesis bot over this stuff. No one can claim that you had anything to do with this, Optimus."
"No but they can say it anyway," Optimus said quietly. "We have to be very good on this one."
Ratchet nodded. "I'll call Percy to come and do this with me. I'll have a number of the former high castes on staff be observers. The report will be written by both of us and reviewed by the others, too."
"Thank you," Prime said as he stood to go. "Does the family know?"
"Springer asked the Temple to send someone to tell them along with a counselor from the Emergency Services Command Center," Hardie said. "Do you want Springer and Drift to go along, too?"
"I do," Prowl said. "I want to have someone there for the two of them if something goes wrong. I don't want a priest to get hurt."
Hardie nodded. "I agree," he said, then hooked into Springer. After a moment of silence, he sat back. "They're meeting an emergency counselor and priest at their tower."
It was quiet a moment, then Prime shook his helm tiredly. "It never seems to end."
"It will," Prowl said darkly. "We have a game shortly. You need to get some rest. All of you. We have to trounce Polyhex, Springer be damned."
"I'll tell her him said so," Ratchet said as he rose with the others to go.
"You would," Prowl said with a smirk as he stood. Pulling Optimus to his peds, he glanced at the others. "Anytime we decide to have fun or celebrate we're fragged. We need a code word for clubbing that might fool whoever is listening in and dumping on our fun and games."
"How about Granny? Let's go, Granny," Ratchet said as Prowl shot him a smirk.
'Let's go, Granny' it was.
=0=Autobot Medical Center, an examination room in the Morgue
Ratchet watched as Percy did the autopsy. He and three other mechs who were former high castes stood around as the body was examined, things removed and others set aside within. Four to one, he thought, four high castes to one low.
"Well, his processor is a mess. It hit him as he was stepping away from whatever held him or drew his attention. It hit the back, entered, then ricocheted around destroying his processor when it did. Its a large caliber bullet which I am now endeavoring to retrieve.
He worked with long handled tweezers, then withdrew a pulped bullet. Putting it in a tray he looked inside. "This mech was dead swiftly though he may have hit some form of stasis before he shut down. It severed enough of his processes and the main energon line in his processor to make death almost immediate." He stepped aside so the others could look and concur.
"We have a death by foul means. He was shot by assailants unknown and died immediately. Otherwise, he's healthy, well made and cared for. I would rule this a homicide." Percy picked up the tray with the bullet. "I will have this delivered to Forensics so their ballistics experts can determine make and caliber. The report shall be very straight forward. All I can conjecture and I don't like to do that is that he was shot from behind by a large caliber projectile and died almost immediately."
The others nodded, then Brandeis (Bran-dies) glanced at Ratchet. "What's the story on this, Ratchet?" he asked. He was a very famous internal medical doctor from Iacon in the orn. He had been a more famous internal, general and trauma doctor on the run, something that solidified his disgust with the old ways of doing things.
"This mech had a beef with Prime earlier in the orn. That he ended up this way is a shock. I want to make sure that there's nothing irregular about this for his family to make trouble," Ratchet said. "We were with Prime all orn long, my family and a lot of others. He was out all evening from dusk dancing and having fun in clubs. They didn't have a good rapport, Optimus and Tempo and I want this cut and dried."
"I suspect that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Ballard, a general practitioner from Capital City that was the son of a long line of famous high caste doctors. He worked in the slums and broke the mold. He was an astonishingly nice person.
"I agree," Ratchet said. "But you know how it goes."
All of them nodded, then walked out the door to head to work. They would review the report, then sign it before it was sent to Barron, Springer, Prime and the others who would need a copy including Ratchet himself.
=0=At an apartment in another town
They gathered in the lobby, an emergency response counselor named Peele, a priest named Salon and the two of them, Springer and Drift.
"Thank you for coming. There was a shooting earlier of a mech who lives in this building. We have to tell the family," Springer said as he considered this, the worst part of policing.
"Who is this mech?" Salon asked. His aura was pure white.
"Tempo of Praxus," Springer said. "He had an argument earlier with Prime which they settled. Given that this happened tonight after that I expect this to be really emotional. Prime has a hundred witnesses to his own whereabouts but that won't matter to them maybe."
Salon nodded. "Most unfortunate in every way," he said in his soft voice. "Shall we go up and see what we can do? It could be that nothing will be acceptable to them. I would like them to have family before we go. Or friends."
Drift nodded. "We can try, Ebi."
They went up to knock on the door. It would be a painfully tense wait for all of them before the door opened a crack.
"Yes?" a voice asked.
"I am Salon from the Temple. May I come in to talk to you please?" he asked.
=0=TBC 4-5-2022 4-12-2022
Regimen: (reh-gih-men) the plan to do something. Dieting is a regimen. Unfortunately. Its no coincidence that there's (never say) die in diet. ;D
NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
Given how many times there are salutations of greeting among those of different ages in this universe, I have laid on a few of my own.
Appa for grandfather or any older mech you want to respect (Appa Hercy), Amma the same way for a femme who is or not your granny and any mech who has separated an infant. Ratchet is an Amma and an Ada. Thus, Devcon is not only an amma to Smokey but an amma to anyone who is talking to him that's younger. He isn't an Appa because he had a kid, Moda.
Omi (oh-me) for me means other father. It refers to someone like Corsair and Imaldo who helped raise Magnus, Arcee, Elita and Prime along with their own sons, Mack and Jetta. Like a father but not one.
Abi(s): a father and other father but it only applies to someone who adopted or got a spark from the Well. It identifies them as neither being a carrier. Both Drift and Springer are Abis. (ah-bee, ah-bees)
A mech who is older can call a younger mech or femme son or daughter, or grandson or granddaughter using the familial-familiar. The same thing is true when younger mechs call Raptor Appa. Its a familial-familiar reference. It is a respectful title given to someone you respect who is older than you are.
Ebi is a respectful title for a priest. Drift called Salon Ebi as a term of respect. I am going to call Sela Emi. (Eh-bee, Eh-me)
I love the power of words and I want them to have and use their own vocabulary around each other and the humans.
Me.
