The Diego Diaries: Jammin and Stuff (dd8 507)
=0=At the Family Tower
"It sure is storming, Daddy," Lucy Epps said as she stood by the huge windows to watch the beige slag outside. "They said it would end by now."
"It met up with another front at the equator and its going to last a few hours longer. Better get ready for school," Bobby said as he finished his breakfast nearby.
Lucy Epps ran from the window to the smaller lounge nearby where the kids would be zooming with their class today. Terradive had sent them a text for their class schedule and soon it would time to study with children all over the colony who attended in their class including Earth2. Right now, the children were laughing and talking together o the zoom feature as Terradive got ready.
-^-At a classroom just before
"You ready to go?" Roto asked as he lounged nearby, hanging at the school with Terradive given he had no students today.
"Just about," Terri said as he gathered his lesson book and remotes. "Thank goodness for tech."
Roto chuckled. "You won't have an argument from me."
Terradive walked to the podium where he placed his things, then clicked the remote that took him live. "RECESS IS OVER!" he cried as the children's faces appeared on his big monitor attached to the computer podium in their individual boxes. A race of kids getting to their computers settled into their smiling faces. "Very fast today. I'm impressed," he said to the delight of his students. "Let's take attendance shall we?"
Everyone was present.
Also, their families were now going to watch off screen the education of their children by someone they had become to revere. Terradive was a very, very good teacher indeed.
=0=In a very tense place
Optimus sat down on a couch as the others did, too. No one was happy to see the other and the tension was incredible.
"What do you wish to tell us?" Decca asked.
"I wish to tell you about Kudon."
The room startled it seemed, even the walls and furniture as that name landed among them.
Decca looked shocked, then leaned forward. "Do you know where he is?" he asked almost breathlessly, like a human who was so shocked they couldn't catch their breath.
"I do," Prime said as he steeled himself. "Kudon came to the colony in a very early migration. I never had much time to talk to him so I did not know where the rest of you were. Its often like that, families split up over the Diaspora." He stared at them, their stunned affect. He had only minutes before they came out of their shock. "He lived there until an incident happened. Kudon was killed."
=0=Elsewhere
"If you look at the figures before you one of them fits and the others don't. I want you to look at them, apply logic and decide silently which one is the outlier, then mark it on your screen" Terradive said as he administered his weekly logic test.
The kids made their choices after scrutinizing four images on their data pads which were linked into the computer database nexus that ran Terradive's room.
"Now I want you to look at the order of things in the next problem. There is a logical progression to them. I want you to put the images in order as you see it. Take your time before you press the load button for your answer to count," he said.
Roto was sitting at a desk taking the same test. He loved games especially those that measured intelligence, logic and reasoning skills.
Terradive watched him with a grin. He'd be interested in Roto's outcome given how hard these things were for different intelligences and learning styles. He knew. He'd taken a lot of them himself in school.
"Alright. Let's look at the figures on problem 42. I want you to study them, read the question, then choose the one that makes the most sense to you. Take your time. No rush," he said with a chuckle.
:FOR YOU, MR. TERRADIVE!: Annie Lennox said as the whole group chuckled.
Will Lennox who was taking the test as well as several other genitors nodded. "What she said," he said as he struggled to find the best answer to the question on his data pad.
For Sarah it would be a breeze.
For Owen Harris it would be a struggle. He would be deeply surprised to know that.
=0=There
It was astonishing how quiet it was as the group took in the information. The mechs with Prime and Ratchet shifted uneasily as they watched for threat. The big kids looked like they could mix it up and there was always the possibility of gun play with news like this.
"What are you saying, Prime?" Marlet, the daughter asked. She looked more puzzled than shocked, as if the possibility of her father being lost forever was more mysterious than real. It was obvious that it wasn't sinking in yet.
:People process this differently. The femme is shocked. Decca is going to go off and with him go the boys: Ratchet said as he scanned them.
Nearby against the far wall Kudon watched with emotion and concern. This was expected, that his family would arrive. He knew it. He could look ahead. He also knew he was not allowed to intervene or interfere though he could send them love and he did. Their shock and emotions were blocking their receipt of it.
"Kudon is dead, Decca. I am very sorry to tell you that especially since you now have arrived to safety. Please tell me how I can help you," Prime said gently.
=0=Elsewhere
"Turn to the chapter we just started, number six I believe, where we discuss the subterranean aspects of Cybertron including the energon aquifers and the rivers of water that are now just returning to flow," Terradive said as they worked onward.
It was time for Geography and they were using their newest textbook, one finally approved and distributed to students on two worlds, "The Geography of a Unique World: Subterranean Cybertron". It was one of six they would use to cover all the many marvelous aspects of the most unique world in the universe over the course of their year.
Will read along with them including more and more family members wandering in to listen. They gathered, plugging into the online texts that they could use as approved family members.
Thelma Lennox who was sitting on the floor next to Bobby Epps looked up from her data pad. "I haven't had such education since college."
Every adult there nodded in agreement.
=0=There
Prime steeled himself. "He was involved in a disagreement that led to violence. He died from a blow to his spark chamber."
Decca shifted with a growing awareness of the reality before them. "He was murdered? In a fight?"
"No," Ratchet said calmly. "There was an argument, an insult was delivered and he was struck. You and I both know that he had a spark chamber defect that he wouldn't fix. I even volunteered to do it. It was a blow that shouldn't have killed him but for that. He would have been alive otherwise."
"You tell me that my father is to blame for his death?" Marlet asked almost incredulously.
Ratchet considered that. "I believe that he bears some responsibility for getting into a fight that led to his death due to his fragile condition. I'm not condemning nor judging him. I am telling you what is true."
=0=Elsewhere
They took a break around a table in the lounge that was covered in snacks and drinks. Adults and children had a bite as they discussed the idea that energon was emerging in the deepest reservoirs of the planet once again.
"That's such great news," Sandy said as she ate a cookie. "That means our Lord Primus is healing and making His processes work again."
The adults listened to the kids with the usual amusement when they fell into their sense of Cybertronian identity.
Olivia who was here to visit a couple of the elders who wanted to ride her horses had sat in, impressed with the education the kids were having. "Lord Primus is going to have a star again," Olivia said. "The Pantheon want Him to thrive and because Optimus is Prime He is."
"That's so true," James said. "I can't wait to go to Cybertron when the skies are blue and the sun is shining. We can see our home world in its best light."
James Hoyt was a home boy, too.
A loud whistle could be heard as they glanced over their shoulders to the lounge nearby.
"RECESS IS OVER!" Lucy Epps said as kids and adults grabbed more snacks and drinks, then hurried back to school.
They sat and settled.
"Is everyone here? I see a few more adults. Thank you for coming. Its always good for you to know what champions your kids are," Terradive said.
"It helps to have a champion for a teacher, Mr. Terradive," Harley Epps said as he settled on a chair behind Lucy.
Roto nodded in pleased agreement off screen as Terradive chuckled. "You might not think so, Mr. Epps because its time for mathematics."
HUGE goodnatured moaning and laughter came from every screen on Terradive's podium as he changed the view on the big monitor behind him. Today was time to discuss a lot as well as introduce the Pythagorean concepts he loved so much to kids and adults he loved even more.
Fun times.
=0=There
The room was deadly silent as the realization began to pierce the shell of control that was part and parcel of high caste behavior around those who weren't. No one received that more than Optimus Prime, the low caste interloper into their world of privilege and entitlement who wanted to break all of it up.
Decca slowly rose. "My bond was murdered then. He was struck by a murderer. What happened? What happened to the murderer? Is he in prison? Was he executed for this murder?"
Prime stared at Decca forcefully remembering that this was a suffering person. "Your bond was in an argument that he instigated. He was struck in a weakened place. There was an inquest and the verdict was accidental. Kudon had a weakness that was the cause of his death. He was found to instigate the situation and thus, the individual involved was found to be not guilty of murder. They served a term of house imprisonment due to extenuating circumstances. It was resolved, though I know you will never feel it was."
Decca nodded. "You have that much right, Prime. Please leave this ship."
Prime rose and so did Ratchet. "We are here to facilitate your transition into the colony. We will do that, then leave."
"My amma told you to leave," a big mech said as he stepped past a silent Particle toward Prime.
Prime rose to stare at that mech and the others, a towering magnificent specimen of Cybertronian male. None of those in the room would be able to take him down and even if they ganged up it would be anyone's guess given how battle hardened and tough Prime was that they would succeed. "It would do you a great deal of good to sit back down and listen to me. We have no patience for entitlement anymore. We will cut you leeway due to this shock and your grief. But hear me carefully. Any effort by you to disrupt this process or bring conflict will be met by imprisonment."
"You'd throw us into jail? You heard what happened. My grandatar was murdered by someone," the big mech said.
"There are nearly half a billion individuals on the world we are taking you toward. You can live there in the same level of luxury and contentment as them or you can go to prison. That is the choice before you. The courts spoke and the case was adjudicated," Prime said as the last button he had was pushed.
Marlet stood. "How do I know you didn't murder my atar? You never liked him. You went out of your way to cause him harm. You with your ideas," she said with real bitterness. "You probably killed him yourself."
"Actually, my son did," Ratchet said calmly. "He was attacked by your father and there was a tussle. Your father in his infinite wisdom didn't take care of himself. He pushed against a very veteran soldier and this happened. No one wanted it but it happened." He stepped closer to Prime.
"Your time is over. Your day has come and gone. Like the Quintessans and the Functionalist Council, you are a relic of the past. You can accept that, grow and maybe find happiness and some kind of relief to the poison in your helm or you can go to prison. To foment caste conflict is treason and punishable if convicted by prison or an honor fight with Prime. Did I mention that Primus Himself will honor fight anyone who continues this crap?" Ratchet asked with a quiet tone.
They stared at Ratchet, then Prime.
"I don't believe you," the big mech, a young tough named Corrollate said. "You're lying."
"How about you call The Powers out and test that theory? You can be the second dumb ass that dies from challenging the Pantheon and the Matrix here," Ratchet said. "I'll put your hollowed out, burned out armor in my collection with the other one."
It was silent as they stared at him.
"I will never give you or the Matrix my oath," Decca said as the others nodded. "Never."
=0=TBC 8-23-2022
