The Diego Diaries: Boo (dd8 133)
=0=There
Onyx grinned at the kid with the good manners. "Tell you what, infant?" he asked.
Smokey stared at him silently. So did everyone else. "Uh … what do you know about this, Abba?"
Onyx grinned. "First things, first. Food. Drink. Then we talk."
Food came in short order along with drinks. They sat together, the elders and the Seers discussing this and that thing in the far away past as the youngsters listened with varying degrees of restiveness.
"Abba?"
The group glanced over, then down to see Olivia Boles standing by the fire pit which was mercifully for her cold and out. Olivia glanced at Onyx, then bowed slightly. "Abba? You're honored among your kind and have history with The People. How did you get to be a Seerer if I may ask?"
Onyx and the others stared at her, delighting in her formal request for her question. Onyx sat back. "I'm honored that you ask," he answered formally himself. "I was born this way. All Seers are born rather than made. Some of us have a special feature at reading energy and things unseen. We develop it through secret arts passed down from generation to generation. Its a skill that The People trust and seek when they're troubled."
Olivia nodded. "You have the answer do you for this predicament?" she asked.
Onyx nodded. "I do. My circle here are very powerful in the ability to read energy and see the unseen. My son is going to be a great Seer some fine orn."
Gypsum grinned at his father, then glanced at her. "You've put a lot of effort and time into learning the way of our people. I'm very glad that you did. Your own are fearful of us, some of them and that gives me grief."
"They don't know you or they would love you like we do," Olivia said.
The mechs grinned, watching someone they liked a great deal carry a conversation with a personage like Totem and Onyx. It was a really nice feeling to see real effort and understanding coupled with sincere feeling. Humans were hard for many to read so she and the humans on world were a good thing for understanding to go both ways.
"I see from your markings and tattoos that you're an Immortal, Elder," she said as she glanced from Totem to Onyx. "You as well, Lord Onyx. I'm honored to meet you. I can't imagine living as long as you both have. It must be hard to see Cybertron in such a state as it is now."
Both of them nodded. "We've been part of every liberation movement in our history. We were … special operatives." He grinned. "Spies without being present at that which we spied upon. Those with our special features are very, very rare and we've always been with the Primes, though this is the only one we've respected since Guardian," Onyx said.
"He's loved. He's said to have been wise and good," Olivia said.
All of them nodded including a number of the elder soldiers.
"Guardian Prime was a great and beloved leader. He isn't remembered to the degree that he should be. Some of the statues of him had to be hidden because the other Primes wanted to erase his memory. It bothered them that someone as beloved as Guardian could command respect after all the time that passed but he deserved it. He was a good and great mech," Totem said. "We all knew him, all of our Guild and we were at his disposal all the time of his reign."
"You can read the energy of the dead as well? You took the shadows into you? How did that happen?" Olivia asked.
"Its a process," Totem said as Onyx nodded. "We can claim their energy and neutralize it inside our person. When we get to where we want to be, then we detox them and disperse the energy. Its a process that isn't hard for us and takes little time. They came with us and we saw them but there was no time to do it there. We won't be leaving them here. This place is a garden and protected space."
Olivia glanced behind her as Ratchet and Perceptor walked back to the group. They stepped around a few of the younger mechs, then took seats near the fire pit.
"Well, don't we look comfy? How are you three this morning?" Ratchet asked.
"We had an interesting night," Gypsum said as he finished his food and drink.
"We did," Totem said.
"Good. We look forward to your findings," Ratchet said. "I always wanted to have skills like you. I used to see a lot of ghosts when I was a kid, then my elders told them to go bother someone else."
"They don't mean harm usually," Totem said as he handed his plate and cup to a soldier who carried it to the shelter area. "They're just lost. Some don't know they're dead. Some just like to stay around and watch their family or cause trouble. You don't get perfect just because you die."
"Well, there goes that dream," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.
Huge laughter greeted that as the other two handed off their plates and cups. They sat back, then both groups of elders grinned at each other.
"Why do I think this is going to take a vorn or two to be told?" Sideswipe said as he sat nearby with the others.
"The Elders know what they're doing," Bezel said with a sense of awe.
Everyone there grinned at the sweet kid, then turned their entire attention to the three newcomers.
"Well, it seems that it isn't a mechanical thing that's causing this," Onyx began. "There's no readings that even come close. I will say this is a greenhouse that's being allowed to grow as it pleases. Sometimes a highly advanced species will find a world and watch it, adding and subtracting things to build a paradise. This is one of them. It's meant to be a garden of beauty and peace."
"Okay," Raptor said knowing full well that one waited respectfully for the answers. It was considered a grave breach of manners to ask or wheedle answers from a Seer when they were ready to disclose what they knew. He grinned at the group who were sitting in silence and tension as thick as tar.
"No one is supposed to be here. This place has very few visits so isolated it is and there will be no one coming for some time," Totem said. "Its a great hot house experiment that's fulfilling someone's desire for beauty and evolution."
"Okay," Raptor said again.
"What its not supposed to be is what it is with us here. The groups trapped here were not supposed to ever be," Gypsum said. "It was a protective reflex that anyone is."
"Okay," Raptor replied.
The younger kids glanced at each other, grinned, then turned back to the Seers.
"It isn't a machine. It isn't the planet. None of the easy choices are causing this," Totem said as the other two nodded. "It isn't either one."
Raptor nodded. "Okay."
The three grinned at him, someone two of them knew very, very well because whenever Immortals were in proximity to each other they'd gather to talk and reminisce. Many were the friendships over eons that developed from that simple practice.
"Tell me, Raptor and you other elders … what do you see about the world here?" Onyx asked.
Smokey was nearly ready to unravel at the convoluted and slow pace of disclosure. He shifted in his chair, then settled when his Amma's servo rested gently on his. Glancing at Devcon, he sat back to forcibly relax.
Devcon patted his servo, then turned back to the conversation with a grin. Totem and Onyx were old friends and allies from his bounty hunter orns way back when.
"Well, I see a garden paradise. I was told that birds congregate around the equator while those that can be found are like hummingbirds … harmless to anything that lives here," Raptor began. "I find a lot of trees and streams, grassy meadows and endless fields of flowers."
"What do you see at the base, in the shade of the flowers?" Totem asked.
Raptor glanced at Perceptor. "Percy?"
"There are enormous varieties of mushroom-like plants, some of them really big and others small. There's also insects that like to be around them, insects that seem to transfer pollen and other things from one to another. They don't seem to be harmful to the plants and fungi. Rather, they appear to have a symbiotic relationship. They help the plants and the plants deliver nectar or secrete substances for the insects. The butterfly-like insects seem to be the biggest recipients of this. Some of them are big and many are small."
Totem nodded. "What do you feel when you walk around where they are?"
"Good," Will Lennox said.
Everyone glanced at him.
"I don't know how you feel but I feel great walking around in the meadows. The flowers are beautiful and some smell really good. The mushroom things I'm not crazy about but there's something really beautiful about being there, something that feels restful and peaceful. Like a summer day on my farm," Will continued.
"You feel the peace and quiet. Most rural places can feel that way but this is more so," Onyx said. "The plants are making that feeling. They're not just plants in the common sense. They communicate with each other and the insects. They work together in unity to grow and take care of each other. The insects transfer their pollen. The plants attract insects by secretions they need. They appear to be the highest echelon beings on world.
"Given there's no predators, the plants have no reason to be anything but content and because they're so highly intelligent, they can create the mood of this place by feeling such things," Onyx said.
"The plants are intelligent?" Smokey asked with surprise.
Onyx glanced over his shoulder at Smokey. "They are. They're very, very, very highly intelligent. You don't have to build spaceships or civilizations to be highly evolved. This is a very, very highly evolved world."
"Alright," Lissie said. "What do you think we need to do?"
"We need to get into contact with them," Totem said. "We've sent out vibrations to them that they've picked up on. Right now, they're discussing what to do about it."
"The plants? Insects? Who is?" Hot Rod asked.
"All of them," Gypsum said with a grin. "I'd suggest that you stay in camp and not walk around out there. You could step on someone that might be someone's mother."
Everyone stared at him with varying degrees of 'is he serious or what?'.
"My son is right, Raptor. We're in the middle of a very powerful collection of species that are capable of shifting ships from space and creating containments for those they catch. It would seem that they're very capable of defending themselves. Right now, they feel pressure and agitation that ships keep coming."
Raptor was silent a moment. "Perceptor, have you scanned the areas where we are and their extent? I want to know what lives in this space besides us."
"I have, General."
"Tell me about the contents of that area besides all of us," Raptor asked.
Perceptor unsubbed a datapad. "Well, it would seem that we're in a place where there's a lot of rocks and sand. It would appear given the scans that we've taken with the ships that no species here have ever grown upon the ground we occupy."
"Why am I not surprised?" Raptor said as Jack nodded.
"I think they might consider us the enemy, boys and girl," Jack said as he sat back. "They penned us up where we can't hurt anyone. Good thing you're here, Ratchet. You can negotiate a retreat for all of us out of here."
Ratchet grinned at him. "Do you really think Reset is going without a fight?"
Jack grinned grimly back at him. "Nope," he said.
=0=TBC 04-07-2021