The Diego Diaries: Let's Move (dd8 141)
=0=There, on the ground
Warlord landed with two other Seekers, then walked to where Prime sat around the fire pit with the humans and elder Autobots around him. He paused beside the big mech. "We have the survey done. We have them all located and transferred the data to Perceptor. We can also tell you that they have no fortified locations nor do they have weapons systems deployed. They heard rather than located us otherwise when we flew over. Sketcher didn't feel any scanning or sensor equipment touch us when we did."
Sketcher nodded. "I have tech that can detect anything aimed our way. They didn't. I'm of the opinion that they're so used to being here in what I'd call a protected situation that they never felt the need to develop anything defensive. It works to our advantage."
"Thank you, gentlemen," Prime said as he asked for and got the mapping of the data sent to him by Perceptor off line. "I am going to contact the colonials and ask them to get ready to leave. I'm going to give them a few joors to make up their minds, then we will have to go in. For the sake of this world and its inhabitants, I want this to be peaceful."
"The hoo-haw, Prime, would be checked by the domes. Nothing that we did would penetrate that. We can go up to the edge of space now but something about the domes I scanned indicated that anything that happens inside them down below will be checked," Sketcher said. "Its odd energy but it signals to me that any stray shots or stampedes will be unable to penetrate into the greater world beyond here."
"That is relieving," Optimus said. "Is the plan ready, General?"
Raptor nodded. "We called for reinforcements and sent the other colonists onward. Their camp is just structures. Everything else is gone. What do you want to do about that?"
Prime mused on the question a moment. "Something tells me that it will not make a difference if we leave here and it remains."
Raptor rose. "Very well, then. Allow me to disperse my troops."
Jack rose with him and they walked with the other elders and Devcon to the edge of the camp after putting out the all call to assemble. It would take a bit but they would.
While they were busy there, Optimus made his call. :I would like your attention, colonists of Meadow Lands. This is Optimus Prime of Iacon:
=0=Around the colony
Everyone froze at the unaccustomed sound of an internal call by a strange voice identifying as their Prime. Glancing at each other with surprise, everyone there who was past sub adult listened with surprise and dread.
:I am calling to you to discuss the serious situation we have here by your settlement. I do so as a Prime chosen through the Matrix Bonding Ceremony in the High Imperium of Capital City on Cybertron. I am the only legally appointed official of the government of Cybertron that still stands. I am here to help you make the transition from this place to a colony world where you may live as you deserve among your fellow Cybertronians. The civil war is over and the Autobots have won. We have retaken Cybertron and are in the midst of reconstruction as well as the care of one and a half billion of our people who never were able to leave the planet during the Great Exodus. That does not count the hundreds of millions, perhaps as many as two billion that we are searching for even now.
:We have found you through a signal leak that allowed us to find your location. When we came we studied this world and found it a protected class emergent world which forbids our people to live here or exploit any of its resources. Given that the laws of Cybertron still stand and I am authorized by the Charters and foundational documents of the First Great Convocation to enforce them, I have made the decision to evacuate this planet and marker it as protected against the future. No one has the authorization nor right to be here.
:I expect that this will not sit well upon you. We know that transitions can be difficult but it must be so. We have made contact with the guardian spirit that protects this place, the one who can pull ships from space and erect impenetrable domes to keep even advanced species like us in cages for eons and they want us gone. They have given us leave to gather up to go. The 200 refugees from the group you already know about have been evacuated and are on their way to Mars, our colony world for refugees through space bridges which we will also utilize for you.
:I am going to send you videos of Mars so that you understand what sort of place you will be heading toward. At last count there were nearly 250,000,000 refugees living there who have been gathered from all over the galaxy by both my forces and that of the Network which is coordinating the Circle of Light and Knights of Cybertron in their own efforts. No one will be going to Cybertron for now because our home world is at this moment unable to harbor more refugees.
:I am sending the videos for you to study and for them to answer your questions. In six joors I will call again. I will ask you to light up your transponders if you wish to leave peacefully and we will help you. If you do not then we know where we both stand. I have called for more troops and ships. If you wish to make this difficult, then the outcomes of it are yours alone to bear. The send will commence now. Optimus Prime, out:
=0=Over there
All over the colony a download commenced through the transponders of the adults and youth. Given that a Prime had the ability to speak this way and they had no capacity to prevent it, everyone got the videos immediately. It would be then that they would watch them, some of them in seconds. Only then would the startled conversations begin.
Everywhere.
=0=On the tarmac at the Port of Autobot City, Mars
The ships landed on the runways nearby as groups of individuals, enough to help 200 refugees gathered. The ships settled, after a moment the ramps came down and soldiers and civiliansbegan to lead a group of dazzled bewildered refugees out of the vessels. They walked slowly down the ramp gawking at everything and everyone while medics and social workers ran to greet them.
Children were pulled back in and garbed, those that would need it, while the rest were scanned, tagged and led onward again. They touched the ground, staring at the slightly orange sky and the beautiful shades of black, blue and white sand that seemed like paint strokes across a canvas of tan, red and beige boulder strewn landscape. But everywhere they could see, the part that seemed impossible, was the seethingly active and beautiful urbanscape of the colony.
It rose into the sunlight of mid morning, a glittering sea of towers set in locations joined by an incredible road system that was enhanced by overland trains, both passenger and freight. Ships flew over going to one of the now fifteen airports of which seven were located near or in Aerie Hill. A passenger train which traveled out, around and inside the vast colony passed by at the fenced edge of the Port, paralleling the highway where vehicles of all kinds zoomed.
Traffic on the roads was busy and so were those who helped or worked at this port of entry. They followed their helpers toward the building where they would be interviewed, given medical attention, shown their options for their new life, then led onward to bus or Metro by teams that were now permanent employees at the Port. Beyond them were lines of other refugees who were forming after walking out of several giant bridges that were disgorging them in a continuous measured pace.
It was overwhelming. It would take a few orns of exploration, sleep, great food and watching the dedicated television channel that played for newcomers and other refugees continuously, explaining as it did all that happened since five Autobots landed on Earth in 2007 and changed the future of their people forever. It would be amazingly good to walk into their new homes at last and just sit.
=0=Nearing the end of the deadline
"What do you think they'll do? Fight?" Smokey asked his amma as he sat next to Devcon waiting for the word from Meadow Lands.
"Hard to say," Dev replied. "If there's some sort of effect that makes them want to stay against their better interests, then there could be. You'll do what you're told."
Smokey glanced at Dev with slight offense. "I will."
"Good," Dev said with a grin. "It'll be good to be home again."
"It will. I'm hungry," Smokey said with a grin.
"I'm glad," Dev said.
=0=At home
They sat in chairs in the special section of the Medical Center for humans, clad in civilian clothes as they chatted together with Jarro and Hank Jones who was a psychiatrist on call for the human community. Both of them were on monitors.
Sitting with them were various family members of the patients including Owen Harris with Rick. They'd been told that their family members were back once they were checked into the Human Medical Center Annex of Autobot City, Mars and only then. The humans had been loudly indignant that they were taken away from their 'true home' and brought here but even as they were the influence had lessened a bit. They weren't pitching fits but rather feeling just a bit out of sorts and homesick.
:So tell me how you feel, William Lennox: Jarro said as he sat in his office with Rung and several of his interns specializing in human psychology in the background.
Jonathan and Thelma Lennox along with Sarah sat with him. "How do you feel, Will?" Sarah asked.
He glanced at her, his parents, then the two on the monitor. "I think I need to go home. Before it was intense, more so than now. I sort of feel that I have to go back and turn off the stove or iron. You know? That sort of thing. Like I have to go and fix something I did."
Several nodded including Olivia Bowers. Joe sat next to her holding her hand. "I think that explains it pretty good, Will," she said. "I miss Meadow Lands. I felt like I found heaven and to tell you the truth, I did. What a great place that was. I worry now about how Lord Optimus can get the others back without a fight."
"I agree," Fig Figueroa said. "What can you tell us about that, Mama?" he asked his little mama who was sitting on the couch with him holding his hand.
Mama Fig considered that. "I see some turmoil but not everyone. The big butterfly can help."
:What big butterfly?: Hank Jones asked.
Mama Fig considered that. "Its the one they made, the plants and insects. They all have one mind and they speak to others like that, making the butterfly their spokesman. I have never seen such a beautiful thing. I do see a lot of things. I see someone sitting next to you, Mr. Hank. Someone with a nice smile and a beauty mark on their cheek."
Hank Jones sat up straighter and blinked. :Uh … what else do you see?:
Mama Fig stared at the monitor as if considering what she was seeing, something no one else could, then grinned. "She's your grandmother. She says she loves you. She also said that the TV remote is under your couch in the den. She says you need more exercise and to eat more vegetables. She likes your son's new wife and predicts a baby in the fall." Mama Fig grinned. "I like her. Delores Michaels Jones."
Hank stared at her. :Where is she sitting?:
"Beside you. She's smiling at you right now," Mama Fig replied as she pulled her crochet hooks and yarn from her little bag, the one her small dog, Mio was sleeping in. She began to crochet on a small project she'd worked on waiting for her son, a little sweater for Sheila Conroy's min-pin. "She's very nice. She wants you to lose weight, too."
It would take a moment for Hank Jones to rejoin the chat.
=0=There
"The time is up, Optimus," Magnus said as he sat down across from Prime at the fire pit.
"Let us hope that they can make this change without trouble," Prime said as he opened the transponders of everyone in the colony.
Raptor held the mapping datapad to track who would come and who wouldn't.
Everyone crossed their digits to see what would happen.
Then Prime spoke to the people. :May I have your attention. This is Optimus Prime …:
=0=TBC 04-18-2021