The Diego Diaries: Well, what the frag ... (dd8 180)
=0=Together at the place of places
They stood together staring into the end all/be all of families all over the colony, a place where newcomers came to cry. Each had a cart, the three big boys and in one of them standing up happily was Sunspot. In the one next to him a bouncy dog watched with tongue lolling excitement.
After a moment of silence, Sunspot turned to his brothers. "Why not go that way?"
Everyone gazed that way, then back to Sunspot. They grinned.
"You bet the trailblazer, Sunspot. We're going to be your team. You point and we go," Fireball said as he began to push his cart.
"I will," Sunspot said with a blazing smile. "This is the way Atar goes to get the house stuff."
"House stuff?" Quadrus asked as he followed the others.
"Soap and stuff," Sunspot said as he sailed ahead of them, his little servos gripping the cart.
It would be a long and instructive trip through the soap and household supplies section of The Grocery At Metroplex.
=0=Pax Medical Center, Pax, the "Terra Hub"
He walked from ward to ward checking charts and prognoses as they got ready to put everyone in a mid range level of medical stasis. It would slow the progress of the disease to microscopic speeds allowing Sciences the chance to formulate a treatment for this, the first strain they'd encountered that didn't respond to any of their protocols.
"What do you think Commander?"
Ratchet looked down at a tiny femme who was walking with him taking notes on a tiny datapad with her name on it, 'Peep'. He grinned as images of fuzzy Terran chicks came into mind. She wasn't yellow but she was as delightful. "I think putting them into stasis is a good alternative to other plans. What do you think Peep?"
She considered his question as they paused by the door to another ward. "I think its humane, Commander. It helps the family, too, not to worry about them suffering. When you're in stasis you're relaxed and unaware."
Ratchet grinned at her. "You're gold, Peep. Make sure you stand by me as much as possible. I'm hoping it rubs off."
She stared at him a moment, then beamed her usual beautiful smile upward at him.
"Come on, infant. We have two more wards to go," Ratchet said as he entered the doorway. Peep was right behind him with her tiny datapad.
=0=In the 'dairy' section
They piled a cart with all manner of dairy-type goods, some of it in special containers that keep the contents cold unless it was opened. One could buy ice cream in the morning, set it on their desk or at their work place all day, then take it home to eat with it staying as cold and fresh as if it were refrigerated all the intervening time.
Tech was a good thing.
Sometimes.
Moving onward, they halted before the promised land.
"This is going to take a moment," Genesis said quietly.
Everyone nodded.
"We better make room in this cart," Quadrus said as he gently put Spot on the floor. Then they began to head forward into the bread aisle and the wonderland of buns that it was.
=0=Children's Treatment Center and Long Term Care Facility, Pax, Terra Hub, Autobot City, Mars
The wards were filled with children nearly all of which were in a mild medical stasis. Doctors, nurses, technicians and specialists worked feverishly among them hooking up what they needed and could tolerate before putting them into a quiet state of half awareness and sleep.
Genitors who weren't in the hospital as well hovered anxiously, some of them barely able to understand what they were doing to their kids they were so debilitated and emotional. They were marked for transport to one of the med centers for intake as soon as the runabouts arrived. It was a quiet sort of bedlam for the families all of which were exhausted with worry and despair. Their children were in a terrible state.
Some of them lay on circulating cool water mattresses so that their fragile superstructures wouldn't break anymore than they were already. Some had a lot of broken struts and superstructure, with a few at the point where they couldn't move themselves. It was uncanny to see them and notice that few of them reached beyond the barest cusp of sub adult. Many of them not only didn't reach youngling age, a large number of children didn't reach separation. It was also about the time that the second set of refugees arrived that no one was able to even spark.
Breakdown was in charge of a floor, operating out of an office where he had control of the well being of 39 children. He'd passed all of his examinations with flying colors to become a paraprofessional children's specialist. He was a doctor in all but name. He ran his department quietly and efficiently, working with his staff to get maximum effort out of everyone without running anyone into the ground or causing offense. It was a prideful thing about Breakdown that he'd managed to become what he, Ratchet had sensed in the huge mech all along.
He'd be hard at it all night long.
=0=Metroplex
They pushed into aisle after aisle choosing what they knew Ratchet and Ironhide would approve of and adding a lot of interesting things that they'd decided they would sneak in and hide in someone's closet. Snacking on junk food in the lounge with a movie going or a good battle on the game player was the epitome of a weekend with the boys.
All nine of them along with Sunspot and on occasion, Bos, Reflector and Co-D would have a 'boys' night in' with games on the consoles, movies and talking about something and everything. Food and drink, the odder the better was a good addition to the festivities.
By the time they were pushing everything to the check out there was room for nothing else in the carts. Standing in line, Sunspot glanced up at Genesis. "THAT'S A LOT OF STUFF!"
Genesis laughed. "I think so. We can sneak in ourselves what we want to hide and have the rest delivered in a few minutes."
Quadrus grinned. "I think Ada knows where we stash stuff."
"Ada knows everything," Sunspot said confidently.
Everyone nodded. No one was going to argue.
=0=Elsewhere
Sitting on a desk on Foofer, Halo smiled at everyone who walked in or around the huge office that was the nerve center of Cybertronian relief and the 'play pen' of Appa Dordie. Or so the smallest called Hard Drive.
"Appa."
Hard Drive glanced up, then leaned closer. "What, Puss?" he asked.
She laughed. "COOS-KOO!"
He grinned. It was a good thing that he knew she called Cousin Cooskoo or he'd have yet another puzzle on his plate. He grinned. "What, Miss Kitty?"
She smiled, then leaned in closer. "Lou knowed Kitty?"
"I know she lives with Uncle Otis," Hardie replied as he settled in for a chat.
"She good she," Halo said. She smiled. "SHE PUSS-PUSS!" She cackled hilariously. "She good she, PUSS-PUSS!"
It would go like that for a while.
=0=The Monastery of the Clavis Aurea, Mars
They were living in the least trafficked areas, staying quietly out of the way from those where the staff worked or the scriptoriums where scholars came anyway. Their arrival had been emotionally chaotic but now their numbers were winnowing. As reports of those refugees who were taken to the hospital played on the television along with the ghastly vision of bots falling on their faces during the last surrender, more of them began to ask for medical attention.
Some of them were elders while others were just very unhealthy younger individuals. Now that proximity to Meadow Lands was no longer possible, the effect the planet expended to help them was missing. As its affects receded so did the protection it granted.
The children from town who were Functionalist from that infamous migration still came to school but were carried or hurried past the area where mechs and the odd femme lay on air mattresses in relative privacy. They couldn't afford to miss the mental health intensive atmosphere of their lessons so they came quickly, worked away from the newbies and left just as fast at night.
It was an existence.
It would also take only three orns before all of them had called for medical transport to the hospital.
=0=The Temple of Primus Restored, The City, Mars
After a lot of monkey motion, the several hundred refugees seeking asylum were settled in. They spent a lot of time sleeping, those who were showing signs of decline while others sat and stared at the Allspark and Well for hours on end. Priests and those who worked here attended to them with their usual loving attention but by the end of the second day nearly everyone was on a bus, cab or runabout to a medical center. By the end of the third day no one would be left in the sanctuary of the Temple.
=0=Home
"This is so good," Ravel said sweetly as he helped Corr and the big kids put everything away. "I see you got take out. That's very good of you, boys. I think I might have you do my shopping some time. You make good choices."
The four mechs basked in the sunshine of Ravel's comments. What they didn't tell him or Corr was that their carryholds were stuffed with junk food goodness.
"Is anyone coming home tonight?" Quadrus asked.
"I'm not sure. I do believe Ironhide is for a short visit, perhaps around dinner," Corr said as he began to put dinner packages into the stove to flash cook them. "Your ada is working very hard."
"I was thinking it might be fun to join the Watch and Medic Auxiliary," Genesis said.
"I want to do that," Quadrus said. "I haven't seen Springer and Drift in a while. How is Tell? When will they help him hear again?"
"They have a bit of time to go. They took him to his first school and class this morning," Ravel said …
...They sat in the lounge together playing Battleship off line. No one else was there but them. It was nerve wracking.
:This is a dry run for when he goes to school full time: Drift said as they lounged together on a couch. :Already I don't like it:
Springer nodded. :I think he's too small but when you have a special needs kid it starts early:
Drift nodded. "I never went to school."
Springer chuckled but didn't rise to the bait. It was going to be one of those kind of waits.
=0=TBC 06-03-2021 This would have been longer but I'm wipe out. It is about 9:30 at night here and it looks as bright and sunny as noon. HUGS!
ESL:
Prognoses: (prog-no-sees) the outcomes predicted for someone or something, especially in medicine.