The Diego Diaries: Elder (dd8 185)
=0=Later that afternoon at The Fortress
They gathered in the big conference room, all of the leadership of the colony both military and civilian. It would be a debrief that would pretty much conclude most of their work orns, those who'd come in from Cybertron. They were so networked and delegated in their divisions, the regional commanders, that there were strong individuals in all the many Cybertronian departments who were only a text message away from the leadership here. Civilians, soldiers, city department heads and humans both military and civilian arrived to find their places.
Prime and Prowl walked in, then sat.
:Lord Optimus: Owen Harris said from his seat. :How are you? I still see that you have your wounds:
Prime considered the man sitting comfortably in his chair down table. "I am well. I will be getting a detailing tonight for the scars. Thank you for asking."
:How many is this now?: Epps asked with a smirk.
Prime smirked back. "You would need a Wang computer."
Snickers greeted that as Prowl slid out datapads, then downloaded the agenda into the human's by WIFI. Everyone perused the information there, then relaxed. A lot had to be figured out and settled before the weekend. "Let's begin. I want to clear the refugee problem first so let's start with you, Loon," he said as he sat back to smirk at Ratchet.
"Oh, Prowler. Jealously is such a good look on you," Ratchet replied to great laughter and agreement. "We have 941 patients in light to deep medical stasis depending on their level of personal debilitation. The children seem the worse off. Preliminary data indicates that these are the last born in the colony for some time and they all have severe Cache's disease, this variant strain. The elders are the next worst affected group.
"They all went downhill fast when they came here without the stabilizing atmosphere of the planet to help hold them together. We can't discount the power of the environment to keep this disease in balance, at least as much as it was. All of them are at the moment in stable condition, that is, they're in such a state because of stasis. It reduces everything to the barest minimum. In fact, everyone is at a different depth of stasis because we matched it to the speed of their disease process. This will keep them alive for a long time, long enough, hopefully, to find the cure.
"Other than this, they appear to be a well and fit group. This variant does have the situational dementia aspect which explains, perhaps, their conduct. Certainly the boy. He's in very serious condition edging toward critical. All of the adults that were still ambulatory are now in stasis. Their deterioration was swift and disabling away from Meadow Lands. The only ones who weren't affected were Dok and his sons."
"What help are they in finding a possible cure?" Prime asked.
"We've run their CNA and that of four others from the group including a child and an elder. We've located the mutation thanks to Turquoise reading the code. He's supplied the mutation's location so all we have to do is formulate a cure. Its going to be two part. We have to turn off the trigger and then mend the damage including rewriting that section of our genetic code. Its up to Sciences now.
"As for the rest, I don't know what their mental health is like but they've been taking care of and losing family since they got there which has to be horrific. Only here away from the environmental influence has that reality hit them and I do believe it motivated their conduct. These could very well be impaired individuals across the group. I've submitted them to Mental Health as a group referral."
"You believe they were impaired during this whole process," Prime asked.
"It very well could be. You saw Reset. Dok who wasn't affected helped when asked and Reset didn't, or perhaps couldn't make that judgment." Ratchet glanced at his datapad which lay alongside the agenda pad. "Also, SENIOR AUTOBOT PHYSICALS ARE OVERDUE! AGAIN!" Ratchet's foghorn battle field voice rattled the walls.
Ironhide frowned at him. "OLD MECH! I'M SITTING RIGHT HERE!"
"And you owe me a physical, slagger. Shall I tell you again?" Ratchet asked.
"NO!" -every soldier there including the humans
"Anything else, Maniac?" Prowl asked.
"No, Dad. Thanks for asking," Ratchet said to general laughter and supportive commentary.
Prowl gave them all The Look⢠that worked on most of them, then glanced at Magnus who was sitting at the end of the table looking long suffering. "Magnus?"
The huge dignified mech looked at his work datapad. "We have a series of conferences coming from Earth as well as a number of events that I handed over to the Judys and Barbara at the Resort. I'm not well versed on human behavior but felt they were better equipped to evaluate and approve, or not, requested photo shoots. There are a number of movie studios in conference with IntraCom who want to hold a juried show, whatever that is, on world. Jazz can handle that. I gave it to him because he sits on the IntraCom Board of Governors," he finished more for the human's benefits not the bots. Everyone knew that IntraCom was his and Blaster's creation and baby.
Jazz grinned and everyone grinned back.
"We're at present finished with Crater District 7 and will finish up District 8 by the end of next week. Both are closed to await future refugees. A hiatus is being called for general construction, the unions and others related to our building projects, to allow for a two decaorn vacation. It'll give the Parks a chance to stockpile materials for the next phase of building so expect a lot of use of recreation and more pedestrians and traffic given the size of our crews."
"What will that new site be about, Magnus?" Jack asked as he ate a donut in Hardie's office on the monitor. He was going to be heading back shortly but had to help a daycare center in a camp with something or other.
He liked kids, Our Jack.
"As you know, or not, the colony has built in a spiral starting with Autobot City as the center. As we built outwardly, we did so with the idea in mind that there were zones of defense for the colony to protect beyond which we wouldn't build. Given that the threat has subsided a bit, we built outwardly all of the human habitats, clustering them along the Habitat Highway in the second defensive circle.
"The Seven Cities projects, all four of them are a continuation of the arc with Aerie Hill and all its expansions a part of the ending of the arm that direction, north and north east. The titans are part of the arc going southwest and the other developments, especially the crater districts and the newer plan goes toward the west.
"Our new expansion will be built in terraces up the sides of the ridges that form the central point of the elevated area between Seven City-West and Industrial Park City Complex A and B. In fact, that'll be the name of the district, Central Point. That ridge will be holding a long range city complex that will be built on terraces that step upward for nearly a mile before leveling off at the top. The uppermost part of the construction will be community land. No one will be allowed to live up there to ensure that inclement weather doesn't play havoc with their homes and persons."
"That's going to be beautiful, Magnus. Can I put in for a penthouse?" Ratchet asked with a dazzling smile.
Snickers and more inquiries were heaped on that until Prowl rapped his knuckle assemblies. "Ahem."
"We'll be holding that area for housing seniors and young adults there. I want it held for those who will benefit from a closer neighborhood concept since its going to be a tighter city construct than usual. Its also going to be a place where elders will have the assistance of younger locals if things come up," Magnus said. "If anyone here wants to move there you'll have to write a very long sob story for me to read. I will, of course, require details and proofs."
"Slave driver," Ratchet said. "And I gave you one of my finer daughters, too." He glanced around. "I still have an assortment available however."
Huge guff and guffawing met that before Magnus steered them back on the trail again. "I've received the housing report from Cybertron. No village is left unreconstructed to our standards and plans anywhere on world nor is any town or village under 50,000. The committees who manage repatriation of land and homes have been able to keep the slaggers from trying to reclaim what they stole from others and there's a number of cases referred to the Justice Committee concerning profiteering, theft and the usual slag by those who expected to walk back into their lives, apparently. They were disabused of that notion right away.
"Iacon, all of it but the Fairfield and Iacon Main Manufacturing District are reporting that they're ahead of schedule. Primus removing all the debris and fixing His own interior infrastructure and damage has been the difference. Given that the two districts mentioned are staging areas for materials in the rebuild, their condition is understandable.
"We stand at 44% of the planned housing for 95,000,000 individuals in the city proper completed. The Greater Iacon area is still in various stages of repair and preparation for rebuilding but given that, the new designs will be a wonder to behold when completed. The camps have declined in population that much as well, allowing for us to use part of a couple as a medical rehabilitation center for referrals from all over the world.
"Businesses are returning and being created. The Foundry Exchange program is handling supply of all of them which has jump started industry in the northern areas where we're rebuilding the swiftest. All of the old planning, all of the pitfalls and other problems created by our planet's infrastructure being built so long ago are being corrected, minus those of historical significance. Its very sleek and our supply chains are immaculate. We're going to expand further as we go. Homes, businesses and amenities are our key goals now."
"What about other places? Polyhex?" Springer asked.
"Polyhex had a lot of explosions. But given the assist of Primus, we're about 27% complete there," Magnus said.
A few cities were thrown out and what data was there was shared including Praxus which stood at 32%.
Prowl glanced at others who gave their reports, all of which were catch up or follow up data. Then it arrived for Springer.
"Well, my servo is minus a wrap. I got to take it off this morning. As for the colony, the usual drunk and disorderly, a number of fights in bars, a few domestic violence cases and someone stole a helicopter. I personally find that offensive," he said to general laughter. "We're tracking a number of vandals, mostly gang stuff and some mental health referrals. They are now. Referred, that is.
"Cybertron has the usual violence, score settling and the odd murder. Mostly, everyone is making an effort to be normal and seeking help when they can't. But Cybertron because of the camps themselves are going to take longer. We have a lot of presence in the settled areas following the community policing model with mental health and de-escalation the key methods used. All in all, its a miracle," Springer concluded as Drift and the others nodded.
"Thank you," Prime said. "Do we have any known serial killer operating on world? Or is that hopefully a thing of the past?"
"We have a few odd incidents and our forensic psychologist is investigating it," Springer said. "We're not sure as yet."
Prime looked at Scar and Nitro. "How is the former Decepticon population coming along, gentlemen? I was apprised of a gauntlet happening a few orns back."
Scar smirked slightly. "A hard helm. He learned the error of his ways. Otherwise, everyone is making us proud."
:Gauntlet?" Harris asked.
Scar glanced at him. "When one of us frag up after a number of warnings from their mentor, they get referred for a gauntlet. They have to run between two lines of mechs holding steel pipes and get from the beginning to the ending while we beat the slag out of them. No one has ever needed more than one."
The humans stared at him, then each other.
Epps grinned. :Its a plan:
Snickers rounded the room, then Ratchet leaned back with a smirk. "We're not an easy people."
Harris stared at him a moment, then grinned. :Indubitably:
He would never know why some in the room laughed so hard.
=0=TBC 06-09-2021