This is really glitched. This is supposed to be part 187 but it wants it to be 188. I hope the number slag isn't going to be a problem with this computer crapping out. Hugs.
Update: Somehow I have disconnected the link between nearly everything I have been working on for months and my ability to reach them. Hundreds of pages of editing ready to re-post and last night's piece. I will be working on this to correct this but I will be doing my pieces as usual but cut and paste them to fan fic before I save them if somehow they go to the same place everything else is. This is to explain the past two days. I intend to write and post as usual anyway. This computer is on its last legs as we speak and when I replace them I get the hard drive out to use on my remote hookup thingo that makes it just another external drive. I hate tech sometimes but TALLEY HO!
UPDATE AGAIN: I just got a replacement computer from Dell for minor ducats. All will be well when I retrieve my data. What's better, this computer feels like it wants to blow up and die. So getting a new one until I get my slag back is great. HUGGLES!
The Diego Diaries: Stuff (dd8 187)
=0=Dinner
They came in hooting and hollering, a passel of shorties and a smiling Seeker plus dog.
"ADA! WHY YOU!?"
Halo glanced at her brother, then smiled up at Ratchet. "ADA! WHY LOU!?"
Everyone of the shorties laughed loudly, then stared at Ratchet with giant expectation. He grinned. "WASH YOUR MITTS AND GET BACK HERE FOR EATS!"
Halo laughed loudly for her. "EATS! HA-HA-HA!" she said as she scurried off with the others.
The door opened again as three tall kids came in. They hugged Ratchet.
"Hi, Ada. Is there anything to eat? I'm starving," Fireball said with a big smile.
"Wash your servos and shake a leg. Dinner is about to commence," Ratchet said as three big kids rushed to their side of the apartment with a bounding cat in pursuit.
The door opened again as Ironhide swaggered inside. "I AM IRONHIDE! I AM HOME! LET THE EATS COMMENCE!"
"Wash your servos," Ratchet said with a grin.
"Okay," Ironhide said as he swaggered down to the wash racks. When he was there the screaming and yelling commenced in earnest.
Ratchet snickered as he set the timers on the stoves to make dinner happen. Pulling things out of the fridge and the warmers, he set them on the counter.
Reflector materialized by his side to set the table as the kids were intercepted by Genesis and Quadrus as they came out of the hallway screaming. They were placed in their chairs right away.
Ironhide was behind them and paused in the living room with a grin. "Tell me when fork hits the face, Old Mech. I have things to do."
"Frag you," Ratchet said. "Get over here and help plate up."
The two of them filled plates as Genesis set cups with juice on the table. When everyone had a pile of their own, the two sat. Everyone stared at them as they stared at everyone.
Ratchet grinned. "Okay."
"GRACE!" everyone of the kids shouted.
"Heathens. Eat," Ratchet said.
It was silent a moment but for the clinking of utensils and the shocked commentary of the shorties when they dropped something off their spoons. It would be pleasant around the feeding trough at the old homestead.
=0=All over the Earth
They gathered in the various airports, twelve major ones now from all over the world where Autobot Touring Company came to pick up passengers. Their other venture, Autobot Freight and Shipping Company was the vendor of choice by the Prime's government to ship to and from Earth and Mars. They supplied the Outpost chain and did all manner of shipping and freight not only for the Cybertronians but that contracted with organizations and governments worldwide. Organizations got free service and governments donated to charity or the Prime Foundation. Many were the catastrophes and hot spots in need that saw a white ship with a huge Autobrand descend from the sky to assist.
The gathered were the elders of families who lived on Mars among the human community. These were aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents and elder brothers and sisters, family members of the worker bees of the habitats of Mars. Given it was Elders Day in three days, the Prime had granted the humans a chance to bring their own elders to Mars for the holiday but also to see the colony and stay for an entire ten days.
Most of these would be first timers on world while others had been there before. Among them were others who were on Earth doing business, personal and otherwise but were now returning to Mars where they lived. Families always migrated eventually to Mars to be with family and to take on temporary immigrant status under Prime's belief in family and his liberal immigration policy.
Many of them volunteered or even worked due to their various skills from jobs before retirement and an entire network of clubs, newspapers, auxiliaries and other features had woven its way into the lives of those living there, enriching the community cultures greatly as Prime hoped it would. The fabric of life on world was a thing of beauty for just about everyone and the various activities from sports to academia were available to everyone.
They gathered in the terminals after processing through security into the big waiting areas set aside for travel to Mars. Their gear and pets of which there were many and varied were already on Mars having been transported the day before. Now they just had to get there themselves. As they gathered, hundreds of them, the ships began to land at four airports to gather up their manifest of passengers for the 45 minute trip to the Red Planet. They would continue to the others until everyone going was picked up by the right ship.
They sat in the comfortable waiting area talking together, many of them total strangers about their excitement, fears or hopeful reunions. Many hadn't seen their family members in a long time. It was then that the steward called them to order. "If I may have your attention."
They silenced, then turned toward the desk where a woman of middle age wearing the uniform of the company was speaking. "Welcome to the terminal," she said. "We are going to be boarding the vessel outside," she said glancing through the windows at a sleek white ship being docked beside the building. "This is a solar class vessel with capability to go from Earth to Pluto in two hours if the ship's full potential was utilized. This vessel holds 1,000 passengers and has safety redundancies built in along with a ship sized space bridge. All ships used by Autobot City Touring Company in their passenger transports are required to have and use them if necessary.
"We would like you to take the seats assigned on board all of which will give you a wonderful view of the journey. The stewards will be circulating through the cabins to assist you. Given the short duration of the flight, a mere 45 minutes to Autobot City, we won't be serving any beverages or snacks today. The crew however will be giving a flight talk about the ship, the features including rest rooms and all safety features before we leave. We insist that you turn off your electronics now, especially phones until the all clear to use them is given. During take off, we require your attention for the unique safety issues we face in the vacuum of space.
"Understand, we are never more than a space bridge from safety. We'll also never be more than 25 minutes from Prima Station at Midway and Autobot City on Mars in this, the most heavily patrolled area of space in the system. When we arrive, you'll disembark, then be led through Autobot City Municipal and Interplanetary Airport to Immigration and Customs.
"Given that your baggage is already at the habitats on world, you will only need to supply your passports, the two pieces of picture identification required and your letter from the Secretariat of State granting your stay. If there's any difficulty with any of that please let us know before boarding so we can straighten it out before you arrive. Please have those papers ready to show when we board you, then keep them in easy access for Immigration. On behalf of Autobot City Touring Company and the Office of the Primes, we welcome you to flight 127 for transit to Mars."
She hung up the phone, then walked to the three doors where others waited to process everyone on board. There would be no paperwork hiccups for this group either here, Prima Station or on Mars.
=0=Home
"Tomorrow we're going to go with Crasher and Titan to the races, Ada. We're going to have lunch with them and 2Lip. Then we're all going to the movies and the pool. They want us to spend the night in the Valles with them to rock climb in the morning."
Ratchet stared at the three kids who'd just told him of their plans at that very moment. It would never fail to amuse him how young they were that they didn't think about a heads up for the stuff that would be needed for the overnight. "So … where's your camping gear?"
They glanced at each other, then Ironhide. "Uh, Atar? Where's our camping gear?"
Ironhide who was having a rip-roaring conversation off line with Ratchet grinned. "Where we keep our slag. At the storage place. I suppose you want to get it."
They glanced at each other, then turned toward him sheepishly. "Um, we can do it, Atar. If you just show us what to do we can get it."
Ironhide stood to his full height. "THE FRAG YOU CAN!"
It was stone silent in the room.
Then Ironhide grinned. "Follow me. I'll show you where it is."
The relief that followed that bit of comedy could have fanned a forest fire to sleep as the three big kids, each carrying a smaller one followed Ironhide out the door.
Sunspot stared at them, then Ratchet.
"Get moving before they get ahead of you," Ratchet said.
He smiled brilliantly, then ran out the door. It closed silently behind him and Spot.
Ratchet stared at the dishes, then Robby who looked up at him hopefully for a treat. He would get one. He'd also get a long story about what a slagger Ironhide was while Ratchet stuffed the dishwasher with dishes.
=0=At Jiffy Storage
They walked inside to the panel that ran the place. It was after hours so the automated system that even a child could run was boss hog. Ironhide punched in the number of their unit, then everyone watched as automated systems began to shift things around so that theirs, 113 could be brought forward, then down where they could enter it. There were literally hundreds of units here of all sizes and theirs was one of the bigger ones, a 24 by 45 foot rectangle filled with their slag. It lowered to the floor, then Ironhide coded the door. It rolled up to reveal their family toy box.
Ironhide rubbed his servos together, then walked forward. "I know they're in here. Let me see," he said as he began to hand out crates and boxes to the kids.
They stacked them neatly, placing Spot, the little kids and Sunny on top of one stack as Ironhide continued to look.
"Frag. They're in here. I put them in myself." He continued until he was handing out little cribs filled with toys and things in sealed bags.
"What's this, Atar?" Genesis asked as he held a tiny crib with Orion's name carved into its side edge. Sitting in the middle of the slag inside of it was a little box bed with the name of Diego Garcia Commissary printed on the side.
Ironhide glanced at it, then grinned. "That's a slagging heirloom. Some fine orn, my grandkids will sleep in that and the flow of history will continue." He began to dig some more.
They stacked, then finally Ironhide reached what he needed. "AHA! Slaggers were the last thing in here. They must have slid off the top." He came out with a number of duffel bags.
Sitting them on the ground, he dug through for tents, the big kids' sleeping bags, then pulled a small light. "Here. You aren't cooking are ya?" he asked.
"No. We really just need a tent and this light. Maybe chairs. Do we have chairs for camping?" Fireball asked.
"CHAIRS! I AM IRONHIDE! I PROVIDE CHAIRS TO MY KIDS!" he said as he pulled three folded camp chairs out of a duffel. "Just push this button then stand back. They'll pop right out."
"Its so funny when Uncle Optimus does that with everything," Quadrus said with a chuckle.
"Until Otis is a hoot," Ironhide said. "Anything else? You getting catered or what?"
"They deliver food to the Valles. We're going to be on Mid Deck at Campground Seven. They're going to have pizza delivered then breakfast in the morning. Do you want us to bring this stuff back here?"
"Nope. You kids can help me do that. I don't want you messing with slag that might flatten you if it glitches," Ironhide said as he began to reload the unit. With more care this time, he put things together that belonged together, then sealed the unit.
Sunspot got to run the machine even though Orion windmilled in Fireball's arms trying to get the control. It put it right back up. "THAT'S FUN, ATAR!"
"I AM IRONHIDE! I DO FUN!" he said with a grin. "Let's get home. Old Iron Pants'll have a fit if we don't hustle. You infants need to rest up if you decide to run with Tyke. Are the others going as well?"
"They are," Fireball said as they walked out to go to the Metro. "Appa and Ammas already talked to him. And 2Lip is going to be coming. I love her. She's so cute."
"As cute as me?" Ironhide asked with a grin.
They laughed.
"No," Fireball said loyally as they disappeared down the Metro toward home.
=0=06-13-2021