The Diego Diaries: Incident: Contact (dd8 244) (For Misty Legionaire) :D:D:D
This was supposed to go out last night but my internet was messed up. New router on the way. :D:D:D
=0=Out there
They came upon the trail of the five ships. It wasn't hard to do. The nebula was very old and fainter than most given that the majority of its content had drifted away into space over eons of epochal time. The ship that had been damaged was trailing residue and it lit up on the sensors like a fire fly. Even in this only slightly more elevated radiation than usual, it wasn't going to be hard to find them.
The marauders were sending signals toward the shimmering screen of highly heated and agitated radiation that was blocking their way back to their battle group. One of the smaller bursts of energy had flared and was drifting away from the only transition lane in the area that didn't require going through the middle of one of them. The signals were data streams asking for hook ups rather than words. This was appearing to be a sophisticated group, all in all.
"What now?" Splice asked Jack as the group began to slow to enter the debris field that was closing back up after the five ships had entered.
"We follow," Jack said with a grin. "General Blackjack to the group. Follow us. Ping receipt."
They did and they did. All of them disappeared into the jumbled mess of fragments that once were planets from two different solar systems, detonated long ago in a cataclysm perhaps only The One was present to see and hear.
=0=Ops Center, Mars
They sat together staring at the updating monitor nearby as the pursuit team headed into the mass of debris that was the local area. It was a space that had always been broken up, pounded by unreliable energy floes that surged and took out any local objects and those passing through as well.
The mass of brokenness was rather spectacular in its variety and density. Pilots and their shielding systems would earn their keep today. The radiation was of lesser consequences given the nebula had eons of epochs to disperse and had. The problem here would be hide-and-seek.
Ratchet rose. "I have to go check on Tell. The boys are nervous about him and the techs are going to give an update to me about the course of treatment. He needs to be scanned and checked for progress after the next time they go in. Maybe he won't need more. I hope," Ratchet said as he headed toward the door across the vast concourse of the Center.
"I hope so, too," Prowl said as Optimus nodded.
=0=In an apartment in Iacon
Springer walked the floor with a weepy baby, holding him against his warmed chassis as Tell fussed in his cocoon of soft blankets. He was irritable and sick, having vomited a tiny vomit of baby food when they gave him a small snack in hope it would help. It'd helped both times before but not now, hence, to them he was dying.
Time to call in Ma.
Drift was staring at Springer feeling more helpless in his gut than he'd probably ever had in a colorful life of bad choices and redemption. The sickly little baby was a shot to his tranquility like nothing ever was before.
There was a rap on the door, then a cheery face leaned into the room. "You rang?" he asked.
"Come and check him out," Springer said as he walked to Ratchet. Nearly throwing the baby into Ratchet's arms from fright, he watched as the scans went up and down his fussy frame. "What's the verdict? We gave him a bit of a bottle and he threw up."
Ratchet grinned. "Babies do that."
"Not before. It helped him both times before," Drift said.
Ratchet looked at them, two of the fiercest warriors in their army who were fazed by NOTHING. Now they were terrorized by a sickly baby. He walked to a chair to sit. "First of all, sometimes it helps, sometimes not. Each baby and situation is different. This baby has an upset tummy which will stop shortly. Given that he's a baby and babies in our species tune in to our energy patterns when they're born, he's reading your upset as well and its probably not helping him feel more secure."
Drift jolted. "Oh," he said, then turned to Springer. "Dial it down, the anxiety."
"They tune into and memorize our energy patterns so they can feel good or find us. Its something all of us did as babies ourselves. That's how you can find your family in a crowd. Have you ever noticed how we don't get lost when we're with each other?"
They stared at him blankly for a moment, then Drift grinned. "I wondered about that. Its innate?"
Ratchet nodded. "It sort of fades into the background as we get older but when we're children and babies its the thing that keeps us safer and connected. Remember when Orion went rogue?"
Springer snorted. "I remember. He made it from Terra to Metro 1 in The City. We caught him there, the little slagger."
Ratchet beamed. "That's my boy," he said through a brilliant smile. "It was that at work. He could have gone any direction but he was homing in on us."
"That's good to know," Drift said with a measure of relief. "What's the thing here? Is there anything that can help him? He's so small and sweet."
Ratchet stared down at the baby who was lying against him staring at his amma with big optics. "Just hold him. Its nearly the time he gets to feeling better. On the way over I got a preliminary update on his progress. He's doing great. His CNA is being overwritten and stimulated at a faster pace than they planned. When he comes next time they'll make a survey and if he's at optimal they'll hold off for a decaorn on the next treatment. We want the material to do the job itself."
Springer looked almost sick with relief. "That's good news," he said. "Then what? What will make him hear again?"
"The CNA rewrite. His hardware is great. There's nothing wrong with it. When his body is optimal he'll just start hearing again. It might startle him and he might howl in fright but that's how this goes. Just be glad you don't have to face surgery for him like the twinnies," Ratchet said.
"Funny how much deafness we have here," Drift said as he sat on the couch across from Ratchet with Springer. "I realize we have an obligation now that matters this much but it bothers me not to be with the group."
"Welcome to my world," Ratchet said. "Babies and children have to be accommodated and we have a deep bench of babysitters. Plus, you can get used to the daycare system around here. But if the babies are sick, get used to not going anywhere. Granny is firm on that."
Drift nodded. "Well, we're not complaining about this. It just feels weird. I just want him well. We can take him almost anywhere we go but not when he's sick."
"Short term pain for long term gain. He's going to have to go to the special deaf school in Metrotitan at the Central Office Tower until he learns to talk and associate sounds with meaning. Prepare to be as patient as Job for that transition. Nothing he's going to do or say is intentionally meant to be a problem."
"He's never a problem," Springer said.
Ratchet grinned. "Yet."
It would be a very nice interlude in a sunny apartment waiting for a baby to feel better. He would.
=0=Temple Primary School, Autobot City, Mars
They stood in the sun by the Pavilion watching two mechs working nearby hauling rocks for the priests. Mraz was watching them with Gravitas, both of them sweetly encouraging the two morose-appearing youngsters as they placed the rocks in a pattern laid out by the Temple architect, Fort Max.
They were making a wall that would bend in curving lines around the walkway between the Temple Pavilion and a pretty glassed in 'museum' where a lot of artifacts were placed for public display against inclement weather.
Hot Rod and Smokey toiled in the sunlight, hefting beautifully colored rocks into place where the Temple 'mill wright' would secure them with a transparent but nearly indestructible mortar.
"Those two are so funny," Mraz said quietly to his work partner and friend. They were both involved in helping kids that were younger siblings of those who were influenced by older siblings or leaning toward gangs. Both of them were kindly grandfather types who took groups of young kids on tours of the colony, to Playland, to swimming and other activities. They listened to them and helped them with school and assimilation into the colony and peace time. It was a good thing considering the traumas some families were bringing here with them.
"They're hilarious. I wonder if they're going to remain this way. Either they're going to kill each other or get bonded some fine orn," Gravitas said ever hopeful for good things to happen to people.
"Sela said the same thing," Mraz replied. "I don't know that I see it myself but hope springs eternal. How long do you believe Prowl is going to assign him to us?"
"Until we finish the remodel, I hope. I also believe but don't quote me that between Prowl and Hercy they're going to be assigned here every time a sand storm blows up." Gravitas grinned. "Thank Primus for small blessings."
Mraz chuckled. "I agree."
=0=Out there
"The density is clearing a bit ahead," Rem said as he angled his shuttle forward. He was flying point because of his acute opticals which were enhanced to help him fly in densities like this. He was Blackjack's pilot when 'Ebony' was running the ghost show in the density where 'Jack and Alor were hiding a hundred thousand refugees from the Decepticons.
"Can you see anything?" Hercy asked as he lounged in the seat next to him.
"How about that?" Rem said as he pulled back hard on the throttle.
It helped. But it didn't stop them from ramming the back end of a shuttle that had been shot up and was listing in the darkness in front of them.
=0=At the Emergency Command Center conference room where all the heads of services were having a debrief on the shelter call
Fort Max, Metroplex, Acutus, half a dozen other titans on monitors and all of the mechs who headed different departments in the colony along with Herling for the schools sat together going over the master plan as it was laid out from the time of Black Shadow. The data of the emergency descent into the shelters just past had been gathered and they were working to make the master plan even better.
"We had about 87% compliance to the sirens and emergency calls in a breem of the alarm sounding," Inferno was saying as the others studied their data pads. It took over a joor for everyone to clear the grid which is a massive feat in and of itself. We're talking 230 million individuals. Even so …"
"The hospitals are a concern. We constructed them to withstand a Seeker barrage knowing that some of the patients there would be harmed if they were moved in some circumstances," Fort Max was saying. "Even so, the plan to move babies, elders and children to the shelters is sound. We're going to go over the elevator system with the idea of widening and speeding them up.
"The faster they can move those who are bed ridden into them and go down the better. Teletraan is going to be running them and take out the possibility of error. Auntie can route them faster and we're going to have her seek out individuals on the hospital grid, sort them out according to who they are and their need, then route them to the proper place. She can do it faster than anyone else."
"That's comforting," Herling said with relief. "I fear for those who are unable to help themselves. Does that include house bounds around the colony?"
"That group is managed by Social Services working through the Tower Administrators Association. They have roving teams that go to the homes of individuals and help them get down to the shelters. Its highly coordinated through Teletraan-Medical Nexus," Max replied.
"What about you? What about you and all the other titans?" Herling asked. "You're so exposed and vulnerable to me."
They stared at him a moment, then Metroplex sat back in his chair. "We serve. That is who we are," he said gently.
The afternoon would pass and the plans would be strengthened by those who were tasked to take care of everyone in the colony. It would be amazing to no one how many metrotitans and dreadnoughts had a hand in the planning.
=0=TBC 9-3-2021
NOTE
My aunt had a baby with a cleft palate, their first one. When she fed him and he choked with the formula coming out his nose, Aunt Martha stood up and threw him to my mom who caught him she was so terrified. LOL! Sometimes things are hilarious but mostly they aren't. You had to know my aunt and cousin. :D :D :D
ESL:
innate: (in-eight) something that is already there, inside you.
Mill wright: in a saw mill, that's someone who can fix anything that needs fixing. Its a jack of all trades sort of job and they're immensely important to the operation.