The Diego Diaries: Quick Silver (dd3 588)
=0=On the way to Iacon
Ratchet walked down the stairs to the Metro platform trailing a gravity cart filled with children's lunches. The platform was filled with mid morning rush crowds heading to work and here and there. He stood back waiting for trains to pass before entering a half filled car on the Red Line that would go to the hub at Terra where he'd take a Blue Line to Pax. From there he would take the Circle Line to Iacon.
He leaned against the far wall pulling the cart close as the door closed and away they went.
=0=Ops Center
Prowl perused the Security Grid on the data pad that he kept on the table to locate who he needed at a second's notice. He watched the blinking light that was Ratchet as he rode on the train. With the flick of a digit, he linked into the camera network that the colony fielded since the attack against Metroplex. It found him. Prowl saw him standing by the wall of a moving train hugging a rather large gravity cart to his bosom. He snickered, then plotted the cameras to follow Ratchet as he trudged his weary way to Iacon.
=0=Ratchet
The train slowed, then stopped at Terra where the car unloaded including him. He walked across the platform, climbed the steps to the other side, then waited through three trains for a Blue Line to Pax where he could line up with the Circle Line, getting off Branch Line Hell as it were to go to Iacon. He stepped onto the train, the door closed, it opened again so Ratchet could pull his cart inside, then the door closed and the train sped onward.
=0=Prowl
He snickered loudly inside his helm as he took a break to eat his donuts and drink his tea. He didn't see Prime pause behind him, then pull up a chair to sit.
"I see you are observing the ethics required of such systems and not using them for personal sport," Optimus said.
Prowl glanced at him, curdled, then offered him a cruller.
Prime took it, sent for tea and more donuts, then sat back to enjoy the moving feast, literally, that was Ratchet.
=0=Ratchet
He got off at Pax, trudged up the escalator with his load, then walked to another flight that would take him down to the Circle Line platform which in all stations was separated, train-wise, from all the others. The grid was a mother board of a concoction and it was brilliantly devised to carry essentially, possibly a half billion individuals somewhere every orn. As Ratchet reached the Circle platform that would go to Iacon, he barely got on before it roared off.
=0=Pr + Pr
"Why is he dragging a cart and what is in the bags?" Prime asked.
"All of the big kids are living at home. They apparently forgot to tell Ratchet they needed lunches. I made one for Rambler because he's going to the Science Center at Trypticon today. I imagine the nine, count them, nine kids are going as well. There or maybe out to the science stations and centers on the TransWorld Highway."
Prime nodded. "I find this very funny."
Prowl chuckled. "I do, too. Sweaty-browed Loon."
Prime snickered.
=0=On the way to Iacon
Ratchet sat on a bench considering his orn, then considered Prowl. He linked DISCREETLY into the Security Grid noting that Prowl was with Prime in the Ops Center. Ironhide was at his office, the kids were all in school and Prowl was watching him.
Ratchet grinned, noting that two could play at that game. As the train slid into Iacon he decided what he'd do. Rising to leave, he went up the escalator with the cart in the station under Iacon Intermediate School PS #1. Entering the huge building at the ground floor where the counter to check in was located, he signed in, off loaded the lunches into a school cart to have them delivered to his kids, then walked back out with his now empty cart.
=0=Pr + Pr
"Well, that's done."
"I think he deserves a badge for his efforts," Prime said sweetly. He glanced at Prowl who grinned at Ratchet standing on the platform in Iacon fiddling with the cart.
"What's he doing?" Prowl asked.
Prime leaned in to look, then sat back with a grin. "I do not know." / … I do know … I will not spoil the surprise, Prowler .../
=0=Ratchet
He opened the cart interface, changed a few settings, then closed it. The cart was empty and if he worked it just right it would hold his legs and his entire aft. After squeezing himself into the device, he took out the remote and set it to joy stick control. With grinning genitors walking back and forth around him, Ratchet flew his little cart into the open doors of a train, then they closed behind him.
=0=Pr + Pr
"That's the most shameless mech I have ever seen."
Prime was too busy laughing to answer. He could remember doing the same thing when he was a kid with carts 'borrowed' from local shops.
=0=Ratchet
Ratchet sat in his cart waiting to arrive in Temple Station. He smiled his best smile at every camera he could see. When the doors opened he flew out and up the escalator to the main floor. The design of the station, Temple Station, was beautiful and the trim in handmade tiles featured little Temples on the crimson colored bricks. Ratchet flew through it at a speed slightly faster than most mechs walked whizzing around this and that pedestrian until he flew into the street.
A swerve took him down the sidewalk where he buzzed along waving like a debutante to everyone he passed. The pedestrians waved back.
=0=Pr +Pr
"When you think there's nothing left to do, no lower level to sink, this happens," Prowl said with a frown. "What loon does something like this in public?"
"I did when I was a kid," Prime said.
Prowl glanced sharply at Prime. "What?"
"We would 'borrow' a cart from someone, then fly it. Sometimes we would have battles," Prime said remembering fondly the escapades of youth.
Prowl stared at him a moment, then Ratchet. "You had good reason. This mech is just an exhibitionist."
Prime grinned at Prowl. /… you are loyal to a fault, Prowler .../ He pushed a button. "Ironhide."
:What?: Ironhide replied.
"I am sending you a link." Prime sent it.
There was silence a moment, then Ironhide laughed. :WHAT THE FRAG!?:
"You seem surprised, Ironhide. I find that surprising," Prowl said with a smirk.
:On my way. Ironhide out:
=0=Ratchet
He waited at the corner waving to bus loads of tourists and the odd local human on a segway or in a truck. The light changed so he flew across the street then headed down Fortress Road to The Fortress itself. It was a hoot to speed in and out of pedestrians with the tiny joy stick on his remote but he finally flew into the courtyard.
"Ratchet."
He glanced at the oldsters playing games, then slid to a halt. Backing up, he smiled at them. "Howdy, boys."
"I love your buggy," Ramcharger said with a laugh.
"I do, too. I haven't done this since I was a smart aft kid," Ratchet said. "Have fun." With that, he stepped on the gas, relatively, to fly into the doors, across the Rec Room and through the doors of Ops Center.
"If I were a few million vorns younger," one old geezer said.
The others nodded.
=0=Inside
He flew to the center table, then halted with a flourish, drifting to a halt before Prowl and Prime. Behind him with a chuckle, Ironhide walked as well. "So, what do you think about my vehicular?"
"I've called for Jarro to come and give an opinion," Prowl said with a grin.
"You never did this?" Ratchet asked as he hovered.
"I never bothered with those. I just stole car-" Ironhide froze.
Everyone glanced at him.
"Cars?" Prime asked with a grin. "Plural?"
"I didn't say that," Ironhide said.
"I'll check with Jack and Alie," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.
At that moment Springer and Drift walked in heading for the table. They paused next to Ratchet who smiled dazzlingly at them.
"I did that when I was a kid," Drift said. "It was good enough until I started stealing cars."
"You and Ironhide," Prime said.
"I did that, too," Springer said. "What about you, Optimus?"
"I did. We had a lot of fun. Jetta, Magnus, Elita, Arcee and I would have races," Prime said remembering fondly his kid days of yore.
Drift glanced at Prowl. "What about you, Prowl? Did you do this, too?"
Everyone stared at Prowl with varying degrees of pity, amusement and more pity.
Prowl shifted. "I was law abiding."
"You always were a good girl, Prowl," Ratchet said as he spun the cart, then began to fly to the conference room nearby. "Last one there is a pris."
It was a foot race to the door.
=0=Inside
Ratchet relaxed into a chair after clambering out of the cart without the slightest degree of grace.
"If you ever wondered what stuffing a giraffe into a Kleenex box would be like, now you know," Prowl said as he sat.
Much snickering and snarking later, the group stared at Ratchet.
"We're here," Springer said as he surrendered Tell to Prowl under direct orders. "And thanks by the way."
Ratchet grinned. "You're weclum."
"I miss Orion being here," Prime said wistfully.
"You and the rest of us," Ironhide said as he shot dire optics at Ratchet.
Ratchet shot his best smile back. "Frag you."
"I'm assuming that we're here for a reason since some of us are essential equipment and therefore needful of being hard at it somewhere else," Prowl said as he settled Tell into his arms.
"Frag you, too," Ratchet said, then his expression became serious. "I went Christmas Surprise shopping with my amma and appa yesterday, then we went to the store to show my genitors. When we got there three mechs were at the counter and their auras and affects were really terrible. I sent Chan and Corr into the back, then my genitors. I told them I'd do the transaction. They were scared and the mechs who were there were trouble."
"Who were they?" Springer asked with a frown.
"An old enemy. The Artisan Guild was a very prestigious association back when and you had to be invited to join. They invited my genitors from the beginning and they were extremely highly regarded by everyone for what they could do and because they're so nice. Caste didn't really come there because at spark artists are rebels and non-conformists.
"There was an artisan group, a family business that made daggers, embellishments, fancy caskets for jewelry, ornate fixtures, that sort of thing. They were high caste but liked to do small things like this, small art on the small scale to try to have a prestige point for their portfolio. They wanted to become the one everyone would go to, sort of like Tiffany on Earth. A brand everyone would know by name, high class and admired."
"Who were they?" Ironhide asked as he pulled a computer over.
"They were Pyrite Elder and Younger of Quick Silver Artisans. They had a high class place in The Wells. They had other interests like the rest of the slaggers and didn't need this to make a living but they wanted to be big in art and be a force in the Guild. A lot of the hoi poloi were big in art and socializing that way. Collecting and collectors. You know the type. However … you had to be invited and if anyone said no you weren't accepted. The process is anonymous so no one knew who blackballed you. These slaggers thought it was my genitors." Ratchet sat back with a furious affect. It still rankled.
"Tie and Ravel would never do that," Prime said.
"No. They weren't the ones. No one wanted them in because the Guild was like a family and these slaggers weren't for the art. They were for the prestige. They'd tear the Guild up overnight with their caste slag. It was one of the few places low, mid and high castes actually got along because art was art. You know?" Ratchet said.
Drift sat back. "What was the big reason? We know what they believed, the small reason. What really set them against your family?"
Ratchet glanced at his smart son. "They wanted us to teach them the processes we used and we said no."
=0=TBC 12-12-2022
ESL
hoi poloi: (hoy puh-loy) low castes. The hoi poloi were average joes usually looked down upon by others