The Diego Diaries: Stuff (dd7 11)
Sorry about not posting last night. We had a wild fire from lightning yesterday and the air quality made my everything hurt. Here we go!
=0=Around
They sat together at the science table in the lab where they were working on substances as well as utilizing the big microscopes that would tell them a great deal about the structures of different things and their reaction with liquids of various kinds. Sunspot was staring into the little dish that was before them, then put it on the slide tray of the microscope. He stared at it, then glanced at his study partner.
Terradive who was sitting nearby watched them to see how it was going. He had paired Sunny up with Rain Harris and they were working together on this project. Sunspot was not comfortable with her but he wasn't afraid. It was growth.
"This is dissolved." He glanced at her, then his data pad where they were keeping information for the report they would write about solubles and non-solubles.
She looked at him, then the tray, leaning in closely to see it.
Sunspot leaned slightly away.
:Let me see in the 'scope for a moment, Sunny: she said, then moved closer to look.
Sunspot who was sitting on a rolling stool like everyone else slid back to let her in. He stared at her, at her head which was covered in darkish hair. She was slightly taller than even him but was also older chronologically than him as well.
She slid back, then picked up her data pad. :I agree:
They both wrote down their impressions, had a short discussion together, then Rain picked up the tray, walked to a small counter nearby and set it down. Picking up a new dish, a substance and three different solvents in a carrier, she walked back to put them on the table. :This is the next one: she said as they began to work out the formula to watch what it did.
Terradive would watch them the whole time.
=0=Earth2
They left the office of Owen Harris happy and satisfied. All of their children, 30 of them, had been accepted by the Autobot school district and would begin their studies in the 'catch up' room with the mentor teachers and expert educators in two days. They would only be added to the classrooms when they reached minimal proficiency.
They were reminded that their kids would have no time off like Earth2 did and they would go earlier and stay longer. The curriculum was hard but no one would be left behind as long as they did their share.
Everyone nodded solemnly including Lyle Cutter and Clark Walters. Their children, Gina, Tinsley, Barrett, Clay, Terri and Cora would be among those attending Youngling Day School #1 two days from now. Neither Nast child would. They didn't apply either.
They walked out and went to their various offices to work on Habitat business or their own. Two days would pass before their kids got on a yellow school bus with Jaycee Jameson, Rain Harris, Camilla Baker and Lilly Brown. There were other Day students going as well such as Elliott and Lindsey May whose parents ran the food division in the Habitat.
It would be a big step into the paradigm for the kids and a leap of faith for their parents. They knew the school was more college than public and that the standards and expectations were high but their kids wanted to do this so they made it happen.
It would take a lot of work in the pull out school to make it into a classroom. Rain, Camilla, Lilly and Jaycee still were half in, half out along with the others from the first group accepted. The others wouldn't even get that far for some time.
You had to start somewhere.
=0=Library work time at Youngling Day #1
They sat together working on a report for science, the weather of Mars being the topic. They were doing experimental science, chemistry, in one of the big labs, one of several set up for such learning experiences. They were also studying the weather of Mars and had done several trips to the weather stations on the TransWorld Highway for data and hands on instruction.
Now the data was due.
:How was your study buddy?: Rain Harris asked Camilla Brown.
:Spirit is a nice kid. He's smart but shy: Camilla replied.
:He's also Prime's kid: Lilly Brown said.
:You wouldn't know it. He's sweet and nice: Camilla said as she plugged her ear buds into the book she was using. She was going to watch a weather video embedded into the page.
:You could really make points being a friend of his. I heard that Prime's family has an entire penthouse floor of Tower 1 to themselves. Imagine the size of their apartment: Lilly said. :Imagine the things you could see and do if Spirit was your friend:
Camilla glanced up, then frowned slightly. :He's a nice kid. Don't get any ideas. I like him: she said. She glanced around, spotted Spirit and Turbo sitting together chuckling like little kids over something funny, then gathered her stuff. Walking to their table, she sat down, spread out her stuff, then began to work.
The two little mechs stared at her, then each other, then grinned. Spirit leaned forward, said something to Camilla, then all of them laughed. They would work together until Mr. Terradive called time on their library work period and they would have to go back to class.
Rain and Lilly stared at the three, then each other. :Well, she's gone bot crazy: Lilly said with a grin. :When is it going to happen to us? Have you talked to Jaycee lately?:
:No: Rain said. She sighed. :This place:
She didn't say more.
=0=At the prison
They stood in the central holding pen of the prison to get their scans and other work done. Spectre and his four confederates were unhappy to say the least and were as uncooperative as ever. They seethed silently as the group waited for Gee-Gee to arrive.
She walked in, a tiny powerhouse femme, then paused before the five behind the protective barrier. Staring at them without flinching a bit at the combined horror of their energetic fields, she shook her helm. "You want to do this the hard way?"
"We don't want to do it at all," Spectre said. The others nodded in agreement.
Gee-Gee considered that, then shrugged. "Very well. Winnie?" she called out.
A tall femme walked in with tats out the wazoo. She was a medical doctor, specialized in difficult behavioral cases, was a hand-to-hand specialist due to her professional need for it, rated expert in every gun the Autobots used, had a special feature that allowed her to grip whatever she held onto and paralyze their neural nets, could punch a hole in stone and was a no nonsense but infinitely decent individual.
She was also a naneth and a grand amma.
"What do you need, Gee-Gee?" she asked as she stared at the bots. Her prison tats showed her history working in them including a stint as a doctor at Garrus 9. She was also a Knight-instructor as well as a femme from a large and very tough clan from Stanix. She was as formidable as any male in the room.
She was also as well liked, feared and respected as any male in the room.
"I need these slaggers in medical stasis. We're going to store them until their hearings and trials. They aren't cooperating and I have no time for them now. I have to move a special circumstances mech out of high security and he's going to try to kill everyone there. Can you come with me when they're out?" Gee-Gee asked as if they were making a date for lunch. "I'm going to need you."
"On it," Winnie said as she pulled a meter and began to program it.
Spectre stared from one to the other. "You're going to put us out?"
"Yes, fraggers. I'm busy and so is Winnie and my teams. You're just five of the swine that I herd here," Gee-Gee said. She liked Earth animals and micro piglets?
Oh.
My.
God.
She had two on order at The Animal Store.
"WAIT!" Chalkline said. "What the frag?"
"Are you going to do what you're told as we tell you or are you going to be stored in a closet until you have to come out?" Gee-Gee asked quietly.
It was silent, then they nodded.
Gee-Gee turned to her team. "Use your tazers. Hit them two at a time if they change their minds. That should fry them good. We can replace anything that burns out later. Winnie is coming with me."
"Got ya, Boss," Roadbuster said as the other behemoths with him nodded with big grins on their faces and anticipation of the fireworks in their helms.
Christmas Surprise might come early. It was up to these slaggers.
Gee-Gee stared at the perps. "If you need tazing, then we're going to shut you down. Understand?"
They nodded silently.
"DON'T BRING ME BACK HERE AGAIN!" Gee-Gee said before turning to Winnie who was smirking at the five as she held the meter. "Come on, Win. We have a fragger to subdue before he hurts himself worse than he already is." Gee-Gee walked out with Winnie behind her.
The room was silent a moment as both sides sized up the others. Then Roadie stepped closer, tazer stick in hand. "How about lining up before you make my orn?" he asked.
They did.
=0=At another place
They stared at the tense mech inside the pen in the specialized holdings psych sector where the worst of the worst resided. Glancing over her shoulder, Gee-Gee watched as Ratchet and Partition walked toward them. It would take Ratchet's combination of codes with Gee-Gee's to open the gate for this kind of retrieval. Ordinarily, no one entered because of the danger involved in doing so.
Ratchet reached them with an attentive Partition who had a few joors off and was spending them with his ada-in-law and much adored mentor bot. "Hi. Ready to take him out?"
"Its overdue. We have to change protocols about this sort of thing, Ratchet. Its got to be streamlined. He's been hurting himself against the barriers."
He stared at them, a force of enormous darkness, a huge mech with burns on his armor. He'd been decompensating, falling farther into his psychosis and now was the time to retrieve him before he killed himself. No one could stop him short of shooting him with a null ray but that would require either a shot from above from an airborne platform or dropping the barriers.
No one could or would do that.
Ratchet turned to the mech who was seething with a frenzied fury on the other side. He was one of the newest additions to their blighted collection, a ship boarding slagger without a notable conscience. He'd been captured in the Shrike conflict and had been injured by flying shrapnel. It had changed an already menacing and anti-social personality into something planetary diameters worse. When he had attacked his cell mates and pulled the arms off two, he was taken down and transferred here for study.
Now was the time to take him down again and save him from himself. He was on a downward spiral to death.
"Zerk, what's the story?" Ratchet asked.
Zerk walked to the barrier and stood close enough that it snapped him. He staggered, then walked back again. He paused close enough to feel the burn but not get zapped. It was worrisome. "Down tom."
Ratchet considered the words, ran them through every bank of languages he possessed from a life time of learning, then glanced at Gee-Gee. "That's gibberish. He's not functional at the moment. My energy reading of him is about 22%. He's dying, Gee-Gee. We have to get him out now."
"Come so fee," he stuttered as he walked into the barrier again. He staggered back, then righted.
"Get ready to enter. Winnie, put him down now," Gee-Gee said.
"His ad litem just sent me consent," Winnie said. "He's at the courthouse now. No-A signed an emergency order." She raised her meter, punched in the codes, then watched as the giant mech inside the cage fell forward on his face, out as cold as a wedge.
It was silent a moment, then Ratchet walked to Gee-Gee, took her meter and punched in his codes. With hers, the gate opened and the medical team waiting along with the intervention guards walked inside to lift him onto a stretcher and rush him to the hospital where Winnie would stabilize him for deep medical stasis.
It would only be then that he'd be safe to work on.
Gee-Gee, Ratchet and Partition watched them gather the silent mech, then cart him out with an anti-gravity stretcher, the ones they used with the bigger frames.
When they were hurrying away, Partition turned to both. "What becomes of him now?" he asked with a solemn expression.
"We save his sorry aft," Ratchet said with a sigh. "Its what we do."
With that, the three walked out to follow the stretcher and help Winnie save Zerk's life.
They would.
=0=6-10-19
NOTES:
Funniest pig video I ever saw on YouTube was a mama pig lying in a pile of fatigue and indifference while around her running in a continuous mad circle were about ten or twelve of her tiny piglets. I think she personified every mama that ever lived at that moment. :D:D:D
ad li·tem adjective: ad litem (especially of a guardian) appointed to act in a lawsuit on behalf of a child or other person who is not considered capable of representing themselves.
Happy Anniversary, DJB and AMB! ^..^
I'm writing more and will post it tonight (unless I burn to the ground) and add the notes. I read them, I treasure them, I learn from them, I will answer them. :D:D:D