The Diego Diaries: The Next Orn (dd7 127)
=0=Home
The family came, the kids went, Ratchet stood in the middle of the apartment with a cat and a cow.
Ironhide walked out of the berth room with a dollie in each servo. He slowed, then looked around. "Where did everyone go?"
"You're not fast enough," Ratchet said. "They even took Halo."
Ironhide frowned, an altogether cute look for him. "Then I'm taking the cow. My turn."
Ratchet frowned, a rather good look for him as well. Lately he'd been carrying Robby around in his carry hold, placing him in the pen in the corner of his office filled with 'cow-y toys' and a nice blanket for him to lay on. It was amazingly easy to do so and many were the little kids and elders on his house calls that were delighted to see him and hoped he would come back soon.
"I'm not making house calls, slagger. I get him for those. What's your plan today?" Ratchet asked as he petted Cousin. The cat was sitting on the counter next to him.
"I have to go to the depots in Crater District 3 and 4. They have changes in the plans to make them deeper. They need my wisdom," Ironhide said as he picked up his cow. He grinned at the little scutter, then slid him into his hold. "Prime wants a meet up with legal this afternoon about the two spies. He wants to discuss the whole thing with Morshower and then decide what to do about them. He wants to have them here for their trials."
"That's not going to go over well and why wasn't I told?" Ratchet said as they walked to the door.
"Read your mail, slagger," Ironhide replied as they walked out together.
=0=Elsewhere
They walked off the bridge in Iacon at The Citadel heading for the Ops Center. The place was huge and rebuilt to a neater more advanced layout. Most of the buildings on world short of those that were slums were set into a template that dated back to the beginning. Some of the roadways and other designed urban settings weren't very easy to traverse nor did they utilize space as well as they could have. That was being changed now.
Entering the Center, Raptor, Delphi, Turbine, Blackjack, Hound, Hard Drive who commanded everything from here, Sirel who was a veteran soldier with a flare for organization and rebuilding as the former head of the Autobot 'SeeBees' … the group that was the army's construction corp before and during the war as well as BR-Ket-3 or Berket as he was called. He also was a master builder and organizational genius.
The eight of them ran the major districts into which Cybertron was divided administratively. All of them knew how to build and had staff that could do anything in the best way. The rolls had been scoured for technicians, planners, master builders and administrators that would support the resurrection of a decimated world.
They gathered around the command table to go over the overnight sit-rep, brainstorm what had to be done, how it would be done and the timelines for everything. Decisions were made, discussion was had, then seven of them would head out to their various headquarters to make the plates spin.
Hard Drive watched them go then grinned. He opened his carry hold to pull out Halo.
She sat on his hand with a giant smile. "APPA! I COMED LOU!?"
"You did," Hardie said as he set her tiny self onto the table. He sat, then grinned at her.
She smiled back, then looked around. Pointing a fat baby digit at the several giant data pads lying on the table top, she looked at him. "APPA! LOU DIS!?"
He nodded with a grin.
She walked slowly in a circle, then looked at him. She pointed at a cup sitting there. "APPA! LOU DIS?!"
He nodded with a bigger grin. It would go on for a little bit.
=0=Mars
Ratchet drove through the morning traffic heading for a short meeting at Unidad. Every three weeks unless something popped up, the human habitats and Ratchet met up to talk about things. None of the habitats but Unidad had to work directly with Ratchet as an administrative over lord but the others came to 'build community' and 'get things done'.
It was getting brighter as the morning wore onward when he turned into the four lane that led to the massive construct of two metrotitans that loomed ahead. The sunlight glinted off its structure and windows. The dome was a wonder. It was green and beautiful. The trees planted along the dome exterior to make the place look coordinated and Earth-like were doing well with that much access to the windows inside. The side where he could see them was that one that had first light of the day.
Pulling up, he waited to go in and when that was settled, he walked inside in his pretender gear. His vehicle mode was parked in the visitor's lane in the habitat entrance.
Sitting in a small cab, Carly waved to him.
Ratchet reached the vehicle, entered, then grinned at her. "Good morning. Don't you look chipper."
"That's what all my alien men say," Carly said as she pulled out to go to the conference room at the City Hall. Traffic was light now that all the children were in school. The business district was humming. There were nearly 22,000 individuals living here of which 9,900 were employees. A lot of families were making this home and so were their extended relations.
Ratchet didn't care much about that. All of them had to apply for temporary residency cards which meant a bit of vetting was had. They brought amazing skills, did the work that freed up others and added to the sense of community that Unidad had in spades. This place felt like a town and not just a very cool terrarium.
"How's things going?" Ratchet asked.
"Well," Carly said. "We haven't had any teenaged angst playing out since Hard Drive took care of it. This is a very law abiding community. We have a number of marriages pending, two babies expected and all is well."
"What about you and Chump Change?" Ratchet asked with a smile.
She laughed. "That's my man you're talking about." She grinned. "We want a spring wedding. James and Jessie want one later on, perhaps June. She's working out her orders. They came up again. James is on the Alpha strikers. He's going to be staying here."
"That's a lot of Brits then," Ratchet said. "I don't mind. I think you talk funny but you're cute."
She laughed. "And you don't?"
"Actually, I can affect any accent you want, my little pigeon," Ratchet said as he remembered a line from Pepe Le Pew, the cartoon skunk that was his spirit animal.
They reached City Hall, pulled over at the cab stand, then got out. It was a short hop and skip inside. The others were already there so the meeting got underway without a fuss.
The donuts and coffee were good, too.
=0=Up there
He opened the door to see Ironhide standing there with a little box. "Hi. I never expected to see you."
Ironhide grinned as he stepped inside. "I came to see how it was going. I know this is new."
Rocco nodded. "It is." He glanced around. The place looked like kids lived here. "Uh, they're around."
Ironhide nodded. "Home Health Care … they're coming?"
Rocco looked at Ironhide with relief. "Yeah. They help a lot. I was told that Siphon needs to go to some testing stuff for school today."
"I know. That's why I'm here. I'll take ya," Ironhide said as Siphon walked out of the hallway with a train engine in his hands.
He stopped, glanced from Rocco to Ironhide, then stepped closer. "Hi. I remember you."
Ironhide nodded. "I have something for ya." He handed the box to Rocco.
Rocco looked at it, then grinned. "Here, Siphon. Come here." Rocco walked to the elaborate train set by the windows, then set down the box.
Siphon walked to it, knelt, then looked down inside. He glanced up at Rocco with surprise and delight. "MORE TRAIN STUFF!"
Ironhide grinned. "I know you like them. Did you know there's freight trains underground all over the colony?"
He looked at Ironhide with surprise. "NO!"
Ironhide looked at Rocco. "Why not go out for a while? We can ride the trains."
Rocco looked at Siphon, then two little kids standing by the corridor with their bears. "That sounds great."
It would take a while to get the kids in gear though Rocco seemed better at it now. When they were gathered up, the little group walked out and headed for the elevator. Ironhide carried Siphon and Rocco carried Tika and Boo. They reached the lobby, walked out and looked around a moment.
"Follow me," Ironhide said as he headed toward the Metro station and the security doors that led to the armory and train system that worked for them underground. They would spend a few joors riding them, snacking, looking around The City, then end up at Metrotitan and the School District for the evaluation of Siphon for school.
=0=Ops Center a bit later
Ratchet walked in to wait for Prowl who was finishing up a few things. Handing Ops Center over to Paragon, he walked out with Ratchet to go to the Courthouse for the arraignment and pleadings of the mini-con rabble collected from the shooting and brawl shortly before which had left marks on everyone including Springer and Drift.
The walk across the airfield was brisk and filled with activity. Ships were coming and going. Buses filled with tourists from Earth were leaving the Airport to go to The Resort. Shocked to see Prowl and Ratchet, they waved madly, took pictures and called out, though no one could hear them through the windows of the buses.
Ratchet and Prowl waved back, then continued. They reached the Courthouse, found the Magistrate's court and entered to sit and watch the show. Two factions of a massive extended family had lost their marbles and a lot of their elders had spent time in jail. It was a shocking thing and this looked to be as entertaining as any held so far with their frame.
=0=Crater District 4
Optimus Prime stood on a pile of dirt with Ultra Magnus, Jetta and Mack. Bulkhead and Copperton climbed up to stand beside them as they all explained this expansion with the other one that was much more detailed toward an upward build than this.
"We want to open up two radial centers with the usual mass habitation potential. Crater District 2 is finished and we've broken ground on district 3 as you can see. We're laying in ground infrastructure and will be laying the foundations of the towers and other structures that will encompass the cities that will spiral out from this one," Jetta said as he pointed to the excavation and building going on before them.
"District 3 is being laid down now with District 4 which will free us up to move back to that one, 3, to get it up and running. We want to have the foundations laid for the one to come next even as we concentrate on this one. By the way," Jetta asked as he glanced at Magnus. "What's the population stand at now given we get refugees nearly every orn?"
Magnus unsubbed a data pad. "We're pushing 89,000,000 individuals as of yesterday's report from Immigration and The Bureau of Refugees."
They would take a moment to let that percolate through their processors before Jetta would again explain what they were doing here to Optimus.
They would need it.
=0=Courthouse
The door opened to let in the first group of mini-cons from the jail. Everyone of them was an elder, some of great stature in their community. Others sitting in chairs stood when they entered, then everyone sat as the elders lined up before No-A.
It was very quiet in the room.
=0=TBC 11-6-19
ESL
scutter: the sound you make when you shamble around.
In my house, a 'little scutter' was a rascal. (Really old American regional slang, I think. My family lived to be so old that my mom's aunt, Sadie Paxton told her about going west in the covered wagons on the Oregon Trail. They had memories of people going back to 1840 and they told them. Have your family tell you slag. It will blow your mind how far back some people can reach. :D