The Diego Diaries: Moving On (dd7 137)
=0=Mid morning the next orn
Ratchet walked out of his last house call, a tiny mech who had severe protoform wasting. He was using his electrical technique, massaging into the baby's little arms and legs enough charge to make his body adjust and produce more protoform. It was working. He was up to 22% from a life threatening 13.
Sometimes it was scary to be him.
He crossed the street to disappear down the entrance way into the metro line. There were jobs to do and places to be. So it would be all orn long.
=0=Somewhere else
He pouted as he 'ciphered' his mathematics. Sitting nearby with a book and a smirk, Amma watched his little mech stagger through his assignment for his advanced placement mathematics class later this evening. Smokey glanced at his Amma. "I thought you had something to do today."
"That's tomorrow," Dev said. "Continue, infant."
Smokey frowned, then looked at his data pad. He was working on a series of equations which built one upon another. It was hard but he liked it. He liked figuring things out though he'd drive a spike into his ped before he'd say so out loud.
Unfortunately, his Amma was nearly psychic. He knew that the youngster was gifted at math and mechanical drawing because he still had his copies of Smokey's reports from school in an old file in the back of his processor. All of the things he loved about his one and only most bestest grandson were there.
"Where's Appa?" Smokey asked as he figured out an angle and drew it in. He sighed dramatically. "I sort of figured on hanging out with you and Appa today but I HAVE TO DO THIS! THIS … THIS *STUFF*!"
"Get it done and we'll go," Dev said as he quashed a grin. His one and only most bestest grandson was a bit of a diva and drama queen. It was many of his most fabulous traits that Dev loved. He always lived his enthusiasms at the top of his voice, His Smokey.
Smokey figured some more. "It's not like this is going to do me any good when I'm a full time soldier. WHO CARES ABOUT GEOMETRY ON THE FRONT LINES!?"
"You never know," Dev said with a calm low tone. He was filming the whole thing for the others.
"Everyone I know is living their life large. But me … I'M STUCK IN MATH CLASS! WHERE'S THE JUSTICE IN THAT!?"
"Not everyone you know is Praxian. Say what you will about your Appa and me … we believe in and live our culture. When nothing else worked, that was never abandoned because for us it did."
Smokey glanced at his amma. "You and Appa were always that. No one can ever say you aren't."
"That's true," Dev said mildly as he read his book.
"Who would say otherwise?" Smokey asked as offense for his two heroes rose in him unbidden. For some reason he was offended.
"No one in particular," Dev said.
"Tell me who. I'LL WALLOP THEM!" Smokey said as he turned in his chair to stare at his amma.
Dev glanced at him admiring his sweet ire and his cute little face. "Sentinel Prime and I delegated that to the Pantheon."
Smokey stared at his amma detecting with his usual keen optic another long and thrillingly convoluted story to pry out of him. "You're going to tell me?"
"When you get done. I figured we would go to lunch, then my apartment to have pie. Then, there, I'll tell you," Dev said with a faint grin.
Smokey stared at him, then the data pad. "Do you have the sauce thing, too, Amma?"
"For you … always," Dev said with a grin.
"Then I better get this done," he said turning back to the data pad. "BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT THIS IS FRAGGED!"
Dev snickered, then nodded. "It is, isn't it."
It would take a while before Smokey finished then they would walk out to eat lunch, pie and chat. All in all, a great orn was had by both. When it got dark, he would report to the stables to go on his shift with the Night Watch.
=0=In Another Bosom of Love™
They sat on chairs in front of a back drop. It was a forest with birds in the trees. It was hilarious how stiff Cliffjumper was as he sat in his chair looking every inch the proud father, bond and substantial mech in his family's Stanixian hierarchy. Beside him, Buzzie sat holding Agnus on his lap. They were getting a picture taken professionally because Buzzie told him that they had to document the family now that they were genitors to show to Agnus some fine orn.
"She will love to see how she grows and how proud of her we are, right, Cliffie?" Buzzie had asked as he watched Cliff dress Agnus for the trip to the photographer's shop in Bern.
"Its a slagging great idea, Buzzie. I don't know all your clan slag but this picture is going to break sparks everywhere. I want everyone to see both of you. I want them to look at that picture and say 'Cliffjumper is the luckiest mech alive'.
The look on Buzz Saw's face which he didn't see would have warmed his spark. Buzzie was holding the carrier where Agnus would ride because 'she deserves the best like you, Buzzie' Cliff had said.
They stood in the living room of their apartment, a beautiful two berth room affair getting their daughter ready to go. She was almost ready to start school and when she did the entire clan would come with Buzzie, Agnus and Cliff to see her forward in her newest and most impressive milestone.
Given that Buzzie's immediate clan numbered over eighty members not counting the 25 or so 'honorary members' and 'clan elders' who would come along as well, it was going to be a tight fit in the conference room at Circle Prep when they came to have her intake done. Given that everyone was used to the group psychosis known as "Stanix Clan Life', allowances would be made.
"There," Cliff said as his daughter stood on the coffee table smiling at him from the middle of a puffy onesie, coat, hat and mittens that were padded and pure white. If one turned her in the light just so, snowflakes could be detected on the garments.
She was beautiful.
She was perfect.
She would never know any more than Buzzie how much she had saved her old dad's life.
Buzzie's family considered Cliff a slagging good catch and consulted him like he was an elder because he was a soldier and 'protected everyone with his spark'. He was lauded, befriended and included.
It was a miracle.
"Here we go," Cliff said as he picked her up and set her in the carrier.
Buzzie leaned over to watch, hovering with great joy and love as the two most important persons in his life worked together to get ready to go. When she was inside covered and content, Buzzie picked the carrier up. Taking Cliff's extended servo, he walked proudly to the door. They stepped out and headed for the elevator hand-in-hand as they discussed the races for the upcoming weekend and the party that would follow for Buzzie's second cousin who was five times removed from their common ancestor, a crusty old bulldozer by the name of Prod.
All was well in their world as the elevator doors closed on all three of them.
=0=Aerie Hill
"I don't know about this, Sky Warp. I think I liked it better when they were firmly corralled in one crib," Starscream said doubtfully as he toured the four little berth rooms where their progeny would now sleep split up. They had 'big boy' beds, something they'd been 'discussing' with their ada and appas for some time.
Dart: "I wanna have a … a big boy bed, Ada." (Gigantic smile)
Flit, Pip, Swift nodded as they gathered around Dart, the one who looked like Starscream: "A big boy bed, Ada, would be fun. Can we have one?" (Gigantic smiles)
Starscream was a goner.
He looked into each room, all of them nearly identically configured though the toys and images on walls reflected the different infant's varied tastes. The entire show would have shocked anyone who would assume that Starscream was a savage both off screen and on. He had remarkable tastes and it reflected most profoundly in their home.
Their art and book filled home.
Architectural Digest would be impressed.
In the Domicile of Starscream, Thundercracker and Sky Warp, the division of labor was simple. Star Warp worked in the Flight Command Center and managed the kids when things were off the hook. Thundercracker was mission control on ships and sometimes went on missions himself. Starscream was the overall visionary, the one whose personal charisma would be the inspiration for all Seekerkin only just this short of his idol, The Great Elder himself.
Yes, Starscream was a screaming diva.
That he was fearless, tactical, practical, devoid of almost all his memories of the Decepticons since coming to the colony way back when, smart as frag given his degree as a scientist from the University of Iacon as another 'mercy case', ie, talented low caste who if trained would be able to offer something of use to the high caste slaggers who could give a frag otherwise...
That one.
He was a full on partner to Prime who liked him. Both of them respected the other, something of a first for Starscream and he gave his loyalty to Prime and the Cause, the colony and Cybertron without hesitation or reservation.
Of course, that didn't limit his bullshit. He was still a master of that but all in all, he was no one's fool. Many were the slaggers that limped away after making that mistake.
Even now.
At the moment he was considering how much recharge he would get now that the kids weren't corralled in the Seeker crib. He glanced at a bemused Thundercracker and a slightly pissed Sky Warp. "They'll get out and rampage."
"They won't. I'll paddle them," Sky Warp said with a defiant expression.
"Corporal punishment on a Seeker infant?" Starscream asked with his usual high dudgeon. "Surely, you don't."
"I've paddled you and you didn't complain," Sky Warp replied rather smugly.
Thundercracker snickered as he stood nearby holding his dog, Buster.
Starscream frowned at him, then turned toward Sky Warp. He glowered at him, then grinned. "I didn't did I."
It would be mellow times at the Trine apartment until school let out a few joors later. Four little Seeker-lets would howl down the moon when they got home and saw their awesome new berths.
They would still wander into their genitor's berth room at night and crawl up to sleep with them.
The three big mechs would let them.
And their dog.
=0=Somewhere else
He worked quietly on a motherboard soldering it together to a very complex designed pattern. It would go on a ship that would head into the sun to gather information for the humans who had asked for it. It would be a tiny drone ship that would be sending real time data to the humans. When he was finished, the ship would be configured, launched and be on task.
He got a lot of hard problems because Burnout was gifted that way. He was an amazing engineer and could see things in completed form in his helm that he would then work on until he could figure out how to build them. Often, the images of the completed product were only the part that he could see in his processor. What the design was like inside the thing he was considering was unknown. He would have to work backward from finished product to component parts to schematics.
Fortunately, Default, his bond of about two Earth years was great at drafting plans. He had the same unbounded imagination as Burnout and was attending night classes at the university to learn more and more.
They worked together at their shop in Tyger Pax creating new things, upgrading others and consulting with both Sciences and private firms who called upon them. They specialized in security devices and communications but took on all interesting projects even if they didn't know what they were at the time. Future thinking reigned king around here.
Turquoise worked in the office sending clients down to see them, keeping track of records, printing the blueprints and schematics they wrote up, bringing food for all of them including Copperton who showed up for lunch half the time and did his own code work at the receptionist terminal in the office part of the business.
They were happy, all of them. They'd built a good life with family. Their son was bonded to a kid they always liked and their families were close on both sides.
Especially now.
Default was sparked.
Happy times for all.
=0=TBC 11-19-19 11-27-19