The Diego Diaries: Question (dd7 181)
=0=Deck of the Phobos
"WHAT HAPPENED!? WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
Prime stared at him, then answered coldly. "I asked questions. They refused to answer. It is your turn now to choose."
Fuller stared at Prime with an expression of mixed fury and fear. It was silent and heavy as the mechs and femmes watched him do the math. It was clear that this was a new thing for him, being accountable. He stared at the mechs on the floor. He walked closer, then knelt. Touching Machlis on the shoulder, he looked up at Prime. "You killed them. You expect me to speak to you when you killed my ada."
Prime said nothing though the whole process was disturbing to him and some of the others.
"Give it up, Fuller. We have aliens who developed the ability to bridge. We've already gone through a fire fight with them. If they can reach us on Mars or Cybertron, you brought the threat of annihilation to our homes. If you don't tell us what we want to know I'm going to pull off your arms and legs, then stomp you into pieces." Raptor glowered at him menacingly.
Fuller stared at him, then stood. "I suppose you will. I never admired you, Raptor. You and your family had no decency, no sense of yourselves. You would consort with anyone."
Raptor stepped closer to him with clenched fists. "What about you? What did you ever do but benefit from the suffering and labor of others. How about we strap you to the front of a ship facing the aliens who have our tech? What about you being part of our shielding? Then maybe you might have a tiny idea of the suffering every mech and femme in this room has endured to protect and serve our people over millions and millions of vorns. We went out and suffered. We faced terrible circumstances and odds for everyone, not just you and your aft head family.
"You never heard a shot fired in anger. You never were hungry, hurt and hunted. You never saw those you loved and cared about killed in front of you. You never saw the dead after a barrage, the dying that you couldn't help and the enslaved beg for freedom you couldn't give. You never saw anything that gave you one second of thought that challenged you. You're responsible for the fall of our people. You were the propaganda arm of the government, the one that killed, harassed and jailed our people.
"You took what wasn't yours and even then it wasn't enough. It was never enough even when you had all of it. The hole inside your spark could never fill up. Nothing, even ALL OF IT was enough. You lied, cheated and stole everything not nailed down. You banged the drum for war and you lied to the people. There's nothing about you that is worth the life of one of our lowest and meanest people. You created chaos and made it possible for Megatron to rise because YOU LIED. Spill what you know. When the slaggers come for us they're going to get you, too."
It was as tense as Ratchet had felt in a long time as Fuller did the math. It was anyone's guess whether he would talk or join his family on the floor.
"I didn't have anything to do with that. I was in charge of industry and commerce. I made things to sell but I didn't handle it past production."
"How convenient," Prowl said. "You just made the guns and technology. Someone else sold it. Tell us what you sold. Leave anything out and I will get a big screwdriver and start at your neck. I hope you get the depth of my commitment to protect my children and our people."
Fuller stared at him, then Prime. Prime was like a statue of stone in his silent malevolent rage. "We made tech that was … there were computer systems."
"What kind?" Ratchet asked as he leaned against the navigation console with his gun fully in sight.
Fuller stared at him, then turned to Prime. "Weapons systems, communications. We made all manner of guidance systems. We made tech for bridges, controls and all of it. The systems were made from scratch and constitute Class 5 status bridges. There was tech for missile systems and medical. We also made business computers and programming."
"Frag," Ironhide said as he shook him helm. "They can come to where we are and put missiles into our homes with reasonable accuracy. Why not Class 1 or even 4 tech?"
Fuller stared at Ironhide a moment. "Because we didn't want them on our doorstep. We gave them low grade systems and they were happy to get them. None of the tech we made for anyone was Class 1 or even Class 3."
"But you told them how to do it … to make these systems," Prowl said.
"I didn't. I was in charge of making things. I didn't tell them anything but how they were operational through the documents that went with them. They can't make them," Fuller said. "I was in charge of their construction and I never told them how that worked. They never learned out techniques or how to make our materials that were part of the construction process. That's why they came and bought systems from us on a regular basis."
Prime considered that as he talked off line with Hardie, Raptor and Prowl.
Hard Drive stepped closer. "We only have your word for it. You sold weapons systems with intricate lethal guidance programming along with bridge tech. How did you think they wouldn't turn them on us or others?"
"That wasn't my part of the operation," Fuller said. "I made them. I wasn't part of who bought them."
"Who did that part?" Ironhide asked.
"My brother … Faber. He was the salesman for the Sun Base Corporation. We made things and he sold them."
"Who were 'they'? Who were the groups who have our tech?" Hardie asked.
Fuller considered that. "I didn't handle that part but one of them was Fortune of the Seyth."
"Oh frag," Ratchet said. "We're talking about the Vergo Confederation then."
Fuller nodded. "That was the name of the group who were our biggest customers."
Prime sat back taken aback at the information. Though he had a deeply repressed belief that it would be them, he'd hoped it wouldn't. "The Functionalist Council had a planetary system not that far from here where they ran their slave system. They sold things as well. They decided to leave and when they did they recalled half a million of our people before leaving to come to our colony. They murdered them. We came to rescue those individuals and assist but no one was alive. That was when the Vergo Confederation showed up and tried to make us leave them and the two planets. They were going to pillage the colony and the bodies of our people.
"We had a fire fight and I had to destroy the two planets where half a million mechs, femmes, elders, children and babies lay dead, off lined by the chips that the Functionalists placed in their helms. I want you to consider that scenario for a few seconds, then go through your memories. I want everything you can tell us about the tech you sold and the buyers, all of them that you catered to. They seem to have come to you to even the playing field against us. You have created a dagger at the throat of not just us, but yourselves as well."
Fuller considered that, then stared at his ada and brother who lay on the ground in silence. "There are databases with all the transactions."
"We need the codes," Hardie said.
The expression changed on Fuller's face into something hard and bitter. "They had the codes. We've had a … difference of opinion about a number of issues. Faber wanted his children to take over the business and they began to cut me out."
"Boo-hoo," Ratchet said. He flipped his gun into subspace, then raised a meter. He brought the two lying on the floor back out of stasis, then stepped back to wait.
It didn't take long before both stirred.
Machlis sat up, then Faber did. "What's happening?" Machlis asked as he gazed around with a slightly groggy tone.
Fuller glanced sharply at Prime. "You didn't kill them."
Optimus Prime stared at Fuller. "I am Optimus Prime, the Prime of Cybertron, the bearer of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, the Creation Matrix of the Autobots. I am the First Disciple of Primus the Great. You forget who I am."
Fuller stared at him, then the two who were rising from the floor. "Are you alright?"
They stared at him, then Prime.
"What is the meaning of this?" Machlis said with outrage.
"The meaning is very simple. You sold weapon and bridge tech to aliens. You showed them how to make the same thing by giving or selling to them our processes. You made it possible for hostile aliens to reach not only our colony where over 115,000,000 of our people live but also Cybertron and the Local Group.
"You are balanced on the edge of a knife. One misstep, one miscalculation and I will not guarantee how you end up. I want the codes for your databases, all of them or I will order Ratchet to take your processors apart to find them. I hope you understand my resolve on this matter," Prime said quietly.
Too quietly.
Machlis stared at him, then turned to his sons. They held an intense off line conversation, then Machlis turned to Prime. "What will we get in return?"
Prime felt red lights and sirens go off for a moment, then he calmed himself as fast. "I will let you live," he said in a soft lethal voice. He stared at them with such malevolence that it felt like heat against Ratchet's armor.
"I would comply," Ratchet said.
Machlis considered the situation, then turned to Faber. "Give them the codes."
Faber stared at his ada, then Prime. He sent Optimus a number of coded encryptions.
Prime sent them onward to Prowl who rose to walk to a computer nearby. It was silent as Prowl worked, then finally he turned to face Prime. "We have the databases unlocked." He glanced at Machlis. "Any triggers, tricks, security blow ups? If this data disappears I will part you out."
Machlis shook his helm. "No."
Prime glanced at Hard Drive and a pensive Gee-Gee. The mechs with her looked luminous with fury and loathing at the three mechs. "Take them, please. Solitary confinement under a Primal Seal."
Gee-Gee bowed slightly. "As you command, Lord Optimus." She looked at the three. "Leave with us now."
They followed Gee-Gee as she led the way with the guards and Hard Drive following. They disappeared into the elevator and were gone.
The room was intensely silent as everyone there waited for Prime. He was silent and as immovable as a stone for a moment, then relaxed slightly. "Prowl, have that gone over with experts. I want everything it has found. For now, we're going into the system and get ready to do what we came for. I want everyone on a level 4 alert."
"As you command," Prowl said. He turned back to the computer to issue orders to everyone as the armada began to speed up again toward the goal. It would take a few joors before they reached the area that led into The Ruins and two planets that needed saving. It would be a quiet ride to their destination.
=0=At the jailhouse
Gee-Gee locked the last door, then turned to her boys. Hard Drive had headed back a moment earlier. "This is highly classified information, what we heard. No one is to talk about it, boys. The last thing we need to do is worry anyone. Prime will make it right."
They stared at him, then the doors behind her.
"This is fragged, right?" a big guard said.
"No," Roadbuster said as he considered that fighting might be coming their way again. "This is the way it is." He looked at Gee-Gee. "In the end, it always seems to find us. But this time we're prepared."
They walked away from the cell block to head back to the cities and their homes. Overhead, the night sky was cold and filled with stars. Santa Prime was well on his way.
=0=TBC 1-12-2020
Notes tomorrow. Its now +12 degrees. That's 30 degrees warmer than yesterday. :D:D:D Hallelujah. :D