The Diego Diaries: Bam (dd7 213)
=0=Mr. Terradive's classroom just before mid morning break
Mr. Bento who was a war historian, the most well read and well regarded of all was talking about the lead up to the Great War that had destroyed their lives on Cybertron. He used images, documents and video from the Museum where he was a historian in residence to show the rapt children what had happened to lead up to oblivion. The giant monitor was filled with pictures of the peace movement and their growth toward becoming a world wide phenomenon.
"There's a historical linkage, infants, between worker's movements and the intelligentsia, those who work in universities and unions, writers, artists and the like joining with workers to create change when things aren't good. When a movement begins like this one did it came from the ground up. Change always happens from the ground up, not the top down. The dissatisfaction of the workers and the dissatisfaction of those who were in the universities, especially the students who organized their own unions and coalitions had hit a perfect moment of serendipity. They came together like lightning and burst into the greater world from small gatherings in homes and wild cat strikes in all manner of industries and businesses that were happening around the planet.
"There had been an incident that had struck the spark that burned into the flame of revolution that began on the docks of Iacon. A worker had been involved in an altercation with the dock supervisors and it had led to a wild cat strike. A wild cat strike is something that happens on the spot, spontaneously, and isn't authorized by the union if there is one. Its a spontaneous moment of action in opposition to the root cause or event that sparked it.
"The foreman of the group that decided to strike was a young mech named Orion Pax," Bento said.
:THAT'S UNCLE OPTIMUS WHEN HE WAS A KID!: Annabelle Lennox said as the other kids looked around with grins and nods. :Uncle Optimus started the revolution that freed all of us:
Bento grinned at the human kids, some of whom were Cybertronian citizens, too. It was obvious that they took that part of their identity very seriously. He nodded. "Orion Pax would become Optimus Prime but at that moment he was Orion. He and his childhood friend, Deion Magnus confronted the supervisors and after a very tense negotiation which was helped along by a wild cat strike on every dock and longshoreman site in Iacon, it was decided that the supervisor would go, the docks would be given more leeway to meet deadlines and pay would be increased. All of this was done through the efforts of Orion Pax," Bento said. "This is what happens when everyone supports each other and works together toward a common goal that benefits the greatest good."
At that moment, a siren sounded.
Bento glanced at Terradive who stood. "Break time. When we get back, Mr. Bento will continue to tell us about the rise of the peace movement and the organization of the people to stand against tyranny. Get yourself ready for recess."
The room burst into activity as the human kids ran for the door where their 'taxi', Mr. Manifold, a new teacher student doing aide work for his first classroom practicum waited for them. They climbed in as everyone else lined up.
Terradive grinned. "Dismissed. Follow Mr. Manifold properly please."
"WE WILL!" -everyone
^..^ moments later outside ^...^
:I wonder when the fleet will come back: Gen, a former 'Con's daughter said as she gathered with the 'usual kids' … Annie, Sandy, James, Lucy and Bobby by a merry-go-round built for kids their size. They watched as Sunspot ran to them while kids poured out for Level One mid morning recess. There were no kids from Earth2 today or for the foreseeable future given the state of things.
:I don't know. My dad is going out today and see what's going on. Your dad and Uncle Niall are going, too, I heard: Annie said. :It must be better if they can come along:
Bobby nodded. :I wish I could go, too:
"Hi." Sunspot said with a big smile.
:Our dads are going out to the fleet today, Sunny. Things must be going great: Annie said as they ran to the slide, a long thing that wound around a large area to land in soft white sand.
"I HOPE SO!" Sunny said as he beat them all to the ladder.
Everyone began to climb madly.
=0=Out there
Ratchet stood in front of Environmental on the deck of Clipper with a data pad. He pulled a data wafer from it, then slotted it into the big mech's console. Tapping a few keys, the lights of the panel lit up. Everyone with him watched with hope as the lights flickered, data flowed and Ratchet watched with intensity.
Then the lights went out as a low moan was heard filtering through the sound system. It had the sound of metal being twisted until it tore apart, the low groan of utter despair.
They stared at the panel with concern, then Ratchet glanced at them. "That's just rising sentience. I've rebooted Clipper to reach sub levels of awareness. He's just this short of full sentience. Consider the twilight state of sleep or hypnosis. He's still in stasis but his sub routines are now up and running.
"We can use them remotely or by manned stations here on deck to get Clipper to move, fight or whatever we need now. He's still asleep but his body isn't," Ratchet said. "Ratchet to Prowl."
The monitor forward flickered, then Prowl appeared about eight times bigger than real life. Prime was seen nearby reading a data pad and the consoles available to the cameras showed workers working. "Prowl here."
"I have Clipper at subroutine levels of self awareness. He's still asleep in the higher functions but his body is awake. Get a crew over here to fly or control him remotely. He can't assist mentally but everything else is fully functional."
Prowl seemed to sag a moment with the relief Ratchet himself felt. "I'll get a crew and commander. Paragon can assume command. Do we keep towing him?"
"For now, yes. I'm going to take a bridge to Mars and get the others up. If they respond and they will, then the cities will be back online and we can bring them out of stasis when this is over," Ratchet said. "When I get back we'll work on the towing thing."
Prowl sat down, then nodded. "Go for it, Ratchet. Hurry up back."
"On it," Ratchet said. "Ratchet out." The screen went out as he hustled toward the elevator. "WAIT HERE! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!"
The kids watched him disappear, then they glanced at each other. "He knows just about everything doesn't he?"
Goldwing who was sitting nearby watching the show grinned. "He does," he said with a chuckle.
=0=Tennyson
Prowl walked to the navigator's chair, then sat. :Ratchet has Clipper up to subroutine sentience. He's not awake but he can be flown and he can fight. He's going to the colony to reboot the others then come back to finish the process. They'll be functioning cities again back on Mars but they'll still be asleep. He said that can be fixed when we get a moment:
Prime looked visibly relieved. "What about Clipper? Do we keep towing him?"
:For now. Until he gets back: Prowl said. :We might be catching a break: he said as he watched Paragon hustle to the elevator to leave.
=0=Mars
The bridge opened near the door of Metroplex, the one that led to his inner sanctum. Ratchet sprinted past startled pedestrians until he reached the door, then entered. Walking down darkened corridors he reached the command deck. The lights were off which was startling and scary. Scamper was at the med bay down in the depths of the substructure waiting his turn.
Reaching the environmental console, Ratchet slotted the wafer, hit the keys, then tied Metroplex into the titan grid that hooked all of them up. Considering the data, he waited until all of them signaled they were online together on the grid through their automatic functions. When they were, he tapped in the code and it began. It was low and deep, then it was gone. While the rest happened Ratchet called Jazz. "Ratchet to Jazz."
:Jazz here. Where are you?:
"I'm in the control center of Metroplex. I'm rebooting them. You need to tell people what's happening and what they need to do."
:On my way:
Ratchet watched the data then noted that Jazz had entered the room with Mirage and Scorpio, one of his aides. He grinned. "Look at the handsome."
"That's us," Mirage said with a grin. "What's going on?"
"Well, the armada is retreating to lead them away from here. Clipper is up to subroutines as well as the rest of the titans who crashed. They aren't self aware but they're fully functional now to host. What you need to tell everyone is that if they heard a groan, that's natural. I'm dragging them partially out of a deep sleep pretty fast and that's a reflexive sound, not one that indicates pain.
"Tell everyone that they'll get their lives back but the titans are still under water. They'll be rebooted fully when I can debug the system. When the weapon hit them it weirded out a few things. I want them to come back bug free. Tell them all is well but they need to be really good to these mechs and for that matter, all of them for a while."
"Then everything's well here?" Mirage asked.
Ratchet nodded. "It is for now. I'll get the symbionts up and running, the pretender tech restored and everyone back to optimal when we get done out there. Right now, we're leading them away. Last time I heard they just arrived at the system where the two planets were and its starting to come apart at the seams. Hopefully, Wheeljack and the boys will hurry it up and get us out of there."
"How far ahead are you from the Vergons?" Jazz asked.
"About one, maybe two bridge jumps away. They have so much of our tech that its actually making us work," Ratchet said grimly.
Jazz nodded. "Alright. Anything else?"
"Is Ironhide still in the hospital?" Ratchet asked.
"He's being a real aft about it, but yes. He's keeping Auntie Lissie company," Jazz said with a snicker.
"I have to see about her servo," Ratchet said. "I gotta run. Pari will get command of Clipper and I have to supervise his switch over from towed to fully running. See ya," Ratchet said as he called a bridge into the room. He stepped in and was gone.
"We better get the message out," Jazz said as he walked to the now fully lit corridor to the street.
=0=Ironhide and Auntie
"Where are you going, infant?"
He paused by the door, then looked back at the femme laying on the berth smirking at him. "Uh, I was going to my room. To … uh, nap?"
"Come and sit before I pat your servo, infant," Lissie said.
He stared at her. "I AM IRONHIDE! I DON'T SIT WITH MY AUNTIE WHEN THERE'S A MISSION! I HAVE TO BE FREE!"
Lissie pushed a data pad off the chair Ironhide was using. "Come sit here, little mech."
He stared at her, then moped to the chair to sit.
She grinned at him. "I ordered pizza and beer. It's going to be here in a minute."
He glanced at her. "The good stuff?" he asked.
"Always for you, little mech," she replied. "Someone told me that there's a movie on in a moment about a battle where they went a bridge too far, whatever that means."
Ironhide stared at her, a femme that could break his spark with a glance. Pizza, the good stuff … beer, a movie. It was going to be a great afternoon in spite of things. He grinned at her. "Sounds exciting."
She laughed. "That's the point, infant," she said as a youngling mech walked into the room with the familiar delivery bag for The Catering Place.
"It would be. Exciting.
=0=Clipper
He walked onto the deck, then paused by the table where Paragon stood with the crew working at stations around him. "How is it going so far?"
"Its good. We're running the ship without him. I find that weird," Paragon said.
Ratchet chuckled. "You and me both. Let's see about bringing Clipper out of his deep dive," Ratchet said as he walked to Environmental to sit and begin inputting a few miles of code by hand.
=0=TBC 2-21-2020 2-21-2020
NOTE: A World War II move, A Bridge Too Far told about the allies overtaking bridges crossing rivers before the Germans blew them up. Operation Market Basket, I believe it was called was the name of it. They actually went a bridge too far to save them. Everyone under the sun was in the movie.