The Diego Diaries: Home (dd7 223)
=0=Morning
Ratchet watched as Optimus was wheeled into the surgery followed by three doctors who would do the work. He had to be there as per the protocols involving the medical treatment of Primes so he glanced at Prowl. "Have a seat. This won't take long. I'll let you know."
Prowl, Kes, Tagg, Bluestreak, Venture and Miler glanced around, then sat.
Ratchet walked out of the lounge, then into the surgery close by. Optimus was slid onto the med berth. He was in medical stasis and thus had no idea what was happening, though Ratchet had explained it to him and everyone else when he had arrived earlier. The doctors checked their charts, the new hardware and their procedure. It was a big deal to work on a Prime. Glancing at Ratchet who nodded, the three dove in and began to disassemble the medicinal treatments in the spaces where new audials would be implanted.
It was going to take a while.
=0=At the training room of the Home Guard, Central Labor Hall below Autobot City
Lissie of Iacon walked into the big room where her students were waiting for her. They stood right away and waited until she reached the front of the room. Then they sat down. She grinned at them. "Your adas raised you right, infants."
Laughter greeted that, then an intense femme who was training to be a Home Guard officer leaned slightly forward. "Commander … how do you feel? Are you going to get your beautiful calligraphy back?"
Lissie grinned. "I feel fine. I have an appointment with Master Comus to do the repaint in two orns."
"He's a legend. I wish I could have a tat from him," someone said in the back.
"Make an appointment, infant," Lissie said.
"He's booked two years in advance," the youngster said as the room chuckled.
Lissie smiled at him. "It pays to know someone."
They got down to the business of soldiering. Commander Lissie was back.
=0=At Club Cybertron
Sun, Jack, Steiner and Jasper, a big mech from the 'old neighborhood' which if truth were to be told was an assembly line in a huge plant run by the Quintessans before some of them were decapitated by all four of them sat at a table together. They were having a snack and a beer before heading out to play pool at Club Hoyle. They were off for a few orns and decided to cut a wide swathe.
"Look at 'em," Sun said as he gandered at the day leave Decepticons sitting nearby nursing near beer as they played cards. "Since they all cheat, I imagine some games have multiple winners."
Steiner snickered. "Like when I play cards with the two of you?"
Jasper grinned. He was a construction boss, an auxiliary soldier … that is, he came when the need called, a bond, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather and a great great grandfather just some short decaorns ago. He liked to show everyone pictures. "Pot, call the kettle black."
Everyone grinned at Jasper. He was as the humans say, the 'salt of the Earth'.
"You going to the races tonight?" Steiner asked. "I thought I'd take Lissie to dinner, then head for the races. Some Velocitronians are team racing."
"I'm in," Jack said as the others nodded. "Bring the bond and we can all go. There's new restaurants in City Four of Crater 4 that are something to behold as Hardie told me. He likes to hit all the streak places. There's one there that's supposed to be stellar."
"Bring him and Delph as well," Jasper said. "We can make it a party."
"If you want a party, go with Ratchet and Prowl. They get arrested on the regular," Sun said. "Ratchet is good for a body."
Steiner snickered. "They'd get liquored up, then go to the prison and call out Sentinel. They even got a fight going a couple of times. Then Prime had one and set Sentinel on his aft."
"Prime has a haymaker. I'd hate to take a punch to the face from him," Jasper said. "That mech is tough."
They nodded as they snacked and sipped. The Decepticons watched them and they watched the Decepticons. Never the twain did meet.
This time.
=0=Cybertron
Hard Drive sat at his desk pondering the speech that Prowl would be giving shortly to both Mars, Earth and Cybertron regarding the last mission. Earth was clamoring for news and everyone else was deeply interested. It wasn't such a surprise to The People because they did this sort of thing before. What was driving interest on Cybertron was the hope that they could be circling a sun themselves eventually. There were entire generations of mechs and femmes that had never seen a blue sky or a sun.
He was going on tours of the new construction. The skyline of Iacon was beginning to take shape. Nearly a million individuals were living in tower housing with some for three million more in various stages of completion. Even as areas of the camps emptied out, that many more were moved into them to occupy the empty spaces. Streets were paved and wide letting traffic pass on them once again. Lights were everywhere including camps and construction areas helping to make things less dark and depressing.
The routine of the city and most everywhere else was more 'normal' with businesses opening, schools and services common place and work routines making the nightmare of Decepticon occupation fade. Medical and food were everywhere and the number, type and kinds of debilitations were dropping everywhere as well. There were still areas where some were found living dazed and confused, unable or unaware that things were changed. They were brought forward with care.
He rose, then glanced at his two mechs. One was Rockwell and the other Pico. One was doing a wonderful job of rebuilding his life and the other was an aft. "Let's go, gentlemen," Hardie said as he headed for the door. Both would follow, one with a datapad for notes and the other with a dulled look of defiance.
=0=Med Center
They inserted the audials carefully, seating them with precision. The proper fluids coated things, the proper calibrations were taken and then they were sealed. Covered with medicinal metallic plating, small and silver against the blue of his helm, the operation concluded. The technician-doctors checked the data, then glanced at Ratchet. "It went great, Ratchet. He's got a good take. The protoform around the audials was our greatest concern but it responded beautifully to the medicine we padded into the spaces."
"Primal frames do that. The genuine ones do anyway," Ratchet said. "He can go to his room now for recovery. When is Tinset coming to do the testing for sound?"
"This evening around 2200 joors. If all is well he can go home tomorrow with an assist from Home Healthcare. Its going to be loud an orn or so. You've all done the recovery part with the twinnies, right?"
"We have. We can sign and we can assist," Ratchet said. "I'm going to be primary care physician on this anyway. I live in the same building."
"Good," the two said as they put all their tools and the mess onto a tray. After a short consult, they walked out with Ratchet to answer the family's questions after they were given the news.
Optimus Prime had come through with flying colors.
=0=At an apartment in the sky
Springer lounged on the couch as Drift, ever neat cleaned up the kitchen space and cleared the table. He grinned at the big mech. "You do that so well."
"Someone has to," Drift said as he folded a towel, then walked over to the couch to sit down. He pulled Springer's arm around his shoulders, then grinned. "Slob."
"That's me. Springer the Slob. Fortunately, I have a bond who likes to fix things up. I never told you that I liked that about you."
"You never did," Drift agreed amiably.
"And I probably never will," Springer said with a grin. "Wanna make out?"
Drift glanced at him with a grin. "Sure."
And they did.
=0=Diego Garcia
Bumblebee sat on a chair in Ops Center shooting the breeze with everyone else on duty. Smokescreen the Elder sat at the command table playing cards as his grandson, Smokey as others worked at their jobs. "So how's the thing with Roddy, Smokey?" Bee asked to be ornery.
Smokey glanced at him with a frown. "That creep? Don't talk to me about him."
"You found someone else, then?" Jolt asked because he and Bee were both raised in the army young and were juvenile delinquents because of it.
"Maybe," Smokey said with a defiant expression.
"Then you don't know about Roddy?" Jolt asked because he could.
Smokey impaled him with an expression. "I don't care."
Smokey the Elder grinned slightly as he played a solitaire-like game of chance. He waited, knowing his grandson almost better than Smokey knew himself. / … five … four … three- .../
"Who?" Smokey asked. "I don't really care but it might make me laugh to know. What low life would go out with a low life like him?"
"A mech named Hasco."
It was quiet a moment, then Smokey glanced at him. "That's the name of the actor in the new show on IntraCom … Broken."
"That's the mech who's the actor," Jolt said as he made a point of not laughing loudly.
Smokey stared at him as images of an amazingly handsome mech flipped through his processor. "No one like that would go out with a slagger like Hot Rod."
"That one is," Jolt said.
It was quiet a long time in the Ops Center.
It would be a very amusing interlude for the grandfather of a wayward and very delightful grandson. Smokescreen would also comm Devcon to have a lot of pie for their boy laid in when he came home again.
=0=Lounge
"Then he's going to be in pain when he comes home?" Prowl asked. "The twinnies were for a few orns."
Ratchet nodded. "We can't calibrate the different levels of the new hardware until it takes," Ratchet said. "Two orns or so, you might deal with keeping things quiet. Its going to be like daggers in his audials otherwise. Because it was such a complete rebuild and because there was some damage by fragments bouncing around, its sore."
Prowl nodded. "I might have to have help with the infants. If they make too much noise it might be hard on Optimus."
"We can take them," Miler said. "We can have the daycare at The Fortress help us when they aren't in school."
"We can take them after school," Ratchet said. "They can play with Sunspot. We can figure out recharge arrangements. We have a lot of family between us."
"That's good to know," Prowl said. "We can figure this out when Optimus is ready to come home. No more piano practice by Rambler for a while."
"Make one of your zillion spare family rooms into a soundproofed studio for him to play all his instruments," Ratchet said.
Prowl glanced at him. "Good idea."
They would talk a while, then everyone but Ratchet would go in to sit with Optimus while he recovered. Ratchet would be on his way to rounds.
=0=Out there
Ominous brooded on the idea that Prime could move planets. He'd conferenced with Razorclaw and it was apparent to everyone that Prime went from strength to strength. It was beginning to come to them that they'd have to be ultra 'polite' while they were living around here. It also came to both that perhaps the aliens they'd encountered out there would be interesting to know. It didn't occur to them that they might already have the location of their home world and by that extrapolate where Mars and their own territories were.
That would come later.
=0=Night at Diego Garcia
They sat in the rec room eating pie together. Devcon had come over to visit with the bond and to treat the grandson. Smokey had been sour all afternoon and it did him good to see the other half of an unshakable duo, his amma and appa, who had never ever let him down.
"This is great, Amma," he said as he held out a plate for more. "Better than great."
Dev grinned as he shoveled another slice onto Smokey's plate. "For you, the moon, infant. Don't ever forget that."
"I won't," he said as he poured Dev's special sauce over the pie. / … count on it, Amma … /
They would chat, walk on the beach and listen to Smokey FINALLY talk his guts out about love and youth.
It would be hilarious.
He would never know that they thought so.
=0=TBC 3-3-2020 4-1-2020